Book Review: One By One by Ruth Ware

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review! Yes, this is another 4 year overdue post…but at least I’m staying committed to the cause and writing my review!

This story is one of my Roman empires…I think about this book more often than I should. It made a lasting impact on myself. The story starts off innocently as eight co-workers enjoy a mountainside chalet…and then they get snowed in thanks to an avalanche.

Someone ends up missing…then someone ends up dead. No one else is around so that means one of them has committed the crime. Even with 8 characters running about, I found it easy to keep track of who was who as each character has a distinct personality.

I enjoyed the pace of the book and the vivid descriptions. I felt like I was there in the cabin next to the fire at times. There is another twist in the mix with everything…the co-workers went there to vote on selling the company. Is this what causes people to go missing and then someone to be killed? Only time will tell…

I have such a vivid recollection of the end…and I won’t spoil it for you, but just know I think about it often. Why? I’m not 100% too sure. But I truly find myself coming to the end of this one all the time. It’s rare for me to remember such detail about a book, so take that for what it is worth!

4 stars. The book does slow a bit on the pacing at times, but I feel this is a Ruth Ware writing trait. The book does NOT disappoint and leaves us turning the pages quickly to find out who did it. Our own suspicions build, but will you choose the correct whodunit? Find out and pick this one up!

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Title: One By One

Author: Ruth Ware

Genre(s): Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery

Publisher: Gallery Books

Release Date: September 8, 2020

Find it here on Goodreads

Cleaning My TBR #5

Here I go again…3 books at a time from my Goodreads want to read shelf!

Date Added: October 22, 2018

Verdict: KEEP!

Reason: This is based off of a true story and it sounds so intriguing (and sad). She is abused as a small child and finally makes a run for it when she is a teen and is brought into a world where she knows nothing because she’s been so sheltered. Looks so intriguing!

Date Added: October 22, 2018

Verdict: DITCH!

Reason: This is a story about friends who are competing for $15k and a chance to open for the hottest band. Nothing in the synopsis pops out. There’s drinking, rehab, and a baby all involved and it really seems to be all about friendships…I’ll have to pass on this one for now!

Date Added: October 24, 2018

Verdict: DITCH!

Reason: This is one of those where I read the synopsis and go…really? I wanted to read this? Maybe 2 years ago I did, but not now! This follows a man and his ex-wife and they tell their tale, sounding like maybe they get back together?? I don’t know…and I’ll probably never know, haha.

What do you think about my decisions this week??

Cleaning My TBR #4

Welcome back as I slowly go through my TBR, 3 books a time, and let you know if I’m keeping or ditching the book!

Date Added: October 30, 2018

Result: DITCH!

Reason: This is billed as a story that is about guilt, love, family, and memory and eh. A lot of reviews are people saying they couldn’t get into it and were waiting for something to happen that never did…when my want to read list is over 700 books, I don’t think I’ll miss taking this one off.

Dated Added: February 14, 2019

Result: DITCH!

Reason: Yikes. So the story is a kid goes to a prestigious boarding school, moves on to college and well, what did school teach him? There’s some family drama and an old teacher comes back into his life and he reexamines what he knows. To be blunt, I was bored reading the synopsis, so what would that entail for me reading this book…

Date Added: February 23, 2019

Result: DITCH!

Reason: Ok, number one…the cover. Number two, it’s pegged as a mystery, but so many reviews say it’s more of just opinions and thoughts with characters that are easily confused and disjointed. The synopsis sounds great (girl goes missing, her friends investigate and find all kinds of clues) and most all agree with that, the execution of this one failed and for that…buh bye!

Have you read any of these?? Have you cleaned any books off of your TBR list lately??

Cleaning My TBR #3

732. That’s the number of books on my Goodreads want-to-read shelf…yikes.

Added: August 20, 2018

Verdict: OFF

Reason: I just haven’t been feeling police drama/legal novels for awhile now. I have really been into more suspenseful thrillers and chick lit. While this is inspired by a true story which I like, I have a lot more I’d rather read before this!

Added: August 20, 2018

Verdict: OFF

Reason: I honestly have no idea why I would put this on my list. It talks about gangs and other kind of out there things…this one has me scratching my head, this is totally not my kind of book!

Added: August 20, 2018

Verdict: KEEP

Reason: I love Jenny Han. This one may be with kids in middle school, but as you know I do love young adult and while this may be real young…it sounds cute and I’m all for a cute, quick read!

Well…I took 2 out of 3 off, I’ll take it! What are you reading this week??

Clearing My TBR #WishList #MomsWhoRead #Reading #TBR

I was motivated by this past Top Ten Tuesday’s topic of, “Books I’ve Added To My TBR & I’ve Forgotten Why” and decided to clean up my Amazon Wish List today! Here is a list of books that I have cut from my TBR…

The Last Stage by Louise Voss

Blurb

At the peak of her career as lead singer of a legendary 1980s indie band, Meredith Vincent was driven off the international stage by a horrific incident. Now living a quiet existence in a cottage on the grounds of an old stately home, she has put her past behind her and come to terms with her new life.

When a body is found in the manicured gardens of her home, and a series of inexplicable and unsettling events begins to occur, it becomes clear that someone is watching, someone who knows who she is … Someone who wants vengeance.

And this is only the beginning…

Why? It just doesn’t sound appealing to me…a former rockstar living out their life and then has someone seeking revenge? I’m sure it’s a decent book, but I have sooooo many more on my shelf to read before this one!

Changeling (Six Stories, #3) by Matt Wesolowski

Blurb

On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the Wentshire Forest Pass, when a burst tyre forced his father, Sorrel, to stop the car. Leaving the car to summon the emergency services, Sorrel returned to find his son gone. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995.

Elusive online journalist, Scott King, whose ‘Six Stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including Sorrel, his son and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. He takes a journey through the trees of the Wentshire Forest – a place synonymous with strange sightings, and tales of hidden folk who dwell there. He talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest, and a psychic who claims to know where Alfie is…

Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought provoking, Changeling is an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, taking you to places you will never, ever forget.

Why? Hear me out, this one sounds absolutely amazing, but I just don’t feel like starting a series right now. I have a closet full of Baldacci books from my Dad I haven’t touched in a year and have other book series in my possession I need to get through first!

Anything For Her by Jack Jordan

Blurb

Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you.

Louise Leighton’s life has fallen apart, all because of one fateful night. Her husband is an adulterer, her sister is his mistress, and soon, Louise will lose everything she owns. But she never imagined she would lose her daughter.

Eighteen-year-old Brooke Leighton is missing. It’s up to Louise and the Metropolitan Police to find her. Has Brooke run away? Or has she been taken against her will? And can Louise aid the investigation without mentioning the night where all of her troubles began?

If she mentions that night, she will incriminate her daughter for heinous crimes. But if she doesn’t, she may never find Brooke; and if she has been abducted, the person who took her may come for Louise, too.

Sometimes the past comes back to kill you.

From the global number one bestselling author Jack Jordan, comes this terrifying novel about the secrets we keep, and how the past can only be buried for so long.

Why? Honestly…the cover. Laugh, go ahead…but if I look at all the other books I have on my very, very, VERY long wish list, this would ultimately go to the bottom of the pile. Put it this way, if I were to get this book today, I probably would never read it…there would always be a book ahead of it!

That’s it for now. Maybe next week I’ll take a stab at my Goodreads Want To Read list…I could certainly use a good purge there!!! Have you been cleaning out your TBR lists or do you just let them pile all the way up??

Top Ten Tuesday: June 9th

It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for another TTT courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl! This week’s topic is…

Books I’ve Added To My TBR & I’ve Forgotten Why

Time to bust out the ol’ TBR list and take a look at some…wait, I wanted to read this?? selections (and maybe take them off my list).

Blurb

On December 26, 1985, at a secluded cabin in upstate New York, Whitley Strieber went siding with his wife and son, ate Christmas dinner leftovers, and went to bed early.

Six hours later, he found himself suddenly awake…and forever changed.

Thus begins the most astonishing true-life odyssey ever recorded — one man’s riveting account of his extraordinary experiences with visitors from”elsewhere”… how they found him, where they took him, what they did to him and why…

Believe it. Or don’t believe it. But read it — for this gripping story will move you like no other… will fascinate you, terrify you, and alter the way you experience your world.

My Opinion: Who knows, maybe I thought it would be cool to read a book where someone was “abducted” by an alien. I have no idea how I ever came across this one or why…*shrugs*

Blurb

Lois Clary, a software engineer at a San Francisco robotics company, codes all day and collapses at night. When her favourite sandwich shop closes up, the owners leave her with the starter for their mouthwatering sourdough bread.
Lois becomes the unlikely hero tasked to care for it, bake with it and keep this needy colony of microorganisms alive. Soon she is baking loaves daily and taking them to the farmer’s market, where an exclusive close-knit club runs the show.
When Lois discovers another, more secret market, aiming to fuse food and technology, a whole other world opens up. But who are these people, exactly?

My Opinion: What? This sounds a look that talks a lot about bread and I’m just not certain why I EVER put this one on my list…it doesn’t appeal to me in the least!

Blurb

Skinny, nine-year-old orphaned Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when in walks a girl who changes everything. Graça, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, is clever, well fed, pretty, and thrillingly ill behaved. Born to wildly different worlds, Dores and Graça quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music.

One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become their shared passion, the source of their partnership and their rivalry, and for each, the only way out of the life to which each was born. But only one of the two is destined to be a star. Their intimate, volatile bond will determine each of their fortunes–and haunt their memories.

Traveling from Brazil’s inland sugar plantations to the rowdy streets of Lapa in Rio de Janeiro, from Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood back to the irresistible drumbeat of home, The Air You Breathe unfurls a moving portrait of a lifelong friendship–its unparalleled rewards and lasting losses–and considers what we owe to the relationships that shape our lives.

My Opinion: I am not a huge fan of historical fiction…I’ll read it, but it isn’t my favorite genre. The fact that this book is ON my TBR is confusing…usually I’ll come across a historical fiction book and read it to take a break from reading thrillers. This one truly baffles me…

Blurb

The six stories in The Dunning Man feature anti-heroes who reject society’s rules. Characters from all walks of life—a rogue hip-hop star, a blackjack dealing mom, a middle-aged drunk plowing through his inheritance, and an empty-nester housewife trying to make peace with the past. They each exist in the here and now, living for what’s possible and what’s left—not what they’ve left behind. Redemption awaits all, but only along the rutted, gut-churning path of honest self-examination. Age quod agis.

Set in Atlantic City, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., the Hudson Valley and Manhattan, Fortuna’s stories depict the violent clash between society’s expectations and the chaotic arc of individual destiny. These are powerful tales of truth seekers imbued with larger-than-life personalities and the all-consuming need to find something worth seeking.

My Opinion: Again…I am not a fan of books that are a collection of stories, so it baffles me why I would ever put this on my TBR list. Maybe because it’s a movie??? I have no idea…

Well, I don’t want to make this too long and these are my top 4 that really had me scratching my head…have you read any of these and should I read them?? What books are on your TBR list that have you scratching your head for how they ever got on there??

Stacking The Shelves: February 2nd

Well…I failed at my attempt of not buying/obtaining any books this week…haha. Here’s my usual blurb about it all…I stumbled across Stocking The Shelves on Jill’s Book Blog (check it out). This is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality. Here’s what they say about it…

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

So, in theory I only “bought” ONE book…but, I added three to my shelf! *sigh* I have soooooo many books, but, I can’t leave them be all alone! All the books I got this week I got via Kindle, so they are all ebooks! Here we go….

Educated by Tara Westover

This one I got because I apparently had over $12 in credit on Great On Kindle reads that was expiring so I **HAD** to get a book! Now I have over $10 in credit and I need some ideas on what to get next so help me out with my next one! I have seen this all over social media and this looks like a great read, I am super excited!

Spare Room by Dreda Say Mitchell

This one has been all over my feed on WordPress and the reviews have been jaw dropping! It was only 99 cents for the Kindle, how could I pass that up?!?!

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

This is my pick for the month through Amazon First Reads (so it was free)! It was the only book that stuck out to me. It is billed as a domestic suspense novel and you know I love thrilling, suspenseful novels!

I am going to attempt to not get any new books this upcoming week…we will see if I can resist the power of the books I come across…probably not, I’m not that strong willed, hahahahaha. What did you add to your shelves this week?

First Line Fridays: February 1st

As always First Line Friday comes courtesy of Hoarding Books Blog. I discovered this magic thanks to Crystal at Must Love Reviews.

This week I have started & finished reading this lovely advance reader copy courtesy of Celadon Books!

Amazon //\\ Goodreads

“July 14

I don’t know why I’m writing this. That’s not true. Maybe I do know and just don’t want to admit it to myself.“

Here’s the synopsis from Goodreads…

Promising to be the debut novel of the season The Silent Patientis a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive…

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….

Should be a good one (*note: I wrote this and scheduled it before I finished reading it…see previous post, haha)! What are you reading right now??

Top Ten Tuesday: January 29th

Another TTT courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl! This week’s topic is…

The Ten Most Recent Additions To My To-Read List

Oh. Boy. Let me tell you what I do…I see a book I like and I add it to my Amazon wish list. I have decided that from now on I always add the Kindle version of books to this list only. Why? Amazon alerts me when books on this list go on sale and I can always sort my list out by price from low to high. When a book I have been eyeing goes on sale at a price I can’t say no to (usually $2.99 is the highest I like to go for Kindle ebooks) I jump on the opportunity and buy it. Now, I also use this list as my go to for when I buy physical books as well. If I buy it as a physical copy (off Amazon) I just delete it off my wish list.

Without further ado…here is my list! If you see a book on here that is an absolute must-read, please, be a bad influence and let me know so I buy it immediately!!

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll

After the mind blowing twisting and turning of I Am Watching You, I *had* to add her 2 other novels to my list…this one comes out soon, February 7th to be exact!

The Friend by Teresa Driscoll

See above, ha. But this novel is already out!!!

Day Of The Accident by Nuala Ellwood

I saw this one here (Book Review – Day of the Accident by Nuala Ellwood #BookBlogger #AmReading) and after reading the review how can you NOT put this on your wish list?!?!

What’s Great About Georgia? (Our Great States) by Andrea Wang

This was added to my list so I could remember a series about the 50 states! My son showed an interest in wanting to read books about them so after a quick search I found the Our Great States collection and added it to my list so I would not forget it!

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry & Tobias Iaconis

I am a sucker for reading a book and then watching a movie and folks…this is being brought to the big screen in 2019!!!

No Exit by Taylor Adams

This book has been EVERYWHERE: Facebook, Bookstagram, you name it, I have seen it there. For a book to have this much presence over social media I need to read it for myself!

I Remember You: A Ghost Story by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

In a Facebook reading group I am in someone posted all about this one…it sounds like a read you cannot read in a room by yourself at night…I LOVE THE SOUNDS OF THAT!

Stay Up With Hugo Best by Erin Somers

After doing a Goodreads Monday feature on this (click the title to see) it flew on to my Wish List!

Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser

A book coming out February 5th…I know you have seen the buzz about it.

The Liar’s Room by Simon Lelic

When a book has the catchphrase of “Two liars. One room. No way out,” you bet I am going to want to find out what happens!

Sorry for no pictures this week but I feel like sometimes they just clog the post up! Let me know what you think about the last 10 books I have added to my Wish List and if you have any recommendations based off of them!

Goodreads Monday: January 28th

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy once again of Lauren’s Page Turners. Every Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf and pair it with the cover image and Goodreads description. This week I picked another favorite number of mine, 72, and went the book that was there.

Quick Goodreads Stats

328: To Read Shelf

61: Read Shelf

4: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale

Released: April 17, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating: 3.61 stars (523 ratings, 131 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

Leda is a girl who knows what she wants and who she is—or at least believes she does. When we meet her as a college student in Boston—confident, intelligent, independent—she’s hopeful that a flirty chat with a cute boy reading a book in a café will lead to romance. They have a fleetingly awkward conversation that dwindles into little more than mortifying embarrassment, but the encounter does leave her one positive, and ultimately transformative, thought: Leda decides she wants to read Noam Chomsky. So she promptly buys a book and never—ever—reads it.
As the days, years, and decades of the rest of her life unfold, we watch Leda confront what it is that she really wants and who it is that she is really meant to be.

My Thoughts

I am fairly positive I added this book to my want to read shelf because I entered a giveaway for it…

I am taking it off my want to read shelf. I have too many books and the short synopsis on Goodreads does nothing for me. I have too many other books on my shelf that I am dying to read to worry about this one! Oh well, on to the next one! If you have read this book and I should keep it, let me know!