Raven Lane by Amber Cowie

Cover Art From GoodReads

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

This whole book was a hot mess. To start off, a couple is driving home from a party when the husband runs over one of the neighbors who is riding his bike. He is subsequently arrested, and the rest of the book alternates between how the couple got to that point and what happens to the husband after his arrest. I don't even want to touch the story within a story aspect because honestly it was so boring and kind of irrelevant that I skipped it. #sorrynotsorry

Honestly, everyone in this book sucked. None of them were likable characters. The victim used the wife in order to get a story for his next book, the wife was miserable due to trauma she couldn't talk about and so she made everyone else around her miserable, the husband was an addict who CLEARLY needed help, and everyone was trying to sleep with everyone else. I just kept waiting for there to be a point, and even after the *shocking* death toward the end, there still wasn't. It just abruptly ended. 

What even was this? 

The Dead Girl's Club by Damien Angelica Walters

I was given an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. 

I'll be honest, the cover is what drew me to this book in the beginning. I love the color scheme and the flowers. It looks like something I would use as my phone background. And of course the title is catchy as well. 

The story is about Heather, who as a child, had a group of friends who called themselves the "dead girl's club" where they essentially had their own true crime podcast before podcasts were a thing. One of their favorite topics, the Red Lady, (think Slenderman) was a belief that got too out of hand, and because of it their friend Becca died. The story goes back and forth between what happened the night Becca died, and who is stalking Hannah about it now. 

The whole time I was reading this I was reminded of the case in Wisconsin about the girls who stabbed their friend because "Slenderman" told them to do it. Frankly I didn't believe their story then, and I wasn't too taken with Hannah's story either. There's no way that at her age she honestly thought that she could stab her friend and put dirt in her mouth and that she would "come back". However, those feelings don't necessarily reflect on the book. I thought it was interesting, it held my attention, and I would definitely recommend it to my true crime readers. 

All About Evie by Cathy Lamb

Cover Image from GoodReads

I was given an eARC of this book in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. 

I really wanted to like this book. The premise with the premonitions seemed right up my alley. And the life changing discovery about the past? I called about two chapters in. This book wouldn't have been quite so awful if the characters weren't all completely obnoxious. 

Evie- "Oh I love Marco but we can't be together for reasons I won't disclose to him". " I love him so much even though I avoid him at all costs and have never even been on a date with him because I flat out refuse all of his advances". And then there's the fact that she is super judgy to her customers in her bookstore, trying to force them to read what she wants them to read rather than what they would actually like. If this was the real world, and not book world, she wouldn't have a business. 

Evie's sister who's name I can't even remember. Every time they asked her what she liked about her husband all she could talk about was how he was in bed. I don't know if that was supposed to be a joke or if the author thinks that is all it really takes to make a relationship work, but no. 

Then there's the police officer. He was an over the top harasser.  I know that sort of thing does happen, but it was like the author tried way too hard to make this cop seem like the bad guy, and it ended up just being very cringe. 

All in all, I was hardly invested in the story and was just ready for it to be over. I don't know that I'll be recommending this one to anyone.