Review: The Last Guest

The Last Guest by Tess Little
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is a re-issued copy of "The Octopus," which was published in 2020.

If overly complicated literature is your forte, then you may love this book. However, I found it to be a tedious read and nearly gave up at the 50% mark. The characters, well, I just don't know what to say about them. The leading male voice, Richard, seems to be evil personified. The female protagonist, Elspeth, is a weak-willed, spineless twit. The rest of the people at this birthday party seem to be nearly redundant until you get near the end of the book.

The timeline shifts from the party to the past and back to the present but in totally different scenarios. I found this makes for a difficult read until I got used to figuring out which scenario they were in. I hated wasting my reading time like that!

The ending, well, you could almost see it coming since a big deal has been made of this book being like an Agatha Christie novel. (I won't spoil this read for you by telling you which book this paralleled.)

This book would have been a thoroughly satisfying read for me if the author hadn't tried so hard but was just slightly off the mark.

*ARC supplied by The author, the publisher, and NetGalley.

#NetGalley #BallentineBooks #TessLittle #AgthaChristie #lockeddoormurder

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SYNOPSIS: "A glamorous birthday dinner in the Hollywood Hills ends with the famous host dead and every guest under suspicion in this dark, cinematic suspense debut reminiscent of an Agatha Christie page-turner crossed with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

When actress Elspeth Bell attends the fiftieth birthday party of her ex-husband Richard Bryant, the Hollywood director who launched her career, all she wants is to pass unnoticed through the glamorous crowd in his sprawling Los Angeles mansion. Instead, there are just seven other guests--and Richard's pet octopus, Persephone, watching over them from her tank as the intimate party grows more surreal (and rowdy) by the hour. Come morning, Richard is dead--and all of the guests are suspects.

In the weeks that follow, each of the guests come under suspicion: the school friend, the studio producer, the actress, the actor, the new partner, the manager, the cinematographer, and even Elspeth herself. What starts out as a locked-room mystery soon reveals itself to be much more complicated, as dark stories from Richard's past surface, colliding with Elspeth's memories of their marriage that she vowed never to revisit. Elspeth begins to wonder not just who killed Richard, but why these eight guests were invited, and what sort of man would desire to possess a creature as mysterious and unsettling as Persephone.

The Last Guest is a stylish exploration of power--the power of memory, the power of perception, the power of one person over another. "

Review: Highland Wolf

Highland Wolf by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Do you remember Annabel from the very first book? You know, the girl that was supposed to become a nun? An English Bride in Scotland  Well, this book is about her and her husband Ross's nephew, Bryson MacDonald.

I can't believe that I have been reading this particular series for 10 books now. This book is written in a typical Lynsay Sands manner. It is comfortable to rely on how a story is going to go with every book.

You get anxiety, misunderstandings, angst, attempted murder, mystery, an adorable heroine, and a big burly hero---plus a lot of steamy scenes.
In other words, we get a typical novel from this author. And that is a relief to me. In this day and age, I need something I can rely on!

*ARC supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley.


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SYNOPSIS: "New York Times Bestselling Author Lynsay Sands delivers another sexy historical romance set in the wilds of the Highlands

In all her daydreams about her wedding day, Lady Claray MacFarlane never once imagined being dragged to the altar by her greedy uncle and forced to marry a man she didn't know. But that's what happened, or would have, had a Highland warrior not snatched her up at the last minute and ridden off with her in his arms...

They call him the Wolf. The mercenary's courage and prowess in battle are known throughout the Highlands, and with his handsome face and black-as-sin hair, he was as intelligent and deadly as the wolf he was named for...

But the Wolf is also Claray's betrothed. Thought to have been killed as a child, he'd been in hiding all these years. Now, he's determined to earn enough coin to rebuild his home, reclaim his birthright, and honor his marriage contract to Claray. For he's fallen for the tender-hearted lass...and he will do anything to protect her and their future together."

Review: Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight

Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yahoo! Diesel is back and still vague on who or what he works for! This book may not have been the funniest in the series, but it was among the scariest!

Everyone makes an appearance in this book, and the coolest thing is, is that Lula seems to have lost her mojo, and Stephanie gained it. I can't wait to hear what everyone says about the bat episode or Lula's hair *snicker*!

Alas, Stephanie is up to her usual with her cars...woe is me!

What is up with the odd swearing language tho? Maybe I'm having a senior moment, but I don't remember that from past books. Then again, I don't remember much swearing at all in any of the books.

I loved it, and it will be going on my comfort read shelf, right along with the rest of the series---actually ANYTHING written by Ms. Evanovich!

*ARC supplied by the publisher, St. Martins press/Atria, Janet Evanovich the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS:"Stephanie Plum returns to hunt down a master cyber-criminal operating out of Trenton in the 28th book in the wildly popular series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich.

When Stephanie Plum is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps in her apartment, she wishes she didn’t keep her gun in the cookie jar in her kitchen. And when she finds out the intruder is fellow apprehension agent Diesel, six feet of hard muscle and bad attitude who she hasn’t seen in more than two years, she still thinks the gun might come in handy.

Turns out Diesel and Stephanie are on the trail of the same fugitive: Oswald Wednesday, an international computer hacker as brilliant as he is ruthless. Stephanie may not be the most technologically savvy sleuth, but she more than makes up for that with her dogged determination, her understanding of human nature, and her willingness to do just about anything to bring a fugitive to justice. Unsure if Diesel is her partner or her competition in this case, she’ll need to watch her back every step of the way as she sets the stage to draw Wednesday out from behind his computer and into the real world."

Review: Forgotten In Death

Forgotten In Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is so difficult for me to think that if I want to re-read this series right from the very first book in the series and I only read one book a week, it will take me a full year to accomplish !!!

This book #53 in the series has to be among my favorites. There is a wonderful lack of padding, very little angst on Eves' part, minimal bloodshed, and a distinct lack of coffee discussion! However, I was a tad disappointed that our favorite secondary characters don't show up as often or for as long as in other books. This makes the reader focus more on Dallas and Peabody to have center stage with Roarke a close second.

The mystery is nicely twisty, and actually, there are two mysteries in one!

I wish that Ms. Robb would write a novella about the Urban Wars, why they happened, and what it did to the big cities.
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SYNOPSIS: "In the latest novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, homicide detective Eve Dallas sifts through the wreckage of the past to find a killer.

The body was left in a dumpster like so much trash, the victim a woman of no fixed address, known for offering paper flowers in return for spare change―and for keeping the cops informed of any infractions she witnessed on the street. But the notebook where she scribbled her intel on litterers and other such offenders is nowhere to be found.

Then Eve is summoned away to a nearby building site to view more remains―in this case decades old, adorned with gold jewelry and fine clothing―unearthed by recent construction work. She isn’t happy when she realizes that the scene of the crime belongs to her husband, Roarke―not that it should surprise her, since the Irish billionaire owns a good chunk of New York. Now Eve must enter a complex world of real estate development, family history, shady deals, and shocking secrets to find justice for two women whose lives were thrown away…"

Review: When Sorrows Come

When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

. The review is below the mini-rant!


I feel that you don't need to drink an entire gallon of milk to know it is spoiled. I had to drink more spoiled milk with this book to get to the good stuff than I am comfortable with. The author does NOT need to keep padding the book with back-story and minutiae.



Apparently, I am the only person in this world who has trouble with how boring, bloated, angsty, and selfish the first part of this book is. If I hear Toby whining one more time about what is going on with the wedding without her, I will be throwing my Kindle...well into something soft. It's not the Kindle's fault that this book is starting so horribly that I am looking for anything else to do other than read this book. But, hey, maybe I'll scrub the toilets!?! It's not my Kindles fault that Toby is getting everything she wanted with this wedding, and yet she still has the audacity to moan and groan and pity herself.

Of course, we remain with the author's typical tropes/cliches; Toby and the crew will be getting nice and bloody. But, she will save the near unsavable and come back from being nearly dead.

I know that there are two more (at least) books coming out after this one, and I am at the point that I am not sure I will be reading these. The angst in these later books is enough to drive me crazy.

Well, I did force myself to get past the first 1/3 of the book, and it finally got interesting enough to keep going. This was not a spectacular book, but it kept my attention well enough to finish it.

So, they are married. Toby saved a Kingdom, and Oberon is still--- well, I can't say because it is possibly a spoiler for future books.


But this is what I really feel at this point in the series, the main characters (Toby) really haven't grown; they just seem to pay lip service to growth.

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