Review of The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

Cobb, May.  The Hunting Wives.  Berkley, 2021.

Sophie O’Neill, along with her husband and four-year-old son, has just moved back to her hometown of Mapleton, located in the Piney Woods of Texas.  Sophie was previously a lifestyle editor for a magazine and lived near Chicago.  She is tired of the fast-paced city life and wants her son to grow up in a small town with a better environment and a slower lifestyle.  She chooses Mapleton because she spent her last two years in high school there and has a very good friend, Erin, who still lives there.  Moving gives her time to work on her blog and Instagram feed, @sloweddownlife.

 

However, after spending several months in Mapleton, Sophie is beginning to get bored with being a stay-at-home mom, gardening, and blogging.  She meets and begins to hang out with a group of women calling themselves “The Hunting Wives”, and hunting doesn’t necessarily mean just guns.  Erin warns Sophie that Margot, a socialite and the group’s leader, is dangerous, but her words fall on deaf ears.  Margot, Callie, Tina, Jill, and Sophie usually meet on Friday nights to shoot skeet, socialize, drink, and bar hop.   When the women go to bars, they have two rules.  Use first names only and don’t go all the way.  Sophie is, at first, shocked that Margot, especially, likes to indulge in cheating and bawdy sex.  Margot further complicates matters by hitting on men in their twenties and younger.  Sophie learns that Margot is having a secret fling with the town’s quarterback, who also happens to be Jill’s son.

 

Things go from bad to worse when a popular teenage girl is found dead on Margot’s property, and Sophie becomes a prime suspect.  Could one of her new friends be the actual killer?  In order to clear her name, Sophie must research, dig for any clues she can find, and then risk her own life.

 

This novel from May Cobb is filled with surprising twists and turns and has a shocking ending.  The members of The Hunting Wives act like mean girls on steroids.  All of the women are running around on their husbands, gossiping, and drink A LOT.  There is a lot of drinking, even when they aren’t with each other.  Jealousy, anger, marriages on the rocks, vengeance, sensuality, and drinking seem feed their relationships with each other.  All of them have a love-hate relationship with Margot.  Sophie is so obsessed and enamored with Margot that she even stalks her.  The amount of time Sophie spends with the women causes her to neglect her wonderful, understanding husband and young son.  It is ironic that Sophie is the one who wanted to move to a small town.  After her husband quits his job and they relocate, Sophie then goes crazy out of boredom.  

 

Kudos to May Cobb for keeping readers on their toes!  Just when I thought I had figured out who the killer might be, the author would throw in another curve, and I would have to start thinking again.

 

The Hunting Wives has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly will make its debut on May 18, 2020.  Although it is billed as domestic fiction, I would call it a murder mystery, instead.  Hand this book to readers who enjoy mysteries and books set in the south.  I recommend it for public libraries and give it 4 out of 5 fleur de lis!

 

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for allowing me to read and review this title.

Review of The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Downes, Anna.  The Safe Place.  St. Martins, 2020.

 

Emily Proudman wants to be an actress, but she has lost the current job she auditioned for.  Not only that, but her agent isn’t renewing her contract, and she can’t pay her rent on her apartment.  To add insult to injury, now she has been fired from her temporary office job at Proem Partners.  Her parents won’t even help her out, and she is out of ideas, when a job just seems to fall in her lap.  

 

Scott Denny, who is the attractive and rich CEO of Proem Partners, makes Emily an offer she can’t refuse—a job as a personal assistant/housekeeper/painter to his wife, Nina.  What’s not to like about this job?!  She gets a great salary, a car, and can live rent-free at a beautiful estate in France.

 

When Emily arrives at Querencia, she can’t believe her luck!  The estate is a paradise, and she thinks this must be her dream job!  However, Nina and Scott’s daughter, Aurelia, is a puzzle—she doesn’t speak and must wear clothes covering her whole body due to being allergic to sunlight.  And Nina is hard to figure out, as well.  She seems nice, but emotionally distant, and forbids Emily from entering the main house.  They also seem cut off from the real world since they have no Internet service and only intermittent phone service.

 

Emily also finds it strange that Scott never visits his family.  When he does finally arrive, months after she has been there, he seems to want nothing to do with Aurelia and doesn’t seem overly happy to see Nina.  She feels something is going on, but she doesn’t know what to make of it.

 

She eventually leaves Querencia and drives into town, where she visits an Internet café and discovers that the Denny family has a huge skeleton in their closet.  After learning this, she decides she wants to leave.  However, the Dennys have other plans for Emily…

 

In this debut suspense thriller by Anna Downes, the author has done an excellent job of world-building by giving the reader lush descriptions of parts of France.    The story is told in chapters by Emily and Scott, with some backstory narrated by Nina.  It is during this backstory that readers learn what transpires in the Denny family’s lives before the novel actually begins.  

 

The main characters are intricate and authentic, which makes for absorbing, obsessive read.  Emily is portrayed as weak, immature, and gullible, but she actually grows during the novel into someone who can think for herself.  Scott is aloof and controlling, but not near as much as Nina, who is also desperate and conniving.  Aurelia has a whole set of problems of her own, which don’t seem to improve, partially because of her mother.

 

The Safe Place is an oppressive, obsessive Gothic-type novel and is on several “anticipated book lists”.  There are plenty of twists, turns and surprises in the story to keep readers interested, although it does drag a bit in the middle.  Hand this book to your readers who enjoy mysteries and thrillers.  I recommend it for public libraries and give it three out of five fleur de lis.

 

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this title.

Review of One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus

McManus, Karen M.  One of Us is Next.  Delacorte, 2020.

After the tragic death of Simon Kelleher, the “Bayview Four” were cleared of all charges, and they graduated and moved on with their lives.  Even though Simon’s “About That” gossip app has disappeared, people in the suburb of Bayview, near San Diego, have not forgotten what happened a year prior.

Someone wants to keep playing the shaming game and has started group-texting students at Bayview HS.  Students are being coerced into taking part in an online game of “Truth or Dare”.  The first dare taken is harmless, but the second dare falls on Phoebe’s shoulders.   The truth revealed when she doesn’t take the dare is a piece of gossip that causes the whole school to shame her.  The next victim is Maeve, the sister of one of the original “Bayview Four”.  She ignores the dare, and her former boyfriend, Knox, who is now her friend, is ridiculed and harassed when her truth is revealed.  The next dare is taken, and it results in a student’s death.

Despite each facing personal problems, Maeve, Phoebe, and Knox work together to discover who is behind the new game while following anonymous threatening posts on a Reddit site.  At the same time, Knox, who works at “Until Proven”, a local law firm, tries to figure out who is sending anonymous death threats to their office.  Could the game and the death threats be connected?

This companion novel to One of Us Is Lying is written in chapters of three different viewpoints, that of Maeve, Phoebe and Knox.  However, some of the characters in the first book do show up in this sequel.  All three main characters are going through some family and personal issues.  Maeve is worried about her leukemia coming back; Knox feels he is not valued by his father; and Phoebe is dealing with her father’s sudden death.

The pacing of the novel is quick and full of action.  Although there are a lot of characters in the book, there are a lot of diverse personalities—a family who owns a Hispanic restaurant, a gay baseball player and his boyfriend, and Maeve’s Columbian ancestry.  The tech elements keep the plot fresh and new.  There are many underlying themes within the book—bullying, sexual harassment, slut-shaming, forgiveness, and criminal justice issues.  Although this is a mystery, there is no lack of romance, so those readers will not be disappointed.  There are plenty of twists, turns, and shocking moments to keep readers engaged and the pages turning.

One of Us Is Next will keep the reader guessing until the very end!  Hand this edition to those who read the first book, fans of the Gossip Girls series, and those looking for a suspense novel.  I highly recommend it for high school and public libraries, and I give it five out of five fleur de lis!

Review of The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Carey, M.R.  The Girl With All the Gifts.  Orbit, 2014.

Melanie loves school and soaks up new information like a sponge.  She is inquisitive and has the IQ of a genius.  She would also do anything in the world for her wonderful teacher, Miss Justineau.  So why is she, along with a roomful of other children, kept strapped to a wheelchair instead of being able to run and play?  And why don't the guards laugh when she tells them that she won’t bite?  Melanie and the other children are “hungries”, or zombies.  However, when most of the population has succumbed to the parasite that has changed them, these children still have human traits, emotions, and an elevated level of intelligence.  They are even able to control, to some extent, their desire for human flesh.

Every now and then Melanie notices that students disappear from her classroom and never return.  It is revealed that the children are test subjects for a project run by Dr. Caldwell, a scientist employed by the British government.  She is in the process of cutting portions of their brains and studying how the parasite affects them.

When the base is attacked by “hungries” and “junkers”, violent human nomads, Melanie, Miss Justineau, and Dr. Caldwell flee in a humvee driven by Sergeant Parks, the head guard at the base, and Private Gallagher, another guard.  They must work together and get along to try to reach the city of Beacon safely.   It may be the only town left in all of England.

This fast-paced novel is intended for adults, but I consider it to also be a crossover novel for young adults.  In the summary, it is not revealed to be a zombie novel, but readers will make that discovery by the end of the first chapter.

Pandora’s Box, Melanie’s favorite story, plays a big part in the plot, hence the book’s title.  Relationships are significant, especially the one between Melanie and Miss Justineau.  Readers will learn a lot about zombie science and the way the human brain operates.  The novel is filled with action and adventure--there are chase scenes, shootouts, and gruesome, gory deaths.  The story is told in multiple points of view, and the characters are interesting and mulitfacted.

Readers will enjoy this new, refreshing take on zombies.  I recommend it for high school and public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Some Random Thoughts on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Flynn, Gillian.  Gone Girl.  Broadway Books, 2014.

This will not be my normal review with a plot synopsis since most readers have already either read this book, seen the movie, or both.  So I am going to dispense with the summary and go on to the critique.
Gone Girl is a character-driven novel, and most of the players have "larger-than-life" personalities.  It is rare for me to dislike most of the characters in a novel.  I can honestly say that the only characters I felt any empathy toward were Nick's twin sister, Go, and the female police officer, Boney.  I detested both Nick and his wife, Amy; they were self-indulgent, spoiled, and self-centered.  The same can be said for Amy's parents--they were controlling, manipulative, and conniving.   Amy is a proof that the "apple doesn't fall far from the tree".  I would imagine that it was probably the author's intention that readers would be averse to these characters.  All this being said, I was pulling for Nick to win at the book's conclusion.
It was very smart to have the story told through both Nick's viewpoint and Amy's "soon-to-be-found" diary. The plot is genius--well-planned and contains unseen twists and turns that keeps the pages turning.  And the ending---WOWZA--I did not see that coming!  It was definitely a big surprise!
High school libraries will need to use caution if they choose to add this title to their collections.  There is an abundance of adult situations in this novel.  I highly recommend it for public libraries' adult collections.  I give it five out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Feedback by Robison Wells

Feedback by Robison Wells; HarperTeen, 2012.

Benson and Becky have successfully escaped from Maxfield Academy, but Becky is deathly ill.  They are wandering in the woods and come upon the real Jane, who leads them to a town in the middle of nowhere.  Benson discovers that the residents of the town are all the kids who were in Maxfield!  Not only that, but they are part of a top-secret experiment that Maxfield is trying to hide from the public!  The town is run by Birdman and people he trusts, who live in a century-old fort.  Other kids live in barracks nearby.  There are only two rules for the town’s residents—stay out of trouble and live their lives. Unfortunately, all the kids are prisoners in the town—they can never leave!

Surprise raids are frequently made on the town by Iceman and Ms. Vaughn.  Benson and Becky are being hunted by them, and the kids who help them are in grave danger.  Benson comes up with a plan to help both the kids in the town and the students at the academy, but can he stay alive long enough to see it through?

Feedback picks up right where Variant left off.  Sixteen people died when Benson and Becky escaped, and Benson feels responsible for their deaths.  The emotion that Benson feels as the result of these deaths at times clouds his judgment.  Students from Maxfield play a prominent part in the second book.  Although no gang loyalties are present at the fort or the barracks, I went back and made a list of all the characters from Variant and to which gangs they belonged.  Readers may want to go back and reread Variant before starting Feedback.  It would help with the transition between the two books.

One of the things I really like about this book is that while I was learning about the town, I was also able to learn a lot about the Maxfield’s history, as well as what happens to the kids who are sent to detention.  Readers will also learn more about some of the students, like Jane and Laura, as well as others.

The main part of the story centers around Benson, Becky, and other students trying to escape from the town and expose what is going on at Maxfield.  Since they have no way of knowing how far they are from other people, this is a daunting task! 

Feedback does answer many questions that were raised in Variant, and there are many twists, turns, and surprises!  While Feedback was good and I did enjoy it, I do not feel it reached the “hold-your-breath” excitement that Variant achieved!   It will be released on Tuesday, October 2, 2012.  I recommend Feedback for middle school, high school, and public libraries.

**Reviewer’s note:  The copy reviewed was an ARC received at the 2012 Texas Library Association Conference in exchange for an honest review.