Death at the Party by Amy Stuart

Pages: 400 

Publisher: Penguin 

Released: 3rd of August 2023 

THE PLANNING TOOK MONTHS. THE MURDER JUST MOMENTS . . .

Nadine Walsh is determined to make her summer garden party the event of the year.

Everyone deserves a celebration after the year they've had. A chance to forget.

As she prepares to welcome her guests, however, Nadine can't help but be distracted. Her husband is of little help to her. Her two grown children are consumed with their own concerns.

But it's Nadine's own secrets that threaten to destroy her perfect party.

By the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over a dead body in the basement.

But which of her guests will she have murdered? And why?

What I Have to Say 

I don't think there was a single character I liked in this book. Maybe the daughter or the niece, but they didn't get a lot of screen time and I'm sure if they had, I would have hated them too. 

I didn't warm to Nadine at all. She seemed to hate and judge all of her neighbours, even the one she was having the affair with and that just set off on a bad foot to me. Then the story was massively predictable. It didn't really matter to me which neighbour she killed because all the ones it seemed likely to be were very interchangeable. 

Honestly I was just bored through most of this book. There was no tension there, not much desire to know more. I'm giving it three stars because it wasn't badly written, but I didn't enjoy it very much. 

3 stars 

My thanks goes to Netgalley and Penguin for providing me with this gifted copy for review. 

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Pages: 336 

Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK 

Released: 6th of April 

The Hating Game meets Mission: Impossible in Stars and Smoke, a smoldering new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu about a superstar tapped to become a secret agent and the reluctant young spy assigned to be his partner.

Meet Winter Young—rookie backup dancer turned global pop phenomenon. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. Now he’s bringing his swoon worthy assets to a whole new arena. . .

Infamous criminal tycoon Eli Morrison has just one weakness—his daughter, Penelope. And Penelope has just one wish for her nineteenth birthday—a private concert with Winter Young. When covert ops organization The Panacea Group approaches Winter with this once-in-a-lifetime chance to infiltrate Morrison’s inner circle, Winter must use his fame, cunning, and charisma to pull it off—only he won’t be on his own.

Posing as Winter’s bodyguard is the fiery Sydney Cossette, Panacea’s youngest spy. Sydney may be the only person alive impervious to Winter's charms, but as the mission brings them closer, she's forced to admit there's more to this A-lister than slick dance moves and a handsome face. Panacea's unlikeliest partners just might become its biggest heroes—and maybe even more—if they can survive each other first.

What I Have to Say 

I enjoyed this book, but it struck me as one that I would probably forget in time. The characters didn't stand out as anything special. The romance was good, I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm not really one to remember romance in books. 

An interesting premise: pop star Winter becoming a spy and working with Sydney to take down a criminal. Obviously it wasn't easy as their first plan and there were a lot of twists and turns along the way. I guessed one of the major plot points, which didn't ruin it for me, but it might have for some people. 

I honestly just don't have much to say about this one. It was a good read but nothing really stood out about it. 

 4 stars 

My thanks goes to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with this copy for review. 

Someone is Watching You by Tess

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books 

Released: 2nd of February 2023 

An abandoned prison. A deadly game. How far would you go for a dare?

Nia would do anything to win the approval of her boyfriend Scott and his friends, especially mean girl Olivia. When Olivia dares Nia to explore an abandoned prison, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to prove herself. Facing dark tunnels, distant noises and creepy mementoes left behind by incarcerated criminals will surely all be worth it.

But it isn't long before Nia and her little sister, Kayla, find themselves trapped inside. And then Kayla vanishes.

Suddenly, this feels like more than a game gone wrong. Someone is hellbent on making Nia and Kayla the prison's last inmates ...

An utterly compelling, terrifying thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, from remarkable new author Tess James-Mackey.

What I Have to Say 

This book was really tense. It was so enthralling that I read it in a day. I really wanted the main character to get out from under her "friends'" control and it hurt a bit when she kept doing what they said. 

It was however a bit predictable. The was only one or two twists that I didn't see coming. It made me feel good to guess them, but it also felt a bit disappointing because I felt like I knew what was coming. 

I liked the theme of bullying and toxic friendships though. I really liked the characters a lot even when I didn't agree with their actions (except the toxic friends obviously). Kayla was my favourite because she was such a sweet little girl, even if her character was a bit flat. 

All in all, I'm glad I read it, but it's not one I'll pick up again, 

3 stars 

My thanks go to Hodder and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

It Ends With You by S. K. Wright

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 256

Publisher: Atom

Released: 6th of September 2018 

'If I'd told the truth, it would have been fiction'

Everyone loves Eva. Beautiful, bright, fun, generous - she's perfect.

So when her dead body is found in a ditch in the local woods the only thing anyone wants to know is: Who could have done this?

It has to be Luke, her boyfriend. He has the motive, the means, the opportunity and he's no stranger to the police.

Even though the picture is incomplete, the pieces fit. But as time passes, stories change.

What I Have to Say 

I took a while to really get going with this book, but it certainly was an interesting look at secrets, lies and prejudice. The way that from the start the police are so fixated on Luke, a boy from a less well off family, with scruffy clothes and a perchance to get into fights. But as it goes on, you see that what seems to be a basic case of prejudice and profiling, may actually be being used to cover up more involvement. 

Though in general, I liked the twists and turns the story came up with, there were maybe just a bit too many. Every time it seemed like we might be getting an idea of what happened, some startling new evidence came out to change everything. I liked this at first, but I really like a mystery where you can look back afterwards and see that there are clues you missed and that it all adds up and makes sense. With this one, there were new suspects added all the time and it meant that you couldn't really work out to tell who it was. 

I liked the different view points though and the insight that they threw up. How we saw the investigative side with Carolina and her father and also the suspect's point of view with Luke. Then there's the opinions of the other people in Eva's life and how they react to everything. It really worked well with the allegations against Luke and showing how people's opinions get set very early on. 

I don't think this is one I'd read again, but I'm glad I read it. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Atom for providing me with this copy for review. 

V for Violet by Alison Rattle

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 304

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 7th of April 2016 

Battersea, 1961. London is just beginning to enter the swinging sixties. The world is changing - but not for sixteen-year-old Violet. She was born at the exact moment Winston Churchill announced Victory in Europe - an auspicious start, but now she's just stuck in her family's fish and chip shop dreaming of greatness. And it doesn't look like fame and fortune are going to come calling anytime soon. 

Then she meets Beau. Beau's a rocker - a motorcycle boy who arrives in an explosion of passion and rebellion. He blows up Violet's grey little life, and she can't believe her luck.

But things don't go her way for long. Joseph, her long-lost brother, comes home. Then young girls start going missing, and turning up murdered. And then Violet's best friend disappears too. Suddenly life is horrifyingly much more interesting. 

Violet can't believe its coincidence that Joseph turns up just as girls start getting murdered. He's weird, and she feels sure he's hiding something. He's got a secret, and Violet's got a dreadful feeling it might be the worst kind of secret of all . . .

What I Have to Say

This isn't the kind of book that catches you from the first page. Violet has a dull kind of life working at her parents chip shop and it's not until her life starts to get interesting and she stops doing what's expected of her. Then girls start getting killed and you get caught up in the mystery of it all. 

I liked Violet quite a bit. She had an honest voice that endeared me towards her in the start of the book. I was glad when she started to stand up for herself a bit and find her own identity outside of her friend and family. 

The mystery didn't catch me until near the end, but it was one of those where you're kicking yourself for not guessing who it was. Because you think of everyone it could be and don't even consider the person it is. 

It was a good book overall, but I'm not sure it's one that's going to stay with me for a long time. 

My thanks go to Hot Key Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.