Review | You Can Trust Me

You Can Trust Me by Wendy Heard

Summer and Leo were young women living on the street until they found each other and created a sisterly bond. Now the pair live in Summer’s Land Cruiser, traveling around California to avoid their pasts, each using their talents (Summer is a skilled pick-pocket, Leo is a practicing con artist) to pay the bills.

Leo’s next target is billionaire philanthropist Michael Forrester. It’s almost too easy; her charm is rewarded with an invite to his private island where she’s sure she’ll make off with plenty of valuables and a few great stories.

When Leo fails to return from her weekend adventure with Michael, Summer knows she’ll have to infiltrate Michael’s next big event to discover Leo’s fate.

This story requires you to suspend your disbelief. While it begins in the realm of possibility, it spins into a far-fetched plot but is so entertaining, I was still flying through the pages! The chapters are short and switch between Leo and Summer to unfold the story from both points of view.

This is a great summer beach read!

Thanks to Bantam and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. You Can Trust Me is scheduled for release on June 13, 2023.

Review | Play the Fool

Play the Fool by Lina Chern

Katie True is jumping from one dead-end job to the next, trying to keep a low profile with her overbearing family that’s always hoping she’ll live up to her potential.
She’s currently selling tchotchkes in the mall and reading tarot while her friend Marley works in a clothing store across the way…

until a man stumbles into Katie’s shop with a photo of Marley with a gunshot wound.

Katie has to use her street smarts and cunning to solve Marley’s murder while asking herself if she ever truly knew her friend at all.

This was a fun murder mystery with faint rom-com vibes that would translate well to the screen! While there’s plenty of things that happen that require a strong suspension of disbelief, I went along for the ride because I understood it’s a lighthearted story here to entertain and that’s what it did!

Thanks to Bantam and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Play the Fool was released on March 28, 2023.

Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra

This is billed as a Southern gothic thriller so I was incredibly intrigued… only to be quickly disappointed with a bizarre story that morphed into a ridiculous plot with frustrating characters who became exaggerated stereotypical caricatures. Basically, this became a hate read for me.

Holly’s brother Dane is found cleaved open (literally) in his girlfriend’s bathtub. Police say it was a suicide sparked by psychosis. Oooookay.

Holly begins her search for answers with Maura, Dane’s girlfriend. Suddenly Holly’s moved in to the extraordinary Savannah townhouse where her brother died and Maura is a creepy florist growing some weird plants in her greenhouse while seducing the sister of her dead boyfriend.

Seduction, secrets, and gaslighting of epic proportions plays out in implausible eye roll inducing ways.

Ugh.

Thanks to Bantam and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Such Pretty Flowers was released February 7, 2023.

Review | All Good People Here

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to check out this debut from Ashley Flowers! I listen to her true crime podcast Crime Junkie occasionally so the entire time I was reading this, I couldn’t help but hear it in her voice!

The town of Wakarusa, Indiana has never forgotten January Jacobs, the six-year-old found dead in a ditch near her home, the killer never identified though the town whispers her own mother did it.
Margot Davies was the same age and next-door neighbor to January at the time it occurred and it made a huge impression on her life: she’s grown up to become a crime journalist.

Now Margot returns to Wakarusa to care for her sick uncle. When news breaks that five-year-old Natalie Clark has gone missing in the next town over, Margot can’t help but feel it could have a connection to January’s unsolved case. The paper she works for feels she’s too focused on this possible connection to a cold case rather than reporting on the current investigation.
While the police still believe that January’s case was “unofficially solved”, Margot will dig up some uncomfortable truths that her small town would rather keep hidden.

This was well-written and did feel like an actual true crime story – but the ending became a bit convoluted and ended so abruptly that it just became an average read for me.

Thanks to Bantam and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All Good People Here is scheduled for release on August 16, 2022.