Mystery/Suspense

“The first rule of Murder Club, you don’t talk about Murder Club.” Jasmine Benavides

The Kill Club follows a young woman named Jazz, who lived with her brother Joaquin until their fanatical and zealous foster mother Carol threw Jazz out of the house. With Jazz out of the house, Carol’s zealotry goes to extremes, endangering Joaquin’s life in the process. Jazz has tried to get child services to intervene with no luck. And now, time seems to be running out.

Then, Jazz receives a phone call from a stranger, offering to take care of the problem for her. If Jazz agrees, she’ll become part of a network of people who are taking back their power by doing what the system has failed to do.

All Jazz has to do is kill a stranger in return. And that’s where things go terribly, terribly wrong.

For me, The Kill Club was an unputdownable thriller with plenty of heart-in-your-throat moments. I thought the premise of the story was brilliant: having an anonymous stranger take down a scumbag such as a serial abuser, rapist, etc. and in exchange, you’re expected to kill someone else’s scumbag. It’s vigilante justice at its finest.

But when things go horribly wrong for Jazz, there’s then an insidious stomach-churning undercurrent of dread that truly made for an addictive reading experience. I could feel her terror and tension escalate with the numerous plot twists until the final surprising pages of the story.

I thought the intensity and poignancy of the relationship between Joquin and Jazz was believable as well as heartfelt, and the depth of it, caused me to really care about what happened to them and to root for their success throughout the story. Jazz was a delightful heroine: determined, brave, independent, relatable, and entirely devoted to Joquin. For me, the most poignant element of this story is the profoundly selfless love demonstrated by Jasmine for Joquin, which asks the questions: “How far are we willing to go for someone we love?”

All in all, I loved this diabolically clever story. Wendy Heard has written a captivating, haunting, and mesmerizing novel here. It’s a high-stakes novel that’s creepy, unsettling, and I couldn’t put it down.

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This novel follows a young woman named Kira Bennett, who was found by Cady Bennett and her search and rescue dogs out in the woods. Apparently, Kira had been living alone and wild in the woods but for how long and why, nobody knows. Kira remembers bits and pieces of her life in the forest but has no memories of before that time.

Kira is adopted by the Bennett family and learns the family business: Search-and-Rescue. Working alongside Cady, Cady’s son Jude and their neighbor Free, Kira trains search-and-rescue dogs and she hopes to perform rescues herself eventually. It’s worth mentioning that Kira has a difficult time connecting with people, does not like making eye contact or being touched and her “wild” side often overtakes her. She’s definitely more comfortable with dogs than with people.

Soon, Kira and the others kids find themselves involved in a real live search and rescue when Cady’s estranged father finds her and asks for her help in locating a little girl who disappeared in Sierra Glades National Park. Kira soon becomes obsessed with the case, having been in the same situation herself — being lost in the wild, alone.

As they search for the girl, several strange events occur leading everyone to discover that there is a lot more to this case than a straightforward child lost in the woods and danger soon mounts for those involved. Moreover, the case has triggered old memories for Kira — chilling memories — which begin to overwhelm her. Then, secrets about Kira’s true nature, the Bennett family and about what happened to her come to light causing her to confront some painful truths.

What I found especially fun about this story were the layers upon layers of mysteries that the story presented: there’s the mystery of Kira’s past and her real family; the mystery of who Jude’s real father is; the mystery of the animosity between Cady and her father; the mystery of Gabriel, the strange boy living with Cady’s father; and of course, the mystery of the lost girl. Just about everyone is hiding something. Though there’s a lot going on here, the plot is well-thought out, easy to follow and downright compelling as it’s a suspenseful story with plenty of twisty surprises.

I also loved the inclusion of the dogs in this story and how integral they were to the plot line. The strong bond between the teens and their canines was heartwarming. I enjoyed learning about rescue dogs and their training and thought that this added a rich element to the story.

But mostly, this book was a heartfelt exploration of family in all of its forms, whether it be human or canine and teaches that a family created out of love can often be just as strong as a family formed by blood.

All in all, I thought the Lovely and the Lost was wildly entertaining with relentless pacing, richly developed and empathetic characters, and a satisfying conclusion rendered this an undeniable page-turner.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Freeform for the advanced reader copy in return for an honest review!

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Welcome to crazy town! This is quite a twisted little psychological thriller about over-the-top obsession that follows our main character Juliette, a psychotic girlfriend who is determined to get her boyfriend Nate back…no matter what. In fact, her motto is:

If you love someone, let them go.

If they come back, they’re yours.

If they don’t, make them!

Juliette thinks of herself as the perfect girlfriend, and she just doesn’t understand how Nate could have broken up with her six months earlier. So she embarks on a wild plan to get him back — and there’s no such thing as going too far to get what she wants.

She’s completely reinvented herself and trained to become a flight attendant unbeknownst to Nate who is an airline pilot. A good part of the story revolved around Juliette being an air hostess and I loved how it worked in the story. She basically becomes a flight attendant to keep an eye on Nate and so that she could be privy to his flight schedule. In fact, she infiltrated herself into every part of Nate’s life without him knowing it.

I thought the airline backdrop made for quite an original and refreshing setting and I do recall that the author was a flight attendant so we get to experience that life first hand. It often felt as though we were on those flights right along with Juliette.

So what’s fun about this novel, is that it’s told entirely from Juliette’s point of view, so we’re in the head of someone who’s obsessed and pretty much psychotic. In this way, we’re privy to her every thought, plan, and action. I have to say that it was a bit uncomfortable, if not downright dark and disturbing, being in her head as we saw firsthand how she justified her actions.

It was riveting, and at the same time shocking, to see just how far she was willing to go. Also riveting was the extent of her impressive investigative skills which were all part of her ingenious..and chilling…plans.

I read this book in two sittings because I couldn’t put it down, especially once I reached about the halfway mark when things go super, super crazy and become incredibly fast-paced. It’s also about this time that we get the delightful, clever twist that I didn’t see coming at all. Speaking of twists, this wasn’t one of those twisty-turny novels with one surprise twist after another but rather, it was more of an in-depth, mesmerizing personality study of someone who is utterly bonkers.

I have to say that the bunny-boiling Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction has nothing on Juliette AKA Elizabeth AKA Lily, who takes creepiness to a who new level. In fact, just when you think she certainly couldn’t go any more extreme with her wild schemes, she shockingly ups the ante.

Her antics and her ferocity made me cringe more than a time or two, and it indeed reminded me of the fine line between love and hate. It also warned me how quickly one’s life can spiral out of control when one is driven by vengeance and obsession. So let this be a lesson to you boys and girls.

In fact, this book was kind of like Fatal Attraction on steroids. What’s interesting, is that there really aren’t any likable characters, but strangely enough, you found yourself almost rooting for Juliette which was a tad shocking when you realize that you’re cheering on a crazy-pants psycho stalker. Her personality just kind of sucks you in and the author wrote the story in such a way that you couldn’t help but empathize with her, even though you know what she’s doing is so, so wrong. This fact definitely highlights the author’s skills as a writer. Yes, she’s unstable, but I couldn’t get enough of her. This is another one of those stories that’s like a car crash….you can’t bear to look yet you can’t tear your eyes away.

So all in all, The Perfect Girlfriend is a compelling and twisted psychological thriller about obsession that’s out of control and taken to the extreme. Featuring mind games, devious manipulation, revenge, and fixation, it’s a story in which an unhinged and relentless young woman sets out to reminder her ex that she is, indeed, the perfect girlfriend. I thought it was extremely well-written and engaging with intensely strong characterization.

Now, this would have easily been a 5 star read for me if it wasn’t for the ending. I typically like neat endings where everything is nicely wrapped up. So it’s often been my experience with some thrillers and suspense novels that the author likes to leave the reader with an ambiguous ending. Such was the case with this book, and the anti-climatic conclusion left me feeling a tad frustrated and wanting for more. Thus, I ended up knocking off a star for the ending.

But other than that, this was an excellent standout novel that I heartily recommend this fantastic debut novel, and I will assuredly be reading more by Ms. Hamilton.

In the spirit of disclosure, I received an Advance Reader Copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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