***** 5 star Thriller Read - Could not put down! *****

 

I really enjoyed my reading experience with "Woman on the Edge." It was all the things I love in a great thriller - harrowing tension, psychological mistrust, family intrigue, a past that affects the present, and an unreliable narrator. It was full of conflict and twists, and action and intrigue that had me turning the pages non-stop! I almost finished it in one sitting except that it got really late and I passed out! This was a really quick intense read.

New mother Nicole, tortured by her past experience as a nanny, fears constantly for the safety of her new baby girl Quinn. Her paranoia and over-reliance on pills to calm her constant panic quickly exacerbate what is already a stressful time - being a new mom. Her quick dissolution from super efficient and competent CEO of a leading brand to an unhinged mother desperate to keep her daughter safe, even to her own detriment, was extremely fast and at times I wondered, could this really happen to someone? The believability all is due to a past traumatic event related to being a nanny as a teen, and being stalked by that child's mother over the period of years. The paranoia she has is therefore justified at first with the thought that this jealous, angry mother could still be wanting to "attack" her or take from Nicole her precious baby. Aside from this, things start happening around the house that make her doubt her sanity vs. intensifying her paranoia that someone is after her and the baby. Did she forget to lock the door? Did she leave that album out? Did she see someone watching her, stalking her on the few occasions she left the house? One day, she decides that the only way to keep Quinn safe is to get her to someone who will care for her, someone she can trust. Morgan seems just like that person, except, to Morgan, Nicole and Quinn are strangers. When Nicole approaches Morgan in the subway, clutching Quinn, eyes desperate, looking disheveled, insisting that Morgan take the baby and "protect her" Morgan is startled and confused. Standing dangerously close to the tracks, Nicole shoves the baby into Morgan's arms whispering frantically, "love her for me...Morgan" and jumps onto the tracks on an ongoing train.

Traumatized, Morgan is left holding a baby, unsure what just happened. Her main concerns were to do as instructed, "keep Quinn safe" and she goes on quite an adventure while trying to do so!

This book will have you whizzing through it, as it is very well paced and will keep you guessing on who is out to get Nicole, Quinn, and Morgan! If you like psychological and/or family type thrillers, this one will be for you. In fact, if you just like thrillers, fast paced reads, and nail-biting, pick up this book as soon as possible!

WOMAN ON THE EDGE BY SAMANTHA M BAILEY - out for Publication on Mar 3, 2020

The Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

This story revolves around a bad-ass female firefighter named Cassie. When the book opens, Cassie is receiving an award for bravery and heroism, but winds up in a situation that causes her to relocate to another town, to another fire station, one not quite as hip as her fire station in Austin. She moves across country to a suburb of Boston, to help her out her estranged mother, and start over at this new fire station. The move proves quite challenging for Cassie as she struggles being in the same house with her mother, who she resents for leaving her on her 16th birthday, as well as struggles with the "old boy's club" of her new fire station. 

This book was a 4 star read for me. I flew through it and enjoyed it so much. It evolved into so many different things. I thought it was about just the experience of being a female firefighter and the misogyny that might present. Then I thought it was just about Cassie's relationship with her mother. Then I thought it was about the mystery of who was sabotaging her at the fire station. Then I thought it was about love and romance. I realized, it was bits of all of these things wrapped in a contemporary story that also addressed themes of forgiveness. 

If you want a bad-ass strong female lead, and enjoy contemporary, you'll enjoy this book! I highly recommend it!

THIS BOOK BLEW MY MIND APART!!!! SEVERAL TIMES OVER!!

Listen up folks! I do not consider myself in ANY way, shape or form, to be a SCI-FI reader, but Blake Crouch has got me rethinking the whole genre. Earlier this year I read Recursion, which was also fantastic, but this one, EPIC!!!

I don't even quite know where to start describing this without giving away things you really will want to discover yourself. Let me start with this: I listened to this on audio, and I HIGHLY recommend that you listen to the audio book. It literally at the half-way mark had me biting my nails and feeling SO on edge, rooting for Jason, questioning his decisions, freaking out with worry....

This much I will say, and I hope it's already well-known, this book centers around the idea of a multiverse, rather than just our one universe. The premise is that in every decision you make in this world, this "universe," there is another YOU making a different decision in another universe, and another making another decision in another universe, and so on and so on for every decision's possibility -- you've lived it -- every single version of yourself -- simultaneously living your best lives, your worst lives, and your middle-of-the-road lives. Have you ever had dejavu - when you've done something new - and thought - I've done this before? But you have no conscious idea of where or when? GOOSEBUMPS people!!! 

For those of us who wonder, what if I had gone to THAT college, what if I had married THAT man, what if I had never had children, what if I had selected another profession, what if I hadn't tried that drug....and so on and so forth.... we have so many "what if's" in our lives - even if our lives are wonderful, there's always a moment where many of us have asked the question of "what if." 

This book is for anyone that's ever wondered about whether their life could've ended up very differently with some slight variation to our decision-making. It's for anyone that believes in a multi-verse, or anyone that dreams of quantum physics taking them to another dimension one day, or wishes they could step through a door into another world (much like January in my previous read, "The Ten-Thousand Doors of January.")  

Needless to say, with two fantastic Blake Crouch stories read, he will be one of those auto-buy authors for me going forward. I need to read all of his books, as soon as possible!!

This was BEYOND a 5-Star read for me, it will be one that I will continue to recommend, even though it's not a new-release, and many of you have probably read it, for those of you that haven't, 

"What are you waiting for???????"

I listened to this audio for free on my Libby library app. 

 Check it out with this link:

https://meet.libbyapp.com/

The Ten Thousand Doors of January - by Alix E. Harrow

Release Date: September 10th, 2019

ALERT: DESTINED TO BECOME A NEW MODERN CLASSIC!!

This is a fantastical story that weaves a book inside of a book, so it's two stories in one, and those stories intertwine in a really lovely way. One young girl, January, raised by a wealthy philanthropist, orphaned by a mother assumed dead and a father who travels the world for this "philanthropist" procuring rare items for his employment, is at the center of this story. January, leading a solitary and lonely type of life, missing her father, feeling resentful, one day happens upon a door. In fact, the story starts with her explaining that when she was seven, she found a door. From this very first chapter, I was charmed. Charmed by the character - her sense of adventure and longing.  Later, she finds a book, which leads her on a massive journey. This story becomes an adventure, with January on a quest, to enter multiple doors, in search of ...... (can't give you spoilers!) Besides January's point of view, we also read the diary-type book she's found along with her, in alternating chapters, which is so much fun - who doesn't love a book within a book?

If you'd like to taste this wonderful first chapter, click on the following link:

https://www.orbitbooks.net/?s=the+ten+thousand+doors+of+january

This book was generously given to me ahead of publishing by NetGalley in the form of an E-book. I really wasn't reading much in that format, until I became a NetGalley reader and was given 30 plus e-books to enjoy (most pre-release date).

I've pre-ordered this book because I will one day re-read it, and just look at the lovely cover! 

This book was a fabulous 5-star read, it has already become one of my all-time favorite reads, for all of the following reasons: great lovable characters, fantastic story-telling, beautiful writing, and great plot. I highly recommend that you step over the thresholds with January, and may you never fall into the void that is in-between worlds.