[ARC] The Murder List – Jackie Kabler

Link to book – The Murder List by Jackie Kabler.

Rating – 5 out of 5 stars

Huge thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK and One More Chapter for the advanced copy of this book to read and review. 

OH MY GOOD GOD what an AMAZING book this was! It was definitely a 5 star read and one that I will be recommending for months to come I’m sure. 

From the start I thought the writing was impeccable, and this standard was upheld throughout the entire book, every word and sentence cleverly crafted and written to provide the reader with a truly excellent book. Every single feeling I had, paranoia, shock, terror, were all down to the incredible writing style that Kabler has. 

And the atmosphere was just perfectly presented throughout the entire book. It was atmospheric and intriguing in equal measures, both of which compelling me to just keep reading for one more page, even long after I should have been asleep!

Character wise, I absolutely thought they were brilliant, whilst some of them weren’t as integral to the plot as others they were all afforded the same time and build up, it was hard to not feel attached to them. They balanced each other out perfectly and created just the right level of suspicion around them, never really knowing who was to blame until the last possible second…

And the plot, oh my lordy, it was amazing, in fact damn near perfect. The author had these different storylines interweaving with each other, creating an overarching story that just was MINDBLOWINGLY good. The twists and turns were off the chart, but also still incredibly believable. We were led on such a wild goose chase and I suspected everyone except who it actually was, so kudos to the author for that. 

Which does lead me to the ending. The ending was just mind blowing, and whilst it isn’t necessarily a book I would read again, that was more so because a lot of the books appeals and value was the shock factor of the ending and knowing what was going to happen would spoil a reread. 

On the whole, The Murder List was just a true JOY to read, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I will be recommending it for a long time!

Until next time, Em xxx

ARC – The Happy Family, Jackie Kabler – A Review.

Hello friends and bookworms, I’m so excited to share with you my review of The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK in return for an honest review.

The Happy Family is due to be published on the 4th June 2021 and you can read the synopsis here.

Overall rating – 5 out of 5 stars.

I’ve read books by Jackie Kabler before and I was not disappointed with her latest offering, I was completely addicted to reading The Happy Family, it drew me into the story and before I knew it I was halfway through without even realising. It was so easy to read and get swept up with.

Because the book was written in first person it felt as if we were in Beth’s head, which lent itself to the nature of the book so well. It felt as if we were falling apart, questioning everything and unsure of who we could trust… I felt myself becoming paranoid just reading the book, it really got under my skin.

There were points that felt unrealistic, with how Beth welcomed her mother back with open arms and with how she didn’t question certain things, but when you think that Beth is a divorced mother of two who really has her shit together (really refreshing to read by the way) you can understand why her mother suddenly reappearing out of the blue would throw her off kilter and lead her to make these decisions and assumptions.

Throughout the story Kabler dropped these small hints that built up the tension and lead into this great little backstory that eventually made it’s way to the forefront of the book and delivered the mother (excuse the pun) of all twists!

I did not expect the final third of the book to play out the way it did, and while I did guess some aspects of how it would pan out, there others that completely blindsided me and left me sitting with my mouth hanging open.

I also loved how the very end of the book showed everything coming a full circle, it rounded the story off and left me feeling really fulfilled with the story.

On the whole, I loved this book. It kept me guessing, had so many twists and turns that I thought I was on a rollercoaster and finished by wrapping everything up into this perfect little read!

Be sure to check out The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler on the 4th June when it’s published.

Until next time, Em xxx

Top Ten Tuesday turns 10🎉🎊

Hello everyone! It is Tuesday today which means it’s time for Top Ten Tuesday… Today is a special one as TTT is 10, so we have a celebration post! Our brief for today is that we could pick any previous TTT post and redo or update it, we can be as creative as we like…

Top Ten Tuesday is currently hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl and is a weekly post, that was born from the want to bring us bookish people together and those of us who love a good list (me😂)

I have decided to post my top ten fave books I’ve ever reviewed, the original post was first ten books so I’ve decided to switch it up a bit and share my fave reviews instead!

If you click on the book titles you can see the original review I posted too.

1 – Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. I picked this one because it was the first ever book review I posted, and while I’ve certainly come a long way since then it reminds me of when I started out.

2 – Inferno by Dan Brown. This book literally planned an entire holiday for me and even though I only rated it 4 stars it still made such an impact on my life.

3 – Mirror Mirror by Anthony M Strong. I reviewed this 1 star, BUT, it’s my first ever bad review of a book so I had to include it!

4 – The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler. I really enjoyed reading this book and it’s definitely one that will be on my reread list, which is why I’ve included it.

5 – Die, My Love by Zoe Blake and 6 others. This was the first anthology I’d read and it was amazing. I’ve included it because I want more people to know about this book, it was SO GOOD.

6 – Camp Leanpe by Timothy R Baldwin. I’ve included this one because it reminded of the Goosebumps series I used to read as a child, so it was one of my favourites to review, it was like going into a time machine!

7 – Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I don’t know why I put off reading this book for so long because it was amazing and by far one of my favourites to review, I felt like I couldn’t get my words typed fast enough to share the review.

8 – Goosebumps by R L Stine. I mean of course I’ve included this one, I literally got in a time machine and went back to my childhood!

9 – Death Warrant by Will Pearson. This is the only none fiction book on my list and I’ve included it because it was my third book after I’d DNFR the 2 previous, and it really got me out of a slump.

10 – Hannibal book series by Thomas Harris. Technically this is 4 books in this review, but Hannibal is one of my all time favourite book series and I had to include it, as they were my favourite reviews to write.

Happy 10th birthday to Top Ten Tuesday too, originally from The Broke and the Bookish back in June 2010 it moved over to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018 and it has been there ever since. I can’t even begin to imagine how many posts there has been in its 10 year history!

As always, let me know if you’re taking part and I will check out your post too.

Em xxx