At the Speed of Lies

At the Speed of Lies

by Cindy L. Otis

Their Vicious Games

Their Vicious Games

by Joelle Wellington

After a small mistake has the very large consequence of having all of her college acceptance letters revoked, Adina Walker is forced to compete in The Finish, an annual set of games sponsored by the Remington Family. Winners are guaranteed a full ride to any school she chooses and the power of the Remington name behind them for the rest of their lives. 

But The Finish has never been discussed beyond a few rumors and Adina has no idea what she's getting in to. Additionally, this year The Finish has an extra goal of finding the wife for the future head of the family and that means that the stakes are much higher.

It's not just about school anymore. It's life or death.

Final thoughts: Interesting premise with a combination of The Hunger Games and the movie Ready or Not. It's a slow and awkward start to the book but once it gets going, it's a real ride. Will not be surprised if this gets made into a movie or Netflix series.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Lock the Doors

Lock the Doors

by Vincent Ralph

When Tom, his mother, his new stepfather, and his new stepsister move into their new home, he's the only one who notices or cares that there are tiny little holes on the doors to his and his stepsister's rooms. Confused about why they are there and certain it means something, Tom goes in search of answers to the mystery.

Not long after moving in, a new girl starts at his high school and he realizes that she and her family were the former owners of his house and that they just moved a few houses down the block. Their new home is bigger but they've also added walks, metal spikes, and a security gate. 

Are they keeping people out or in?

With Tom's history and his mother's dangerous ex-boyfriends haunting his thoughts, Tom is determined to make sure no one else should suffer like he has in the past.

What he doesn't realize is that solving this mystery could put more than just himself in danger.

Final thoughts: This is a mild psychological thriller that is more realistic than scary. This is a very slow burn that takes a while to get to the point. There are some logistical errors here and there (or I just missed the explanations for them). The primary narrator is Tom but about 20% of the novel is told from Amy's (the new student) point of view to fill in some blanks. If you like "safe" mysteries/thrillers that don't really cause too much stress, this may be a good pick.

Rating: 3/5

Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are

Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are

by Kathryn Foxfield

 

It's possibly the last episode of the reality show It's Behind You and the producer needs to it be amazing so she locks five teens into a series of "haunted" caves with a diary cam and one cameraman to try and survive a night with the "Puckered Maiden". Those who last the night without trying to escape will share a $10,000 prize. 

Lex is determined to be the sole survivor of the night and take that money to travel the world. She needs to figure out ways to scare the other four teens to leave the caves early to help guarantee her win. Being the skeptic that she is, she figures that she can handle anything that the producer can throw at her.

But things aren't what they seem when some of the contestants have a history with the caves, the producer is trying to save her career, and it's possible there is something in the caves that no one had predicted.

As the night goes on, things go more and more wrong and a simple scary night turns deadly. 

Can the teens survive a journey that was just meant to scare them?

Final thoughts: Upon looking into this book for this review, I discovered that this is the exact same book as It's Behind You published by the author just a year and a half before this release date. I can't understand why the re-release with a different title. With regards to the book itself, it's pretty light and empty. The edits and shifts can be very confusing and the story and characters are just incomplete. It's rushed and feels like the outline for a movie or series treatment, as if Foxfield is trying to sell the premise to Netflix or a movie company to create a franchise. I got through it quickly but that was mostly because I was speed reading to get to the end instead of really getting involved in the story.

Rating: 2 (ish) out of 5

ARC from NetGalley

These Deadly Games

These Deadly Games

by Diana Urban

Crystal and her friends are MortalDusk gamers with a streaming following and a real chance at winning the tourney for a cash prize. For Crystal, that prize means helping her mom keep her house so there's a reason she needs to be on that team and win.

Right now, there's a competition within her team to get one of the five spots allowed in the tourney and Crystal is behind. MortalDusk is all she is focusing on.

But all that suddenly doesn't matter when she gets a text on a mysterious app that has appeared on her phone. The app has control of everything and it shows a video of Crystal's little sister tied up in a dark room along with the hand of someone holding a very big knife. 

Let’s play a game.

You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies.

Are you ready?

The game starts with a few "innocent" pranks, but soon turns deadly.

Crystal needs to save her sister, but is she willing to risk the lives of her friends and MortalDusk teammates? 

Final thoughts: This horror/thriller YA novel has a solid premise and some good moments, but also some WTF ones. If she's on a timer and needs to get some place fast, why does she suddenly stop and chat with her friends? The provides some exposition and character development, but doesn't fit with the structure overall. The app creator and game "host" is pretty obvious early on and the flashbacks are dead giveaways to the why, but it still has some interesting events. This is another one of those books that feels like it's meant to be sold for screen rights.

Rating: 3/5

ARC from NetGalley

There's Someone Inside Your House

There's Someone Inside Your House

by Stephanie Perkins

It all started with an egg timer. 

It shouldn't have been on the porch. 

Once inside, it was put back on the counter.

The butter knife in the sink was suddenly in the dishwasher.

But now the egg timer is on the floor? 

Back on the counter. 

Must be tired. Time for a nap.

The next thing heard was the ticking of the egg timer on the nightstand right before it went off. 

And that's how the story of the serial killings in Osborne, Nebraska begin.

The killer is everywhere and making himself known in the little things that no one notices like misplaced gym clothes and open cupboards. 

When things start going missing or are moved to strange places, don't think you're crazy... Think of HIM. 

 

Final thoughts: Decent horror story with some really grisly deaths. It feels like it was written to be made into a movie, which (HEY!) it IS! Netflix made it and it's set to be released sometime this year. The overall plot is pretty standard and fairly predictable. The killer's motive is a little ridiculous, but it's all tidy at the end. 

Rating: 3.5/5 rounding up to 4 for simplicity 

A Bad Day for Sunshine

A Bad Day for Sunshine

by Darynda Jones

Sunshine Vicram has returned to her hometown with her freshman daughter, Auri, in tow. Despite having tried to run as far away as possible (about 30 minutes), she's back and she has somehow become sheriff of Del Sol without even knowing she was running. (How do you win an election you didn't put your name in for?)

On the plus side, she's living in her parents' backyard in an "apartment" they'd had built just for her and her daughter (as if they KNEW she would win that election she didn't enter) and she's got her forever BFF as her deputy.

She also starts her first day with a flasher, a rooster-napper, a car through the window of the sheriff's office building, a kidnapping, and a run-in with the guy she has crushed on since she they were kids.

She'll take on the kidnapping as the easiest of the things to deal with.

At the same time, Auri is at her first day of high school in a new town and she's starting on a bad foot since just a few days prior, her mom's BFF deputy raided the completely secret but known by everyone high school party and confiscated the beer (for himself). Now Auri is suspecting of being a narc and the student body pretty universally hates her. Except for Cruz. He is difficult to read, but doesn't seem to be anti-Auri.

Now both mom and daughter must pool their resources to figure out why someone would take another freshman who looks a lot like Auri and how to stop that freshman's prophetic dreams of dying before her 15th birthday from coming true.

Final thoughts: I LOVE Darynda Jones and all of her snark. There are some very Charley-ish moments here (and a reference, so we're in Charley-land!), but the vibe between mother and daughter brings on a different feel. Plus we get swoons for multiple ages now so RL moms can start sharing this with their older teen daughters. Some of the plot points are obvious and future stories can also be predicted, but Jones weaves a complicated web for all of her characters and this is really a joy to read. The only negative that I had was with the formatting of the Kindle ARC since the two ladies trade off points of view for the story and it sometimes isn't immediately obvious that we've switched with the formatting as it currently appears. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.

Follow Me Back

Follow Me Back

by A.V. Geiger

Tessa is trapped in her bedroom with no way of leaving because her mind won't let her. After something happened to her months before, she's be unable to trust the world. She has developed agoraphobia and there is nothing that makes her feel safe.

Nothing but Eric Thorn and Taylor.

Eric Thorn is a major pop star and Tessa's one vice. She follows him religiously on Twitter and keeps an eye out for any and all news. She feels like she knows him. He seems so afraid and unhappy; she just wants him to feel better.

Taylor is Tessa's Twitter friend and the one person who understands both her need to hide and her desire to make sure Eric is happy.

What Tessa doesn't know is that "Taylor" is actually Eric Thorn himself. He started following Tessa in order to attack her and try to stop the hashtag that she created, but he began to see Tessa as the one person who really understands what he's going through.

Together, maybe they can get out of the prisons that they've built for themselves.

Final thoughts: This one is ok, but the police interrogations spotted throughout were more distracting than tension-building. The story had moments, but it just wasn't too believable. The therapist is an idiot. And that ending, the last couple pages, was just completely out of left field. I did like the twist, but I really worry about this book as an inspiration to stalkers out there. I can just see a few very easily swayed people deciding that something like this, the love story part, could happen to them. If they could just get Biebs to read their Twitter, they could get him to understand that they belong with him, etc... Not great, but it did its job. Not sure if I'll read the next one.

Rating: 3/5

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.