Friday, October 30, 2015

The Girl with No Past A gripping psychological thiller by Kathryn Croft

Disclosure: I received a free Kindle version of this book from netgalley.com in return for an unbiased review. I have never read anything by Kathryn Croft before, and now I am so glad I did. The Girl with No Past is a dark and troubling book with characters that are not always what they seem. Leah, the lead protagonist leads a dull life by her own admission, going through her days being unsociable and working at a library. Her life comes across as uninspired and lonely. She is a tough character to like, yet I was sympathetic to her. This book is touted as a psychological thriller, based in London, but is also a character study of what happens to a person when they are haunted by something that happens in the past. Leah's past is slowly catching up to her, and the reader is left waiting to find out what exactly happened until the very end. Croft writes well and used a technique that is quite common today, alternating between present day events and Leah's school days. The plot is well developed and very gripping at times. The reader is left guessing until the end, and unless you are a better reader than I, you will be surprised. Some have compared this book to The Girl on the Train, and Gone Girl, and while I can see some similarities in that the protagonist is not entirely likeable, the main character Leah in The Girl with no Past stands alone as a well conceived and compelling character and the book itself wraps around her attributes with a strong plot with many twists and turns.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Dangerously Dark- A Chocolate Mystery

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. As a huge fan of Diane Mott Davidson(even though not written by her, I think) and a lover of all things chocolate, I scooped up the opportunity to read this book and vicariously enjoy the delights of chocolate. Hayden, otherwise known as the Chocolate Whisperer, consults with various restaurants and other establishments around the world; not real clear on what exactly she does, but it involves chocolate and lots of it. She finds herself in Portland and becomes embroiled in a murder mystery and the lifestyle/culture of the infamous Portland food truck enclave. The victim of the murder is Declan, and nobody really knows why he was murdered. His fiancé is a freak who drinks too much and doesn't seem to care if Declan was actually murdered. Hayden inserts herself into the situation and sets about to solve the case even though the police said Declan's death was an accident and closed the case. Because she really only kind of knows her friend Carissa from college, and knows no one else in the town, immediately everyone becomes a suspect. A lot of the book was over done and the clues were hinted at strongly. There was a great deal of jumping around from suspect to suspect which was a bit tedious. Once you find out who the killer was, you might be disappointed with the reasoning behind it. Most of the characters were rather unlikeable. Carissa was a vapid, callous person, Danny was strictly a muscle man, and I didn't quite get Travis, the so-called financial advisor with a sexy voice. Did he and Hayden have a thing? If not, why not? There was much hinting at things, but no resolution at times. I did enjoy learning more about Portland and the food truck scene, and who doesn't like chocolate? All in all a light, if not totally satisfying read.