Diagnosis: Bookaholic

  SYNOPSIS “They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears. After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why. The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secr

  SYNOPSIS Four years ago, I lied. I stood in front of the police, my friends and family, and made up a story, my best one yet. And all of them believed me. I wasn't surprised. Telling stories is what made me famous. Fifteen bestsellers. Millions of fans. Fame and fortune. Now, I have one last story to write. It'll be my best one yet, with a jaw-dropping twist that will leave the nation stunned and gasping for breath. They say that sticks and stones will break your bones, but this story? It will be the one that kills me. Title: The Ghostwriter Author: A.R. Torre Publisher: DCA Publication date: September 29, 2017 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Having read and loved a few weeks back "Every last secret" I knew I had to read some of the author's previous work. "The Ghostwriter" was the chosen one and it managed to confirm my suspicious that A.R. Torre and I are a good fit. I started listening the audiobook version but I could not connect the narrator's voice with

  SYNOPSIS Erin lives an idyllic life by the seaside with her baby boy and handsome Australian fiancée. She's upbeat and happy - a natural mum. At least that's what her thousands of followers on Instagram think. In the real world, Erin is struggling with anxiety and finding it difficult to connect with her screaming son. So when a famous agent offers to make her the biggest instamum out there, she's over the moon. And when Amanda, a family friend who's visiting from Australia, says she'll move in and babysit to help make it happen, it seems like the stars have finally aligned for Erin's exciting new career. But when a devastatingly revealing video is posted online by an anonymous troll, Erin's brought crashing back to earth. As everything she's worked for starts to slip away, Erin must find out how far she can trust those closest to her. Title: The family friend Author: C.C. MacDonald Publisher: Harvill Secker Publication date: March 4, 2021 REVIEW RATIN

  SYNOPSIS Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since the day Nora walked out of her old life and never looked back.  Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen party arrives. A weekend in a remote cottage - the perfect opportunity for Nora to reconnect with her best friend, to put the past behind her.  But something goes wrong.  Very wrong. And as secrets and lies unravel, out in the dark, dark wood the past will finally catch up with Nora. Title: In a dark, dark wood Author: Ruth Ware Publisher: Vintage Publication date: December 31, 2015 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐💫  "In the dark, dark wood there was a dark, dark house; And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room; And in the dark, dark room there was a dark, dark cupboard; And in the dark, dark cupboard there was...a skeleton." I had read so many bad reviews about "In a dark, dark wood" that I was a bit afraid to read it, specially after not being very impressed with "The lying game&q

SYNOPSIS “I’m going to offer you a choice.” Controversial satellite radio talk show host, Jordan Briggs, has clawed her way to the top of the broadcast world. She doesn’t hold back, doesn’t spare feelings, and has no trouble sharing what’s on her mind. Her rigorous pursuit of success has come at a price, though. Her marriage is in ruins, she hasn’t spoken to her mother in years, and she’s distanced herself from all those close to her. If not for her young daughter, Charlotte, her personal life would be in complete shambles. When a subdued man calls into the show and asks to play a game, she sees it as nothing more than a way to kick-start the morning, breathe life into the beginnings of drive-time for her listeners. Against her producer’s advice, she agrees, and unwittingly opens a door to the past. Live on the air with an audience of millions, what starts out as a game quickly turns deadly—events long thought buried resurface and Jordan Briggs is forced to reconcile with one simple fa

  SYNOPSIS Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. He’s a good guy, stable, level-headed, kind—a refreshing twist from her previous relationships. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life. Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something much, much more. Something special. Something real—and he’s tracked her down to prove it. Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the re

  SYNOPSIS On the shores of a tranquil fjord in Northern Iceland, a man is brutally beaten to death on a bright summer’s night. As the 24-hour light of the arctic summer is transformed into darkness by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption, a young reporter leaves Reykajvik to investigate on her own, unaware that an innocent person’s life hangs in the balance. Ari Thór Arason and his colleagues on the tiny police force in Siglufjörður struggle with an increasingly perplexing case, while their own serious personal problems push them to the limit. What secrets does the dead man harbour, and what is the young reporter hiding? As silent, unspoken horrors from the past threaten them all, and the darkness deepens, it’s a race against time to find the killer before someone else dies. Title: Blackout Author: Ragnar Jónasson Series: Dark Iceland Series #3 Publisher: Orenda Books Publication date: June 30, 2016 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Blackout" is book 2 in the Dark Iceland Series

  It's that wonderful time of the year when everyone does their lists of the best (insert here the kind of entertainment you want) of the year, and I couldn't be less.  This year I broke my own record with 250 books read (thanks, lockdown!) and there're still two and a half weeks left, so it was hard to pick just ten. I've had lots of amazing reads, and even though some of these didn't get 5 ⭐  from me, they still managed to surprise me, shock me or most important thing, entertain me. So, without farther ado, here are (in no particular order) my Top Ten books of 2020: 1. ONE BY ONE - Ruth Ware 2. GOODNIGHT BEAUTIFUL - Aimee Molloy 3. GIRL GONE MAD - Avery Bishop 4. THE NIGHT SWIM - Megan Goldin 5. EUDORA HONEYSETT IS QUITE WELL, THANK YOU - Annie Lyons 6. DEAR EMMIE BLUE - Lia Louis 7. PLAYING NICE - JP Delaney 8. THE LION'S DEN - Katherine St. John 9. THE LAST FLIGHT - Julie Clark 10. SHE HAS A BROKEN THING WHERE HER HEART SHOULD BE - J.D. Barker And although n

  SYNOPSIS A spellbinding collection of fifteen stories from multi-million copy, internationally bestselling author Rosamunde Pilcher, published two years after her death, with an introduction by Sunday Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley. In  The Holiday , a wife surprises her husband of twenty-five years with a trip full of Mediterranean sunshine, red rocks and blue seas in an effort to rekindle the romance they had before children. Skelmerton  takes the reader to the bright spring sunshine and sparkling waves of a Northumbrian village where old flames meet again. In  A Place Like Home , a lonely young woman goes to recuperate in the Scottish countryside after a brief illness. The fruit orchards and fresh sea air offer much needed respite - but not as much as the handsome, mysterious farmer. Each of the fifteen stories is a perfect slice of romance written with warmth and passion, featuring some wonderfully memorable, smart and feisty female characters that will transport the read

SYNOPSIS As a child, it was just a game.  As an adult, it was a living nightmare. 'This time it's different. She's gone too far now. She really has.' When teenage friends Lizzie and Alice decide to head off for a walk in the countryside, they are blissfully unaware that this will be their final day together - and that only Lizzie will come back alive. Lizzie has no memory of what happened in the moments before Alice died, she only knows that it must have been a tragic accident. But as she tries to cope with her grief, she is shocked to find herself alienated from Alice's friends and relatives. They are convinced she somehow had a part to play in her friend's death. Twelve years later, unpacking boxes in the new home she shares with her fiancé, Lizzie is horrified to find long-buried memories suddenly surfacing. Is the trauma of the accident finally catching up with her, or could someone be trying to threaten her new-found happiness? Twelve years is a long time t

  SYNOPSIS Serial killer Neva has been conditioned not to ask questions of the mysterious Network, to remain perfectly incurious and perennially cold-blooded. She must simply execute the targets they text her and live to bury the tale. But then she’s tasked with terminating a fellow assassin and glimpses her own future in her colleague’s fate. When she leaves flowers on the gravesite, someone notices. Agent Michael Kensington knows he’ll have his work cut out for him when he’s recruited by MI5 onto operation Archive to piece together patterns in cold cases. Nothing could ever have prepared him for Neva… An assassin obsessed with hell, a fugitive tortured by the secrets of her past, a woman destined to unthread him. Title: The House of Killers Author: Samantha Lee Howe Publisher: One More Chapter Publication date: March 26, 2021 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ "The house of killers" was such a pleasant surprise. Earlier this year I read the author's first novel, a classic domestic su