The Never List by Koethi Zan

Amazon Description:
For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”: a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism.

Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar. Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail.

Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors—who hold their own deep grudges against her. When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.
My Review:
I could not put this book down! I read this 305 page book in one day and I wished it was longer. There were a ton of plot twists to keep you guessing. The characters were creatively developed.

The one criticism I have is that the main character, Sarah, starts off as completely agoraphobic and can't leave her apartment. Very quickly she is going places and doing things that even people who aren't agoraphobic would never do. I don't think this aspect of Sarah's story is necessary or believable.

There's a lot of intriguing details in every chapter. It went in a lot of directions I never expected. While the ending was somewhat predictable, how you got there was not.

I rate The Never List by Koethi Zan 5 stars and would recommend it for adults looking for an excellent psychological thriller.

Season of Lies by Monica Shaughnessy Book Review

Amazon Description:
Robin Calloway has always been "special"--a misfit who lives more in her own head than the real world. Some, including her father, even think she's crazy. So when her brother is found murdered, Robin's father suspects her of the crime and sends her to a mental institution for observation. With the help of Dr. G, Robin begins to untangle memories of the killing, but admits a terrible truth about herself in the process: she can both hear and speak to animals, and this cursed ability forces her to "sleepwalk"--or blank out--for most of her day.

Fearing both the local sheriff and the label of "schizophrenic," Robin escapes the hospital and flees into the Texas Hill Country. To survive hunting season in the woods, however, she must accept her unique senses and gain the help of a whitetail deer herd. But Robin soon finds herself in the path of a killer desperate to hide the truth.

My Review:
Robin can speak to animals in her head, or at least she believes she can. She is a resident in a psychiatric hospital and is accused of the murder of her brother while he was hunting. She knows she is innocent but can't prove it without escaping the hospital and using her gift of speaking with the animals to retrace her step of the night her brother was killed.

I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. Although the bulk of the book is too peaceful for me to consider it a "thriller" it as definitely suspenseful. Robin is believably portrayed as an innocent soul. The way her gift is written felt so realistic I wondered (almost) if it were really possible to speak to animals like Robin.

The ending was filled with some twists which was surprising considering how straight forward most of the book seemed to be. It as a pleasant surprise to see how the characters were connected.

My biggest complaint was the slang that as used in the narrative sections. Words like "nekkid" and "woulda" really bothered me and made Robin come off as uneducated.

Overall, I rate Season of Lies by Monica Shaughnessy 4 stars and would recommend it to someone looking for a unique read.

Abducted (Lizzy Gardner #1) - Book Review

In Abducted by T.R. Ragan, fourteen years ago, Lizzy Gardner was kidnapped by a man she calls "Spiderman" because of his obsession with using poisonous spiders to torture the girls he kidnaps. She manages to escape after two months, the only victim of Spiderman's to live. Now, Lizzy is a private investigator and also teaches self-defense to help young girls if they are ever attacked.

After Lizzy escaped from her abductor, Spiderman has stopped killing but has the need to find the "one that got away." She has betrayed him and now he seeks his revenge.

This "thriller" was incredibly disappointing. I was bored before even getting halfway through the book, and then I was annoyed at all of the problems with Abducted. I am just going to list them...

1. All of the characters seem to forget their cell phones in their car or the battery dies, just when they need it the most.
2. The common link between ALL of the victims is missed by the police and it's way too obvious to miss.
3. Lizzy is the WORST private investigator on the face of the earth. She ignores her intuition and ignores odd behavior every other scene. Plus, there's several times where she doesn't contact the police when any person would.
4. There are some really pointless characters in this book and I felt as though their mini-stories were just a way of dragging the plot along.
5. I read almost 400 pages, waiting for a twist that never came. When it was revealed who Spiderman was, I was not in the least bit suprised.
6. For a book released in 2012, I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge that you don't have to wait 60 seconds before a trace starts on your phone when set up by police.
7. Nobody ever takes Lizzy seriously besides her love interest.
8. There are dates and times (Law & Order style) which indicate a change of scene. In my opinion, if you're going to do that, add the place as well so you know which character you're supposed to be following at the time.
9. Anything exciting or action that happens is short and quickly cuts to a new scene and when the author goes back to that storyline I was always disappointed.

I don't understand why this book has so many five star reviews. There was nothing amazing about it at all. There was only one character, Hayley, that I actually liked and her storyline wasn't very long. She is the only reason I am rating this book 2 stars instead of 1.

Abducted is the first book in The Lizzy Gardner Series. Luckily, there's no huge cliffhanger at the end where you need to read the next one to find out what happens. Yes, there's some unanswered questions, but I don't care enough to find out those answers. I will not be picking up any more books in this series.

Overall, I rate Abducted (The Lizzy Gardner Series #1) 2 out of 5 stars. I would not recommend this book considering the amount of great thrillers out there.

Finding Hannah by John R Kess (Book Review)

Finding Hannah by John R Kess is centered around fifteen-year-old Dylan Beachley and his search to find his older sister, Hannah, after she is kidnapped as he slept just one floor away.  After the official search by volunteers and officers is called off, Dylan makes it his mission to find her on his own.  He is joined by Molly who eventually tells him about her life with a drug addicted mother and her abusive boyfriend.

The action started almost the second you opened this book.  While normally I enjoy books like that, I felt there wasn't enough of an emotional tie between the reader and Hannah to feel the pain of her absence. While you do get to know more about Hannah along the way, you don't feel the initial shock from her kidnapping. I think it was because of this that I didn't feel a sense of urgency to find her.

As the relationship between Dylan and Molly grows, I felt like the story became more about her and what she is going through.  This isn't a bad turn for the story. There's only so much you can say about Hannah who's kidnapped just a few pages into the book. Molly was my favorite character in the book because she seemed to have such a positive attitude even with an abusive home-life. I was taken by surprise at just how much I liked Molly and her story when I teared-up as Dylan read her a letter he had written.

This is listed as a children's mystery/thriller and I think that's the perfect way of describing it.  There's nothing too gruesome or scary. I feel like Finding Hannah is the perfect book if you are just trying out the thriller genre and not looking for something that might keep you up at night.  I would let my ten-year-old daughter read it without any worries. If you are someone who reads thrillers on a regular basis, you might be disappointed by the lack of detail surrounding the more painful aspects of the story.

Overall, I rate Finding Hannah 4 out of 5 stars.

The Lonely Mile by Allan Leverone (Review)

It's fairly easy to guess what's going to happen in The Lonely Mile by Allan Leverone right after you read the synopsis on the product page.  A man named Bill Ferguson witnesses and stops a near kidnapping by the "I-90 Killer."  Although the girl is safe, the sociopath escapes and is seeking revenge on Bill and targets his precious, 17 year old daughter Carli.

I am sure if you think about it, you can figure out what happens, or come close to it.  That's okay, it is not what makes this such a great novel.  The intricate details of the story and the way Leverone manages to sneak twists into the story is part of the making of this fantastic thriller.  Bill Ferguson is determined to make his daughter safe and the way he tries to go about it had my hairs standing on end some of the time.  Also, you are put into the mind of the "I-90 Killer" which is incredibly creepy and made my skin crawl.

I do not normally read thrillers because (quite honestly) they aren't that thrilling to me.  I chose to read The Lonely Mile because I live just a few minutes away from I-90 and I thought it would add a little extra thrill factor to the read, but I don't think that extra bit is needed to feel the thrill of this novel.  I literally could not read this book fast enough for my liking.  I had to know what was going to happen next and there's no skipping a paragraph or you might just miss something important.

I am glad I jumped out of my comfort zone of YA fiction and tried out Leverone's suspenseful book.  I would recommend it to any adult who likes to go along with a fantastic thrilling read. I rate The Lonely Mile 5 out of 5 stars and I can't wait to read another of Leverone's books!