The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

President Bill Clinton and bestselling novelist James Patterson have written a spellbinding thriller, The President is Missing.

As the novel opens, a threat looms. Enemies are planning an attack of unprecedented scale on America. Uncertainty and fear grip Washington. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the cabinet. The President himself becomes a suspect, and then goes missing…

Set in real time, over the course of three days, The President Is Missing is one of the most dramatic thrillers in decades. And it could all really happen. The President Is Missing is Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s totally authentic and spellbinding thriller.

About Authors:

William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III) was the forty-second President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president, older only than Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and is known as the first baby boomer president, as he was born in the period after World War II. He is the husband of the junior United States Senator from the state of New York and a Democratic candidate in the 2008 US presidential election, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

James Patterson has created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist writing today, with his Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women’s Murder Club, Private, NYPD Red, Daniel X, Maximum Ride, and Middle School series. As of January 2016, he has sold over 375 million books worldwide and currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers. In addition to writing the thriller novels for which he is best known, he also writes children’s, middle-grade, and young-adult fiction and is the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on the New York Times adult and children’s bestseller lists.

The son of an insurance salesman and a schoolteacher, Patterson grew up in Newburgh, New York, and began casually writing at the age of nineteen. In 1969, he graduated from Manhattan College. He was given a full ride to Vanderbilt University’s graduate program in English but dropped out after a year, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to continue reading and writing for pleasure if he became a college professor.

My Review:

‘The President is Missing’ is a novel about President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan, who’s in a race against time to stop a cyberattack that would cripple the United States.   I have read most of James Patterson’s books but I was a little disappointed with this one.   I enjoyed it but there was just too much political information and sometimes too much.  The book started off slow, but once you passed the first couple of chapters, it picked up.  Although it’s not perfect (it was a little confused or predictable on occasion and there are a few presidential info dumps – on occasion Clinton does want to have his say), it’s certainly entertaining and I was totally gripped.  The “cyber attack” plot was clever, but not revolutionary. It is sad to know that a Cyber Attack The plot is frightening, as you wonder if this could actually happen today.  I am giving this book  3.9 stars; and I would recommend this book, if  you enjoy politics and thriller, me personally not so much on the politics, I’m more of a thriller person.

  Website  Twitter

Game Theory by William Lange (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

“Often exciting and absorbing, with a tough, hard-boiled style…,[Game Theory] combines the…atmosphere of pulp detective fiction with future-tech gizmos and accompanying paranoia… engaging and well-written.” Kirkus Reviews

“GAME THEORY is both a thoroughly enjoyable mystery and a thought-provoking look at what our world might look like in fifty – or maybe twenty – years.” 4.5/5 stars – IndieReader

It’s the future. Technology is changing the world. But change often comes with a high price. Nobody knows that better than detective Jack Waldron—technology killed his five-year-old daughter and caused his bitter divorce. Wracked with guilt, he drowns himself in whiskey and spends his off-duty hours in a virtual world he created to mirror the life he used to live. But when his ex-wife is brutally raped and murdered, everything changes.

Forcing his way into the case, Jack realizes her murder wasn’t the sex crime everyone believes it was. There’s more—much more. As he digs deeper, he uncovers a trail of clues that point to a conspiracy at the top of the world’s most powerful corporation. While the body count rises, the dangers mount. Before it’s over, Jack is forced to confront his dark past and fight to stay alive against a sinister plot that threatens all of humanity.

About Author:

William “Will” Lange is an award-winning screenwriter and writer. He is a graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in Film, Television and New Media. He has worked worked for The Walt Disney Company, Oscar-Winning Mandeville films and others. A full-time writer for magazines and on-line publications. Game Theory is his first novel.

Co-author, William “Bill” Lange, spent more than 30 years in marketing and advertising in senior creative positions in public and private companies. He is a life-long fan of Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe, Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee and now, of course, Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch.

  • Paperback:314 pages
  • Publisher:Pacific Arts Publishing;
  • Published: 1 edition (March 19, 2018)

My Review:

Thank you The Fiction Café-Review and William Lange for this arc.

I hope there’s more to come and this becomes a series!

The story is well written, suspenseful, and filled with believable characters. I could not put this book I had to see what was coming next.  The author references a website in the novel and has actually created that site in real life. It was a very nice touch to draw you into the story and consider the possibility that the author’s version of the future could actually happen.  The main character in this book was Jack, and I was trying to figure what would happen next, and when I thought I had it I was way off.  This book was full of suspense and thrills.  I have to admit that I am not into sci-f- thrillers but this was a great book.  If you haven’t read this you’re missing out on a great book.

Black Out By: Ragnar Jónasson (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

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 …

Dark, terrifying and complex, Blackout is an exceptional, atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland’s finest crime writers.

About Author:

Ragnar Jonasson is author of the award winning and international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

His debut Snowblind, first in the Dark Iceland series, went to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts shortly after publication. The book was also a no. 1 Amazon Kindle bestseller in Australia. Snowblind has been a paperback bestseller in France.

Nightblind won the Dead Good Reader Award 2016 for Most Captivating Crime in Translation.

Snowblind was called a “classically crafted whodunit” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, and it was selected by The Independent as one of the best crime novels of 2015 in the UK.

Rights to the Dark Iceland series have been sold to UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Poland, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Portugal, Croatia, Armenia and Iceland.

Ragnar was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he works as a writer and a lawyer. He also teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University and has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV-news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

He is also the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir.

From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic.

Ragnar has also had short stories published internationally, including in the distinguished Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in the US, the first stories by an Icelandic author in that magazine.

  • Paperback:  276 pages
  • Publisher:  Orenda Books; UK ed. edition (July 15, 2016)
  • Genre: Crime, Thriller

My Review:

I am grateful to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.
An interesting read.

This was my first novel by Ragnar Jonasson. This was a brilliantly paced thriller set in Iceland and it deserves all the praise already heaped on it.  A man is found beaten to death on the shore in Iceland. The plot has Ari Thor, a policeman, and a young reporter working on solving the murder. They are not aware of each other. The book was as much about the young reporter as Ari Thor who is the young policeman in the Iceland series.

I enjoyed it; after reading it I noticed that this was the third book in the series.  I wished that I had read the others before this one.  I will definitely look for his other books.   Website  Twitter

 

Isla’s Inscryption By: John Mackley (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

When her mother died, Isla Royle believed she was alone in the world – the only child of an only child. These certainties are turned upside down at the Funeral Home when Isla meets Arthur Edmunds who claims to be her grandfather. Edmunds offers her respite from her grief by inviting her to his manorial home in Suffolk where her ancestry is apparently linked to local legend. Here she is offered a life of affluence and comfort – a life which her mother abandoned. But overwhelmed by grief and new experiences, Isla’s mind begins to play tricks on her putting herself and her new family in terrible danger.

About Author:

Jon Mackley is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Northampton and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Fantasy Literature at Richmond University, the American International University in London. He studied a degree in English Studies at the University of Stirling and a Master’s Degree and PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of York. His novels include Crossing the Threshold (2011), Twisting Fate’s Arm (2012), Heaven’s Devils (2013) and The Gawain Legacy (2014). He has also published an academic study of the Latin and Anglo-Norman versions of the Legend of St Brendan (2008) and a Bilingual edition of the Anglo-Norman version (2012), and a bilingual edition of the foundation legend The Origin of the Giants (2014). He has edited a gothic novel which was published in 1802 and which was influenced by the work of Ann Radcliffe entitled Who’s the Murderer? by Eleanor Sleath. He has also contributed essays to London Gothic (edited by Phillips and Witchard) and New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft (edited by David Simmons)

  • Paperback:  290 pages
  • Publisher:  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Publication Date: September 1, 2018
  • Genre: Mild supernatural and Mild Horror

My Review:  

Thank you The Fiction Café-Review and John Mackley for this arc.

This the first book that I read by this author, and I have to say WOW loved this book, it had me guessing and still trying to figure out all the secrets, mysteries and family secrets of the Edmunds.

I like how the author gradually builds up what we know of Islas life before the present time and how her troubled life plays trick with her imagination.  There were times that I could not put this book down as I wanted to see how it was going to play out.  I loved it and I can’t wait to share and recommend this book.  I will be on the lookout for more from this author.       What an awesome read.

 Website  Facebook

Her Last Move By: John Marrs (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

She’s chasing a killer. He’s watching her every move.

He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.

Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career—and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone. Together with facial recognition expert Joe Russell, she strives to get a lead on the elusive murderer, who is always one step ahead of them.

Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?

About Author:

John Marrs is the author of The One, The Good Samaritan, When You Disappeared, and Welcome to Wherever You Are.

A freelance journalist based in London, England, he has spent the past twenty years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines.

He has written for publications including the Guardian’s Guide and Guardian Online, Total Film, Huffington Post, Empire, Q, GT, the Independent, S Magazine and Company.

  • Publisher:Thomas & Mercer
  • Expected to be Published:(8 Nov. 2018)
  • Genre: Thriller

My Review:

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this arc.

After seeing some reviews of this book on The Fiction Café Review Club and The Fiction Café Book Club, I set out to find this book, Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer Publisher; I received an ARC copy of this book.  Wow what a great book.  Becca is the main character and has landed her first big case of her career. But she knows that she can’t do it alone so she teams up with facial recognition expert Joe Russell.  I found that this book was always leading you up to the next event and had be on the edge of my seat.  Her Last Move is another suspenseful page turner from this author. Right from the first page the action starts and never lets up.

Wow what a great book, I will follow up with a full review after November 2018; once the book has been published.

I will be looking for more from this author.

   Website  Twitter

 

 

The Lying Game By: Ruth Ware (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes Ruth Ware’s chilling new novel, The Lying Game.

On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister…

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).

Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed—which has now become Ruth Ware’s signature style—The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

About Author:

Ruth Ware grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer, and is The New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark WoodThe Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and The Death of Mrs. Westaway. She is married with two small children. Visit her at RuthWare.com or follow her on Twitter @RuthWareWriter.

  • Publisher:  Gallery/Scout Press; First American Edition edition
  • Published:  (July 25, 2017)
  • Genre:  Thriller, Mystery Thriller
  • Pages:  384

Quote from the book:

“A lie can outlast any truth.”

“You’re never an ex-addict, you’re just an addict who hasn’t had a fix in a while.”

My Review:

This book had me from start to finish, I’m glad to see Ruth Ware delivering again. My favorite thing about Ruth Ware’s books is her ability to create tension and hold me on the edge of my seat

The book tells the story of four friends who met in a boarding school when they were teenagers. They played “the lying game” until something happened and they were withdrawn from the school. Seventeen years later the last lie they told has come to haunt them.

The novel takes place in London and also in an English coastal town. The story is narrated by Isa Wilde, one of the four friends and alternates between the present and the past.

This book kept me up at night, just to find out what was going to happen.  I really enjoy all of Ruth Ware’s book and I can’t wait to get her new book The Death of Mrs. Westaway.

If you read The Woman in Cabin 10 or In a Dark, Dark Wood than you’ll probably like this one.

♥ Chao Chao! xoxo. 

 Website  Facebook  Twitter

The Perfect Friend By: Barbara Copperthwaite (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

She’ll do anything for you…

My name is Alex, and my world has been shattered.
My husband has left me.
My children won’t speak to me.
My friend Carrie is the only person I have.
She’s the only one I can trust to keep all my secrets.
She’d never do anything to let me down.
Would she?

This dark, gripping psychological thriller will have you holding your breath until the very last page. Fans of Behind Closed Doors, Sometimes I Lie, and The Girl on the Train will be captivated.

About Author:

What people say about Barbara’s books:
“Will have you looking over your shoulder and under your bed… Original, gripping, with a deep psychological impact,” Sunday Mirror
“Enthralling, tense and moving,” Real People magazine
“Totally gripping, and scarily believable,” Bella magazine

Barbara is the Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, THE DARKEST LIES, and HER LAST SECRET. Her latest book is THE PERFECT FRIEND.

More importantly, she loves cakes, wildlife photography and, last but definitely not least, her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy (who force her to throw tennis balls for them for hours).
​​
Having spent over twenty years as a national newspaper and magazine journalist, Barbara has interviewed the real victims of crime – and also those who have carried those crimes out. She is fascinated by creating realistic, complex characters, and taking them apart before the readers’ eyes in order to discover just how much it takes to push a person over a line.

When not writing feverishly, she is often found hiding behind a camera, taking wildlife photographs.

  • Paperback: 308 pages
  • Publisher: Bookouture (July 5, 2018)
  • Genre:  Crime, Thriller, Suspense

My Review:

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and the author, Barbara Copperthwaitefor my free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a tricky one to review as I don’t want to give anything away as the book is full of twists and turns.     This is a great book and it was my first book by Copperthwaite, but several reviewers who’ve read her other work say that readers should always expect twists and secrets and lies. And boy, were they right!!!

I was hooked from the beginning and could wait to see what was going to happen.  There were times that I was reading this before I went to bed and I kept telling myself you must go to sleep you have work in the morning, but I just kept reading.

I will be looking for more from this author.

Happy Reading every one

Website  Twitter   Facebook

 

The Sun is Also a Star By: Nicola Yoon (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

The #1 New York Times Bestseller
A National Book Award Finalist
A 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Beautifully crafted.”–People Magazine

“A book that is very much about the many factors that affect falling in love, as much as it is about the very act itself . . . fans of Yoon’s first novel, Everything Everything, will find much to love—if not, more—in what is easily an even stronger follow up.” —Entertainment Weekly

Transcends the limits of YA as a human story about falling in love and seeking out our futures.” —POPSUGAR.com

NominationsNational Book Award for Young People’s Literature,

Goodreads Choice Awards Best Young Adult Fiction

About Author:

Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason.

  • 384 pages
  • Publisher:Delacorte Press
  • November 1, 2016
  • Genres: Fiction, Romance Novel

My Review:

This was a nice little book with a sweet story. A great book for a simple escape.

Lots of chapters. Lots of SHORT chapters. I LOVE SHORT CHAPTERS! I needed a book with short chapters since I am currently reading (or have recently read) some books with loooooooog chapters.

I enjoyed this as much as Everything Everything. Looks like I can continue to count on Yoon for a simple getaway.

This book deals with two main characters Natasha and her family are undocumented immigrants; they’re being deported from the US in twelve hours, so she’s headed to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services building hoping to find a way to stay in America.

Daniel is on the precipice of the prestigious future his parents have lined up for him whether he likes it or not, and he’s on his way to a college admission interview with a Yale alum. When Natasha and Daniel meet for the first time in New York City, their paths align and their futures – once certain – spiral into infinite possible outcomes.

This book is for everyone. For dreamers and disbelievers. For lovers and those who have given up hope. It is a book that shows us the challenges that some face that we might never know and most of all, sometimes being able to follow our dreams or needing to accept our reality.

I enjoyed this book and will look forward to the movie that they are working on and will continue to look for more books from this author.

Website  Twitter  Instagram

 

The Sister By: The Sister (Reviewed by Rochelle)

About Book:

‘I did something terrible, Grace. I hope you can forgive me…’

Grace hasn’t been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie’s last words, and in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie’s. It soon becomes clear there was a lot she didn’t know about her best friend.

About Author:

Louise Jensen is a million copy author of Global No. 1 psychological thrillers The Sister, The Gift, The Surrogate and The Date. Her novels have also been sold for translation to nineteen territories, as well as being featured on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s List.

Louise was nominated for the Goodreads Debut Author of 2016 Award.

Louise lives with her husband, children, madcap dog and a rather naughty cat in Northamptonshire.

  • Publisher:  Bookouture
  • Publisher Date: July 16, 2016
  • Pages: 307
  • Genre:   Psychological, Mystery

My Review:

*Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review*

The Sister is another wonderful psychological thriller from Louise Jensen.

This is an excellent debut novel – a pyschological thriller that builds slowly, gradually filling out the details and adding layers to produce a sizzling finale when it all comes together with some major reveals.

A story about secrets, lies, and a friendship bond that lasts through tough times, but then is broken by death, The Sister: A psychological thriller with a brilliant twist you won’t see coming was a page turner that kept me guessing. The main characters were; Grace and Charlie they met when they were very young, and after Charlie has stood up for Grace when a boy (Dan) pokes fun at her. Later, Grace, Charlie, and Dan will all become friends, and the group includes a few others. Some who stay friends, while others do not.  From the turning of the first few pages, we find out that Charlie has died and Grace is inconsolable.  Grace returns to the exact spot where the two had buried a memory box when they were fifteen years old. She digs it up but waits to deal with the contents at later time.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but it unravels quite cleverly, and thought I had certain suspicions from the start, which were essentially confirmed by the end, there were lots of twists and turns I definitely did not expect.

If you like 1 psychological thrillers then pick this book for your next read.  I have one more book to read from this Author and I can’t wait to start reading it.

Have a great summer! Happy Reading!