Since I last updated, I have finished three more books.
The Perfect Husband is supposedly the 1st in the series featuring Quincy and Rannie, but Rannie wasn’t in this book and Quincy was only in it briefly. So it doesn’t really matter that I read it after the second book in the series – The Third Victim. “What would you do if the man of your dreams hides the soul of a killer? Jim Beckett was everything she’d ever dreamed of…But two years after Tess married the decorated cop and bore his child, she helped put him behind bars for savagely murdering ten women. Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped—and the most dangerous game of all begins….
After a lifetime of fear, Tess will do something she’s never done before. She’s going to learn to protect her daughter and fight back, with the help of a burned-out ex-marine. As the largest manhunt four states have ever seen mobilizes to catch Beckett, the clock winds down to the terrifying reunion between husband and wife. And Tess knows that this time, her only choices are to kill—or be killed.” Honestly, I read this because I had nothing else to read. And it was ok. It definitely had some suspense, but it wasn’t the kind of book that I felt like I couldn’t put down. I do enjoy the way that Lisa Gardner writes the evil psycho killer – I wonder if it takes a certain type of author to write such craziness!
The next book I read was The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver. I recall that I heard good things about this book, but it took me awhile to get through it! Maybe because it is actually literary, unlike the more fluffy books I am used to reading. Or maybe I missed the reviews on Amazon, which aren’t that great. “Noa P. Singleton never spoke a word in her own defense throughout a brief trial that ended with a jury finding her guilty of first-degree murder. Ten years later, having accepted her fate, she sits on death row in a maximum-security penitentiary, just six months away from her execution date. Seemingly out of the blue, she is visited by Marlene Dixon, a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is also the mother of the woman Noa was imprisoned for killing. Marlene tells Noa that she has changed her mind about the death penalty and Noa’s sentence, and will do everything in her considerable power to convince the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison, in return for the one thing Noa is unwilling to trade: her story. Marlene desperately wants Noa to reveal the events that led to her daughter’s death – events that Noa has never shared with a soul. With death looming, Marlene believes that Noa may finally give her the answers she needs, though Noa is far from convinced that Marlene deserves the salvation she alone can deliver. Inextricably linked by murder but with very different goals, Noa and Marlene wrestle with the sentences life itself can impose while they confront the best and worst of what makes us human in this haunting tale of love, anguish, and deception.” I’m not sure what to say about this, other than that it was a slow read with mostly unlikeable characters. The slow reveal of Noa’s character was interesting, but not entirely shocking or meaningful in the end.
The third book I recently finished was Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf. Now this book I liked! “Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship. When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness.” This book has truly likeable characters, including a boy with Cerebral Palsy and his love interest, a boy who has spent time in Juvenile Detention but is probably the least threatening character in the book, and parents who care about their kids – but may show their feelings in a variety of ways. I got involved in the story and really enjoyed the way it unfolded. I even figured out that I enjoy reading while walking on the treadmill!
What have you been reading lately?