Welcome to Litsy!

I had a hard time settling on a book for tonight‘s #hyggehourreadathon because neither of the ones I‘m currently reading was hitting me right. So I picked up something from my shelf and was reading it while waiting for my husband to get home. When he got home, he said let‘s go out for dinner!

I grabbed the tagged book from my library haul that‘s still in the car. However, between eating and chatting and watching baseball I haven‘t opened it yet!

Frank was irking me, did I find him kind of endearing at the end? idk. It was persevering through, it wrapped up nicely, but it was a struggle (Franks attitude towards Abigail in particular, Tammy deserved a throttling a couple times tho). This isn‘t much of a mystery, it‘s family drama with mystery elements. There‘s a huge reveal with no lead up at all & I was stunned, it was a good twist but pointless. Unless the point of the story is just Frank

It‘s very rare that I‘ll have the opportunity to listen to a full 10+ hour audiobook in a 24-hour period. Because I did with this one, I wasn‘t able to overthink anything and I enjoyed it loads. The narration was particularly strong. John Pirhalla did an excellent job as the fish-out-of-water blue collar father of the bride - I‘ll look out for more of his voicework. Apologies for the late review #netgalley - I‘d slept on a fun thriller.

Easy read! Enjoyed the characters. Father/Daughter complicated relationships at their finest. Deception, hard decisions, moral conviction versus paternal love… mild plot twists. Enjoyed this one.

4.5⭐️/5⭐️

Giving up on this one at 13%. It‘s not horrible, it‘s just meh. This is another that I might try again as an audiobook if my library gets a copy. I just need a little more to keep my attention at the moment.

Book 11📚 3⭐️

Hmm…

Nothing overly shocking happened aside from that ONE scene.. IYKYK..👅💦

It was ok. But it‘s no “Hidden Pictures”.

February 1, 2025 My goal was to read 3 books in January (meaning that I finish this book by January 31) but I did not quite finish it when I wanted to. However, since I am only 1 day away from finishing the book, I will consider it as part of my January books. Anyway, I would give this book 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I thought it was okay. It started out slow and took a while for me to figure out who killed Dawn Taggert.

January 30, 2025 On page 195 out of 335. Still wondering where Aiden is and what happened to Dawn Taggert, Linda and Brody's daughter. Gwendolyn was killed and her body was found in a swamp. "Police found xylazine in her suitcase... Some kind of animal tranquilizer used by farmers. But for the girl's sake, Mr. Gardner wants to keep thag information private".

January 28, 2025 Soooo like... is Frank ok? In a literal sense? He seems to be having a chaotic time prior to his daughter getting married. He keeps having bad memories creep up on him. I feel that he needs to relax. Everything will be ok OR will it??? "Brody Taggert was clearly intoxicated. And Gwendolyn just seemed jealous of my daughter's good fortune. Neither one of them could be trusted."

January 26, 2025 Now I am about halfway through. My main questions are: Where is Dawn Taggert? Did Aiden have something to do with her? Where is Aiden? Why didnt show up yet? Did he lie about being with Maggie that night?

January 26, 2025 Now for the mystery of Dawn Taggert. Who was she and did Aiden have anything to do with her? When Aiden, Errol, Frank, and Gerry met up at Ospry Cove to have a drink, Aiden told Frank that he had nothing to do with Dawn's disappearance and that he was with Maggie the whole time. When I read thag, I somehow do not believe him. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO DAWN?

January 26, 2025 (continued) The dad has to sign a privacy doc. Tammy is wondering why he would have to sign something if he is the father of the bride. He then calls Maggie and she tells him to just sign it; but her dad doesnt know what he is signing. Then, they are finally taken to their rooms where their luggage awaits. Abigail goes into her room and screams because she notices a bunch of daddy longlegs. Frank says that she is fine - no worries

January 26, 2025 Oh my! I just realized that there are 5 more days left of January! Where did the time go? Also, I wish the days would go by slower. Anyway, I am on page 107 and so far Maggie, Frank's daughter, and Aiden, Errol and Catherine's son are getting married. Of course, Maggie invites her dad and Aunt Tammy plus Abigail who is a child in foster care to their wedding. Weird things happen once they get to the venue...

January 24, 2025 My third TBR of the month!

3.2025

I keep seeing this book so when it popped up as a skip the line loan, I thought I‘d give it a go. I wish I hadn‘t bothered. It‘s billed as a mystery/thriller, but at the 43% mark, there‘s only the barest hint of a mystery and no thriller whatsoever. It reminds me of Riley Sager, who I can‘t stand. And the characters are actively uninteresting. I get annoyed that books like this get elevated when those that are far better do not.

Franks daughter is getting married to the son of a multi millionaire. All he wants for his daughter is to be happy and be supportive of the upcoming nuptials ever though he‘s been estranged from his daughter for some time. As the wedding day approaches Frank realizes there more to this wedding then he could even dream of. More of a domestic thriller w/o the thrills that highlights the dysfunctional relationship between a father and daughter.

3/5 ⭐️
I enjoyed the book but it wasn‘t memorable.

I did it! Read my 30th BOTM in 2024. This suspense was alright. The main character was hard to like as he was willfully blindful towards a certain person and mean to others. But I liked the setting and atmosphere. 3 stars.

Now turning to a thriller. #currentlyreading

This one was surprising! I could not guess that ending if I tried. But let‘s all be honest, the minute any normal person experienced the spider situation, they would‘ve been GONE lol.

4 Stars • This novel follows Frank Szatowski, who reconnects with his estranged daughter Maggie for her wedding. The event is set at a luxurious estate, where she's marrying Aidan, son of a tech billionaire. Frank feels out of place and grows suspicious of Aidan and his family due to their evasiveness and the locals' hostility. His investigation reveals dark secrets, blending themes of family, class, and the protective instinct of a parent.

November 23, 2024 I checked out Books Inc again and I stumbled upon this book. I love thrillers and I love authors who leave reviews on the back of other authors who write thrillers. So i am like "WHY NOT". I bought this book and I am in love with the cover. The cover caught my attention and I have heard many good things about it ✌?My TBR

I really enjoyed this book. While it is a suspense novel, at its heart it is a tale about parental love and how far we would go to protect our child. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters of Frank and his sister Tammy, but especially loved the addition of Abigail, a smart 10 year old foster child. The story elicited feelings of both distaste and sadness for the characters, broken up by lots of humour. Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the digital ARC. 4.5/5

My November #doublespin ! I was pretty bored with this bored.. a lot of fluff that I didn‘t understand the point of it 🤷🏻‍♀️.. the twist was the best part, but was just ok.. I think a so-do‘s probably being nice.

Starting book #27 of the year.

I found a new artist to listen to while reading.

And I've got the cozy vibes going strong with the purple lights and candles going.

you ever listened to the audio of a book and wondered if your experience would have been equally enjoyable in print? That‘s what happened to me here as narrator, John Pirhalla, captured the essence of Frank Szatowski so perfectly. The good of bad intentions of everyone else paled compared to my hope for Frank‘s satisfaction. I googled this narrator and I‘ve only experienced one other of his 400+narrations!

October 2024 Wrap Up
• The Last One At The Wedding ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• A Sorceress Comes To Call ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Murder At The Royal Ruby ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
• House Of Hunger ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
• Service Model ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
• The Boyfriend ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
• The Daughters‘ War ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
• Made For You ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
• Haunt Sweet Home ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
• Fourteen Days ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Graveyard Shift ⭐️⭐️

“And I‘m sure my hair won‘t do well with all this humidity. But we just gotta show up and be ourselves. What‘s the worst that can happen?”

3.5⭐
While it wasn‘t as good as Hidden Pictures, it was still an interesting tale, although it was a bit peculiar.
The narration by John Pirhalla was excellent.

Well, this one is twisty!

https://reecaspieces.com/2024/10/21/the-last-one-at-the-wedding-by-jason-rekulak...

This was a good, solid thriller. Bonus, it had a few references to my hometown which was really wild! #botm
Book 65 of 2024

Is it just me or was the big twist pretty obvious? It was still a good page turner, though!

I‘m not sure how I feel about this one. I loved the beginning. It really gets you in, and you feel like you know exactly what you‘re getting: a murder-who-dunnit. But then it started getting weird. I was so interested to see how this all wrapped up, and it kept me reading. But then the ending was a big ol‘ UGH!!!

I think I liked it enough to give it 4⭐️. I think. I‘M ALL OVER THE PLACE WITH THIS ONE!

I loved Rekulak‘s debut novel! Here, narrator Frank is a widower, a Gold Circle winning driver for UPS (25 years accident free!) but estranged from his daughter, Maggie. Eager to repair the relationship, Frank‘s behavior when Maggie reaches out after 3 years to tell him she‘s getting married, is a little cringy but his love is clear. But, so is his devotion to doing the right thing which leads him into his own investigation on the wedding weekend!

October #botm are here! Here are my picks. And I won a hat for finishing 15 BOTM books this year.

I took too long to read Hidden Pictures. If you haven‘t yet … pick it up!! So when I started listening to this book I was thinking it was gonna be good but I got carried away & finished it in 1 sitting!

A dad, Frank tells this story. The book opens with him being sad that his wife has passed and his estranged daughter Maggie is contacting him for the first time in a long while to invite him to her wedding.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 👇🏻

SO EXCITED FOR THIS! 🎉🎉🎉

Reading an advance copy. Too early to comment. On page 59. @ShyBookOwl
#FirstLineFridays

Read an advanced manuscript of the new Jason Rekulak and it was so good! The rich seem to always get away with everything and this explores that further as a widowed father tries to protect his estranged daughter who is marrying into a tech-billionaire family. The foster child Abigail was my favorite character and I love how her storyline develops.
A strong thriller I finished in a few days. The ending is a bit abrupt but it does answer it all.