Cheering on a killer has never been this much fun!

Lottie Jones wants to give up the serial killer life. In fact, she's already retired and her days of murder and mayhem are decidedly behind her. But when a journalist arrives at her doorstep and starts poking around, what choice does she have? But soon enough, her life is spinning out of control, and this might just be the thing that finally gets her caught.

Yep, you read that correctly. We're following the story of a serial killer, and she is as formidable as she is elderly. In addition to all the worries of growing old and feeble and trying to figure out how to live her sunset years, Lottie must also contend with her murderous past being dredged up. That should be enough to put anyone into a tizzy, but not Lottie. She remains as cool as a cucumber, just taking care of her business.

I have to say, I was pretty much instantly taken with Lottie. She's interesting and appealing though a bit prickly, and if not for her odd predilections, she could easily pass for a favorite aunt or grandma. I felt compelled to cheer for her, even as she is forced to commit ever more heinous acts to cover for her original ones. I wanted her to succeed, to come out on top, no matter how many people she had to maim to get there, and I definitely give kudos to the author for having achieved such a compelling narrative.

The jaunty vibes in here helped offset what could've been a fairly dark read. Rather than being overly horrific and gritty, this tale had all the hallmarks of a fun and compulsive one. The fact that Lottie is a septuagenarian certainly adds to her appeal, and I appreciated all the carefully added details about what it means to grow old and frail.

Morally gray characters—never mind serial killers—can be a bit hit or miss. It's a fine line to walk between acknowledging the character's reprehensible behavior while also making the reader sympathetic to them and their plight. And when you factor in all the other usual components that go into making a story, it can start to feel like quite the balancing act. But no worries here, because this book somehow got it all just right.

It's been a while since I've read anything by Samantha Downing, but I remember antihero main characters being her signature. In the past, her books have been a bit of a mixed result for me, mainly due to my inability to connect with the main characters. But with this one, I finally feel like every component of the story and all that Downing was trying to accomplish have come to fruition, and it was a resounding success from beginning to end.

My brain is screaming at me to stop this nonsense and retire for good. And I’m trying. I swear I am.

I don't think I've ever read another quite like this gem of a tale, and I don't think you have either. It's definitely worth a gander if you're in a murderous mood and are wanting something unique to satisfy the craving.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

If the world wasn't filled with so many incompetent people, Teddy would have so much more time to concentrate on the important things. Like teaching.

Teddy Crutcher has just been awarded Teacher of the Year, and it is well deserved. He always challenges his students to be the best they can be, even if he has to resort to unconventional methods. After all, isn't that why these students pay so much money to go to Belmont Academy?

Right off the bat, this feels like a compulsive read. It was easy to get sucked into the story and to keep turning the pages. With its short chapters, I felt like I could always read just a few more pages, and the outrageous happenings kept me constantly guessing and surprised.

However, this is definitely a book that prioritizes its shock factor above everything else. In particular, the characters are very thinly sketched, with everyone being some form of crazy, but that is their only real personality trait. As a result, they don't feel fully formed, and I had trouble caring about them. Their crazy actions started to feel random, as if you could swap them between characters and still have the story make the same amount of sense.

Reading this genre can sometimes feel like you're witnessing a race in which books compete to outdo one another in the sheer insanity of their characters and happenings. And because we've seen it all by this point, books have to be ever more outrageous to shock us. And this book definitely deserves to be at the top of that pile.

It's a good one to pick up if you're in the mood for a diversion, and I certainly had fun with it. But with its shallow characterizations and fairly superficial storylines, everything is already starting to blur together only hours after finishing it.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

My Lovely Wife is advertised as a domestic thriller about a married couple who murders to keep their marriage alive. It sounds interesting enough, so sign me up. Except what I got was mostly a domestic drama with no thrills. Boo hiss.

The majority of this book reads like a play of a typical suburban family, starring the couple and their two teenage kids. We are treated to page after page of them getting ready, going to work/school, coming home, cooking and eating dinner, watching tv, and going to sleep. There are lots of teenage drama, angst, rebellion, and technology use. It's all so pedestrian and boring.

This couple has real communication issues between them. Since the story is told from the husband's perspective and the wife does most of the murdering, it's all done off-screen, which means the husband (and we the readers) don't know the details. The husband is curious about what the wife is doing, but for some odd reason, doesn't just come out and ask her. Supposedly this couple murders to keep the spark alive in their relationship, yet the husband is too squeamish to know the details. It doesn't make any sense.

It's also not clear to me why they do this. The book makes some pretty far-fetched jumps to tie a backstory together, but it isn't convincing. In fact, none of the main characters' actions really gel into real people with coherent personalities. They are all rather one-dimensional, with the only distinguishing characteristics being that the parents murder for excitement and their kids go through teenage issues.

It's always a risk to tell a story from an antihero's perspective, and in order for it to be good, the reader has to be able to understand and connect with that person. Unfortunately, I didn't really feel anything from this story. I wasn't excited or thrilled or intrigued. I mostly just read to see what happens in the end, and when I got there, I didn't really feel anything either. Considering how awesome the premise was, it's a shame this book was a solid meh for me.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars