In Then She Was Gone, Ellie is the all around golden girl when she disappears without a trace at the age of fifteen. She leaves behind her adoring family, and in particular her mom Laurel, who falls apart with shock and grief following her disappearance. Ten years later, Laurel meets a charming man at a cafe, but his daughter bears the most striking resemblance to Ellie. What follows is the slow unraveling of what really happened to Ellie.

For me, the characters are what really shines and puts this book a cut above the rest in the crowded field of domestic thrillers. The characters are complex and interesting, going through tough times, but learning and emerging stronger. Whereas I find most domestic thrillers to be rather over-the-top, with paranoid characters doing unfathomable things and scaring themselves silly, the characters in this book--their actions and their behaviors--make sense to me. Laurel, in particular, keeps her head and acts calmly, even when evidence starts to appear that some things may not be what they appear. These are characters I can relate to and cheer for.

I did find the actual mystery in this book to be its weakest part. I pretty much figured out the gist of where the book was going early on. But to the honest, that didn't diminish my enjoyment of it. It was still interesting to read the details and see why things happened the way they did. And not focusing on the big mystery allowed me to enjoy the story more for what it was than if I were turning the pages solely for the big reveal, if that makes sense.

I found this book to be riveting and unputdownable from beginning to end. Jewell weaves the most compelling tale with likable and strong characters. This is my first read by Lisa Jewell, and I look forward to checking out more of her books

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

In at the Death brings back amateur detective Mordecai Tremaine, this time investigating the murder of a doctor at a small English village. It has all the makings of a cozy murder mystery, with everyone hiding secrets and red herrings everywhere. The more that Tremaine finds out, the more questions seem to turn up.

And yet, even though the premise is interesting, this book just didn't grab my attention for some reason. The plot felt slow, with too much rehashing and pondering of the same points. All the possible suspects came across as rather bland and uninteresting, and no one really stood out in my mind. I felt like I plodded through this book, even though it all came together in the end and I was surprised by the reveal.

While I've been enjoying the series, this one turned out to be a bit of a dud. If you're interested in checking out the series, I recommend starting with one of the other books instead of this one.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

The Feather Thief tells the true-crime tale of Edwin Rist robbing the British Museum of Natural History of hundreds of irreplaceable bird skins, and the greed, obsession, and twisted logic that had compelled him to do so.

For me, the most interesting part of this book was the discussion on birds and how knowledge about them led to scientific breakthroughs around sexual selection. I also enjoyed learning about what museums do with old bird specimens, and how they contribute to scientific progress.

The book also spends a lot of time covering Edwin's hobby of fly-tying and its community of hobbyists, and I didn't find that very interesting or palatable. The fact that people would pluck feathers from near extinct or protected birds just to tie a fly that they don't even use to fish (many of them don't know how to fish) is wasteful and silly. It was especially hard to read about their cavalier attitudes towards the robbery, explaining away the disappearance of irreplaceable artifacts by asking why museums needed so many of these bird specimens in the first place.

In the end, this book is an interesting tale of an unusual robbery, but my enjoyment of it was curtailed by the greed and attitude of Edwin and his like-minded fly-tying community. I find birds to be fascinating and scientific advancement to be of paramount importance, so it was really hard for me to read about people actively working against that just so they can make trinkets.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

I feel like this book should be titled Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Rude.

Here I thought I was going to be reading a story about a lovable curmudgeon whose heart slowly thaws from the sweet people around her. But that's not Eleanor. Instead, she's mean, rude, and petty. In fact, she's dreadful in all the ways that would make a character unlikable. And since the story is written from her perspective, it was really hard to enjoy it.

We spend so much time in her head as she passes judgement on every single person crossing her way, commenting on their fashion styles, their looks, how they choose to spend their time, and so much more. She's also disparaging when people attempt to make conversations with her, but then she laments how she has no contact with anyone. She doesn't tip and is quick to blame others when she doesn't get the service she wants, even when she's the one who misunderstands.

She talks like she's the queen of holier-than-thou, with big words and obscure references. I understand she's well-read, but where could she possibly have picked up such a pompous style of conversation? And yet she doesn't understand the meaning of "pulled a late night" or how much to tip. I find it hard to believe that she hasn't come across that information in her readings, but she has come across Latin phrases and obscure references.

And herein lies the crux of the issue: Eleanor doesn't ring true to me as a person. She knows both a lot and very little about the same subject. When she talks about emotions and loneliness, she's surprisingly insightful, yet she doesn't realize that they apply to her. She judges alcoholics harshly, but doesn't make the connection to her own alcohol issue. She works in finance, but doesn't know the difference between laptops, desktops, and tablets. She falls for a guy based entirely on his looks, yet goes on about how she hopes he will love her for who she is.

This book does contain some touching and uplifting passages, mostly around Sammy, Raymond, and his mother. These supporting characters warm up their scenes with their sweetness and kind regard for Eleanor. And I found the mysteries around what happened to Eleanor during her younger years to be interesting, although I did see the smallish twist coming.

Since this story completely revolves around Eleanor, finding her character to be frustrating really hampered my ability to enjoy it. However, my experience is an outlier and so many others loved the character and the book, so please don't rule it out just based on my experience.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

While I usually adore Jill Mansell's books, Sheer Mischief fell flat to me. One issue is that, for a good amount of this story, it felt rambling and unfocused. It took about half the book before it became clear to me who would pair up with whom; before that, every pairing was a possibility from the way it was written. I like knowing which couples to cheer for when I'm reading my chick lit, so this really confused me.

I also found the main character Janey to be pitiful and annoying in how she refuses to believe that a good guy could like her. She would turn down dates with them because she feels she isn't good enough and also they would have a better time going out with someone else. Instead, she spends all her time being stubbornly loyal and attracted to guys who treated her badly, while feeling sorry for herself that no one likes her. Puh-lease!

There are still charm and wit in this book that's so typical from the author, and a few of the lines had me bursting out laughing from the humor and well-delivered sarcasm. I'll continue to seek out Jill Mansell's books, but it's a bummer this one turned out to be such a dud.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

Ghosts of the Tsunami is the tale of the human toll that resulted from the powerful 2011 earthquake that rocked Japan and the subsequent tsunami that killed thousands of people. It is told through the eyes of a small town in northern Japan, with a focus on its elementary school and the mystery of what happened there that led to the deaths of 74 students and 10 teachers, when safety was only a few steps away.

I found the story surrounding the elementary school to be fascinating. Parry's writing brings humanity to the suffering and grief of the parents of the schoolchildren as they battle to figure out what happened while trying to move forward with their lives. Parry also includes some background on Japanese culture, including ancestor worship and gaman, which helps to explain some of what happened afterwards and the extra layer of pain the survivors have to contend with.

What I didn't enjoy is the supernatural themes and stories in this book. Even though the book title has the word "ghost" in it, I assumed it was figurative, so having literal ghosts in the story really threw me off. I didn't quite know what to make of those passages, especially the ones of philosophical ramblings with priests. For me, these didn't add anything to the story and I would have preferred if they had been cut out altogether.

Still, this is a worthy read. The story is so moving and heartbreaking, bringing words and humanity to an otherwise unspeakable tragedy. I'm glad I picked it up.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

On the surface, The Wife Between Us seems to be about a jealous ex-wife trying to come between her ex-husband and his new young love. But we are urged to "assume nothing". Well, the problem is, by assuming nothing, I pretty much figured out what the book was about right from the beginning, and that was that.

After that, every plot twist felt like a letdown and nothing really surprised me. Part of the problem is that the book spends a lot of its time trying to hype the reader up about its upcoming reveals and repeating itself multiple times while doing so. If a book is going to go on and on about how good a reveal is, it really needs to deliver, and this book just didn't do that for me.

The other issue is that a lot of the characters' thoughts and actions seem forced and don't really make sense to me. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't do or say or think these things, so it's rather hard for me to relate to the characters. There is one serious issue that the book tries to tackle, and for me, it just didn't do it justice and convince me that someone going through these things would act this way.

And yet, there is a spark to the book that makes it undeniably entertaining. Even though I pretty much knew what was going to happen, I still felt compelled to keep turning the pages until the very end. So while the book wasn't particularly thrilling or mysterious, it did end up being enjoyable, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars