Nerd Girl Loves Books

3.5 stars rounded up.

This is a solid debut thriller than held my attention and was a quick and easy read. The book is told in present day and nine years prior while the MC, Charlie, was in an elite journalism graduate school. She was a witness to a terrible incident at her school dubbed “Scarlet Christmas”, and has spent the intervening years rebuilding her life and reputation. Now one of her former schoolmates plans to release a buzzy film about the events and she’s determined to stop it so it doesn’t derail her life again.

This is the second book in this fast paced mystery/thriller that can be read as a stand alone. I haven’t read the first book, and while I probably would have enjoyed the book even more had I read it first, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything or had trouble following the story. There was plenty of backstory in the book to fill me in on what happened in book 1.

This is an exciting psychological thriller set at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot’s best friend Eliza died 3 weeks after graduation and Margo blames Eliza’s boyfriend for her death. Margot goes into a deep funk, but ultimately decides to attend the college she and Eliza planned to attend together. Margo spends her freshman year cloistered with her plain jane roommate, never making other friends or participating in social events. The only thing she does notice is Lucy, who is bold and dangerous – and reminds her so much of Eliza.

This is a great sophomore book in the Molly the Maid series. Molly has been promoted to head maid, supervising her former boss. While working an event for a prestigious mystery writer, he drops dead on the tea room floor. It’s believed he was poisoned and everyone is a suspect, including Molly. It doesn’t help that she has a history with the author – he is her grandmother’s former employer. The one that unceremoniously fired her grandmother.

3 stars

This is a twisty suspenseful mystery set amongst the rich and famous. Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. When she discovers one of her inner circle has betrayed her, she invites them to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. She’s hoping to call out the betrayal and let the person squirm before she bans them from her life. While on the island a strong wind storm, called a fury, envelopes the island. The storm is the perfect setting for a mystery – and maybe even an unexpected death.