Little Darlings by Melanie Golding

Title: Little Darlings 
Author: Melanie Golding

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Release Date: April 30, 2019

“Mother knows best” takes on a sinister new meaning in this unsettling thriller perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.

A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley―to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.

Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.

Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking―and rechecking―your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

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Little Darlings is a creepy, engaging, hair-raising tale, one which I was happy to review. The addition of the dark fairy folklore regarding twins made this novel so much more sinister.

A new mother's worst nightmare is the premise of Little Darlings.

Lauren Tranter is the new mother of twin boys, Morgan and Riley. She's overwhelmed, experiencing postpartum depression and if that wasn't enough, one of the nights while she's still at the hospital, a young woman with twins wants to exchange/take her babies. Lauren runs away and hides in the bathroom and calls the cops. Of course, no one can find the woman and her babies. They all think it was Lauren hallucinating. She's tired, she was given medications during delivery so the conclusion is that she was imaging the whole event.

DS Jo Harper reviews the report the next morning and something about the event pushes her to meet Lauren and to further investigate it. Jo believes Lauren. She knows something happened to Lauren at the hospital. Sadly, her boss doesn't agree with her and using the police resources is not something he wants to agree on. Jo doesn't want to leave the case and she starts using her own free time to follow some leads.

Then the worst happens. While on an outing with the babies a month after they were born, Lauren falls asleep on a bench and when she wakes up, her babies are gone. Jo is called to help with the kidnapping. She finds the twins but when they returned them to Lauren, she shockingly screams that they're not hers!

I liked both Lauren and DS Jo Harper. It was interesting not knowing if Lauren was imagining it all or if it was real. The folklore at the beginning of every chapter really helps with the eeriness. Jo had her own reasons for investigating the case involving babies and she tried her best to help Lauren.

Little Darlings reads itself. The whole story was spooky. It had my attention from beginning to end. 

I heard this could become a movie. Perfect script for one.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Title: Pretty Girls 

Author: Karin Slaughter 

Publisher: William Morrow

Release Date: September 29, 2015

Twenty years ago Claire Scott's eldest sister, Julia, went missing. No one knew where she went - no note, no body. It was a mystery that was never solved and it tore her family apart.

Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one.

Claire is convinced Julia's disappearance is linked.

But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same...

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I'm sad to say that I must cheat on Will Trent. Will's books have been my favorite until now. Pretty Girls was perfection. The suspense was absolutely killing me. I started the audio on a drive and by the end of the four-hour drive, I had to switch to the book. The audio was not fast enough for me. There were things I wanted to know but I was scared of waiting for. So I did something I never do. I look for spoilers. Sadly for me, the questions I needed an answer for were not in the spoilers I read. 

Pretty Girls has an awesome twist. One I didn't see coming. Smaller twists were also there but I was able to guess them earlier on. Karin Slaughter spindles a story so perfect that you're unable to walk away from it, even for a second. I was glued to it. Nothing was more important than finishing her novel. Karin writes a malevolous psychopath. Such a sordid story that gave me a sour taste in my mouth. There are some scenes involving the psychopath and his victims that were very hard to read.

I hope Karin Slaughter is nice and sweet in real life because her mind is freaking twisted. It was hard to listen to some of the things the masked man does to the women he captures. If I could have skipped those parts, I would have (It's kind of hard to skip parts when you're driving on the interstate).

In Pretty Girls, Karin gives us the story of the Carroll family. We have Sam, the father. We have Helen, the mother and three sisters: Julia, Lydia and Claire. When Julia goes missing in 1991, the family breaks. Sam becomes obsessed with finding his daughter's kidnapper. He's unable to give up and Helen can't watch him self-destruct. She divorces him. Lydia turns to drugs and sex while Claire tries to be perceived as not existent.

Twenty years later, a new girl has gone missing and something happens in Claire's life that forces her to seek Lydia's help. The sisters' relationship has been estranged for many years. What follows is the unraveling of the mystery surrounding Julia's disappearance and a deception so shocking, it will stay in my mind forever. 

Earlier on, I talked about spoilers which I needed to know. Well, if someone is looking for them, I'll post them here:

Sam is killed by Paul. Nolan is a good guy. Adam is not part of it. Paul doesn't rape Lydia. Claire kills Paul. Paul is the masked man.

Pretty Girls was exciting, nail-biting, gruesome, and a terrifying novel. It was hard to read it at times. Yet, I couldn't put it down.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

The Bright Side Of Disaster by Katherine Center

Title: The Bright Side Of Disaster

Author: Katherine Center

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Release Date: Published June 26, 2007

Jenny Harris always expected that she’d fall in love, get married, and have a baby–in that order. Now, very pregnant and not quite married, she actually doesn’t mind that she and her live-in fiancé, Dean, accidentally started their family a little earlier than planned; she’s happy to have so much to look forward to. But Dean–whom Jenny loves enough to overlook his bad facial hair, his smoking habit, and his total commitment to a cheesy cover band–is acting distant, and not in a pre-wedding-jitters kind of way. The night he runs out for cigarettes and just doesn’t come back, he demotes himself from future husband to sperm donor.

And the very next day, Jenny goes into labor.

In the months that follow, Jenny plunges into a life she never anticipated: single motherhood. At least with the sleep deprivation, sore boobs, and fits of crying (both hers and the baby’s), there’s not much time to dwell on her broken heart. And things start looking up. She learns how to do everything one-handed, makes friends in a mommy group, and even manages to give dating tips to her sweet, clueless father–who’s trying to court her sassy mother again, fifteen years after their divorce. She also gets to know a handsome, helpful neighbor–with a knack for soothing babies–who invites her out dancing. But Dean is never far from Jenny’s thoughts or, it turns out, her doorstep, and in the end Jenny must choose between the old life she thought she wanted and the new life she’s been lucky to find.

A spirited debut novel with a terrifically appealing voice, a fantastic sense of humor, and a lot of heart, The Bright Side of Disaster reminds us that sometimes it takes the worst-case scenario to show us the best in everything.

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Continuing with my desire to read everything written by Katherine Center, I had to go back to her beginnings. The Bright Side of Disaster was her first published novel. Although, I do wonder about her Duran Duran fanfic :)

The Bright Side of Disaster is about a young pregnant woman, Jenny Harris. When the story begins, Jenny is staying home waiting for the arrival of her first child. Jenny is sure it's a boy. She's enjoying her pregnancy and she's happy and in love with her fiance, Dean. But her happiness won't last. Dean becomes distant and suddenly one day, he just leaves and never comes back. The day after, Jenny is in labor and all her careful birth planning goes out the window. Being a single mother is not easy. The painful birth, the lack of sleep, the battered nipples, the constant worry about this new life you have created are all things carefully brought in by the author.

There were many things I enjoyed about The Bright Side of Disaster. Katherine Center has a knack for making me smile and sometimes laugh out loud. Her characters can make me quite angry and some I wish I could hurt them physically. Dean was a perfect example. He was simply a bad man. A man who was not happy with his life and who was not mature at all. He thought Jenny was beneath him. He used her and left her high and dry when she was counting on him the most. A despicable man.

I hated that Jenny decided to sleep again with Dean. It was bad enough that she knew he wanted her friend instead of her back when they first met. I was mad enough when she let him stayed at her home but when she slept with him, I was furious. I also didn't like that Jenny decides to hide it from Gardner. He deserved the truth. Starting a relationship with omitted lies is not a good idea.

Other than Dean's parts at the end of the novel, the rest was quite enjoyable. I wished I had seen more of Jenny and Gardner together. Maybe after a year has passed.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

The Lost Husband by Katherine Center

Title: The Lost Husband

Author: Katherine Center

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Release Date: August 1, 2013

"Dear Libby, It occurs to me that you and your two children have been living with your mother for -- Dear Lord! -- two whole years, and I'm writing to see if you'd like to be rescued."

The letter comes out of the blue, and just in time for Libby Moran, who, after the sudden death of her husband, Danny, went to stay with her hypercritical mother. Now her crazy Aunt Jean has offered Libby an escape, a job and a place to live on her farm in the Texas Hill Country. Before she can talk herself out of it, Libby is packing the minivan, grabbing the kids, and hitting the road. 

Life on Aunt Jean's goat farm is both more wonderful and more mysterious than Libby could have imagined. Beyond the animals and the strenuous work, there is quiet, deep, country quiet. But there is also a shaggy, gruff (though purportedly handsome, under all that hair) farm manager with a tragic home life, a formerly famous feed-store clerk who claims she can contact Danny "on the other side," and the eccentric aunt Libby never really knew but who turns out to be exactly what she's been looking for. And despite everything she's lost, Libby soon realizes how much more she's found. Libby hasn't just traded one kind of crazy for another; she may actually have found the place to bring her little family, and herself, back to life.

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“You can’t just wish strength for yourself. Or wisdom. Or resilience. Those things have to be earned.”

Another great novel by Katherine Center!

After reading 3 books by Katherine, I've come to appreciate her writing style. I'm a fan for life.

The heroine of this novel is Libby Moran. She's a widow and has two children, Abby and Theo. Her husband, Danny, passed away three years ago in a motor vehicle accident. Her daughter Abby was hurt during the same accident and she still walks with a limp. Libby still feels residual guilt about his passing. They had an argument the morning before the accident.

For the last year, Libby has been living with her mother. They don't get along and arguments are always present. Then a letter from her aunt arrives. In this letter, her aunt offers her a job at her goat farm and a place to live for her and her children. Libby doesn't think about it twice. She immediately packs their few belongings to start a new chapter in her life and the life of her children.

At the farms, things are different. She has to wake up early to milk the goats. She's dressing in overalls and makeup is a thing of the past. She has to learn to deal with the farm manager, who has a lot of facial hair. Her children are starting a new school and she worries about Abby and her limp. So many changes but at the end of the day, she's happy she made this choice.

The shaggy manager, James O'Connor stole my heart. He was so good to Libby's children. He was sweet and caring. I love all of their interactions.

“That’s not a farm manager,” I said. “That’s Chewbacca.”

The Lost Husband is quite inspirational. It's about family, loss, despair, love, and hope. It's also about moving forward and adapting to changes.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Title: Final Girls

Author: Riley Sager

Publisher: Dutton

Release Date: July 11, 2017

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie-scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

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To Quincy, my glorious sister in survival. I’m here if you ever need to talk.

With so many great reviews, I had Final Girls added to my TBR a while back. I had a break in between ARCs and I thought this was the perfect time to read it.

After finishing it, I can say, I'm in the minority. I thought The Final Girls was predictable and in certain parts, it dragged too. I know a lot of reviewers loved it but I wasn't one of them.

The premise was a good one. You had 3 "final girls". All 3 are survivors of terrible events that changed their lives. We have Lisa Milner (sorority house massacre in Indiana), Samantha Boyd (Nightline Inn), and Quincy (Pine Cottage), our heroine.

Quincy is the sole survivor of the Pine Cottage Murders. In the present, she lives in NYC. She writes her food blog, she's dating Jeff, an attorney and she meets frequently with the cop who saved her, Coop. She deals with her anxiety by using Xanax and alcohol. Then, another survivor, Lisa commits suicide and Samantha Boyd, the only other final girl shows up at her doorstep. Sam is the sole survivor of the Sack Man attack at the Nightlight Inn. Quincy's life spirals down. She's drinking too much, taking more Xanax than usual and leaving her home at ungodly hours to go with Sam who seems to be up to no good.

Quincy spiraling down is one of the main reasons why this didn't work for me. She invites a total stranger into her home. Then, she proceeds to do everything Sam wants her to do without questioning any of it too much. Sam's peer pressure works every single time. Quincy was weak and malleable. More than once, I wished I could scream at her for being so dumb.

The second thing I didn't like is how the book ended. As I mentioned earlier, it was too predictable. The whole time, I was hoping I was wrong so I could be surprised but it was not meant to be.

Lastly, there was a scene that was too unbelievable with regards to police procedure.

After Quincy attacks the man at the park, any good CSI can find Quincy's blood on the victim after she uses her hands to punch him. She was not wearing gloves and her DNA had to be in a database somewhere since she was a victim of a crime.

I think the Final Girls would work great as a movie though. Perfect theme for a slasher movie.

Cliffhanger: No

2.5/5 Fangs

The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves

Title: The Girl He Used to Know

Author: Tracey Garvis Graves 

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date:  April 2, 2019

Annika Rose likes being alone.

She feels lost in social situations, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way - she just can't read people. She prefers the quiet solitude of books or playing chess to being around others.

Apart from Jonathan. She liked being around him, but she hasn't seen him for ten years. Until now that is. And she's not sure he'll want to see her again after what happened all those years ago.

Annika Rose likes being alone.

Except that, actually, she doesn't like being alone at all.

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I went in blind. I didn’t want to know what this book was about. I wanted to be surprised. After all, Tracey Garvis Graves wrote one of my favorite books, On the Island (I'm still waiting for the movie). I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. I truly enjoyed it. I like the characters and the storyline.

When the book begins, it's 2001. The setting is Chicago. To be exact, the supermarket Dominicks. Annika is shopping when she bumps into the only man she loved and lost. The one that got away.

Back in 1991, Jonathan was her first boyfriend. She met him in college, at UIC. He was the first man she trusted with her heart and her love. 

Annika is not like other women. She has problems expressing herself. She has problems recognizing social cues and following them. She's very honest and straightforward which not everyone appreciates. This keeps on getting her into trouble. Luckily, her roommate, Janice is a great friend to her.

From the moment, Jonathan meets Annika. He knows she's special. They met playing chess. Chess club gave him a reason to keep on interacting with her. The more time he spends time with Annika, the more he wants to see her. But, in 1991, things don't end well. 2001 might be the year for second chances and to change their future.   

I love Tracey Garvis Graves' writing. She writes multi-dimensional characters that feel real. In The Girl He Used to Know, she uses a dual POV. She alternates the past (1991) with the present (2001).

It was easy to root for Jonathan. He was considerate, patient and a truly good guy. He always tried to understand Annika. 

Annika was likable and relatable. Her life was not easy. She did the best she could but sometimes things went the wrong way.

I love Jonathan in 1991 but even more in 2001. There was a moment in The Girl He Used to Know that my heart was breaking. I had no idea how things were going to end. I couldn't stop reading it.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

Title: Happiness for Beginners

Author: Katherine Center 

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: March 24, 2015

A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

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I love E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G about Happiness for Beginners! I love the growth of the characters, the theme of the book and the wilderness trip. In my opinion, there was not a single scene that didn’t have a reason to be there. 

I can’t express how in love I’m with Helen and Jake. Their banter was magnificent. Jake was ultra McDreamy in so many ways. From his sense of humor to his nerdiness. From his accomplishments to his fake insecurities. From his confidence to his personal suffering. I LOVE him.

Helen was such an original character. It was easy to identify with her. If she was embarrassed, I felt embarrassed for her. When she was feeling down, I was feeling down. When she learned to look for happiness on a daily basis, it made me think of all the things that made me happy every day. When her heart broke, my heart broke for her. 

What's Happiness for Beginners about?

Helen Carpenter is a 32-year-old teacher. She's had a tough time in the last year since her divorce. As a challenge to improve herself, she has signed up to do a survival trip in the Wyoming mountains. The night before she has to leave, she stops by her brother Duncan's house. He's supposed to petsit for her. She wasn't expecting to find a party going on, her brother nowhere to be found and her brother's best friend, Jake thanking her for driving him to the same survival camp. Here is where I stop telling you more. I would rather you experience this story. I thoroughly enjoy it. I hope this is not the last time we see these characters. Duncan is worth getting his own book.

Having read 3 books by Katherine Center in less than three weeks, I can assure you that I've become a huge fan.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

Blood and Chaos by S.M. Soto

Title: Blood and Chaos 

Series: Chaos #2

Author: S.M. Soto 

We thought the games were over, but they've only just begun... 

She was the puppet. 

He pulled the strings. 

Now the death toll is rising, what could this mean? 

It was all a game. 

Of feelings. 

Of pain. 

Death is just an illusion, or so they say. 

She was just a pawn on a piece of his demented board. But there's only one question left to settle the score…Can dead people really stay dead?

Amazon

Blood and Chaos is the second book in the Chaos series. Deception and Chaos ended in a cliffhanger. The story picks up just where its predecessor finished. 

Sophia has been taken by Finlay. He reveals to her all the planning he did to be able to kidnap her. We learn how deranged he really is. He's unstable and quite crazy. Sophia is devastated and she believes she has lost it all. Although, she feels like she still has a part of Creed with her.

For his part, Creed is going to his mobster family for help. His father Mateo agrees to help him find Sophia but at a price. A price Creed agrees to pay. Anything to find Sophia, the woman he loves.

Will Sophia and Creed reunite? Will Finlay cause trouble for this couple? Will being part of a mobster family scare Sophia away?  Luckily all these questions will be answered in this book. The only problem is that this one also ends in a cliffhanger.

Blood and Chaos had multiple points of views. We have Sophia's, Creed and even Garrett has a small one. There is more action than in Deception and Chaos. There is romance, violence, deceit and danger everywhere. I enjoyed parts of it but other parts of it left me disappointed. I just don't think Sophia's character is realistic. She has been tortured for months, almost sold as a sex slave and later on kidnapped AGAIN. She has been slapped, punched, verbally abused and she doesn't look like a woman who has gone through all of these. She's ready to have a romance and move forward without any issues. Yes, she mentions she can remember everything that happened to her but it doesn't show in the way she behaves.

Cliffhanger: Yes

2.5/5 Fangs

Deception and Chaos by S.M. Soto

Title: Deception and Chaos

Series: Chaos #1

Author: S.M. Soto 

Sophia Cova lived a quiet, normal life, shadowed in sadness after the loss of her parents in a tragic airline accident. With her older brother being her only living relative and her anchor, Sophia is sure she’s destined for a brighter future. But that was until she was taken. 

Stolen from her mundane, orderly life, she was drugged, and woke to every woman’s worst nightmare.

With only four grimy basement walls and a rancid mattress, she loses her sense of time, and preserves what’s left of her dignity by hurtling herself into the safety of her mind. The men, the beatings, they come and go with no reaction, until she hears one word that sends an arctic chill through her body. Sold.

On the eve of Sophia’s bidding, at one of the largest sexual slavery rings in the world, all hell breaks loose in the mansion of horrors. Gunfire and screams erupt all around her, as panic rises. 

Snatched by one monster only to be taken by another, Sophia slowly starts to learn that not everything is as it seems. When secrets unravel, and the twisted game of cat and mouse ensues, The Puppeteer pulls his favorite strings and chaos brews. 

Lives are lost while the clock ticks, and only time will tell who will be killed next…

WARNING: This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious content, strong language, and graphic violence. May contain triggers for abuse victims.

Amazon 

More and more we hear about cases of human trafficking around us. Women and children go missing every day. Taken from their homes and families to never be seen again. We know this evil exists. We know humans are sold as sex slaves so it doesn't surprise me that we see more authors writing their books with this plot in mind. 

Sophia Cova is a 24-year-old woman who after being drugged and kidnapped outside her home, wakes up in a different country. Her new home is a dark basement where strange men speaking a strange language are there to hurt her. Hurt her in ways she didn't realize it was possible. They want to break her. They want to sell her to the highest bidder. But, just when the auction is about to begin, she's rescued by a group of men. 

Creed (Diavolo Sabella) is a mercenary. He and his group of men are working for the American government. Most commonly, their missions end with the bad guys dying at their hands. They will stop at nothing. When their recent mission encounters Sophia, a strange situation presents. Sophia is not an unknown victim. Sophia is the sister of Garrett, one of the men in Creed's team. This will complicate everything, beginning with his attraction to Sophia to knowing someone wants her back.

Deception and Chaos had good characters but I found too much of it quite predictable. I knew who the bad guy was very early on. It didn't surprise me. I also had a problem with how easy Sophia got over being taken and abused. Then, she jumps into a romantic relationship with Creed which she initiates constantly. Someone with her amount of trauma, wouldn't want ANY man close to her. Worse, she's surrounded with multiple deadly big guys and she's completely comfortable with them. 

I'm reading the second book next. I do want to know how the story unfolds.

Cliffhanger: Yes

3/5 Fangs

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

Title: The Girl in Red

Author: Christina Henry

Publisher:  Berkley

Release Date:  June 18, 2019

From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a postapocalyptic take on the perennial classic "Little Red Riding Hood"...about a woman who isn't as defenseless as she seems.

It's not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.

There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there's something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined. 

Red doesn't like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn't about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods....

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"Red was going to be the final girl, the sole survivor of a massacre, just like in horror movies."

In this new post-apocalyptic world, there are three evils. The Cough who's wiping up millions, the unknown and the evil Humans. Or more specifically the evil male humans who would do anything to get a hold of women and children.

Our protagonist goes by the name of Red. Her real name is Cordelia and her mom calls her Delia. Yet, she only responds to Red. As you can guess, she wears a red hoodie. When Red was eight, a car hit her and she lost her leg. She wears a prosthetic leg but she doesn't have time to wallow in self-pity. The accident made her stronger. She becomes a survivor. Her love for horror movies and biology help with her self-preservation. 

A new plague has come over the world. It started with a simple cough. Whoever gets infected, won't survive the virus. Red's plan is to move from their home to the safety of her grandmother's house. She's packed and ready to go. She just needs to convince her parents and her brother Adam to hurry. She knows they are running out of time.

The road to her grandmother's house is full of dangers. Evil men are lurking everywhere. Red won't trust anyone. She's ready to defend herself at any cost. Yet, a greater danger is out there. She can feel it.

The Girl is Red is the retelling of Red Riding Hood. We all know there is a wolf somewhere out there. Red is desperate to seek the comfort of her grandmother's home. Red was not your typical heroine. She knows all the dumb mistakes characters make in the horror movies she has watched and she won't make any of them. Stay together, be patient, avoid the highways, pack the right survival kit, defend yourself ask questions later, don't trust anyone, trust your instincts, all things Red follows are what differentiates her from the rest. Yes, she has weaknesses but not the dumb ones.

As secondary characters go, Sirois is an intriguing one. I wish I had seen more of him. I hope there is a second book to learn more about him. There are so many things that were not explained in The Girl in Red that a sequel is worth it. Even the end felt anticlimactic. Anyway, I hope there is more.

"Good luck to you then, Red Riding Hood."

Cliffhanger: No

3/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.