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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Wow just wow. This is one clever, devious and perfectly executed mystery and that’s before the game even starts. Then it’s mind blowingly brilliant.
The main narrator is Jemma who is sucked into all the drama because her husband and his friends feel obliged by Lucas. She is on the sidelines looking in so you really get an unbiased perspective. Something happened years ago which I’m not going to mention, not going to say who the victim is either. No spoilers here! But it adds an extra mystery alongside the new one and the game is being played to finally get the answers and draw out the murderer.
All the guests have secrets or are hiding things to protect the people they love but Lucas has always had control over the group, having collected them as teenagers, the poor and the needy. They all feel they owe him in some way.
There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this book so it totally deserves five stars. Great characters, pacing, plot and as the old saying goes enough curiosity to kill a cat but satisfaction brought it back.
Yet again I have read out of order as this is book two but it read as a stand-alone and after loving this I will definitely be reading book one “And so it begins”.
The main narrator is Jemma who is sucked into all the drama because her husband and his friends feel obliged by Lucas. She is on the sidelines looking in so you really get an unbiased perspective. Something happened years ago which I’m not going to mention, not going to say who the victim is either. No spoilers here! But it adds an extra mystery alongside the new one and the game is being played to finally get the answers and draw out the murderer.
All the guests have secrets or are hiding things to protect the people they love but Lucas has always had control over the group, having collected them as teenagers, the poor and the needy. They all feel they owe him in some way.
There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this book so it totally deserves five stars. Great characters, pacing, plot and as the old saying goes enough curiosity to kill a cat but satisfaction brought it back.
Yet again I have read out of order as this is book two but it read as a stand-alone and after loving this I will definitely be reading book one “And so it begins”.
Lucas Jarrett invites his three closest friends to his wedding at his home in Cornwall. The morning of the wedding he discovers the body of his half-sister Alex on a nearby beach. Following the discovery of a video on Alex’s laptop the police in attendance decide that she had committed suicide. A year later and Lucas has invited the same guests to his home to celebrate his first anniversary. After they’ve all arrived he announces that they are to play a game - a murder game - to discover who murdered his sister.
Absolutely loved this book from start to finish. The fact that Lucas was planning a murder game with all the same guests was like something from an Agatha Christie novel. Great read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and Rachel Abbott or the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.
Absolutely loved this book from start to finish. The fact that Lucas was planning a murder game with all the same guests was like something from an Agatha Christie novel. Great read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and Rachel Abbott or the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.
I enjoyed this book but felt it could have been shorter. At 50% it felt like it was at the denouement! Overall, a good read, but a cast list and map would have helped me!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this was my second mystery type of book and i did enjoy it but it didn't meet the top standards for me. the whole book was good but the ending was a real big disappointment for me. i was expecting something more and bigger but the plot twist made me think the author didn't really know how to finish the book and decided to do it the way they did. but other than the ending, it was overall good.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping
It’s the day before Nina and Lucas are due to get married. However, the wedding is cancelled after a tragedy.
The story is told from multiple points of view but it is very easy to follow what is happening. It is also told in dual timeline- present day and a year ago. This book is filled with twists and turns right until the end. The characters are well developed and are multi layered.
This book is amazing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The story is told from multiple points of view but it is very easy to follow what is happening. It is also told in dual timeline- present day and a year ago. This book is filled with twists and turns right until the end. The characters are well developed and are multi layered.
This book is amazing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
I will always have love for typical Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, whodunit premises.
Read this with the hope that it will get me out of my reading slump, and it did. The suspense and mystery keeps me flipping pages after pages. Love the way the author switch from different POVs and let us be an omniscient reader. For a case that spans almost to 75% of the book, the conclusion felt a bit rushed though.
Read this with the hope that it will get me out of my reading slump, and it did. The suspense and mystery keeps me flipping pages after pages. Love the way the author switch from different POVs and let us be an omniscient reader. For a case that spans almost to 75% of the book, the conclusion felt a bit rushed though.
The book was an overall an enjoyable read BUT it was quite slow paced and I do admit I had to skip some pages just to get the final reveal of the supposed "killer",and at the end,I'm not sure if I like how it turned out or not,like the fact that it wasn't actually Alex who died but somebody else or when Jemma chose not to report Nina and Alex for false kidnapping. I am quite shocked at the revealed secrets like the SA that Alex experienced when she was young, Isabel's involvement in Alex's kidnapping or the fact that Matt(Jemma's husband) had sex with Alex when she was 13 and he was like 15 or 16 I think. To be honest when I read the plot of the books,i thought it was going to be in a different way but oh well.
The Invitation Rachel Abbott
Publish Date 4/16/20
In the second novel of the Stephanie King series by Rachel Abbott, the reader is immersed in a creepy, atmospheric, mystery, about the murder of a woman at a seaside mansion.
Synopsis: The mansion is filled with guests for his wedding when Lucas Jarrett discovers the body of his sister hours before he is set to take his vows. With everyone deeply disturbed by the events the wedding doesn’t take place as planned. A year after the wedding was set to occur Lucas invites the same cast of characters back to his home to participate in his search for the person that drowned his sister in a “Murder Game.” It seems every one of Lucas’ friends has a secret and playing his game is the only way to keep their secrets safe.
The first part of this book was slow and hard to get into. The number of characters was confusing and the atmosphere was not well laid out, in my opinion. Luckily, the second part of the novel picked up and filled in the gaps I felt were lacking in the first part of the book. The second half of the book was more cohesive and the characters were easier to follow and understand. The fact that the first part was difficult to follow and get into made this a 3/5 stars for me.
The story was filled with secrets, lies, jealousy, grief, multiple missing people, murder, and kidnapping. There are mentions of rape, alcohol, poisoning and drugs.
Thank you @netgalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
Publish Date 4/16/20
In the second novel of the Stephanie King series by Rachel Abbott, the reader is immersed in a creepy, atmospheric, mystery, about the murder of a woman at a seaside mansion.
Synopsis: The mansion is filled with guests for his wedding when Lucas Jarrett discovers the body of his sister hours before he is set to take his vows. With everyone deeply disturbed by the events the wedding doesn’t take place as planned. A year after the wedding was set to occur Lucas invites the same cast of characters back to his home to participate in his search for the person that drowned his sister in a “Murder Game.” It seems every one of Lucas’ friends has a secret and playing his game is the only way to keep their secrets safe.
The first part of this book was slow and hard to get into. The number of characters was confusing and the atmosphere was not well laid out, in my opinion. Luckily, the second part of the novel picked up and filled in the gaps I felt were lacking in the first part of the book. The second half of the book was more cohesive and the characters were easier to follow and understand. The fact that the first part was difficult to follow and get into made this a 3/5 stars for me.
The story was filled with secrets, lies, jealousy, grief, multiple missing people, murder, and kidnapping. There are mentions of rape, alcohol, poisoning and drugs.
Thank you @netgalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.