Bibliophile Amber's Book Reviews

Title: Only One Survives Author: Hannah Mary McKinnon Published: July 16, 2024 Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing Genre: Thriller/Mystery/MysteryThriller/Suspense/ Fiction/Horror Pages: 400 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: Wow. Talk about a twisted friendship!  The story starts with an article that was written about the band Bittersweet and how Vienna was arrested at a memorial for a band member. Then, how the whole internet is responding to her being arrested. Vienna and Madison have been friends since High School, when they ended up in the principal's office because of a scuffle between the two in line and when Madison's father was there Vienna took the blame for the whole incident. They had their up and downs in their friendship, but Madison is the rich girl who rebels against her parents, and Vienna is the poor girl with an alcoholic mother and creepy stepfather. The only reason that Vienna doesn't leave is because her Grandmother lives in the house with them. Then,

Title: I Witnessed The Lizzie Borden Story Author: Jeramey Kraatz Illustrator: Crystal Jayme Expected Publication: March 18,2025 Publisher: Harper Alley Genre: Historical Fiction/ Graphic Novels/ Crime Fiction/ YA Pages: 208 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: When I saw the title, I knew I had to check this one out! I've always loved true crime, and this is one of those mysteries. We will never know what happened that day; we can only speculate on what we thought happened.  The author did a spectacular job of mixing the story with the historical facts, adding quotes from the testimony at the trial. The neighbor Charlie is in the middle of the whole deal especially when he visits her in the beginning showing Lizzie her birds and tending to them carefully. Then, when her father kills the birds the household except for Lizzie gets sick.  I enjoyed Charlie's sleuth-like activities with his notebook and following the mysterious person into the wooded area. I feel like the author and the

Title: The Haunting of Moscow House Author: Olesya Salnikova Gilmore Published: September 3,2024 Publisher: Berkley Genre: Horror/Historical Fiction Pages: 384 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: I loved the mixture of history and horror in this one! I loved how the author wrote the history and then splashed it periodically with ghost sightings, making the characters think they were going crazy. This is an interesting story and it was a pretty quick read!  The author beautifully connected the rather complex period of 1920s Russia, and how the sisters were navigating through it very well, and then adding the ghost sightings was epic! Very eerie feeling!  The main characters Lili and Irina Goliteva tired of seeing one of their sons and little cousins starving to death decide to go work with the Americans to try to bring food to the table. Then while you are rooting for the two sisters, they are trying to protect the loved ones they have left while trying to make it out of the situation alive

Title: The Shadows Rule All Author: Abigail Owen Published: November 12,2024 Published by: RB Media Genre: Fantasy/Romance/YA/Magic Pages: 512 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: Wow, soo good! I love the way this author writes! I did make a mistake though, I did not realize when I started reading this book that it was part of a series. So while the book did make sense I think I would have done better with the storyline if I had started with the first book.  Showing an abundance of love and determination this book makes your heart bleed. You feel for the characters through their faith and hope as they trudge on. Meren is prepared to stand and fight, she's prepared for it. She must fight for her life, and she's giving it everything she has! I hated seeing Meren going through everything she did, seeing the person she loved the most being ripped away from her was tough! This was epic and I now have the whole series on my TBR because I want to know the history!  I was given the audioboo

Title: Trouble in Queenstown Author: Delia Pitts Published: July 16,2024 Publisher: Minotaur Books Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Detective Pages: 311 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: Wow! This was a wild ride but it was AWESOME!  After a tragedy, a campus officer Vanity turned in her gun, and leaving the force she decided to be a Private Detective. The mayor's nephew Leo hires Vanity because he thinks his wife, Ivy is being stalked. She does her job and on the day that she is supposed to give her report, Leo calls saying he is sick and asks her to deliver the report to his house. When Vanity arrives at the house police officers are going into the house and Ivy is found severely injured and unresponsive along with the man he swears that was stalking his wife is found dead as well. Soon after the news that Ivy passed away on the table, and the investigation is short and determined that Leo was justified in killing the stalker and the stalker was the one who ultimately murdered Leo's wi

Title: The Last One At The Wedding Author: Jason Rekulak Published: October 8,2024 Publisher: Flatiron Books Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Horror/Suspense/Mystery Thriller Pages: 352 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: This was a rollercoaster.  After reading his first book Hidden Pictures, I knew I had to grab his next book. While this is a completely different thriller, I liked it.  Frank is a UPS driver, he also is estranged from his daughter and has been for years. When his daughter called him out of the blue, he was excited to hear from her. Maggie called him to let him know that she was getting married. Frank was surprised, to say the least, but then Maggie invited him to meet her fiancée and to have dinner. At the dinner, he finds out Aidan is the son of a wealthy tech guy, and Aidan isn't very welcoming and does not seem happy at the dinner. Frank is suspicious, and he shares those suspicions with Maggie however by doing so he brings friction between himself and his daughter. Even aft