Bibliophile Amber's Book Reviews

​ Title: Fairytale  Author: Stephen King  Published: June 6, 2023  Published by:  Scribner  Genre: Fantasy/ Horror  Pages: 624 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Review:  I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was! I loved all the references to the psycho house and cujo but this book was good! It kinda felt like reading a tale from Grimm Fairytale books I loved it definitely worth the read! Charlie is like your average teen, he had a tough childhood with his mother passing away suddenly in an accident and his father was an alcoholic. He was walking down the road by the local "Psycho House" with the dog that was once described as "Cujo" when the dog, Radar, was barking trying to get his attention. That was the moment he met Mr. Bowditch and he called 911 for the man who fell off a ladder. While Mr. Bowditch was in the hospital Charlie took care of Radar and Mr. Bowditch's home and eventually became his caregiver when he came home. Then one day in...

​ Title: The Last Word  Author: Gerri Lewis  Expected Publication: February 06, 2024 Publisher: Crooked Lane Books Genre: Cozy Mystery, Mystery  Pages: 304 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review:  This one was a good first installment of a series! I read a lot of cozy mysteries and this one was unique because the main character and sleuth is an obituary writer, which was pretty intriguing!  Our story starts with Winter when an elderly woman calls her and requests Winter to write her obituary before Friday however, at the time of making this request the woman was very alive! So when Winter goes to Mrs. Arlington's estate she finds her at the bottom of the stairs.  Winter is then in the middle of a murder investigation!  Winter then starts investigating because she does not trust one of the cops, Tom, because he is intent on creating a case against her trying to prove she murdered Mrs. Arlington! So with the twist and the turns she slowly starts unraveling ...

​ Title: Infinity Alchemist  Author: Kacen Callender  Published: February 6,2024  Publisher: Macmillan Audio  Genre: Fantasy/ Young Adult  Pages: 400 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Review:  Only the elite are allowed to study Alchemy and Ash is not one of the elite. So he takes a groundskeeper role at the school and studies Alchemy in secret. However, Ramsay Thorne discovers that Ash is studying Alchemy, and while he is convinced he is in big trouble. Ramsay instead asks Ash to help him find the book of source, and Ash agrees. However, once they start on the hunt for the book danger is lurking everywhere and behind every corner. They are met with powerful enemies, even his father and they find an unlikely ally in Ramsay's past.  This is an intriguing read! There are a lot of mixed feelings about this story! I say that because there are several themes in this book such as gender, social class, poverty, and who is ultimately right in the end. While t...

​ Title: Next Of Kin Author: Hannah Bonam-Young  Published: February 6,2024  Published by: Dell Genre: Contemporary Romance  Pages:352 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Review:  Next of Kin is a roommates-to-lovers type of story but it's also very wholesome! I enjoyed it and loved the story!  Chloe was adopted after being in foster care because her mother was a junkie. She thought all of that had been put behind her because she graduated and was working freelance with a hopeful future ahead! However, her life was turned upside down by one phone call. Her birthmother had another baby, and she wanted her to take her instead of the baby going to foster care. Chloe was hesitant but she knew she wanted to have her live with her after seeing the baby in the NICU. So she starts the CPS process but soon finds out that she does not meet the CPS income limits and the social worker tells her about a program that will partner her up with another sibling trying to get cus...

​ Title: Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead  Author: Jenny Hollander  Published: February 6,2024 Published by: Macmillan Audio  Genre: Mystery/Thriller  Pages: 304 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review:  Nine years ago Charlie was in a graduate program in college when there was an incident on Christmas Eve that was quickly called "Scarlett Christmas". She was a witness involved in the incident, however, she doesn't remember it. Then, when she starts to remember she knows she lied to the police and it's eating her alive.  Charlie has remade herself, built her life up from the bottom and she is even engaged to a high profile guy! Then, she fears that everything she has built up will come crumbling down when she hears that another person who was a witness to that night is going to make a movie out of what happened that night. Since Charlie can't remember everything and she thinks she killed someone then everything will come back down and everyone will know the ...

​ Title: The Girl On The News  Author: Elisabeth Carpenter  Publication: January 29,2024  Publisher: Bookouture Audio  Genre: mystery/thriller  Pages: 283 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️  Review:  This one was kinda on the slower side.  This is the story of Jessie who around the anniversary of her childhood best friend's murder starts to experience weird happenings with life and she can't explain what is going on. Jessie was convicted of murdering her friend because her friend's mother saw her screaming over her friend's body and was convicted that she murdered her friend. Jessie after being released changed her name and moved away from her old neighborhood so that she would not be easily recognized and then one day her mother calls her freaking out about a post on social media. The post started with Jessie's daughter being missing from school, while Jessie is freaking out and her mother is freaking out Jessie's daughter is safe and sound. Sadie is a r...

​ Title: The Fury  Author: Alex Michaelides Published: January 16,2024 Publisher: Celadon Books  Genres: Thriller/ Mystery  Pages: 298 pages  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Review:  I loved The Silent Patient and enjoyed his other books so I had a high expectation for this book. However, the pace of the book was rather slow then on top of the slow pace the book had great potential for being an absolute five-star book.  I liked the fact that all of the people were put on an island and that they kind of mixed reality with a tad bit of fantasy. I also loved that he kind of intertwines the characters from previous books into his current works. But, like most thrillers that begin on an island, things take twists and turns and murder happens.  The Author has a way with words that his writing flows and while sometimes it seems that you don't know what going on, you continue because of the flow of his writing. His plot was slow-building and the pace was not exactly wh...