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Mockingbird's Cry (Hera Force #1)
Mockingbird's Cry (Hera Force #1)
Winter Austin | 2021 | Contemporary, Romance, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Powerful thriller

Mockingbird's Cry is full of suspense, intrigue and romance, which makes a good all around read. There's plenty of action to keep you entertained.

Jo, an ex-member of Hera Force (all-female black ops group) is pulled back into the military life (that was ruined by a failed mission) working with Lincoln.... gorgeous, ex co-operative and lover from many moons ago!
    Both are strong and capable, you'd need to be with all the twists, turns and lies that keep getting in their way personally and professionally.
    The way that the two characters interact is well written and I really feel for them. I love how resilient Jo is.
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Guest House in Books

Jun 26, 2022  
The Guest House
The Guest House
Robin Morgan-Bentley | 2022 | Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a compelling and disturbing read and whilst it may be a tad unbelievable and OTT in places, it is enjoyable and rather riveting and has a premise like no other I have read before.

The characters are well developed and whilst you may not like some of them very much, this works well with the story. It is written in the past and present which helps to build the tension and intrigue until the killer twist is revealed.

Recommended to those who enjoy something a little different with plenty of suspense and thanks go to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for enabling me to read The Guest House and to share my thoughts.
  
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Merissa (12358 KP) created a post

Jun 28, 2023  
Almost Him is FREE on Amazon through Saturday!

💙 Spicy Romance
💙 Friends-to-lovers
💙 Emotional
💙 Twists and turns
💙 Suspense

"Sometimes, hope holds us by the throat."
We were teenagers the first time Alden Stokes climbed through my bedroom window.
He was the first boy to hold my hand.
He was my first kiss.
He was my first everything.
The tumultuous years made us into adults while circumstances pushed us apart. Now I've found my way back to the only man I've ever loved.
And I won't let him go.

Amazon US https://amzn.to/3qcKIdV
Amazon CA https://amzn.to/3Qk5SkT
Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3x0UNOS
Amazon AU https://amzn.to/3wZGU3r
Universal https://geni.us/AlmostHim
     
    Companion (2025)

    Companion (2025)

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Movie

    "Companion" (2025) is a sci-fi thriller directed by Drew Hancock. Starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack...

Don't Breathe (2016)
Don't Breathe (2016)
2016 | Crime, Horror, Thriller
Building suspense is considered a difficult task. Alfred Hitchcock was a master of this. You need look no further than the shower scene in Psycho for an example of his work. When a film delivers on suspense it can sometimes take the emphasis off a predictable twist ending. If the audience leaves the screening visibly shaken then a director has done his job.

Don’t Breathe, directed by Fede Alvarez, follows three amatuer burglers, Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette), and the aptly named Money (Daniel Zovatto), who are looking for a big pay day. When they hear about a retired blind war veteran who lives alone, and who may have $300,000 in cash, the trio decide he would make easy prey – how wrong they were.

Rocky is the more cautious of the three, but having grown up in an abusive family she is looking for an escape plan and to take her sister Diddy (Emma Bercovici) to safety with her. This job is a means to an end for that scenario to happen.

If the audience leaves the screening visibly shaken then a director has done his job.

The opening doesn’t offer much other than setting the scene but once the doors are bolted and windows locked it’s game on. Alvarez has a solid understanding of this genre, no matter what you thought of his bloodthirsty Evil Dead remake? In the confines of this house of horrors he is able to let The Blind Man (Stephen Lang) run riot as he attempts to put a stop to the break-in.

There is a sense that Alvarez is toying with his audience, in a bid to starve off the ending. He’s having too much fun. The atmosphere is excruciatingly tense, particularly when The Blind Man levels the playing field in the basement by turning off all the lights. A neat twist in the story tries to create empathy, but it’s a little too late for that and the final act ramps up the suspense to Hitchcockian levels.

Any other person would have dropped the money and looked for a way out as quickly as possible. That is not the case here as each opportunity to escape is met with a roadblock that send the burglars back down a different path. The home invasion horror has been around for a while but done right it can be incredibly effective and in this case Don’t Breathe gets it spot on.
  
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Natalie (23 KP) rated We Were Liars in Books

Nov 13, 2017  
We Were Liars
We Were Liars
Emily Jenkins, Emily Lockhart | 2014 | Children, Thriller, Young Adult (YA)
6
7.6 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
Page-turning suspense (2 more)
Some original narrative techniques
A decent twist
The slowest pacing/build-up I've ever experienced (1 more)
Passive/incomplete characters
A family mystery with a twist
Cadence Sinclair (Cady) comes from a rich, well-to-do family. So well-to-do, in fact, that they have the luxury of vacationing on their own private island every summer. It is this island, Beechwood, that is the heart of Cady’s narrative; the summers she spent there with her childhood companions. The inseparable foursome; Cady, Johnny, Mirren and Gat – affectionately termed ‘the Liars’ – treasure their Beechwood idyll, but when Cady has a mysterious accident during ‘summer fifteen’, the four become divided as Cady searches for the truth.

Though I enjoyed Lockart's technique and style overall and really enjoyed the twist, there were a few hang-ups that I couldn't get over. The suspense is there, but accounts for about 80% of the book, before we get to the substance. I have no problem with a book that is slow-paced in general, but this felt like much of the first two thirds of the book was inconsequential, then we quickly dealt with the nitty-gritty. Furthermore, Cady is so passive that it's frustrating and makes it no wonder that the narrative crawls along - we might get somewhere faster if Cady had any spark about her and could face a confrontation or two. By making Cady herself a writer, Lockhart has opened up a few other interesting techniques to get to know our protagonist better, though they unfortunately fall just short.