You (You #1) by Caroline Kepnes

“Lies don’t pave the way to joy,” he says and sometimes he reminds me of a rabbi and I can’t believe I used to think that you had sex with him. “And, if there’s anything I’ve learned in almost fifty years on this planet, it’s this: If you don’t start with crazy, crazy love, the kind of love that Van Morrison sings about, then you don’t have a shot to go the distance. Love’s a marathon, Danny, not a sprint.”

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

"I didn’t go to college, Beck, so I don’t waste my adulthood trying to recapture my time in college. I’m not a soft motherfucker who never had the guts to live life right now, as is."

Umm, no wonder why so many women have trust issues these days! This was a seriously disturbingly good story, but maybe not one that the weak hearted would enjoy as much. 

I think most people will admit to checking the Facebook / instagram / twitter feed of an ex or new crush, but this is taking it to a whole new level!

Even though Joe is clearly crazy (actually, after reading the Psychopath test recently, I feel I can confidently diagnose him as a true Psychopath), he does raise some valid points about society these days. And Beck is one beautiful disaster herself! They really should be perfect for each other...if only they weren't so self-indulged, damaged and mentally unstable their love story might actually be romantic!

They were definitely messed up, but these were some of the better sex scenes I've read in a book. They were graphic but I didn't feel like I was reading a porno mag, and they weren't as cringe-worthy or predictable as other 'romance' novels (*cough* rhymes with Nifty Shrades of Lay)

Read my review on Goodreads

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

“Some people stay broken. Some pick up the pieces and put them back together with all the sharp edges showing.”

Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...

I am going to have a serious book-hangover from this one! I was hooked from the first couple of pages, and I devoured it in about 24 hours.

The writing was so detailed that I could easily  picture myself in The Garden surrounded by the other butterflies (NOOOO, thank you!) but the surprising thing was that I was more enthralled than disgusted by the disturbing topic, purely due to the way it was written.

All of the characters were spot on with the parts they played, and Inara was the best of all. Strong and fiesta but refreshingly intelligent in all ways. 

I want to go back and read it again.

Read my review on Goodreads

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift — an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume" — the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

“And even knowing that to possess that scent he must pay the terrible price of losing it again, the very possession and the loss seemed to him more desirable than a prosaic renunciation of both. For he had renounced things all his life. But never once had he possessed and lost.” 

This book was not what I was expecting at all - in both a positive and negative way. The experience of this book was like wearing a good perfume, the beginning was strong and intoxicating, the middle faded and became bland, then the ending was refreshed with a new application and it became even stronger.

For a story about a murderer, it took a long time for the actual murderer part to set in - I almost gave up, especially as the middle part was so slow and boring. To be fair though, this was a very beautifully written story, even the slow parts. 

The ending was really good - it tied everything together and made the story complete, although it was also not without its strange parts too...

I'm glad I read this classic novel.

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith (Pseudonym), J.K. Rowling

Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

I found this book just as hard to put down as The Cuckoo's Calling. The subject was quite gory at times but it was so cleverly written that it didn't phase me or seem out of place at all. It so easy to get immersed in what was happening that I felt like I was travelling around London.  

The only thing that I found negative was that the references back to the first book were slightly irritating. I understand why they were there, but it still got annoying. I did like the book quotes at the top of each new chapter though.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories. 

Its interesting what sort of assumptions we make about other peoples lives, just based on little pieces of information we see or overhear. This book is a perfect example of that, and how those assumptions can protects us, or get us in to trouble.

This story had a great pace, was easy to read and suspenseful, although I wasn't completely shocked by the ending. 

The characters were well written and they evolved really well once more of the detail came out.

A great read and one that wasn't easy to put down. 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer? 
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

For me, this book was very unpredictable - it moved so fast I didn't even really have time to guess what was going to happen, and I loved that it kept it's momentum right to the very last page.

The ending was very ambiguous (particularly the very last paragraph!) which leaves me to think 1) this might have been done deliberately to leave room for a sequel???! or 2) just goes to show that Amy's and her scheming, manipulative, overactive mind hasn't changed at all. I loved that it was left with a big question mark at the end to keep you thinking, rather than tying everything up with a neat little bow. 

I can't wait to go see the movie now to see how it plays out on screen.

Conquering Darkness - A Memoir of the Serial Killer's Wife by Crystal Reshawn Choyce-Lige and Alice M Swafford

Conquering Darkness, Memoir of the Serial Killer’s Wife is a painfully candid account of the lives of two black people who grew up together in West Oakland, California. Their story, would, in a few aspects, mirror the simple plot of “boy meets girl.” Everybody knows that story—right? Boy meets girl; they fall in love and live happily ever after. However, the lives of Alice Marie Swafford and William Jennings Choyce were woven together by the threads of early parental abandonment and gross parental abuse that came creeping in from their past. Alice’s father abandoned her at the delicate age of five. That early experience filled her with an insecurity she could not shake; this, in turn, gave birth to a fragile and emotional state of mind which made Alice desperate to find a man to replace her father and the love he gave to her. William, on the other hand, grew up with both his parents in the home, but he was emotionally and physically abused by his mother. He desperately struggled to love and to please her— but to no avail. William’s misguided search for love would take him on an ill-fated journey with all kinds of dark psychological twists and turns that ruptured his childhood and split his adult mind down the middle; one side was good, and one side was pure evil. This journey started, unbeknownst to Alice, long before she joined William in marriage.

But how would the young Alice know who she was really dealing with? It would take decades for her to truly understand that question. More importantly, how would Alice ever understand who she was and is now?

This memoir, written by Alice and her daughter, Crystal Choyce-Lige, provides an up close and honest retrospective account of what life was like with a budding serial rapist and serial murderer who flew under the radar of his family and law enforcement for decades. How? He was very, very clever and cunning. All the while he was playing the part of husband and father; he was also leaving the house every night for his well thought out and stakeouts to lure and prey upon the most vulnerable people in our society. The essential questions asked and then answered are: How and why could this nightmare happen and then last for so long? Why couldn’t Alice see what was right in front of her? The answers will enlighten as well as surprise those who embark upon the riveting adventure of reading this book.

I found this book really fascinating, and that is hard to say considering the subject of the book is the rape and murder of women. I find it so fascinating because I ask myself the question (as Alice does also throughout the book) "How could she not know?", and "Why did she stay with him so long?" Although she touches on her answer to these questions throughout the book, particularly towards the ending, I would have liked to see more of their normal day-to-day lives so I could understand the answers myself. I know she says he was charismatic and a chameleon, but I felt we were given so much information of his abusive and erratic side that I sometimes found it a little hard to swallow that anyone could actually stay with him for so long.

The story itself is an inspiration and I would recommend it to all women to read. It is an uncomfortable topic but thankfully we are spared from too much graphic detail - especially when compared to the graphic nature of some of the modern movies anyway.

The book reads well, and I have seen some reviews saying that it could use with some tidying up from an editor, but I honestly think that it is fine just the way it is, and the fact that it is so raw and comes across as their own personal diary adds to its authenticity.

I sincerely hope that Alice and Crystal have found the peace they so deserve. I will be recommending this book to all my girlfriends.