Book Review: "The Boyfriend" by Freida McFadden

Ohh…so now I get all the hype. So many of my thriller-loving friends have said great things about Freida McFadden’s books, so it was time to give one a try. My head is totally spinning!

Sydney wants to find Mr. Right. She can’t endure her friends’ social media posts of their baby bumps and happy families. And if she has to hear her mother tell her that someone else older than her had babies, she might scream.

The dating apps haven’t yielded anything worthwhile. Too many guys who don’t look like their pictures, want her to pay the whole check, or expect her to sleep with them. It’s crazy that she finally meets her dream guy when he rescues her from a dangerous encounter—but he walks away.

When they see each other for a second time, they both know it’s right. Tom is a handsome doctor, he’s generous and kind, and he’s amazing in bed. Sydney definitely could see herself spending the rest of her life with him. But of course, there are some strange things she can’t wrap her mind around.

Apparently there’s a guy who has been dating a number of women from one app, and they’ve wound up dead. But the police can’t seem to track him down. Sydney starts to have her own suspicions, but could she be right? Is she in danger of becoming the next victim?

There’s a lot more to this story that needs to unfold, and lots of twists. I’ll admit I didn’t quite figure things out and McFadden definitely kept me guessing. This is the kind of thriller I enjoy the most—it didn’t slow down for a second!

Book Review: "So Thirsty" by Rachel Harrison

While I (mostly) tend to steer clear of scary books, I do love a vampire novel every once in a while. And Rachel Harrison’s new book is more than just a vampire novel—it’s a story of friendship, taking chances, bravery, and the occasional existential crisis.

“If there is a happy medium between being a resigned, mildly depressed thirty-six-year-old woman with a thankless job and cheating husband, and being an immortal vampire indulging her lust for blood and sex and her desire for love and excitement, it sure would be nice to find it.”

Sloane is going through the motions in her life. She has her routines, her job, her vaguely unsatisfying marriage, but she doesn’t love stepping out of her comfort zone. But when her husband Josh surprises her with a birthday vacation—for her and her best friend Naomi—she’s excited and dreading it simultaneously.

Naomi has always been the risk taker, the unapologetic flirt. She’s been traveling the world with her boyfriend and his band, and she’s starting to hate it. But what she hates even more is seeing Sloane settle for a boring life, avoiding conflict and any inkling of happiness.

Determined to show Sloane a great time on her birthday, she arranges for them to attend a party thrown by a man she met the night before. But this party is everything Sloane hates, and then things go so spectacularly off the rails that the friends are changed forever. Now, however, they have immortality—but their new thirst overrides logical thought.

This is definitely a bit graphic but it’s also thought-provoking and sexy. How far would you go for your best friend?