As we reach the end of yet another year, I thought it would be interesting to see, for myself and for this post, what books I truly enjoyed this year. In this post I am specifically highlighting my favourite stand-alones. Now, I do have to say that I have been very picky with what I have chosen and although there have been many more reads that I have enjoyed, the below are the ones that particularly stand out as being unforgettable reads for me.
My Review: Click Here
What made this one of my favourites for the year was the difficult subject of the story and the way Jodi Picoult, yet again, makes me think about not only the individual character's dilemmas but the bigger picture.
Sage Singer befriends an
old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is
everyone's favourite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike
up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage
for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses... and then he confesses
his darkest secret—he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard.
Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.
What
do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a
truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behaviour?
Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was
wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it
murder, or justice?
My Review: Click Here
Jennifer McMahon has been around for a while now but for some reason I have only just discovered her. Right in the middle of my 'I need to read a lot of thrillers' stage I found this one and loved it!
"The New York Times"
bestselling author of the acclaimed "Island of Lost Girls" and "Promise
Not to Tell" returns with a chilling novel in which the secrets of the
past come back to haunt a group of friends in terrifying ways.
Dismantlement = Freedom
Henry,
Tess, Winnie, and Suz banded together in college to form a group they
called the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their
manifesto--"To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken
apart"--these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a
remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful
vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But
everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in
Suz's death and the others decide to cover it up.
Nearly a decade
later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour's drive from the old
cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers,
but their guilt isn't ready to let them go. When a victim of their past
pranks commits suicide--apparently triggered by a mysterious
Dismantler-style postcard--it sets off a chain of eerie events that
threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old
daughter, Emma.
Is there someone who wants to reveal their
secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die--or has she somehow
found a way back to seek revenge?
Full of white-knuckle tension
with deeply human characters caught in circumstances beyond their
control, Jennifer McMahon's gripping story and spine-tingling plot prove
that she is a master at weaving the fear of the supernatural with the
stark realities of life.
My Review: Click Here
We all know that it is not possible for me to have a favourites post without including a Nicholas Sparks book! As always, such a beautiful read.
#1 New York Times
bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with an emotionally powerful
story of unconditional love, its challenges, its risks and most of all,
its rewards.
At 32, Russell Green has it all: a stunning
wife, a lovable six year-old daughter, a successful career as an
advertising executive and an expansive home in Charlotte. He is living
the dream, and his marriage to the bewitching Vivian is the center of
that. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault
lines are beginning to appear...and no one is more surprised than Russ
when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted turned upside
down. In a matter of months, Russ finds himself without a job or wife,
caring for his young daughter while struggling to adapt to a new and
baffling reality. Throwing himself into the wilderness of single
parenting, Russ embarks on a journey at once terrifying and
rewarding—one that will test his abilities and his emotional resources
beyond anything he ever imagined.
My Review: Click Here
Creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Enough said!
A mutilated body discovered in the woods.
A murderous plan conceived in the past.
A reckoning seventy years in the making . . .
When lawyer Charlie Priest is attacked in his own home by a man
searching for information he claims Priest has, he is drawn into a web
of corruption that has its roots in the last desperate days of World War
Two.
When his attacker is found murdered the next day, Priest
becomes a suspect and the only way to clear his name is to find out
about the mysterious House of Mayfly - a secret society that people will
kill for.
As Priest races to uncover the truth, can he prevent history from repeating itself?
My Review: Click Here
I went into this book having not read or listened to any reviews or read any description of this book. Going in that way, I enjoyed the journey the story took me and was really surprised by the twist at the end.
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
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