riley sager – I'm Fully Booked

Hi! I can’t believe it’s already time for this post! March is quickly coming to an end and we’re about to enter the second quarter of 2021. Where did the time go? Here are some book releases for the months of April, May and June I’m looking forward to!

Release date: April 6th

First of all, look at this COVER! I used to say I hate people and faces on the cover, but there’s been many lovely covers with faces and florals lately that I think I need to retract that statement. House of Hollow is a YA mystery with elements of magical realism, and it sounds bizarre and weird and like a lot of fun. The early reviewers seem to love it, and Melissa Albert is one of them, so I’m sold.

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Release date: April 6th

Another gorgeous book on April 6th is this one. The author said she combined her love of robots, superpowers and Jane Austen to write this book and honestly I don’t think I need anything else. I’ve been loving sci-fi lately and I’m looking forward to this one, because it sounds exciting, unique and like just my kind of a book.

Release date: April 13th

Christina Henry is back with another book which, unsurprisingly is a blend of horror and fantasy. I’ve yet to catch up on her works, but Near the Bone sounds so good, I’m definitely bumping it up on my TBR. The blurb says “A woman trapped on a mountain attempts to survive more than one kind of a monster” and I am hooked already.

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart

Release date: April 20th

Also in April, we’re getting this fantasy debut which is Jamaican-inspired and about witches and revenge. I’ve been dying to pick up a rich and complex YA fantasy, because the genre has been disappointing me lately and I have really high hopes for this one.

Release date: May 4th

I haven’t read The Martian yet, but I’m still very excited for another book by Andy Weir. I know it might not make much sense… Anyway, sci-fi is one of my favourite genres and Project Hail Mary sounds like my kind of a book, because it’s part sci-fi and part mystery, and incredibly high stakes, too, according to the blurb.

Release date: May 6th

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know much about this book at all. What I do know, though, makes me really interested in it. It’s a queer genre defying book about a pregnant teen that is meant to be a harrowing read. That ticks many boxes and sounds intriguing to me.

Release date: May 11th

This one is one of the three sequels I’m excited to get to, and they all release at around the same time, which is unlucky for me… Illusionary is the second installment in a fantasy series by Zoraida Córdova, inspired loosely by the Spanish Inquisition. I gave the first book 4 stars, and really enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to continuing with the series.

Release date: May 13th

Well, technically this releases on April 13th, but the paperback isn’t out until a month later which just so happens to be my birthday! And if that’s not a coincidence enough – it’s also the book I’m anticipating the most. I think The Last Magician series is super underrated for such a fantastic YA blend of fantasy and sci-fi. This is the second last book, I believe, and I am ITCHING to get my hands on it.

Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Release date: May 13th

Also on my birthday we’re getting this new Orbit fantasy release. It kind of gives me Strange the Dreamer vibes because it’s about a scholar trying to find an island that isn’t meant to exist. I’m expecting it to be less whimsical and more of a high fantasy, but either way, it sounds great!

Release date: May 18th

Another highly anticipated sequel, this one to Call Down the Hawk. I love Maggie Stiefbater, I need me some more of Ronan Lynch but… this cover and title are atrocious! Sorry, not sorry.

Release date: May 27th

This one is least like what I tend to read, a mix of historical fiction, contemporary and romance, but Jenkins Reid seem to be the exception to the rule for me. I’ve read her two most recent books and loved them both, so even though I know close to nothing about Malibu Rising, other than it follows 4 siblings and a party, I am really looking forward to picking it up and discovering what the story is about.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Release date: June 1

It’s not a secret that I’ve been on a mystery/thriller kick for a while. This one is a debut, with a premise that is very real and I haven’t seen being written about – it follows two Black girls in publishing. Described as a mix of Get Out and The Devil Wears Prada, it sounds like my kind of a book!

Release date: June 24th

Anthologies are usually a very mixed bag for me, and this is a romance one, but I have a feeling I’ll like it. I love Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone and Angie Thomas, and I’ve read from Ashley Woodfolk, and have Dhonielle Clayton on my TBR, so it’s a very promising lineup. And it seems like it’ll be a great and quick summer read.

Release date: June 29th

Ms. Bayron is back with another retelling this June, and it’s one of The Secret Garden. Even though Cinderella is Dead wasn’t my absolute favourite, there was a lot of things I enjoyed about the book, and I want to give the author another chance. I loved The Secret Garden as a child. And… well. This cover is stunning!

Release date: June 29th

Last but not least we have another mystery/thriller which seems to be on many people’s radar, because Sager is a well known author. This one, I believe, is about a college student Charlie, and Josh, who may or may not be a serial killer, on a long drive together. Sounds great. I don’t need to know more.

Do you see any books already on your TBR?

As always, thank you for reading! Talk soon.

Hi! It’s very late, but I thought I’d hop on here with a review of the fist book I finished this month.

Publication date: July 17th 2017
Publisher: Ebury Press
Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet.
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.
That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy’s doorstep. Blowing through Quincy’s life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa’s death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

Quincy Carpenter is a Final Girl. It’s a name the media gave sole surviviors of massacres – and currently there are three: her, Lisa and Sam. But Quincy’s moved past it… she has a successful blog, an apartment in New York and a stable boyfriend. She remembers nothing from the Pine Cottage massacre, where her friends were slaughtered, and she wants to keep it that way. That is until Lisa dies and Sam shows up at her doorstep.

I don’t know what to think about Final Girls. The premise had me itching to pick up this book. It sounded interesting and messed up and exactly my cup of tea when it comes to thrillers. The execution turned out to be mediocre.

I think I disliked every single character in this book, Sam and Jeff the most. I thought at the start at least Quincy was alright, but I soon changed my mind. She was the most interesting out of all of them and I enjoyed the chapters she narrated, but I grew tired with her behaviour once Sam showed up. No matter how nicely Jeff was painted, he was really the worst boyfriend on the planet and every mention of him was a snooze fest. Sam was frustrating to the point where I needed to put the book down a few times because I just couldn’t stand her.

I was much more interested with the flashbacks from the cottage than most of the main plot. The first third of the book was pretty slow, but the overall mystery made me read on. Figuring out the plot twist is part of the fun for me when reading thrillers, and although I haven’t called the big finale, I figured out more less everything else. It didn’t make me enjoy the book any less, as they made sense. The ending, however, was quite disappointing. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t say much, but I feel like we weren’t shown any of the signs leading up to that reveal, and so it wasn’t entirely believable.

Still, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this book. After the slow start, the pace really picked up and I ended up finishing the two thirds of the novel in one sitting, though not without frustration, which means it couldn’t have been that bad. I think Final Girls is an alright thriller that could’ve been better if the ending was changed or foreshadowed more throughout the story, so I’m giving it a hesitant 3 stars.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Would you recommend any other Riley Sager novels?

Thanks for reading! Until next time.

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Most Anticipated Releases of The Second Quarter of 2021

Final Girls by Riley Sager – A Review