A 2019 New Release You HAVE to Read

No Exit by Taylor Adams
     Release Date: 1/15/19
     Read from: Dec 20, 2018- Dec 25, 2018
     Format: Print (BOTM)
     Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

     If you read my last (and first) blog post, Top Books of 2018, 1) you should, and 2) at the end

you'll have seen that I was reading "No Exit" by Taylor Adams while I was typing that blogpost. If I had finished that book before creating that list, that book for sure would've been in the top 5.
     2018 has been the year of literally reading any book that is available to me. It doesn't matter who the author is, what the cover looks like or what the genre or synopsis is, if I need a book and it's in front of me, I'll read it. (Or listen to it.) So when Book of the Month chose is as one of the December picks (will be released mid January 2019- another awesome perk of being a member! Books available to you before they're released to the general public!), I read the synopsis and was instantly drawn in. I'd sampled a few suspense and thriller books this year and had enjoyed them, so if this synopsis drew me in I had to give it a chance. And if I hadn't been writing my last blog post while reading it, I definitely would've finished it within a day or two.
     This book was about Darby, a college student driving home for winter break for the first time by herself. Her mother is about to go into surgery for pancreatic cancer and a snowstorm hits that causes her to be forced to stop at a rest stop. There's no service so she can't contact her sister and she is forced to hunker down for the night with 4 strangers. If that isn't unsettling enough, while Darby was outside searching for service for her phone, she sees what she thinks is the hand of a small child in the back of a contractor's van that belongs to one of the people inside. She isn't sure she's seen what she thought she saw, but when she gets inside she can't stop thinking about it. Just when she's convinced she was probably wrong, during another trip outside, she takes another peak with the flashlight on her iPhone and what she sees can't be mistaken. There IS a child inside that van, and she's locked in a dog cage. What follows is what feels like a never ending night of twist after frightening, dangerous twist.
     I literally could not put this book down. I'm not even kidding. I was glued to these pages. I stayed up way too late two nights and woke up Christmas morning and finished it. Of course I was reading it at night and was absolutely petrified by what happened because it's scary how people can be so messed up and disgusting, and just when you think you can trust someone, you're absolutely wrong.
     One girl stopping at a rest stop in the middle of a snowstorm turned the lives of everyone upside down and threw them to the ground. Every single person thought they were there for a reason that had nothing to do with the others. Little did they know, that night could be the end for them all.
     Unless you don't like being afraid while reading, then you HAVE to read this book. It's a literal page turner. And whether this is your usual genre or not, I can almost guarantee you will not be disappointed. Read this book!!

What I'm reading now:

1) The Line That Held Us by David Joy (library print version)
     Released: 8/14/18
     Started reading: Dec 26, 2018

     This was one of the 5 books selected by Book of the Month in August. I didn't end up choosing
any books that month, just paid to have the credit added to my account for a future month. But for some reason this book has kept coming up in the social media book world, and people seemed to like it pretty well, so I ended up getting it from the library. This is not my typical genre at all. It's categorized as "Appalachian Noir" or "Southern Noir," along with the other books written by this author.
     Right now I'm about halfway through and it's definitely holding my attention. There are 3 main characters at the moment; Darl Moody, Dwayne Brewer and Calvin Hooper. The synopsis tells us that Darl accidentally shoots a Brewer in the woods, and the events that have unfolded somehow, due to a very sick individual who was close to the murdered Brewer, are pretty disturbing I will say. This is definitely not something that would just happen in real life; it's a little implausible, so it's not as scary to me as No Exit but I guess it could. We all know there are sick calculated, no mercy types of people out there. I'm interested to see who's going to come out of this book alive. So far we've lost two people. I expect more murders to come.


2) The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (CD audiobook from the library)
     Released: 4/3/18
     Started listening: Dec 21, 2018
 
     I ended up adding this book to my TBR list because I kept seeing it out there in newsletters and

 book blogs. Like other books, I didn't initially want to give it a chance. It didn't sound all that interesting to me. It seemed too feminist for me and I wasn't sure how much of an actual story it would be after reading reviews. I am never up for anything preachy. But again, I give every book a chance.
     I was at the library picking up The Line That Held us when I saw this one on display so I just grabbed it on impulse. It seemed like a good story to listen to passively in my car while driving to work since I can't easily listen to CD's anywhere else.
     So far I'm not hating it but I'm not loving it. As of now it's on track to be a 3/5 star rating. The characters definitely have development so far, and it's not preachy at all. Feminism is an overall premise though that is borderline too much for me, so we'll see how it goes.


3) The Total Package by Stephanie Evanovich (Overdrive audiobook)
     Released: 3/15/16
     Started listening: Dec 28, 2018

     This one was on my wish list on Overdrive for a while. I eventually put it on hold because I

wanted a potential light read. I'll finish this one much quicker too because I play Overdrive books on my phone so it gets played while I do errands at home and around town as well as driving. I'm not very far into the book right now so I'm not totally sure where it's going. At this second I haven't read the synopsis since I added it to my wish list either, so I'm about to read it now so I can give you guys a little bit of an overview of what this one's about.
     The main character is Tyson Palmer, an ex star quarterback who threw his career away because of bad personal choices. He is given a chance to revive his career when the coach of a badly performing team forces him into treatment and offers him a verbal contract to give him a chance to play again if he brings his team to victory. The romance angle comes in when a media analyst who has nothing but negative things to say about his performance sparks his interest. Little does he know, she's the girl he had a relationship with in college. They're both trying to reach the top, but will they be able to make it work with each other?
     Seeing as this is a romance novel, I'm sure they will. But will the story that gets them there be interesting and hold my attention? We'll see.