One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole

Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Alyssa Cole's latest, One of Us Knows. 

Ken has been asleep for six years. Or so it seems. 

Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, though still with no memory of the inciting event, Ken has been dormant for six years while her other headmates have been living life for her. But even they don't know where Ken was all that time. 

When she awakens, on a dock and dressed in a style typical of another identity, she learns she's starting a new job as caretaker at the castle on Kavanaugh Island. But a storm hits straight after her arrival--after she meets members of the island trust she is all too familiar with. 

As she and her alters all try to cope with the situation and figure out the various mysteries they're suddenly facing (where Ken went for so many years; where Della, who took over for much of that time, has gone now; and more strangely, why a castle they've never been to is the exact replica of where they live in Ken's inner mind), they must also survive the storm alongside her ex, a man she assaulted years ago, and the other trust members, in a castle that has it's own strange history on an island locals once believed was home to goblins. 

I absolutely loved this latest from Cole! It's a fantastic modern gothic read!

The POV switches between Ken and her headmates, which I thought was both interesting and handled well. (Cole does thank someone who helped with the DID details.)

Each of the others has a specific role. And part of the story is learning how Ken developed DID in the first place, something neither she or our other POV identities can remember. 

Like I said, this is definitely modern gothic. The house, the rumors of ghosts, being trapped by the storm...all of the basics are there. And Cole does it so freaking well! I read this book in one day and would have read in one sitting had day-to-day life stuff not gotten in the way!

And that's how it felt too. I just could not wait to dive back into this world and find out what secrets were hidden on Kavanaugh island, what ghosts were hiding in the castle, and how Ken and the others would handle it all!

One of Us Knows is out now in the UK and in the US. 

One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Lucy Clarke's latest, One of the Girls!

No one expected Lexi to ever get married. Least of all Lexi herself. But here she is, just weeks away from settling down with Ed. 

But first, her friends have planned an epic hen party to see her off!

Bella, the wild one, planned the whole thing. With the help of her girlfriend, Fen, whose aunt owns a fabulous villa in Greece! Robyn, a single mom, deserves a weekend away in paradise celebrating her best friend. Eleanor, who recently lost her own fiance, is there as Ed's sister, so that Lexi can get to know her better. And finally, Ana, the newest of the bunch, who met Lexi during yoga one day and became fast friends. 

It's to be a weekend of sun, fun, and drinks. Except they're all lying to one another. And at least one of them has ulterior motives in being there. And by the end of the weekend, someone will be dead. 

A beachy thriller that begins with the reader knowing something terrible is coming!

So six women, three of whom have been best friends since they were kids, convene in what is undeniably paradise to party and celebrate the Lexi's upcoming nuptials.  

Lexi, once a backup dancer for various acts—and a verifiable party girl, has traded in her wilder ways for a yoga studio and a steady relationship. And honestly, no one ever expected it. In fact, Lexi swore she'd never get married. Just goes to show what can happen when you meet the right person.

Bella isn't ready to give up her wild ways. In fact, she misses having Lexi along for the ride. And as the self-appointed maid of honor, she's vowed to give that Lexi one final weekend. 

Fen, isn't jazzed about returning to her aunt's villa. Her memories of the place are tainted in a way the even Bella, her own girlfriend, isn't aware of. But she knows that in spite of that, it is the perfect place for a hen weekend. If only it hadn't started out so very badly for her and Bella. 

Robyn hasn't had much time to spend with her old friends for quite a while. As a soon to be divorced single mom, all of her focus and energy has been on her infant son and her job. And having to move back in with her parents while trying to decide what comes next for her and her small family hasn't made things easier. She needs this weekend away. But she can't help feeling guilty. And things have been frosty between her and Bella for some time too. 

Eleanor and Ana are the outsiders. And they both feel it. Eleanor has never quite fit in and the loss of her fiance has made her even more uncomfortable at a hen party of all places. Plus, she can't help but feel that she's only there because Lexi feels obligated to invite her as Ed's sister. 

Ana, meanwhile, is also a single mom. And would never spend her hard earned and should be saved money on a trip to Greece under normal circumstances. But her sister has taken her sullen teen son for the weekend and Lexi really wanted her new friend to be there. 

Together, they all make a bit of an odd group. But they all have one thing in common. Lexi. Which is not to say that all of them are there for exactly the same reasons!

The book begins with the glaring fact that something has gone terribly wrong on this particular party weekend. And it's easy to guess what that something is. But the facts around it are teased and throughout the book as we go back to the beginning and the group's arrival on the fictional island. 

Points of view alternate between all of the women and a mysterious narrator who sprinkles in more clues about what's to come, giving the reader a chance to get to know each of the women and what motivates them as the plot progresses. 

One of the Girls was great fun! A perfect summer read with just the right amount of tension!

One of the Girls is out now in ebook and due out in paperback and hardcover (in the UK) and in hardcover (in the States) later this month. 

The Final Twist by Jeffrey Deaver

Good morning, readers! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Jeffrey Deaver's latest, The Final Twist!

Colter Shaw is on a mission. He was just sixteen when his father died. But in the decade plus since, he's become determined to uncover evidence against BlackBridge—making his father's one time mission his own. Course Colter believes that BlackBridge is responsible not only for decades of crimes, but for his own father's death and his brother's disappearance. 

It all began with a letter. A letter his father left years ago, leading Shaw on a hunt for other clues squirreled away by the man before his death. But as the clues take him from one location to another, Colter himself becomes an inevitable target. Until he gets help from the last person he expected.

It was my fault for not realizing this was the latest in a series. Oops!

The Final Twist apparently picks up immediately after the second book in the series, The Goodbye Man. And there's definitely some character development and back story that you should have in hand before diving into this third Colter Shaw title (book one is The Never Game).

Shaw is something of a private investigator. And he was raised in a family of survivalists. To put it in a very tongue-in-cheek way, he and his family all have a certain set of skills. 

And now he's putting his skills into resolving something that's been hanging over his family for some time. 

While I wish that I had started with book one, and would caution other readers to do so, I will say that this is the kind of book you expect from one of the masters of the genre. With his usual whiplash pacing, tight chapters, and cliffhangers that force you into that just-one-more-chapter mindset that keeps you up all night (a signature of Deaver's style), The Final Twist is sure to please longtime Deaver fans and fans of the series in general. 

The Final Twist is out now in both the UK and here in the States. 

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

Happy Friday! 

Today I'm super excited to be part of the Random Things Tours for Carole Johnstone's debut, Mirrorland!

When her twin sister El goes missing in Scotland, Cat returns to her childhood home certain that her twin is still alive. What she finds there are clues not only to El's fate, but reminders of a past she'd buried long ago.

Mirrorland is an unsettling read about the bond between sisters who've shared deep trauma. 

Throughout their early childhood, El and Cat used their budding imaginations to cope with things that only become clear as the book progresses. 

They live in a creaky old house with their grandfather and their mother, both of whom have temperaments that are as tempestuous as the sea their grandfather once made a living on. 

Each of the rooms in the house has a different theme. There's a clown room,  a jungle room, a princess's tower, and through a secret door in the pantry, there's Mirrorland. 

Mirrorland was their secret and their salvation. 

But Cat left years ago. And now El has disappeared. Cat feels in her soul that her sister is alive, and that feeling is spurred on by notes Cat begins to receive. Notes that hint at El's fate. Notes that bring up memories Cat has long forgotten. 

It quickly becomes clear that Cat has something of a hard time determining the difference between what she remembers as fiction and her very real past. Johnstone's debut is both twisty and disturbing, forcing the reader to face—alongside the main character—a very dark history and the ways in which Cat has coped with that for so long. 

As I said, it's unsettling, to say the least. And parts of the story are quite disturbing as well. But in Cat, and El, Johnstone has built two characters who are complicated and full of depth. Characters who clearly have been through things. 

Johnstone is such an immense talent! The pacing is so exquisitely thought out, and it's really all I could do not to jump ahead just to find out what happened to El and how Cat would come through it all!

Mirrorland is out now in the UK and in the States!

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm super excited to be part of the Random Things Blog Tour for Kate Quinn's latest, The Rose Code. 

WWII is raging on and England is preparing for the worst. The highly classified work that takes place at Bletchley Park is key to winning the war. But what brings together three very different women is also what tears them apart. 

Eight years later, two of them have gotten on with their lives and the third has been institutionalized. They no longer speak to one another, much less consider themselves friends. But when the one who's supposed to have suffered a mental breakdown reaches out, they're brought together once again. 

For over three years, this woman has been living in a sanitarium under a name that's not her own. And it's quite possible she was never supposed to be there in the first place. Because she suspects someone at Bletchley was a spy. And she needs the help of the other two to not only prove it, but to help catch the traitor once and for all. 

Right about the time I snagged an ARC of this one, I'd been thinking about how much I really missed Bletchley Circle, a show that found former codebreakers working together to solve murder mysteries post WWII. And it was fabulous! 

So to say that The Rose Code landed in my lap at the perfect moment isn't an exaggeration!

The book begins in 1947, leading up to the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Osla Kendall, goddaughter to Philip's uncle, has found herself the focus of tabloids like the one she writes for thanks to her own relationship with Philip, which means preparing to attend said wedding is something that requires careful consideration. 

But it's a letter that arrives in the mail that really kicks off the story. 

The letter is in code and it not only leads her to reconnect with someone she thought she'd left firmly in her past, but it takes the story back to Osla's days at Bletchley Park. 

Osla is a society girl, born in Canada and raised in England. And when her mother ships her off to safety during the war, Osla stubbornly returns, determined to get a job doing her part! She's working building planes when she gets a letter ordering her to Bletchley Park for an interview.

It's there that she meets Mab and Beth. 

Mab is the daughter of a single mother, determined to meet a man worthy of marrying. Her goal isn't love, but support and comfort. Enough so that she can secure a better future for her youngest sister. Which is why she scrimped and saved to put herself through secretarial school. And lands an interview at the mysterious Bletchley Park.

Beth is the twenty-four-year-old daughter of Osla and Mab's landlord. A shy woman seemingly meant for spinsterhood and primary caregiver to her domineering mother. But she excels at crosswords, which is why Osla has the idea to put her name forward for a job. 

The three women aren't allowed to speak about their work, even with one another. But they forge a strong bond nonetheless. And they couldn't be more different from one another! But the war and their work are what they have in common. 

The reader learns fairly early on that they no longer speak to one another, but the why plays out over the course of the story. We're brought back to their days just before Bletchley and through their experiences there, alternating with their present time—the days prior to the royal wedding. 

I loved how Quinn built each of the woman, taking time and care to create three very different personalities, while also focusing on the historical aspects of the war and Bletchley Park. I thought the research that must have gone into the book was so well integrated into the story, that even though I'm no expert by any means, I was convinced Quinn was true to the era and the people who would have found themselves at Bletchley. 

The Rose Code is a hefty read, but it doesn't fell like it! It's so easy to get swept away in Osla, Mab, and Beth's stories to begin with that the espionage aspect feels like an added bonus. In short, this is a highly entertaining read perfect for anyone who loves spy fiction, WWII fiction, or even just stories about strong female friendships!