The Girl in the Woods by Camilla Lackberg

 

Synopsis :

A MISSING CHILD…
When a four-year-old girl disappears from in the woods just outside Fjällbacka, the community is horror-struck. Thirty years ago, a young girl went missing from the exact same spot, and was later discovered, murdered.

A MURDER…
Back then, two teenage girls were found guilty of the killing. Could it really be a coincidence that one of the girls – now a world-famous actress – has just returned to Fjällbacka? Detective Patrik Hedström starts investigating, with his fearless wife, Erica Falck, by his side.

A TRUTH BURIED LONG AGO…
But as Patrik and Erica dig deeper, the truth becomes ever murkier. For centuries ago, a woman burned at the stake for witchcraft cursed the Fjällbacka families who accused her, and now it seems the past may be coming back to haunt them…

This is what I say :

This is the tenth title in the universe of Erika and Patrik of Fjallbacka.  I am happy to share that I have read all ten titles and the crime thrillers by Camilla Lackberg are all very good.  They are well written with just enough excitement and also give an opportunity to sleuth out the killer(s).

However, in The Girls in the Woods, it got a bit confusing at times and the back story of yesteryear do not really linked to the current timeline story.  The author try to justify the linkage at the final chapter but I find it rather vague. I mean she can use almost any backstory and it might have worked equally well.  If she had only linked it in earlier chapters and elaborate on it, I feel it might have worked better.  I always loved all this back stories from yesteryear from Camilla so this time round, I am super disappointed.

I also do not know her intention with the story on the refuge (maybe she just want to highlight the plight of refuges) but I can't find the connection to the story and it could have been omitted totally.

Having said that, it was a good story anyhow. It wasn't the best but it was still nice.

I think at this point, there are no other new titles under the Fjallbacka series. By the way, all her titles under this universe are stand alone titles and you can just read them independently.  However, you might then get confuse on the development of the personal stories of the regular characters  but that's quite ok. 

I will be checking out Camilla's other titles which is independent of this series soon. Stay tune!

Forever In Blue (The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood) by Ann Brashares

 

Synopsis :

With unraveled embroidery and fraying hems, the Traveling Pants are back for one last, glorious summer.

Lena: Immerses herself in her painting and an intoxicating summer fling, fearing that the moment she forgets about Kostos will be the moment she sees him again.

Carmen: Falls under the spell of a sophisticated college friend for whom a theatrical role means everything and the heritage of the Pants means nothing.

Bridget: Joins a dig for an ancient city on the coast of Turkey and discovers that her archaeology professor is available in every way except one.

Tibby: Leaves behind someone she loves, wrongly believing he will stay where she has left him.

Join Ann Brashares's beloved sisterhood once again in a dazzling, fearless novel. It's a summer that will forever change the lives of Lena, Carmen, Bee, and Tibby, here and now, past and future, together and apart.

This is what I say :

At one point in my reading habits, I felt like collecting all the titles in the Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants Series just because.  And I want to purchase them second hand and they have to be in pristine condition.

I started with the fourth book because it's the only copy that fitted my conditions.  For a while, I will faithfully be on a lookout for the other titles but after a while I got bored and I ended up with just this sole copy and the last book of the series.

Having spent the past few years living in my bedroom shelf (yes, I have a a book shelf in my bedroom, I have a couple in the study room and I have one in the main hall. Don't judge me.)  I just felt like giving it a read to see if I can just read this last story without knowing the earlier stories.

It was doable.  It will not be the ideal thing to do if you happen to be emotionally invested in the characters but since I was not and with totally no expectations, Forever in Blue was a rather ok read.

It is the last book in the series and the girls are more grown and more matured in their thinking and in dealing with lives.  There are characters who popped out for a while (must be from the other titles) probably to give everything a closure.

It would be advisable for you  to read from the first title, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants which was made into a motion picture and then progress on from there for different reading experience.

Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern

 

Synopsis :

How can you know someone you’ve never met?

Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn't. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair.

Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It's the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time.

When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of déjà vu is overwhelming her and she can't figure out why … 

This is what I say :

Cecelia Ahern delivers when it comes to interesting and unexpected whimsical plot.  Thanks for the Memories is no difference.  There's something magical in what she wrote and I meant that literally and figuratively.  That's her magic formula I think, to take something ordinary like blood donation (in this case) and something simple like missing socks in A Place Called Here and turn it into something magical through her writing.

Joyce and Justin never really met except for a short while  in the har saloon but the story is about them and they only met like towards the end of the story.  I can't say I really like the plot.  I would have like it better if he know how she felt and what she went through instead of just her knowing how he felt and what he went through.  I also didn't like it when he didn't turn up for the opera and went to the dinner date instead.  I didn't like it when he told her off on the phone and left her feeling sad (even though he made up for it.).

It's not my favourite title out of Cecelia's titles that I have read over the years but it's not the worst either.

The Ice Child by Camilla Lackberg

 

Synopsis :

SEE NO EVIL
It’s January in the peaceful seaside resort of Fjällbacka. A semi-naked girl wanders through the woods in freezing cold weather. When she finally reaches the road, a car comes out of nowhere. It doesn’t manage to stop.

HEAR NO EVIL
The victim, a girl who went missing four months ago, has been subjected to unimaginably brutal treatment – and Detective Patrik Hedström suspects this is just the start.

SPEAK NO EVIL
The police soon discover that three other girls are missing from nearby towns, but there are no fresh leads. And when Patrik’s wife stumbles across a link to an old murder case, the detective is forced to see his investigation in a whole new light. 

This is what I say :

First of all, it wasn't really a young child that was described in sypnosis above and as shown in the cover image.  It was a girl, a teenage girl and the title The Ice Child...I have a feeling it wasn't referring to her but to the child of years ago.

That musing aside, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Ice Child.  I read it over the weekend when I was quarantined at home awaiting the result of a family member who came in contact with a covid positive person.  Thank God the family member was cleared of covid and while it was a stressful weekend, it was good to direct the tension into the book.

This is the 9th installment in the series of Erika and Patrik, wife's a nosy writer and husband's a police investigator extraordinaire and as both are good in getting cases solved.  This happened months after the incidents of Buried Angels .

Camilla Lackberg is just amazing in her plot development and I think this is a winner too.  She is just so good in lacing all characters and different plots together and then at the end of the book, even right up to the last chapter, she would throw a whammy that causes one to recoil back in surprise and in the book, she did just that when we are least expecting it.  

I thoroughly enjoyed The Ice Child.  Next is The Girl In The Woods.  Let me take a breather and be back with that review soon.

In the meantime, stay safe.

Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg

 

Synopsis :

Easter, 1974. A family vanishes without a trace from the island of Valö outside of Fjällbacka. The dinner table has been exquisitely set, but everyone except the one year-old daughter Ebba is gone. Are they victims of a crime or have they voluntarily disappeared?

Years later Ebba returns to the island and the old summer camp where her father ruled a boarding school with an iron hand. She and her husband Marten have recently lost their three year-old son, and in an attempt to overcome their grief they have decided to renovate the house and open a B&B.

They've barely settled in before they are subjected to an attempt of arson. And when they begin to remove the floor boards in the dining room, they find dried blood underneath ... 

This is what I say :

First of all, just to be clear, there's another title for this book which is The Angelmaker's Wife.  Also readers must be aware that the author is Swedish and this title was originally written in Swedish and subsequently translated to English.  Also, Although this is an independent title/story, it is the eighth book in the universe of Erica and Patrik.  As such, there's no so much character development to some of the main characters in the books especially friends, families and colleagues of Erica and Patrik as their background story would have been told over the other seven earlier titles.

I last read the earlier titles was when I kinda marathon over the titles over a few months about two years ago.  They were physical paper-bag version which I have since passed them onto a friend who also enjoys what Camilla writes.

I read Buried Angels and the subsequent titles The Ice Child as an e-book through my mobile devises.  I read Buried Angels over the weekend and took me about four days to finish all the chapters.  Camilla just gets better and better and while The Lost Boy will be my favourite title, Buried Angels is not far behind.  

As usual, Camilla surprised me plot and while certain storyline was quite easy to guess, especially on who 'G' was, the other storyline was quite unexpected.  I was quite exasperate with Erica as she can be over zealous in her curiosity and put herself and others in danger.  

All in all, it was a great re-introduction back to the work produced by Camilla Lackburg.

Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) by Sarah J Maas

 

Synopsis :

Aelin Galathynius has vowed to save her people ― but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. The knowledge that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, but her resolve is unraveling with each passing day…

With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

This is what I say :

Finally I reached the last book/title in the series.  A reading journey that took me almost 3 years starting with the first title Throne of Glass in November 2018 and ends with Kingdom of Ash in July 2021.

I didn't know what I was in for when I starting this series but I must say it's been an interesting reading journey, one which I really like.

Aelin started off as a thief and an assassin, going by the name Caleana Sardothien and by the series progress, she's Queen Aelin Galathynius.  There's more of her adventures in about six novellas about her time as a thief and assassin but I haven't read those yet.

It's not the perfect series. There are non and at times I really do not like some of the characters (even the good one and even the queen, there are moments which I think she's rather silly) but generally it was a good series.  I didn't like all the hype with the wyrdkeys but in the end, it's like misused in the hands of Aelin.

I didn't think much of Manon Blackbeak and the Thirteen at the earlier part of the series and kinda skip over them but surprisingly Manon became my favorite character towards the later part of the series and yes, the yielding of the thirteen was a very sad part in the book.

Lorcan and Elide became my favorite couple and Lysandra became my favorite hero together with King Dorian Havillaird.

Anyway, am glad I completed the series.

Goodbye Aelin and Rowan, Manon and Dorian, Lysandra and Aedion, Lorcan and Elide, Chaol and Yrene, Nesryn and Sartaq. 

The Year I Met You by Cecelia Ahern

Synopsis :

Jasmine know two things: one, she loves her vulnerable sister unconditionally, and will fight to the death to protect her from anyone who upsets her. Two, she's only ever been good at one thing – her job helping business start-ups.

So when she’s sacked and put on gardening leave, Jasmine realises that she has nothing else to fill her life. Insomnia keeps her staring out of her bedroom window, and she finds herself watching the antics of her neighbour, shock jock Matt, with more than a casual eye. Matt is also taking a forced leave of absence from work, after one of his controversial chat shows went too far…

Jasmine has every reason to dislike Matt, and the feeling appears to be mutual. But not everything is as it seems, and soon Jasmine and Matt are forced to think again… 

This is what I say :

Hello. I am back. Finally with a title that took me 1 month to read this.  I could have read in within a week but it took me 1 month as I wasn't as committed to reading as previously.  I am however, slowing picking up my pace.

The Year I Met You is a rather quaint title.  I quite expect that from Cecelia Ahern as she does write stories that are no the run of mill but in her own way.  If you are expecting this to be a love story between Jasmine and Matt, you will be quite disappointed.  However, there is a connection between Jasmine and Matt that's rather endearing and perhaps in another time and at another place and in the hands of another author, the story could have run differently.

The story span over four seasons starting with Winter and ends with Fall and the changes the Jasmine and Matt faces and encounter from being neighborhood strangers to rather neighborly friends.

If you are expecting plots, there's really none.  It's just a view of the lives of two rather lost individuals dealing with something they have never dealt with in their lives and learning about themselves and about each other along the way.

I didn't like it while reading it but only like it after I read it.