4.5 star

Review: Denial by Beverley McLachlin

When everyone is in denial, how do you find the truth?

Jilly Truitt has made a name for herself as one of the top criminal defense lawyers in the city. Where once she had to take just about any case to keep her firm afloat, now she has her pick—and she picks winners.

So when Joseph Quentin asks her to defend his wife, who has been charged with murdering her own mother in what the media are calling a mercy killing, every instinct tells Jilly to say no. Word on the street is that Vera Quentin is in denial, refusing to admit to the crime and take a lenient plea deal. Quentin is a lawyer’s lawyer, known as the Fixer in legal circles, and if he can’t help his wife, who can?

Against her better judgment, Jilly meets with Vera and reluctantly agrees to take on her case. Call it intuition, call it sympathy, but something about Vera makes Jilly believe she’s telling the truth. Now, she has to prove that in the courtroom against her former mentor turned opponent, prosecutor Cy Kenge—a man who has no qualms about bending the rules.

As the trial approaches, Jilly scrambles to find a crack in the case and stumbles across a dark truth hanging over the Quentin family. But is it enough to prove Vera’s innocence? Or is Jilly in denial herself?

Thrumming with tension, Denial is a riveting thriller about the lengths we will go to for the ones we love and the truths we hold dear.



After reading the first novel in this series, Full Disclosure, I didn’t have the highest of high expectations. Yes, I was still interested in reading the second book in the series by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, but I definitely readied myself for more of the same from the first book. However, I was actually completely blown away by this book. Since when has the second book in the series ever been better than the first?! Overall this was just dramatically better for me, and I do wonder if it was due to the feedback from the first book.

Denial follows our defence lawyer extraordinaire, Jilly Truit, in another set of proceedings once again. As usual, Jilly is fighting the uphill battle, as the case once again seems locked and done. In a locked house, with no alarms tripped, frail and old Olivia Stanton passed away in her sleep from a morphine overdose. The only person in the house at the time? Her daughter, Vera, sleeping soundly upstairs. Vera soundly maintains her innocence, even as the flames of the trial licks at her heels. Just how will Jilly be able to defend her client in such a tough situation?

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4.5 star, YA

ARC Review: Stay With My Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan

From the author of Counting Down with You  and  A Show for Two comes a new YA contemporary about a girl who accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band and falls for the guitarist while secretly trying to make up for her mistake.

Liana Sarkar lives and breathes music, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her A&R coordinator father. Maybe if she succeeds, he’ll finally give her the time of day instead of drowning himself in work to distract from the grief of her mother’s passing.

When Liana accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band, Third Eye, she makes it her mission to steer them towards success—without them discovering her role in their setback. But as she gets closer to Third Eye, especially their enigmatic leader Skyler Moon, it becomes harder to hide the truth.

With both her heart and their futures on the line, will Liana be able to undo the damage she’s caused?



Overall Recommendation:

Stay With My Heart is full of musical references and a romances that sweeps you off your feet. Liana was a well-fleshed out protagonist to sympathize with as she embarks on this secret mission to make the band, Third Eye, into a great success. I loved the realness of her struggles, the songs she connected with, and her growing relationship with each of the boys in the band. The romance was so organic even while the impending blow up over her secrets hangs overhead. I couldn’t put this down, and Tashie has slowly secured a spot as a writer that just gets what I want in a love story.

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4.5 star

Review: Zero Days by Ruth Ware

An adrenaline-fueled thriller that combines Mr. and Mrs. Smith with The Fugitive about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer in this unputdownable and heart-pounding mystery.



As a resident Ruth Ware fan, of course I had to pick up her latest book. With its literal shiny new cover, I just had to read it and I am so glad I did. The last few weren’t my favourite (though they were still good), but I’d say this one really hit the spot and brought my love for her writing back up to the top.

Zero Days revolves around Jacintha “Jack” Cross, who works with her husband as a “pen tester.” I instantly thought this was a very interesting premise, and I almost wish there was a little bit more of it explored, though either way it created a great immediate suspense for the book. After her husband is brutally murdered in her own home, Jack is instantly the first suspect and must go on the run. How will she find her husband’s murdered, and just who can she trust?

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