4 star

Review: The Bridal Party by J.G. Murray

Sometimes friendship can be murder…

It’s the weekend of Clarisse’s bridal party, a trip the girls have all been looking forward to. Then, on the day of their flight, Tamsyn, the maid of honour, suddenly backs out. Upset and confused, they try to make the most of the stunning, isolated seaside house they find themselves in.

But, there is a surprise in store – Tamsyn has organised a murder mystery, a sinister game in which they must discover a killer in their midst. As tensions quickly boil over, it becomes clear to them all that there are some secrets that won’t stay buried…



This was a really exciting one! It was an incredibly (and I mean incredibly) fast read, barely 300 pages on my phone, and it was super exciting. Mostly a psychological thriller, it takes place as a macabre DnD-styled murder mystery game at a bridal party—or is it?

The Bridal Party takes place in a wooded area in New Jersey, at a beautiful cabin in the woods, known as the Herodias House. Based on a history of mythological witch hunts, the house itself is an exciting dark backdrop to this bridal party. The first mystery is where the maid of honour disappeared to before the trip, and just what waits in store for the five girls at this party. Slowly things get more and more out of hand—just who is responsible for all this?!

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3.5 star

Review: A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

In this neighborhood, danger lies close to home. A domestic thriller packed full of secrets, and a twisty story that never stops—from the bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

He looks at her, concerned. “How do you feel?” She wants to say, Terrified. Instead, she says, with a faint smile, “Glad to be home.”

Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.

There’s a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.

The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good.

Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won’t stop asking questions.

Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.



This is probably the second-last Shari Lapena thriller that I have to catch up on! She, of course, unsurprisingly by now, always has a great talent for fast-paced thrillers—I literally read this in a day. I believe I have actually read it once before, but despite that I still enjoyed re-reading it, although I kind of knew how it would end.

A Stranger in the House revolves mainly around a couple who lives in a nice neighbourhood and are newly married. But one day the wife drives like a bat out of hell in a dark part of town and gets into a serious accident. Why can’t she remember anything? Her paranoia also gets the best of her as she realizes someone has probably been in her house. This is a story of paranoia and the tale of a perfectly normal-looking couple falling apart at the seams. Will she recover her memories in time to see the truth?

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3.5 star

Review: An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away

It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm–and one another.



I’ve been trying to catch up on Shari Lapena’s thriller/mysteries, so here I am with a review of another one! I don’t always have the biggest expectations for her books, as the ending is often not exactly what I want (like it was again here). However, as a queen of suspense in the page to page reading, it once again delivered.

An Unwanted Guest takes place in a quaint hotel up in the snowy mountains when 12 guests get snowed in by a huge snowstorm. In typical closed-room scenarios, one by one people start dying off for seemingly inexplicable reasons. We get the POVs of all the guests and the two attending staff, and so begins our journey of suspense. The journey is incredibly fast-paced and suspenseful, even if the ending was much less so.

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