Julie's Review: One Perfect Lie

Author: Lisa Scottoline
Series: None
Publication Date: April 11, 2017
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Suspense, Thriller
Rating: 4.75/5
Bottom Line: A quick read that will having you saying "What?" a few dozen times
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: On paper, Chris Brennan looks perfect. He's applying for a job as a high school government teacher, he's ready to step in as an assistant baseball coach, and his references are impeccable. But everything about Chris Brennan is a lie. Susan Sematov is proud of her son Raz, a high school pitcher so athletically talented that he's being recruited for a full-ride scholarship to a Division I college, with a future in major-league baseball. But Raz’s father died only a few months ago, leaving her son in a vulnerable place where any new father figure might influence him for good, or evil. Heather Larkin is a struggling single mother who lives for her son Jordan's baseball games. But Jordan is shy, and Heather fears he is being lured down a dark path by one of his teammates, a young man from an affluent family whose fun-loving manner might possibly conceal his violent plans. Mindy Kostis succumbs to the pressure of being a surgeon's wife by filling her days with social events and too many gin and tonics. But she doesn’t know that her husband and her son, Evan, are keeping secrets from her – secrets that might destroy all of them. At the center of all of them is Chris Brennan. Why is he there? What does he want? And what is he willing to do to get it? Enthralling and suspenseful, One Perfect Lie is an emotional thriller and a suburban crime story that will have readers riveted up to the shocking end, with killer twists and characters you won’t soon forget. ~amazon.com


Review: One Perfect Lie is perhaps Lisa Scottoline's best novel today. Is there such a thing a perfect lie? If so, can you live it, breathe it and be it? Is a secret a lie? If so, everyone in this book is living a lie and I'm guessing most of us have a secret(s) we keep.

Chris Brennan isn't who he says he is but we aren't really sure who he is we just know he's telling some big lies that have a major end game in play. He weasels his way into a high school and as an assistant coach for the baseball team all so he can find a young impressionable boy to do his biding for him. He assesses the students and see which one that he can bring to his side.  He's got a limited amount of time to do this in because his deadline is less than a week. What is his deadline? What are his plans? As you are reading this, you just know that he is up to a nefarious act.

We also get to know a bit about each of the boys that Chris is targeting and their family. Raz has recently lost his dad to cancel and the family finds itself reeling in more ways than one in dealing with his death. His mother is at a loss on what to do because Neil was the glue that kept their family together.

Jordan has worked hard for his place on the varsity baseball team and his mom, Heather, couldn't be more proud. Will his hard work cost him his friendship with Raz? Heather is also dealing with her own issues since she walked out of her job. What will she do to support them?

Evan Kostis is the golden child. He's the one that has the charisma, the looks and the money. His mom though is hiding the fact that she drinks to hide the fact that her marriage isn't happy. The fact that her husband is never at home. She's not sure what is going on but she's determined to find out.

Ms. Scottoline covers a lot of ground with One Perfect Lie but she doesn't overreach, in my opinion. What I came away with though is that family always comes first, especially for us momma bears. If something is going wrong with our kids, we will be there to help them. There are twists and turns that I didn't see coming and caused me to go "whoa".

If you want a great suspense/thriller novel, then you will definitely want to pick up One Perfect Lie.


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Julie's Review: Keep Quiet

Author: Lisa Scottoline
Series: None
Publication Date: April 4, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 352
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Mystery, Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 3.75/5
Bottom Line: Left me wanting a different outcome
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Jake Whitmore is enjoying a rare bonding moment with his sixteen-year-old son, Kurt, when disaster strikes. They get in a terrible car accident that threatens to derail not only Kurts chances at college, but his entire future. Jake makes a split-second decision that saves his son from formal punishment, but plunges them both into a world of guilt, lies, and secrecy. Just when Jake thinks he has everything under control, a malevolent outsider comes forward with the power to expose Jakes secret and taunts him to the breaking point. Lisa Scottoline's Keep Quiet is the powerful and gut-wrenching tale of the unraveling—and the ultimate redemption of a family.

Review I've read Ms. Scottoline for a very long time and this is the first time I have set one of her books down and felt disappointed. I was hoping for a totally different outcome than the one give. I was hoping for it to be more of a moral lesson and a moral questioning. Did it make me think what I would do in the exact situation, yes of course. As with many of these morality situations, you never know until you are truly in that situation.

What also didn't help is that I didn't like any of the characters. I felt that Jake was too earnest in his need to gain his son's affection. Should he have let Ryan drive? Maybe not but who could have thought that the outcome of that decision would be what happened. As for Pam, dear lord was she a helicopter mom. She wanted to be Ryan's best friend and his mom. She had his whole schedule memorized and circled over him daily. I was surprised she wanted Jake invovled in his life at all.

I kept waiting for something more to happen. Things happened but not at a pace I would expect with this kind of book. The resolution made me mad. I thought, "that's it". What's the moral of the story? What are the consequences? For me, they seemed too light. Once the situation was resolved, their lives went seemingly back to normal. Did they change? Yes, they did but not like they could have if it had been written another way.

All that being said, it did keep me guessing what the twist was going to be and Ms. Scottoline does a great job of showing the emotions of the situation. You knew it was going to come to a head but you didn't know when or how.





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Julie's Review: Don't Go

Summary: Bestselling author Lisa Scottoline has thrilled millions with her emotionally-charged novels that feature strong women exploring the boundaries of family, justice, and love.   In Dont Go, she breaks new ground and delivers the story of a soldier who discovers what it means to be a man, a father, and ultimately, a hero. When Dr. Mike Scanlon is called to serve as an army doctor in Afghanistan, hes acutely aware of the dangers hell face and the hardships it will cause his wife Chloe and newborn baby.  And deep inside, he doesnt think of himself as a warrior, but a healer. However, in an ironic turn of events, as Mike operates on a wounded soldier in a war-torn country, Chloe dies at home in the suburbs, in an apparent household accident.  Devastated, he returns home to bury her, only to discover that the life he left behind has fallen apart.  His medical practice is in jeopardy, and he is a complete stranger to the only family he has left - his precious baby girl.  Worse, he learns a shocking secret that sends him into a downward spiral. Ultimately, Mike realizes that the most important battle of his life faces him on the home front and hell have to put it all on the line to save whats dearest to him - his family. Gripping, thrilling, and profoundly emotional, Don't Go is Lisa Scottoline at her finest. ~powells.com

Review: Lisa Scottoline is an author that my dad turned me onto years ago and she's still one of my go to authors. Her recent books have dealt with legal issues but that is more in the background than the foreground of her previous novels. While Don't Go wasn't what I expected, it was not a disappointment.

What I really liked about the novel was that we truly got a sense of Mike and the effects that war has on our soldiers, even if they aren't physically hurt. There are some very intense moments during the book especially when Mike is over in Afghanistan. I found myself holding my breath at times. Not only is there the emotional toil of re-entry for Mike when he comes home but he's still dealing with the death of his wife Chloe.

Since we are viewing all of this from Mike's point of view, it is very easy to empathize with him. He's a broken man who is trying to fix himself. He's not sure how to connect to his young daughter since he's been away for the majority of her short life. He's not sure how to move on from the death of his wife and the subsequent secrets he's learned about her.

This story is about family, love, loss and healing. Ms. Scottoline did an excellent job on telling the story of Mike. Of course there were times where I wanted to smack him but you could feel his pain through the pages.

If you are a fan of Ms. Scottoline, then this isn't one to miss. If you've never read her, then Don't Go is a good one to begin with too.

Final Take: 4/5

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for an ARC of the novel.

Julie's Review: Look Again

Summary: When reporter Ellen Gleeson gets a “Have You Seen This Child?” flyer in the mail, she almost throws it away. But something about it makes her look again, and her heart stops—the child in the photo is identical to her adopted son, Will. Her every instinct tells her to deny the similarity between the boys, because she knows her adoption was lawful. But she’s a journalist and won’t be able to stop thinking about the photo until she figures out the truth. And she can’t shake the question: if Will rightfully belongs to someone else, should she keep him or give him up? She investigates, uncovering clues no one was meant to discover, and when she digs too deep, she risks losing her own life—and that of the son she loves. Lisa Scottoline breaks new ground in Look Again, a thriller that’s both heart-stopping and heart-breaking, and sure to have new fans and book clubs buzzing. ~amazon.com

Review:  Look Again is a heartpounding, heartbreaking novel about the love of a mother and what lengths she will go to for her son. Ellen Gleeson is an immediately likable character. How can you not like a single mother who fell in love with a sick boy in ICU and upon learning he had no family, started the process of adopting him? Does she have flaws, of course but as a reader I could identify with those, which made me like her that much more.

The thing about Ellen though is once she see a picture of a missing boy that looks strikingly like her son Will, she just can't get it out of her head and move on. It haunts her and starts to affect her work, which is never good. As she starts to research her son's adoption, her life and the life of her son begins to unravel; quickly. It's too late for Ellen to stop poking around because now her life is at stake and everyone she loves is in jeopardy.

Look Again is a fast-paced, edge of your seat ride up until the very end. It is a book with twists and turns, that you don't see coming. It is a thriller with a big heart. You want Ellen and Will to be ok. You want for it to all work out in the end but like Ellen you have a gut-wrenching feeling that perhaps it won't. This is what keeps you tied to the story, the need to know if it turns out o.k.

I don't want to spoil the plot, so I won't say more than I already have about the book. What I will say is that Lisa Scottoline never fails to amaze me with her writing. I've been a fan a long time and I'm fairly certain I will continue to be for years to come. I believe I'm a few books behind on her novels but I know I'll catch up at some point.

If you haven't read her, then Look Again is a great place to start since it's a stand-alone novel.

Final Take: 4.25/5









 

Julie's Review: Save Me

Summary: At the start of this gut-wrenching stand-alone from bestseller Scottoline (Think Twice), an explosion rips through the nearly empty cafeteria of Reesburgh (Pa.) Elementary School. Lunch mother Rose McKenna leads two girls to safety before racing to rescue her own daughter, Melly, but Rose soon learns that she may face both civil and criminal charges for her heroics because one of the girls she saved was seriously injured in the resulting fire that killed three school staff members. The tension rises as the united front presented by Rose and her lawyer husband, Leo Ingrassia, begins to disintegrate in the face of media demands, legal maneuverings, and social pressures. Rose must also deal with school bullying (Melly has a noticeable facial blemish), difficult legal problems, and her husband's reaction when a secret from her past is revealed. Scottoline melds it all into a satisfying nail-biting thriller sure to please her growing audience. ~amazon.com

Review: Lisa Scottoline is one of my favorite female authors. I admit, I'm a bit behind on her books but I'm fairly certain I'll catch up this year. She never ceases to write a good book that makes you think on a variety of levels. Save Me is a thought provoking, taut story that never lets up.

Ms. Scottoline deals with quite an array of subject matters in the novel: bullying, mother's guilt, safety and criminal negligence. We are introduced to Rose McKenna, a stay at home mom who has moved to a new school so that her daughter, Melly, can get away from the bullying at her old school. Needless to say the bullying continues at her new school, so Rose decides to become a lunch mom to keep an eye on her daughter. It took a long time for Rose to grow on me and in the end I ended up liking her but not loving her. I did adore her husband Leo who was extremely grounded and perfect for the meek Rose. Rose is in the middle of talking to the girls who are teasing Melly when there is an explosion. Rose is knocked out and comes to, proceeds to get the girls out and then goes to look for her daughter Melly. Of course, she is initially lauded as a hero but then the story takes a turn. Did Rose get the girls out of the school or did she not? Did she foresake the safety of others to rescue her own child?

This is where I thought the book would go: the aftermath of the explosion and how a community either pulls together or gets ripped apart. There was some of that in the book but the novel shifts to figuring out who was negligent for the explosion. Did I find this interesting? Yes. It's just not what I thought the novel was going to explore.

There are a couple twists and turns in the book but I honestly felt that all of them were out of left field. I'm not sure if I completely believe the whole conspiracy idea behind two accidents in the book though.

I did like how Rose finally took her life and her family's welfare into her own hands by trying to figure all of this out. Of course she gets in over her head but everything works out.

The ending was a little too saccarine for me but overall the book makes you think. What would you do in that situation? Would you make sure the kids were completely out of the building before rushing in to save your own child? What kind of procedures are in place for those parents who volunteer at schools? Are they put through drills so that they know what to do in case of an emergency? Are our schools doing everything possible to keep our children safe? Or are corners being cut because of budget issues? Does a parent have the right to reprimand another child if they are not following the school's honor code?

I definitely enjoyed the book and if you are a Lisa Scottoline fan, then you will definitely not want to miss this one. If you've never read her before I suggest going with her Rosato and Associates novels. You can find her list of books here.

Final Take: 3.75/5

Save Me will be on sale on 4/12/2011.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a ARC of the book.

Julie's Review: Lady Killer

Summary: Philadelphia attorney Mary DiNunzio, last seen in Killer Smile (2004), agrees to help her high school nemesis, Trish Gambone, at the start of this less than convincing thriller from bestseller Scottoline. Trish, whom Mary used to regard as the quintessential Mean Girl, has turned in desperation to the lawyer, the all-around Most Likely to Achieve Sainthood at St. Maria Goretti High School, because she wants to escape from her abusive, and possibly Mafia-connected boyfriend, Bobby Mancuso. Trish rejects Mary's practical suggestions for dealing with Bobby, but once Trish disappears, Mary finds herself under pressure from other high school classmates as well as people from her old neighborhood who blame her for not doing enough. Mary unwisely hides a connection with Bobby from the Feds, who then shut her out of the search for Trish when they learn of it. Scottoline fans will cheer Mary as she stumbles toward the solution, but others may have trouble suspending disbelief.~amazon.com

Review: I can't remember when I started reading Lisa Scottoline but I do remember the first book of hers I read....The Vendetta Defense. Lady Killer brings us back to Mary DiNunzio and Rosato & Associates. Coming back to them is like putting on your favorite sweatpants after a long day or week, it just feels so good. Mary is someone that all of us can identify with, unless of course you were the "mean girl" in high school and identify with Trish. Trish comes to Mary for help because she's afraid her mob connected boyfriend is going to kill her. Mary tries to get her to go to the cops but that's not going to happen and then Trish goes missing. That's when the story starts. Mary becomes and investigator to try to find Trish because she feels guilty since Trish came to her and she didn't do anything.

We meet, Trish's gaggle of girlfriends, who are a bit much at first but then turn out to have their heart in the right place and give the book some comic relief. Since Mary grew up in South Philly it seems that word spreads that she let Trish down and her clients start to fire her. So much for the "Good girl made good" identity.

The plot goes along at a good clip and there are at least 2 twists that I didn't see coming and somehow feel like I should have seen one of them, but I thought it was going to take a different turn.

There was only a minor thing wrong with the novel, a subplot that I just didn't really care about. I understand why it was in the book, I just think we could have gotten Mary's emotional connection to Bobby without it. It got a bit maudlin for me at times. It seemed to shift the story in a direction that didn't need to be taken.

All in all another fine novel by Lisa Scottoline. It makes you wonder if you would help the person who made your life hell if their life was in danger. Are you a bigger person to let go of the painful past and do good? I like to think I could but then again it would depend on the type of trouble they were in. Yes, I harbor grudges.

Final Take: 4/5

Julie's Review: Daddy's Girl

Summary: The undistinguished academic career of Natalie "Nat" Greco, a mousy and naïve law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, takes an unexpected turn at the start of this less than compelling legal thriller from bestseller Scottoline (Dirty Blonde). When an attractive male colleague, Angus Holt, convinces Nat to accompany him on a teaching assignment at a nearby prison, a sudden riot puts them both in peril. Nat finds herself desperately attempting to save the life of a guard, apparently stabbed by an inmate during the fracas. The dying man asks her to pass on his last words to his wife, but possessing knowledge of this cryptic message proves dangerous. Nat finds herself accused of murder and must evade the law while also tracking down the bad guys.

Review: I've read several of Ms. Scottoline's other books and have always enjoyed them and this one didn't let me down. I found the main character, Natalie aka Nat, endearing and identifiable. She was an everyday girl going along in her everyday life when life throws her a curveball. I liked that Nat turned into a sleuth to try and figure out the truth herself instead of waiting for the police to figure it out. It's not like she isn't intelligent and knows how the law works, she is a law professor.

The friendship and then relationship between her and Angus isn't forced but you can still see it a mile away and I don't think the author was really trying to conceal her intent there. The relationships that I didn't get or see how they pertained to the story was her family. Maybe it was to show why Nat was the way she was but I didn't need the filler of the family subplot to really care about it. Another thing that bugged me about this novel was the title of the book....Daddy's Girl. I just don't think it fit the book very well. I don't have a suggestion for a different title but this one just didn't work for me.

The twists and turns of the story were very well done and I didn't see them coming at all, in fact I pretty much thought the story was done when there was another twist thrown in.

I can't really see Nat coming back for another book on her own but I could see her popping up in Bennie Rosato novel. I have to say I prefer the Bennie novels to this one and maybe it's because I've read several of them and am invested in the characters.

Final Review: 3.75/5