a book for thoughts

This was my first dive into sensation fiction, so I was pretty excited at the beginning. However, it quickly became a letdown. There just wasn't much of a mystery to it because very early on, Lady Audley's secret was already laid out. For the rest of the book, we basically just follow Robert Audley in his search for what we already know. So, all the tension in the book didn't come from the mystery itself. But from the chase and battle of wills between him and Lady Audley. That in itself was interesting enough to have kept me reading... I just really wanted to have that satisfaction of Lady Audley winning and getting the life she wanted. Page one, I was already wholeheartedly on her side. She's an ambitious woman who will scheme and do whatever it takes to get what she wants, and I hated Robert Audley for ruining it for her! Sure, she's kind of a psychopath. But the agency she took, especially for a Victorian woman, to get out of the life she was born in was so delicious to read about that you just can't help but to stan her. Also, Robert Audley wasn't even that good an investigator, as most of the evidence he gathered either came to him by accident or by coincidence. So, my 3 stars are all for Lady Audley.

TJ Klune, The House in the Cerulean Sea

Megan Bannen, The Bird and the Blade

Dean Atta, The Black Flamingo

Honestly, can't wait to read them now. 😍

An afternoon coffee date with Howl ❤

I'm also still trying to get the hang of this bookstagram/book photography business 😅. So if you guys are interested follow me on Instagram @themoodreader.mary and I'm also on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/word_crawler. Thanks guys! ☺😊

Ruta Sepetys, The Fountains of Silence

Genevieve Gornichec, The Witch’s Heart

K.S. Villoso, The Ikessar Falcon (The Chronicles of the Bitch Queen, #2)

Ruta Sepetys, The Fountains of Silence

K.S. Villoso, The Ikessar Falcon (The Chronicles of the Bitch Queen, #2)

This is a historical fiction novel set in 1957 Madrid during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars "You could not explain fear; you could only feel it, roaring through the silence and striking your heart still." The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell is an absolutely chilling Victorian ghost story set in 1866 and 1635. If you're a scaredy-cat like I am, this is the perfect Gothic read for you. It's creepy enough to put you on edge, but not so much that you'll be kept awake at night. Pregnant and recently widowed, Elsie Bainbridge moves into her late husband's country estate, The Bridge. But with death and superstition surrounding this crumbling estate and an unsettling wooden figure that seems to move on its own, you start to wonder. With that, we get to see Elsie's slow decline into the broken woman we encounter in the first chapter. And readers are left to wonder whether these hauntings did take place or were they just the ramblings of a woman gone mad with suppressed grief and isolation. This was a compelling and thrilling read. My craving for Gothic horror has finally been quenched with this book. Purcell really set the atmosphere upon our first arrival at The Bridge, and I could not put this down. **Also, this has the potential for a horror movie. It has a good setup for a lot of jump scares. View all my reviews

Laura Purcell, The Silent Companions