Top Reads for 2017 – Part Two

Hello again! I hope you all enjoyed Part One for my top books (if you haven’t seen that post, you can find that list here) And as promised, I’m back with part two! I’ll be having a third, and final, installment to this list later in the week or early next week.

Since I read over 300 books this year I thought that it would be fair to include 10% of them in my top books. Plus, it was WAY too hard to narrow it down to 10 books. So many fantastic books came out this year and I thoroughly enjoyed them all 🙂

Again, a huge thanks to all of the incredible publishers and authors that sent me copies of these books and gave me the opportunity to review them. I’ve had a blast this year and I’m so excited for what next year has in store.

So, without further ado, here is my part two of my top books for 2017!

Top Books for 2017 – PART TWO

May 2017 – August 2017

WILDFIRE – J. Arthur Squiers

5/5 stars – Book two in the Criminal Utopia series, and it blew me away. I highly recommend this series and will say that you need to read book one (CRIMINAL UTOPIA) first. A fast-pace technological thriller that grabs you and doesn’t stop until the climactic ending. Book one was the first book I ever read in one sitting and it was no different for WILDFIRE.

THE MARSH KING’S DAUGHTER – Karen Dionne

5/5 stars – This was a highly anticipated read for me this year. I read the sample and needed to read more! When a man escapes from prison and disappears into the marsh, Helena’s world comes to a crashing halt. Helena’s family has no idea that the escapee is the Marsh King, and she and her mother were held captive by him for 12 years. She knows he’ll be after her because her testimony put him in prison. Very atmospheric and it will have you flipping pages until the very end!

MAD – Chloe Esposito

5/5 stars – Do you like a great female lead to your suspense novels? Well, we follow Alvie. She’s struggling with work and her love life while her identical twin sister, Beth, seems to have the perfect life. When her sister insists she visits them in Italy, Alvie quickly learns that her sister has ulterior motives to her visiting. Things get crazy when Alvie takes Beth’s place at home while she takes care of some business. The night ends with Beth dead and everyone thinking that it was Alvie who was killed. Alvie is hilarious and this was a great suspense novel. I can’t wait for books two and three!

THE FOURTH MONKEY – J.D. Barker

5/5 stars – Do you like serial killer thrillers? Do you like when the killers toy with the investigating detectives with packages and cryptic letters? I personally love them – and when the packages involve body parts (and in a specific order) then you have my attention. This is not for those that don’t want too much gore or graphic kill scenes (sequences?). I can’t wait for book two!

LOST BOY – Christina Henry

5/5 stars – Everyone loves Peter Pan and his Lost Boys. The concept of never growing up and not having any parents to answer to sounds incredible, right? Well, Peter isn’t the innocent and fun-loving boy you think he is. Henry removes the rose-colored glasses and we see Peter for who he really is and how Captain Hook wasn’t always the villain (he was a former Lost Boy). I’m a sucker for retellings and the fact this one is so dark piqued my interest even more.

FINAL GIRLS – Riley Sager

5/5 stars – Yes, the book that everyone was buzzing about this summer. What is a Final Girl? She’s the one that makes it out alive at the end of the horror movie. We follow the girls that have all survived horrific murders and tragic events. When one of them turns up dead from an apparent suicide, the other two join together to try and stop the killer before he can finish what he started a decade ago.

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE – Sarah Schmidt

5/5 stars – Everyone knows the rhyme about Lizzie Borden and what she was accused of doing to her parents. I feel like I may have been the only person that didn’t (that or I didn’t remember her name!). This book was a fast read and an interesting take on how the series of events may have played out. I loved the timeline in the back of the novel and being able to see when specific events in the novel actually occurred.

THE GOOD DAUGHTER – Karin Slaughter

5/5 stars – This was my introduction to Karin Slaughter (definitely late to the party on this!) and I now need to read more of her books. “Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind…” If that doesn’t instantly grab you, then I don’t know what will. Karin created incredible characters and built the tension expertly. I couldn’t stop reading. For those who haven’t read Slaughter’s books, you need to! And for those who have, you should already have this on your TBR.

A KILLER HARVEST – Paul Cleave

5/5 stars – Medical thrillers are a genre that I don’t read nearly enough of and after reading A KILLER HARVEST I’ve realized that I need to fix that. Joshua is convinced he’s cursed. He lost his parents at a young age, as well as his eye sight. He is taken in by Logan, a homicide detective, and his bad luck doesn’t end there. As Logan is investigating a homicide, he and the killer both die in a shoot out. Joshua is given the opportunity to see when donor eyes have come in – but one is from Logan and the other from the killer. Is he seeing visions from their past owners or is he losing his mind? This was a fantastic medical thriller!

THE OTHER GIRL – Erica Spindler

5/5 stars – A high-profile and ritualistic murder, a strong female detective, and plenty of secrets to go around! THE OTHER GIRL was one of those crime fiction novels that I read in an evening. Officer Miranda Rader is known for her hard work and reliability, but when a professor turns up dead, her past is threatening to resurface. When her finger prints are found at the murder scene her entire life is turned upside down. Can she be trusted? Can she find the real killer before she is framed for the crime?

 

Have you read any of these? Are any already on your TBR?

–Jess