#Natasha Preston

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (December 3rd, 2024)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Releases:

Dust by Alison Stine

The Party by Natasha Preston

My Fairy God Somebody by Charlene Allen

When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede

Encanto by Alex Segura

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Happy reading!

[libertyreads]

October 2024 TBR--

We are getting so into spooky season this year with some spooky reads. I'm super excited about a couple of these books, but, also, the last book that I've had on my physical TBR since before January 1st of this year will be read this month. Everything else on my physical TBR is something I've purchased this year which is amazing to me. Let's get to the spooky reads.

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio (New Release)-- This might be the book I'm most excited to read. We follow five people who cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper. One night they discover a hole in the churchyard that wasn't there before. Who dug this fresh, open grave? And for whom? These five people try to get the answer to this mystery.

The Enforcer by Avery Keelan (Kindle)-- My next hockey romance! This one follows Lakeside U hockey superstar Nash Richards and the girl whose heart he broke. She's forced to work with him all semester long and has to work not to fall for his charms a second time.

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis-- From GoodReads: "It's bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard's workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something. It's a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is...you." When I was standing in the middle of a bookstore reading this synopsis, I had so much hope that this would give me Assistant to the Villain Vibes. Let's hope it does.

Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson-- Anna, a diligent stage manager, has grown up in glitzy Las Vegas with her older sister Emily, but when Emily reveals a startling betrayal, Anna flees in the middle of a raging storm. She takes shelter in a boutique establishment she's never seen before: The Houdini. She discovers a magic hotel and a magical boy. When the clock strikes midnight, Anna will be trapped in the Houdini forever unless she can make an impossible escape.

The Dare by Natasha Preston-- Senior pranks are just beginning for Marley and her friends who egg houses, set chickens free on the quad, and fill the principal's office with glitter-filled balloons. But Marley's friend Jesse accepts a dare to drive a ten-mile stretch of winding road that's notorious for car wrecks called danger alley with no headlights. Now four friends are bound by a tragic accident and a dark secret that threatens their bright futures.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins-- The final book of my Hunger Games reread. In this one, Katniss has become the heart of the rebellion, but being a hero is hard when you also have PTSD. Things between the President and the Mockingjay come to a head in this finale.

Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller-- Charlie Laird has several problems: his dad married a woman he's sure is a witch, he had to move into a purple mansion, and he can't remember the last time sleeping wasn't a nightmarish prospect. Nightmares can ruin a good night's sleep, but them slipping out of your dreams and into the waking world is worse.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia-- Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive in the heavily policed streets of Mexico City when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized. Atl needs to quickly escape the city, but her plan doesn't include Domingo. Little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm.

I'm so excited about so many of my reads for the month of October. My Christmas love will get put on hold while we dive into all things creepy and scary.

[thatpinkkwitch]

Hey y’all, welcome! 💐🫶🏻

I’m a hellenic pagan witch and plant medicine advocate. this is my digital diary!!!

DNI: homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, bigoted in any other way, a minor, solely nsfw, etc.

interests/get to know me below!!

My favorite color is pink but I love incorporating color in general to my life !!

My favorite book is Little Women! A few other favs are the Haunting of Hill House, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, My Dark Vanessa, or anything by Natasha Preston :)

I’ve been a Taylor Swift fan almost my whole life and my favorite band is Summer Salt!! I also love Chappell Roan, Carpenter, and Yung Gravy!

Baking & decorating baked goods has been my fav stress reliever since i was 12 years old :)

I have a few chronic illnesses so I’ll touch on those from time to time as well!!

my messages are always open to new friends!!

[blogthefiresidechats]

Best 10 Books in.....Suspense/Thriller

I’ve comprised a list of the 10 best books from the suspense/thriller genre. This list is in no particular order and this list is only my opinions based on what books I’ve read in the past. Enjoy! A group of people gather at a lodge deep in the woods but it doesn’t end up being the retreat they think it is when a snow storm strands everyone there and people end up dying off one by one. My…

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

I wonder… have you read any books by Natasha Preston?

I read one called The Lost, and it was super interesting. Idk why but I imagine the SK boys using a torture method they used in the book. Maybe two, depending on how long they decide to torment a rulebreaker.

If you haven’t read it you should it’s so good I fukin SWEAR. (Pardon my language lmao)

I am not familiar with the author so I likely have not read anything by her.

I could look it up sometime, though.

[the-liliger]

If you like this book, you'll love this book: YA Murder Mystery Edition!

If you liked "One Of Us Is Lying" by Karen McManus, you'll love "Killer Content" by Kiley Roache. Why? A knives out-esque twist with lots of prolific characters... And we still don't know who's telling the truth.

If you liked "A Good Girl's Guide To Murder" trilogy by Holly Jackson, you'll love the "Truly Devious" trilogy by Maureen Johnson. Why? Watching as our main characters piece every bit of information is enthralling... Almost as enthralling as what happens when you tunnel vision on a well-known murder.

If you liked "They'll Never Catch Us" by Jessica Goodman, then you'll love "The Lake" by Natasha Preston. Why? Campy (one literally takes place at a summer camp) stories that can show the bond between two people... And how far they'll go to protect each other.

(All creation credits go to the bestest platonic-babe in ze world)

[horror-thrillerbookreviews]

You Will Be Mine - Natasha Preston

Welcome to the Valentine’s Day special!

5/5 Stars

This read was wonderful! My goal was to finish it before Valentine’s Day and it was quite the read! I loved the style, the story sucked me and it made me very anxious about what would happen next! It was definitely one of my favorite reads so far.

[sunflowersandroses-blog]

The Fear by Natasha Preston

I enjoy her books because it's like watching a cheesy thriller movie. The entire book I thought I was right about the killer, got so excited that I was right, and then the last sentence ended with me my mouth falling open 😂

[unreadableee]

𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚢 💭📖☕️

[bookaddict24-7]

NEW YOUNG ADULT RELEASES! (MAY 7TH, 2024)

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HAVE I MISSED ANY NEW YOUNG ADULT RELEASES? HAVE YOU ADDED ANY OF THESE BOOKS TO YOUR TBR? LET ME KNOW!

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NEW STANDALONES/FIRST IN A SERIES:

Bite Me, Royce Taslim by Lauren Ho

The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve

Perfect Little Monsters by Cindy R.X. He

Better Must Come by Desmond Hall

Fifteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton

Sixteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton

Spin of Fate by A.A. Vora

The Unboxing of a Black Girl by Angela Shanté

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams

This Book Won't Burn by Samira Ahmed

The Dare by Natasha Preston

Lie Until It's True by Jessie Weaver

Hot Boy Summer by Joe Jiménez

Dispatches from Parts Unknown by Bryan Bliss

Sunhead by Alex Assan

Eyes Open by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe & Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier

Malicia by Steven dos Santos

The Ballad of Darcy and Russell by Morgan Matson

Queerceañera by Alex Crespo

Death's Country by R.M. Romero

Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly

Sweet Nightmare by Tracy Wolff

NEW SEQUELS:

More Than This (The Davenports #2) by Krystal Marquis

Pulled Under (Sixteenth Summer #2) by Michelle Dalton

Swept Away (Sixteenth Summer #3) by Michelle Dalton

Burning Crowns (Twin Crowns #3) by Catherine Doyle & Katherine Webber

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Happy reading!

[clarislam]

Book Review: "The Island" by Natasha Preston

A trip to a private island goes wrong when murder is afoot in "The Island" by Natasha Preston! #NatashaPreston #TheIsland #bookreview #murdermystery

Cover of “The Island” by Natasha Preston   I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “The Island” by Natasha Preston! Reading this book reminded me of my own murder mystery novel “Winner Takes All.” This is because both take place on isolated islands and, well, murder is involved. Here’s a quick summary so we know what it’s about: “Jagged Island: a private amusement park for…

[juniper-brontide]

Have you read any of Natasha Preston's books?

To be read Tuesday!! This book is definitely on my tbr list as I read the first book called The Cellar, and I really enjoyed it.

[bittyfromquotev]

I feel a bit better now.

I need some Billford in my life and also someone who has read The Lost by Natasha Preston because I love that book so much and I wanna talk about it with someone

[lexicat2410]

The Cellar

Spoilers

The Cellar by Natasha Preston is a good suspense book for people who want to start with the genre. I would, however, not recommend it to someone who has been reading the genre before, as it follows pretty basic tropes, making it basic to the experienced reader. It is about a girl called Summer who gets kidnapped by a man named Colin or Clover, depending on which perspective you are in. And gets held somewhere with three other girls (Rose, Poppy, and Violet) and gets renamed Lily. You see the trend It is told through alternating perspectives: Summer, Colin and Lewis (Summer's boyfriend). This book does cover heavy subjects such as kidnapping, rape, abuse, purity culture and murder, if you might be triggered by any of these subjects, perhaps step away from the book and pick up a different one. Keep yourself safe 😊. Don't read this if you like the book or are the author or her friends.

Pros:

1. The story had a promising premise: What would you do if you were locked in a basement with three other girls and expected to do domestic labour for your kidnapper, and would you give up on searching for someone after they had gone missing for a long period

2. The characters were mostly distinct and got their role as a character across to the audience. I liked that they weren't all on the same page and had varying levels of hope due to how long they had been imprisoned. My personal favourite was Poppy due to her attitude that she wouldn't be reckless but still has hopes and dreams of getting out.

3. The plot was engaging and kept me wondering what was going to happen, and it was overall a fun read. This book is good for beginner readers because of this fact. There is not much I can say here.

Cons

1. The rest of the cast, I did not say they were likeable, just that I understood their role in the story I'm just going to go over the people with a POV otherwise, this will go on forever:

Summer: This girl literally did nothing but cry and go in the shower, and she just cried about her boyfriend, not her family, just her boyfriend. This is understandable due to the situation she was put in, but from a story perspective, it got tiring fast, especially after 8 months. She had absolutely no character development at all, and after the experience, she WAS FINE there was little to no mention of PTSD. I do feel mostly sorry for her she just does nothing.

Clover: He had to be the most basic villain I have ever read catered to an age group over 10 I mean, he's a bit cliche. A man obsessed with women's purity because his Father cheated on his mother with a prostitute, so he now kills them so no more families can be ripped apart. I don't know whether we were supposed to feel sorry for him because, frankly, it seems that way I could just be reading it wrongly, and if Preston was trying to do that, she failed.

Lewis: This may be controversial, but the hate I have for this man is more than I have for the villain. I mean, he just seems like the kind of guy who doesn't let you have any guy friends and is the most insufferable human ever I mean, this guy thinks he is better than the police (which he is in this story, but that's due to a bad plot). I mean, he thinks that this guy who is helping with the search yet doesn't seem sorry enough took his girlfriend (which he did, but that is plot convenience) I mean, he broke into this guy's house. It had been 8 months I get that it was your girlfriend, but not everyone has to be devastated about the loss of someone they don't know, and then he has the audacity to when Summer is in the hospital to rush up there and expect her to want to see him straight away she just got kidnapped and raped by someone she should call the shots of who gets to see her. Yet he seemed like he would make her see him if she didn't want him to come due to her trauma with a man over the last 8 MONTHS. Maybe I'm overreacting, but this is my opinion.

2. Plot convenience: By the end of the book, it seemed like Preston did not think of a way to end the book, so she made everything well convenient. Realistically, how would Lewis, a random 18-year-old guy, be able to find Summer when the police couldn't use vibes alone? Now, I get it about the power of love and how desperation makes you do rash things, but it was just a sense that Colin did not feel sad about Summers's kidnapping, he probably met plenty of people in the search party who did not feel sad about her passing how is it only this guy, does he have spidey senses or something cause there is no possible way that would happen in real life. Also, the fact Summer doesn't have any PTSD after what is a traumatic experience is very convenient

Well, that was a rant, wasn't it, I need to read better books. During writing cons, my rating slipped from a five to a three, so this is worse the more you unpack it. Overall, it is a great premise that needed to be executed better, and the characters need some work (a lot in the case of Lewis) I mean no harm to the author I think this was her debut novel on Wattpad, no less, and some of her stories do get better personally I like The Lost which is a similar premise just executed better and the characters are heaps better.

[libertyreads]

Book Review #61 of 2024--

The Dare by Natasha Preston. Rating: 2.5 stars.

Read from October 9th to 11th.

Besides the gorgeous cover pulling me in to read this one, I thought it would be the perfect read for Fall. Warning that this review is pretty spoiler filled. I tried to keep it as vague as possible, but I do think I give some stuff away in the review. You have been warned. The Dare follows a group of high school friends who are dared to race down a dangerous road at night without any lights. A fatal accident leads them down a road of lies, deceit, and backstabbing. I thought this was going to be such an amazing Mystery Thriller for the spooky season. That wasn't quite what I got.

There was a section of about 50 pages toward the end of the novel that I would have given 4 stars but the rest of the book was just so bad. On top of that there was a ton of bad line edits that took me out of the story. From the get go, I had trouble suspending my disbelief. Teens are all scared of the rich and powerful family in town so when one of them becomes a senior and announces dares they feel they have to go along with them. On top of that, after the accident, the group of friends performing the dare make zero sense and fall into line so quickly. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been a teenager for over a decade and a half, but I really couldn't get past them just immediately going with what one friend wants. Especially when it's something as serious as a fatal accident. The rest of the story falls into the same vein of unbelievability, but there was a section of this book that really got me.

I love a revenge plot. I read the whole of The Count of Monte Cristo because I heard it has a revenge plot. (And have you seen the size of that thing??) I had no clue going into the final third of this novel that there would be a revenge element to the story. It is really what dragged that star rating up to a 2.5 instead of less than 2. Is it all still impossible to suspend disbelief over? Absolutely. Did I still eat that shit up? Absolutely. I found the setting and characters to be pretty bland, but there were a few gems hiding in the rubble. Especially in the last 5 pages or so. Did I love the ending? No. Was it still beautiful? Yes.

Overall, this one is a mixed bag for me. I didn't like the book most of the time, but that last third really got me going. When I was picking this one up at the bookstore to read the synopsis, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have let that beautiful cover draw me in. But I still think this could be an okay book for a younger reader with less experience with Mystery and Thriller books.

[paperback-bitch]

Review: The Island

By Natasha Preston Hardback: n/a – Paperback: $12.99 – E-book: $8.99 Approx. 336 pages – Audiobook: 8 hours YA Thriller/Mystery

SYNOPSIS

They said goodbye to their friends and family for the weekend. They weren’t counting on forever.

Jagged Island: a private amusement park for the very rich—or the very influential. Liam, James, Will, Ava, Harper, and Paisley—social media influencers with millions of followers—have been invited for an exclusive weekend before the park opens. They’ll make posts and videos for their channels and report every second of their VIP treatment.

When the teens arrive, they're stunned: the resort is even better than they’d imagined. Their hotel rooms are unreal, the park’s themed rides are incredible, and the island is hauntingly beautiful. They’re given a jam-packed itinerary for the weekend.

But soon they'll discover that something's missing from their schedule: getting off the island alive.

Themes: Conflicting personalities, Serial Killer, Murder mystery

Tropes: Bullshit cliffhanger, Trapped with strangers, Picked off one by one

Warnings: Graphic violence (including matricide) and mentions of abuse.

REVIEW

I HATED THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK.

Okay, I just had to get that out of my system. It’s been the one burning constant on my mind since I read that diabolical final line, and I’m still so angry. Up until then, I was enjoying this one. Natasha Preston is a great writer, and I really liked the concept – although admittedly, we got a kind of underdeveloped look at the world compared to what I would have preferred. For a thriller set in an amusement park, we really only get descriptions of one or two rides and the hotel itself. It made it difficult to follow the characters at some points, since the layout was more or less a vague concept.

Honestly, the lack of fleshing things out is one of my biggest gripes with this book, because the characters are also pretty opaque. We spend so little time with the cast before the first murder that you can kind of tell who’s next on the chopping block based on who we know the least about. Not to mention some of the characters were essentially two dimensional, which is a shame because the characterization we do see is witty and engaging and I would have loved to see everyone fleshed out that way.

As far as the premise goes, it did feel slightly irrelevant that the main characters are influencers. The plot point only serves to get them to the titular island, under the guise of reviewing the amusement park for their large audiences. It’s a cool concept and I would have liked to see more done with it, but ultimately it’s just used as a plot device and quickly becomes irrelevant.

There were several twists in this novel, that goddamned ending included, and they were done with varying degrees of success. I predicted the culprit early on, though the motivation was unclear. The reveal for their motivation was a nice twist, but ultimately opened the door for some plot holes and required a little suspension of disbelief for me. There was a secondary twist that I definitely didn’t see coming and did enjoy, but it ended up feeling wasted when it was rendered irrelevant almost immediately. And then that ending. I enjoyed the twist for about .05 seconds, until I turned the page and was abruptly greeted by the acknowledgements page. My heart sunk. I blinked rapidly, flipping back a page to see if I misread the line somehow. No dice.

I’m not going to hold back the spoiler here, because I was legitimately enraged by it and I want to warn people. The book ends with the main character Paisley being dragged underwater, and we have no clue if she lives or dies. I recognize that this lends some ambiguity for the reader to more or less “choose your own ending”, but I hated it. It’s one thing to leave us wondering what happens, or exactly how something turns out, and I’ve enjoyed open endings in the past. But this kind of abrupt, unresolved ending in the middle of a happy resolution just gets under my skin like nothing else. It happened to me recently in another book that I may or may not end up reviewing, and I just can’t stand it when authors pull what’s essentially a cheap gag twist out of thin air for shock value and “mystery”.

When I come into a book, I expect it to have a concise ending. Good or bad, I expect to end a book with the story resolved and my questions answered in some way – especially in a thriller or mystery. To essentially do that and then go “haha gotcha!” with the last line of your book feels like, to risk sounding dramatic and ridiculous, a breach of contract. A violation of the promise of storytelling, in a way. And for the record, I checked – this is not intended to have a sequel. After reading a few other reviews, this type of ending seems to apparently be one of Ms. Preston’s defining conceits, and while I respect that, it’s definitely not my vibe.

FINAL THOUGHTS

2/5 stars for me, purely because of the ending. It was a solid 3 until then, with just the aforementioned pacing and character issues I had, but I was just so turned off by the ending that it leaves me hesitant to read her other works.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you don’t mind open interpretation in your book endings, I’d say go ahead and read The Island. It’s standard thriller fare with a modern angle, and not a bad book even if it’s not especially noteworthy. I’d compare it most closely to All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers, or books by Natalie D. Richards.