The Secret Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab I was totally into this one. Addie was born in the 1700s in a tiny village in France. She is supposed to be married to someone she barely knows when she essentially makes a deal with the devil to get out of the marriage. So her deal is that she will never belong to anyone, but never belonging to anyone means that nobody will ever know her and nobody will ever remember her, and then she’ll also be immortal. So she’s lived for hundreds of years permanently in her 20s in a life where she is never known or remembered by anyone. Until one day she meets someone who actually remembers her.
Those Girls by Chevy Stevens This is the story of 3 sisters, Courtney, Jess and Dani. They live with their alcoholic and abusive father, and they kill him in self defense when he comes home drunk one night and gets violent. They skip town in his truck and try to get to Vancouver where they think they can get lost in a city and never get pinned down for the murder. On the way the three of them get mixed up with 2 guys who imprison them and repeatedly rape them until they manage to escape. They end up getting to Vancouver and live under assumed names and go on with their lives. But the problem is none of them are over what happened in that small town, and one of the sisters goes back to that small town to get revenge. Crazy story. Absolutely bonkers, but well done.
The Cellar by Natasha Preston Whoah this one was crazy. Summer is 16 and she got kidnapped one night. Her kidnapper took her to his basement and started calling her Lily. There are three other girls in the basement already that he named Rose, Poppy and Violet. He kidnapped all these girls so he could create the prefect family. He comes into the basement for his meals with them and acts like this is a totally normal thing to do. But sometimes he snaps and brings a prostitute into the basement for the purpose of murdering her in front of his family. If any of the girls steps out of line he murders them too. Summer knows she needs to get out, but how?
BJ Knapp is the author of Beside the Music, available for purchase here. Please sign up for the Backstage with BJ Knapp mailing list to get updates on events, signings, dog pictures and so much more.