The Year of Having Fun with My Reading - Dark Corners + The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

 

Goodreads:  Dark Corners by Megan Goldin

Blurb:  Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his freedom approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? Why was she visiting him in the first place?
When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel Krall goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.

When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Rachel Krall, the true crime podcaster star of Megan Goldin’s acclaimed Night Swim returns to search for a popular social media influencer who disappeared after visiting a suspected serial killer.

My Thoughts:  I saw a glowing review for this mystery on and couldn't resist picking this one up.  I love the podcaster element and this looked so intriguing.  It did not disappoint.  Rachel is an interesting character and the mystery pulled me in from the very beginning.  There is a bit of a race against time as Rachel and the FBI try and figure out what Terence Bailey is really capable of before he is released from prison as well as a current investigation as the FBI searches for influencer Maddison Logan.  I loved the mix of podcasts and real time investigations.  The pacing of this kept me interested from beginning to end.  While this is definitely not a cozy I didn't find it too over the top graphic and creepy.  I didn't want to put the book down but I wasn't having to get up and check the locks!  This is the 2nd book in the Rachel Krall series but I had no problem starting here and it reads very much as a stand alone.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)

Goodreads:  The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

Blurb:   The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.
When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It's a disaster! And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn't he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.

1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn't convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It's going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

My Thoughts:  Well this was just a bit of cozy delightfulness that was a joy from beginning to end.  Nina works in a bookstore, has a cat named Phil, and a perfectly planned out life with no room for anything else.  And as often happens in fiction (and in real life come to think of it) just as Nina has decided her life is exactly the way she wants it things start going off the rails.  Work falls apart, the family she didn't know she has has become something she can't (and mostly doesn't want to) ignore and she seems to have kind of acquired a boyfriend.  I loved all the chaos from Phil's insights (provided by Nina), to her heart to hearts with her new family, to the occasional bursts of bad judgement, and everything in between.  It's not the most unpredictable of books but the journey to the expected end was lovely and funny and cozy.  I can't wait to read more by this author.  My Rating:  Really Liked It! (4.5 Stars)