Happy Thursday, friends! We all know that I love a good readathon — it combines two of my favorite things; reading and competition. To be clear, I do not see a readathon as a competition between me and another person, it’s a competition between my schedule and how many books I can read in during the readathon schedule. Because of this, I’m always looking for new readathons and I got SO excited when I heard about the No Body, No Crime thriller focused readathon, hosted by nobodynocrimebookclub on Instagram. It combined even more of my favorite things; readathons, thrillers and Taylor Swift, truly it felt like a readathon just for me.
The readathon was from April 4th – 7th, and included 4 prompts. The prompts were: Isolated Setting, New Release, Favorite Trope, and Good For Her/Revenge. Firstly, love those prompts, it gives you so many options, and I knew right away which books I would be putting on my TBR.
Spoiler alert — this was my most successful readathon to date! Not only did I complete the readathon in the allotted amount of time and check off three books from my owned TBR, but all of these books got at least a 4 star rating. Honestly, you can’t ask for a much more successful readathon experience!
Since I enjoyed all of these books so much, I figured it only made sense that I would write up some mini reviews, so get cozy and keep reading to hear my thoughts on the four novels I read over the weekend!
Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh (read for the Good For Her/Revenge prompt)
I knew I’d enjoy Kill for Me, Kill for You since the concept is loosely based on/inspired by the 1951 film Strangers on a Train, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one!
Kill for Me, Kill for You seems like it could’ve been an easy book to predict based on the inspiration, but let me tell you, it was not. While the story started a bit slowly for me, the pace picked up around the 25% mark and didn’t let up until the very end. I thought the characters were very interesting and well fleshed out; the emotional journey that Amanda went through specifically was really interesting to read and though I don’t have first hand experience of what she went through, it did feel very real.
This book was filled with twists and turns and I think all of them were done extremely well. There were a lot of characters that I had bad feelings about but couldn’t exactly pinpoint why, and there was one reveal at the end that literally had me gasping and I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it coming. In my opinion it was very well done, and I would definitely recommend Kill for Me, Kill for You if you’re looking for a revenge themed thriller!
Murder Road by Simone St. James (read for the New Release prompt)
This book hooked me right away. I read the first half of Murder Road in one sitting — flew through it actually — and then when I woke up the next morning I immediately picked it up and kept reading. There’s something about Simone St. James’ writing that I find utterly consumable. I fly through her books at such a quick pace because she really knows how to draw you in from the first page.
I love a ghost story, and anything with a supernatural element, so Murder Road has definitely been a highly anticipated release this year, and I thought it was great! For me, this one was so interesting; I loved the lore of Atticus Lane and The Lost Girl, I could’ve read multiple books about that honestly. There were some moments that genuinely freaked me out and gave me chills, especially while reading in the dark. St. James does atmosphere so well, and I really felt what the characters were going through, especially in the scenes that took place on Atticus Lane.
While I don’t think there was anything particularly groundbreaking about this story, I do think that it was a great time and was entertained from page 1 to page 339, so if you’re looking for a mystery that’s going to keep you curious from start to finish, this is the one to check out.
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (read for the Isolated Setting prompt)
If there’s one thing I love in a mystery/thriller, it’s an isolated setting — okay, I love a lot of things in mystery/thrillers, but isolated settings are definitely one of my favorite things, so I was really excited to see this as a prompt for this readathon. I was even more excited because it meant that I could finally read Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect.
I read Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone in February and flew through it on a cross country flight (okay, I read like 80% of it on a cross country flight one way and then finished it on the trip home; I was too busy having fun on my trip to read), so I was super excited to get my hands on the second book in the Ernest Cunningham series and it did not disappoint!
This book is just clever. I love this narrative style; I think it’s witty and funny and cheeky, and just plain fun to read. I laughed a bunch while reading because Stevenson’s narrative voice is so entertaining. It was fun to see more of Ernest and Juliette and meet some new characters with lots of secrets to discover. Usually, when I’m reading a mystery/thriller I’m trying to solve the mystery before it’s revealed but I’ve found with this series I don’t because I’m just having so much fun — I do usually guess some things before they’re revealed, but I mostly just sit back and enjoy the ride. I had a great time reading Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect and I can’t wait for the Christmas novella that’s coming out later this year!
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (read for the Favorite Trope prompt)
Listen for the Lie is without a doubt my favorite book that I read for this readathon! All the books I read were great but this one really stood out to me. Listen for the Lie has everything that I love in a mystery/thriller — a cold case murder, small town (with very nosy and judgy townsfolk), complex female friendships and a podcast. This book felt tailor made for me. I’d heard a lot of great things about Listen for the Lie, and for me, all of those things ring true. I literally could not put this book down; this story was so compelling, I needed to know what happened to Savvy and I needed to know if Lucy had done it.
I love an “unlikeable” female character, and Lucy was definitely that, so obviously, I loved her. She was snarky and blunt and definitely made some poor choices, but I loved how real she felt. There were so many moments where she would make choices that made me shake my head and just say, “Oh, Lucy” but it was true to who she was; and while I didn’t agree with certain choices she made, I definitely understood what led her to certain choices.
We all know I love a good grandparent/grandchild relationship and the relationship between Lucy and her grandmother, Beverly, was one of my favorite parts of the book. Firstly, Beverly was hilarious, she’s an icon, but it made me so happy that while the rest of Lucy’s family was pretty horrible (I hated her mother, oh my god), Lucy could always count on her grandmother to be there for her. I just adored their relationship.
The podcast interviews were one of my favorite parts of the book; I love a good true crime podcast, and thought it was so interesting. Truthfully, Ben’s podcast is one that I would want to listen to. I loved the reveals that we got through the podcast interviews and then seeing how those reveals impacted what was happening in the present timeline. I also really liked the discussions on the “perfect victim” and “perfect villain” trope/ideal. There was just so much that I loved about this book and I know I’ll be revisiting it.
My star ratings for all the books I read in this readathon are as follows:
- Kill for Me, Kill for You — 4 stars
- Murder Road — 4 stars
- Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect — 4 stars
- Listen for the Lie — 4.5 stars
Seriously, I have never had a readathon where all of the reads were at minimum 4 stars, so I think I did a great job picking my TBR for this one!
If you’ve read any of these I’d love to know what you thought of them, and if you haven’t, are you planning on picking any of them up? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time! 💜
I just finished Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone yesterday.