Review:  A Complete Fiction - R.L Maizes - November 2025 Every now and then, a book comes along that doesn’t just entertain—it pokes at the edges of our comfort zones and asks the hard questions. A Complete Fiction is one of those reads. I picked it up expecting a juicy publishing scandal, and what I got was a layered, provocative story that had me thinking long after I turned the last page. At the heart of the novel is P.J. Larkin, a would-be author who posts a “nibble” on the social media app Crave—accusing editor George Dunn of stealing her manuscript. With little evidence, the post goes viral, and suddenly George’s career and reputation are hanging by a thread. The twist? George’s own #MeToo experience inspired the story, while P.J. wrote it based on her sister’s trauma. Cue the moral minefield: who owns a story, and what happens when cancel culture turns its lens on the accuser? This book reminded me of the messy, emotionally charged conversations we often avoid—especially i...

Review: Dice - Claire Baylis - January 2023 As someone from New Zealand, I have to admit when it comes to New Zealand fiction - I either end up DNF'ing it or the ones that I do finish, I end up loving and enjoying. There tends to be no in-between for me. Like UK Fiction, NZ fiction can be quite slow-paced and this book was no different as it does take a long time to read and that's coming from someone who is normally quite a fast reader though it was good, I felt in parts that it did drag on and since it was set in a courtroom trial - there was a lot of repetition from the witnesses and the people on trial, etc. The book is set in Rotorua which I loved as since my partner is from there and I have been there quite a few times, I was able to visualize and imagine the location of where the story was set and some of the places mentioned in the book - I too had been there a few times like The Fat Dog Cafe. Dice tells the story of a teenage sex game that has been created between f...

Review: Remember Me - Nelle L'Amour - October 2024 I had previously read Nelle L'Amour's book The Night Nanny and loved it as thrillers are one of my go-to reads. In Remember Me, I was excited as this book also had a hint of one of my favorite tropes amnesia and new identities but with a twist. The book started with Skye who is an amazing investigative journalist and has been contacted by an actress to help bring down a media mogul for rape and sexual assault. As Skye digs deeper, she finds more stories and she has a few of her own too. The thing though is that this guy is powerful and unless she has actual concrete evidence and proof, her story will be another one swept under the rug. She dresses up one night and gets her proof, but of course, they aren't going to let her just get away unscathed and she ends up presumed dead. Fast forward five years, Skye is now Scarlett living in the WITSEC program and has extensive plastic surgery reconstruction. By coincidence, she ...

Review: I Love It When You Lie - Kristen Bird - March 2023 This book had attracted me with the cover and I wanted to know more. When I started reading it, it was a good read and I was immediately thrown into the family of the Williams sisters. What a crazy family it was all filled to the brim with dark secrets of their own and each one protecting the other, also we discovered again like a few other books I have read, that the men have a wandering eye and other body parts. However, in this book, it doesn't bode well for the men as they have tended to end up dead. The book starts the day it should have been a celebration for the matriarch of the family Pearl Williams as it was her 80th birthday. However, instead of celebrating her birthday, they were having her funeral.  The book then jumps forward in time to Stephanie Williams - the wife of Walker Williams sitting in an interrogation room as the officer is grilling her about her sister in laws and a missing person. Stephanie knows...

    Review: Her, Too - Bonnie Kistler - February 2023 One of the awesome things I love about being a book blogger/reviewer is that you often get to read books months before they are released and, in this case, I have even managed to read them before the cover is revealed which is rare. I had heard of this author prior as I currently have one of her earlier books The Cage to read but I hadn't read any of her. This book captured my attention as it talked about the #metoo movement which became a big thing over the last few years and turned into a female-united alliance. Nearly every person mainly female but can be male too has had some form of sexual assault whether it be harassment or in this case sadly, edgier with rape. This book starts with our culprit - the good doctor who is on the verge of curing Alzheimer's disease - Dr. George Benedict who is on trial for raping three of his colleagues/employees. Kelly McCann is representing him and has just won the trial, she is on a ...