Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay – 5 Stars!

       

Honestly if I could give this more I would.  I think this is my favorite book of the season, of those authors I had never read before.  It is a thriller, compelling you to keep reading after the first couple of pages.  The story was well thought out, well timed, no lags, and the characters were well fleshed out and I liked the way they included in the story.  I know I should have figured out how it ended before it did, honestly though I couldn’t figure out which character did it…..and why.  I could see where it was going but couldn’t figure out who fixed those elevators. When reading it really makes you think…..do I really want to take an elevator?  I’m not including a description of the book as it is shown in Goodreads which you can see below.

I won this book in a Goodreads contest as an Advanced Reader’s Edition.  I love to read these discover new authors and write reviews about their books when I’m done, to help others discover the newest great new book!  #LinwoodBarclay. #ElevatorPitch. #takethestairs. #willammorrowbooks.

Description from Goodreads:

The New York Times bestselling author of A Noise Downstairs and No Time for Goodbye returns with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach—a heart-pounding tale in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear.

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, non-stop, to the top. Once there, it stops for a few seconds, and then plummets.

Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And when Wednesday brings yet another high-rise catastrophe, one of the most vertical cities in the world—and the nation’s capital of media, finance, and entertainment—is plunged into chaos.

Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. And it’s working. Fearing for their lives, thousands of men in women working in offices across the city refuse leave their homes. Commerce has slowed to a trickle. Emergency calls to the top floors of apartment buildings go unanswered.

Who is behind this? Why are they doing it? What do these deadly acts of sabotage have to do with the fingerless body found on the High Line? Two seasoned New York detectives and a straight-shooting journalist must race against time to find the answers before the city’s newest, and tallest, residential tower has its Friday night ribbon-cutting.

With each diabolical twist, Linwood Barclay ratchets up the suspense, building to a shattering finale. Pulsating with tension, Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill readers to the bone. 

Into The Jungle by Erica Ferencik – I gave this jungle romance 4 Stars!

This book didn’t grab me from the beginning….it was a slow burn.  I would read a few pages, get distracted and put it down.  When I got half way through I found I was reading more and more before I put the book down.  Closer to the end I had to keep reading I was invested in the characters and had to find out how it was going to end.  There are mystical qualities that I didn’t expect to find with this book.  The author did a fabulous job at researching the flora, fauna and people of the Bolivian jungle.  You will learn a lot as you read this book, it’s very interesting, captivating towards the end and you’ll have to finish the book with a better knowledge of what it is like to live in the jungle.  I won’t talk about the characters or story of the book as I’m going to include the description as found on Goodreads.

I won a review copy of this book from #Goodreads, #ScoutPressBooks, and the author #EricaFerencik of #IntoTheJungleBook.  The review includes my own thoughts and I do this review thoroughly willingly…..I like to support authors!

Description as found on Goodreads:
In this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of the “haunting, twisting thrill ride” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) The River at Night, a young woman leaves behind everything she knows to take on the Bolivian jungle, but her excursion abroad quickly turns into a fight for her life.

Lily Bushwold thought she’d found the antidote to endless foster care and group homes: a teaching job in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As soon as she could steal enough cash for the plane, she was on it.

When the gig falls through and Lily stays in Bolivia, she finds bonding with other broke, rudderless girls at the local hostel isn’t the life she wants either. Tired of hustling and already world-weary, crazy love finds her in the form she least expected: Omar, a savvy, handsome local man who’d abandoned his life as a hunter in Ayachero—a remote jungle village—to try his hand at city life.

When Omar learns that a jaguar has killed his four-year-old nephew in Ayachero, he gives Lily a choice: Stay alone in the unforgiving city, or travel to the last in a string of ever-more-isolated river towns in the jungles of Bolivia. Thirty-foot anaconda? Puppy-sized spiders? Vengeful shamans with unspeakable powers? Love-struck Lily is oblivious. She follows Omar to this ruthless new world of lawless poachers, bullheaded missionaries, and desperate indigenous tribes driven to the brink of extinction. To survive, Lily must navigate the jungle--its wonders as well as its terrors—using only her wits and resilience.

Primal, gripping, and terrifying, Into the Jungle features Erica Ferencik’s signature “visceral, white-knuckle” (Entertainment Weekly) prose that will sink its fangs into you and not let go.