Book of the Month Thriller Reading Vlog

hi I'm Em from twenty one readers and this video  is going to be a reading blog for my book of the month March picks all of my March picks were  Thrillers I had two main picks and one add-on in this video I'm going to be reading murder  Road by Simone St James listen for the Lie by Amy Tina and kill for me kill for you by Steve  Cavanagh enjoy the Vlog this is my 50% update for murder Road by Simone St James right now it  feels like a three star however a new character was just introduced that's

making me intrigued  for the second half this book takes place in the 9s and it follows a newly married couple on the  way to their honeymoon they're driving at night on a highway and a hitchhiker comes to their  car in the first chapter and when they let her in the car they realize she's severely wounded  so they take her to the hospital and she ends up dying so this couple who was just trying to help  out the hitchhiker ends up accused of her murder and so the book is mainly about us figuring

out  who this woman was and it turns out that there are many hitchhikers that have been murdered over  the years on this specific Road this author are always includes a supernatural element to her  books and the chapters in this book with the supernatural element have been the most creepy  and the most enjoyable however there are two things that are kind of hindering my enjoyment  of the book overall one is the main character and two is how formulaic the book is to her other  books the main cha

racter falls into a tropeo scene many times in Thrillers where we have our main  character who didn't come from a lot of money she's arange from her parent so she's kind of on  her own and we don't really have anything making her more interesting or new new than this Trope  so she's a pretty General caricature or archetype of that character so I'm not really invested  in the characters I'm mainly just invested in the Supernatural element which leads me into how  this book is quite similar to her

other books her most three recent books before this are the book  of cold cases the Sundown motel and the broken girls and they're all very similar we have a  supernatural element we have a murder mystery at the center we have detectives involved and we  have the boyfriend or the husband helping our main character figure out what actually happened and  the who done it of the murder mystery is always somehow tied to the supernal ghost getting closure  in the afterlife so all of them are pretty s

imilar and hit the same beats they're just in different  settings and time periods whenever I start not enjoying the story and instead comparing it to  other books and how similar they are I can tell it's going to be hard to bounce back from that  and then I got to thinking that a lot of murder mysteries are similar but this one just seems so  similar that you would think this author would lean into the supernatural elements more since  those are the most original scenes compared to other thrill

er books but the supernatural elements  those chapters are few in far between and I can't help just reading to get to the next Supernatural  chapters so between this character that we've seen before these beat by beat Thrillers we've seen  before this book isn't really doing anything that fresh or original all of us to say between  the flat characters and the beat bybe way the plot is unfolding and how we're only getting  short glimpses of the supernatural elements guide to murdered is because i

f you ask me what  the best podcast thriller book is that one comes to mind despite that one being ya even though  I wasn't comparing this book to this author's previous books I was definitely thinking is the  podcast element of this really helping the story or not and at the 50% Mark I'm thinking it's not  really adding intrig I think it's done a little sloppily actually because we have a podcast clip  between each chapter and sometimes the people that the podcast host is interviewing hasn't be

en  introduced on Page in the story and so I don't know who we're even interviewing and it's a lot  of women so all of the women are getting blurred together in my head and I'm not sure if I should  be remembering what's happening in the podcast or if the purpose of the chapters are just to make  the reader feel like how much the community is gossiping about this or how much they didn't like  our main character so at this point I think it's just sloppy the way what the podcast has done  however

I do think the element of this podcast host coming to the hometown to do his interviews  is adding to the story because that feels more original because we don't have the typical woman  goes back to her hometown and is rehashing this case we have oh everybody is acting this sort  of way to the characters but they're acting this way when the podcaster talks to them I do  think that the man the podcast host coming to town is adding to the story and is adding to my  enjoyment and suspense however I

don't think the actual inclusion of the podcast chapter in between  chapters is helping the story so that's why some parts of the podcast story are helping some are  hindering I do have a theory about who it's going to be and I'm hoping I'm right so that's the  main reason that I think this could be bump up to a five depending on this ending the ending  I could see this going multiple ways and I'm hoping that the payoff is there another thought  I have about the main character is she has this s

ense of humor that's dry and witty and sometimes  I think it makes her stand out and sometimes I'm thinking that her tone of voice is unnecessary so  I think that's being done intentionally to kind of get the point across that this isn't our typical  likable main character she's pretty unliked by most people in the story and for that reason  I do like that our main character stands out particularly contrasting my comment about murder  Road how that was such a bland main character I'll take an un

likable main character if she stands  out even if sometimes reading in her head gets a little bit grading so I'm liking it I'm not  loving it the podcast isn't perfect and I'm not 100% sold on this needing to be a podcast book I  definitely wonder if people who actually like True Crime podcasts like podcast Thrillers more than  people that don't listen to True Crime podcasts I'm not a true crime podcast person so I don't  think it's adding much but we'll see I think this could be a f star depend

ing on the ending next  we have my 50% thoughts for kill for me kill for you by Steve kavana the 50% Mark left me at one  of my favorite plot twists I've read in a long time and right now this feels like a festar  book this one takes place in New York I think within the mystery thriller genre this one's more  specifically a crime Thriller we're following our main character who is a widow she's lost both her  husband and her daughter and she's trying to kill the person that she thinks killed her

daughter  and she's not able to execute that kill but then she meets somebody that's willing to do it for  her and so hence the title kill for me kill for you because she's going to kill somebody else  related to The Other Woman and then the other woman's going to kill the person who killed her  daughter so of these three books this first half of this book B has been the most engaging and  most fun I've had it's also incredibly original I can't really compare it to any other Thriller  that I've

read in recent years and the plot twist that just hit at the 50% Mark is probably my  favorite plot twist that I've read in the past year I really hope that the second half can live  up to the first half because the first half was absolutely a five star I'm definitely wondering  how the pacing is going to be in the second half and if the twists and the payoff is going to live  up to this first half even though we're following two women we have four po these two are from men  I think those could

be cut out cuz I think it's affecting the pacing so we'll see if this one ends  up staying a five star I'm hoping the second half lives up to the first half I have now finished  all three of my book of the month Thrillers for March so I'm going to move into my 100% updates  for all of them starting with murder Road I'm giving this a three star even though the pacing  of the reveals was better than her last book and the way that things were connected were a little  bit more meaningful ultimately

this one was pretty forgettable particularly our main character and  our main couple and even though the supernatural element was unique it didn't make this book stand  out more than her other Supernatural books and this isn't what I'm going to be recommending to  people I think if the supernatural element is going to be the standout make those scenes more  frequent in the book and if you're going to rely on the emotional core of the characters make the  character more unique or emotionally comp

elling and not so much of a caricature that we see in  thriller books all the time my updated rankings for Sim Moon St James books are going to be the  Sundown Motel first then the broken girls then murder Road and then the book of cold cases the  book of cold cases had pacing issues I remember and I didn't really think that the second half of  that book worked whereas I think the second half of this book was Stronger Just because pieces of  the puzzle were starting to fit together in a way that

I wasn't expecting so for that reason even  though I do have a lot of complaints about this book I'm keeping it out a three and not a two  because I was intrigued in how everything was going to come together it's just it was ultimately  forgettable and the supernatural elements weren't used as much as I thought they could have and  particularly as we're compar comparing to the other books in this video the characters at  V Center were dull and that's something I've noticed as I've become more p

icky with my mystery  thrillers over the years is that I do need to have some Buy in with the characters Beyond just the  suspense and the plot twist and this is a pretty dull main character if you've been curious about  supernatural Thrillers but you're not sure if it's something you would like I think this book would  be a good place to start since the supernatural element isn't that overbearing and it's told in  an accessible way it's not confusing and it's not diving into creepy horror terri

tory that would be  scary it's more just creepy for the characters and suspenseful but just in short Snippets so I think  this would be a good place to start if you're wanting a thriller with Supernatural elements and  you haven't tried it next is listen for the lie 100% update I'm giving this four stars and I'm  disappointed by that rating I thought this could have gotten bumped up to a five but why didn't  it for a few reasons one is mainly the ending I mentioned in my original update that I t

hought the  podcast element was done a bit sloppily wherein the podcast episodes in between chapters were  throwing in new characters we hadn't met yet or making it seem like more things were happening  than were actually happening and making it seem not as focused in terms of who are we suspecting  here all that to say I was willing to look past my critiques with the podcast element if this  ending blew me away and this ending not only did it not blow me away it was disappointing all that  buil

dup for that ending I don't want to say it was predictable but it seemed like it was almost  like the author carefully plotted this podcast and these characters but didn't really know what the  ending was going to be and then she just picked somebody and thrillers like that where they didn't  lead us to what actually happened it almost makes me want to do a reread knowing the ending but  I don't think that a reread would help because I think my original criticism of the podcast being  sloppy sta

nd maybe I would reread just the podcast element I don't think if I was a listener of  this podcast if this podcast was real I would be able to piece together the Hut of it all and  as someone who read the book does the ending make sense in the book the podcast host never really  asserts his opinion on what happened he more just conveys other people's opinions he doesn't make  his own opinions it almost seems like the author was using restraint to not lead the reader and  didn't really give us a

ny action scenes or any hints until the end where it got movie vainly bad  like unrealistically bad I think the main issue is the podcast element was not done as crisply as  it could have been and same with the ending it seemed like the ending wasn't laid out for us and  whenever I spend time in a thriller and then the ending is just random specifically the who done  it of it all is random it kind of makes me wonder why we were even here all along but the pros of  this book are I did think this

one was unique I thought that this was a nice take on woman goes  back to her hometown and she doesn't really like anybody but the fact that we had this new blood  with this this new character of the podcaster made it seem more fresh I like that the crime wasn't  in high school I like that the crime was when they were in their early 20s just after college  or while they were still in college because a lot of these books were the main character goes  back to her hometown the crime happened when t

hey were in childhood or in high school so I hope  the fact that they were older felt like it was doing something a little bit new on the take as  well I think if we're comparing 2024 book of the month Thrillers from authors where it's their  first adult Thriller and they used to write ya first li wins is a much better Thriller compared  to listen for the LI however I'm still glad I read this and I do think it's above average hence  why I'm giving it a four star but it's not a new favorite howev

er if I'm comparing it to that  other book of the month roller author Kate Alice Marshall what lies in the woods and no one could  know those ones were both similar with the main character going back to her hometown with the  crime that was committed in her childhood and I think this book listen for the lie was better than  both of those books what lies in the woods and no one can know so if you were let down by those  books or thought they were just average this book I think was better the podc

ast element some parts  of it worked for me some parts of it didn't work for me I think if you're into True Crime podcasts  you would like this I think if you want somewhere to start with podcast adult Thrillers this would  be a good one to start with the other podcast adult Thriller I mentioned no one can know I had  also given a fourstar it's a bit hard to compare that one to this one since the stories are so  different I do think we're winding down on the True Crime podcast element in Thrille

rs at least  I hope we winding down I would recommend this if you're looking for a new thriller author that  you haven't tried and you're running a podcast element if you like the Trope of woman goes  back to her hometown to rehash a crime from her past I think this one is a fun read despite  the ending being disappointing for me and finally we have my 100% update for kill for me kill for  you which Speaking of disappointing endings this one also had unfortunately I was feeling like  this was go

ing to be a fstar book at my 50% update and this one is getting bumped down to a  four the first half had some of my favorite plot twists that I've read in the past year however the  execution of the second half went downhill I think it maybe was a combination of pacing because the  book seemed to come to a halt after the big plot twist at the halfway point but then when we got  to this final sequence of events it felt almost rushed and this character is going through a lot  of grief this is the

one who lost her daughter and husband and we wrapped things up very quickly  I think I would have liked some more emotional closure from that character we do get some but  it seemed rushed and the way at all the point of views tied together was plotted very meticulously  which I enjoyed however we were trying to tie up all these loose ends at the end and while it was  a longer Thriller I think it could have been a little bit longer just so we could wrap up the  story because the book was so car

efully plotted and edited and so that we had short chapters  and that we kept reading but then the ending just kind of halted in its tracks which was a let  down and I think the pasting overall in the second half wasn't my favorite I really thought this  was going to be a five star but we didn't keep the five star feeling the whole book only in the  first half another thing this is more on n picky side not a reason that I gave it four stars but  this book was marketed as being set in New York I

remember like in the description either on book  of the month website or Goodreads it mentioned New York but it was pretty obvious that this author  was from the UK and that they just changed details to make it in New York when I think it really  could have been any non-descript City I don't really know why the marketing fixated on the  New York of it all cuz it was pretty obvious they just changed words because there would be  random locations sprinkled in sometimes that weren't relevant and th

en whenever there was a  news article mentioned which was actually kind of frequent it was always from the New York Post  why were we always using the same Source or just don't say what the source was or just save a  newspaper and then I was catching on to some vocabulary that we don't use in the US that I went  and looked up to think is this a British word for example he uses the phrase walking frame which we  don't say in the US and I looked it up and that's what they call walkers in the UK so

I was getting  a little bit nitpicky by the language used here and I definitely think we could it just not even  spe ified what city it was in because it being in New York wasn't necessarily relevant anyway  that was more of a nitpicky thing not really a criticism but I'm definitely wondering if other  people noticed differences because this book was originally published in the UK in 2023 and then  was published in the US this year I guess with some changes with the location and some of the  vo

cab used I think the reason I was fixating on these things is cuz I remember in my original  March book of the month video I wasn't sure if I wanted to try us author since I typically read  female Thriller authors but I was willing to give this one a try between the two male povs that  didn't really seem necessary and the New York changes I was definitely wondering if I would read  another book from this author I think I would just cuz I was so intrigued by this plot setup but I  would only read

another book from this author if I was intrigued by the plot setup because that's  something that I will take away from this is that it was incredibly original and I'm happy I read  an original thriller so overall I would recommend this one if you want an original story this setup  was incredibly fun em this was a pretty fast-paced read so even if you typically only read female  Thriller authors this one isn't above average Thriller I would still recommend this one and I  gave this one and list

en for the lie both four stars so getting into my rankings of this video  my favorite was kill for me kill for you which I gave four stars my second favorite was listen  for the lie which I gave four stars and my third favorite was murder road which I gave three stars  those were my March book of the month Thrillers that I read tell me in the comments your thoughts  on these books and I'll see you in the next one bye