Posted in Book Review

Review: All Dressed in White (Under Suspicion #3)

Posted on by writingkat95

The hook:

Laurie Moran, true crime aficionado, is given another cold case to solve for her show, Under Suspicion. This time around it’s the case of a vanished bride, initially assumed to have merely gotten cold feet, who was never found.

My impressions:

Don’t read this one before bed! In usual “Under Suspicion” fashion, there were lots of twists and a full cast of suspects. I stayed up well past my bedtime to finish this book, and it seeped into my dreams. It was an unsettling read, mainly because I really believed any one of the suspects could’ve killed someone. Everyone has secrets, and the authors explored all the suspects, peeling back their layers of artifice to reveal the ugly secrets everyone is hiding.

This was definitely one of the more intense “Under Suspicion” books, largely because of the fact that we don’t start off with a body, just a missing person who’s trail has long gone cold. I found myself desperately hoping they’d find the bride alive, and I won’t spoil anything about the ending, but I can definitely say that I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through.

I can definitely recommend this book, especially to fans of quick paced suspense novels with tight plotting and memorable characters.

Happy reading!

Posted in Book Review

Review: The Cinderella Murder (Under Suspicion Book #2)

Posted on by writingkat95

The hook:

A beautiful aspiring actress is found dead, missing one shoe. When the case seems cold, true crime aficionado Laurie Moran teams up once more with charismatic lawyer Alex Buckley to look into the case for her show, Under Suspicion.

My impressions:

While less gripping than “Piece of My Heart,” “The Cinderella Murder” still held my attention for one continuous sitting as I listened to the whole audiobook in one day. I could definitely see the early stages of Clark and Burke’s styles coming together. The plot felt a little less tight than I was expecting, but the fast pace made up for it, and there were plenty of twists along the way to keep me on the edge of my seat.

What I like most about this book is the way it really lets its protagonist shine as a character. Mystery novels are an inherently plot driven genre, focusing the reader’s attention on alluring premises and thrilling twists. With this book, and the Under Suspicion series as a whole, we get a recurring protagonist, Laurie, whom we get to know well as we tag along on her adventures. Her character development feels authentic, and her relationships with the other recurring characters are compelling and draw the reader further into Laurie’s world. I felt like those aspects of the book made me care more whenever Laurie was ever in any peril while solving the case, because as a reader, I was perhaps even more invested in Laurie as a character than I was in the case she was solving, twisty and compelling as it was.

I can definitely say that I would recommend this book and the full series. Laurie and the rest of the Under Suspicion team are not to be missed!

Happy reading!

Posted in Book Review

Review: Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke

Posted on by writingkat95

The hook:

A child goes missing at a beach just prior to a wedding, throwing the wedding party into chaos as they scramble to find the missing boy.

My impressions:

This was my first time reading either of the authors, and it was a heck of a first impression. I think I finished this book in one single sitting, headphones glued to my head as I listened to the audiobook on 1.5x speed, needing to know what would happen next.

I took an immediate liking to the crisp writing style, which gives enough detail to paint a mental picture, but not so much detail as to feel like overly purple prose. The suspense was driven by the almost matter-of-fact storytelling, and the pacing was so masterful I never even considered putting the book down for a break.

By the time I got to the heart-pounding ending of the book, I knew without question that I would be reading more books by both of the co-authors, who I later realized had co written an entire series, which this novel appears to be the conclusion of. Within a week of finishing “Piece of My Heart” I had also read the rest of the “Under Suspicion” series (with the exception of one book the library didn’t have) and had become an immediate fan of both Clark and Burke.

All in all I have to say that Piece of My Heart is one of my favorite books that I’ve read thus far this year, and I’ll be following up this post with reviews of the other “Under Suspicion” books, as well as some of the other Alafair Burke books I’ve read since.

Happy reading!

Posted in Uncategorized

Back Again!

Posted on by writingkat95

It’s been a while since I’ve written here. The pandemic has given me a lot of time to read, but it also brought with it a sort of paralysis whenever I’ve tried to write, even to type out a book review. However, as some of the stressors in life ease off, I’m determined to write reviews and blog posts here again!

What to expect:

I have a backlog of books I’ve read recently to review, with a good mix of older books (think 2010s) with newer releases thrown in as well. There will be a lot less YA than I used to review, largely because I’ve been widening my horizons to check out genres I’d never read much of before, like adult sci fi and fantasy, mystery and thriller novels, and romance.

I’m also toying with the idea of writing some spotlights on indie pc games that I enjoy, especially ones with strong narratives. I have a special fondness for indie games as a storytelling vehicle, and I think it could be fun to discuss them a bit here.

Lastly, I may post sporadic updates about my own writing process, though those will probably shy away from specific details and will likely be short blog posts.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Blog Post

Digital Journaling

Posted on by writingkat95

As a planner lover, one of my favorite things has been the tactile nature of journaling. Layering decorative paper and stickers onto a page to create a beautiful spread is immensely satisfy. So, when I heard of Goodnotes, a digital planner app, I was skeptical that I would get much out of using it.

Now, the past few months have been several orders of magnitude more busy than my usual life. I haven’t had time to invest as much energy in making my physical planner look nice, and it was starting to get pretty discouraging.

Enter Goodnotes 5.

Within a few minutes of playing around with the app on my iPad, I was smitten. It’s a different experience than using my physical planner, but I found it quite freeing to be able to undo and erase any mistakes, playing around with different ideas without the worry of wasting paper.

This added freedom means that it takes less mental energy to make a nice looking page spread in Goodnotes than it does to make one in my physical planner.

If you’re a planner enthusiast like me, and you feel like trying a new medium, I have only good things to say about Goodnotes 5. (As far as I know, it’s only available on iOS)

Happy planning!

-Kat

Posted in Book Review

Review of The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

Posted on by writingkat95

I’m going to start this post with a little backstory on the week that I read Maureen Johnson’s mystery trilogy conclusion, The Hand on the Wall.

This February, my house flooded. The entire bottom floor is gutted, and frankly, so am I. In between fitful nights of sleep as fans downstairs struggled to air dry the walls, I wanted to get lost in a good book.

Enter “The Hand on the Wall.”

Johnson’s magnetic writing style pulled me out of my crisis filled reality and straight into the high stakes world of Ellingham Academy and all the mysteries it holds.

Moreover, I found myself empathizing deeply with Stevie, the novel’s protagonist. Stevie has an anxiety disorder, a condition which might seem at odds with her passion for true crime and investigation.

Seeing Stevie shine as an almost Veronica Mars-esque heroine was such an empowering experience, I wish I could show this book to my teenaged self, who thought anxiety disqualified her from being the hero of any story.

Even now, as I’m slogging through one of the most stressful crises of my adult life, I needed this book. I needed to see Stevie prevail against the odds. It’s what gave me strength to push on during an absolutely unparalleled week of stress, and beyond that, it’s just a darn good book.

If you like mysteries or you just need to feel a little bit more powerful than you did yesterday, I highly recommend this book!

Happy reading!

-Kat

Posted in Blog Post

Chore Tracking with Kat

Posted on by writingkat95

After using several variations on store bought chore charts, I finally decided to make my own. With a little help from Google Sheets, I made a printable chore chart, filled in with my most frequent chores.

An example of how I use my printable chore chart.

You can see how I left some extra rows for writing in extra chores or appointments. I also used a pink zebra mildliner to highlight the rectangle for the day I planned to do each task.

This kind of simple chart works really well for me, even when I don’t need the reminder to do certain chores that have become habits.

As I check off completed tasks, I essentially create a log of my “wins” for the week. This is important to me, because like a lot of us, I often get in a slump and feel as if I haven’t accomplished anything, or that my day was a waste.

Keeping a log like this allows me to see that I have, in fact, accomplished things, even on days when it feels as if I haven’t.

If this post makes you think “hey, I could do that!” please feel free to take my idea and run with it. If you got something out of reading this post, or you try my idea and like it, please feel free to let me know in the comments section.

-Kat

Posted in Blog Post

Planner Love

Posted on by writingkat95
My planner, featuring a sticker from the “Pumpkin Days” booth at PAX South. (The sticker says “I carrot about you”)

One of the things that has gotten me through the craziness of the last year is my planner. What started as jotting down a log of my daily activities slowly morphed into a paper crafts hobby and an ever growing collection of planner stickers.

I’ve been using a combination of bullet journaling techniques, scrapbooking, and diary entries to keep track of everything going on in my life. It’s been an incredibly helpful tool for me, not only for keeping up with appointments and to do lists, but for mindfulness as well.

I’ll be posting some of my journal pages here from time to time to share some of the things I’ve found particularly helpful or enjoyable.

Posted in Blog Post

I’m Back from Hiatus

Posted on by writingkat95

Hi folks! I know it’s been a while, and my extended hiatus from this blog was not a planned one, but I’m back now!

Life has been well… I heard a saying once that went something like “everything happens so much” and that’s pretty descriptive of the last year or so of my life. I wrote a book, I’m learning how to cook and cross stitch, and my house is being remodeled. That’s a lot of plates spinning in the air at once.

All that said, this year will probably be a slow one for my writing as I slowly work on edits for the witchy book I wrote last year, and hopefully I will have plenty of time to write book reviews and updates for this blog.

Thanks for reading!

-Kat

Posted in Book Review

March Mystery Madness Part Four

Posted on by writingkat95

The last two books from my March marathon of mysteries are my favorites of the bunch.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand and Bone Gap by Laura Ruby are two exquisitely dark mysteries that are sure to keep you reading all night and leaving the lights on for nights to come.

Sawkill Girls is a gorgeous feminist horror novel that explores both the great violence and intense loyalty teenage girls are capable of. I found myself thoroughly engrossed before I realized how truly terrifying this book would get; one moment I was wondering if there was romantic subtext between two characters, and the next moment I was reading a line that mentioned cleaning up a dead body.

The true horror of this book is that by the end of it, the gore and violence seem casual and even commonplace, made mundane by sheer saturation. The emotional weight is carried not by the violence itself, but by the empty spaces it leaves behind, the characters killed off and then missed acutely.

On the flip side, Bone Gap was almost happy by comparison. It had moments of intense, skin crawling creepiness, that much is true. But despite being a shivery mystery shrouded in Midwestern gothic folklore, the beating heart of the story is something else entirely. It is, at it’s core, one of the best love stories I’ve ever read.

Not only does this book explore the gasps and yelps of first love, it also looks at the way we are shaped by the other great loves of our lives. Familial love, friendship love, love of a town, love of oneself, all of these play a role in the outcome of this story. The root of it pits against one another the ideas of love and possession, and it is scarcely a spoiler to say that in my opinion, love prevails.

I highly recommend both these books to anyone who has a hankering for things that go bump in the night.

Happy reading!

-Kat