After being stuck in quite the reading slump in January, I decided to focus February on some more fun and fast reads. For me, that means a lot of mysteries, murder, and suspense. Most books I read this month got at least four stars on Goodreads and helped me find the fun in reading again. 

Four Stars

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was incredibly strange, but I also found that I couldn't put it down. I kept wanting to know what was happening in the mysterious house and why Catalina begged her cousin Noemi to come help her.

Nantucket Nights by Elin Hilderbrand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the book I needed to pull me out of my reading slump from last month. Three friends meet for their annual midnight swim, but when one of them goes missing, their entire history and friendship is called into question. Though I definitely didn't like the ending, I enjoyed the book overall and it was a good, fast read.

Shiver by Allie Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Picked this up on a whim at the library because I was in the mood for a fun thriller, and this book delivered. Five former friends head to the Alps for a reunion. They've all received mysterious invites, and when they arrive, they find out pretty quickly that there's something very weird going on. The book flashes back and forth between the present day and 10 years ago -- the last time the group was all together at the mountain. It's a fun and fast read as the characters try to figure out what happened to their friend that went missing 10 years ago.

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Usually I only listen to audio books when I'm out for walks, but this was so good that I tried to listen to it during any spare moment so that I could figure out what happens. It jumps back and forth between the past and the present, and you learn pretty early on that something is not right between husband and wife Jack and Grace. After all the build up in this thriller, I found that I was really happy with the way this ended.

One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I discovered Karen M. McManus through the first book in this series, which was a complete page-turner. I was looking forward to reading the follow up, and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't quite as good as the first book, but it was still a good book, even though a few things were easier to figure out in this book than the first one.

Triptych by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been reading the Will Trent books for a while now, but it's been really fun to go back and see where his story started and how Karin Slaughter first introduced him. This was a good mystery where what you think for the first half of the book ends up being flipped upside down by the second half.

Three Stars

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was long, coming in near 500 pages, and I think it probably could have been shorter. That said, I overall enjoyed the story. There were some twists that I figured out, but definitely some that I did not see coming, and that made the book fun. My one main criticisms is that I felt the book yanked you out of the good plot points and back to a different point in time a little too often, and at times I found that frustrating.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was super long because it was basically two books in one. It's the story of a literary agent who's author goes missing. But before you get to solving that mystery, you first read the book that the missing author has turned in. That book is also a mystery and it parallels the real-life mystery. It was an interesting concept, but the mystery the agent is reading is not quite as compelling as the real-life mystery and it just took a really long time to get to solving that case.

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