THE SIREN by Katherine St. John

Publisher:      Grand Central
Published:      May 4, 2021
ISBN:      978-1538733684
Genre:     Suspense
Format:     Print from Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

FOUR -1/2 HEARTS

 

                                                                    

Cole Power and Stella Rivers are together again! Not in “real” life but soon to be on the screen.  The couple were a dynamic Hollywood tale—meeting on screen, falling in love and marrying only to have their marriage end after Stella crashed in the ways only a Hollywood star can crash—in a very public disaster.  Now, with Cole’s son from his first wife, Jackson, grown and a director, he has asked Stella to reunite with him on screen.  For Jackson’s debut film they have chosen The Siren, the story of a film star and the emotional tale of her love. When the cast and crew arrive on St. Genesiuis to film there are some surprises—the actress originally hired to play the replacement nanny has suddenly been replaced by Instagram influencer Madison and Stella has a new personal assistant who seems a tad too perfect. Things start moving along rather nicely. Filming is on schedule and the cast and crew work well together. But then cracks start showing…despite NDAs Madison insists on streaming virtually all day every day to her fans. Stella is supposed to be clean and sober but needs daily doses of myriad pills. As perfect as Felicity seems, she has secrets, secrets that could not only bring down the film itself, but the lives of everyone on the island. Taylor, the producer is desperate to ensure The Siren’s success after being fired by her father for a scandal at his studio.  And Jackson knows what really happened the night Stella and Cole tried to bury. 

 

And it seems nature will have something to say about all the secrets and deceptions being played as a hurricane hurtles toward St. Genesiuis.  Can Stella, Cole, Jackson, Felicity and the other survive the storms within and without?

 

I enjoyed Katherine St. John’s debut, LION’S DEN so much as soon as I saw her latest release, THE SIREN I had to read it. I dove in as soon as it arrived and had a hard time putting it down. After two late nights and ignoring phone calls I finished it because while I had to know how it ended, I didn’t want to miss one delicious word.

 

The story starts off almost a women’s fiction with just a tiny touch of chik lit. It quickly moves into a page turning suspense you just can’t put down.

 

Told from the points of view of the three main female characters—Stella, Felicity and Taylor—the story takes you into their pasts. Interspersed are Instagram, blog and news item posts mainly about Stella. St. John creates characters that you find yourself involved with. Each character is unique—there is no confusing one with another.  I hurt for Felicity when her past was revealed and then for Stella. I disliked Madison from her first appearance and got to dislike her more and more as the story went on.  She had no redeemable qualities and I would have liked to have seen a worse ending for her.

 

The island setting is perfect for the story.  Not quite a “closed room” mystery but close enough when one character as well as the pending hurricane create their own closed room.  While the conflicts in the story are mainly character driven with changing loyalties both between them and the reader, the atmosphere created by the hurricane adds a whole other dimension.

 

The only part I didn’t care for, which is why this is a 4-1/2 rather than 5 heart review is I’m not a fan of first person present tense.  To me it reads like a non-English speaking grammar school student’s first attempt at an essay. It just pulls me out of a story.  Fortunately this story only has a few chapters with that voice and I was able to get the gist of that character’s role by skimming.

 

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

 

 

LIONS DEN by Katherine St. John

 

Publisher:  Grand Central

Published:      June 30, 2020

ISBN:      978-1538733639

Genre:    Suspense

Format:    Print from Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

THREE HEARTS

Belle has been invited on what is possibly the vacation of a lifetime.  Billed as a birthday cruise for her long-time friend, Summer, she and several others are going for an all-expense paid trip to the Mediterranean.  Who can beat that? Packed and ready to go there are some last minute changes to the itinerary, or at least what Belle thought was going to happen.  Aside from having to wait for the rest of the vacationers in the heat, there’s the arrival of an unexpected guest.  Apparently a pre-approved friend of Summer’s sister, had taken sick and she has invited her friend Amythest.  Yes, named after the stone but spelled differently.  As they board the private jet to head to the Med, their passports are confiscated and they have to sign NDAs.  It isn’t long before the rigid control of their host begins to show—assigned seats on the plane, no food or water and two tough looking body guards.  Arriving at their destination Belle begins to see a nastier side of Summer than she’d previously shown.  The death—alleged suicide of Summer’s ex-boyfriend may contribute to the controlling, vindictive person she’s become, but there is something more going on.  When one of the guests dies in a mysterious accident Belle has no doubt the cruise from hell has become even more so.

The blurb for this book caught my attention the moment I saw it.  It looked like a fabulous summer beach read.  I had imagines of imagining myself along for the cruise of a life time.  I set my expectations too high.

LION’S DEN by Katherine St. John wasn’t a bad read.  It was saved from that by the last 75 or so pages when the truth came out.  What wasn’t there to like?  Horrible characters.  The only one with redeeming qualities that I’d even want to meet would by Dylan—and he’s portrayed by Belle as questionable.  I don’t think he was.  You can have the rest of them.  Summer is your typical blonde bimbo who isn’t a bimbo at all, but a money grubbing bully who will step on anyone who gets in her way.  She is amoral and immoral with no redeemable qualities at all.  I disliked her from the first time we meet her and throughout the whole book wondered what someone as good hearted as Belle would even be around such a despicable person.  You can kind of forgive Summer’s mother and sister because of their background as St. John portrays them as low life trailer trash.  The rest of the “girls” are just along for the ride and are your typical high school girls who want to follow the popular girl (Summer) because she’s such a bully they have no choice. Wendy is the typical “good friend” of the bully.  Amythest has some decent qualities, but she’s no one I’d want for a friend, especially when she goes after someone else’s man, not because she wants him but because of the money.

For most of the book Belle came off as a spineless pushover.  Yes, she’s the character with the heart of gold that will do anything for her friends, but the way she let Summer walk all over her was ridiculous.  If she really wanted to make it as an actress she would have had some backbone.  We learn why at the very end, but by then it was too late to care about what happened to her.  A little showing of the core she had would have made liking her a little easier. 

The bits about the Med and cruising were easy to visualize.  The writing was okay.  Told essentially from Belle’s point of view, the flip flopping within paragraphs of first and third person was a little distracting. 

Initially I thought the book was going to take a Jeffrey Epstein like turn with something more dire happening to the girls.  What the actual plot was about turned out to be pretty good.  I wouldn’t say this was a total suspense although there were elements of it.  More of a chik lit with suspense overtones.

Because of the ending and how satisfying it was I did something I rarely ever do because there are so many good books out there just waiting for me.  I went back and re-read the parts that led up to the conclusion, reading between the lines this time.  It made Belle a bit more likeable which is why I rated this book a three instead of a two. Which brings me back to recommending this book.  I would – if you are looking for a beach read this is the one to pick.  Would I read St. John again?  Sure.  This was her debut and because the idea for this one was solid I’d give her another chance.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.