E is for Everyone

I’m doing folklore and book review posts to reach and please a larger audience. Previous years have shown select interest in both and to minimise blogging throughout the year, I’m focusing my efforts on April.

Focusing on an A to Z of my TBR (to be read) list, each letter will have books starting with that letter on my list, a book I’ve read and reviewed (with the review!) and one of my books matching the letter with a link about more info about the book.

If you’d rather check out my folklore post for today, go here.

My TBR

About the Book I’ve Read

Everyone Is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf

The Best Friend. The Confidant. The Senator. The Boyfriend. The Executive.

Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect, and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated.

When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show—someone is out for blood. And the game can’t end until the world knows who the contestants really are…

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

A thrilling twist on reality TV: 5 contestants, 1 host and a hidden production team at an old Tuscan-style villa in wine country.

Turns out all five contestants have something from their past they’ve been hiding – and this competition is out to reveal it all. It’s clear that Fern, the host, knows the surprise contestant, but it is quite probable that she orchestrated the whole revenge plot…

I liked Maire. She was a sympathetic character. Her bad thing from the past was teenage/young adult stupidity, not something malicious. And her need for the money wasn’t greed: genuine need to keep her ill daughter alive.

There are great themes and subplots that make it all fit together in an intriguing puzzle. (Potential triggers: social media bullying, sexual harassment in the workplace, rape, bullying in the workplace, death by cop, suicide, infidelity, divorce, stalking/obsession, lack of privacy, debilitating medical conditions.)

The reality show is so much psychological and physical torment or the instant entertainment of others (social media alerts, commentary, etc.) for the grand prize of ten million dollars. Though we get Maire and Camille’s POV and know their motivation for sticking it out, it isn’t quite clear why the men endure it (except to fund the hiding of secrets?).

Fast paced with several possible twists as red herrings, the truth even stranger (and sadder) than all those imagined. A fun read for anyone who enjoys reality TV, social media drama (in all its forms) and seeing revenge meted out where the justice system has failed.

My only issues: use of blocks of italics and the Lord’s name as an expletive.

My Book

Small, Everyday Fae (Origin of the Fae #1)

I hope you enjoyed this. For more books I’ve read and reviewed, check out either my Pinterest board about reviews or my Goodreads profile. Alternatively, you can check out my reviews on BookBub. Have you read any of the books? Loved or hated any of them?

You can now support my time in producing book review posts (buying books, reading, writing reviews and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion.

*FYI, my reviews are my honest opinion and if something bothers me, I tell it straight. How else will anything change? My opinions are based on being a voracious reader and book buyer, not an attack on the author.*