Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding - 4 Stars

 "Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat.

A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she had hoped that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into the Forrester world. But after a disturbing incident at the school causes the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before.

Until she meets Kate Randolph.

Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart—one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunik. And she’s a murderer."

This was a pretty fast paced read and pulled me in from the beginning. I rated it 3 1/2 stars and rounded up. Mostly because I was waiting for something explosive to happen and it didn't. The ending fell flat for me
It took a bit to put some of the characters into the places that they played in the story, but when they did fall into place it made more sense.

The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum - 3 Stars

 "Suburbia. Shady, tree-lined streets, well-tended lawns and cozy homes. A nice, quiet place to grow up. Unless you are teenage Meg or her crippled sister, Susan. On a dead-end street, in the dark, damp basement of the Chandler house, Meg and Susan are left captive to the savage whims and rages of a distant aunt who is rapidly descending into madness. It is a madness that infects all three of her sons and finally the entire neighborhood. Only one troubled boy stands hesitantly between Meg and Susan and their cruel, torturous deaths. A boy with a very adult decision to make."

This was a really hard book to get through and I found myself skimming through the end just so I could finish it. It was rough to read about everything that was happening,

A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil - 3 Stars

 "Annie Beyers has everything—a beautiful house, a loving husband, and an adorable daughter. It’s a day like any other when she takes Hannah to the pediatrician…until she wakes hours later from a car accident. When she asks for her daughter, confused doctors tell Annie that Hannah never existed. In fact, nothing after waking from the crash is the same as Annie remembers. Five happy years of her life apparently never happened.

Annie’s marriage is coming to an end. Now a successful artist living in Manhattan, she’s no longer home in their beloved upstate farmhouse. Her long-estranged sister is more like a best friend, and her recently deceased dog is alive and well. With each passing day, Annie’s remembered past and unfamiliar present begin to blur. Haunted by visions of Hannah, and with knowledge of things she can’t explain, Annie wonders…is everyone lying to her?

The search for answers leads Annie down an illuminating path far from home, to reconcile the memories with reality and to discover the truth about the life she’s living."

I thought this book started out really well and was headed in a good direction. Then a little over half way through it, it took a turn that I didn't care for at all.

Dead End Girl by LT Vargus - 4 Stars

 Special Agent Violet Darger with the FBI is called into the midwestern town of Athens, Ohio when a girl's body is found mutilated and left inside a dumpster outside of the local Burger King. 2 more mutilated corpses were found within the town, bringing shock to the local community. There's little evidence to follow and Darger feels the case is hopeless, but she must do what ever necessary to keep the killer from mutilating another young girl.

For the most part this was a nice, fast paced thriller. I did feel that there were some unnecessary parts of the story that could have been left out and made the story a little shorter. The ending was quick and there wasn't really a lot of build up to it. I may check out the next book in the series to see if I like it any better. 

The Lobotomist's Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff - 4 Stars

 "Since her brother took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeraldine has had one goal: to help those suffering from mental illness. Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy. Ruth believes in it as a miracle treatment and in Robert as its genius pioneer. But as her husband spirals into deluded megalomania, Ruth can’t ignore her growing suspicions. Robert is operating on patients recklessly, often with horrific results. And a vulnerable young mother, Margaret Baxter, is poised to be his next victim.

Margaret can barely get out of bed, let alone care for her infant. When Dr. Apter diagnoses her with the baby blues and proposes a lobotomy, she believes the procedure is her only hope. Only Ruth can save her—and scores of others—from the harrowing consequences of Robert’s ambitions."

I rounded this up to 4 stars, although it wasn't really a 4 star read for me. I love reading about psychology and it's history. I'm fascinated by the things that they thought would work many years ago. The first half was great, but the ending fell really flat for me. I was hoping for more of a "bang" at the end,  but it just wasn't there. 

Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre - 3 Stars

 Dr Neena Ryder and her husband Matt move into a wealthy suburb next to Cat and her husband William. Neena is William's newest employee with a goal of more than succeeding at her job. Cat has everything Neena wants, including William and Neena sets out to get what she wants. 

Most of the story is told between the points of view between Neena and Cat. For the first part it was fairly fast paced and intriguing, but then about 3/4 of the way through it started to fall apart. There was a twist towards that point, but it wasn't as good of a twist as I was expecting. Not sure if I'll read anything else by this author.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty - 4 Stars

The author is a mortician and basically it's questions that people have asked her about dead bodies. There are the more popular ones, like what happens if you eat unpopped popcorn kernels and then are cremated, and odd ones such as what happens to a body when someone dies in space. 

The book was interesting and the author made most of it humorous. There were a few chapters that didn't interest me, but over all it was a good book.