Hi hello and welcome to my 2022 most anticipated releases! I know this post is a bit late but I still wanted to share some of the upcoming book releases that I'm really excited about this year. This list probably isn't anywhere near finished but these are the ones I’m really looking  forward to! These will be in order of release date and will have their Goodreads pages linked so you can easily add any of these titles to your want to read shelf if you’re interested in checking them out. Let’s get started!

From Goodreads: "The zoo is nearly empty as Joan and her four-year-old son soak up the last few moments of playtime. They are happy, and the day has been close to perfect. But what Joan sees as she hustles her son toward the exit gate minutes before closing time sends her sprinting back into the zoo, her child in her arms. And for the next three hours—the entire scope of the novel—she keeps on running.
Joan’s intimate knowledge of her son and of the zoo itself—the hidden pathways and under-renovation exhibits, the best spots on the carousel and overstocked snack machines—is all that keeps them a step ahead of danger."

Thank you to Viking Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.

This one came as a recommendation from one of my favorite Booktubers, Books and Lala, as she is someone whose opinion I hold in high regard when it comes to thriller books. She had this on her TBR and suddenly, it started popping up everywhere around me with high praise, so I ended up picking it up on NetGalley. While I had my issues with it, it was still enjoyable and I'm really glad I got the opportunity to read it!

Plot:
Joan and her four year old son are relaxing in their last moments of playtime at the zoo for the day. It's been a good day and the two are happy. But as Joan is making her way toward the exit before closing time, she sees something that makes her turn and run, clutching her son in her arms. For the next three hours, she continues to run, and only Joan's knowledge of both her son and the zoo keep them a few steps ahead of the danger that lurks in the zoo.

This book was a solid "okay" for me, personally. It wasn't really tense or thrilling like I was expecting, but I did find myself wanting to find out what would happen next. I think that the fact that this book takes place over the span of a few hours really allowed me to just sit down and read through this relatively fast. I didn't want to really break the pacing of the book so I found myself turning page after page fairly quickly. Speaking of the pacing, I did feel it moved at a moderate pace, probably trying to build up suspense for the reader. Again, I didn't find this very thriller-esque, but that may have just been because of my inability to really connect with the main character. Fierce Kingdom did change points of view multiple times, but never for very long. I didn't enjoy the other characters as much as Joan, so that also may have contributed to my "okay" feeling on the book overall. I did enjoy the cat and mouse feeling that Joan was experiencing, having to make her way around the zoo while there were men creeping around killing people (not a spoiler, it's pretty obvious) and trying not to get caught. That was a cool experience and I do wish it been expanded upon more because unfortunately, Joan doesn't really...do anything for a large portion of the novel. She does have to focus on keeping herself calm and her son, but she mostly just...sits there. I understand, you probably don't want to move around without knowledge of where the potential killers are, but it just kind of left me bored while reading. There were a few things I took issue with, but the overall story was decent with, as I said above, moderate pacing that was easy to just kind of fly through.

Characters:
First off, I have to say that as I am not a mother, I wasn't able to really connect with Joan as a character throughout this book. She also did a few things that just really drove me nuts while reading, such as refusing to call the police and throwing her cell phone away as a distraction when she had perfectly good rocks she was already throwing. Just...why? I suppose if I was put in a situation like that, I may not make the best decisions either, the ones she made just did not sit well with me. But she did do the best she could under the circumstances, and I guess that's really all one could ask for. She did have to not only try very hard to keep herself calm, but her son as well. Lincoln was very active and did get loud at times, and I feel that if he had seen Joan outwardly panicking, then it would have caused him to act out even more and potentially get them caught. I'm sure as a mother, staying calm under stressful situations in order to keep your kid(s) calm is not an easy task, so again, doing the best she could in her situation. She was a fairly strong character, doing all that she could to keep herself and her son safe no matter what, and I did have moments where I did genuinely enjoy her. I do feel that I would have liked her a lot more had the story solely focused on her and Lincoln instead of switching character points of view throughout, but she was an overall strong character that really did stand out to me and that I enjoyed reading about. I just wish she hadn't thrown away her phone!

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy any of the other characters in this book. They weren't really fleshed out very well but rather were like your typical nondescript side characters. Kailynn was a pretty boring teenager character, not much background on her was given and she only really came into play towards the end of the book. Even then, she wasn't a huge part of anything and I just didn't really like her very much. Also, Margaret felt like she was just there for convenience which will only really make sense if you've read the book, but just like Kailynn, she was a pretty boring character. The side characters really felt like side characters and Joan was more of the main character focus. Again, I wish she had been the only point of view that I got to read from as I think that she could have been developed more and I think at that point, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more than I did.

Writing:
I believe I stated this above but Fierce Kingdom was a fairly easy book to just sit down and read through. I genuinely think that with the entire book taking place over a few hours really allowed me to just sit down and read through it without stopping. I felt like I didn't really want to break the pace of the book by putting it down, so I just wanted to read it in its entirety. The writing was very easy to follow, though not as suspenseful as I had hoped for. But Gin Phillips did do a good job at drawing me in and making me want to read more about Joan and Lincoln. I wasn't able to connect or really care about any of the other characters, but I feel that they may have been written that way on purpose? Almost as if the author wanted you to focus on Joan's story but also have a few different points of view to see the situation from. If that was the case, the author did a great job at that. One thing I did have a problem with was the abrupt ending! I had gotten very into the story, especially by the end, and then just as things kind of picked up and got intense, the book ended. I was left feeling somewhat empty and like the true ending was almost stolen from me, if that makes sense. It was just a very sudden "this happened and then this and the end" without much warning and it definitely had me turning the pages back to make sure that it really was the end and that I didn't miss anything. It was an interesting place to end the book at, that's for sure, and I suppose we as readers are supposed to kind of draw our own conclusions as to what happens. There were some lose ends that didn't get tied off but again, I guess we're supposed to kind of create our own ending. I did enjoy Gin Phillip's writing enough to where I would consider checking out her other books, so that was a definite win for me!

Overall, I did enjoy this book despite it just being a relatively alright read for me. I think that the main character will be easily relatable for mothers (or even fathers!) that read this book as the main plot point of the story is a mother protecting her child. It wasn't the most A+ thriller I've read this year, but was still an enjoyable read and was pretty easy to get through in one sitting. Despite the issues I had, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a decent thriller that's fairly quick to get through!

From Goodreads: "Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.
That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished."

Thank you to Dutton Books for providing me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.

This was a book that had been one of my most anticipated of the year but for some reason, life kept getting in the way of me reading it. But finally, I was able to sit down and fly through this and oh my goodness was it a good one. If you're a fan of slasher horror movies, Final Girls is one you won't want to miss!

Plot:
Generally this is where I would sum up the story in my own little way but honestly, the synopsis up there does a...detailed enough job on its own. So don't just skim it if you want to know what this book is about- which you totally want to know.

As a fan of horror movies in general, this was a book I knew I was going to love just from the synopsis alone. And thankfully, I was not wrong! The story is so well written and really gives you that feeling you get when watching a slasher movie. It's not cheesy or silly (kind of like the Scream movie franchise, if you've seen that) but rather gives you this constant creepy vibe like something just isn't right. Reading Final Girls really felt like I was reading a horror movie script and I absolutely devoured it. It has an absolutely killer (haha, see what I did there?) opening and the momentum just keeps going from there. I loved how everything unfolded at what felt like the perfect pace where nothing was rushed through and nothing dragged on forever and got boring. It was such a suspenseful story that had me rapidly turning pages to find out what was going to happen next! My favorite part of this whole book was probably Quincy and how as you're following her story, you start to question quite literally everything about her and the things she does. You don't know who to trust and you're not even sure if Quincy is reliable and that was just such a fantastic aspect of the book that really elevated things to a new level. The blurb by Stephen King is a great way to describe this book: "The first great thriller of 2017 is here." Final Girls has just the right amount of horror, thrills, and suspense to keep you guessing until the very end and trust me, you won't see the ending coming at all.

Characters:
Everyone loves an unreliable narrator and Quincy is exactly that. You think she's got it all together and that she's at the very least managing to live a relatively normal life after Pine Cottage, but as the book progresses, you really see her start to unravel. She still can't remember everything that happened but something about Sam's presence causes Quincy to start remembering small details about that night. Is she telling the truth about what happened? Does she really not remember anything? As the reader, you just don't know and you're only able to go by what Quincy says. But as her life starts to fall apart after the arrival of the tornado that is Sam, you start to question Quincy and everything she says and does. I think I loved her character the best because of her unreliability and unpredictability. One minute she's baking and taking photos for her blog and the next she's beating a guy to a pulp. You never know what to expect, especially once she starts digging into Lisa's death more, and it's one great roller coaster ride with Quincy as the ride operator. Except this roller coaster has no safety bars and the conductor is a bit crazy.

I also really enjoyed all of the other characters in this book as well. Sam was, as I already described her, a tornado, and she was actually exciting (on the more suspenseful side) to follow because I never knew what she was going to do next. Coop was a strong, supportive character that Quincy was able to lean on when she needed him and I really enjoyed his presence throughout the book. Jeff was more of a side character, I personally felt, but he was also pretty supportive and helpful with Quincy although he definitely had his moments where he put his butt on his shoulders. But something that I liked was that Quincy and Jeff's relationship was more on the realistic side where instead of things being perfect throughout the whole book and them never fighting, they got into arguments and got upset at each other. It's just always nice to read a book with a relationship that I can actually believe because real relationships are not all kittens and rainbows, but rather hard work, fighting, disagreements, and even nights spent angry at each other. To have a horror book with a realistic relationship in it was just A+ for me as a reader.

Writing:
I believe I stated this above but Final Girls truly read like a horror movie script. It was so suspenseful and creepy and just constantly built up more and more suspense as the book progressed. It unfolded at such a great pace, never lagging or speeding through things, but rather giving the reader just what they needed to know at the perfect time. There were flashbacks to Pine Cottage that allowed the reader to find out exactly what happened despite Quincy not remembering. It really was just an absolutely fantastic read that was literally impossible to put down once I started. The writing felt like I was reading a long time horror/thriller author's work, but Final Girls is in fact Riley Sager's first novel! It's an absolute thrill ride from start to finish with descriptive and eerie writing that will draw you in and have you looking over your shoulder for the Pine Cottage killer!

Final Girls was definitely one of my favorite reads of 2017 and I highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of horror movies and books. You'll be drawn in by Quincy's narrow escape and will be left with your jaw on the floor by the final page. Don't miss this exciting debut horror novel that's absolutely impossible to forget!