Netgalley Reviews: Sink or Swim/The Overnight Guest

Posted March 16, 2022 by shooting in Book Review / 15 Comments

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Sink or Swim by Annabeth Albert

copy from netgalley; all opinions are my own

The first book in this new series by Albert was called Sailor Proof, and in that, you meet Calder Euler. Now this is Calder’s story and romance. You can read the books in order to get to know characters a bit better, but they are all essentially stand-alone novels in the same world. Calder ends up “winning” a cabin in a poker tournament, and then finding out that he probably doesn’t have any rights to it. That would be Felix, who is raising his two nieces.

I really enjoyed Sink or Swim. It was a bit slow to start, but then it picked up more. I appreciated that Calder and Felix had a slow-moving relationship. It’s never mentioned that Calder is demisexual in the book, but that’s the feeling that I got, and while I wish it was named if that’s the case, it’s still nice to see the sexuality “represented” a bit more. Both men have reservations about relationships in the beginning, but it’s clear that it doesn’t take long for them to really start to like each other. Calder is ready to jump in more fully, but it takes Felix longer. I loved the open communication the two had. They always tried to be courteous to one another, as well as open and honest, and that’s wonderful!

I’m definitely curious to see who the next book will be about. I enjoy most of Annabeth Albert’s novels, so I highly recommend the author – along with the book!


The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf 

copy from netgalley (and I owned a physical copy); all opinions are my own

I really enjoyed this mystery; it’s the first book I’ve read from the author but I need to check out more. The Overnight Guest follows true crime writer, Wylie Lark, in the present day. She’s working on a book about a murder that happened over 20 years ago. While we got Wylie’s current POV, we also get the story from 2000 when this particular murder happened. In between these sections, there is also the POV of a young girl who is locked up with her mom (her “chapters” if you will are all in italics).

All of the POV’s eventually overlap in the end. I had some guesses as to how certain things connected, and what happened in 2000, but I didn’t get everything right. I love being able to figure out some twists in a mystery, but it’s always nice to have surprises too, and that was The Overnight Guest for me.

It’s hard to talk about this one without giving things away, so I’ll just say that I definitely recommend this for those interested! It was a pretty quick-moving mystery, and by the time you get to the middle of the book, you NEED the answers.

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Have you read either of these? Interested? 

15 responses to “Netgalley Reviews: Sink or Swim/The Overnight Guest”

  2. Meg

    The Overnight Guest sounds really good. I like being able to figure out a twist or two in a mystery, it’s such a good feeling when it’s not too obvious or completely obscure.

    Meg recently posted: The Paris Apartment
    Reply

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