ARC REVIEW: Lemon Sting – by Collin Henderson

Title: Lemon Sting
Author: Collin Henderson
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
First published: April 17th 2015
Finished reading: November 4th 2016
Pages: 119

“And the thing about threats is that most of them are empty, nothing more than smoke in the breeze.”

*** A copy of this novella was kindly provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

I was approached by the author some time ago with the question if I wanted to read his thriller novella. Although I don’t read a lot of novellas in general, the summary caught my attention and I decided to give Lemon Sting a go. And I have to say that this novella has pleasantly surprised me. For its length, the main characters are surprisingly well developed as well as the general plot itself. The story is both fast-paced, entertaining and packed with intense action scenes and plot twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Lemon Sting has a lot of different POVs for a novella, but they are well executed and didn’t distract from the plot. In fact, the prose in general is easy to read and I can definitely recommend this novella to anyone who enjoys a good action-packed crime thriller.

Both Margaret and Lee seem to be trapped in a daily routine that never seems to end; her working at a restaurant and living life day by day, him working at an old electronics store and bored out of his mind most of the time. When Margaret breaks her routine one night and goes clubbing, she ends up too drunk to function at her neighbor Lee’s apartment. She doesn’t remember much about the night before, but it seems like her past has finally caught up with her… And Lee is dragged into the mess along with her. Things will soon spiral further out of control; will they be able to find a way out?

If you are looking for a fast-paced, action-packed and entertaining thriller novella, Lemon Sting is definitely a great choice. It reads almost like an action movie and both plot and characters are well developed, especially since we are talking about a short novella. This debut is without doubt very promising!

WWW Wednesdays #110 – November 9th

WWW WEDNESDAYS is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words and is all about answering the three questions below.

• WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?

I’m currently reading the Netgalley ARC Before You Leap by Keith Houghton and It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. I’m about 25% into each story and I’m loving both so far for completely different reasons! Basically, the only reason I haven’t finished them yet is that I’ve had practically no time to read in the last two days.

• WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?

* I first finished The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson, and I can definitely understand why so many people love this story. It was a bit too fluffy, cliche and predictable for me, but I LOVED the dogs, the fact that Clark is a fantasy writer and the geeky elements in general. Definitely recommended for contemporary romance fans!
* I then read the novella Lemon Sting by Collin Henderson, which turned out to be a fast-paced and entertaining thriller with without doubt a lot of action scenes. The prose was really easy to read as well and I liked the general plot.
* I also finished No Excuses Detox by Megan Gilmore, a cookbook which is to come out next year. I wasn’t convinced by all of it and some of the things were a bit complicated to be called ‘no excuses’, but there are without doubt a lot of recipes I will be trying out.
* The last book I finished was Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, which kind of left me with a book hangover. IT’S SOOOO GOOD!!! I can’t believe I haven’t read this one before and it made it right to the list of 2016 favorites. Absolutely brilliant science fiction read.

• WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?

The first book I’m going to pick up after I finish my current reads is The Power by Naomi Alderman. After I read Claire‘s review not that long ago and I can’t wait to start reading it! I also want to read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, one of the books that’s nominated for the Goodreads Awards… And The Girls Next Door by Mel Sherratt is another pending Netgalley ARC. My newest TBR jar pick is still A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. I need to read that one ASAP!

WWW Wednesdays #104 – September 28th

WWW WEDNESDAYS is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words and is all about answering the three questions below.

• WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?

I started reading Empire Of Storms by Sarah J. Maas a few days ago despite the mixed reviews, and I think the warnings have paid off because I’m enjoying this fifth book better than I thought I would so far. I’m also about to start another pending ARC: Ivy Feckett Is Looking For Love by Jay Spencer Green. So many pending books, so little time!

• WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?

I’m not going to mention all the books I’ve finished since my last WWW post because that would be a looooong list haha. I’m glad to be back!

* The first book I finished since last week is Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine by Stephanie Tromly. This book was recommended to me in the past and while the whole plot and story was a bit too absurd and unbelievable, somehow I still managed to enjoy reading it. I’m not sure if I actually like the main characters though…
* I then read one of my ARCs: Engaged By Danger by Barbara Venkataraman. It’s the fourth book of a cozy mystery series and definitely just what I needed. The perfect easy and entertaining read for fans of the genre!
* I also finished We’re All Mad Here by Claire Eastham, which I requested on Netgalley on a whim. It turned out to be a really interesting read that is both easy to read, funny and has some interesting pointers for those who want to learn more about social anxiety. (As an introvert, I could really relate to some of the author’s stories.)

• WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?

I need to tackle my ARC pile ASAP, so I’m going to try and read both Faithful by Alice Hoffman and Lemon Sting by Collin Henderson next. I also want to read Ink And Bone by Rachel Caine; a series that has been on my wishlist for quite some time now. A Court Of Mist And Fury by Sarah J. Maas is still my latest TBR jar pick… I know, I know: I should have read that one ages ago, but somehow I haven’t been feeling like rereading ACOTAR first even though I loved it the first time around.