Welcome to Litsy!

I enjoyed this one, it kept me gripped throughout

I liked the isolated setting, and the creepiness throughout the book.
Alice Feeney knows how to write a good thriller, it was mainly the cover that pulled me in though initially. The twist was very good too. If you liked this one, you'd probably like Daisy Darker too.

Read for reading challenges

4/5

A novel about an author named Grady Green. Grady is having a difficult time trying to write a new book. He‘s not been able to sleep for the better part of a year. His wife disappeared. Hoping to be able to get back on track he goes to a quiet isolated island. What happens there is the stuff of bad dreams….3.75/5⭐️

3.5 Stars • Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney is a psychological thriller about Grady Green, a struggling author whose wife, Abby, an investigative journalist, disappears after stopping to help someone on a road. A year later, crippled by grief and writer‘s block, Grady retreats to the remote Scottish Isle of Amberly. On the eerie island, he encounters unsettling events and a woman who resembles Abby. ⬇️

Tackle the TBR 🤓📚
What are you reading?
#boleybooks #beautifulugly #alicefeeney #bookbeast #bookbuds #bookclub #letsread

This book had me hooked and spooked from the beginning and it also put me on edge. Just like Kitty said Grady had been served a triple- decker shit sandwich with a side of completely fucked.

I totally enjoyed reading it and hope it gets made into a movie 🎥🍿

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🤯 Wow what an ending. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook. The readers did a splendid job. The book cover is so pretty! I didn't read what this book was about before jumping in. I just saw that it was pretty popular at my library and online. I'm glad I gave it a chance. I love how thrilling and suspenseful this story is; it's beautifully written.

My litsy😉 so far this month
#July

Parts of this were similar to books I‘ve read before, and other parts were fun and twisty. I liked how this book had sort of a mise en abyme technique as Grady was an author himself (see spoiler below).

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#botm

This psychological thriller follows an author whose wife has gone missing, or has she? Unreliable narrators abound and you spend much of the story not quite sure what is happening. I really liked the author/publisher perspective and I‘m always a fan of an isolated island filled with strange inhabitants. Fun on #audio

This book is on my TBR for a long time. Finally, I reached it. It's a mystery and revenge story with lots of twists and confusion. As a reader, you get confused many times. A writer whose wife went missing can't write anymore. After one year, his agent, out of pity, offers him a secluded place to write — a cabin on an island with only 25 people. No Wi-Fi, no mobile, even the payphone is dead. I really enjoyed it. 🎧

5-18-25: My 34th finished book of 2025! Grady Green, an author who is waiting for the biggest news of his life, has lost his wife under mysterious circumstances. After a year of lamenting and not being able to write, his publisher suggests he move out to a special writer‘s cabin on the Isle of Amberly. It is there that he starts to lose his sense of reality but also starts to find his writing voice again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣3️⃣4️⃣

Came to San Antonio by myself for the Book Festival (today!)! #SABF 👏🏼♥️🍷📖 And getting some pre-festival reading in… of course. ☺️

Also finished the tagged (audio - 2 readers) on the plane. Loved it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And finished Wild Dark Shore for #RealLifeBookGroup (also audio - 3/4 readers). Brutal & brilliant. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ too!

Reading Desert Places next on audio!

Loved how the book started. Intriguing premise. Once author Grady gets to the island, though, the plot introduces these wonky details that descend into a giant convoluted hot mess. Didn‘t really care for any character except the dog Columbo, who thankfully remained unharmed even though Grady really needed to leash him or watch out for him in several precarious situations. Audiobook performance was good.

#monthlyrecap #marchrecap

#bookspin✅
#doublespin✅
#nonfiction2025✅
#serieslove2025✅
5 ⭐️✅
Bingo🙁

Unlikeable characters and a slow-moving story made this less compelling than AF‘s other books. While the ending was great, the journey felt drawn out, and I struggled to stay engaged. That said, I always enjoy a good unreliable narrator! Book #23 in 2025

As far as mystery and suspense go, this is a good one.

This book was so good! There were so many layers to this story that it was wild! It had me yelling out loud while reading! This just may be one of my favorites. I don‘t want to give a single thing away but i definitely recommend this one!

3½✨
There's a lot of conflicting reviews about this one. But I quite enjoyed it.
Even with the slow start and Grady being a sulky, self-absorbed man-child.
The suspense and mystery of the Isle of Amberley kept me intrigued. It felt like a character on its own, with the residents being its moving parts.
And the twists.
I did not see it coming... at all.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

4⭐️/5⭐️
What a wild ride!

I'm torn about this one. The main character does nothing but feel sorry for himself, which gets really repetitive. That being said, it was a page turner with a creepy atmosphere and I was hooked. I'm also not sure how I feel about the ending.

Starting this one today!

Saw this poem today and had to share it here for the poetry peeps. @dabbe

I love her books and can‘t wait to dive in today ❤️

2.5 ⭐️ While this book was a bit boring at times, I was still intrigued by the story and the islanders. The story took a completely different turn than I predicted. To be honest, I was anticipating this book for a while and I am disappointed.

This was on track to be Feeney‘s best yet. And then she just destroyed it with a lazy ending. I have no patience for a plot that wraps up the way this one did.

Ok, I really didn‘t like this book. I didn‘t like any of the characters & maybe bc I was so frustrated with them that when one of the big twists came, I was just confused & didn‘t really care what happened.I also am annoyed with books taking place on islands 🤷🏼‍♀️ I feel like it‘s been overdone. This is the 2nd of Feeney‘s that I‘ve read that I‘ve been so-so about, so I‘m not sure her books are for me. The audiobook actors were great though!

Ugh. This book started out so well. Great atmosphere and interesting premise. Loved the set up. Then the ending jumped the shark. Such a convoluted mess. I'm also pretty over the men-are-evil-and-women-would-run-the-world-in-harmony silliness. One paragraph legit made me stop and roll my eyes. Come on.

I really wanted to like this and the premise sounded great but sadly it failed to deliver. It was a long read and the pace never seemed to pick up. I read onto the end to see how it would finally all play out and there was a couple of interesting twists but it didnt make up for the rest of the book. I struggle with the unreliable narrator style stories as they can feel disjointed and you don't connect with the lead. #Netgalley 2*

All I can say is it was just okay. The reveal kind of fell flat.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2. A slow building story and then that ending…. What???

**spoiler alert** This book had a lot going on. Maybe too much? It was very convoluted, especially towards the end. The map at the beginning of the book gave it a fantasy feel, when it was in fact a thriller. The horrible deed that the protagonist did didn‘t seem believable for his character. It came out of nowhere. This book was a quick read, and it kept me interested until the end.

Well that was something else. What an odd ending…a crazy, twisty thriller. The parts of this I didn‘t like were the parts I perceived as man hating. I just don‘t like when one sex or the other is villainized or generalized...it‘s derivative. #botm
Book 5 of 2025

This has all the trademark Feeney vagueness, twists, and misdirection that I, personally, have come to love. I never truly know what is happening when reading her books and just love going along for the ride until all the pennies drop. This isn‘t my favorite of her books (Rock, Paper, Scissors holds that spot) but I did enjoy the ride. 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Finished Beautiful Ugly while I was at the emergency vet with this baby last night.

I will say, it definitely kept me guessing. It reminded me of how I went back and forth trying to decide which reality was the real world when I read Shutter Island or the Wayward Pines trilogy. I didn‘t guess the ending before I arrived there! I loved all the twists and turns, it was such a fun read.

This is twisty dark thriller that I could not stop listening to. I did have a guess at the ending, but there were additional twists that very much surprised me. It is best to go in knowing nothing. 5⭐️

Usually an Alice Feeney novel grabs me from page 1. This one took me at least 60 pages to get into it. But when I did, I was in. It was a mind meld for sure and I there were a lot of moving parts that were still a puzzle to solve at the end.

I seem to be a heat-seeking missile toward sketchy author plots. (In fact, I should pull my index cards to see which ranks as my favorite!). This one was giving my SK Misery vibes then went in a direction I surely didn‘t see coming. I found it very entertaining. I did have to do a quick review of the first 14 chapters🤣

I received an audio from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this audio. Both narrators were so good. Both portrayed the characters supremely. Both gave me exactly what I expected in a great audio.

I loved it. This was my BOTM choice and I'm very happy with it.

Full review: https://lsmoore49.blogspot.com/2025/01/beautiful-ugly-by-alice-feeney.html

Beautiful Ugly was a very good thriller. I understand why others thought the ending was a little rushed, but it worked for me. This was a pretty dark tale about an author dealing with his wife's disappearance. He goes to an isolated island to write. Then he sees her on the island. There is a lot to look into, including the island's history. A strong thriller. 4.5 stars.

Wow! Did not see that twist coming!

#bookspinbingo
#pop25 - book with silver on the cover or in the title
#LitsyAtoZ #LetterF
#jumpstart2025
#read2025

Alice Feeney‘s latest mystery is true to her style . . . with mixed results. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#beautiful-ugly

Publication is expected January 14.

#NetGalley #MacmillanAudio #BeautifulUgly

Still chugging along through my tattoo appointment.

First thriller and first paczki of the year! 🥳🎉

I‘m about 55 pages in and I‘m already glad I picked this for my next read (should be studying but shhh). Short enough that I‘m going to breeze through this because I can already tell I‘m not going to be able to put it down. We have ghosts of the past, creepy gift boxes, moral dilemmas, oddities and a beautiful forest with old deep soul vibes. And The Edge of the World is described as my perfect escape from people (so far).

A month behind but starting December‘s #BOTM choice. Have heard pretty decent things about the audiobook so here‘s to another lit adventure for this month.