There was so much unnecessary drama in this book and it really took away from the story for me.

Our main heroine, Holly, was a total wreck. Showing very little growth from the time she was a kid until her current status as wife and stay at home mom. Also, I can’t stand when an author attempts to create a bad ass female character only to have them loose all their badassery when an intimidating man comes around. Come on now!

As a matter of fact, all of the characters sucked. The ending felt rushed, considering all the time we follow Holly around collecting clues only to discover she never has time to do anything with the information.


I just…sorry. I couldn’t vibe with this one.

Holly and Vivian are the daughters of two really heirs parents. Vivian disappears and Holly is on the hunt. While I always enjoy a good mystery and disfunctional families it was hard for me to fully engage. The writing is good but some of the characters felt flat to me and I found it hard to finish.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me the ARC! This one let me down. It was a slow read without anything to reel me in. I was disappointed. I rate this book a 1.7

This was a dual timeline book about a woman trying to save her sister. The first half was good but the second half got a little convoluted and crazy. Still a good read. 3.5 stars rounded down, and I will be checking out more by this author!

Sisters have a special bond and Holly and Vivian are no different. When Vivian tells Holly she.needs help Holly will not stop until she finds out what happened. This book was full of twists and turns and provided a great escape.

I haven’t read a good domestic suspense in a while, and Cara Reinard’s latest release Into the Sound gave me the twisting and turning book that I’d been craving after reading so many romances this year. Take a woman vanishing and her sister doing everything she can to find her, a dash of a seemingly-good husband that doesn’t seem to care that his wife is gone, a little bit of the mob, and a heap of horrible parents, and mix them together to get this novel. The reviews are pretty mixed for this one on Goodreads, but I enjoyed Holly’s search for her sister and her trips down memory lane with her horrible psychologist parents.

Holly’s sister Vivian calls her in the middle of a big storm, telling her that someone is following her. And then Vivian is just gone without a trace, leaving Holly desperate to find answers and clues to find her sister–dead or alive. But throughout the book, Holly is risking her family and her sanity as she delves deep into Vivian’s husband’s life. And she doesn’t like what she finds and he doesn’t either…

Into the Sound is mostly told from Holly’s point of view in the present, but there are flashbacks to Holly and Vivian’s childhood to show the psychological experiments their mother did for her research on the girls. It’s pretty clear that the sisters aren’t the most stable after being raised by an alcoholic mother who only seemed to care about her research. Holly is tenacious but also a bit of a door mat for her controlling, cheap husband. But she’s so loyal to her sister that she’ll find a way to overturn the Earth to find out what happened to her sister. Some of the situations Holly gets into were just plain bad judgement calls, and I couldn’t help but cringe when she’d do them anyway.

You also get some chapters from Vivian’s husband Clay, who is a defense attorney that now represents people in the mob. His golden boy status gets tarnished quickly as the truth slowly starts to come out, and Holly fears for not only Vivian’s life but her own as well when she gets to know the real Clay.

I give Into the Sound a four out of five. There were a few things that I would have loved to see more of in the end, but I think I just really wanted to know how Holly’s life turns out after all the stressful events in this book. Almost every single man in this book along with quite a few of the women were just flat out horrible people, and while they weren’t one dimensional, it just made me wonder if there were any good people in this book. There’s a lot going on emotion and plot wise in this book, but I did overall enjoy Holly’s journey to find the truth about her sister as well as the truth about their childhoods.

Holly gets a call from her sister Vivian, "Come find me." It is like how they used to play as kids, but this time it is no laughing matter. As Holly begins to unravel the clues and dig deeper, she realizes it's not only Vivian that is in trouble, but her as well. I love a good thriller and this one was face paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. 3.5 stars for this one. Thank you to Thomas and Mercer, Netgalley and Cara Reinard for an early copy.

This whole of the review, plus an interview with the author, was published in The Big Thrill, December 2019. https://www.thebigthrill.org/?p=73348

INTO THE SOUND is an adrenaline-fueled domestic thriller that you won’t be able to put down.

I really enjoyed this book. I am looking forward to reading the author's previous book and future books. She's definitely an author to be on the lookout for.

What do you do when you get a call from your sister and you know you need to help her immediately? Holly races to Long Island but Vivian is nowhere to be found. That's how Into The Sound by Cara Reinard starts out. Everyone has secrets to hide in this story - a terrible childhood, the mob, a controlling husband and a terrible Mother. What more could you ask for?

Thank you to NetGalley, Cara Reinard and Thomas & Mercer for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed most of this one, but it was hard to read in parts since all the men in this novel were incredibly hateful and abusive. It was necessary to the storyline, but it makes it difficult to read sometimes. I loved the sister trying to solve this mystery and find her sister. The ending was surprising and I really really enjoyed it.

Favorite Quotes:

It was nearly ninety degrees outside, but Mother was always cold. Holly imagined it was a side effect of being heartless.

Vivian grabbed for a beer… Screw it. They were in hell together. Might as well take something to calm the flames.

Find your allies in life and keep them close. Let all the rest fall by the wayside. Don’t waste your energy on people who drain yours.


My Review:

This well-crafted tale was diabolically plotted and maddeningly paced. My brain was on fire spinning and discarding theories while the vile and heinous slate of cunningly contrived characters made me itch. The vast majority of the uniquely twisted characters were either repulsive, pernicious, deeply bent, or intensely annoying. I despised them all while gripping my Kindle tightly and agonizing and despairing over the constant missteps the weaker sister made while searching for her missing sibling.

Cara Reinard is a sly minx and her intriguing tale was intensely compelling and kept me on edge. My shoulders were in my ears even when busy with other tasks and my curiosity kept me reaching for my Kindle every spare moment I could shake loose. I lapped up every well-chosen word and resented any interruption to my perusal, as I didn’t want to miss any of the sneakily buried clues. Needless to say, I was deeply invested and wiggling on the hook all the way through.

I absolutely loved this author's previous book, and this one started out just as strong.

I loved the setting and how this book jumps right into the meat of the story, and the entire first half was very strong. Unfortunately the back half of this one got a little wacky and the story line got pretty implausible. However, even when the story started to get a little wonky, the writing was compelling and it made you keep going. While it wasn't my favorite, I would definitely read more from this author.

I probably should not have requested this book on NetGalley, the description was accurate and it fit into the typical genre of missing woman, lots of buried family secrets etc. The problem is with me, I have just read too many of these and just could not connect with this story. It isn’t a bad book just nothing new or exciting and ultimately lost my interest.

𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨!

Want to read a book that will keep you at the edge of your seat since page one, fast-paced, unpredictable, character driven, with dual timelines, full of secrets and family drama? Make sure to add this book to your list.

Thank you Amazon Publishing TLC Book Tours and NetGalley for this gifted copy.

Into the Sound by Cara Reinard releases December 1, 2021.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦: 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

Into the Sound by Cara Reinard

Convoluted, confusing, and rather chaotic tale of a crazy call from an older sister saying she was in danger and to come immediately during the storm…and when the younger sister arrived only an empty car and a bracelet remained. From then on it was a sleuthing by Holly to find Vivian with flashbacks to their crushing childhood and strange parents then throw in their horrible relationships with husbands and some other tidbits that finally (I skimmed the middle) lead to a conclusion that may have ended with one or two characters coming out sort of okay or with the potential to be okay in the future.

I have to say this was NOT a book I enjoyed or invested time reading word for word but do have a feeling some will love it. I had high hopes reading the book description but the story did not work for me, I did not like the characters and the plot required suspending belief in more than one instance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

2 stars for me since I ended up skimming most of it as it did not hold my attention
3 stars by the NetGalley rating guide

📖BOOK REVIEW📖 🌟🌟🌟
PUB DATE: Dec 1, 2021 / PAGES: 349

This story starts in Long Island, during a massive storm. Holly receives a frantic phone call from her sister. Vivian sounds scared and asks Holly to come to get her. After an argument with her controlling and very unlikeable husband, Holly heads out. But when she gets to the Marina, Vivian’s car is there, but Vivian isn’t.

The police and Vivian’s husband—Clay—aren’t investigating as seriously as Holly thinks they should be, so she takes it upon herself to look into Vivian’s disappearance. She puts herself and her family in danger when she finds info on her sister and Clay that is supposed to stay buried. The story also delves into Holly and Vivian’s childhood. They were raised by two alcoholic parents who were psychologists. Their mother used them as experimental subjects throughout their childhood.

This synopsis sounded so exciting! I wanted to love this book and it started so strong. When I lost interest, I put it aside and then had the opportunity to read it with an IG friend, as a buddy read. But that didn’t make the book any more exciting. I did stick with it because I wanted to find out how it ended. And I was rewarded with a more exciting ending. I seem to be in the minority, and I really can’t point at any specific area the story went wrong. So if it interests you, be sure to read other reviews!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC. This review is my honest opinion.

#intothesound #carareinard #bookreview #inexchangeforreview #justfinishedreading #netgalley #coloradobookstagrammer #coloradoreader #thrillersofbookstagram #booklove #lovereading #booknerd

This book has a great start and setup.
Vivian calls her sister, Holly, for help - desperation in her voice. Someone is coming. In the midst of a horrific storm, Holly leaves the comfort of her home, against her husband's wishes, to help Vivian. All Holly finds is her abandoned car - and someone quickly leaving the lot.
Holly calls the police, claiming her sister is missing.
Clay, Vivian's husband, is about to wrap up a tough case - for a man with possible connections. Actually Clay has been working for questionable people for quite some time. Could one of them taken his wife?
This book just tried too hard. The information about Clay just seemed thrown at the reader. Holly has some serious issues - her husband is revolting. The women's upbringing also makes me cringe.
If this wasn't a buddy read, I probably would not have finished.

I picked this book because it reminded me so much of the esteemed behaviorist, John B. Watson. Apparently, he raised his children using his behaviorist principles and it didn't bode well for any of them. Two of his four children attempted suicide; One killed himself in 1954.

This was hard to finish because I cannot stomach the things that that creature (Dr. Cynthia Forester) could do to their children (and not even a smidgen of remorse is present. only that it was their fault because their choice and she was only doing what's best for them. like, seriously. how come your children never realized how fortunate they are to have known someone like you.) I'm filled with so much hate for that person; come to think of it, make it for most if not all of the parents in this story. So selfish; self-serving and hypocritical!

I did not like the characters! I just can not their reasoning, like I can't feel Holly and Vivian's closeness, I don't see how Vivian's actions when they were kids were for Holly's benefit. Then again, maybe, that's the point. I mean, their childhood was pure child abuse, no other way to look at it, and maybe that's why the sisters have such a weird, warped way of looking at things. Strangely, in spite of my ire, I can still find it in me to understand them, even feel genuinely sorry for them. This is exactly why people need to step back and really look into themselves before having kids.

Also, I wonder what the author was trying to evoke, seeing as there were a couple of unjust situations that were never straightened. I wonder what it was trying to convey. An eye for an eye? Fairness? Free will?
I may not have enjoyed this as much as I have enjoyed Sweet Water but this sure made me think a whole lot.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer for this ARC. This review is made of my own accord, with no monetary compensation, whatsoever, from the names mentioned above and/or the rightful owners of this ARC.

I recommend. Keep me engaged and interested, thank you for the advance chance to read this. I’ve already told family and friends about it