🚐Mini Review🚐
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Swipe for synopsis !
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Rating- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts- Thank you netgalley and Minotaur book for the advanced copy of Red River Road! This releases 8/27 and was a lot of fun, I typically enjoy Anna Downes book and this was no different. The audiobook is fantastic with the Australian accent, it was so mesmerizing I had a hard time focusing 😂. This was a super quick read and I totally sympathized with both Lily and Katy! The ending of this one got a little bit off the rails and unrealistic but it was definitely a fun enjoyable read!
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QOTD- would you ever travel on your own? In this book Katy’s sister is a solo traveler, I don’t think I could travel in a van on my own. I’m awful in a crisis 😂.

Thank you, SMP and MacMillan Audio, for the review copies—this one turned out to be a delightful surprise! The audiobook deserves special mention for its standout voice acting and stylish production. Listening to parts of it really helped me immerse myself in Downes' writing, capturing the “feel” of the story in a way that enhanced my reading experience.

“Red River Road” is a solid slow-burn thriller that intriguingly explores "van life" and thoughtfully examines the theme of women who go missing. Downes takes on familiar thriller tropes, but with a fresh focus on the reasons why women are in danger, making for a more reflective and compelling narrative. The plot centers on Katy’s search for her missing sister, Phoebe, but it quickly expands into a web of interconnected mysteries, including what’s happening with Katy herself and Beth, who gets entangled in Katy’s journey while grappling with her own secrets. The ending is powerful, tying all the connections together in a WOW moment and offering a complex, satisfying resolution to a well-developed story.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Narration: I listened to the audiobook of this novel and thought it was great. Performance and editing was smooth. The first time I heard Phoebe’s blog post and the photo descriptions I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d like them but I honestly did. I’m a visual reader so hearing the physical details made the story come alive.

Plot: we have four main characters: Katie, Beth, Wyatt and Phoebe. While I genuinely liked how the story twined together with the switching chapters and revisiting settings I think the characters lost a bit of strength to the storyline. It’s hard to get truly in depth with multiple characters and none of them were badly written- I just think I wanted more. I’m a greedy reader when I like a book.
But while I think there were a few times I wanted a scene to just move along - for the most part I was actively engaged in this book and wanted to keep listening so I could find out what happened. Here again though I did feel the book could have ended comfortably in a few spots but continued. It did wrap up completely in the end, but it could have worked if the reader was left hanging.

Overall I did enjoy it even with a couple flaws. I wanted to look up the author to try another book I do recommend.

3.5 stars, rounded up

One of the better thrillers I've read lately. I liked the setup more than the final product, but overall it was a decent story with some really good surprises. Audiobook was incredibly well narrated.

This has a slow setup--you have three main points of view:
Katy Sweeney, whose sister Phoebe started a solo vanlife trip around Western Australia the year before and disappeared without a trace. Katy is following Phoebe's Instagram posts in order to try to find out what happened to her sister.
Beth comes out of the darkness, bruised and bloodied needing to hide. She tells Katy a fake name and Katy agrees to take her in, Beth joins Katy to help search for Phoebe.
Wyatt is a young teen whose mother walked out on the family years before.
Interspersed with all of these are Phoebe's Instagram posts and comments during her trip.

While this isn't a perfect book, this is an intriguing and engaging mystery/thriller and everyone has secrets they are keeping. The reveal of those secrets is shocking at times, but the entire book has a sense of foreboding, of needing to look over your shoulder to make sure someone isn't following you.

There are a lot of heavy themes in this book and yet the author handles them well. The more intense situations occur off-page, which helps the storyline to be more palatable. There's something in this book that I usually hate to see in a thriller, but this author does a spectacular job at making it realistic and believable. I also loved the setting descriptions, the sense of place is beautifully described so that the reader feels the atmosphere with every stop they make, with every creepy thing that happens.

The narration of the novel is fantastic. Maddy Withington keeps the listener engaged and on the edge of the seat waiting to see what happens next. Her accents are spot on with the book and just very well done overall.

While I really liked this book, I thought the reveals were a little clunky and disjointed, sometimes there were just too many things going on and too many characters. I was mostly able to overlook those things and taken as a whole it was a solid, entertaining thriller.

Looking for a book with a missing woman, an exploration of Western Australia, and the feeling of always being watched? Red River Road by Anna Downes has all of the above (and more)!
I’ve never been to Australia, but this book convinced me to put it on my travel list! The book follows Katy, whose younger sister Phoebe was documenting her solo vanlife travels before she disappeared. Using Phoebe’s Instagram posts as her guide, Katy is traveling the coast of Western Australia. When she meets Beth, another woman who’s been involved in van life, they agree to work together to find Phoebe. Unfortunately, both women are running from different demons, and it starts to feel like their pasts are catching up with them.
I was on the edge of my seat for this whole book. The women consistently talk about all the safety steps they’ve taken, but still can’t shake the sense that someone is following them. And as more and more creepy things started happening, I was hooked!
Unfortunately, the last 80% or so undid a lot of the emotional tension that’d been built up. There were so many different options for the ending, and while I really liked the final twists, the way they were handled fell flat for me. But overall this was a solid thriller that kept me hooked until the last pages!
If any of this book's weirdly specific traits caught your eye, you should definitely give it a shot! I’d also recommend it if you have any interest in Australia and its many landmarks!
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the free advanced audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio (#MacAudio2024) for the ALC!

Though a slow burn starting off, “Red River Road” had me on the edge of my seat as Beth and Katy journeyed together. The fear of the unknown was really weaved throughout the story, especially for a woman traveling alone. The Australian backdrop was nice too, as that is one of my favorite places for a book to be set, and it was fun to imagine traveling through that landscape. The book definitely picked up in the second half and the faster pace was refreshing.

Told over dual timelines with dual points of view, I had no idea how Beth and Katy’s stories were going to connect. The huge twist was one I definitely didn't see coming and I loved how the author pulled it off! Her note after the story further expounded on that twist which I appreciated.

”Red River Road” releases August 27, 2024. This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

This is a really slow burn travel thriller. It took me a while to fully get into it and to grasp all the storylines. There are a few twists and turns which were just okay for me. The ending went a little too far for me and it just made me roll my eyes. Still a good read but just ok for me.

I had a hard time getting into this book due to it being an audiobook and multiple storylines going on simultaneously. I feel like this would have been a much better experience if I had read the physical book. The first half was a struggle, but by the second half, I figured out who everyone was and which storyline was connected to them, and I finally started to enjoy the book. By the end of the book, I was glad I stuck it out because it ended up being a good story and one that I could even have seen being a movie. The author did a great job tying the multiple storylines together when wrapping up the book.

This is a slow burn story about the lives of online van traveler bloggers. There is a lot to process, and unfortunately with all the different POVs and underdeveloped characters, I found the audio narration rather difficult to connect with and follow. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Overall, I really liked this story. Not to mention the cover is absolutely stunning. The audiobook was just a little confusing because it would hop to the past with no warning. One second Beth would be talking to Katy and the next would be some time in the past where she and Lucas were together.

That was a huge reason for my lower than normal rating. I'm not sure if in the printed novel it will have some sort of mention that it is going back in time, but yeah. It was odd.

Other than that, I also saw some reviews before I started reading that the narrator was unreliable so I did have the twist figured out ahead of time. Had I not read those reviews, the shock factor to the twist may have been crazier.

All that being said, I really appreciate being given the opportunity to check out this novel before it releases to the public ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! thriller girlies must check this out.

I love a good missing person book! Watching the main character try to hunt down her sister and look for clues was very interesting and I didn’t see the plot twist coming ! Traveling alone as a woman is super scary and this book shows that even more. 😳

Dark, gritty, and atmospheric with lots of twists and turns, this one pulled me in right away and wouldn't let go. I felt like I was right there traveling alongside the characters in the camper van, and as a female solo traveler myself, it was downright terrifying in parts. The narrator of the audio version did an excellent job and I loved listening to her accent. I had a little difficulty keeping track of the names while listening to the sections where a bit of Beth's history was revealed, but that got sorted soon enough. I think I figured out what was really happening fairly quickly, but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the book. I also liked the bonus content at the end, not just the author's note, but the actual interview with the author.

This book is a fast paced phycological thriller , with good writing along with the pacing of the story.

Set in Australia a woman is searching for her sister and traveling solo in a camper van . She meets many characters along the way and you never know who you can trust. Told from 3 POV - Katy , Beth and Wyatt.

This book will keep you on your toes , suspecting everyone , unsettling and very atmospheric.

I listened to the audiobook and found that the narrator was extremely good at the accents and creating voices for the different gendered characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC. this is my honest review .

Another outside the box read for me and man did this one suck me in!

It’s wanderlust meets mindfreak and I devoured this. With that, it felt similar to a book I read a long while ago so I felt like I was able to predict a few things I may not have otherwides. But even with that, this one kept me so captivated.

Two girls lost, one on the run and one on the hunt, team up to help one another while on a trip across the Australian Coast. You get mystery and unknown from Katie while getting thrill and worry for Beth.

Katie is looking for Phoebe, her sister who went missing a while ago and the case has been closed despite Katie truly feeling like Phoebe is still out there. Beth is running from a man who is haunting her and leading her down all the wrong paths. Through a wild stream of events, they end up in Katie’s van together, looking for Phoebe while outrunning Beth’s past. A win-win for the girls who each get what they want while helping the other.

Katie starts finding clues and Beth starts connecting dots and the ending comes crashing into them hard. It was twisty and heartbreaking and powerful. It speaks to the power women hold, the power of your own mind, and the power of friendship.

The audio was fantastic and the narrator did such an incredible job at transporting you into the story and on an adventure through Western Australia. All around, this one was a winner for me!

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WOW! The twists in this book were so unexpected. It is definitely a must-read.

This is a story about a #solofemaletraveler (Katie) and her trip around Australia to find her missing sister (Phoebe). Phoebe started the same trip a year prior but disappeared without a trace. Everyone has given up on finding her except for Katie who decides to retrace Phoebe’s steps which were very publicly documented all over Instagram.

Like I said earlier, the ending was insane.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Anna Downes for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you've ever wondered what it may be like to be a online van life traveler blogger, then this slow burn thriller may be for you .

It addressed topics like domestic abuse and solo female travel and includes Instagram posts. I didn't like the post aspect with the loads of hashtags and unfortunately found this one to be pretty bland. It didn't hook me and the characters were not memorable or interesting to me. Also, the writing style didn't work great for me and this isn't one I would read again.

The narrator was ok. Sometime her infections didn't seem to match the subject matter but I still was fine listening to it for the most part. Not my favorite but not terrible.

Wow what a ride! I really enjoyed this psychological thriller full of twists and turns about a woman’s solo #vanlife trek around Australia that doesn’t go as planned. I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator did a great job with the different voices and POV’s. The author’s vivid and lush descriptions of the Aussie landscape gave me serious wanderlust and overall, I enjoyed the characterization, twisty well paced plot, and the tight prose. I love a slow burn taut thriller and this checked all the boxes with my only criticism being the plot does teeter on unbelievable, still it worked for me and I look forward to reading more of this author’s work.

This was a twisty roadtrip thriller that did not disappoint! The characters in the book were well written. The story was fast paced, and the twists blew me away!
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrators knocked it out of the park!
This is a must read did anyone who enjoys a twisty thriller. I can’t wait to recommend!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

There is a lot to process in this story. It's about a young adult female traveling alone and everything that goes along with that. There are so many beautiful descriptions of Western Australia that you are going to want to see it for yourself. So, what if your sister was that woman on social media traveling by herself and, what if she disappeared and the police have given up? Would you do just what she did and try and find your sister? Well, that's what Katy Sweeney decided to do, and, when she meets a stranger, will she decide the company of another woman is better than being alone? The audio was well done but with so many characters with aliases, I think this is best read and not listened to. The number of characters using different aliases depending on the company and surroundings was a lot and it was confusing at times. Maybe that was the intent.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook. This was a fun mystery/thriller about a girl looking for her missing sister in the Australian outback. Lots of hashtags and quips, with #vanlife, #solotrip, but in all seriousness, this is timely as there are people who live the vanlife, and there is the safety of women traveling solo. This was a fast read and had a twist in the end that I did not see coming. I will read more of Anna Downes in the future.