That was not what I was expecting. How bloody good!

The blurb drew me in it reading like a spin-off of the movie Saw. Five strangers wake in a white room after being kidnapped and need to survive a twisted AF game made by the insane smiley face mask wearing Mr Do Good.

I hadn’t read anything by Collings before and initially I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. The first few pages were strange and disjointed and not like the movie at all but after pushing through I found a very cleverly written twisty gory book. I'm now definitely a fan of his.

About the Book

Title: To Complicate Matters

Author: Linda Widrick

Series: Ponder This

Blurb: 

Angelica Dunn, baker extraordinaire, is weary of living from one pie season to another. When she slips on the floor under a bucket of custard crème, a handsome stranger comes to her rescue. Instantly, she’s smitten. 

CIA agent, Thaddeus Wright, is drawn to the dimple-cheeked beauty. He adores Angelica’s spunk and the fact that she isn’t pushy like other women. But, how can he tell her he’s not the computer repairman that she assumes he is?

To complicate matters, Angelica mistakenly leaves a message on Thadd’s home phone. To what lengths will she go to intercept the embarrassing evidence that’s certain to squelch all hope of a future with Mr. Wright?

A comedy of errors and ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time catapults Angelica into a battle between right and wrong.

Will Angelica choose to do what’s right, even when things get complicated?

About the Author

Linda Widrick is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed pantser who works well under pressure and excels when she binge writes.  A graduate of Long Ridge Writer’s Group, Linda’s first novel Through a Shattered Image [Pelican Book Group] was released in 2017.    

Linda pulls her inspiration for stories from snippets of everyday life.  She enjoys kayaking, traveling, treasure hunting, and connecting with family and friends over a good, strong cup of coffee.  Linda is an active director on a mission board that reaches out to the needy and lost in third world countries.  She and her husband, Keith, enjoy vacationing on their property in the Tug Hill region of upstate New York, the setting for much of her first novel.   Linda lives in southwest Florida where she is an executive assistant by day and a writer by night.  For more info, you may visit her at www.LindaWidrick.com.

Author Interview

Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?

I am a part time writer.  My full time job takes precedent over my schedule.  Binge writing on the weekend works best for me. When I have a deadline, everything gets shifted.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

In To Complicate Matters, my heroine’s character is based on a living, breathing person who is very dear to me. But the storyline is purely fictional.

Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?

Absolutely.  I write by the seat of my pants. As I sit down to write, a scene will unfold and I just let it happen.

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Great question, and yes, I do.  Who doesn’t like a good cameo?  In my first book, Through a Shattered Image, my mother-in-law showed up in a scene. In To Complicate Matters, there are several secrets that I imagine a handful of people will pick up on.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Start early and dive in all the way. What do you have to lose?   Think it’s too late? It’s not. Start now!

Giveaway

Grand prize: Two people will receive a framed print of Philippians 4:8 designed by CreativeSteph13 Art, and framed in an acrylic freestanding frame. Size 5x7.

1st place: Five winners will receive the entire series—all eight stories—in the e-format of their choice.

https://promosimple.com/ps/fa94/ponder-this-series-scavenger-hunt

Miranda inherits her late uncle's bookshop in Los Angeles. He leaves her a final scavenger hunt where she needs to find books and people. She goes on the hunt and it is not what she expected. Her life changes in many ways.

This was not what I expected but it was excellent. I could not have followed the clues but she finds people that knew her uncle and slowly she puts his and her stories together. Her parents are not forthcoming until she solves the hunt. I liked Miranda but she was wishy-washy at times and allowed things to happen to her. Once she discovered her backbone and the truth I liked her a lot better. When she started making choices instead going with the flow she became a much better character. I also liked Lee whom she had to find. He was the most honest of all. I will read more of this author.

This book begins with a cryptic scene of a young man running from something, possibly either a demon or a cult. He takes refuge in a church, where he tells the priest his story. Then the book switches over to Carl, a young man living in a nearly dead desert town. His best friend Joe was killed in a freak flood nearly a year ago, and he's basically just been existing since then. The only reason he's at all excited about the scavenger hunt that's about to begin is because Cessy, a sexy newcomer, has asked him to be on her team.

Tracie would have liked to have had Carl on her team, but unfortunately Cessy managed to ask him first. Tracie has had a crush on Carl for a while, but she's shy, and then Joe's death happened, and she and Carl just sort of drifted apart. The scavenger hunt at least gives them one last chance to interact before she leaves for college, although some of their team members make things awkward.

Carl's team consists of Cessy, her brother Davey, and Tom (Carl's brain-injured former football player friend). Tracie's team consists of Paula (Joe's girlfriend, who's been angry since his death), and Rick (Paula's genius younger brother, who's in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy). Both teams get off to a strong start, but it isn't long before they become aware that there's something odd about this scavenger hunt.

This is technically another one of my nostalgia reads, but only insofar as it's another book by Christopher Pike. I honestly don't think I read this when I was a teen. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered at least some of the stuff at the end.

I figured out one of the book's twists only 40 or so pages in. I thought I had the rest of it figured out by the halfway point, but, as usual, Pike just kept on making things weirder. I can't even say it was the good kind of weird. It was like Pike pulled a few nouns out of a hat and crammed them into one big plot twist.

I hated how things turned out with

And the scene with the dog was awful, even though it happened off-page.

All in all, this definitely wasn't Pike's best work. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that I did read this when I was a teen, but just forgot about it.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Well, that was a thing. Probably a 3-star thing: neither good nor bad. It got a little too weird and mystical for me at the end.

Oh, you know how people are always "Why would this immortal vampire character go to high school, of all things?" Pike

And now I get to roll again. Yay!