Sketch by Didi Oviatt

Other reviews of Didi Oviatt’s work:

Search for Maylee
Justice for Belle

SKETCH
BY: DIDI OVIATT

When local girl Misty is found dead in an underground bunker, the town is thrown into a whirlwind of panic and speculation. Times are tough, but the spaced-out farmer community pull together as one, trying to uncover who’s guilty.

Thrown smack in the middle of the chaos is a group of teens: local troublemakers, but with good hearts. Although they’re innocent, the local law enforcers believe otherwise, and the true killer is lurking far too close for comfort.

Will the four be able to uncover the truth before one of them pays the price for Misty’s death? – Goodreads

*Book received through R&R Book Tours in exchange for honest review*

Its always been a pleasant time reading Didi Oviatt’s stories and this novella Sketch is no exception. It is a thrilling glimpse into a little country town set in the Old Depression era where the people there are still close-minded and the sheriff and his police department are run with a lot of prejudices and the groups of young adults there have been friends for a long time and specifically a group of friends who get caught in the latest disappearance of an acquaintance called Misty which reveals a deeper level of relationship and connections between the people around her.

The characters here are actually outlined pretty well. There is a good group of people here that are involved in the whole case of finding this crazy killer. The killer reveal was done fairly early however gave it the space to still develop. The brothers here also have their own trajectory of development as they go out to face up to these issues and get caught up in it when they are wrongly accused and beat up by the police department to hopefully have them confess. While the brothers friend who is a rich girl helps them out and there is a little romance that buds in the midst of the crazy stuff. Its something I don’t quite mind having or not but it does end up tying into the story itself well enough.

At the same time, the town has their own secrets which the group of friends eventually follows for multiple reasons like trying to find justice for someone they care about or proving themselves innocent and such. It unveils some past secrets that link back to the present. This is a novella length of the characters and story are paced in a certain way where there is just enough depth. However, where Didi Oviatt excels is in her descriptions. She’s not afraid to dive deep into those truly gruesome and gritty moments and bring the words to life. Sketch does a great job in describing the different scenes and scenarios and getting the whole reading experience very involved because of it.

Overall, Sketch is a gripping crime investigation set in a small town that has a few twists and also, keeps it very intriguing to read. Its a page turner and well-paced in its compact story. Its definitely worth a read.

Goodreads score: 5/5 (rounded up from a 4.5)

What’s Up 2019: Week 40

We’ve swapped to the start of Q4 of 2019 now. Halloween is around the corner and festivals are coming up. I’m trying to catch up with a lot of movie watching and wrapping up TV series that I started and just piling up on content before the festival comes around. There’s also a lot of reading and gaming to do that I’m not sure I’m really on track with. I’ll give a little update on certain things in each of their sections below.

READING

• Sketch by Didi Oviatt

Currently reading: Hope by Terry Tyler

Finished up Sketch this week which is a nice little thriller novella. Didi Oviatt has quickly become an author on my radar since I have enjoyed all the stories I’ve read from her.

Talking about the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I’ve made the executive decision to lower the books amount because at this point, its not going to happen but made it still challenging for the realm and decreased it to 35 books, and still 4 books behind which might still have a chance of catching up.

PLAYING

• Lie in My Heart (2019, Review)

Currently playing: A Life in Music

A huge thanks to the dev of Lie in My Heart reaching out to us to try out his visual novel. Since visual novels are more my domain, I took this over for myself to do.

WATCHING

• The Purge: Election Year (2016, Review)
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• Boar (2017, Review)
• Get Out (2017, Review)
• Hereditary (2018, Review)
• I Used to Be Normal: A Boy Band Fangirl Story

Pretty much on track for watching schedule before heading into festival season. Its been a busy week full of different commitments and things to do. Two of the watches are for Movies and Tea and should be recorded by the time this post goes out. While the horror double features should also be all done. All the links are above so I will just say, Get Out is my top pick for this week’s viewings. If you haven’t seen it, go see it!

BINGING

• Gilmore Girls (Season 1 rewatch, Review)

Currently binging: When I Grow Up, Dream Space 2, Relation Ship, Well-Intended Love

When things go crazy and I get stressed with life and work, I always go and watch Gilmore Girls and so, it has started yet again. However, I did feel slightly guilty about this being a little slow and repetitive so started up a Netflix Original Chinese drama series called Well-Intended Love which got greenlit for a 2nd season with the same cast. Which seems to be a rarity for Chinese dramas oddly. Either way, I am halfway done and supposedly the plot twist was the dealbreaker for this show. I can’t quite say that it is for myself as I had another scenario that if that one happened, well, then it would have been a real dealbreaker and it didn’t so I am okay with it so far. Nowhere near my top 5 C-drama of the year for sure but its entertaining enough.

That’s it for this week’s recap!
What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

What’s Up 2019 – Week 39

The last week of September signals the end of Q3 of 2019. Man, time flew by this year. Its already getting chilly outside and my autumn jacket is out. This week has been busy and fun and a whole lot of starting to prepare for upcoming things mentioned earlier on the September adventures post HERE.

READING

Currently reading: Sketch by Didi Oviatt

Back to a slow reading week as I’ve been a tad tired this week because of work rushes and other things going on. I’m still reading Sketch and probably more than a quarter done at this point. I should finish it up soon. Its actually quite good and has me guessing on what will happen next.

PLAYING

Mobile Games for the September round-up over at Game Warp has been my main focus. While I’m about to start up the next long form game very soon as things get settled again. I have a big plan to replay some games that I had wanted to review but never did last year that were on the phone and played for mobile. Its a franchise so might be just a franchise recap or like a few games per roundup. I’m still deciding. Nothing to much to talk about this time around for gaming but definitely have several games to get back to and wrap-up or get started.

WATCHING

• Anna and the Apocalypse (2017, Review)
• The Babadook (2014, Review)
• Blue My Mind (2017)
• The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

Its been a very questionable list of movies that I’ve chosen to go into blind for the Halloween horror marathon. Just look at the four films this week, right? One is full of zombies and is a horror comedy but is a Christmas movie, the second is pure psychological horror, the next is a transformation horror but more of a drama and coming of age and the last is more in line with horror. Either way, my double feature plans are slightly falling apart right now because of certain changes and hopefully will get back on track. However, the first one is out to kick off the marathon and also has my fave movie of this week, Anna and the Apocalypse that I have gone on to rewatch the movie multiple times during the week because I love the soundtrack so much.

BINGING

• A Discovery of Witches (Season 1, 2018)

Currently binging: When I Grow Up, Dream Space 2, Relation Ship

Its been definitely a tame week in terms of TV, which seems to be uncommon of late. With the Shudder subscription, we’re taking some time to spend more time on there right now. The first thing that caught our eye was to check out A Discovery of Witches. I have my husband might have some slight regrets on watching it but as for myself, I have some thoughts on it but overall, I’m looking forward to Season 2, whenever it gets released.

That’s it for this What’s Up for Week 39 as we wrap up Q3 of 2019!
Its been a crazy ride this year and What’s Up has given me a really good perspective of whats been going on and such!

What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

Book Review: Justice For Belle by Didi Oviatt

Justice For Belle
By: Didi Oviatt

Ahnia has a very dicey past – one that is scratching under the surface, just dying to get out.

She’s hit rock bottom, broke and desperate to be on top again. When she finds herself partnering up with man she hardly knows, and who’s utterly untouchable, she’s forced out of her comfort zone and left to question her own sanity.

Will Ahnia and Mac’s dangerous decision be a success, or will she find herself in the clutches of an unforgiving force, brought about by her childhood sin?

In this nail biting thrill ride, no one is as they seem… and no one is truly safe with those they trust. – Goodreads

Justice For Belle is a psychological thriller novella. Novellas are a great way to build take a relatively simple story and give it a great pacing and execution as is the case with Didi Oviatt’s latest release. Justice For Belle doesn’t thrive on a lot of characters. In fact, it is more of a character study of our main character Ahnia who has a fascination with death. Not particularly her death but envisioning how others can be murderers and how they would commit their murders unique to them. This gives Ahnia a special angle right from the start and makes it intriguing to see how she has become this way and what secrets she hides in her past that has caused her to have this fascination, especially after seeing that she is a one hit wonder writer who thrived on a past personal experience. It gives Ahnia depth as the story lets us learn more and more about her. Opposite of her is Mac, who she meets randomly and has this attractive quality that makes Ahnia drawn to him. He is fairly spontaneous and being as the novel angles behind Ahnia, Mac becomes even more mysterious especially when there is a few mysteries that come out like the similarity of his fiancee’s appearance to Ahnia or his similar psychological fascination and of course, he goes one step further to create another adrenaline rush scenario that will hopefully trigger both him and Ahnia’s creative juices to write another book. Its an absurd and dangerous idea to say the least and it makes Mac feel even more mysterious than Ahnia is and the extent of how their plans will play out. Both of these characters are very strong and have a great deal of depth of them which makes them the more intriguing to see how their story unravels.

There’s always a risk in novels who want to dive into the more romantic thriller side and that is generally how Ahnia and Mac’s relationship seems to have that forbidden love element to it and a certain level of danger that attracts them both to each other. It is really in these moments that don’t quite work for me and feel somewhat unnecessary. Its starting to feel like attraction is a hard element to put into stories and they are very subjective because different writing will work better (or worse) than others. In this case, the general writing style works however, when it goes into the more intense moments once or twice, it feels a bit overwritten.

Overall, Justice For Belle is pretty good. It has a decent execution and stay well-paced. There are a lot of questions and mysteries bundled together in this psychological thriller that all gets cleared up by the end. The two characters are created with a good deal of depth and layers as they unravel throughout the story as well. It stays pretty much intriguing. While there are little bits of writing in terms of the story development for the relationship between Ahnia and Mac, everything else does work too create enough suspense.

Goodreads: 3/5 (I’d give it 3.5/5 to be more accurate)

***Book received for free in exchange for honest review from R&R Book Tours***

R&R Book Tours

Blog Tour: Search for Maylee by Didi Oviatt (Review + Giveaway)

Search for Maylee
by: Didi Oviatt

Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Publication Date: October 6th, 2017

Since Maylee was abducted from her high school the very month of graduation, her Aunt Autumn has never lost hope in finding her. It’s been three years. Autumn has finally reached inside herself and found the courage to track down an old lead. She moves across the country to find him. Will Autumn be able to pry Maylee’s case back open? More importantly, what will Autumn uncover in the process of searching for Maylee? It’s a cold dark world we live in, and she is about to find out just how cruel it can be. Strength and determination are on Autumn’s side and she will do whatever it takes to either bring Maylee home, or to deliver the justice she deserves. – Goodreads

I’m not going to lie that Search for Maylee started a little rocky for myself. The first two chapters are a little bit of a drag to get through. The pacing is a little slow and it introduced some writing style and dialogue and especially characters that had some questionable traits and was insinuating towards a possible route a typical book would take. Luckily, past those chapters, the story really did jump back into the suspense and thriller parts and it escaped that route I feared most would take and took an intriguing turn. The further Search For Maylee got, the more of a page turner this novel became.

Search For Maylee is a relatively fast read. While the first two chapters proved that I wasn’t having great impressions of the characters, our main character, Autumn does redeem herself a lot and soon grew to become a very interesting character that develops throughout the events of her stubborn or perseverance to search for her niece. Its always great to see characters find themselves and their confidence as Autumn does here. However, this also makes the other characters hold simply filler spots making them less of someone to attach to, making them also mean less. However, the story isn’t exactly long so it makes sense that not everyone has the chance to be fleshed out as Autumn did.

This thriller and suspense’s strength is definitely in its suspense. I can’t say that it is particularly a thriller because a thriller would mean there being some twist to it and this one throws some rather expected turns. However, I’m also one to defend that a story can turn the predictable into great moments by the right pacing and creating a meaningful storyline. For the most part, the author makes a lot of great choices that line up to make those moments still on point and create enough suspense to keep us guessing as to whether Maylee is still alive and whether the search will be a success.

Overall, Search For Maylee has its obvious faults but its strengths are in creating a decent suspense and developing the main character with some memorable moments giving this novel an edge past the sluggish beginning and redeeming itself by not going down an easy path. Crafting suspense and thrillers are possibly one of the harder genres to create and overall, she does a pretty solid job.

Goodreads score: 3/5

Where to buy Search For Maylee

Amazon
Amazon UK
Kobo
Nook Book
Goodreads

About the Author

Didi Oviatt is an intuitive soul. She’s a wife and mother first, with one son and one daughter. She’s a suspense novelist, and magazine columnist second. Her thirst to write was developed at an early age, and she never looked back. After digging down deep and getting in touch with her literary self, she’s writing mystery/thrillers like Search For Maylee, Aggravated Momentum, The Stix, and New Age Lamians(a trilogy to be). Along with a six- piece short story collection called the Time Wasters. She’s also collaborated with Kim Knight in an ongoing interactive short story anthology The Suspenseful Collection. When Didi doesn’t have her nose buried in a book, she can found enjoying a laid back outdoorsy life. Time spent sleeping under the stars, hiking, fishing, and ATVing the back roads of beautiful mountain trails, and bathing in the desert heat plays an important part of her day to day lifestyle.

Author Links

Suspense Author & Book Blogger
didioviatt.wordpress.com/
amazon.com/author/didioviatt
www.facebook.com/didioviatt
twitter.com/Didi_Oviatt
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/DidiO
www.goodreads.com/author/show/7207389.Didi_Oviatt

Columnist/writer for Conscious Talk Magazine
Like us on Facebook: @conscioustalkmag
Follow us on Twitter: @conscious_talk
www.conscioustalkmag.com

GIVEAWAY

3 Kindle copies of “Search for Maylee” Gifted through Amazon

Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0e7c6a8f19/?