Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)'s bookshelf: read en-US Tue, 24 Jun 2025 10:37:11 -0700 60 Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)'s bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Unraveling 199797651 This chilling, sizzling, and addictive thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland follows a New York psychiatrist’s dark descent into dangerous obsession.

This isn’t a love story.

It’s a story about obsession.

After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall feels painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. How is he doing so well while her life is in shambles?

But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet, Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.]]> 291 Vi Keeland 1668046857 4
Then one day Meredith spots the husband of one of the victims and begins to follow him because he seems happy and that can't be possib!e since he lost so much more than she did and she needs to to find out why! She should know better than that and she knows she's acting irrationally yet she can't stop herself and quickly it begins to turn into an obsession although Meredith doesn't believe she's stalking the man because she just wants to help him and herself if she can find out how he seems to be a highly functioning man while she can barely get out of bed in the morning.

As time passes and Meredith sees a therapist for herself and finally gets back to work, she seems to be doing much better although she is still following HIM while she knows it's wrong and plans to stop but it just may be too late because Meredith has just added a new client to her patient roster and imagine her shock and anxiety when she sees who just walked into her office as the last patient of the day. You know who it is! Coincidence or something a little more sinister? Will Meredith take the bull by the horns and do the right thing or will she get more caught up in the games she has unwittingly been playing although maybe not by herself!


What an entertaining, fast and clever novel! This story was like watching a train wreck when you know you should stop looking but finding yourself drawn to the scene telling yourself all the reasons you need to keep watching. Meredith is a mess. She may have been a good psychiatrist before but she became very unstable and was making poor and some downright stupid decisions for a doctor with her qualifications. Twist after twist, Meredith gets caught in a gigantic spider's web where she could even lose her practice and her license or risk possibly going to jail.

That is how deep she has dug a hole for herself and now she can't find her way back out and she is in trouble, big trouble! The bottom line is, Meredith is really a good person but she's not very smart in almost every decision she makes and I'm glad this is a fiction/thriller because I would hate to think of all the people in therapy having a psychiatrist like her! Creepy!

Sometimes the book was too repetitive at times although it didn't take away from my enjoyment factor just that it could have been a little shorter. When I got to the ending, I couldn't believe what I was reading and had to reread the page over and over again! I loved that unexpected and climatic finale. It pushed up my rating from a 3 1/2 star to a 4 star read!

Try to go in blind while reading this book and don't overanalyze the story, just sit back and enjoy it as you would a really good movie!

I want to thank the publisher "Atria Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 CREEPY AND SURREAL ]]> 3.82 2024 The Unraveling
author: Vi Keeland
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2025/06/24
shelves: creepy, dark, disturbing, engaging, entertaining, fun, mystery, psychological, suspense, tension, thriller, drama, atmospheric, abuse
review:
Meredith McCall is a busy New York psychiatrist with a thriving practice but she is currently on leave due to a horrific tragedy which claimed several lives and has left her dealing with unbearable grief, guilt, loneliness and anger and is in no condition to help her patients when she can't even help herself. Meredith has been self-medicating way too much with alcohol and has withdrawn from all her friends and she is just feeling so lost with no light at the end of the tunnel. She wanders the sidewalks of New York aimlessly for endless hours, day after day hoping to find some relief or answers to her tortured emotions.

Then one day Meredith spots the husband of one of the victims and begins to follow him because he seems happy and that can't be possib!e since he lost so much more than she did and she needs to to find out why! She should know better than that and she knows she's acting irrationally yet she can't stop herself and quickly it begins to turn into an obsession although Meredith doesn't believe she's stalking the man because she just wants to help him and herself if she can find out how he seems to be a highly functioning man while she can barely get out of bed in the morning.

As time passes and Meredith sees a therapist for herself and finally gets back to work, she seems to be doing much better although she is still following HIM while she knows it's wrong and plans to stop but it just may be too late because Meredith has just added a new client to her patient roster and imagine her shock and anxiety when she sees who just walked into her office as the last patient of the day. You know who it is! Coincidence or something a little more sinister? Will Meredith take the bull by the horns and do the right thing or will she get more caught up in the games she has unwittingly been playing although maybe not by herself!


What an entertaining, fast and clever novel! This story was like watching a train wreck when you know you should stop looking but finding yourself drawn to the scene telling yourself all the reasons you need to keep watching. Meredith is a mess. She may have been a good psychiatrist before but she became very unstable and was making poor and some downright stupid decisions for a doctor with her qualifications. Twist after twist, Meredith gets caught in a gigantic spider's web where she could even lose her practice and her license or risk possibly going to jail.

That is how deep she has dug a hole for herself and now she can't find her way back out and she is in trouble, big trouble! The bottom line is, Meredith is really a good person but she's not very smart in almost every decision she makes and I'm glad this is a fiction/thriller because I would hate to think of all the people in therapy having a psychiatrist like her! Creepy!

Sometimes the book was too repetitive at times although it didn't take away from my enjoyment factor just that it could have been a little shorter. When I got to the ending, I couldn't believe what I was reading and had to reread the page over and over again! I loved that unexpected and climatic finale. It pushed up my rating from a 3 1/2 star to a 4 star read!

Try to go in blind while reading this book and don't overanalyze the story, just sit back and enjoy it as you would a really good movie!

I want to thank the publisher "Atria Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 CREEPY AND SURREAL
]]> So Happy Together 217388155 Jane and Colin are soulmates. He just doesn’t know it yet.

For twenty-four-year-old Jane, finding love in New York City is even harder than making it as a playwright—especially when all her swiping through the apps leads to one meaningless connection after another.

So when Jane meets Colin, a sweet software engineer, she can’t believe her luck: they’re perfect for each other. Even when Colin breaks off their blooming relationship after six dates, Jane is certain this is just a stumbling block. She’ll get him back. She knows she will.

That is, until Colin starts dating Zoe—perfect, luminous, up-and-coming Brooklyn artist Zoe. Even worse, she’s actually kind of nice. But Zoe doesn’t have what it takes to love Colin. She’d never stay with him through thick and thin. All Jane has to do is prove it, and they’ll be so happy together.

But when Jane sneaks into Colin’s apartment, she makes a shocking discovery—one that will ensnare them all in a dark and complicated web of lies, secrets, and murder.

Unrelentingly twisty and utterly compelling, So Happy Together is an unputdownable, shattering read for fans of You, Riley Sager, and Promising Young Woman.]]> 304 Olivia Worley 1250372305 0 3.56 2025 So Happy Together
author: Olivia Worley
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/24
shelves: currently-reading, disturbing, drama, domestic-thriller, fun, entertaining, murder, mystery, slow-burn, violence
review:

]]> The Grand Paloma Resort 221473214 The Dominican Republic’s famed Grand Paloma Resort is the paradise of dreams. Here, you can have it all, and the staff is always eager to please—that is, until they are pushed to the brink.

Vida is a curandera, a local healer, who has been called to the resort to attend to a crisis. A young guest lies unconscious due to negligent resort childcare. Vida wants nothing to do with it, as she has her own unborn child to think about.

Laura, a mid-level manager at the Grand Paloma Resort, is forced to call Vida for help. She’s made it this far through sheer hard work. Her brainchild, which pairs platinum guests with a resort employee to attend to their every need, has been wildly successful. She’s mere weeks away from a promotion that will blaze a path off the resort, to a life of freedom and opportunity. If only her little sister, Elena, could get with the program.

Elena has tried her best to live up to her own ideals and her sister’s expectations; to escape the endless monotony of her life, she’s become increasingly dependent on pills and partying. As a babysitter at the resort, she’s at the mercy of guests who are only interested in having fun, cheating on each other, and getting a break from their screen-addicted kids. Now one of those kids is believed to be dead and it’s all her fault.

At a local beachfront watering hole, Elena runs into the child’s father. High and clueless, he offers her an obscene amount of money to give him private time with two young local girls. Elena pockets the cash and prays she’s gotten the girls out of harm’s way—until they disappear.

Over the course of seven days, The Grand Paloma Resort offers an unforgettable story of class, family, and community revolving around this cast of characters, that shows surviving paradise comes down to reckoning with long-held secrets and true acts of love.]]> 352 Cleyvis Natera 0593873262 0 to-read 4.26 2025 The Grand Paloma Resort
author: Cleyvis Natera
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Good Animal 231127056
In the farm country outside Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan—a border town where life moves slow and dreams run fast—most kids want out. Not Everett Lindt. He’s set on staying put, rebuilding his family’s sheep farm, and carving a future from the land he loves.

Then he meets Mary, a new girl in town with restless energy and bigger plans. When she discovers she's pregnant, Everett sees a life together; Mary, however, is desperate to find a way out. Together, they make an impulsive choice—one that could change everything.

Tense, lyrical, and deeply felt, Sara Maurer's unforgettable debut breathtakingly captures the ache of first love, the beauty and brutality of rural life, and how one decision can echo through generations and shape who we become.]]> 288 Sara Maurer 1250383560 0 to-read 5.00 A Good Animal
author: Sara Maurer
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House Saphir 221604746
Mallory is a self-proclaimed expert on Count Bastien Saphir - otherwise known as Monsieur Le Bleu - who brutally killed three of his wives more than a century ago. But she never expected to meet Bastien's great-grandson and heir to the Saphir estate. Armand is handsome, wealthy, and convinced that the Fontaine Sisters are as talented as they claim. The perfect mark. When he offers Mallory a large sum of money to rid his ancestral home of Le Bleu's ghost, she can’t resist. A paid vacation at Armand’s country manor? It’s practically a dream come true, never mind the ghosts of murdered wives and the monsters that are as common as household pests.

But when murder again comes to the House Saphir, Mallory finds herself at the center of the investigation—and she is almost certain the killer is mortal. If she has any hope of cashing in on the payment she was promised, she’ll have to solve the murder and banish the ghost, all while upholding the illusion of witchcraft.

But that all sounds relatively easy compared to her biggest learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.]]> 432 Marissa Meyer 125032095X 0 to-read 4.15 2025 The House Saphir
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Silent Woman 221237867 Trust is a matter of life and death when secrets and lies threaten a new marriage in a twisting novel of psychological suspense by a Washington Post bestselling author.

Writer and newlywed Jade Westmore has finally found her forever in husband Wells, a charming, successful, and recently divorced architect. There’s just one caveat. Behind the gates of their elysian estate, hidden from street view in the caretaker’s cottage, lives Wells’s first wife, Sylvie.

Three years ago, the original Mrs. Westmore suffered an unfortunate accident. Near catatonic, Sylvie hasn’t spoken since. Not a physician, psychologist, or world-renowned specialist has been able to elicit so much as a sound from the silent woman. Until now.

On an ordinary Tuesday morning, while Wells is away—despite instructions to never disturb the fragile woman—Jade visits her isolated predecessor bearing a peace a bouquet of white lilies. She isn’t expecting Sylvie to have something for her as a slip of torn notebook paper with a single word scrawled on it in shaky black ink.

That word? Run.

Revised This edition of The Silent Woman includes editorial revisions.]]> 233 Minka Kent 1662531613 0 to-read 3.87 2022 The Silent Woman
author: Minka Kent
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girl Dinner 222376577 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six , Girl Dinner is a darkly-fun novel about power, lust, and eating your fill, as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend . . .

Good girls deserve a treat.

Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 368 Olivie Blake 1250883458 0 to-read 3.81 2025 Girl Dinner
author: Olivie Blake
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Good Side: A Memoir 221613761
Before eleven seasons of record-breaking TV, two Emmy nominations, and a chart-topping podcast, Scheananigans, Scheana thought that signing on to the Real Housewives‘ spin-off show, Vanderpump Rules, was a stepping stone to reaching her ultimate goal of becoming a successful actress in Hollywood. After appearing on shows like 90210, Jonas, and Victorious, Vanderpump Rules would be a piece of cake. But from the very first season, Vanderpump Rules pit Scheana against her fellow cast members. Barbs were thrown, friendships dissolved, and Scheana was left in the rubble trying to parse fact from fiction. On camera, she got used to being called every name in the book, from homewrecker to a pick-me and bad friend. But off camera, there’s always been a different side of Scheana, pieces of her she couldn’t share on screen or that were trimmed out of tidy forty-minute television episodes.

In My Good Side, Scheana pulls back the layers of who she really is and shares all sides of her—the good, bad, and messy—bringing readers on a wild nostalgia trip through the early days of Vanderpump Rules, while recounting jaw-dropping stories from her Hollywood black book, including setting the record straight on her relationship with Eddie Cibrian. She reveals how her outlook on love has evolved and led her to a daughter she was told she may never have.

From being bullied as a kid to being bullied by the Witches of WeHo, Scheana has seen it all, and together she and her fans can laugh, cry, and reminisce on all the drama, heartbreak, and celebrations over the years.]]> 240 Scheana Shay 153877335X 0 to-read 3.88 My Good Side: A Memoir
author: Scheana Shay
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> JFK: Public, Private, Secret 217388228 From the New York Times bestselling Kennedy historian and author of Public, Private, Secret comes the other side of the story—her husband’ Public, Private, Secret.

In this deeply researched presidential biography, J. Randy Taraborrelli tells John F. Kennedy’s story in a provocative new way by revealing how public moments in his life were so influenced by private relationships with not only his family, but also Jackie’s.

But it’s the secret life that also surprises. As Congressman, Senator and finally President, JFK was a magnet for women. With exclusive interviews and meticulous research, Taraborrelli reveals not only the man’s many affairs but also the strength and resolve his wife showed in coping with them.

JFK’s women include:

· Jackie Kennedy, and her rules of engagement for Jack’s “Don’t lie about it, and don’t rub it in my face.”
· Inga Arvad. JFK’s first love and how it ended over fears she was a Nazi spy.
· Marilyn Monroe. Why Jackie insisted JFK call it off with “This one’s different, Jack. This one’s trouble!”
· Joan Hitchcock. The mysterious brunette who comforted Jack after Jackie threatened to file for divorce.
· Marlene Dietrich. JFK’s last fling before Dallas.

Other great stories

· How JFK’s grief over his infant son caused him to make rash decisions that pulled the USA into Vietnam for the first time.
· The real truth, once and for all, about the Mafia’s involvement in JFK’s election.
· Jackie’s two romantic interests as First Lady. One was a doctor, the other an architect… and neither was a President.
· The startling drug abuse that clouded the President’s decisions during the disastrous Bay of Pigs...
· … and how Jackie managed to wean him from those drugs in time for the nearly cataclysmic Cuban Missile Crisis.

The JFK presented in Taraborrelli’s definitive biography is a complex and endlessly fascinating historical figure, despite—and maybe even because of—his many flaws.]]> 592 J. Randy Taraborrelli 125034638X 0 to-read 3.00 JFK: Public, Private, Secret
author: J. Randy Taraborrelli
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Westward Women 231127467
Three women are caught in the infection's riptide. Cautious twenty-two-year-old Aimee goes in search of her enigmatic, newly infected childhood friend, only to find herself haunted by the voices of other westward women everywhere she goes. Meanwhile, Eve, an ambitious young journalist, is determined to prove her worth by writing a story about a man she hears is collecting infected women across the country. Finally, infected sixteen-year-old Teenie, still grieving from the loss of her sister, begins traveling with a man known only as the Piper, who claims to protect girls like her...]]> 304 Alice Martin 1250375304 0 to-read 3.68 Westward Women
author: Alice Martin
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beseeched 123225650 262 Tecia McLaughlin 1800746644 0 to-read 4.18 2023 Beseeched
author: Tecia McLaughlin
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When You Disappeared 233860599 All she wanted was the truth, but she’ll wish she never found out.

When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing—except him.

Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn’t just leave her. He wouldn’t leave the children.

But Simon knows the truth—about why he left and what he’s done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds on to are lies.

While Catherine faces a dark new reality at home, Simon’s halfway around the world, alive and thriving. He’s doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the truth.

But he can’t hide forever, and when he reappears twenty-five years later, Catherine will finally learn who he is.

And wish she’d stayed in the dark.

Revised Previously published as The Wronged Sons, this edition of When You Disappeared includes editorial revisions.

When You Disappeared returns with a fresh cover. This version incorporates an exclusive epilogue; while this enhances the reading experience, the main narrative is unchanged from earlier editions.]]> 375 John Marrs 1662533314 0 to-read 3.84 2013 When You Disappeared
author: John Marrs
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hollow 222850696 "Brilliant new vampire lore.... Spine-tingling!"
—L.J. Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vampire Diaries

Preorder now to get a deluxe limited edition of Hollow! This special-edition hardcover will include beautifully designed endpapers and sprayed edges, a gorgeous foiled cover, and a brand-new author’s note.

From TikTok sensation Celina Myers comes a fresh, intriguing novel about a woman who finds her destiny and her family after being turned into a vampire.

Mia Adair isn’t even twenty-five yet, but she’s starting to wonder if her peak has already passed. She’s spent years working at her local bookstore, a job that was supposed to be temporary. As a kid, she experienced a strange sort of fame within the paranormal community thanks to her inclusion in a book that revealed Mia’s ability to talk with the dead. But that was then, and Mia’s “gift” dried up once adolescence set in. These days, she feels like she’s nobody special.

Until she dies in a tragic car crash and reawakens as a vampire…

Forced to leave behind everything she knew, Mia must choose to live with one of two rival vampire families. The Bellamy and Sutton clans share a dark, complicated history that spans centuries. As Mia learns about their age-old traditions and extraordinary powers, along with their forbidden romances and betrayals, she’s drawn toward two very different loves. And as she feels her gift returning, more potent than ever before, Mia realizes she’ll need it to protect innocent lives—and save the only family she has left.]]> 304 Celina Myers 0778387852 0 to-read 3.46 Hollow
author: Celina Myers
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, #1)]]> 231299870
Cape Carnage is a seaside town of colorful houses, quirky shops, and an unusually high body count. But with tourists comes trouble, and Harper Starling won’t let anyone ruin her picture-perfect home. A skilled gardener with killer instincts, Harper protects her sanctuary at any cost—especially for her aging mentor with a fading memory.

Troublesome tourists don’t check out of Carnage. They compost beneath Harper’s award-winning flowerbeds. But Nolan Rhodes isn’t your average tourist. Devilishly handsome, disarmingly charming, and skilled with a blade, Nolan is relentless in the pursuit of revenge. On every anniversary of the hit-and-run accident that fractured his life, Nolan slays another target. And he’s saved the best for last: the undeniably beautiful Harper Starling.

The problem? Harper isn’t the monster he expected. And she won’t go down without a fight. When an amateur true crime investigator comes to Cape Carnage on the trail of a long-lost serial killer, Harper and Nolan strike an uneasy truce. If Nolan helps Harper protect her town, she’ll keep quiet about his hunting habits . . . for now. But their alliance soon spirals into obsession, one that threatens to shatter every secret in Carnage—including their fragile love.

Tourist Season is a darkly funny, slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance where destruction and desire are balanced on the edge of a blade—and where love is the most dangerous battleground of all.]]> 368 Brynne Weaver 1638932107 0 to-read 4.68 2025 Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The One Who Refused to Feed: The Real Horror Is What You Can't Forget (The After Kind, #1)]]> 231272187 This is not a story of how the world ended.
It’s about what parts of us refused to.

After the world fell to infection, something still moves.
Through ash.
Through silence.
Through the spaces where love once lived.

But not all of it is dead.
And not everything that walks forgets.

In a world that’s forgotten how to grieve, memory becomes rebellion.
It’s the thing that makes you wait when you should run,
reach when you should let go,
believe when believing will cost you everything.

A haunting, lyrical exploration of grief, transformation, and the sharp edge of memory,
The One Who Refused to Feed is a post-apocalyptic tale where the dead walk,
but some still remember.

For readers of The Road, The Last of Us, and Station Eleven, this story asks one
What makes you human… when you’ve lost everything human?]]> 179 Biale Drageo 0 to-read 4.73 The One Who Refused to Feed: The Real Horror Is What You Can't Forget (The After Kind, #1)
author: Biale Drageo
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.73
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Toy Soldiers: Of Monsters and Men, Vol. 1]]> 219421559 410 D.D. Ward 0 to-read 4.21 Toy Soldiers: Of Monsters and Men, Vol. 1
author: D.D. Ward
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In the Mountain's Shadow 232388548
Haunting, visceral, and deeply moving, In the Mountain’s Shadow is a story of resilience, sacrifice, and the fierce, stark horror of reality.


Praise for In the Mountain’s Shadow:
“Original, deftly scripted, and an inherently fascinating read… a compelling, thought-provoking, imaginative and memorable read.”
— Midwest Book Review, Library Bookwatch, June 2025

“Falconeri’s story stays with you long after the final page. It’s a haunting meditation on survival and the fragility of human connection—deeply emotional, thought-provoking, and unforgettable.” —Jennifer Senick, Readers’ Favorite]]> 63 Isabella Falconeri 0 to-read 4.50 In the Mountain's Shadow
author: Isabella Falconeri
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Widow's Point: The Complete Haunting]]> 224003977 New York Times bestselling author Richard Chizmar, “one of horror’s indispensable writers” (Paste), and his son W.H. Chizmar, critically acclaimed author of Them (hailed by New York Times bestselling author Josh Malerman as “one of the best debuts I’ve ever read”) present a riveting found footage narrative about doomed thrill-seekers trapped in a haunted lighthouse.

“This is a bad place. I don’t think people are meant to live here.”

Longtime residents of Harper’s Cove believe that something is wrong with the Widow’s Point Lighthouse. Some say it’s cursed. Others claim it’s haunted.

Originally built in 1838, three workers were killed during the lighthouse’s construction, including one who mysteriously plunged to his death from the catwalk. That tragic accident was never explained, and it was just the beginning of the terror. In the decades that followed, nearly two dozen additional deaths occurred in or around the lighthouse including cold-blooded murder, suicide, unexplained accidents and disappearances, the slaughter of an entire family, and the inexplicable death of a Hollywood starlet who was filming a movie on the grounds.

The lighthouse was finally shuttered tight in 1988 and a security fence was erected around the property. No one has been inside since. Until now.

Told across two harrowing incidents from 2017 and 2025, those who enter the Widow’s Point Lighthouse searching for supernatural proof and the next big thing find themselves cut off from the outside world. And although no one has recently stepped foot inside the structure, they are not alone.

In this remarkable collaboration, father and son writing team, Richard and W.H. Chizmar combine forces to tell a terrifying ghost story that will make you think twice about what’s waiting for you in the dark.]]> 336 Richard Chizmar 1668057700 0 to-read 4.65 2025 Widow's Point: The Complete Haunting
author: Richard Chizmar
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Boys in the Valley 61884783 Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania.

Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future... a family.

Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, occult symbols carved into his flesh. His death releases an ancient evil that spreads like sickness, infecting St. Vincent's and the children within. Soon, boys begin acting differently, forming groups. Taking sides.

Others turn up dead.

Now Peter and those dear to him must choose sides of their own, each of them knowing their lives — and perhaps their eternal souls — are at risk.

The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies, by way of Midnight Mass, in Boys in the Valley, a brilliant coming-of-age tale from award-winning author Philip Fracassi.]]> 335 Philip Fracassi 1250879035 5
It is the early 1900's when little Peter who is nine years old experiences a horror that no child should ever experience and it will be forever burned in mind, heart and dreams when he loses the warmth and safety of his family all in one night. Peter will be sent to a boys orphanage run by priests which will become his home and family until he turns eighteen unless he runs away as so many other boys had done in the past.

The story begins seven years later where Peter is one of the oldest boys among a group of 30 or more. Peter has always been a good boy and has become a leader and role model without even trying and all the younger children respect and look to him for comfort and guidance when needed. It's a very hard life that the boys live. The head priest is strict beyond words and if any of the rules are broken, there are no excuses accepted and the punishments given out are more than cruel. So this is why all the boys help one another to avoid breaking a rule.

Sadly, the more children there are the less food they get to eat and each meal is so sparse that hunger is always in their minds as the sounds of stomachs groan and rumble night after night. The boys are assigned daily chores from morning until supper time along with daily mass and prayer time. This is the life they live until their thin and sometimes frail bodies leave the orphanage. They reside in Pennsylvania so the winters are very brutal with many blizzards and the orphanage can be snowed in for weeks at a time. Every winter that passes brings illness with the freezing temperatures and the boys worry if they will lose another member of their small knit family since many the sickly children will not survive until the springtime.

One night a group of men including the sheriff bring a wounded man to their door begging for help from the priests to help save the man's life. The priests discover an assortment of occult carvings on the man's skin along with a gunshot wound but the priests know he needs spiritual help far more than physical care. Awful, strange and hideous sounds come from the man and the inhuman strength he exudes as he breaks the restraints and attacks a deputy and a few others brings death to the orphanage and an unseen evil presence will be left behind to assault the spiritually weak and it will gain strength in its numbers as two groups will emerge where the boys will be pitted against one another while the evil grows quickly fighting for dominance and will not leave any boy or priest untouched by it's malevolent power.



This book was terrifying in the creeping of insideous evil that I could feel through the pages that I read. The book was had such a frightening effect on me that I was afraid to read it in the.middle of the night. I haven't experienced those feelings with reading a book in a very long time. It's such a difference between being afraid and feeling creeped out which I find in reading many horror books. The novel was downright horrifyingly scary!

This book will appeal to any horror lover but if you were raised Catholic and especially if you attended parochial schools years ago then this book may have a big impact on the reader as far as the sinister evil attacking a Catholic orphanage and all those within because of their belief systems between good and evil.and the cruelty and abuse these children suffered on a daily basis. Please, don't get me wrong you don't have to be religious to understand or be entertained by the story because I can't imagine any reader not being affected by this very, very creepy book. The beautiful, atmospheric writing by "Philip Fracassi" was a complete reading experience. The characters were so relatable and my heartstrings were continuously tugged and pulled throughout the novel from page one until the very last page. I felt so many different emotions while reading this book while feeling tears welling up in my eyes so many times.

The writing was absolutely stellar! Fracassi did not overwrite or be repetitive with his descriptions yet he captured all the essence of youth and innocence combined with the coming of age to these boys that I felt I was right there with the boys experiencing their pain and terror and I was so emotionally caught up with each child that it hurt my heart. An amazing effect that the powerful writing had on myself. This book will be an unforgettable read for me and I just can't say enough about the exquisite writing and flow of words that brought out so many unexpected feelings and the fear factor, wow, wow, wow! I hope this talented author continues to write many stories along this line and hopefully this will be on the bestseller list for a.long, long time.

I highly, highy recommend this horror novel!

I sincerely want to thank the author "Philip Francassi" the publisher "Tor Publishing Group/ Tor Fire" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this fantastic book and any thoughts or opinions express are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 5 TERRIFYING AND HEART SHATTERING ]]> 4.10 2023 Boys in the Valley
author: Philip Fracassi
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/04
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: atmospheric, creepy, dark, depressing, disturbing, eerie, emotional, engaging, gory, historical, horror, mystery, paranormal, psychological, supernatural, suspense, tension, thriller, violence
review:
Good Versus Evil!

It is the early 1900's when little Peter who is nine years old experiences a horror that no child should ever experience and it will be forever burned in mind, heart and dreams when he loses the warmth and safety of his family all in one night. Peter will be sent to a boys orphanage run by priests which will become his home and family until he turns eighteen unless he runs away as so many other boys had done in the past.

The story begins seven years later where Peter is one of the oldest boys among a group of 30 or more. Peter has always been a good boy and has become a leader and role model without even trying and all the younger children respect and look to him for comfort and guidance when needed. It's a very hard life that the boys live. The head priest is strict beyond words and if any of the rules are broken, there are no excuses accepted and the punishments given out are more than cruel. So this is why all the boys help one another to avoid breaking a rule.

Sadly, the more children there are the less food they get to eat and each meal is so sparse that hunger is always in their minds as the sounds of stomachs groan and rumble night after night. The boys are assigned daily chores from morning until supper time along with daily mass and prayer time. This is the life they live until their thin and sometimes frail bodies leave the orphanage. They reside in Pennsylvania so the winters are very brutal with many blizzards and the orphanage can be snowed in for weeks at a time. Every winter that passes brings illness with the freezing temperatures and the boys worry if they will lose another member of their small knit family since many the sickly children will not survive until the springtime.

One night a group of men including the sheriff bring a wounded man to their door begging for help from the priests to help save the man's life. The priests discover an assortment of occult carvings on the man's skin along with a gunshot wound but the priests know he needs spiritual help far more than physical care. Awful, strange and hideous sounds come from the man and the inhuman strength he exudes as he breaks the restraints and attacks a deputy and a few others brings death to the orphanage and an unseen evil presence will be left behind to assault the spiritually weak and it will gain strength in its numbers as two groups will emerge where the boys will be pitted against one another while the evil grows quickly fighting for dominance and will not leave any boy or priest untouched by it's malevolent power.



This book was terrifying in the creeping of insideous evil that I could feel through the pages that I read. The book was had such a frightening effect on me that I was afraid to read it in the.middle of the night. I haven't experienced those feelings with reading a book in a very long time. It's such a difference between being afraid and feeling creeped out which I find in reading many horror books. The novel was downright horrifyingly scary!

This book will appeal to any horror lover but if you were raised Catholic and especially if you attended parochial schools years ago then this book may have a big impact on the reader as far as the sinister evil attacking a Catholic orphanage and all those within because of their belief systems between good and evil.and the cruelty and abuse these children suffered on a daily basis. Please, don't get me wrong you don't have to be religious to understand or be entertained by the story because I can't imagine any reader not being affected by this very, very creepy book. The beautiful, atmospheric writing by "Philip Fracassi" was a complete reading experience. The characters were so relatable and my heartstrings were continuously tugged and pulled throughout the novel from page one until the very last page. I felt so many different emotions while reading this book while feeling tears welling up in my eyes so many times.

The writing was absolutely stellar! Fracassi did not overwrite or be repetitive with his descriptions yet he captured all the essence of youth and innocence combined with the coming of age to these boys that I felt I was right there with the boys experiencing their pain and terror and I was so emotionally caught up with each child that it hurt my heart. An amazing effect that the powerful writing had on myself. This book will be an unforgettable read for me and I just can't say enough about the exquisite writing and flow of words that brought out so many unexpected feelings and the fear factor, wow, wow, wow! I hope this talented author continues to write many stories along this line and hopefully this will be on the bestseller list for a.long, long time.

I highly, highy recommend this horror novel!

I sincerely want to thank the author "Philip Francassi" the publisher "Tor Publishing Group/ Tor Fire" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this fantastic book and any thoughts or opinions express are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 5 TERRIFYING AND HEART SHATTERING
]]> <![CDATA[Gone in the Night (Detective Annalisa Vega, #5)]]> 217388001
Joe is doing hard time for killing his ex-wife’s lawyer, but an anonymous letter sent to the prison warns that the eyewitness in Joe’s trial made up her story. With her private investigation business foundering, Annalisa is desperate enough to start poking around into Joe’s meager case. She immediately finds two problems: One, the eyewitness definitely lied about what she saw the night of the murder, and two, Annalisa’s husband Nick was the cop who arrested Joe in the first place.

Faced with correcting Nick’s mistakes, Annalisa digs deeper into Joe’s past and discovers he has two ex-wives with nothing good to say about him. The women may have orchestrated an elaborate frame to put Joe in prison, but one wife has completely disappeared since then. Did Joe somehow kill her? Or is he the real victim? Annalisa’s search for the truth tests the bounds of her marriage, her family, and her own sense of justice. Meanwhile, a devious killer keeps sending men to a watery death in the vastness of Lake Michigan. If Annalisa doesn’t figure out the truth about Joe soon, her husband might be next.]]> 320 Joanna Schaffhausen 125090417X 0 to-read 4.38 2025 Gone in the Night (Detective Annalisa Vega, #5)
author: Joanna Schaffhausen
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wasp Trap 213713209
No-one expects it to end in tragedy.

Twenty-five years later, Will gets an invitation: a dinner party. A chance to see the old gang again.

But as soon as he arrives, something doesn’t seem right.

There’s an unexpected guest. The hosts are clearly keeping a secret. And on the way in, Will is sure he heard crying.

Everyone has something to hide about what really happened that summer.

But only one of them is willing to kill to find the truth…]]> 400 Mark Edwards 1405971495 0 to-read 4.21 2025 The Wasp Trap
author: Mark Edwards
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> With Friends Like These 224004584 A group of Harvard alums have played a secret game for decades but as the stakes rise, deadly consequences emerge from old lies. An unputdownable debut thriller for readers of the suspenseful novels of Julia Bartz and Ruth Ware.

Harvard promised them everything.

Ambitious futures, peers who pushed each other toward their absolute best, and an education that would open doors for the rest of their lives. And though they started out as roommates, Sara, Bee, Dina, Allie, Wesley, and Claudine soon became family. They had their whole bright lives ahead of them—until their senior year, when a shocking tragedy changed everything.

Twenty years later, five of the roommates still indulge in a secret tradition they’ve kept alive since their campus the Circus, a harmless elimination-style “killing” game played across the private rooms and hidden alleys of New York City. The game is a nod to their younger selves and a tribute to the sixth roommate they lost too young. But this year, Sara wants out of the game—until she discovers there is a small fortune awaiting the winner of this final round.

As the Circus unfolds, Sara begins to suspect that the others aren’t playing by the rules, and as the danger turns real and the old friends start pointing fingers, she discovers that even those closest to her harbor secrets of their own…secrets that could kill.]]> 240 Alissa Lee 1668094002 0 to-read 3.04 With Friends Like These
author: Alissa Lee
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.04
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Credenza 223843765 Wendy Dalrymple 0 to-read 4.08 Credenza
author: Wendy Dalrymple
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Wife, the Serial Killer 231520003 Fran Donoghue has just killed her neighbour. Don’t worry, you’ll agree, he deserved it.

Detective Gareth Donoghue has a terrible feeling about his missing neighbour.

By the time this is over, that will be the least of his worries…

A dark, sharp and hilarious novel about love, marriage, and murder, with an ending you won’t see coming… Gareth certainly didn’t. Perfect for fans of How to Kill Your Family, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Killing Eve.

Readers love My Wife, the Serial Killer:

‘This book had me laughing out loud so much I woke my son up from his nap early and for that I will never forgive the author… Think How to Kill Your Family / How to Kill Men and Get Away With It – but wittier (sorry Bella Mackie and Katy Brent).’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘I flew through it in a day… Dark, funny and a plot that goes 100mph. This is one of my favourite books I’ve read so far this year.’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Ok I absolutely loved this book!… I binged it in under a day. I didn’t want to put this down.’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘An absolute gem—I was hooked from the very first page. I knew instantly this was going to be a wild, brilliant ride… I genuinely don’t think I’ll ever stop recommending it!’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘A deliciously dark comedy. Even the cat had me laughing out loud… Easy five stars from me.’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Had me dying of laughter and grinning from ear to ear. I was entirely gripped from the start… Considering a re-read already for the laughs the book gave me.’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘I loved this book so much! Fran’s inner dialogue was like the blood in my veins and I want to be besties even if she is a murderer… One of my favorites this year!’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘An unhinged story & I LOVED it… The perfect mix of dark humor, chaos & secrets. I was hooked from page one and literally could not stop reading. This book was impossible to put down.’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Absolute peak chaos—and I’m obsessed… The writing style was witty and engaging, with plenty of dry, sarcastic, and twisted humor that had me laughing out loud.’ Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘So damn funny! Fran was hilarious she had one liners that would have me cack]]> 321 H.J. Garbett 1837001324 0 to-read 3.76 My Wife, the Serial Killer
author: H.J. Garbett
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> One Dark Night 220160216 When a body is found the day after Halloween, a small British community must reckon with its past and the dangers lurking in its present in this spine-tingling novel from “not to be missed” (Hayley Scrivener, author of Dirt Creek) author Hannah Richell.

On Halloween, a group of teenage students meet in the woods near Sally in the Wood, a road steeped in local lore and rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl. By the end of the night, one student will be dead.

Rachel, the school guidance counselor, is trying to keep a handle on her increasingly distant teenaged daughter, Ellie, while students and parents panic and mourn. Her ex-husband and detective Ben, dealing with a personal crisis of his own, has concerns about his daughter’s safety as he investigates the death of one of her classmates. Meanwhile, Ellie is keeping secrets from both her parents, including one about where she was that night.

Told from multiple perspectives and with Hannah Richell’s distinct “atmospheric and ever-twisting” (Emylia Hall, author of the Shell House Detective Mysteries) prose, One Dark Night is a white-knuckled and suspenseful thriller about urban legends, privilege, and how the past continues to haunt us.]]> 384 Hannah Richell 1668081334 0 to-read 3.98 2025 One Dark Night
author: Hannah Richell
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Final Cut 222376515 The set of a low-budget slasher film turns into a real-life horror movie in this twisty, wicked blend of Scream meets The Reappearance of Rachel Price from Olivia Worley.

When recent high school graduate Hazel Lejeune gets the lead role in a slasher film, it feels like a dream come true. This is her chance to break into the industry, build her reel, and prove to her mom that this “gap year” can turn into a career. So what if it’s set in the nothing town of Pine Springs, Louisiana–the same place her father, the Pine Springs Slasher, was convicted of a series of murders fifteen years ago?

But when Haze arrives on set, she gets much more than she bargained for. The shoot is plagued with suspicious “accidents.” Mentions of her dad dot the entire script. And then, a gruesome murder shocks everyone to the core. Now, it’s clear there’s a real killer on set—one who's determined to finish the film at all costs. But is this merely a copycat, or is the wrong Slasher behind bars?

As the body count rises and reality blurs with fiction, Haze must unmask the killer before she becomes a real-life final girl…or before the killer flips the script and makes her the next victim.]]> 352 Olivia Worley 1250392985 0 to-read 4.17 2025 Final Cut
author: Olivia Worley
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beasts 217182212 A Quiet Place meets Cormac McCarthy's The Road in this intense YA horror read.

The world has been overrun by hitherto unknown beasts. Society has the power is gone, cars are abandoned across the highways, and anyone left is hiding from the terrifying creatures—and each other. Thirteen-year-old Abdi and his five-year-old sister Alva are on the run, their last hope to escape through the forest and to the sea. As they recall the strange events that led to the beasts' arrival, and how the two of them got to where they were, they must ask themselves who they can trust—and what they will do to survive.

From Norway comes an international hit that is shudderingly terrifying and deliciously original.]]> 128 Ingvild Bjerkeland 1646145135 0 to-read 3.45 2023 Beasts
author: Ingvild Bjerkeland
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Parents Weekend 217387739 From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.]]> 312 Alex Finlay 1250360722 4
I enjoyed this novel very much just as I have with the other 'Alex Finlay' books that I have read. I have become huge fan of this author and I can't wait to read more of his works. All the suspense and tension was well-written into the story and all the chapters were written from the different character's storyline and point of view. The characters were well fleshed out and I felt as if I knew the families and their kids. Did I mention I love 'Alex Filay's writing and storytelling? I was entertained and also trying to solve the mystery throughout the entire story and I don't have anything negative to say about this novel. It was a fast page turner and I highly recommend this exciting and intriguing book to everyone!


I want to thank the publisher "St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 EXCITING AND ENTICING ]]> 3.52 2025 Parents Weekend
author: Alex Finlay
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/14
date added: 2025/06/14
shelves: atmospheric, dark, disturbing, drama, engaging, entertaining, psychological, suspense, tension, thriller, violence
review:
Five families will arrive at their child's elite, small college for the opening night of "Parent's Weekend" to celebrate the successful closing of the first college year. The kids chose the restaurant and everyone was to arrive by 7:00 pm and unbelievably all five kids from Campisi Hall never show up for the planned dinner. At first the families thought they were just being reckless college kids but after a few hours one mother contacted the police knowing her son would never do anything like this to her since he knows how she worries about him. All the families start getting concerned when none of their children answer their phones with calls or texts when they were contacted so the police do take the matter seriously when just a week ago another student was reported missing and it didn't turn out very well. Why are 5 students suddenly missing when they come from completely different backgrounds? Does it have to do with past secrets of their parents or are the missing kids involved in dangerous or criminal activities that could cause harm to themselves and others?

I enjoyed this novel very much just as I have with the other 'Alex Finlay' books that I have read. I have become huge fan of this author and I can't wait to read more of his works. All the suspense and tension was well-written into the story and all the chapters were written from the different character's storyline and point of view. The characters were well fleshed out and I felt as if I knew the families and their kids. Did I mention I love 'Alex Filay's writing and storytelling? I was entertained and also trying to solve the mystery throughout the entire story and I don't have anything negative to say about this novel. It was a fast page turner and I highly recommend this exciting and intriguing book to everyone!


I want to thank the publisher "St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 EXCITING AND ENTICING
]]> Shiver 55707640
How far would you go to win? Hyper-competitive people, mind games and a dangerous natural environment combine to make the must-read thriller of the year. Fans of Lucy Foley and Lisa Jewell will be gripped by spectacular debut novel Shiver.

When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go.

The five friends haven't seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realise they don't know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth.

In a deserted lodge high up a mountain, the secrets of the past are about to come to light.]]> 432 Allie Reynolds 147227024X 0 to-read 3.77 2020 Shiver
author: Allie Reynolds
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dreamcatcher 732903 (back cover)]]> 896 Stephen King 0743467523 5 3.44 2001 Dreamcatcher
author: Stephen King
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/06/12
shelves:
review:

]]> The Good Samaritan 233860649 An ITW Thriller Award finalist.

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

Revised This edition of The Good Samaritan includes editorial revisions.

The Good Samaritan returns with a fresh cover. This version incorporates an exclusive epilogue; while this enhances the reading experience, the main narrative is unchanged from earlier editions.]]> 417 John Marrs 1662533330 0 to-read 4.44 2017 The Good Samaritan
author: John Marrs
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Her Last Move 233860656 “Whatever you do, don’t read this in the dark…” —Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home

He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.

Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career – and she knows that it will make or break her. But how can she identify one face in a sea of thousands? With the help of Police Super Recogniser Joe Russell, she strives to catch a glimpse of the elusive murderer, but he’s watching her every move.

Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?

From the bestselling author of When You Disappeared and The Good Samaritan comes his most thrilling novel yet.

Her Last Move returns with a fresh cover. This version incorporates an exclusive epilogue; while this enhances the reading experience, the main narrative is unchanged from earlier editions.]]> 377 John Marrs 1662533357 0 to-read 3.93 2018 Her Last Move
author: John Marrs
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Ghostwriter 217506549
The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write.

After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.]]> 328 Julie Clark 1464221286 0 4.12 2025 The Ghostwriter
author: Julie Clark
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/09
shelves: currently-reading, atmospheric, abuse, crime, disturbing
review:

]]> The Intruder 231819058 Who knows what the storm will blow in…

Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door is sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.

She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood.

The girl won't explain where she came from or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.

The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

In this taut, deadly tale of survival and desperation, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden explores how far one girl will go to save herself.]]> 288 Freida McFadden 1464260915 0 to-read 4.27 2025 The Intruder
author: Freida McFadden
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Husband's Wife 231127462 The Sunday Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ugly is back with a psychological masterpiece that will leave you questioning everything you know about love, identity, and revenge.

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.]]> 320 Alice Feeney 125033781X 0 to-read 4.33 2026 My Husband's Wife
author: Alice Feeney
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Another Fine Mess (Bless Your Heart, #2)]]> 211003818 304 Lindy Ryan 1250324238 4
Down to two Evans women left and they thought the worst was over unfortunately something else is stirring up the town and this time they think it really is a wild animal until they see the bodies coming into their funeral home and if the undead frenzy was bad before this mess will be something they cannot handle on their own and the new sheriff will discover everything he thought he knew from the earlier killings will be absolutely nothing in comparison with the new role he has to accept as his new fate when the mutilated bodies keep turning up and coming back to life which he could never have imagined in his wildest nightmares!

I enjoyed this book so much! The likeable and misunderstood characters are very well developed and colorful. Atmosphere galore! This book could be read alone although I would recommend reading the first book "BLESS YOUR HEART" first, so you have a full understanding of the prior characters and the roles they played which brought about the second book "ANOTHER FINE MESS" in this series. These storylines are unique and the writing and storytelling are just excellent. I certainly hope the author 'LINDY RYAN' will have a book three coming out soon plus many more to be written in the this absolutely horrifically fun, gory, shocking, creepy, amusing, entertaining and unusually endearing if one can imagine experiencing all those feelings and more from a horror book! Thank you so much 'LINDY RYAN' for sharing your wonderfully, bizarrely, strange, creative thoughts which you captured on paper and I am now a big fan and will continue reading your books in the future.

I highly recommend to all horror lovers and others as long as the readers have strong stomachs and a great sense of humor!


I want to thank the publisher "ST. MARTIN'S PRESS - MINOTAUR BOOKS" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 HORRIFYING AND MESMERIZING ]]> 3.87 2025 Another Fine Mess (Bless Your Heart, #2)
author: Lindy Ryan
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/26
date added: 2025/06/03
shelves: atmospheric, creepy, disturbing, emotional, entertaining, engaging, folklore, fun, gory, murder, mystery, subtle-humor, supernatural, tension, violence, creature-feature
review:
WHAT ELSE WILL WE FIND OUT ABOUT THE SECRETS THE EVANS WOMEN HAVE BEEN HIDING?

Down to two Evans women left and they thought the worst was over unfortunately something else is stirring up the town and this time they think it really is a wild animal until they see the bodies coming into their funeral home and if the undead frenzy was bad before this mess will be something they cannot handle on their own and the new sheriff will discover everything he thought he knew from the earlier killings will be absolutely nothing in comparison with the new role he has to accept as his new fate when the mutilated bodies keep turning up and coming back to life which he could never have imagined in his wildest nightmares!

I enjoyed this book so much! The likeable and misunderstood characters are very well developed and colorful. Atmosphere galore! This book could be read alone although I would recommend reading the first book "BLESS YOUR HEART" first, so you have a full understanding of the prior characters and the roles they played which brought about the second book "ANOTHER FINE MESS" in this series. These storylines are unique and the writing and storytelling are just excellent. I certainly hope the author 'LINDY RYAN' will have a book three coming out soon plus many more to be written in the this absolutely horrifically fun, gory, shocking, creepy, amusing, entertaining and unusually endearing if one can imagine experiencing all those feelings and more from a horror book! Thank you so much 'LINDY RYAN' for sharing your wonderfully, bizarrely, strange, creative thoughts which you captured on paper and I am now a big fan and will continue reading your books in the future.

I highly recommend to all horror lovers and others as long as the readers have strong stomachs and a great sense of humor!


I want to thank the publisher "ST. MARTIN'S PRESS - MINOTAUR BOOKS" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 HORRIFYING AND MESMERIZING
]]> <![CDATA[Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die]]> 61271940 Free yourself and your family from the f*cking clutter before you croak!

Inspired by The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Nobody Wants Your Sh*t will light a fire under your untidy ass with humor and helpful organizing tips that you’ll actually want to use.

Like a delightfully foul-mouthed best friend, this book dishes out the funny, unpretentious advice you need to hear most. You’ll discover how to deal with your sh*t like there’s no tomorrow, live in the moment without the f*cking mess, and make your life and your eventual death a hell of a lot easier. With this witty guide, you’ll learn how to
- ditch the d*mn indecision
- get your sh*t together and feel fantastic
- give your busy family a f*cking breakand more!

Whether you’re getting ready to move in, move on, or just move your ass, Nobody Wants Your Sh*t will help you take control of your f*cking life.]]> 194 Messie Condo 1510775110 0 to-read 3.64 2023 Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die
author: Messie Condo
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Deepest Lake 215808048 In this atmospheric thriller set at a luxury memoir-writing workshop on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, a grieving mother goes undercover to investigate her daughter’s mysterious death.

Rose, the mother of 20-something aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter’s death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen? When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, the body possibly lost forever in Central America’s deepest lake, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion—and find closure.

When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter’s literary hero, the famous writing teacher Eva Marshall, a charismatic woman known for her candid—and controversial—memoirs. As Rose uncovers details about the days leading up to Jules’s disappearance, she begins to suspect that this glamorous retreat package is hiding ugly truths. Is Lake Atitlan a place where traumatized women come to heal or a place where deeper injury is inflicted?

Perfect for fans of Delia Owens, Celeste Ng, and Julia Bartz, The Deepest Lake is both a sharp look at the sometimes toxic, exclusionary world of high-class writing workshops and an achingly poignant view of a mother’s grief.]]> 400 Andromeda Romano-Lax 1641296771 0 to-read 3.67 2024 The Deepest Lake
author: Andromeda Romano-Lax
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Conclave 29397486
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.]]> 288 Robert Harris 0 to-read 4.04 2016 Conclave
author: Robert Harris
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cold Truth (Cold Justice: Most Wanted, #6)]]> 230406607
Rowena Smith may be a top-shelf librarian, but solid investigative skills won’t keep her safe after her newest research project—tracking down her biological father—leads her to a brutally murdered body. The scene offers up one hope for assistance: the card of FBI Supervisory Special Agent Kurt Montana. Alone and terrified in a foreign country, Rowena places the call.

About to board a flight home after a failed mission, Kurt can’t ignore the plea in Rowena’s voice. She could be the killer or she could be an innocent bystander—either way, he senses she holds information vital to his case. When Kurt’s flight takes off without him—only to crash into the African savanna killing everyone onboard—he knows it’s no coincidence. Rowena saved his life.

On the run from powerful enemies, he and Rowena pose as a couple—never mind that she’s much too young for him. As danger escalates and they inch closer to the secret someone is trying desperately to prevent them from revealing, their fake relationship spirals into something far more perilous. And deeply personal.

The game gets deadlier with each and every step toward the truth. But there’s no turning back and they’ll need to rely on their skills and their wits—and each other—if they hope to survive.

If you love age-gap romance, high-stakes danger, and alpha heroes with a soft spot for the woman they protect, don’t miss this thrilling, action-packed story!

Buy your copy now and dive into the heart-pounding action!]]> 530 Toni Anderson 1990721842 0 to-read 4.50 2025 Cold Truth (Cold Justice: Most Wanted, #6)
author: Toni Anderson
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Merge 223614634 A thrilling and ominously prophetic debut set in a world when Earth and its resources have been pushed to breaking point, giving rise to a revolutionary—and highly controversial—procedure in which two people’s consciousness can be combined to exist in one body.

How far would you go to never say goodbye?

Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer’s. Her daughter Amelia, a once fiery and strong-willed activist, can’t bear to see her mother’s mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world’s first experimental merging process for Alzheimer’s patients, in which Laurie’s ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia’s healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.

Soon Amelia and Laurie join the opaque and mysterious group of other merge teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his addict daughter Lara. As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation center for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.

An exhilarating, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, The Merge is a personal story of love, family, and sacrifice, as well as a thought-provoking examination of the limits of control, resistance, and freedom in our modern world.]]> 320 Grace Walker 0063446731 0 to-read 4.22 2025 The Merge
author: Grace Walker
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Night Birds 217387939 The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden, set in a deteriorated, half-sunken freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak, they never expected to see each other again, but when terror enters Ruby’s life, Charlie Book is the only safe harbor she can believe in.

In his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book has been living aboard and studying the Christabel, a 19th century freighter that lies half-sunken in Gulf waters, just off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest, full of birds, crabs, and snakes. Though a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, Book intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, preparing to motor out to the Christabel, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And Ruby’s not alone. With her are a mysterious, terrified woman named Johanna and an infant child. They need Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they're on the run, only it isn’t the police who are after them. It’s the coven of witches Johanna has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom they had hideous plans…or so Johanna claims.

It’s lunacy. Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, back in Galveston there are shadowed figures out in the storm, sniffing the air like bloodhounds. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline as if searching for their prey.]]> 304 Christopher Golden 1250285917 0 3.38 2025 The Night Birds
author: Christopher Golden
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/29
shelves: currently-reading, atmospheric, creepy, dark, disturbing, eerie, engaging, entertaining, legend, murder, supernatural-mystery, thriller, tension, violence
review:

]]> Something in the Walls 211004350
Then she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day, and he has a proposition for her: Thirteen-year-old Alice Webber claims a witch is haunting her. Living with her family in the remote village of Banathel, Alice finds her symptoms are getting increasingly disturbing. Taking this job will give Mina some experience and much-needed money; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better—Mina is sure of it.

But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of…dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.]]> 295 Daisy Pearce 1250334381 4
Mina excitedly agrees to go with Sam against Oscar's wishes but this is a chance to get her feet wet in her chosen profession. They will be away for few days so Mina can evaluate Alice and hopefully Sam will get a good story from the eerie experiences that her family are claiming to be supernatural occurrences that they are witnessing as well around Alice. Mina was not prepared for the superstitious community of Bethanael where many people crowd outside Alice's home and want to see and talk to her. Shortly after visiting with Alice who claims everything is real and just wants it all to go away, Mina and Sam decide to stay longer hoping to see some psychic phenomena which they don't believe but strange things are happening and suddenly Alice starts going downhill and getting worse although Mina and Sam are trying to sort things out but maybe they need to leave but Alice begs Mina to stay and continue helping her. Before long many of the townspeople are blaming Mina and calling Alice a witch, even Alice's parents think she has gotten worse since Mina started treating their daughter so they want her and Sam to leave their home. When they decide to finally leave since events have gotten so out of control with most of the superstitious villagers, Mina will find there are other forces at work and they are not going to let her leave and unbeknownst to Mina or Sam someone will die tonight and their lives are in serious danger unless they leave immediately.

This was a most creepy and entertaining story dealing with a superstitious small isolated village and it's inhabitants. The atmospheric storytelling and writing are filled with wonderful eerie tension throughout the entire book. I thought the author 'Daisy Pearce' captured the essence of all the characters where I could visualize each and every person that was mentioned in this spooky story. I have to say I loved this book and I highly recommend it to any reader who loves a good horror/thriller with heart! I hope this author continues to write horror books because I will be first in line to read them!

I want to thank the publisher "ST. MARTIN'S PRESS" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have give a rating of 4 1/2 TENSE AND HORROR FILLED ]]> 3.32 2025 Something in the Walls
author: Daisy Pearce
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves: atmospheric, creepy, dark, disturbing, eerie, engaging, entertaining, horror, psychological, spooky, tension, suspense, folklore, legend, mystery, violence
review:
Mina is a child psychologist who is hoping to start working in her new career while also making upcoming wedding plans with her fiancee Oscar who works as science researcher. Mina has always struggled with her brother's death from years ago so she attends a bereavement group where she meets Sam who also continues to grieve his little sister who disappeared long ago.. Sam is a journalist and works where the stories take him. The two bond as friends over their painful grief and share some of their personal history as well. One day out of the blue Sam calls Mina to offer her a job to consult with a thirteen year old girl named Alice who lives in a small village hours away. Alice's family does not have any extra money to see a seasoned psychologist to find help but they are at the end of their rope trying to get her help. Alice has been seeing things and also claiming a witch lives in their chimney who tells her to do bad things. Her friends and others have become afraid of her so she had to leave school because her behavior had completely gotten out of hand.

Mina excitedly agrees to go with Sam against Oscar's wishes but this is a chance to get her feet wet in her chosen profession. They will be away for few days so Mina can evaluate Alice and hopefully Sam will get a good story from the eerie experiences that her family are claiming to be supernatural occurrences that they are witnessing as well around Alice. Mina was not prepared for the superstitious community of Bethanael where many people crowd outside Alice's home and want to see and talk to her. Shortly after visiting with Alice who claims everything is real and just wants it all to go away, Mina and Sam decide to stay longer hoping to see some psychic phenomena which they don't believe but strange things are happening and suddenly Alice starts going downhill and getting worse although Mina and Sam are trying to sort things out but maybe they need to leave but Alice begs Mina to stay and continue helping her. Before long many of the townspeople are blaming Mina and calling Alice a witch, even Alice's parents think she has gotten worse since Mina started treating their daughter so they want her and Sam to leave their home. When they decide to finally leave since events have gotten so out of control with most of the superstitious villagers, Mina will find there are other forces at work and they are not going to let her leave and unbeknownst to Mina or Sam someone will die tonight and their lives are in serious danger unless they leave immediately.

This was a most creepy and entertaining story dealing with a superstitious small isolated village and it's inhabitants. The atmospheric storytelling and writing are filled with wonderful eerie tension throughout the entire book. I thought the author 'Daisy Pearce' captured the essence of all the characters where I could visualize each and every person that was mentioned in this spooky story. I have to say I loved this book and I highly recommend it to any reader who loves a good horror/thriller with heart! I hope this author continues to write horror books because I will be first in line to read them!

I want to thank the publisher "ST. MARTIN'S PRESS" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have give a rating of 4 1/2 TENSE AND HORROR FILLED
]]> <![CDATA[In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex]]> 17780
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex - an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.

In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.

Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.

At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.]]> 302 Nathaniel Philbrick 0141001828 0 to-read 4.16 2000 In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
author: Nathaniel Philbrick
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Of Earthly Delights 214438353 A contemporary YA gothic romance about a dark family secret, a lush, mysterious garden, and a love that never dies, from New York Times bestselling author Goldy Moldavsky.

Aspiring artist Rose Pauly is not happy moving from her home in New York City right before her senior year of high school. But on her first miserable day in Connecticut, she meets Hart Hargrove. The two share an immediate, undeniable connection.

Hart introduces Rose to his slice of paradise–the immense private garden nestled behind the Hargrove family mansion. There, the two spend a fever dream of a summer together. But as their bond blossoms into love, Rose can't shake the feeling that all is not as it seems.

When Rose uncovers the truth about the garden, she's forced to question how genuine her love story truly is. But Hart can't bear to lose Rose, and he will stop at nothing to save their relationship.

Posing haunting questions about beauty and desire, this is an atmospheric and darkly romantic tale that will enthrall readers.]]> 336 Goldy Moldavsky 1250863325 0 to-read 3.93 2025 Of Earthly Delights
author: Goldy Moldavsky
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slaying You (Amber Jamison, #2)]]> 217453519 In this hilarious, nail-biting thriller from the author of Killing Me, two troublemakers hit the danger jackpot when they discover that a serial killer is on their heels . . . again.

Grace and Amber share a harrowing they both escaped the clutches of the same vicious psychopath. After dealing with him, they went their separate ways, determined to reclaim their lives.  neither of them is very good at being "normal." Despite their best efforts, they both feel an irresistible pull toward the dark side.

When a friend's Vegas wedding reunites these reluctant allies, they uncover something a dangerous killer is targeting their inner circle. With time running out and bodies piling up, Grace and Amber must tap into their hard-earned survival skills. They've outsmarted a murderer before, but this time, the stakes are higher and the killer is smarter…can they do it again?]]> 320 Michelle Gagnon 0593540778 0 to-read 3.84 Slaying You (Amber Jamison, #2)
author: Michelle Gagnon
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Killing Me (Amber Jamison, #1)]]> 60196796
You'd think escaping one psychopath would be enough, but Amber's problems are just beginning. Her close call has law enforcement circling a past she's tried to outrun. So she flees across the country, ending up at a seedy motel in Las Vegas with a noir-obsessed manager and a sex worker as her unlikely companions...and danger right behind.

She's landed in the crosshairs of the world's most prolific killer, caught up in a deadly game that's been going on for years. To survive, she's forced to dust off her old playbook and partner with someone she can't trust. The odds are against her, but sometimes you just have to roll the dice.]]> 336 Michelle Gagnon 0593540743 4
Amber has always been ahead of the game with extra intuitive instincts and a sharp and cunning mind since she was raised by two grifters who made their way throughout life scamming, stealing, cheating anyone and everything using and teaching Amber all the tricks of their trade so she ended up with some of the best and most unusual survival skills that any young woman would be lucky or unlucky (depending on the situation) to own in her life's arsenal.

As luck would have it, Amber survives this unbelievable horror by a masked savior who she will be indebted to forever for saving her life. Now, the FBI are looking for Amber so she has to go on the run once again with her future career down the drain. She decides to travel to California and prays to make a new honest life again since she was given a second chance to truly be alive because she should have been dead just like the other victims of the Pikachu killer. Amber makes a stop in Las Vegas to earn some money along the way as she continues to receive helpful although mysterious text messages from an unknown number and thinks they're from her savior. Shortly after, she sets herself up in a cheap motel and once again finds herself the main target of another serial killer. How can this be humanly possible? Can anyone survive two serial killers back to back especially when the second one is deadlier than the first if that is even possible! This time Amber's luck is about to run out because anyone she befriends will now be in the killer's sights but she needs some serious help before her young lifetime is up.



What a terrific book that Michelle Gagnon has written! I can't believe how much I enjoyed and was entertained by this story. It was light, dark, comedic, dramatic, sassy, emotional and so much more! All the characters were wonderful, especially sassy Amber. The Vegas situations were just so atmospheric and picturesque through and through. I'm so happy I was given the chance to read "Killing Me" and I definitely plan to follow and read more of this author's books. I really think this book is perfect for horror and dark thriller readers as it does have quite a bit of violence, bloody, and dark situations but it was also fun with much frivolity thrown in.

I highly recommend this book! Just so, so good!

I want to thank the publisher "Penguin Group Putnam/ G.P. Putnam Son's" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 MESMERIZING AND UNPREDICTABLE ]]> 3.85 2023 Killing Me (Amber Jamison, #1)
author: Michelle Gagnon
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/05
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: action, creepy, disturbing, engaging, entertaining, fun, gory, mystery, subtle-humor, suspense, thriller, violence
review:
Amber Jamison is a twenty-four year old psychology student with one semester left before she graduates with a full fledged honest degree that she has longed for and worked so hard to achieve with her future life all planned out and she is right now going to lose everything but most importantly she about to Die at the hands of a serial killer! How did this happen to her? Oh, no! She is lying naked on a steel table all tied up and painted blue and if the news reports are correct she will be bald as well. She is going to die any moment by the infamous Pikachu serial killer! "This can't be happening! "

Amber has always been ahead of the game with extra intuitive instincts and a sharp and cunning mind since she was raised by two grifters who made their way throughout life scamming, stealing, cheating anyone and everything using and teaching Amber all the tricks of their trade so she ended up with some of the best and most unusual survival skills that any young woman would be lucky or unlucky (depending on the situation) to own in her life's arsenal.

As luck would have it, Amber survives this unbelievable horror by a masked savior who she will be indebted to forever for saving her life. Now, the FBI are looking for Amber so she has to go on the run once again with her future career down the drain. She decides to travel to California and prays to make a new honest life again since she was given a second chance to truly be alive because she should have been dead just like the other victims of the Pikachu killer. Amber makes a stop in Las Vegas to earn some money along the way as she continues to receive helpful although mysterious text messages from an unknown number and thinks they're from her savior. Shortly after, she sets herself up in a cheap motel and once again finds herself the main target of another serial killer. How can this be humanly possible? Can anyone survive two serial killers back to back especially when the second one is deadlier than the first if that is even possible! This time Amber's luck is about to run out because anyone she befriends will now be in the killer's sights but she needs some serious help before her young lifetime is up.



What a terrific book that Michelle Gagnon has written! I can't believe how much I enjoyed and was entertained by this story. It was light, dark, comedic, dramatic, sassy, emotional and so much more! All the characters were wonderful, especially sassy Amber. The Vegas situations were just so atmospheric and picturesque through and through. I'm so happy I was given the chance to read "Killing Me" and I definitely plan to follow and read more of this author's books. I really think this book is perfect for horror and dark thriller readers as it does have quite a bit of violence, bloody, and dark situations but it was also fun with much frivolity thrown in.

I highly recommend this book! Just so, so good!

I want to thank the publisher "Penguin Group Putnam/ G.P. Putnam Son's" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 MESMERIZING AND UNPREDICTABLE
]]> <![CDATA[Cold as Hell (Haven's Rock, #3)]]> 211003790 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Haven’s Rock in Cold as Hell as Casey Butler hunts down a dangerous killer during a deadly blizzard.

Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock.

When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust—and who they can't—in their seemingly safe haven.]]> 341 Kelley Armstrong 1250351790 5

Hidden in a secret location in the Canadian Yukon lies a community, unknown to the public for certain individuals to escape from their former lives and find safety and solace with new identities to live in the harsh and sometimes very cruel wilderness without any modern conveniences e.g. as in anything electrical etc. Sounds similar to witness protection but it is not any type of government sanctioned agency. This new story has many exciting subplots evolving not excluding detective Casey, who is now eight months pregnant and has a high risk pregnancy as well and to travel to the nearest hospital a small plane is the only transportation to any nearby city. A member of the community who is single is kidnapped but she is able to get away from her attacker but when a second married woman goes missing during a blizzard Casey and Derek know they must hurry to find her due to the freezing temperatures and storms that are headed their way before they become snowbound for several days. There may be a killer in their midst and everyone will become a suspect even some members of their policing team unless they can find this vicious predator before they get the chance to get away amidst all the continuing chaos. Oh, no! What if Casey goes into labor while they're stranded because of blizzard conditions?


I enjoyed this book so very much as I've enjoyed every story that I've read in this exciting series. This book so was hard to put down since something new was happening in every chapter and I just needed to know more so I just couldn't stop turning the pages. Finishing these stories always carry bittersweet emotions as I love getting to the end of the mystery but I hate that I have to wait awhile until 'Kelley Armstrong' writes her next "HAVEN'S Rock" book and I sincerely hope this author continues this series for years and years to come.

These books can be read a stand-alones although I would recommend starting with the first or second books to really understand how this secret community came into existence and how they are able survive in the Yukon wilderness. Readers will not be disappointed! I highly recommend this book and I really can't wait to read the next book book hopefully before it's published!


I want to thank the publisher "St. Martin's Press /Minotaur Books" and Netgalley" for the opportunity to read 'COLD AS HELL' and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 5 ATMOSPHERIC AND EXPLOSIVE ]]> 4.19 2025 Cold as Hell (Haven's Rock, #3)
author: Kelley Armstrong
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: action, atmospheric, crime, creepy, detective-mystery, engaging, entertaining, fun, murder, mystery, thriller, violence, suspense, tension
review:
KELLY ARMSTRONG'S STRONG STORYTELLING JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER WITH THIS INTRIGUING SERIES AND "COLD AS HELL" IS NOT TO BE MISSED SINCE IT IS A SPECIAL NOVEL FOR HAVEN'S ROCK FOLLOWERS!


Hidden in a secret location in the Canadian Yukon lies a community, unknown to the public for certain individuals to escape from their former lives and find safety and solace with new identities to live in the harsh and sometimes very cruel wilderness without any modern conveniences e.g. as in anything electrical etc. Sounds similar to witness protection but it is not any type of government sanctioned agency. This new story has many exciting subplots evolving not excluding detective Casey, who is now eight months pregnant and has a high risk pregnancy as well and to travel to the nearest hospital a small plane is the only transportation to any nearby city. A member of the community who is single is kidnapped but she is able to get away from her attacker but when a second married woman goes missing during a blizzard Casey and Derek know they must hurry to find her due to the freezing temperatures and storms that are headed their way before they become snowbound for several days. There may be a killer in their midst and everyone will become a suspect even some members of their policing team unless they can find this vicious predator before they get the chance to get away amidst all the continuing chaos. Oh, no! What if Casey goes into labor while they're stranded because of blizzard conditions?


I enjoyed this book so very much as I've enjoyed every story that I've read in this exciting series. This book so was hard to put down since something new was happening in every chapter and I just needed to know more so I just couldn't stop turning the pages. Finishing these stories always carry bittersweet emotions as I love getting to the end of the mystery but I hate that I have to wait awhile until 'Kelley Armstrong' writes her next "HAVEN'S Rock" book and I sincerely hope this author continues this series for years and years to come.

These books can be read a stand-alones although I would recommend starting with the first or second books to really understand how this secret community came into existence and how they are able survive in the Yukon wilderness. Readers will not be disappointed! I highly recommend this book and I really can't wait to read the next book book hopefully before it's published!


I want to thank the publisher "St. Martin's Press /Minotaur Books" and Netgalley" for the opportunity to read 'COLD AS HELL' and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 5 ATMOSPHERIC AND EXPLOSIVE
]]> The French Honeymoon 215057625
Sometimes, Paris is a terrible idea.

This is not how she imagined it, any of it. Taylor Quinn arrives at her honeymoon suite in the City of Love alone, sans suitcase, but with wads of stolen cash. When she catches a glimpse of newlyweds Cassie and Olivier enjoying their happily ever, she can't tear her eyes away. And Cassie makes their antics easy to follow as she reveals every detail of their picture-perfect trip on social media. Taylor's obsession builds as she tracks their every move. This was the kind of life she was supposed to be living, this was the marriage she should have had, this was the honeymoon she dreamed of.

The illusion is shattered when she overhears a heated argument between Cassie and Olivier, which reveals that they're not the lovestruck couple they pretend to be. But Cassie and Olivier have agendas of their own and Taylor can't see the danger in getting in the middle of this until it's too late. And now, no one will get out of Paris unscathed.]]> 288 Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau 1464229406 3

This book was a fast and entertaining read from author ANNE-SOPHIE JOUHANNEAU. She captured the essence of Paris, France wonderfully as I could sense the sights,sounds and smells from her very descriptive writing as if I was actually there with the characters seeing and feeling the beauty of their surroundings, from the famous Eiffel Tower to the quaint little cafes and bakeries where I could easily taste the delicious French pastries and deserts plus visualize every site they visited along with my being able to imagine some customs and mannerisms of the people of France. I enjoyed the pacing, the quick chapters and the style of the writing for this book.

It was fun learning the backgrounds of each character and the many secrets of their past histories slowly revealed bit by bit. The storytelling was cleverly done and kept the book interesting and intriguing at times. The ending was just okay for me maybe a little rushed and understated for all heavy developments within the story although I could see a follow-up book continuing where THE FRENCH HONEYMOON ended leaving many questions left unanswered! I would love to read more books by this author and I recommend this story to all readers who enjoy engaging, dark, thriller/mysteries!


I want to thank the publisher 'SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK" and NETGALLEY for gifting this ebook to me and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating a 3 1/2 CLEVER AND DEVIOUS]]> 3.18 2025 The French Honeymoon
author: Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: atmospheric, crime, dark, disturbing, engaging, murder, mystery, psychological, subtle-humor, suspense, thriller, creepy
review:
Olivier and Cassie are on their honeymoon in France where Olivier was originally born and raised and unbeknownst to the to the happy couple they have a stalker who is following and shadowing their every move. Who is this mysterious threat? Will this trip be Honeymoon to forever Happiness or Honeymoon from Hell? Will any of these three people make it back to their lives in the U.S. or will an unexpected confrontation change the course of their lives forever!


This book was a fast and entertaining read from author ANNE-SOPHIE JOUHANNEAU. She captured the essence of Paris, France wonderfully as I could sense the sights,sounds and smells from her very descriptive writing as if I was actually there with the characters seeing and feeling the beauty of their surroundings, from the famous Eiffel Tower to the quaint little cafes and bakeries where I could easily taste the delicious French pastries and deserts plus visualize every site they visited along with my being able to imagine some customs and mannerisms of the people of France. I enjoyed the pacing, the quick chapters and the style of the writing for this book.

It was fun learning the backgrounds of each character and the many secrets of their past histories slowly revealed bit by bit. The storytelling was cleverly done and kept the book interesting and intriguing at times. The ending was just okay for me maybe a little rushed and understated for all heavy developments within the story although I could see a follow-up book continuing where THE FRENCH HONEYMOON ended leaving many questions left unanswered! I would love to read more books by this author and I recommend this story to all readers who enjoy engaging, dark, thriller/mysteries!


I want to thank the publisher 'SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK" and NETGALLEY for gifting this ebook to me and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating a 3 1/2 CLEVER AND DEVIOUS
]]> You Can't Stay 231254222 horror thriller that tightens its grip with every page. Once you start, there’s no turning back.

The Ritual meets True Detective meets Vikings—a hauntingly original knockout.

Not everything lost should be found.

When Esther’s sister vanishes without a trace, no one cares—not for a struggling addict.

But Esther refuses to let the only family she has left slip away. Her search becomes an obsession, uncovering whispers of a dark secret others have died to keep buried.

Dozens of disappearances.

The same location.

The same lie.

Every year, the government sends a group of people deep into New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

And every year, they don’t return.

Soon, another group of people will be sent into the woods. And this time, Esther will be among them.

But not everything lost should be found. In the heart of the wilderness, some secrets are meant to die.



From the

If you found me through I Kill Killers, thank you. That kind of support means more than you know. I always write dark stories—but the flavors shift. One book might drag you into gritty crime like IKK, another into modern fantasy horror like You Can’t Stay. Not every genre will be your thing, and that’s okay. Catch me on the next ride.
When you buy an Ashman, you’re not just supporting an author—you’re backing a mom, a small business, a dreamer, and someone hellbent on telling bold, original stories.

Thanks for being here.


This book includes some dark scenes. It's a horror thriller with Norse mythology, Native cultures, and lots of action.


This is a new story and not a continuation of the IKK series.

Other Books by S. T.

I Kill Killers
We Kill Killers
Final Kill]]> 280 S.T. Ashman 0 to-read 3.98 You Can't Stay
author: S.T. Ashman
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where No One Can Hear You 228434307 Sometimes silence is more terrifying than screams.


Sixteen-year-old Amanda Gray's life shatters when what should have been a simple walk home with her best friend Sarah turns into a nightmare. One moment they're picking bluebells in the woods; the next, they're at the mercy of a predator who seems chillingly familiar with his routine.

Six weeks later, Amanda wakes in a hospital bed with a slash across her throat, her voice stolen, and no memory of how she escaped. And no one will talk to her about Sarah.

And the worst part?
Her most crucial memory might be the one she can't speak


Where No One Can Hear You is a haunting exploration of survival, memory, and the lengths one will go to save someone they love—even when they can't save themselves.]]> 417 J.E. Rowney 0 to-read 3.97 Where No One Can Hear You
author: J.E. Rowney
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Marguerite by the Lake 217387994 From Mary Dixie Carter comes an atmospheric, tense novel about the death of a wealthy garden designer, her lonely widower, and the scrappy young gardener who smoothly steps into her life.

Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. Her presence is overpowering, her taste, legendary. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of the Gray Marguerite and her husband Geoffrey. Phoenix came from humble beginnings, and now she works hard to craft the landscape that underpins Marguerite’s brand.

When a storm threatens the launch party for Marguerite’s latest book, it’s Phoenix who spots the danger to the guests and rushes to Geoffrey’s side to save him from a falling tree. Geoffrey is grateful—perhaps too grateful. Marguerite is . . . jealous. Phoenix senses the danger of being drawn deeper into their lives but can’t resist the attention, becoming embroiled in an affair that could destroy her career.

But soon after the affair begins Marguerite falls to her death, from the same high point at Rosecliff where she posed for Marguerite by the Lake. Now Phoenix has another secret, one that haunts her even as Geoffrey invites her to move into the manor with him. A secret that Detective Hanna and Marguerite’s daughter—her spitting image—are circling closer and closer to. Phoenix tries to put it all behind her and find her rightful place at Rosecliff. But as every gardener knows, nothing stays buried forever.]]> 304 Mary Dixie Carter 1250790387 0 to-read 3.25 Marguerite by the Lake
author: Mary Dixie Carter
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Room on the Left 211399646 The caretaker at an isolated mountain hotel finds herself fighting for her life—and sanity—in this twisty, addictive thriller.

Kerry’s life is in shambles: Her husband has left her, her drinking habit has officially become a problem, and though the deadline for her big book deal—the one that was supposed to change everything—is looming, she can’t write a word. When she sees an ad for a caretaker position at a revitalized roadside motel in the Catskills, she jumps at the chance. It’s the perfect getaway to finish her book and start fresh.

But as she hunkers down in a blizzard, she spots something through the window: a pale arm peeking out from a heap of snow. Trapped in the mountains and alone with a dead, frozen body, Kerry must keep her head and make it out before the killer comes for her too. But is the deadly game of cat-and-mouse all in her mind? The body count begs to differ...]]> 333 Leah Konen 059371590X 0 to-read 3.37 2025 The Last Room on the Left
author: Leah Konen
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Count My Lies 214151565 A read-in-one-night suspense thriller narrated by a compulsive liar whose little white lies allow her to enter into the life and comfort of a wealthy married couple who are harboring much darker secrets themselves. For the millions of us still chasing those gone girls, this is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, and Laura Dave.

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.

So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl's foot.

With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

But maybe Sloane isn't the only one lying, and all that's picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.

The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.

Careful what you lie for.]]> 336 Sophie Stava 1668079348 0 to-read 3.71 2025 Count My Lies
author: Sophie Stava
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Immaculate Conception 217453576 From the author of Natural Beauty, set in the fiercely competitive art world, a novel about an obsessive friendship upended by a cutting-edge technology purported to enhance empathy and connection

Enka meets Mathilde in art school. Mathilde is a dizzyingly talented yet tortured artist whose star is on the rise—and Enka, struggling to make art that feels original, is immediately drawn to her. The two strike up an intense bond that soon turns codependent. But when Mathilde’s fame reaches new heights, Enka becomes desperate to keep her best friend close—no matter the cost.
 
Enka quickly falls in love with and marries a billionaire whose family’s company is funding an unconventional technology purported to heighten empathy, which could allow someone else to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and absorb the trauma from her brain. Soon, the boundaries between Mathilde and Enka begin to blur even further, setting in motion a disturbing series of events that forever changes their lives.

Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception deftly navigates big questions of art, technology, authorship, and what makes us human. Ling Ling Huang offers us a portrait of close friendship—achingly tender and twisted—that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.]]> 304 Ling Ling Huang 0593850432 0 to-read 3.99 2025 Immaculate Conception
author: Ling Ling Huang
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Staircase in the Woods 216971219 A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods.

While on a camping trip, five high-schoolers bound by an oath to always protect one another discover something in the middle of the forest: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend climbs up but does not come back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later it reappears, and the friends return to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase.]]> 388 Chuck Wendig 0593156560 0 3.62 2025 The Staircase in the Woods
author: Chuck Wendig
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: currently-reading, abuse, atmospheric, creepy, dark, depressing, disturbing, eerie, emotional, drama, engaging, entertaining, horror, murder, psychological, science-fiction, spooky, supernatural, suspense, tension, thriller, violence
review:

]]> The White People 310580 48 Arthur Machen 1419187821 0 to-read 3.74 1904 The White People
author: Arthur Machen
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1904
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Broken Girls (Detective Jack Kent #2)]]> 205158772 Her mother will be furious when she finds out. She knew it was risky to come here alone. But it was too hard to resist. A chance to live like a normal teenager, to have a good day for once. And now it will be her last…

When teenager Leia Thompson drops dead in a shopping mall of apparent natural causes, Detective Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Kent is the only one convinced something isn’t right. Why was Leia at the mall alone? Why are there scars – old and new – all over her body?

Visiting Leia’s mother, Jack quickly realises that she controlled every aspect of her daughter’s short life, home-schooling her and moving town every few months. At their house, Jack finds a room crammed with records detailing the teenager’s complex medical history right from the moment of her birth. A sinister picture starts to emerge in Jack’s mind – of a mother capable of hurting her own child.

When another girl dies in similar circumstances, the only thing that seems to connect the victims is their youth and frail health – and Leia’s estranged father. He emerges as their prime suspect until the girls’ autopsy reports come back with sinister similarities, and Jack’s attention turns to the doctors who treated them.

Then somebody close to the case is found dead, and Jack starts to feel like she’s losing control. More will die if she doesn’t catch the person responsible soon. Can she work her way through this web of dark secrets and chilling motives before the killer strikes again?

An absolutely unputdownable and gripping crime thriller with shocking twists perfect for readers who adore Angela Marsons, Rachel McLean and Sally Rigby.]]> 274 Nicky Downes 1805083244 3
The case takes a sudden turn when another body is found dead under similar circumstances. The team works tirelessly trying to put the puzzle pieces together and connect the two cases and a few other people could be possible suspects with some crazy turns that were unexpected but clues continue to fizzle out and leave Jack frustrated and angry. Jack's boss puts pressure on her to just get the case wrapped up and closed without actually solving these murders.


This book was an interesting and entertaining detective mystery with quite a few red herrings and twists that were quite enjoyable. The story itself was a fast read but more dramatic than thrilling. The parts I had problems with were Jack's romantic life and thoughts were present way too much throughout the story and for trying to solve these murder cases she had an awful lot of free time. Weekends off to make romantic plans and shorter work days than I'm used to from reading other detective books instead of working around the clock, it just took away from the realism of the police case and became more an unexpected romantic drama for myself.

So I would still recommend this book to readers who might enjoy a softer detective story with many personal experiences in the storyline. My preference is much darker novels and I know many readers prefer a lighter touch. The storyline was very good and also brought in many failures with the medical community dropping the ball over and over which led to a young person's lifelong suffering from medical professionals that turned a blind eye to this poor victim well-being which eventually led to her death yet none of these cause were what actually killed her.

I want to thank the publisher "Storm Publishing" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 ENTERTAINING AND SUSPICIOUS ]]> 4.11 Broken Girls (Detective Jack Kent #2)
author: Nicky Downes
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2025/05/12
shelves: atmospheric, creepy, crime, dark, disturbing, emotional, engaging, entertaining, murder, mystery, psychological, suspense, violence
review:
A young girl who was shopping at the mall suddenly drops dead without any apparent superficial causes until her body is examined and that's when the young detective Jack and her team are called in since the medical findings of Leia Thompson's body are determined that severe past abuse may have been committed but they cannot find an actual cause of death. Jack and team lean towards the mother whose behavior and reactions are very strange to her daughter's death and it seems the poor girl rarely left her home except for doctor appointments and she had no friends or even a tablet or cell phone. How does a young person socially survive today with only books to read without any outside influences or someone to share their secrets.

The case takes a sudden turn when another body is found dead under similar circumstances. The team works tirelessly trying to put the puzzle pieces together and connect the two cases and a few other people could be possible suspects with some crazy turns that were unexpected but clues continue to fizzle out and leave Jack frustrated and angry. Jack's boss puts pressure on her to just get the case wrapped up and closed without actually solving these murders.


This book was an interesting and entertaining detective mystery with quite a few red herrings and twists that were quite enjoyable. The story itself was a fast read but more dramatic than thrilling. The parts I had problems with were Jack's romantic life and thoughts were present way too much throughout the story and for trying to solve these murder cases she had an awful lot of free time. Weekends off to make romantic plans and shorter work days than I'm used to from reading other detective books instead of working around the clock, it just took away from the realism of the police case and became more an unexpected romantic drama for myself.

So I would still recommend this book to readers who might enjoy a softer detective story with many personal experiences in the storyline. My preference is much darker novels and I know many readers prefer a lighter touch. The storyline was very good and also brought in many failures with the medical community dropping the ball over and over which led to a young person's lifelong suffering from medical professionals that turned a blind eye to this poor victim well-being which eventually led to her death yet none of these cause were what actually killed her.

I want to thank the publisher "Storm Publishing" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 ENTERTAINING AND SUSPICIOUS
]]> The Death of Us 216522696 The Death of Us is the story of a marriage turned inside out by a violent encounter that sets fire to the hairline faults that were there from the start.

Late on a summer’s evening when they are thirty years old, husband and wife Edward and Isabel’s home is invaded by a serial killer. In the wake of this violation, the solid foundation of their love reveals cracks and instabilities that might have been there all along, and their marriage crumbles.

More than 25 years later, they are reunited for their tormentor’s trial and forced to confront their relationship: the secrets, the passions, and the encounter that binds them still. Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be caught. As she’s tracked news of his increasingly violent criminal life, she’s connected with other survivors and prepared for the moment that she’d get to read her victim impact statement aloud in court. She is sure she’ll speak her truth and finally let the past go. Edward has spent the years since the break-in—and the breakdown of his marriage—trying to figure out how a near-miss with death killed so much else in their shared life. Unlike Isabel, he’s not eager to relive these terrible memories. But even though he’s moved on—he’s found love again, his old life almost unrecognizable ​to him now—he can’t resist accompanying Isabel to their intruder’s sentencing. What would revenge or justice feel like? Can closure set Isabel free? And what might that freedom mean for Edward?]]> 336 Abigail Dean 0593831136 0 to-read 3.93 2025 The Death of Us
author: Abigail Dean
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Chasing Shadows (Detective Erika Foster, #9)]]> 228987608 In a deadly game of cat and mouse, Detective Erika Foster confronts her greatest nemesis—where the lines of justice blur and secrets unravel.

A collapsed ceiling. A dead body. What starts as a routine 999 call takes an unexpected twist when Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster arrives on the scene and discovers the body of a woman in an empty flat, with all DNA evidence scrubbed away. When forensics find cocaine residue coating every surface of the ceiling, Erika calls in the drug dogs, who lead her to a mysterious parcel locker on the outside wall of the property. Chasing down the locker’s owner leads Erika back where she never expected to be – staring into the eyes of Jerome Goodman, the drug dealer who murdered her husband, Mark, ten years ago.

She arrests him on the spot, but there’s just one problem. His passport and his solicitor say his name is Kieron Bagshaw, and his record is squeaky clean.

With top brass demanding she take leave to deal with her PTSD and even her closest colleagues questioning her sanity, Erika decides to use the time off to do some digging of her own. Trawling for clues through old newspapers, encrypted messages, and secret underground passageways, Erika makes a series of shocking discoveries that move Mark’s murder from cold case to active investigation, all while flying under the Met’s radar.

The revelations will push Erika to the brink, forcing her to confront the trauma of her past and the truth about what happened the day Mark died – and who among her friends was involved from the shadows.]]> 377 Robert Bryndza 1914547357 0 to-read 4.63 2025 Chasing Shadows (Detective Erika Foster, #9)
author: Robert Bryndza
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mapping the Interior 220165542
The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you'd rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them . . . at terrible cost.]]> 112 Stephen Graham Jones 1250406021 0 to-read 3.29 2017 Mapping the Interior
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> King Sorrow 223420465
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.

But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.]]> 896 Joe Hill 0062200607 0 to-read 4.42 2025 King Sorrow
author: Joe Hill
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Her Pretty Lies 205410414 The paramedics tell me I’m in shock as they load the body bag into the ambulance.

Only days ago, I had everything. A man I wanted to marry. A prestigious fellowship for graduate school. A perfect new apartment. I’m a psychology student. I should have known she was hiding something from the start…Now I’m shivering under a foil blanket wondering how my life became a nightmare.

And when the paramedics check me over, it’s not concern I see on their faces. It’s fear.

They think I did this. They think I killed her…

An edge-of-your-seat, gripping and unputdownable psychological thriller for fans of Freida McFadden and Jeneva Rose’s The Perfect Marriage.]]> 290 Angela Henry 1805085158 4
She should have listened to her instincts and never trusted the charming student whom everyone loved and wanted to live in her shoes. "I had everything I could have dreamed, a two year full paid tuition program for my last two years of graduate school, a boyfriend and a nice apartment. Within a 24hr. period I lost everything and I will now be homeless, my boyfriend dumped me and I will probably have to drop out of school."

"Just when I thought my life is in ruins, along comes an offer that I should resist but I know I won't say no. The dark, dangerous secrets and lies that I unknowingly walked into because I couldn't resist that offer where now I'm sitting on the.doorstep of a scene of horror that I never asked for or did I!"


This book was an entertaining, fun and a very twisted mystery/thriller. The story was full of many surprises and a couple of shocks as well, plus the novel was very well-written and a real page turner where I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The story seems a little slow while enjoyable at first but when story picks up it becomes a non-stop twist and turn ride that I didn't want to come to an end. I'm looking forward to reading many more of Angela Henry's books in the future!

I want to thank the publisher "Storm Publishing" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 MURDEROUS AND DECEITFUL ]]> 3.67 2024 Her Pretty Lies
author: Angela Henry
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: abuse, atmospheric, creepy, dark, disturbing, engaging, entertaining, fun, murder, mystery, psychological, violence, suspense
review:
A woman has called 911 and when they arrive the paramedics find a young woman covered with blood, bruises and shaking uncontrollably and then she starts telling her version of what happened When the police and medics come out of the house, their calm and sympathetic faces. are quickly changing to fear!

She should have listened to her instincts and never trusted the charming student whom everyone loved and wanted to live in her shoes. "I had everything I could have dreamed, a two year full paid tuition program for my last two years of graduate school, a boyfriend and a nice apartment. Within a 24hr. period I lost everything and I will now be homeless, my boyfriend dumped me and I will probably have to drop out of school."

"Just when I thought my life is in ruins, along comes an offer that I should resist but I know I won't say no. The dark, dangerous secrets and lies that I unknowingly walked into because I couldn't resist that offer where now I'm sitting on the.doorstep of a scene of horror that I never asked for or did I!"


This book was an entertaining, fun and a very twisted mystery/thriller. The story was full of many surprises and a couple of shocks as well, plus the novel was very well-written and a real page turner where I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The story seems a little slow while enjoyable at first but when story picks up it becomes a non-stop twist and turn ride that I didn't want to come to an end. I'm looking forward to reading many more of Angela Henry's books in the future!

I want to thank the publisher "Storm Publishing" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 MURDEROUS AND DECEITFUL
]]> She Left 193544871 🎧Run Time = 7 hours and 50 minutes

After surviving a brutal massacre as a teen, Amy joins nine others connected to the crime at a remote cliffside lodge. But as a storm hits and guests begin to die mysteriously, Amy realizes there’s more to this gathering than meets the eye… “Good for fans of Rachel Howzell Hall, Ruth Ware, and Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None” (Library Journal).

As a teenager, Amy Therese Brewer argued with her friends and stormed out of a party—moments before the five other teens were brutally murdered. Now, on the anniversary of those deaths, ten people with connections to the crime have been invited to a remote cliffside house by a journalist looking to do a story about the so-called Memorial Day Massacre. But the group quickly learns the event is not what it seems. As a storm closes in and guests begin to die, Therese realizes there is someone in the house who knows more than they admit about what happened that night long ago, and they will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.]]> 352 Stacie Grey 1728292921 3
Many years later, Amy is now an FBI agent and always hoping to discover what happened on that fatal night where most of the town believed she had something to do with the murders and made her feel like the town pariah. Amy receives an email invitation to a reunion of sorts where all the invitees have some connection to the teenagers who were violently killed on that horrific night. Amy doesn't really want to go on this getaway yet she feels compelled to attend this reunion because maybe she can finally put the pieces back together and solve all the murders that destroyed her life as well on that unforgettable night.


This was a very good and enjoyable mystery/thriller by Stacie Grey. Many twists and red herrings throughout the story and Amy was also a solid character with a lot of baggage. Most of the characters were fun and entertaining although I was hoping this would be a much darker book but this was due to my own personal taste since there wasn't anything wrong with the storyline or writing. I think many people would enjoy this book and I definitely recommend it to all mystery lovers, especially if they enjoy their mysteries being a little lighter but not a cozy mystery either.

I want to thank the publisher "Poison Pen Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and and thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 1/2 MADDENING REUNION ]]> 3.15 2024 She Left
author: Stacie Grey
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: atmospheric, creepy, crime, drama, disturbing, entertaining, fun, engaging, mystery, murder, suspense
review:
It is a party of teenagers and Amy Brewer is not having a very good time since she feels picked on by a few of the most popular girls so she decides to go home after she's near tears and no-one even tries to stop her. Was it a blessing or a curse that the next day she finds out she was the only one to survive a mass murder!

Many years later, Amy is now an FBI agent and always hoping to discover what happened on that fatal night where most of the town believed she had something to do with the murders and made her feel like the town pariah. Amy receives an email invitation to a reunion of sorts where all the invitees have some connection to the teenagers who were violently killed on that horrific night. Amy doesn't really want to go on this getaway yet she feels compelled to attend this reunion because maybe she can finally put the pieces back together and solve all the murders that destroyed her life as well on that unforgettable night.


This was a very good and enjoyable mystery/thriller by Stacie Grey. Many twists and red herrings throughout the story and Amy was also a solid character with a lot of baggage. Most of the characters were fun and entertaining although I was hoping this would be a much darker book but this was due to my own personal taste since there wasn't anything wrong with the storyline or writing. I think many people would enjoy this book and I definitely recommend it to all mystery lovers, especially if they enjoy their mysteries being a little lighter but not a cozy mystery either.

I want to thank the publisher "Poison Pen Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and and thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 1/2 MADDENING REUNION
]]> Wilderness Reform 199797961 The authors of the “impossible to put down” (The Guardian) thriller Old Country return with a terrifying novel about a wilderness camp for troubled teens that is plagued by mysterious events and disappearances, taking survival and discipline to a frightening extreme.

Thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to a remote reform program for troubled teens by a juvenile court judge. But when he arrives at the camp, located on the edge of the vast wilderness of northwestern Montana, he immediately recognizes that there is something off about the counsellors. They’re too friendly and upbeat…yet Ben can tell there’s an undercurrent of menace.

As he gets to know the boys in his cabin, he soon discovers that they each have far more going for them than whatever crime landed them there. And each has a different critical skill, one that could help them unearth what is really going on in this place—and how to make it out alive. They are inching ever closer to the truth, and the hidden evil beneath the camp’s surface will make itself known in order to deter them.]]> 352 Matt Query 1668024136 4
If any adult had ever taken an interest in Ben, they would find he has an exceptional, gifted intelligence and an unusual, quick instinct of reading into human behaviors without knowing or understanding how different and special he actually is and could have a real future if anyone had ever given a damn about his well being. All these gifts and more will become relevant and important to the few boys he will befriend at camp who also have some great life survival skills which will play into each boy's quest to find out what's really going on in this unusual camp where all the counselors seem overly happy and helpful but the boys all sense something sinister and possibly evil going on behind the scenes but eventually they will discover the most
unbelievable and terrifying secrets that their young minds could ever have imagined playing out and and how could they escape when they're deep in the Montana mountains, hours away by car to the nearest town or telephone. What will happen to all the boys at camp but especially to Ben, Trent, Rodrigo and Billy?


WoW! I must say I loved, enjoyed and was truly captivated by this well-written coming of age horror novel. This book was a slow-burn yet the atmospheric settings and scenery along with the beautifully written descriptions and dialogue were executed wonderfully (imo). The authors Matt and Harrison Query did a fantastic job of incorporating the essence of innocence, violence and horror together in a way where I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I'm now looking forward to reading the Query brothers other book "Old Country" which many readers seemed to have enjoyed as well. The reason I didn't give five stars for this fantastic book was there were a few unanswered questions I had by the end of the novel but otherwise I'm so pleased that I had to pleasure to read this really, special horror story!

I want to thank the publisher "Atria Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 CREEPY AND HORROR FILLED ]]> 3.47 2024 Wilderness Reform
author: Matt Query
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: abuse, atmospheric, creepy, disturbing, engaging, entertaining, fun, gory, horror, mystery, psychological, subtle-humor, supernatural, suspense, tension, thriller, young-adult, violence, slow-burn, adventure
review:
Young Ben, who was born and basically raised himself in the sweltering, heated swampland deep in Louisiana, who never had a fair chance of experiencing what it was like to be just a boy at thirteen years of age but going on eighty. Ben begs, borrows and steals everyday just to provide for his little brother and himself until the day he is charged with a serious crime and has two choices, a child reformatory sentence for years or a court approved wilderness reform program over the summer whose statistics are highly successful and Ben's abusive custodian, Aunt Nikki gladly signs the papers, happy to send Ben away while she still will continue to receive the small government pension for the two brothers which is the only income she lives on, so this is a wonderful solution for this despicable, so-called guardian.

If any adult had ever taken an interest in Ben, they would find he has an exceptional, gifted intelligence and an unusual, quick instinct of reading into human behaviors without knowing or understanding how different and special he actually is and could have a real future if anyone had ever given a damn about his well being. All these gifts and more will become relevant and important to the few boys he will befriend at camp who also have some great life survival skills which will play into each boy's quest to find out what's really going on in this unusual camp where all the counselors seem overly happy and helpful but the boys all sense something sinister and possibly evil going on behind the scenes but eventually they will discover the most
unbelievable and terrifying secrets that their young minds could ever have imagined playing out and and how could they escape when they're deep in the Montana mountains, hours away by car to the nearest town or telephone. What will happen to all the boys at camp but especially to Ben, Trent, Rodrigo and Billy?


WoW! I must say I loved, enjoyed and was truly captivated by this well-written coming of age horror novel. This book was a slow-burn yet the atmospheric settings and scenery along with the beautifully written descriptions and dialogue were executed wonderfully (imo). The authors Matt and Harrison Query did a fantastic job of incorporating the essence of innocence, violence and horror together in a way where I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I'm now looking forward to reading the Query brothers other book "Old Country" which many readers seemed to have enjoyed as well. The reason I didn't give five stars for this fantastic book was there were a few unanswered questions I had by the end of the novel but otherwise I'm so pleased that I had to pleasure to read this really, special horror story!

I want to thank the publisher "Atria Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 CREEPY AND HORROR FILLED
]]> Deadstream 215805896 Rear Window meets The Ring in this sinister YA thriller, in which a teen girl witnesses the livestreamed murder of a popular online streamer by a paranormal entity . . . and could be its next victim.

After surviving a car accident that claimed the life of her best friend, Teresa is now terrified to leave the safety of her bedroom. Since then, her only solace and window to the outside world has been the online community she found through streaming.

But one night, the safe world Teresa created starts to break down. A shadowy figure appears in the background of her favorite's streamer's video, and his behavior mysteriously changes over the next few days before he dies in front of thousands of viewers. Teresa finds herself at the center of a life-and-death investigation as the world tries to figure out what or who this figure could be . . . especially as it begins appearing in the other people's streams, compelling them to "open the door" and let it in—including Teresa’s own. In order to save herself and the rest of the internet from this relentless entity, Teresa must venture outside of the mental and physical walls she’s created. But will she be able to conquer her fears before anyone else loses their life?]]> 320 Mar Romasco-Moore 0593691881 0 currently-reading 3.49 2025 Deadstream
author: Mar Romasco-Moore
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Seething 122239937 Midsummer meets The Mist in The Seething, a slow-burn tale of creeping terror and a pressure cooker of a novel from horror’s rising star Ben Monroe. Not your usual summer vacation by the lake, The Seething is irresistibly ominous.”
—Lee Murray, four-time Bram Stoker Award®-winner and author of Monster Stories

A family's relocation looked like a chance to relax and regroup—but as they settle into their new home, teenage Kimmie Barnes’ special senses make her the target of something primordial, evil, and utterly malign.

Darkness…

Golden Oaks, California is a sleepy town on the shores of Oro Lake, and the residents have no idea what horrors lurk below the glittering waters.

Beneath the waves…

One by one, as people begin to disappear, the once quiet town is soon in the grips of a waking nightmare. An unimaginable horror consuming everything before it.

Hungry…

All while echoes of an ancient evil spread out like malignant spider webs, like dead hands reaching, grasping…

SEETHING… ]]> 372 Ben Monroe 1957537426 0 4.19 The Seething
author: Ben Monroe
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: currently-reading, atmospheric, creature-feature, creepy, dark, disturbing, eerie, engaging, entertaining, fun, horror, gory, mystery, supernatural, suspense, violence, thriller, tension
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Black Bird Oracle (All Souls, #5)]]> 223405890 Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself—and her family history—in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series.

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.]]> 464 Deborah Harkness 0593724798 0 to-read 4.19 2024 The Black Bird Oracle (All Souls, #5)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Beautiful Family 219520685 Over the course of one sunbaked summer vacation, a family is pulled into a web of mysteries that the younger daughter sets out to solve. A tense, page-turning debut of childhood, innocence, and evil.

At ten years old, she catches more than her parents and older sister suspect. Over their summer break, her mother plans to finish her novel, her father wants to grill and watch cricket, and her fifteen-year-old sister hopes to catch the eye of a local lifeguard. With everyone around her distracted, she teams up with a new friend to solve a mystery that haunts this vacation they'll close the case of what happened to Charlotte, a child who was presumed drowned two years earlier.

But things aren't quite as they seem, and as the children look for clues, they inadvertently dislodge information they wish they'd never uncovered. Are her parents happy together? Is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people? Is their vacation rental as safe as it seems? And when someone else goes missing, the family find themselves at the center of an urgent police investigation. 

Debut novelist Jennifer Trevelyan viscerally captures the confusion and frustration of childhood, the fraught but unshakeable bond between sisters, and the dangers that lurk in the white lies we tell--especially about the people we love most.]]> 320 Jennifer Trevelyan 0385551355 0 to-read 3.92 A Beautiful Family
author: Jennifer Trevelyan
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Perfect Family 55711715
Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs. It’s a prank, Thomas insists; the work of a few out-of-control kids. But when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry. Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. And the police dismiss the attacks, insisting they’re just the work of bored teenagers. Unable to identify the perpetrators, the Adlers are helpless as the assaults escalate into violence, and worse. And each new violation brings with it a growing fear. Because everyone in the Adler family is keeping a secret—not just from the outside world, but from each other. And secrets can be very dangerous….

This twisty, addictively page-turning suspense novel about a perfect family’s perfect façade will keep you turning pages until its explosive ending.]]> 352 Robyn Harding 1982169397 3
This was a fast and entertaining read for me. Lots of secrets within this very disconnected household. While I did enjoy the story I found that there was a bit too much repetition throughout the chapters and that annoyed me somewhat but it didn't take away from the entertainment factor and the book did have a terrific ending. I have read a couple of other Robyn Harding books and loved them especially "The Arrangement" . I recommend this story to any reader who enjoys domestic/mysteries and I will be looking forward to reading more of Robyn Harding's books.

I want to thank the publisher "Gallery Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given an this story a rating of 3 1/2 DEVASTATING & SECRETIVE ]]> 3.49 2021 The Perfect Family
author: Robyn Harding
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/03
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: domestic-thriller, drama, entertaining, mystery, suspense
review:
Viv and Thomas Adler and their two children are a well-to-do family living in an upscale, seemingly perfect neighborhood when out of the blue one morning they awake to find their beautiful home being pelted with eggs. Angry and annoyed they assume it's just bored kids pulling a prank. Every few days the pranks are starting to escalate and get more menacing so they contact the police but there isn't anything they can do since the aggressors can't be identified. They realize they are the only family being targeted but can't understand why. Sadly, this is a very dysfunctional family and all four of the Adlers are keeping some serious secrets from one another and it's very likely that someone wants revenge against this family and nothing is going to stop them until they get their payback even if it means wiping out the entire family. Is a family member really hiding a secret that could really cause this much deadly chaos and destruction? There is only one way to find out the answers. You Will Have To Read This Book!

This was a fast and entertaining read for me. Lots of secrets within this very disconnected household. While I did enjoy the story I found that there was a bit too much repetition throughout the chapters and that annoyed me somewhat but it didn't take away from the entertainment factor and the book did have a terrific ending. I have read a couple of other Robyn Harding books and loved them especially "The Arrangement" . I recommend this story to any reader who enjoys domestic/mysteries and I will be looking forward to reading more of Robyn Harding's books.

I want to thank the publisher "Gallery Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given an this story a rating of 3 1/2 DEVASTATING & SECRETIVE
]]> Party of Liars 217388119 A lavish, Texas-sized Sweet Sixteen turns deadly in this twisty, pulse-pounding new novel — serving up a fresh take on a classic locked-room whodunnit. Let the festivities begin…

Today is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party, an exclusive black-tie bash in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where secrets are as deep-rooted as the sprawling live oaks. Sophie’s dad has spared no expense, and his renovated cliffside mansion—once thought haunted—is now hosting the event of the season. Then, just before the candles on the three-tiered red velvet cake are blown out, a body falls from the balcony onto the starlit dance floor below.

It’s a killer guest list . . .

DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since the birth of her own baby girl

ÓRLAITH: the superstitious Irish nanny who senses a looming danger in this cavernous house

MIKAYLA: the birthday girl’s best friend who is not nearly as meek as the popular kids assume

KIM: the cunning ex-wife who has a grudge she can’t let go of . . .

Everyone is invited in. Not everyone will get out alive. ]]> 336 Kelsey Cox 1250378818 0 to-read 4.02 2025 Party of Liars
author: Kelsey Cox
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Extinct 18104324 Miles away, Brad Jenkins battles the same storm. Alone, he attempts to survive as snow envelops his house. When the storm breaks, Brad makes his way south to where the snow ends and the world lies empty. Join Brad, Robby, and the other survivors as they fight to find the truth about the apocalypse and discover how to live in their new world.]]> 328 Ike Hamill 0 to-read 3.63 2013 Extinct
author: Ike Hamill
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Go as a River 182094033 320 Shelley Read 1954118635 0 to-read 4.19 2023 Go as a River
author: Shelley Read
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Ghost Woods 216970608 A young woman sent to stay in a crumbling gothic manor will find haunting secrets creeping out of the surrounding dark woods in this new, chilling novel from the acclaimed author of The Lighthouse Witches.

In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who is not quite a child.

Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed.

Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live on the grounds—and together they begin to unpack the secrets of this place. As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew—and risk what she holds most dear.]]> 380 C.J. Cooke 0593550234 0 to-read 3.64 2022 The Ghost Woods
author: C.J. Cooke
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Girl I Was 218171630 “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.”

Alexis Spencer will use any inspirational quote to rationalize her failures and shortcomings. Her closest friends are a distant memory, and her college debt is still as high as the day she left—but that’s all fine and dandy, because “whatever will be, will be.” However, when Alexis loses her job and her relationship on the same day, there’s no quote strong enough to help her cope. In typical fashion, she blames the world for her problems, including her younger self, who should have tried harder. Feeling sorry for herself, Alexis finds a bottle of vodka from her college days and goes on a bender, blacking out in the process. Only this time she doesn’t wake up at home—or even in the right city. In fact, she isn’t even in the right year.]]> 304 Jeneva Rose 0778387488 0 to-read 3.79 2021 The Girl I Was
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blood Like Mine 218155602 A New York Times Best Horror Fiction of the Year Selection • 카지노싸이트 Choice Award Nominee for Horror • A Parade Best Horror Books of the Year Selection

“A gruesome, action-packed monster novel about a mother and daughter with a terrible secret, on the run from an obsessed and crumbling detective . . . Terrific.” —The New York Times Book Review

In Stuart Neville’s horror debut, a mother's undying love and a daughter's insatiable hunger carve a bloody trail across the highways of the Southwest.

On a cold December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a passing stranger. Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered.

Meanwhile, Special Agent Donner of the FBI has been hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains their victims of blood before severing their spinal cords. As Agent Donner’s investigation brings him closer to the Carters, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly imperiled.

In this riveting, blood-soaked take on the vampire myth, nobody is safe and nothing is certain—not even the line between predator and prey.]]> 400 Stuart Neville 1641297077 0 to-read 3.64 2024 Blood Like Mine
author: Stuart Neville
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Our Little Secret 218155575
He swore he’d never let her go. She should have believed him.

Brooke Hastings is ready to end her six-week affair. Gideon Ross is charming and sexy, but he’s not worth throwing away her marriage and family for. So she breaks it off, hoping Gideon will understand.  

He doesn’t. Gideon insists that he and Brooke are meant to be together. Finally, he backs off, but not before issuing a promise: he’ll never let her go. 

Six years later, Brooke wants to believe it’s all behind her. Her family has survived intact. Gideon has vanished.   

But the fear hasn’t disappeared. Brooke can’t tell how much of it is paranoia, and how much is justified, but she’s worried. And maybe she’s right to be.    

Because Gideon is a man who keeps his promises . . .]]> 465 Lisa Jackson 1496750284 0 to-read 3.92 2024 Our Little Secret
author: Lisa Jackson
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Deading 219522028 Stephen King’s Under the Dome meets The Last of Us in this harrowing dystopian novel about the downward spiral of a seaside town that becomes infected by a mysterious ocean-borne contagion.

If you want to stay, you have to die.

In a small fishing town known for its aging birding community and the local oyster farm, a hidden evil emerges from the depths of the ocean. It begins with sea snails washing ashore, attacking whatever they cling to. This mysterious infection starts transforming the wildlife, the seascapes, and finally, the people.

Once infected, residents of Baywood start “deading”: collapsing and dying, only to rise again, changed in ways both fanatical and physical. As the government cuts the town off from the rest of the world, the uninfected, including the introverted bird-loving Blas and his jaded older brother Chango, realize their town could be ground zero for a fundamental shift in all living things.

Soon, disturbing beliefs and autocratic rituals emerge, overseen by the death-worshiping Risers. People must choose how to survive, how to find home, and whether or not to betray those closest to them. Stoked by paranoia and isolation, tensions escalate until Blas, Chango, and the survivors of Baywood must make their escape or become subsumed by this terrifying new normal.

At points claustrophobic and haunting, soulful and melancholic, The Deading lyrically explores the disintegration of society, the horror of survival and adaptation, and the unexpected solace found through connections in nature and between humans.]]> 320 Nicholas Belardes 164566130X 0 to-read 4.00 2024 The Deading
author: Nicholas Belardes
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When the Wolf Comes Home 211004893
As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they're up against, but she's about to learn there's more to these surreal and grisly events than she could've ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.]]> 304 Nat Cassidy 125035434X 0 to-read 4.26 2025 When the Wolf Comes Home
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Other People 214152106 A group of strangers gathered at a mysterious country house are in a race against time to stop a serial killer in this twisty, high-concept thriller that combines Agatha Christie with Shutter Island.

Ten strangers.

An old dark house.

A killer picking them off one by one.

And a missing girl who’s running out of time…

And then there was one.

Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who—or what—lurks in the cellar?

Forget what you think you know.

Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?]]> 320 C.B. Everett 1668058308 0 to-read 3.24 2025 The Other People
author: C.B. Everett
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bloodstains by Gaslight 221067459
Bloodstains by Gaslight takes an uncomfortable look at intimate partner violence, exploring the monsters of humanity through the lens of a vampire tale.]]> 247 Red Lagoe 1963355210 0 to-read 4.52 Bloodstains by Gaslight
author: Red Lagoe
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.52
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stones of Landane 216926745 A mysterious, psychological thriller from the ever-enthralling Cat Cavendish

‘Fear her now, fear the queen,

As in her stone she reigns supreme…’

When Jonathan agrees to accompany his girlfriend, Nadia, on a trip to Landane, he imagines a short relaxing break in the countryside. But he quickly discovers that Nadia isn’t just drawn to the ancient Neolithic stone circle, she is obsessed by the megaliths. One in particular holds a fascination for her. Within hours, her personality begins to change, and it isn’t long before Jonathan starts to fear for her sanity.

Reaching far back into the past and up to the present day, those same stones have demonstrated powers beyond reason and, as Jonathan’s girlfriend becomes increasingly distant from reality, some of the ghosts of the past begin to reappear.

Now it isn’t only Nadia who is in danger.]]> 240 Catherine Cavendish 1787588904 0 to-read 4.06 2025 The Stones of Landane
author: Catherine Cavendish
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Robert B. Parker's Buried Secrets (A Jesse Stone Novel Book 22)]]> 212807695 Police chief Jesse Stone investigates the mystery behind a dead body found strewn with photos of murder victims and placed on top of $2 million in cash, before a mob of hitmen converge on Paradise.

Just another day in Paradise . . . 

Chief of Police Jesse Stone is on his way home from a long shift when a call comes in for a welfare check on an elderly resident of the wealthy seaside town of Paradise, Massachusetts. Inside a house packed with junk and trash is a man’s dead body. It’s a sad, lonely end, but nothing criminal . . . until Jesse finds the photos of murder victims strewn around the corpse, on top of a treasure trove of $2 million in cash.

Jesse takes on the case and finds a trail leading to an aging mobster who will do whatever it takes to keep the past from coming to light. Before long, Jesse has a price on his head as hitmen converge on Paradise to take back the cash and destroy any remaining evidence. But the real danger might be coming from inside his own department. Jesse Stone must unearth the truth buried under the wreckage of a dead man’s life . . . before he winds up in the ground himself.]]> 349 Christopher Farnsworth 0593544773 0 to-read 4.43 Robert B. Parker's Buried Secrets (A Jesse Stone Novel Book 22)
author: Christopher Farnsworth
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Safari 220160425 When a wealthy family goes on a South African safari, a series of shocking murders rocks their exclusive compound in this unputdownable thriller from the acclaimed author of the “rollicking good fun” (The Wall Street Journal) The Main Character.

Odelia Babel, CEO of a sustainable fashion empire, is about to marry for the second time—to a man twenty-five years her junior. Asher Bach is the thirty-something designer of Odelia’s luxury clothing line, the darling of every high-fashion journalist, and madly in love with Odelia.

Eager to celebrate her nuptials with her nearest and dearest, Odelia invites her adult children, her daughter-in-law, her grandchild, and her best friend/assistant to an all-expenses-paid luxury safari at Leopard Sands in South Africa, the Babel family’s favorite vacation spot. In its soil, they have deep roots—and even deeper secrets.

It seems like the perfect trip, but not everyone is thrilled for the happy couple. Amid game drives in the bush and bonfires beneath the desert stars, tensions among the family threaten to boil over. And then, the morning after a big fight with her son Sam—and hours before the wedding—Odelia is found murdered. Sam is immediately the prime suspect, but he claims he has an ironclad alibi—he was with his twin sister, Bailey. Only Bailey is nowhere to be found…

As the heat roils, desperate poachers and ferocious animals lurk, and dark motives fester, it becomes clear that whoever killed Odelia isn’t quite finished yet, and the rest of the Babel family is their prey.]]> 320 Jaclyn Goldis 1668066955 0 to-read 3.55 2025 The Safari
author: Jaclyn Goldis
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Devil's Colony 223058288
In the haunting wilderness of 1587, the Dare family seeks salvation but finds only damnation in the form of a desolate settlement and mounting deaths. THE DEVIL’S COLONY weaves a blood-soaked tapestry of historical tragedy and spine-chilling supernatural horror, exploring the thin line between faith and madness in the New World.

Featuring:

Witchcraft, Wendigos, Possessed children, and “Found-footage” diary entries, witness the terrifying unraveling of family and settlement as long-buried secrets collide.

With echoes of Alma Katsu's "The Hunger" and the atmospheric dread of Robert Egger’s "The Witch," this novel drowns readers in a world where the promise of a new beginning leads only to unimaginable horror, exploring the haunting consequences of betrayal and the desperate lengths one family will go to reclaim what was lost.]]> Marie Lestrange 0 to-read 3.36 The Devil's Colony
author: Marie Lestrange
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.36
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Battle Mountain (Joe Pickett, #25)]]> 213870442 New York Times bestseller C.J. Box.]]> 358 C.J. Box 0593851064 0 to-read 4.46 2025 Battle Mountain (Joe Pickett, #25)
author: C.J. Box
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hounding 217388147 The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs.

Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbed to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before.

The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls—a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps—they’ve always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.

As relevant today as any time before, The Hounding celebrates the wild breaks from convention we’re all sometimes pulled toward, and wonders if, in a world like this one, it isn’t safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl.]]> 240 Xenobe Purvis 1250366380 0 to-read 4.14 2025 The Hounding
author: Xenobe Purvis
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Claire, Darling 213618135 In the aftermath of a shocking breakup, a woman's desperate quest for answers ignites a psychological inferno that will consume her past, present, and future in this hair-raising debut from an exciting new voice in suspense . . .

She’s been ghosted. But she won’t be forgotten.

Claire is excited to drop off a surprise workday lunch for her fiancé, Noah. It’s their anniversary, after all. But when the receptionist tells her that no one with Noah's name works there, Claire thinks there must be a mistake.

Noah isn't picking up her calls. Her texts go unanswered. It turns out Noah has a different life . . . one with a beautiful girlfriend, a beautiful house. Claire was never really in the picture.

Desperate to unpack all of Noah’s lies, Claire plunges into a nightmarish journey of obsession that submerges her deeper into the murky waters of her own past—a past dominated by a manipulative mother who shattered her sense of self.

Will Claire break free from the ghosts that haunt her? Or will they become more costly than any of Noah's lies?]]> 288 Callie Kazumi 0593871634 4
Claire can still hear her mother's hurtful words saying she would never find a man to love and take care of her. She is just devastated, hardly able to function but her wonderful friend (Sukhi) from work won't let her wallow and drown in her sorrow so she helps Claire get back.on her feet to take the next steps to getting on with her life without Noah although Claire isn't willing yet to give up on her relationship as she would be happy to forgive Noah everything if he would just come back home to her.



What a wonderfully fun and twisted psychological thriller this book was to read! The writing was fast-paced with well developed characters and flowed smoothly when transitioning from past to present. I was very surprised to find this was a debut book because the storytelling and writing was very, very good. I also enjoyed the different little twists which made this book stand out from other novels with similar storylines and the unexpected twist at the end of the story made reading "Claire Darling" a real.treat.

I am looking forward to reading more books in the future from 'Calorie Kazumi' and I definitely recommend this book to everyone who enjoys dark but fun, psychological thrillers!

I want to thank the publisher "RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING - BALLANTINE" and NETGALLEY for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 SHARP AND TWISTED ]]> 3.53 2025 Claire, Darling
author: Callie Kazumi
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: abuse, disturbing, engaging, entertaining, fun, murder, psychological, mystery, thriller, violence
review:
Claire and Noah just celebrated their anniversary the night before so Claire decides to surprise Noah with his favorite lunch at his workplace and finds out he hasn't worked there for several months. She doesn't understand why he wouldn't have told her about this major decision so she calls him immediately but he won't take her calls and then Noah never comes home to their apartment that evening or every day afterward. Claire is beside herself. with misery so she secretly follows him and discovers he is leading a double life with a beautiful woman that Claire had no idea of him ever cheating on her and now he won't even see her if only to give closure to the relationship and happiness that Claire thought would be her forever life.

Claire can still hear her mother's hurtful words saying she would never find a man to love and take care of her. She is just devastated, hardly able to function but her wonderful friend (Sukhi) from work won't let her wallow and drown in her sorrow so she helps Claire get back.on her feet to take the next steps to getting on with her life without Noah although Claire isn't willing yet to give up on her relationship as she would be happy to forgive Noah everything if he would just come back home to her.



What a wonderfully fun and twisted psychological thriller this book was to read! The writing was fast-paced with well developed characters and flowed smoothly when transitioning from past to present. I was very surprised to find this was a debut book because the storytelling and writing was very, very good. I also enjoyed the different little twists which made this book stand out from other novels with similar storylines and the unexpected twist at the end of the story made reading "Claire Darling" a real.treat.

I am looking forward to reading more books in the future from 'Calorie Kazumi' and I definitely recommend this book to everyone who enjoys dark but fun, psychological thrillers!

I want to thank the publisher "RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING - BALLANTINE" and NETGALLEY for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 SHARP AND TWISTED
]]> <![CDATA[The Death Mask (Eve Duncan, #31)]]> 220175401 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen comes a new thriller starring fan favorite Eve Duncan as she uncovers the source of the priceless gold in King Tutankhamen’s tomb.]]> 384 Iris Johansen 1538726335 0 to-read 3.96 The Death Mask (Eve Duncan, #31)
author: Iris Johansen
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Such Quiet Girls 222668031 Ten children, abducted in broad daylight—and buried alive.

Sage and her sister won’t make it home from school today. Neither will the other children on Bus 315. But that’s only the beginning of the nightmare.

New bus driver Jessa blames herself for what happened. She couldn’t protect the kids she was supposed to deliver to daycare, just like she couldn’t protect her own daughter three years ago. But this time, everything will be different. It has to be.

Trapped in a shipping container buried twenty feet underground, Jessa and the children do their best to stay calm. The kidnappers insist that if everyone behaves, they’ll be freed when the ransom is paid. But Sage isn’t sure they’ll last that long. Neither is Jessa. It’s dark and cramped, and with every passing minute it’s getting harder to breathe.

With time—and air—running thin, Jessa and the children must find a way to outsmart their captors, or face an unthinkable fate.

Such Quiet Girls was inspired by actual events.


]]> 354 Noelle W. Ihli 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Such Quiet Girls
author: Noelle W. Ihli
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hitchhikers 221711793 An RV, a new beginning, and the hope of recovery after a devastating tragedy.
Then they meet two young hitchhikers,
Ocean and Blue—a seemingly innocent couple who aren’t who they seem. . . .
They are Jenny and Simon.
And they have left a trail of blood, destruction, and madness behind them.
Now Tom and Alice are trapped—prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn.
But as the tension builds and the lines blur,
the question becomes, In whose heart does evil truly lie?

A chilling, twist-laden ride to the final page—THE HITCHHIKERS is a master class in suspense and shock.]]> 384 Chevy Stevens 0 to-read 3.98 2025 The Hitchhikers
author: Chevy Stevens
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy]]> 211003817 A groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that investigates Munchausen by Proxy from the host and creator of the award-winning true crime podcast Nobody Should Believe Me.

No bond is more sacred than that between a mother and child. And no one is more sympathetic than a mother whose child faces a life-threatening illness. But what if the mother is the cause of the illness? What if the sympathy is the point?

Munchausen by proxy (MBP) has fascinated and horrified both professionals and the general public since this disturbing form of child abuse was first identified. But even as the public has been captivated by these tales of abuse and deception, there remains widespread misinformation and confusion about MBP. Are these mothers unfeeling psychopaths, or sick women who need help? And more important, how can we protect the children whose lives are at stake?

The Mother Next Door offers a groundbreaking look at MBP from an unlikely duo: a Seattle novelist whose own family was torn apart by it, and the Texas detective who has worked on more medical child abuse cases than anyone in the nation. Listeners ride along on three high-stakes MPB investigations; through riveting reporting and shocking stories from the family members, friends, and doctors caught in the blast zone of these unthinkable acts, a twisted portrait of motherhood and deceit is revealed.

With help from some of the top MBP experts in the world, Dunlop and Weber uncover the complex maze of psychological, systemic, and cultural issues that compound MBP and offer solutions for how we might find our way out.]]> 304 Andrea Dunlop 1250284279 0 to-read 4.14 2025 The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy
author: Andrea Dunlop
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Cut 211003716
A historic hotel long past its prime and huddled along The Cut, a questionable Lake Erie beach, isn’t Sadie Miles’ ideal place to raise a toddler while also navigating her second pregnancy. After finally fleeing her abusive ex-fiancé, though, Sadie’s new housekeeping position and free room at L’Arpin Hotel are the best she can manage.

On her first night, Sadie runs to help a guest struggling in the hotel’s pool only to find the water calm and empty when she gets there, leaving her with a lingering unease. When a guest then goes missing and her manager insists they simply left without checking out, Sadie suspects he’s covering up darker goings-on in the hotel.

After her ex, Sadie won't let anyone convince her that what she’s experiencing isn’t real again. So, she keeps digging, quickly uncovering suspicious interactions with the staff, mysteriously vanishing security cameras, more missing guests, and things that go bump in the night...and drip in the walls, slither in the tub, and squirm in the halls. Everything isn't as it seems within the dim hallways of L’Arpin. Sadie has nowhere to go and nowhere to hide; she'll need to keep her wits about her to survive and keep her toddler and unborn child safe from whatever lurks nearby.]]> 304 C.J. Dotson 1250335442 0 to-read 3.07 2025 The Cut
author: C.J. Dotson
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Become Her 222791991 A wife’s search for her husband’s true identity spirals into a nightmare of fear and paranoia in a twisting novel of psychological suspense by the Edgar Award–winning author of Or Else.

Only ten days into their marriage, Imogen and Lev Carmichael are on a honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean when Imogen suspects her husband of being unfaithful. Amid the recriminations, denials, and rage, Lev falls overboard into the water. It’s a miracle he’s found alive. And with no memory of what pushed him—and Imogen—over the edge.

Back home among family and friends, Imogen and Lev are finally starting to readjust. As terrified as Imogen is of Lev’s memories returning, it’s her suspicions of infidelity that get the best of her. Then, searching for clues, she discovers a woman from Lev’s past he never told her about…a woman who has been missing for years. More alarming is that Imogen soon has reason to believe that Lev remembers more than he’s letting on. But why would he lie?

The man Imogen loved, married, and trusted is a man she’s now beginning to fear. And she must decide how far she’s willing to go to uncover the truth.]]> 363 Joe Hart 1662529740 0 to-read 4.30 I Become Her
author: Joe Hart
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Men I've Loved Again 218615956 From Christine Pride, the beloved coauthor of the Good Morning America Book Club Pick We Are Not Like Them, comes a dazzling solo debut novel about a woman who finds herself in the impossible situation of being in love with the same two men who won her heart in her early twenties again as she nears forty.

It’s 1999, TLC’s “No Scrubs” is topping the charts, y2k is looming on everyone’s mind, and Cora Belle has arrived at college ready to change her life. She’s determined to grow out of the shy, sheltered girl who attended an all-white prep in her all-white suburb. Cora is ready to conquer her fears and find her people, her place in the world, and herself.

What she’s totally unprepared for is Lincoln, with his dark skin, charming southern drawl, and that smile. Because how can you ever prepare yourself for the rollercoaster of first love with all its glorious, bewildering contradictions? Just when Cora thinks she’s got things figured out, a series of surprises and secrets threaten to upend everything she thought she understood about love and loyalty.

In the wake of these developments and a shocking tragedy, a new man enters Cora’s life—Aaron—further complicating everything. He’s the only one who seems to get her, and the letters she writes to him when the two are separated reveal the truth of their inescapable connection. There’s only one problem—how can she fall in love with one man when her heart belongs to another?

Twenty years later, and Cora is all grown up, or mostly, and has cloaked herself in loneliness like a warm blanket. It’s the safest choice. But then an unexpected reconnection and a chance encounter puts her right back where she started. The same two men, the same agonizing decision.

Finding herself in this position—again—will test everything Cora thought she knew about fate, love, and most importantly, herself. All The Men I’ve Loved Again is a big-hearted coming-of-age story for anyone who’s thought what if about a past love and what it would be like to have a second chance.]]> 320 Christine Pride 1668049538 0 to-read 3.45 All the Men I've Loved Again
author: Christine Pride
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Deep Cuts 214269394 Look, the song whispered to me, that day in my living room. Life can be so big.

It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.

Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.]]> 277 Holly Brickley 0593799089 0 to-read 3.67 2025 Deep Cuts
author: Holly Brickley
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Only One Left 62703226 At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.]]> 383 Riley Sager 0593183223 0 to-read 4.12 2023 The Only One Left
author: Riley Sager
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> The Hate U Give 58651625
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

--front flap]]> 444 Angie Thomas 0 to-read 4.29 2017 The Hate U Give
author: Angie Thomas
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> The Ghost Woods 60567943
This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who was not quite a child.

Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed.

Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something.

Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds—and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place.

As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew—and risk what she holds most dear.]]> 408 C.J. Cooke 0008515905 0 to-read 3.91 2022 The Ghost Woods
author: C.J. Cooke
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
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]]> The Lies We Tell 220056130 In a world of lies, the truth is her deadliest weapon.

Sierra Coleman awakens from a horrific crash, her mind a blank slate. But as she claws her way back to reality, she discovers her amnesia is just the tip of a sinister iceberg. Every "truth" she uncovers is another lie, every ally a potential enemy.

With a daughter she can't remember and a life she doesn't recognize, Sierra is thrust into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. As bodies pile up and shocking betrayals come to light, she realizes the key to her survival lies buried in her forgotten past.

Barker's razor-sharp prose slices through the pages, each revelation more stunning than the last. This relentless, twist-filled rollercoaster will have you questioning everything until its explosive finale.]]> 253 J.D. Barker 0 to-read 3.57 The Lies We Tell
author: J.D. Barker
name: Luvtoread (Trying to catch up)
average rating: 3.57
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/11
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