Review: The Dead Husband's Cookbook - Danielle Valentine - August 2025 There's something wonderfully cozy about curling up with a book that centers around food, recipes, and the warmth of a kitchen until that comfort turns deliciously sinister. That's exactly what Danielle Valentine serves up in The Dead Husband's Cookbook, which I devoured on the Libby Library App. I'd already fallen for Danielle Valentine's YA thrillers, so I was eager to see what she'd cook up for adult readers. Let me tell you, this didn't disappoint. What makes this book particularly charming is how it weaves actual recipes throughout the story and it's like getting a cookbook and a thriller all in one satisfying package. The book-within-a-book structure reminded me of Catherine Ryan Howard's The Nothing Man, adding layers of intrigue that kept me turning pages late into the night. The premise is absolutely mouthwatering: Maria Capello, a beloved celebrity chef with her ow...

Review: She Died Famous - Kyle Rutkin - July 2019 This was an interesting read as I opened it and was presented with a book that was written in different forms as it had blog posts, magazine articles, and interviews as well as police interrogation. It also had a book within a book situation going on as the lines between reality blurred with fiction and in the end, readers are left wondering what is happening and what is fact and what is fiction. The book also creates a narrative that leads the reader to discover the truth about what happened. She Died Famous starts with a blog post from author Kaleb Reed talking about how he is the prime suspect in the murder of Singer and Child Actress Kelly Trozzo and her manager Barry. The book then jumps back to Kelly tweeting about Kaleb's book Pay Me Back Alice and talks about their first meeting and how both their lives become intertwined. It was a crazy chaotic relationship, some called it a fairytale romance as Kaleb's book saved Kel...

Review: The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard - Kate Robards - June 2023 After reading three print books off my bookshelf, I decided to go for an ebook in bed and read The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard as the first one I tried ended up being a DNF. The book starts with Willa Stannard who was once at the top of her field in journalism and had the world in her hands until she had a panic attack on air, and then her career came tumbling down. During this time away from work, she decided to work on a story about a baby who went missing twenty-six years ago from a small town called Melody Wynne. When Melody was 18 months old, she was kidnapped and vanished without a trace. Nobody knew where she had gone and who was responsible, though there were two suspects. In the present time Willa has just committed suicide and now Sawyer her younger sister, knows things aren't quite correct as her strong sister wouldn't just commit suicide. She is convinced foul play is the cause. Trying to disc...

            Review: Home Before Dark - Riley Sager - June 2020 At the beginning of the year, I decided that 2023 would be my year of catching up and reading all of Riley Sager's backlist and after finishing this one, I only have two left which includes his most recent release. Home Before Dark is a tale that reminds me of The Amityville Horror and a Haunting in Connecticut as we meet Maggie Holt whose family was famous as her father wrote a book based on the hauntings of Banbury Manor where they lived for only 20 days when Maggie was five years old. Things were so bad, that they just up and left in the middle of the night. Her dad wrote the book and it was instant fame for the family, later of course Maggie's parents divorced, and now twenty years later Maggie's dad Ethan has died and Maggie has learned that her parents never sold Banbury Manor and that she has inherited it. Curious to find out once and for all about the twenty days and to discover what ...

Review: The Nothing Man - Catherine Ryan Howard - August 2020 After being stuck in a reading slump, I needed a mystery book to get me into the mood for reading. This book caught my attention with the cover. The book starts with washed-up security guard Jim Doyle seeing a girl reading a book. The book catches his attention as the book is called "The Nothing Man". A name he hasn't heard spoken or written down in years. Almost thirty years ago for Jim, he was working as a police officer as well as being a serial killer and rapist. This book reminded me of the Golden Gate Bridge killer aka Joseph D'Angelo and how it took a while to catch him and it took a book to help on the journey of catching him. Eve Black is known as the only survivor of the Nothing Man after he murdered her whole family. During the book, Jim is drawn into the memories of his crime and in a way, how far his life has fallen as once he was feared, and now he is laughed at and treated as a weak old man...