VBT# Long Lost Sister - NL Hinkens - September 2025 Long Lost Sister by NL Hinkens explores the dangerous territory of family secrets and misplaced trust, delivering a psychological thriller that kept me turning pages even when I wasn't entirely convinced by every plot point. Piper's journey resonates on a deeply personal level with me right now. As someone who recently discovered through Ancestry.com that my father has a half-sister named Lisa Phillips, I found myself drawn into Piper's desperate search for belonging and family connection. The yearning to understand where you come from, to find that missing piece of your identity, is something that hits close to home. Like Piper, I've been reaching out to a long-lost relative (though Lisa hasn't been active on the platform for over a year), hoping to bridge decades of separation and discover new family stories. NL Hinkens crafts an intriguing premise: Piper, fresh out of prison for vigilante justice against those ...

Review: You Don't Know Me - Theo Baxter - June 2025 Y'all, let me tell you about the latest page-turner that had me questioning every knock at my door! When I spotted You Don't Know Me on a Zooloos Book Tours list, I practically dove headfirst into my Kindle. I've been riding the Theo Baxter train for a while now, and this psychological thriller? It did NOT disappoint. Picture this: You're already drowning in grief over your father's death, waiting for the will reading like some twisted family game show, when BAM! The police show up with news that your mother's been killed in a hit-and-run. Talk about life serving you a double helping of nightmare soup. The Marconi siblings—Izzy, Annabelle, and Harry—are suddenly planning two funerals instead of one inheritance meeting. But wait, there's more! (Because apparently the universe has a sick sense of humor.) At dad's funeral, enter stage left: Mary and her wheelchair-bound companion David. Plot twist t...

Review: Long Time Gone - Charlie Donlea - May 2024 Sometimes the best hooks come from the most unexpected places. I'll admit, I wasn't planning to dive straight into another Charlie Donlea novel, but after finishing Those Empty Eyes, I found myself face-to-face with the opening chapters of Long Time Gone tucked right there at the end. Two chapters in, and I was completely hooked—there's something about Charlie Donlea's ability to weave DNA mysteries with missing persons cases that just hits all my reading sweet spots. Long Time Gone follows Dr. Sloane Hastings, a forensic pathology student working under one of the world's best. As part of her thesis on DNA and crime solving, Sloane decides to submit her own genetic material—partly for research, partly out of curiosity about her adoption. What she discovers turns her world completely upside down. Sloane wasn't just adopted; she was stolen. And the day before her "adoption," her entire biological famil...

Review: The Hennessy Lie - Annette Masters - June 2024 I picked up The Hennessy Lie by Annette Masters purely based on the cover—something about it caught my eye—and I dove in completely blind. What followed was a gripping and twist-filled ride into a world of family secrets, deception, and identity. The story kicks off with Piper Covington, a woman whose life is turned upside down when she discovers that her estranged father has died in prison and she is now the heir to the mysterious and once-prestigious Hennessy fortune—what's left of it, anyway. This revelation opens the floodgates to a past Piper never knew existed, and the truth that her entire life has been built on lies. Annette Masters does an excellent job building tension as Piper starts to unravel the tangled web of her family’s secrets. If you’re a fan of slow-burn thrillers that explore twisted family dynamics and the question of identity, this one will definitely deliver. There's a great blend of suspense, be...

Review: The Inheritance - Kate Horan - January 2025 I am fascinated with DNA testing and have gotten mine done so I have found books that contain the topic fascinating and was excited when I received the ARC from HarperCollins NZ. The book starts with Meg visiting her mother Jenny in the rest home as she has dementia. Her mother calls her not only Tina but also mentions the place, Hartley. Meg had never heard of Hartley and doesn't know who Tina is, so being the journalist that she is at heart she decides to pitch a story about Hartley Gaol and a rich elite family taking over the town -the Ashworth’s. While in town Meg spends some time asking questions and soon finds out that everything, she knew about her mother was a lie and that something bad must have happened here in Hartley. Meg gets Georgia - a girl who could be her potential cousin to take a DNA test which she does, at the same time Isobel Ashworth has also taken a DNA test and the results match with Meg as a close relative...

Review: Fortune - Ellen Won Steil - October 2023 You ever have those books that you keep meaning to get to, but for some reason or another it just doesn't happen until one day - you are like, right I am going to read this one now. That was me with Fortune by Ellen Won Steil. This book was a rollercoaster read and when I read books like this about wealthy men and the philandering that goes on, it does make me wonder are they all like this because they are rich and powerful? In Fortune, the book starts with our wealthy couple Edie and Johnny getting into a car accident. The book then jumps to Edie going to the bank and opening Johnny's safety deposit box. In there lays a single photo of a baby and three names on the back. Edie believes that this is Baby Ava, a baby who was found dead in Avalon Park twenty years ago. The case was never solved and she believes this was her husband's dying wish. She has her PI find out everything about the three women as she believes they are ...

  Review: Strangers we Know - Elle Marr - May 2022 With both parents now dead, Ivy has been searching for her biological family especially since she has also started to become ill and the doctors aren't sure exactly what is wrong with her. She hopes by finding her biological family, she can get some answers about her health and also learn about her family roots and history. Ivy takes a DNA test and submits it and waits for the results. I have always thought about taking the test and have one, but haven't yet submitted it. We don't know anything about my Dad's dads side so thought it would be interesting, but to be honest I don't know why I am stalling - possibly because there are still some unanswered questions about my birth as the story goes I was a result of a one night stand that turned into a proper 20-year marriage for my parents but what if that wasn't the story? In this book, as Ivy is waiting for the results, she is approached by an FBI agent who drop...