Review: Connected - Rori K. Pierce - March 2021 There’s something wonderfully familiar about Connected . It feels like the kind of story that could be happening quietly in the house next door,  behind a bedroom door, in late-night messages, and in the complicated world of a teenager trying to figure out who she really is. Bethany  is a high school wallflower who has found herself caught in a relationship that has slowly become anything but healthy. Trevor started out as someone she fell for hard and fast, but his controlling behaviour gradually strips away pieces of the girl she used to be. He encourages her to distance herself from friends, experiment with drugs and make choices that leave her increasingly isolated. With Homecoming approaching, Bethany knows something has to change before she loses herself completely. What I particularly loved about Bethany is that her journey doesn’t feel magically easy. Breaking away from someone who has manipulated and cont...

Review: What Waits in the Woods - Book #2 Detective Rita Myers - Terri Parlato - December 2023 You know that feeling when you spot a book cover across the library app and just know you have to read it? That was me with What Waits in the Woods. Total cover crush, and bonus points for discovering a new-to-me author! I devoured this one as a Libby ebook on my phone during my commute and late-night reading sessions. Terri Parlato weaves a solid small-town thriller that had me genuinely creeped out at times. Esmé's return to Graybridge after her ballet career ends should have been a quiet homecoming, but instead she's thrust into investigating her childhood friend's murder in her own backyard , possibly at the hands of the same man who threatened her years ago. The atmospheric New England setting absolutely worked for me, all those woods and whispered secrets. What I loved was The dual timeline structure kept me engaged, and Detective Rita Myers was a refreshing perspective.  ...

Review: The Blue Hour - Paula Hawkins - October 2024 There's something deeply unsettling about isolation - the kind that comes with living on an island cut off from the mainland for half of every day. Paula Hawkins understands this instinctively, and in The Blue Hour, she's crafted a novel that exists in contradictions, much like the tidal island of Eris itself. This book was a weird one for me. It moved with the patience of a slow tide, each page deliberate and atmospheric, yet somehow I found myself racing through it. Perhaps it's because Hawkins creates such exquisite tension that even stillness feels urgent. The narrative operates in that liminal space between contemporary fiction and historical mystery . Grace lives on Eris now, solitary and content among the tides, but the island is haunted by the ghost of Vanessa, the famous artist who once called it home, and by her husband who vanished twenty years ago under mysterious circumstances. The premise is deceptively si...

Review: The Four - Ellie Keel - August 2024 There's something deeply unsettling about returning to the world of boarding schools through fiction when you've lived that reality yourself. As I cracked open The Four by Ellie Keel, memories of my own three years at Hadlow from 1997-1999 came flooding back. I had won a scholarship too, just like the protagonists Rose, Sami, Lloyd, and Marta, and that shared experience made every page feel intensely personal. This YA academic thriller had been sitting on my physical bookshelf for months, practically calling to me. My friend Liv Royal had recommended it, and I'm grateful she did. The story follows four scholarship students whose dreams materialize when they're accepted into an exclusive boarding school, but their bond is forged through something far darker than academic achievement. What struck me most powerfully was how Ellie Keel captures the unique dynamics of scholarship students in elite institutions. Having lived that...

Review: The Sound of Us - Book #1 Havencrest Series - Sarah Castille - November 2024 For Skye, this is her life of second chances, and this time she is determined not to let anyone stand in her way, especially not a sexy musician named Dante. During the summer, Skye was on her way to becoming an amazing basketballer and had a scholarship for Havencrest. That was until a car crash happened and caused Skye to become an invalid and her dad to die. Now Skye after months of PT has come back to Havencrest as a last resort to get her spot back on the Basketball team and continue her journalism major. However, what will happen when she misses her shot now, she is scrambling to try and find a way to stay at Havencrest. Enter Dante, he has inherited a chunk of money from his grandmother and he sees it as blood money. When he hears that the radio station he loves might be going under, he offers the station owner some money to keep it afloat and creates an extra scholarship spot for a journalism i...

Review: 49 Miles Alone - Natalie D. Richards - July 2024 Natalie D. Richards has a knack for creating suspenseful young adult thrillers, and her latest offering, *49 Miles Alone*, does not disappoint. Set against the breathtaking yet unforgiving backdrop of the Utah desert, this novel captures the raw emotions of its protagonists while expertly weaving a tale that delves into trauma, resilience, and the urgent need for survival. The book opens with a jarring prologue—a party that drastically alters the lives of cousins Aster and Katie. This haunting night of violence sets the stage for a story that explores the complexities of healing and rebuilding shattered friendships. A year later, the cousins embark on a four-day hike, hoping that the beauty of nature will help them reclaim their lives and their bond. However, the desert they once loved quickly morphs into a treacherous landscape filled with tension and uncertainty. The sense of dread escalates when the cousins encounter Riley and...

Review: Gaslight - Miles Jorie-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard - September 2024 You know how as readers, we have those auto-authors - they are the ones that no matter what they release or have their name added to - we will always read and give it a go. For me Sara Shepard is one of those authors as over 20 years ago I fell in love with her Pretty Little Liars series which at the time I had read it - she had only written the first two books. I even had the opportunity in 2017 to meet Sara Shepard and of course, I got a few pictures with her as she was dressed as Red Coat "A". Gaslight starts with Becca having her old friend Dani turn up from her past. It's a life Becca wants nothing to do with as she escaped it and did her best to stay hidden, but now with her other friend Toby who also escaped dead. It's only a matter of time before they track down Becca and her oldest son. Growing up Becca's family was heavily involved in a religious cult and during her high school a...

Review: The Astrology House - Carinn Jade - July 2024 When Serena aka Rini was younger, her absent dad died and left her this old Victorian House. She decided to try her hand at renting it out as a BnB but didn't get a lot of bookings. Not till she decided to put use to her astrology skills which she had been learning since she was 14 years old. With these skills, she created an Astrology-based retreat and the numbers soared as she became popular. This weekend a group of four couples have booked in for a fun weekend of couple compatibility and readings. This weekend though will turn into a secret-filled weekend as each of the couples is hiding dark secrets. We have Margot and Ted, Margot is trying for a child and Ted has a dark secret that happened ten years ago involving a pregnancy. Adam and Aimee, Adam is having an affair with a woman in a scarlet dress and Aimee is trying to keep her husband from leaving her. This also isn't the first time Adam has been caught cheating on h...

Review: The Copycat - Erin Lee and Lorah Jaiyn - May 2020 Once upon a time, there were two friends though depending on whose side you are on, they were either like sisters or hanger-on turned stalker. This book is set about 20-30 years later from their friendship when they were kids. We have Sylvia and Regina. Regina is trying to live her life but everywhere she looks there is Sylvia - somehow Sylvia has over the years managed to drive away friendships, boyfriends and now Regina has even resorted to hiring bodyguards, but Sylvia is determined not to let anyone stand in the way of her happiness and of course her closeness to Regina even if that means resorting to murderous methods. We learn that the pact started when they were both involved in the murder of Joe and now that Sylvia's daughter has done a DNA test it has triggered Sylvia as we can get the hint in the book that Sylvia isn't exactly stable LOL :P. I am on a mission for 2024 to read books that have been sitting on my ...