Review: The Drowning - Good Girls Don't Die - Margot D'Archer - October 2021 Every now and then, you stumble across an indie read that feels like a hidden gem and The Drowning by The Drowning is exactly that kind of discovery. I found myself scrolling through my Kindle, hoping for something to grab my attention, and this YA thriller delivered in all the right ways. Set in the seemingly picturesque town of Silver Bay, the story opens with a haunting question: what really happened to Chrissy Stieversen, the town’s golden girl? Her body has only just been found, yet her family seems determined to sweep everything under the rug. That alone sets the tone for a story filled with secrets, lies, and a creeping sense that something isn’t quite right beneath the surface. Enter Cleo Williams - flawed, relatable, and trying to outrun her past. She’s returned to her aunt Emma's lakefront cottage for the summer, hoping to escape the chaos of her life, but instead finds herself pulled st...

Review: Reinventing Hannah - Jack A. Ori - November 2022 I'll be honest—I've been struggling with romance novels lately. The meet-cutes and happily-ever-afters have felt hollow, so I've been gravitating toward my collection of edgier reads that have been gathering digital dust on my Kindle. That's how I rediscovered Reinventing Hannah by Jack A. Ori, and I'm grateful I did. Hannah starts as the archetypal "good girl"—student council member, rule-follower, someone waiting for marriage (or at least the right person) before having sex. She doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. She's the perfect student, the one parents point to as an example. But perfection, as we learn, offers no protection from the worst humanity can offer. When Hannah agrees to be the designated driver for her friend Sasha's party, she's still the responsible one—having fun but staying sober. The next morning, though, she wakes up with no memory of the previous night and the...

Review: Still Beating - Jennifer Hartmann - December 2020 Earlier this year, I decided to dive into Jennifer Hartmann's catalog, and three books later, I'm completely captivated by her fearless approach to storytelling. Still Beating represents everything I've come to love about Hartmann's work—her unflinching exploration of dark themes wrapped in the kind of raw, emotional romance that defined the golden era of New Adult fiction circa 2012-2013. The premise is immediately gripping: Cora attends her sister Mandy's birthday celebration, where tension crackles between her and Dean Asher, Mandy's fiancé of fifteen years. Their love-hate dynamic has simmered for years, creating an undeniable chemistry that neither can acknowledge. When a seemingly innocent favor—Dean rescuing Cora after she loses her wallet—turns into their worst nightmare, the story takes a brutal turn that will test every boundary you thought you had as a reader. What follows is three weeks of...

Review: Killer Insight - Book #1 Kaitlyn Kruse Series - Karoline Anderson - September 2024 Karoline Anderson's debut novel arrives like a whisper from another life—literally. Detective Kaitlyn Kruse's supernatural ability to access memories from her past lives transforms what could have been a standard police procedural into something genuinely unsettling and original. The premise hooked me immediately: bodies discovered on Seattle's hiking trails. Karoline Anderson wastes no time establishing the stakes, but it's her handling of Kaitlyn's past-life dreams that elevates the material. These aren't convenient plot devices but feel genuinely otherworldly, with previous incarnations of Kaitlyn offering fragmented clues that create more questions than answers. What struck me most was how Karoline Anderson uses the supernatural element to explore themes of identity and pattern recognition.  There's something deeply human about questioning which parts of ourselve...

Review: The Crash - Freida McFadden - January 2025 Freida McFadden is well known for her fast-paced, twist-filled psychological thrillers, often packed with shocking revelations and morally gray characters. While this book delivers some of those elements, I found it to be a more subdued thriller compared to her usual work. The setup is gripping, but the execution left me wanting more. The story follows Tegan, a heavily pregnant woman fleeing from a past she’d rather leave behind. With nowhere else to go, she sets out to find refuge with her brother, hoping for a fresh start. But fate intervenes when she is caught in a blizzard and stranded in the middle of nowhere. When a seemingly kind couple rescues her, offering her warmth and shelter, she believes she’s been granted a stroke of luck. However, that illusion quickly shatters as she realizes something is very wrong. Her "safe haven" becomes a chilling trap, and her battle for survival—both for herself and her unborn child—be...

Review: Dice - Claire Baylis - January 2023 As someone from New Zealand, I have to admit when it comes to New Zealand fiction - I either end up DNF'ing it or the ones that I do finish, I end up loving and enjoying. There tends to be no in-between for me. Like UK Fiction, NZ fiction can be quite slow-paced and this book was no different as it does take a long time to read and that's coming from someone who is normally quite a fast reader though it was good, I felt in parts that it did drag on and since it was set in a courtroom trial - there was a lot of repetition from the witnesses and the people on trial, etc. The book is set in Rotorua which I loved as since my partner is from there and I have been there quite a few times, I was able to visualize and imagine the location of where the story was set and some of the places mentioned in the book - I too had been there a few times like The Fat Dog Cafe. Dice tells the story of a teenage sex game that has been created between f...