Review: The Wife and the Widow - Christian White - September 2019 Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and The Widow is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by the secrets she uncovers about her dead husband's hidden life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside down when she's forced to confront uncomfortable truths about her own husband. Only when these two women come together does the full, unsettling picture emerge. For me, this was a borderline read  and possibly the most confusing of Christian White's books that I've picked up. I went in feeling confident I had it figured out. The dual narrative pulled me along, the island atmosphere was genuinely eerie, and White's writing kept me turning pages. But then the final act arrived and completely threw me. I found myself thinking, how can this even be? and not in the satisfying, jaw-dropping way a good ...

Review: The More I Hate - Book #1 Gilded Decadence Series - Blake Hensley - February 2024 Scrolling through my Kindle one day, searching for something to really sink my teeth into, I stumbled across The More I Hate by Blake Hensley. The moment I clicked on it and saw who was behind the pen name, I felt that familiar flutter of excitement as Blake Hensley is the combined forces of two of my absolute favourite dark romance authors, Zoe Blake and Alta Hensley, who have joined their surnames just as they've joined their talents. These two women are queens of the genre, and the idea of them collaborating had me immediately sold. I'll be honest  I'd taken a bit of a break from dark romance lately. The books had started to blur into one another, leaning heavily into explicit content at the expense of the thing I actually crave most: chemistry. That slow-burning, charged, magnetic pull between two people that makes you forget to breathe. So I came into this one cautiously hopeful,...

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...

VBT# The Divorce Lawyer - McGarvey Black - April 2026 If you love a twisty psychological thriller that keeps you guessing until the very last pages, then The Divorce Lawyer by McGarvey Black might just be your next must-read. Having previously dipped into McGarvey Black’s work, I went into this one expecting clever twists and I’m happy to report it absolutely delivered. From the very beginning, The Divorce Lawyer gave me strong Strangers on a Train vibes, with that delicious sense of unease where everyone could be hiding something… and anyone could be guilty. The story centres around Ollie Spalding , a top divorce lawyer who finds himself at the centre of a shocking explosion that costs him his life. And honestly? If you’re going to pick a profession that makes enemies, divorce law has to be right up there. Ollie leaves behind a trail of bitter ex-husbands and ex-wives, each with their own motives, grudges, and secrets. It’s the kind of setup that had me rubbing my hands together, ...

Review: Photograph - Brian Freeman - October 2025 There’s something quietly haunting about Photograph, the kind of story that settles into your bones and lingers long after you’ve turned the final page. As I curled up with this one, I felt like I was stepping into a storm - one that begins softly but builds into something deeply emotional and utterly consuming. At the heart of the novel is Shannon Wells, a private investigator with a compassionate streak for helping women who feel like they’ve run out of options. I instantly warmed to Shannon. She’s not just solving cases ,she’s carrying people’s burdens, and that gives her character a grounded, human quality that makes you root for her from the very beginning. The mystery surrounding Faith Selby pulled me in straight away. A woman asking, “Find out who I really am” is such a simple yet loaded request, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. When Faith turns up dead, leaving behind nothing but a photograph of a little girl s...

Review: Abby's Journey - Book #2 Forever Abby - Steena Holmes - February 2017  There’s something incredibly special about returning to a story years later and finding that it still holds your heart just as gently as before. That’s exactly how I felt picking up Abby's Journey by Steena Holmes , almost a decade after I first read Saving Abby back in 2018. From the moment I began, it felt like coming home. This time, we follow Abby once the fragile baby about to be born in the first book now twenty years old and finally stepping into life with a clean bill of health after years of illness. Knowing her history made her journey all the more emotional. There’s a quiet triumph in watching her embrace a future that once felt so uncertain. What truly warmed my heart was the trip she takes with her grandmother, Millie. Originally planned for Millie and Abby’s mother, Claire, this journey becomes something deeper ,a bridge between past and present. Through shared memories and long-held se...