Review: The Birthday - Book #1 Detective Natalie Ward - Carol Wyer - September 2018 You know those books you pick up when you're in that very specific mood for a thriller that gets your heart racing? That was me with The Birthday. I've been absolutely devouring thrillers lately, and when I saw this premise a five-year-old disappearing from a birthday party and the investigation that unfolds years later -I knew I had to read it. Carol Wyer does a solid job building the tension here. The idea that these little girls all attended the same party and then, one by one, terrible things happen to them? Absolutely chilling. As a reader, you can't help but keep turning pages, desperate to figure out who's behind these horrific crimes. Detective Natalie Ward is a compelling lead ,I appreciated that she's a mother herself, which adds this extra layer of emotional weight to the investigation. You really feel her determination to bring these children home. Here's where I hav...

Review: Dead Silent - Book #2 Poppy Sinclair - Sharon Jones - February 2014 There's something about curling up with a thriller on a cold evening that just hits differently, and Dead Silent gave me exactly that cozy-yet-creepy vibe I was craving. Sharon Jones's second Poppy Sinclair adventure takes us to the frost-covered streets of Cambridge, where snow angels take on a decidedly sinister meaning. The opening image alone , a body arranged with blood-smeared angel wings on a chapel floor is the kind of haunting visual that lingers long after you've turned the page. Jones knows how to set a scene, I'll give her that. Here's the thing though: despite the college setting and genuinely gruesome secret society murders, this read distinctly YA to me. Our protagonist Poppy is only sixteen, and it shows. Not in a bad way necessarily, but there's a certain teenage earnestness to her investigation and relationships that felt more Riverdale than True Detective. The stakes...

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: You're Not Safe - Book #3 Texas Rangers - Mary Burton - January 2014 Here we are at the end of January, and honestly, it feels a bit different this year. Last January I was flying through books : 42 of them! but this time around? Life had other plans. Work has been hectic, and I've found myself in one of those reading slumps where you stare at your TBR pile but nothing quite clicks. I managed 20 books this month, which isn't terrible, but it's definitely a slower pace than I'm used to. The silver lining? I've been gravitating toward thrillers lately. Romances just aren't holding my attention right now, so when I picked up You're Not Safe by Mary Burton from the depths of my Kindle (you know, that digital graveyard where books go to be forgotten), I was hoping for something to pull me out of my funk. The premise immediately grabbed me: a man is found hanging from a tree with a photograph pinned nearby. Staged to look like suicide, but the poli...

Review: The Daughter - Alesha Dykema - January 2026 You know those moments when you're reading about wealthy families in thrillers and you find yourself grateful for your own upbringing? That's exactly where I found myself while turning the pages of The Daughter . Though I'll admit, some aspects hit a little close to home in ways I wasn't expecting. Alesha Dykema weaves together two compelling storylines that kept me reading late into the night with my tea going cold beside me. At the heart of the story is Shayla Hartmann, the eldest daughter of a tyrannical father whose idea of discipline would make most of us shudder. The wealth and privilege of her childhood came with a terrible price, paid in fear and harsh punishments for the smallest missteps. Now as an adult and mother herself, Shayla is desperate to break the cycle before her father's cruelty touches her daughter Skyler and the next generation. Her solution? Poison. But as often happens when we take matters ...

Review: Revenge of a Chalet Girl - Book #5 Ski Season Series - Lorraine Wilson - December 2013 I picked this one up during yesterday's 24-hour readathon, sneaking in chapters whenever I could, and what a delightful escape it turned out to be! Amy's story starts in that awful place we've all seen friends (or ourselves) end up in, heartbroken and lost after being ghosted by someone she thought was her forever. Fast forward a few years, and she's finally taking control of her life, working as a chalet girl in the snowy mountains. It's meant to be her fresh start, her chance to heal. Then Josh walks through the door with a stag party, and suddenly all those carefully buried feelings come tumbling out like an avalanche. The premise hooked me immediately. What are the odds? But here's where it gets even messier Josh isn't just visiting, he's the groom-to-be, and his fiancée Juliet is living up to the "bridezilla" title in spectacular fashion. As ...