Review: The Half Sister - Sandie Jones - June 2020 There are certain themes that will always pull me straight off the shelf, and this book had two of them: a secret sibling, and DNA testing. I'm a sucker for both, but the second one hits especially close to home. A few years ago, I did my own DNA test on a whim, never expecting it to lead anywhere. It ended up leading me to my dad's family , people we had no idea existed, uncovered after 65 years of not knowing. One test, a lot of late-night rabbit-hole searching, and suddenly a whole branch of family history opened up that had been hiding in plain sight all along. So when a novel promises a knock on the door and a DNA result that turns a family upside down, I'm already sitting down with a cup of tea, ready to be pulled in. That's exactly how The Half Sister opens. Kate and Lauren have their Sunday lunch ritual down to a comforting art , a tradition that's meant even more since losing their dad. It's the kind ...

Review: I Dare You - Book #1 Ruin Me Duet - Monica James - July 2026 I have to be honest  I was hooked before I even opened the first page. That blurb alone had me convinced this was going to be a 5-star read, and honestly? I love it when a book actually lives up to that kind of hype, because it doesn't always happen. This one did, and then some. The story kicks off with a bang (quite literally)  a popular cheerleader turns up dead, and from there we're pulled into this gripping dual timeline of past and present as we piece together not just who killed her, but who Hallie Holiday really is. We get her before, the girl she used to be, and her after ,  the version of herself she built from the ashes of one brutal night that changed everything. Watching that transformation unfold, layer by layer, was honestly one of my favourite parts of the whole book. Three years on, Hallie is living under a new name, tucked away in a town where nobody knows her history, just trying to s...

Review: Solitary - Book #1 Solitary Tales - Travis Thrasher - August 2010 I picked this one up expecting a cozy, creepy little YA read to curl up with, and what I got instead was... something else entirely. Something I'm still turning over in my head, if I'm being honest. Chris Buckley moves to the small town of Solitary, North Carolina, right in the messy aftermath of his parents' divorce to a new school, new house, that particular kind of loneliness that comes from starting over somewhere nobody knows your name. It's a setup that feels instantly familiar and warm, like settling into a worn armchair. You root for Chris immediately. He's just a kid trying to find his footing. Then Jocelyn Evans walks in, and the book shifts into something stranger. She's beautiful, guarded, impossible to read ,  the kind of girl who pulls you in precisely because she keeps pushing you away. And Chris, sweet and a little lost, falls for her anyway. Underneath the small-town cha...

Review: Repeat - Book #1 Larsen Brothers - Kylie Scott - April 2019 There's something so special about reading a book that landed in your hands as a birthday gift and getting to curl up with Repeat, sent to me by one of my beautiful book birthday groups on bookstagram, made this reading experience feel even warmer and more meaningful. Books really do taste sweeter when they come wrapped in friendship. Kylie Scott has long held a special place on my shelf as one of my favourite Australian New Adult authors. It all started years ago when I fell hopelessly in love with Mal from the Stage Dive series, and ever since, her name on a cover is enough to make me clear my schedule. Repeat opens with Clementine walking into a tattoo parlour, innocently asking if the owner did her tattoo completely unaware of the storm she's about to walk into. Turns out, she used to date the tattoo artist, Ed. They broke up, she walked away, and it shattered him. But here's the gut-punch: Clem doesn...

Synopsis: Don't Let Her In - J.M O'Rourke - July 2026 Lesley seems like a perfectly normal woman. Until you ask her to leave. Gillian wants to do right by her elderly Aunt Myra. A safe nursing home. Daily visits. A peaceful final chapter for the woman who has been like a mother to her. A plan that’s derailed when a stranger turns up on the doorstep claiming to be Myra's long-lost niece, Lesley. She says she’s here to look after Myra. Within days, Myra’s bank accounts are being drained and Lesley has taken full control of the house. And Gillian , the woman who has always been there for Myra isn't allowed through the door. When she demands to see her aunt, the threats begin. Smashed windows. A slashed tire. Headlights chasing her down a lonely country road. But Gillian isn’t backing off. Suspicious that Lesley isn’t who she says she is, Gillian digs into her past. And discovers a secret far more horrifying than anything she could have imagined. A chilling, tw...

Review: Forever Defiant - Book #2 Fourth and Forever Series - Eve L. Mitchell - July 2026 There's something wonderfully fitting about a book landing in my hands on my own birthday. Forever Defiant published on the 7th of July, and reading it felt like unwrapping a gift made just for me  the kind of serendipity that makes this whole reviewing hobby of mine feel a little bit magical. From the first chapter, I was hooked, but it wasn't Dustin Slater's wicked smile that pulled me in hardest , it was Hadley. I don't think I've resonated with a heroine quite this much in a long time. Watching her chase the truth, notebook in hand, utterly unwilling to back down even when powerful men wanted her silenced, stirred something very personal in me. Journalism has always been my own quiet dream one I chased extramurally through years of study, and one I've kept alive for two decades now, writing for online magazines and review sites in whatever spare hours I could find.  ...