The Phantom Paragrapher

Review: Following Maggie - Book #7 Insta-Spark Collection - Melanie Moreland - April 2022 Y'all, sometimes you need to step away from the serial killers and psychological mind games (looking at you, thriller TBR pile!) and dive headfirst into something that'll make your heart do little happy flips. Following Maggie was exactly the palate cleanser my book-loving soul needed. Picture this: You're stuck at an airport because Mother Nature decided to throw the snowstorm of the century. Sounds miserable, right? Wrong! Not when you're Maggie, who's dealing with the heavy stuff—both parents gone, inheriting a property that needs more TLC than a rescue puppy—and you bump into Sebastian Ruggers. This guy is literally walking toward a life he doesn't want, trading his music dreams for a soul-crushing office job because daddy dearest thinks following your passion is just "foolish dreaming." What starts as an airport #meetcute (and honestly, who doesn't lov...

Review: The Thing About Scorpions - Book #1 The Scorpions - Tiffany Nicole Smith - November 2013 You know how it is with Kindle scrolling – one minute you're browsing new releases, the next you've somehow time-traveled back to 2013 and stumbled upon a forgotten gem. That's exactly what happened when I discovered The Thing About Scorpions by Tiffany Nicole Smith, and honestly? Best accidental find in ages. This indie YA thriller centers on half-sisters Autumn and Cicely, Irish twins born just eleven months apart, but they couldn't be more different. The story opens with them as children, part of a friend group that holds elaborate funerals for dead animals Autumn finds – quirky kid behavior that gradually reveals something much darker lurking beneath. As the sisters grow older, Autumn's true nature emerges. She thrives on being the center of attention, delights in others' pain, and manipulates their friends with calculated threats and mind games. When their fr...

Review: The Serial Killer's Support Group - DB Stephens - November 2024 You know how us book nerds scroll through Libby at 2am looking for our next literary obsession? Well, that's exactly how I stumbled upon this gem. The title alone had me hooked – serial killers AND a support group? As someone who devours thrillers faster than Tim Tams at a morning tea, I was immediately intrigued. Initially, I expected something along the lines of Grady Hendrix's The Final Girl Support Group – you know, that perfect blend of horror and dark humor we love. Instead, this read more like Darby Kane's The Last Invitation, with its intricate web of secrets and moral ambiguity. The story opens on New Year's Eve with Jess trapped in an abusive relationship with Lewis. Having watched her mother endure similar trauma, she'd sworn never to become that woman. When a hospital worker offers her an escape route, Jess finds herself in a church support group surrounded by other survivors – s...

Review: Her Final Secret - Book #5 Detective Hollie Turner Series - Paul J. Teague - November 2024 You know that feeling when you're mindlessly scrolling through your Kindle library at 11 PM, trying to avoid the mounting TBR pile staring at you accusingly? Yeah, that was me last week. Sometimes the best discoveries happen when you're procrastinating – and that ferris wheel cover practically grabbed me by the eyeballs and demanded attention. Here's the thing about jumping into a series at Book #5: it's either going to work brilliantly or leave you completely lost. Thankfully, Paul J. Teague knows how to write a standalone that doesn't alienate newcomers while still rewarding longtime readers. I had zero background with Detective Hollie Turner, but within chapters I was completely invested in her story. The dual timeline structure absolutely works here. We bounce between 1999 and the present day, watching nineteen-year-old Hollie experience the trauma that shapes he...

Review: Unloved - Book #2 The Undone - Peyton Corinne - February 2025 You know that feeling when you're standing in front of your bookshelf, finger hovering over a spine, completely torn? That was me with this Peyton Corinne hockey romance. Part of me was desperate to dive in, but my brain had been firmly planted in thriller territory lately – you know how it is when life gets messy and you need those adrenaline-pumping page-turners to match your internal chaos. But sometimes the universe knows what you need better than you do. This wasn't a "knock-your-socks-off, shout-from-the-rooftops" kind of read, but it was something more valuable – it was exactly what my vulnerable little heart needed. The emotional beats hit differently when you're already feeling raw, and Peyton Corinne doesn't shy away from the messy, complicated parts of human connection. Ro absolutely wrecked me. Her desperate need to be liked, that painful familiarity of trying just a bit too h...

Review: Pink - Suzanne D Williams - April 2015 The Phantom Paragrapher here, and let me tell you about my latest midnight reading adventure... Picture this: it's past 11 PM, I'm doom-scrolling through my Kindle library like it's TikTok, and my brain is doing that thing where it rejects every single book cover that doesn't immediately spark joy. You know the feeling - when life's been a bit chaotic and you just need something quick and easy to reset your reading mojo? That's exactly where I found myself when Pink's cover caught my eye. At a breezy 78 pages, this YA contemporary was exactly what my restless mind ordered. Suzanne D.Williams introduces us to Bridgette "Pink" - though everyone calls her Punk because she's about as far from stereotypical pink princess vibes as you can get. She's got that perfect mix of rebellion and softness that makes teen characters feel real rather than tropey. The setup is classic enemies-to-lovers territory...

Review: The Third Girl - S.C Shannon - June 2025 There's something irresistible about a thriller that weaves between past and present, unraveling secrets that have festered for decades. When I first glimpsed the cover of The Third Girl by SC Shannon, I immediately screenshotted it—something about the atmospheric design whispered that this would be exactly the kind of psychological thriller I devour. When Zooloos Book Tour announced their virtual tour for this novel, I didn't hesitate to sign up, and I'm thrilled to say the story delivered on every promise that haunting cover made. SC Shannon masterfully constructs a narrative that begins twenty-five years in the past with three inseparable friends whose lives are shattered by a terrifying kidnapping. Penelope and Christine are taken, but when Penelope stabs their captor and Christine escapes to summon help, the police return to find an empty house—no Penelope, no kidnapper, just questions that echo through the decades. T...

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 Study Session - Book #3 The Jocks and Nerds Collection - Darcy Rose - May 2025 Sometimes life throws you those peculiar reading days—you know the ones. Your brain craves the escape of a good book, but every book on your shelf feels as appealing as cold soup. Your eyes glaze over at complex plots, and even your favorite authors seem to demand too much mental energy. It's during these literary doldrums that books like The Study Session become absolute lifesavers. Darcy Rose's third installment in The Jocks and Nerds Collection arrived at precisely the right moment in my reading journey. After battling through several dense literary novels that left me feeling more exhausted than enlightened, I needed something that would remind me why I fell in love with reading in the first place. This book delivered exactly that comfort-food reading experience. The premise is delightfully straightforward: Jax, a football player starting fresh at a new university, needs academic ...