Review: The Second Honeymoon - McGarvey Black - July 2025 McGarvey Black has crafted a psychological thriller that left me questioning every "romantic" gesture my own partner has ever made. The Second Honeymoon isn't just a book—it's a masterclass in how quickly love can turn sinister when inconvenience enters the equation. The story follows Becca, a woman whose fibromyalgia diagnosis has strained her ten-year marriage to Andre. When he surprises her with an all-expenses-paid cruise for their anniversary, complete with a new outfit, my initial reaction mirrored Becca's delight. The romantic in me swooned at what seemed like the perfect gesture from a devoted husband. How tragically wrong we both were. Andre's true intentions—orchestrating Becca's murder to escape with his girlfriend Lily—hit like a punch to the gut. McGarvey Black's portrayal of a man who views his wife's chronic illness as an unbearable burden rather than a shared challenge resona...

    Review: Five Nights - Rachel Wolf - February 2024 Years ago Belle and Emily were inseparable as they worked together on ships, that was until one day tragedy happened and pirates invaded the yacht and people died and Belle ended up kidnapped. You see it wasn't supposed to end up like this, but almost eight years later - Emily is a single mother to her son Finn and Belle marries a billionaire who it is discovered owned the ship she was kidnapped from. The pair went their different ways and now eight years later, Emily has received an invitation to a cruise vacation for five days from Belle. Emily is reluctant but decides this is finally the time for her to apologize to Belle and clear the air. The thing is that this cruise is about to get even more dangerous and will Emily be able to survive the five nights as looks like Belle has invited her for revenge. Emily might not be the only one in danger on the ship as Mattia's children have also been invited and are about to dis...

Review: Girl Overboard - Sandra Block - May 2022 As the year comes to a close, I am still reading and increasing my reading challenge goal which was 300 books, but now sitting at 311 read for 2023. Scrolling on the Libby App this morning, I tried two other books but they were both in the LGBTQA+ genre and as I do prefer straight romance being straight myself, when I do read LGBTQA+ books I have to be in the right frame of mind and today wasn't it as they both ended up being DNFs. So Girl Overboard was a third-time lucky read that I got hooked on. Girl Overboard by Sandra Block is a YA thriller read, I had previously read a few of Sandra's books but they have been geared towards the adult audience rather than teens. Reading this book though was a familiar storyline that made me think I must have read it, but what it was is that it's a similar storyline to Diana Urban's book also set on a cruise ship which I read earlier on in the year. In Girl Overboard, we meet Izzy a...

Review: Lying in the Deep - Diana Urban - May 2023 One of my favorite genres is thrillers and this one caught my attention with the cover. Set on a cruise ship, we meet Jade who has signed up for a learning experience called Campus on Board. She had planned the year before with her former roommate and boyfriend to do this with them. However, during the summer break - she got a text message dumping her from her boyfriend Silas that he was now with Lainey- her former roommate and now ex-best friend. What happens though when Jade discovers that both of them are now on the ship together? Jade tries to talk to them, but they continue to ghost her. She is confused about what happened during the summer internship. This continues until one night, there is blood all over Lainey's room and Lainey has disappeared. Has someone killed Lainey and why? Jade finally gets to talk to Silas, but things aren't adding up and she soon discovers that Lainey lied to the both of them and why? Also, J...