VBT# Review - Just One Bite - Miranda Rijks - June 2026 There are some authors whose names alone are enough to make me drop everything else on my TBR pile, and Miranda Rijks is absolutely one of them. So when I saw Just One Bite popping up for a Zooloos Book Tours stop, I didn't even need to read the blurb twice , I just knew. And then there's that cover. Honestly, who can resist a gorgeous, glossy cupcake staring back at them? It's the kind of cover that makes you want to curl up with a cuppa (and probably an actual cupcake) before you've even cracked the spine. This story pulled me in from the very first page. We meet Tyler and Brittany, a glamorous "power couple" with a little daughter, Alissa. Brittany is the main breadwinner, a recognisable TV personality, but underneath the glossy exterior she's been quietly struggling since severe postnatal depression left her feeling disconnected from her own child. Their nanny, Riley, has really been the one hol...

Review: Don't Answer the Phone - Miranda Rijks - March 2026 I'll be honest with you  the moment I spotted a new Miranda Rijks on my radar, I did a little happy dance right there in my kitchen. She is one of those authors who just gets the psychological thriller; the slow-burn dread, the creeping wrongness, the feeling that something terrible is coiling itself quietly around a perfectly ordinary life. So I settled into my favourite armchair with a cup of tea and absolutely no intention of moving until I'd turned the last page. Don't Answer the Phone begins with such a lovely, ordinary act of kindness. Daniella steps in to help elderly Peggy on a Boston street, the sort of small good deed we'd all like to think we'd do. But as any seasoned thriller reader knows, no good deed goes unpunished  and into Daniella's life steps Lucas, Peggy's son, all charm and smouldering attention. After years of feeling invisible beside her distant husband Grant, the pull is...

Review: One Little Mistake - Miranda Rijks - November 2025 When I saw One Little Mistake come up on offer from Zooloos Book Tours, I jumped at the chance. Miranda Rijks has become one of my favourite thriller writers, and she certainly didn't disappoint with this twisty tale of friendship, betrayal, and consequences. The story kicks off at a hen's party where a group of friends are living their best lives, but the next day everything changes. Kate suddenly finds herself completely iced out by her closest friends, and she has no idea why. The truth is devastating: her secret friendship spreadsheet—where she rated each friend out of 100—has gone viral. Now everyone knows exactly what she really thinks of them. What follows is a gripping exploration of what happens when your private thoughts become public knowledge. Kate begs for forgiveness, but her friends refuse to grant it. As her perfect life spirals out of control, she discovers a painful truth: sometimes the people closes...

Review: The Second Wife - Miranda Rijks - May 2022 Mia was on her way to becoming a successful classical violinist until a family issue caused her career to derail and she ended up with a stint in prison. She needed a job and so she got one cleaning for musician Robin Featherstone. The two got close as Mia spoke Robin's language - the art of music. His second wife Tamsin though gets jealous after she overhears Robin talking about personal issues with Mia like their Will. She's not a gold digger, but she deserves something and she fears that he is drifting away from her. So she fires Mia behind Robin's back. During this time, Robin then has a stroke and eventually dies. Mia is also shortly after being fired, given a job as a violinist in a band on tour - this is what she always dreamed of, professionally playing her Violin. One night she gets a call, Robin has died and he has left his entire estate to her. Mia is shocked and as soon as she meets the family, she realizes th...

Review: The Arrangement - Miranda Rijks - August 2020 I have been reading a lot of romance and fantasy lately and felt like a change of direction so I opened my Kindle and began to scroll until I came across a title by Miranda Rijks. I have enjoyed a few of her psychological thrillers in the past and figured this one would be no different. As I open the book we are presented with the murder in the first chapter as we meet a young girl stabbed on the rocks. The book then jumps to the next chapter where the young girl's parents get a knock on their door. Abi has been found stabbed in South Africa and alone, this doesn't make sense to Grace as her daughter was supposed to be staying with friends Becky and Ethan. Grace is about to have her eyes wide open and learn that her daughter has a secret life that she never imagined. Readers will learn that Abi through her diary entries became a sugar baby and that she also had a boyfriend whom she fell in love with and pregnant with. As Gra...

Review: Fatal Fortune - Book #1 Dr. Pippa Durant - Miranda Rijks - May 2019 This week, I had trouble with reading romances and felt in a thriller mood. Fatal Fortune was a book set in the UK where Leanne Smith has just won the big lottery. Her family is overjoyed, that is until she is found murdered with a photo lying on her body. The police post the photo thinking it is of Leanne but it is another local woman named Pippa Durant. Pippa is a psychiatrist and has started to lose business and her reputation because of this mistake. As the book goes along, Pippa is determined to find out what the connection is between Leanne and herself, but no one seems to be helping. Meanwhile, Leanne's daughter Donna is grieving her mother's death and her father Kevin has been arrested, but Donna knows he is innocent. I have to say I wasn't keen on the character Ricky and wondered if he had something to do with the death but the book takes on a different angle which left me going OMG and be...