Review: Nightshade - Vanessa Edwards - July 2026 Nightshade by Vanessa Edwards begins with a heartbreak. Years ago, Mary fell head over heels for a man who treated her like she was the whole world. Then, just like that, he broke her heart by choosing someone else. That someone was Alice, who is now his wife. Fast forward to the present and Ed has Mary back in his life. She makes him feel wanted, and he's planning to divorce Alice and marry the woman he should have picked all those years ago. Alice, however, has other ideas. A divorce would leave her penniless, and that simply won't do for the lifestyle she's grown so fond of. So she gathers up a little "nightshade" (of course she does!) and poisons her husband. Alice is quite certain she's got away with it. But she's forgotten someone. Enter Lina, the nanny, who has seen more than Alice ever realised. When Alice tries to fire her, Lina has her ammunition ready, and things get deliciously tense from ther...

Review: Hana - Book #1.5 Delirium Series - Lauren Oliver - December 2011 I have a confession to make. This book had been sitting on my Kindle since January 2012, quietly waiting, until now. Sometimes a story finds you exactly when it's meant to, and picking up Hana after all these years felt less like reading a novella and more like stepping back through a door I didn't know I'd left open. Reading it transported me straight back to 2010–2012, that golden era when dystopian YA ruled every bookshelf and every teenage heart. It also brought back a memory I treasure, organising a Zoom call with Lauren Oliver herself for a teen reading finale at Tauranga Libraries, right here in little ol' New Zealand. Talk about full circle. Hana gives us the summer before the cure, told from the other side of the friendship at the heart of Delirium. While Lena is pulling away from the noise and risk of the underground world, Hana is doing the opposite  chasing every last taste of freed...

Review: Little Lies - Book #0 - Little Mercies Series - Heather Gudenkauf - March 2014 Heather Gudenkauf has been one of my favourite thriller authors for years now, and there's something so comforting about picking up her books like settling into a well-worn armchair, except the story inside might keep you up past bedtime. Little Lies, a prequel to her novel Little Mercies, is exactly the kind of quick, absorbing read I reach for when I want to be pulled in fast and not let go until the last page. The premise hooks you immediately: the body of a woman is found in a local park, her bewildered four-year-old son sitting quietly beside her, too young to understand what's happened. It's a gut-punch of an opening image, the kind that makes your chest tighten even before you know any of the details. Veteran social worker Ellen Moore is brought in to help the police, and I loved having her as our guide through this one. There's something grounding about a protagonist whose jo...

Review: Gone But Not Forgotten - Sabrina Jeffries - January 2008  You know how it is when you're scrolling through your Kindle at midnight, not really looking for anything, and then a title just reaches out and grabs you? That was me with Gone But Not Forgotten by Sabrina Jeffries. Something about it gave me immediate vibes of Nicholas Sparks' Remain wrapped in a M. Night Shyamalan twist - emotional, atmospheric, and quietly unsettling in the best possible way. Reader, I downloaded it immediately. Sunny is dead. Not in a tragic, drawn-out way  she and her husband are simply gone, the victims of an accident, and now she finds herself in that strange limbo between worlds, tethered to the living by one ferocious, unfinished piece of business: her twin babies. A mother's work, it turns out, is never done  not even from beyond the veil. Not while Sunny has a ghost of a chance. Her sister Honey and brother-in-law Bert step up as guardians, good-...

Review: The Book Boyfriend - Karli Perrin - November 2017 As a proud bookworm, I’m sure I’m not the only reader who has closed a romance novel and sighed, wishing that book boyfriends could step straight off the page and into real life. You know the type charming, swoon-worthy, and just the right amount of dreamy. Well, in The Book Boyfriend by Karli Perrin, that fantasy gets a cheeky little twist, and honestly, it’s the perfect short read to scratch that romantic itch. This delightful short story introduces us to Zara Hennessy, a woman who has well and truly had enough of the dating scene. After a string of failed relationships, she’s decided that love just isn’t worth the drama anymore. Fair enough, right? Sometimes it really does feel easier to curl up with a good book than deal with real-life heartbreak. When Zara agrees to help her sister at the biggest book signing event of the year, she expects a busy day surrounded by authors, readers, and the usual bookish chaos. What she does...

Review: Murder at the Royal Ruby - #Obsession Collection - Nita Prose - July 2023 Work has been an absolute whirlwind this past week ,the kind of busy that has me staying later than I'd like and trudging through the door with barely enough energy to string a sentence together. As much as I hate to admit it, my reading had been waning a few evenings in a row, and for a bookworm, there really is no worse feeling. So, in true book lover fashion, I did what any of us would do, I scratched that reading itch with a short, satisfying quick read that had been quietly waiting for me on my Kindle. Sometimes a book just knows when it's time to be picked up! Now, most of you will know Nita Prose from her beloved series featuring Molly the Maid, but this little gem takes us somewhere entirely different behind the velvet curtains and into the dazzling, cutthroat world of theatre. We are introduced to a young, passionate wannabe actress who has been paying her dues, grinding away and waitin...

Review: Recalculating - Jennifer Weiner - October 2011 If you’re used to Jennifer Weiner’s usual heartfelt chicklit , buckle up, because this one takes a sharp turn into psychological thriller territory We meet Maureen, a woman who is finally living life on her own terms. Her husband, Tony, has passed away, and she’s beginning to find her footing in her new-found freedom. We’ve all been there, right? That big "garage clean-out" phase where we try to reclaim our space. While sorting through the clutter of her old life, Maureen discovers a wrapped gift addressed to her from Tony. Inside? A GPS system . It feels a bit vintage for 2026, but she plugs it in anyway. At first, it’s just a helpful gadget. But then, the tech starts to glitch. Or does it? The GPS begins speaking to her, not in a generic robotic tone, but in Tony’s voice . And he isn't just giving her directions to the grocery store. He’s calling her names ,the same belittling names he used when he was alive. The ...

Review: The Kill Clause - Lisa Unger - December 2025 I wasn't feeling my best when I picked up The Kill Clause by Lisa Unger - one of those mornings where nothing quite appeals and you're scrolling aimlessly through your reading options. On a whim, I clicked on this Amazon Original short story, and I'm so glad I did. Sometimes the perfect read finds you exactly when you need it. From the opening pages, this book gave me serious The Long Kiss Goodnight vibes you know, that brilliant Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson action film that perfectly blends Christmas cheer with explosive assassin drama. Unger captures that same energy: holiday setting, deadly professionals, and a protagonist whose conscience complicates everything. We meet Paige, a woman pulled from foster care and molded into a lethal assassin by her mentor Nora. She's been trained to execute targets without hesitation, but when she arrives to complete her latest assignment, everything unravels. The target...

Review: Captive Films - Book #2.1 - Jillian Dodd - March 2015 When I needed a palate cleanser between heavier reads, I reached for Captive Films 2.1 by Jillian Dodd, and it delivered exactly what I was craving—a fast-paced, drama-filled escape that I devoured in one sitting. This installment picks up right where the previous book left off, and let me tell you, Knox is making some spectacularly bad decisions. After jumping to conclusions about Ariela (classic Knox), he decides the mature response is to grab his brother and friends for a wild night in Las Vegas to drown his sorrows. Meanwhile, poor Ariela is desperately trying to reach him to explain, but he won't answer his phone. Typical guy move, right? I found myself yelling at the pages, wanting to shake some sense into him. Of course, what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas—especially when you're connected to Captive Films. Photos from their debauchery hit the papers, and suddenly everyone is scrambling. Keatyn a...