The Fair Weather Friend by Jessie Garcia Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on January 20, 2026
Also by this author: The Business Trip
Format: eBook (320 pages) • Source: Libby
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The next gripping domestic suspense novel from Jessie Garcia.
It's always sunny in Detroit for Faith Richards. The popular TV meteorologist, endearingly referred to as "The Fair Weather Friend" by her viewers, has the world by the tail. But one night, Faith leaves work on a dinner break and never returns. Her body is found the next morning.The town is reeling, suspects emerge, and long-buried secrets are uncovered. While her allies rally, her list of adversaries also grows. Little does anyone know that only the deepest secrets will expose the truth.
In this riveting thriller from the author of THE BUSINESS TRIP, Jessie Garcia's signature multi-POV, rapid-fire style will propel you into the heart of a mystery no one could have forecasted.
I really enjoyed the twists and overall mystery of THE BUSINESS TRIP and was excited to read more by Jessie Garcia. Her second book also featured a newsroom/weather woman so I was thinking she may turn into a TJ Newman (flight attendant or airplane setting) for me, carving out a specific niche within mysteries.
When popular weather girl Faith is found strangled in her car during her dinner break, her superfans, colleagues, and old friends are left reeling in different ways. There were multiple POVs like her previous book and many of the plot lines and characterization were similar.
The big twist was good in theory but it was very implausible in practice. I thought the writing was cringey in places and fairly juvenile – the character conversations and inner thoughts were just written in a weird way for me. I definitely enjoyed the ride, as I did with the first book, but it was unsatisfying in many ways – especially the very end.
There were certain characters or POVs that got completely lost by the end and we got no closure on. I’m not saying that I had fallen in love with them and wanted to know more about them, but there were a number of loose ends that would have been more satisfying to know about. People weren’t built up enough – especially Faith – for me to care about what happened to her.
I received this book for free (hey, thanks!) in exchange for an honest review. I promise that this does NOT affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. For real.
Out of the Loop by Katie Siegel Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by Crooked Lane Books on February 10, 2026
Format: eARC (336 pages) • Source: Publisher
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She spent two years in a time loop. Now she’s ready to solve a murder. And maybe grab a bagel.
The Seven Year Slip meets Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers in this wholly original time loop mystery.
For the past two years, Amie Teller has been stuck in a time loop. Each day, she wakes up, and it’s September 17. Same day, same weather, same people, same conversations. Until one day, it’s September 18, and Amie is free.
Before she can celebrate, Amie learns her neighbor was murdered the day before—the day Amie has lived hundreds of times. Amie knows she has to help; nobody knows yesterday like she does. But acclimating to her new nonrepeating life proves to be more difficult than expected. How does one resume their life after a time loop, anyway?
Assisted by an ex-girlfriend who wants to make their friendship work and a grumpy neighbor who spends his days building Rube Goldberg machines, Amie sets out to track down who killed (and killed and killed and killed) Savannah Harlow.
Readers who love time loop novels, amateur sleuth mysteries, and original takes on classic tropes will love Out of the Loop.
I’m a sucker for time loop books or what I usually refer to as “Groundhog Day” books. I’ve talked about them a lot on my blog for that reason. This story was a completely unique and different take on this concept! The main character has been in a two-year time loop. One day she wakes up and suddenly the loop is over, but finds out her neighbor was murdered the previous evening (aka at the end of the day on her repeat day). She figures that it was her goal to prevent the murder and she basically failed at her time loop mission but (general spoiler of my assumption of what was going on): View Spoiler » The fun thing about time loops IS trying to find out why it was happening, but that element was combined here with a murder mystery.
There was a bit more focus on romance than expected, as the main character’s (Amie) ex-girlfriend is a part of her time loop day and beyond. They spent a lot of time with this relationship, which was fine, but it just wasn’t what I expected. I almost wanted more pages of mystery and red herrings or something instead. I saw some reviews of folks who didn’t enjoy these characters much but for the MOST part, I thought they were funny and entertaining. Some of the angst wasn’t my favorite but I liked everyone’s vibe.
Another niggling complaint – again, not major – is that I would have enjoyed some more scenes from the time loop. The concept of being post-time loop was a ton of fun and again, very unique, but having a few more flashbacks within the loop would’ve been cool. Amie spent some scenes in the present day (“after loop”) rehashing things from the days in-loop, and those could’ve been scenes from the past in general. The author did do this fairly often but I would’ve enjoyed it deployed a few more times.
The ending was good and I didn’t fully predict it, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if others do. I suggest enjoying the ride and the concept more than trying to figure out the mystery lol. I hope to read some more from this author!
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