Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Recent Reads | The Fury and What Happens in Amsterdam

Posted May 22, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Unlike everyone else on the planet, I actually haven’t read THE SILENT PATIENT yet. It didn’t stop me from grabbing THE FURY in my BOTM over a year ago though – classic Lauren. I thought the premise sounded pretty good without carrying all the hype of his other book. The story is narrated by one of the characters – Elliot – and breaks the fourth wall a lot, along with a stream of consciousness kind of narrative voice. He and his famous friends (Lana and her husband Jason and son Leo, plus their friend Kate) head to Lana’s private Greek island for a little R&R. The story kind of “unravels” from there when one of them is murdered. The setup and format of the storytelling was interesting, but the idea was better than the execution. I think the structure of the book was meant to create tension but really it ended up being boring. I don’t feel like I can say more about how he narrated it without directly spoiling, but it was basically like “oh I told you all this now let’s go back in time to talk more about what happened first” or “I actually left a few things out that you may find important now, so here’s more details.” I can understand why the format was like this – it’s almost like the author knew he wanted to make a very basic mystery more interested by using this kind of storytelling and then figured out what the […]

Recent Reads | A Proposal to Die For and The Missing Half

Posted May 16, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I requested this book on a whim to try to get into other mystery authors – it seemed cozy and I loved the premise of a proposal planner going to a fancy spa/resort. Unfortunately this book didn’t really work for me! Jess used to be a wedding planner but after some drama and burnout, she decides to create a new venture in the proposal planning space. She links up with rich dudes who want to spend money on an over-the-top proposal and Jess handles all the logistics. When a frenemy from high school wants to redo her fiance’s proposal, she insists Jess help them and he’ll pay anything to make it happen. Jess needs the money and agrees – they head to a resort to work on the planning… and a dead body or two make an appearance. My biggest issue with this book is that it felt very disjointed – the way the characters interacted with each other and the scenes progressed felt so weird and underdeveloped. It’s very hard to explain but I was glad to see from other reviews that I wasn’t alone in feeling this way. The plot wasn’t the issue but the way the author wrote the dialogue, character relationships, and overall scene structure was just very hard to read and sometimes confusing. The romance was the most underdeveloped part; I didn’t believe any of it or see any progression for them throughout the book. All of a sudden they were kissing after a few […]

Recent Reads | Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales and The Business Trip

Posted May 7, 2025 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

Unfortunately I don’t know if this was a victim of my reading slump or if I just didn’t love it as much as the other two, but it took me a LONG time to read this. I started in early March right after it came out and ended up putting it on hold for nearly a month while I finished up some other things. I began it again in earnest in early April and didn’t finish until the last day of the month, when I was DETERMINED to get it done. I think if I had just sat down and actually read it I would have enjoyed it more. In my brain this is still a five-star series if that counts for anything. The story follows Emily and Wendell as they try to fix the curse on his kingdom. I love the two of them plus Shadow and other characters. The pacing of the story was a little off and felt like staccato events happening on and off with some fluff in between. I never felt the real danger or adventure that I felt in the other two books. I can see this being the final installment but am also a little disappointed by the ending if it actually IS the last book. This series is the epitome of cozy fantasy with a litttttle more action. I was debating what thriller to read when I remembered a friend told me how addicting this one was, and I really needed something to […]

Recent Reads | The Maid’s Secret and Great Big Beautiful Life

Posted April 29, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

This series is a really fun time. Molly the Maid has solved now 3.5 mysteries around the Regency Grand Hotel and I thinkkk this may be her final one? Not sure if other books have been announced but this really feels like a last book. This was another generally enjoyable installment in this series, but definitely my least favorite. The story alternates between Molly’s daily life/the overall mystery and her gran’s diary entries. Unfortunately I wasn’t super invested in either timeline, but I especially didn’t enjoy the diary entries. I thought they were so boring. Yes, it helps move the story along in some ways, but I wasn’t at all invested. I think the main mystery was a little lame as well. I never felt like the stakes were really high and the story was just kind of plodding along. I think the series has run its course from a plot perspective but I have to be honest – I would read additional books if they were to come out. As I’ve said a hundred times before, there are a few authors where I am ANXIOUSLY awaiting their next release and can guarantee I’ll read them during pub week (or early enough if I get an egalley). These days that includes Emily Henry, Christina Lauren, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carley Fortune, and Abby Jimenez. Typically these authors (for the most part) get fairly rave reviews but Henry and Jimenez always do…especially for me. 2025 has been weirdly polarizing for those two […]

Recent Reads | Swept Away and Magpie Murders

Posted April 23, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve loved quite a few of O’Leary’s books but actually DNFed her last release – for whatever reason the story just wasn’t clicking for me and I haven’t felt pulled to start it again. I was really hoping to get back on track with her for this novel and I’m happy to report that happened! The story follows Zeke and Lexi as they deal with the aftermath of a one-night stand. They realize when they wake up in the morning that the houseboat they were using has somehow gotten untied and was swept out to see. They don’t have power, they’re running out of food, and – to top it all off – they literally don’t know each other at all. Obviously the premise alludes to a bit of a survival story but for some reason I didn’t realize how intense it would be! I kind of just assumed they’d get rescued in a few days but there was actually a lot of peril and accidents to deal with. Some early reviews had folks unprepared for this and it affected their enjoyment, but I still really enjoyed it. It’s just not a straightforward fluffy romance. The ending had some twists that I didn’t see coming (which makes me feel like an idiot because maybe they were obvious?). It took a little while to get on board with those reveals but I was pretty pleased by the end of the book with how everything turned out. This was a super emotional […]

Recent Reads | The Searcher and The Lodge

Posted April 7, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

My book club is really getting me out of my comfort zone at times but so far it hasn’t been a successful endeavor lol. I guess I just know what I like, and this kind of book is not it. The books that were already on my TBR when we selected them have generally worked out pretty well, and the two books I’ve read ONLY because of the club… not so much. Why do we need to read about annoying men? This book follows Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop who moves to Ireland to fix up an old house and live quietly post-divorce. When a young boy approaches him one day and asks for help looking for his missing brother, Cal can’t resist helping him out. Unfortunately, this was SO INCREDIBLY BORING. I could truly sum up the plot in three sentences (just add one to the paragraph above that describes the ending) and yet I had to read almost 500 pages. Even the reveal at the end was incredibly obvious. Most reviews were surprised by it but I thought it was pretty glaring who was involved. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I just don’t like reading about men. Or cops / ex-cops. Or guns and hunting. Unfortunately all three of these things were present in spades. Tana French wrote Cal Hooper in a way that a lot of men write women – stereotypically and frustratingly. Did we really need to hear about him adjusting […]

ARC Review: Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

Posted March 31, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I really enjoyed the first VERA WONG book and was pumped to hear there would be a sequel! I thought the premise was well-suited to a series because Vera is such a unique and interesting main character. I loved the found family vibes and all of the people she brought into her life (that she originally accused of murder…). I thought they’d turn into a nice crime-solving crew for future books! This story follows Vera as she tries to solve the mysterious death of Xander Lin. Is that even his real name? Or just his online persona? She finds a young distressed woman crying over his death and then just so happens to see some case files in Selena’s briefcase… suddenly Vera has another case to spice up her life. Vera always describes herself as a “Chinese mother” and that’s why she’s so good at everything she does lol. She has a unique personality that honestly is a little abrasive and off-putting at first. Once you get used to her unique charm, her behavior can be lol-funny at times! I also am desperate to eat some of her food. Vera collects her suspects and people connected to Xander (very much like the first book). The bones of the book are very similar to the original Vera Wong story in this way. However, the actual plot/mystery is a lot darker and more grim – especially for a cozy mystery. I don’t want to spoil it but look up trigger warnings if […]

ARC Review: This Book Will Bury Me

Posted March 20, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

We’ve all been chasing the high of IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE since it was published, but Winstead’s mystery/thriller books since then have been a bit different. I’ve honestly skipped both of them for various reasons. This book, however, called to me – it felt closer to what I was looking for from her. While I don’t think you should come into it hoping for another IMDIHAK, I was definitely not disappointed. The story does read like a true crime book and breaks the third wall. Our narrator, Jane, is writing a memoir of her time working with online amateur sleuths to help solve a triple homicide on a college campus. (Winstead’s authors note does mention that she took inspiration from a lot of real cases including the Idaho murders – it’s incredibly similar to that case.) She’s “setting the record straight” with her own book, as others close to the case have written tell-all books that, according to her, are not accurate portrayls of the case and her involvement. We follow Jane in the wake of her father’s unexpected death. She finds solace in an online community (think Web Sleuths) and quickly falls in with a group of them: Mistress, Goku, Lightly, and Citizen. The group helps solve a case local to Jane and soonafter, the Idaho murders take place on a college campus. They mobilize in more ways than one and become intwined in the case in ways absolutely no one expected. (…except for me, as […]

Audio ARC Review: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave

Posted March 13, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve loved this series, even when it goes off the rails a little bit. These are cozy mysteries with a slight edge compared to others I’ve read. I think this book specifically is more on the cozy side than the others and a bit more grounded than a couple of the previous ones. I was happy to encounter a new mystery instead of a continuation of the other plot that had run its course. The first four books each had individual mysteries that get resolved in each book, but there was a larger mystery and thread throughout all of those. It got a little tiring. All of that to say – this book follows a new mystery based in Finlay’s neighborhood. It was set up at the end of book 4 when a body is found in Mrs. Haggarty’s yard. Finlay and Vero spend this installment trying to figure out who murdered this dude and buried them in the yard, since her ex-husband is the one implicated in the crime. Finlay believes, as much as Steven sucks, that he isn’t responsible for it. I will say that I love how this book brought the series back to its roots, as I touched on before. There’s a new storyline to follow that kind of reads like a standalone story. The humor and heart of these books get met every time and keep me reading. I know that a lot of people are sick of the antics or thought the books veered […]

Recent Reads | Into the Woods and The Meadowbrook Murders

Posted February 28, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I put off reading CANADIAN BOYFRIEND for a while and now, with my review copy of INTO THE WOODS, I’ve spoiled a bit of that one. So I can generally recommend to not read this one first unless you have no interest in the first book in this shared universe lol. Moving on! This one follows Gretchen and Teddy as they work at an artsy summer camp. Gretchen is in the middle of buying a building to expand her dance studio but fills in for a pregnant friend, while Teddy is there reeling from his band’s breakup and hoping to work on a solo album. They have interesting and honestly sometimes off-putting personalities. I don’t know what it was but it took me a few chapters before I actually liked either one of them lol. The summer camp vibes are incredible here. I love the idea of adults at summer camp since I don’t read as much YA anymore. However, there was something about this story that just didn’t keep my interest. It took me SO long to read, which is not common for romance or books by Jenny Holiday for me. I was never in the mood to read this and think some of the story was a bit slow or repetitive through the middle. I feel like I could sum up the middle 50% of the book with a few sentences at most. Gretchen and Teddy were different than other romance book MCs – like I said, their […]