NEW BOOK RELEASES 4/1

April 1, 2025

♡This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. I only become an affiliate for products I TRULY believe in, love, and use religiously. Thank you so much for helping to support my little family!♡

Crash Landing- Annie McQuaid / Avon

A funny and heartwarming debut romance about two exes forced to reunite when a plane crash leaves them stranded on a deserted island.

You’ll enjoy this if: you love sweet, wholesome, low spice romances, second chance love stories, military characters- it’s adorable!

Any Trope But You- Victoria Lavine/ Atria

A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.

You’ll enjoy this if: you love romance novels- this is a love letter to romance and the romance community, if you are a caretaker or love someone who is ill or disabled, if you love reading about humans finally allowing themselves to be loved the way they deserve to be loved. Fell in love with this story- quite steamy, so be aware!

Enough : Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest – Melissa Arnot Reid/ Crown

A searching, uplifting memoir by the celebrated, groundbreaking climber: a journey of overcoming where the mountain’s highest peaks can only be reached by traversing the dark crevasses of the soul.

You’ll enjoy this if: you love stories of resilient women, inspiring stories.

NEW BOOK RELEASES 3/25

March 25, 2025

♡This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. I only become an affiliate for products I TRULY believe in, love, and use religiously. Thank you so much for helping to support my little family!♡

Today is a HUGE day in the publishing world and I have so many wonderful books to share with you. Happy reading!!

Retreat– Krysten Ritter / Harper

Synopsis: A beautiful con artist insinuates herself into a wealthy socialite’s life . . . with deadly consequences, in this serpentine thriller about identity and obsession, from actress, director and bestselling author Krysten Ritter.

Liz Dawson weaves through a crowd with the ease of a tropical breeze, moving seamlessly through elite circles, sparking instant connections and making every new acquaintance feel like an intimate friend. She’s clever, smooth, and confident—qualities that make her a brilliant serial con artist.

Isabelle Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner of Casa Esmerelda, a fabulous villa on the Mexican coast—attributes that make her the perfect mark. When she offers Liz a job handling the installation of a piece of art in her otherwise vacant home, Liz can’t resist the allure of a beach retreat. She longs for a reset, a chance to finally shed the grip of her addiction to the conning game.

But when Liz, with her lush dark hair and intense green eyes, is mistaken for Isabelle herself, Liz can’t help effortlessly slipping into the socialite’s identity. The transition is so easeful, it almost feels like fate. But just who is Isabelle Beresford really, and why does she seem to have abandoned this stunning life of hers?

As Liz insinuates herself deeper into the dazzling—and deceptive—world of the Punta Mita resort community, she draws closer to the dangers surrounding the real Isabelle. Dangers that may have already ensnared Liz, too. This might not be the con of her life—but the con that ends it.

You’ll enjoy this if: You love twisty, messy stories and messy people. I never knew what was going to happen next!

Saltwater–Katy Hays / Ballantine

Synopsis: In 1992 Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident, and every year the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah’s death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.

You’ll enjoy this if: You like setting as the main character (Italy!!! Immersive and stunning), generational stories, rich people behaving TERRIBLY.

Witness 8–Steve Cavanagh/Atria

Synopsis: Something is wrong with Ruby Johnson.

A former resident of the ultra-elite Manhattan upper class, Ruby now works as a maid in the type of houses she used to live in. Unassuming, she sees everyone’s dirty secrets from the inside of their beautiful, renovated brownstones. But when Ruby witnesses a murder, she has wicked plans in mind that don’t involve telling the authorities the truth.

Eddie Flynn, streetwise ex con-artist-turned-defense attorney, is the only lawyer in New York City willing to take on hopeless cases. And none is more hopeless than John Jackson’s—the gun that killed his neighbor found, with Jackson’s DNA, in his own home. Flynn and his unconventional team will need to use every trick they know to keep an innocent man from being locked up. But to save his client’s life, Eddie must first protect his own, as the scariest organized criminals in the city are out for his head.

You’ll enjoy this if: You love old fashioned gritty gumshoe/ detective stories.

I Would Die For You– Sandie Jones/ Minotaur

Synopsis:Now: Nicole Forbes lives a quiet life in a small seaside Californian town with her husband and daughter. She is not expecting a writer to knock on her door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s—unveiling the threads of a life she put behind her years ago. The same day, her daughter goes missing and the school claims her aunt picked her up . . . but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear.

1986: Sixteen-year-old Cassie is obsessed with the hottest band in London, Secret Oktober. Harboring an intense crush on the leading man, Ben Edwards, she will do anything she can to capture his attention among the throngs of groupies at the band’s scandalous backstage parties. But when Ben discovers her older sister Nicole singing at a local bar one night, he can’t help but feel drawn to her, setting in motion a collision course that could tear their family apart.

Infused with the sounds of the 80s, this thrilling new novel from the inimitable Sandie Jones will captivate her readers, as she explores what the frenzy of fandom can lead to in this shocking blockbuster.

You’ll enjoy this if: You love celebrity/non-celebrity love stories and twisty thrillers.

The Other People–CB Everett / Atria

Synopsis: A group of strangers gathered at a mysterious country house are in a race against time to stop a serial killer in this twisty, high-concept thriller that combines Agatha Christie with Shutter Island.

Ten strangers.

An old dark house.

A killer picking them off one by one.

And a missing girl who’s running out of time…

And then there was one.

Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who—or what—lurks in the cellar?

Forget what you think you know.

Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?

You’ll enjoy this if: You like Agatha Christie and surprise endings

Lucky Night– Eliza Kennedy /Crown

Synopsis: Two people, one hotel room, and all the choices and complications that make up a life.

After six years of a stolen hour here, another there, tonight is going to be different—very different—for Nick Holloway and Jenny Parrish. They’ve booked a room in a new luxury hotel in Manhattan, where they’ll spend the entire night together for the first time. Expectations are running high for this brief reprieve from ordinary life: they both need a good bout of ravishing sex and witty conversation.

But that’s not what they get.

Because they’ve barely gotten started when a smoke alarm goes off. Nick is annoyed, but not worried about what must be only a minor glitch. Jenny is anxious, guilty—is karma coming for them at last?

This existential page-turner seamlessly shifts between Nick and Jenny’s perspectives as the reality of their situation becomes apparent, and all their secrets, evasions and regrets come spilling out. Stripped of their defenses, disagreeing about everything, these two flawed, funny, very different people are forced to be honest—with each other and themselves—about what they want, where they’ve screwed up, and whether their affair is really as casual as it seems.

You’ll enjoy this if: You watched the Affair or if you like figuring out what makes people tick.

Nowhere–Allison Gunn / Atria

Synopsis: Mare of Easttown meets The Outsider in this spine-tingling and twisty debut about a series of disappearances in a small, fundamentalist town and what one broken family must do to remain together as dark forces close in.

After losing her young son in an accident, Rachel Kennan throws herself into her career as police chief of a small Virginia town to avoid focusing on her grief. Meanwhile, her husband, Finn, a washed-up writer whose alcoholism led to the devastating tragedy that changed everything, struggles to redeem himself before his family completely falls apart. Their two daughters are the only things keeping Rachel and Finn together, but the girls have demons of their own.

At the same time, a disturbing crime rocks their tightknit, religious community, sending Rachel chasing leads in a place that does not take kindly to outsiders. When an ominous force in the forest starts calling to the children, fear spawns hate among the townspeople, placing the Kennan family directly in the line of fire. Left with no choice but to rely on each other, Rachel and Finn must come together to face threats inside and out.

A haunting family saga and a disquieting horror debut, Nowhere draws from Appalachian folklore to caution us that true terror is what we bury in our own hearts.

You’ll enjoy this if: you like dark Appalachian or witchy vibes.

NEW BOOK RELEASES 3/11

March 11, 2025

All the Other Mothers Hate Me– Sarah Harman, Putnam/PRH

Synopsis: Florence Grimes, age thirty-one, always takes the easy way out. Single, broke and unfulfilled after the humiliating end to her girl-band career, she has only one reason to get out of bed each day: her ten-year-old son Dylan. But then Alfie Risby, her son’s bully and the heir to a vast frozen-food empire, mysteriously vanishes during a class trip, and Dylan becomes the prime suspect.

Florence, for once, is faced with a task she can’t quit: She’s got to find Alfie and clear her son’s name or risk losing Dylan forever—never mind that she has no useful skills (let alone investigative ones) and that all the other school moms hate her. Oh, and she has a reason to suspect Dylan might not be as innocent as she’d like to believe.

My Review:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ When I first started this book, I thought I was going to dislike it. Let’s be honest. Florence is a highly unlikable main character. She’s selfish, greedy, and completely morally skewed. But she won me over. She’s like an evil version of Finley Donovan.🤣 This is a fun, layered, chaotic romp…utterly bananas. And I enjoyed every moment of it.

PURCHASE HERE

Jane and Dan at the End of the World– Colleen Oakley/Berkley

Synopsis: Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part” all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.

Review- ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 starsUnlike anything you’ve read, promise. Chaotic and zany and utterly bananas with a heart of gold, this was a precious book. Fun, unexpectedly insightful, and charmingly odd.

BUY HERE

All of My 4 1/2 and 5 Star Book Recommendations

February 24, 2025

♡This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. I only become an affiliate for products I TRULY believe in, love, and use religiously. Thank you so much for helping to support my little family!

This post has been a LONG time in the making and I’m so happy that I finally got it together and published it.

For years I have been publishing my ratings on every single book I’ve read to Goodreads HERE. But I needed a more comprehensive, easy to navigate list…so here you are.

A couple of notes:

This was really tricky for me to decide what to include. Most (if not all) of my four star reads are recommends for me too. All of the time. A 4 star rating is WONDERFUL in my book – see what I did there? However, I never would have published this blog post if I included all of the 4 star reviews. I would have been typing for months and months. Perhaps I’ll do a 4 star post at a later date.

Regarding my audio recommendations…this was a tough one. Many of the books below are spectacular on audio but I haven’t read them that way yet. I recommended all of the books I loved on audio and I do believe a few of them (Trevor Noah, Viola Davis, Devolution, any Kristin Hannah book- I LOVE YOU JULIA WHELAN) must be listened to to be truly appreciated.

Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy and find this list helpful to refer to. I did not have the bandwidth to copy and paste all of my reviews, but you can find those on Goodreads (see above).

Love y’all and happy reading!