Book Recs & Reviews
I love a good page-turner & am always looking for recommendations of new books to read! I’m keeping track of all of my favorites & reviewing those that I consider 4+ stars.
Click on the book below to take you to the full review or if you’re looking for something specific, use the search bar below :)
Book Reviews
The Last Mrs. Parrish
🖊Author: @livconstantine2
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
Plot: Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne and her husband, Jackson—the beautiful philanthropist and the confident real estate mogul—are a golden couple straight out of a fairytale, blessed with two lovely young daughters.
Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrish family, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.
Loved: My mouth dropped & eyebrows rose throughout this book. It is a messy combination of jealousy, obsession, revenge, & manipulation. There were many verbal outbursts (good & bad) while reading this one. The ending is incredible - cue the mic drop!
Favorite Quote: “All she needed from Daphne was everything.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Find Her
🖊 Author: @lisagardnerbks
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Police procedural, Psychological Fiction
Plot: Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora Dane was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure.
Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who’s never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she’s become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who’ve never made it home.
When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime—a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him—she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.
Loved: Woof. I was constantly stressed & holding my breath through the twists of Find Her. Lisa’s writing in this novel is so vivid & intense that I truly felt like I was Florar, living out each experience with the same, pure adrenaline (which led to some pretty gnarly dreams for myself). What surprised me about this book was that I learned a lot of self-defense & survivor tactics while in danger. Find Her gave me the biggest book hangover but it was so worth it - I would crown it my favorite cold-blooded thriller I’ve read, to date.
Favorite Quote: “Because it’s one thing to survive. It is much, much harder to truly live.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Guest List
***Whispers of a possible film adaptation***
🖊 Author: @lucyfoleyauthor
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological thriller, Psychological Fiction
Plot: On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
Loved: This novel felt like a luxurious European island getaway that took a dark turn. It shows the pressures of having the “perfect” life on the outside & the repercussions of hiding the secrets deep inside.
Favorite Quote: “When I step outside the sun is just beginning to go down, spilling fire upon water. It tinges pink the mist that has begun to gather over the bog, that shields its secrets. This is my favourite hour.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Little Fires Everywhere
***Mini-series released***
🖊 Author: @pronounced_ing
Genre: Novel, Domestic Fiction
Plot: In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Loved: This book is brilliantly complex with complicated & lovable characters.
Favorite Quote: “All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches. Sparks leapt like fleas and spread as rapidly; a breeze could carry embers for miles.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
***Film adaptation in the works***
🖊 Author: @tjenkinsreid
Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Plot: Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love.
Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic & irreversible ways.
Loved: And I thought that Mick Riva lived a crazy life…sheesh! Evelyn is such a complex woman. Each character that you meet adds to the many layers of her complicated life & it’s like you have a front-row seat to each layer being peeled back. This book exposes Hollywood for all of its glitz & not so glamour for women in the film industry.
Favorite Quote: “You’re not really famous if anybody still likes you.”
Coming to @netflix as a movie adapted by @liztigelaar & who in the WORLD is going to play Evelyn?
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Hunting Wives
🖊Author: @maycobb
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Plot: Sophie O'Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect life with a beautiful home in an idyllic rural community. But Sophie soon realizes that life is now too quiet, and she's feeling bored and restless.
Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie's curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers.
When a body is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spiraling out of control.
Loved: The Hunting Wives is juicy, scandalous, blush-worthy & downright cringy, wrapped up in a beautifully, messy bow. I was getting a darker version of Desperate Housewives vibe & a hint of Mean Girls. Cobb’s writing is so punchy that I zipped through this book in two sittings. Definitely a page-turner!
Favorite Quote: “The clouds glow nectarine orange, dripping off of the sky like crème brûlée.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Malibu Rising
🖊Author: @tjenkinsreid
Genre: Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Plot: Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.
By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.
Loved: This book was SO worth all of the hype!!! You feel like you’re completely transported into the epic chaos of Malibu in the 80’s. This was my first book that I’ve read of Reid’s but I love that she drops Easter eggs, making some of her characters cross paths in her other books. Her writing style is so witty & although there are parts in this book that hurt your heart/really make you angry, this was SUCH a fun read!!!
Favorite Quote: My favorite quotes from this book are mostly explicit. #iykyk
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Paris Apartment
***Film adaptation in the works***
🖊Author: @lucyfoleyauthor
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
Plot: Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.
The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.
The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge
Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.
Loved: The French phrases (and expletives) used throughout!
Favorite Quote: “My lipstick is flawless. I never leave the apartment without it. Chanel, ‘La Somptueuse’: my signature color. A bluish, regal color that says ‘stand back’, not ‘come hither’. ”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Night Swim
🖊 Author: @megangoldinauthor
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Plot: A true-crime famous podcast host travels to a small, coastal town in North Carolina, Neapolis, to cover a controversial trial. She finds herself uncovering the dark past of the town, a tragedy that occurred two decades before.
Loved: The novel’s setting is inspired by Beaufort, North Carolina - I love a good ode to NC. I felt like I was right there in the moment during all of the twists & turns. There are also hints of symbolism to Greek mythology throughout, which is super interesting.
Favorite Quote: “Mostly I mind my own business. You should try it sometime”.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Such a Quiet Place
🖊 Author: @meganlmiranda
Genre: Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Mystery
Plot: Welcome to Hollow’s Edge, where you can find secrets, scandal, and a suspected killer—all on one street.
Hollow’s Edge use to be a quiet place. A private and idyllic neighborhood where neighbors dropped in on neighbors, celebrated graduation and holiday parties together, and looked out for one another. But then came the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett. A year and a half later, Hollow’s Edge is simmering. The residents are trapped, unable to sell their homes, confronted daily by the empty Truett house, and suffocated by their trial testimonies that implicated one of their own. Ruby Fletcher. And now, Ruby’s back.
With her conviction overturned, Ruby waltzes right back to Hollow’s Edge, and into the home she shared with Harper Nash. Harper, five years older, has always treated Ruby like a wayward younger sister. But now she’s terrified.
Loved:
➀ The sassy inner & external commentary of Harper, the main character/voice of the book.
➁ The close-knit neighbors & personalities. I love a good small-town thriller.
➂ How easy it was to read - I flew right through it (literally could not put it down!) When you spend your lunch break at work reading a book, you know it’s a good one.
Favorite Quote: “The police, I knew, would be coming back. Would be looking closely. Going through our lives, searching for our motives, shaking out our secrets.”
Megan Miranda now lives in North Carolina. I can’t wait to see what spookiness she writes next in “The Last to Vanish”. This book takes place in a mountain town in NC, here we go!
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Hunting Party
***Whispers of a possible film adaptation***
🖊 Author: @lucyfoleyauthor
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological thriller, Psychological Fiction
Plot: Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?
DON'T BE LEFT OUT. JOIN THE PARTY NOW.
Loved: How the book is crafted - it’s told through Katie, Heather, Doug, Miranda, & Emma’s points of view - there isn’t one protagonist! I was here for the plot twists & the internal conflict of trying to piece together whodunnit!
Favorite Quote: “I open it up, and focus on applying it perfectly to my mouth in the mirror, a waxy crimson bow. I read somewhere once that sales of lipsticks go up when times are tough. I pout at myself in the mirror. Never has ‘war paint’ seemed like a more appropriate term.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Daisy Jones & The Six
***Mini-series released on Netflix***
🖊 Author: @tjenkinsreid
Genre: Novel, Historical Fiction, Romance
Plot: Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
Loved: Taylor Jenkins Reid always makes me want to teleport back in time with her novels. This book is the epitome of old-school rock ‘n’ roll that takes you through the journey of a band inspired by Fleetwood Mac. The book’s style is similar to a documentary/interview, so you get a different point of view from each character as the past is revisited. The author’s humor is spot on with mine & I found myself saying “ha!” out loud throughout (yes, I guess I am one of those people)
Favorite Quote: “Men often think that they deserve a sticker for treating women like people.”
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Adults
🖊 Author: @alison.espach
Genre: Coming-of-age story, Humor, Domestic Fiction
Plot: At the center of this affluent suburban universe is Emily Vidal, a smart and snarky teenager, who gets involved in a suspect relationship with one of the adults after witnessing a suicide in her neighborhood. Among the cast of unforgettable characters is Emily’s father, whose fiftieth birthday party has the adults descending upon the Vidal’s patio; her mother, who has orchestrated the elaborate party even though she and her husband are getting a divorce; and an assortment of eccentric neighbors, high school teachers, and teenagers who teem with anxiety and sexuality and an unbridled desire to be noticed, and ultimately loved.
An irresistible chronicle of a modern young woman’s struggle to grow up, The Adults lays bare—in perfect pitch—a world where an adult and a child can so dangerously be mistaken for the same exact thing.
Loved: I definitely judged this book by the intriguing cover & was happy with my decision! I loved the super witty & punchy commentary. It hit all of the emotions of a coming-of-age novel.
Favorite Quote: “The neighborhood had gotten really into pastel the last few years. It started when Alfred's wife painted their whole house a soft pink during menopause. Looks Like Linen it was called. People raved. A magazine came, made the family hold up a rotisserie chicken, and then photographed it. A few months later, Mrs. Trenton's house was Mint Leaf. Ours became Celery Powder. The Resnicks' house turned Yellow Feather.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Authenticity Project
🖊 Author: @clare_pooley
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Literary, Romance
Plot: Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with one another. But what if they were? And so he writes—in a plain, green journal—the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves—and soon find each other IRL at Monica's Café.
The Authenticity Project's cast of characters—including Hazard, the charming addict who makes a vow to get sober; Alice, the fabulous mommy Instagrammer whose real life is a lot less perfect than it looks online; and their other new friends—is by turns quirky and funny, heartbreakingly sad and painfully true-to-life. It's a story about being brave and putting your real self forward—and finding out that it's not as scary as it seems. In fact, it looks a lot like happiness.
Loved: This book was a feel-good read that felt straight out of a @nmeyers film. I’m a sucker for unlikely friendships & a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Also, any book that takes place in Europe is “100 pts for Gryffindor”, for me. Great beach read.
Favorite Quote: “I had reverse metamorphosed from a butterfly into a caterpillar.”
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Verity
***Film adaptation in the works!***
🖊 Author: @colleenhoover
Genre: Novel, Thriller, Romance, Suspense, Fiction
Plot: “Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.”
Favorite Quote: “I was difficult. An emotionally challenging puzzle he wasn’t up for solving. Which was fine. I wasn’t in the mood to be solved.”
Loved: This book made me gasp. Was I angry? Yes. Did it break my heart? Totally. Was I spooked tf out? 100%. Was it an absolute page turner? I flew through this twisted book.
Pro Tip: Read the gold edition version for an additional chapter.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
It Ends With Us
***Film adaptation released***
🖊 Author: @colleenhoover
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Plot: “Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened”.
Loved: Colleen Hoover can do no wrong in my eyes.
I immediately raised an eyebrow after the Dedications page & I got the inkling that I needed to buckle up, reader, for this one. It Ends With Us was so intense & hard to read at parts but it reminds you of what love can truly be.
Hoover explains in the Note from the Author that she wanted to write the book for women like her mother & I thought that was incredibly brave & honorable.
The trailer for the movie coming in Aug 2024 is out & in my opinion, is a total spoiler, so just keep in mind if your curiosity gets the best of you!
Favorite Quote: “If by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again, fall in love with me.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
None of This is True
***Film adaptation in the works!***
🖊 Author: @lisajewelluk
Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Crime, Psychological Thriller
Plot: Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
Loved: This book starts in the present day and it is unknown who the characters are or what has happened in the past to lead up to that moment. The book then rewinds to catch up with the reader and is a wild ride. You have a hard time deciding what is fact and what is fiction, which may make you want to look at people differently in the grocery store (lol!). It gave me the heebie-jeebies at parts and overall, it was a great, quick read.
Favorite Quote: “A WEAK MAN CAN’T LOVE A STRONG WOMAN. HE WON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HER”.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
People We Meet on Vacation
🖊 Author: @emilyhenrywrites
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Adult, Chick Lit
Plot: Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year, they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Loved: I haven’t read a “light-hearted” book in a bit, but a romance felt fitting to dive into on my honeymoon. It was my first Emily Henry read & I found her writing style downright hilarious. I think I actually laughed out loud at some of the parts - yes, I was that person in public. The banter between Alex & Poppy reminded me of my own relationship, which I rolled my eyes & giggled at throughout the book. Personality dynamics are very intriguing to me. I would love to see this one made into a rom-com, like a modern-day “When Harry Met Sally” and am adding more Emily Henry to my reading list.
Favorite Quote: “I wish I could bottle this moment and wear it as a perfume. It would always be with me. Everywhere I went, he’d be there too, and so I’d always feel like myself”.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Before She Disappeared
**Series Adaptation coming to Netflix in 2025!
🖊 Author: @lisagrdnrbks
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Police procedural, Urban fiction
Series: Frankie Elkin (1st Book)
Plot: Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will—searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.
A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim’s wary family tells Frankie she’s on her own—and she soon learns she’s asking questions someone doesn’t want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.
Loved: Frankie’s personality is a little rough around the edges & I would deem her a badass. The fact that @hilaryswank is playing her in the series adaptation is chef’s kiss.
Favorite Quote: “Many think we must share the same beliefs to get along. In my experience, sharing the same fear is a far more effective strategy”.
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The God of the Woods
***Currently being adapted into a series by #Sony
🖊 Author: @lizmoorebooks
Genre: #Mystery, #Crime, #Fiction, #PsychologicalThriller
Plot: “Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.”
Loved: At first, this book was a little hard to follow with all of the characters, perspectives, & timelines. You truly didn’t know what was coming next or what year you would be taken to - which made it really interesting. I don’t know why John Pauls always end up being the absolute worst, but someone should definitely look into it (shout out to @badsisterstv). I changed my theory quite a few times of the events that transpired & the book kept me guessing at every twist!
Favorite Quote: “Kissing someone - someone you want to kiss, I mean - is like living inside the best song you ever heard. It’s the same feeling.”
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
We Were Liars
*Being adapted as a series by @primevideo!
🖊 Author: @elockhartbooks
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Young Adult, Fiction
Series: Prequel - Family of Liars
Plot: A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth.
Loved: The ending left me speechless. The witty style of the book made for such an easy read…at least until your heart gets ripped out. I had no idea that it was a young adult book until after the fact.
Favorite Quote: “He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
That’s all for now! Check back later for more reviews soon!
