You Are Fatally Invited

 

Author: Ande Pliego

Publisher: Bantam

Year: 2025

Do you like locked room mysteries? I’m a fan. You Are Fatally Invited by debut author Ande Pliego is a literary themed locked room mystery. J.R Alastor, a legendary and very reclusive thriller writer, invites a group of fellow thriller writers to his fabulous island compound for a writer’s retreat. The gathering quickly turns deadly. 

The mysterious Alastor seems to have an ax to grind with each of the writers gathered on the island. He’s designed games to revel all their nasty secrets. But Alastor isn’t the only one with murder on their mind. Mila, the event coordinator overseeing the retreat, has her own grudge and agenda. Will anyone survive to tell the tale of the writers retreat gone wrong? 

This was a well plotted mystery with lots of twists and turns. All the characters are hiding something in their past. The pacing is steady with lots of tension as the group desperately tries to figure out who exactly Alastor really is and how to get off the island before they’re all killed. This was a fun read and I really enjoyed it and recommend it. Pick this one up if you like locked room mysteries or if you’re in the mood for a mystery with a literary flair. 

#youarefatallyinvited #andepliego #penguinrandomhouse #crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm #booklover #bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary #lockedroommystery 

About the Author

When not reading or writing, Ande Pliego can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and little son. Her first novel, You Are Fatally Invited, debuted in February 2025. Your Death Is Now Overdue is her sophomore novel.

Killer Potential

 

Author: Hannah Deitch

Narrators: Kristen Sieh and Daru Oda

Publisher: Harper Audio

Year: 2025

Evie is an SAT tutor for wealthy families in Los Angeles. When Evie arrives at the home of one her clients for a scheduled tutoring session, she discovers both parents have been killed and a mysterious woman held captive in the house. Evie rescues the woman. Instead of calling the police, Evie and the woman go on the run, afraid they’ll be accused of the murders. 

Author Hannah Deitch delivers an impressive debut thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed. The less you know going into this one the better. This is a multi-layered story and you’ll be surprised where it goes. The pacing is measured, but then it can turn on a dime into breakneck speed. It’s also darkly funny at times. The characters are complex and sometimes unreliable. The story is also told from two different points of view. Narrators Kristen Sieh and Daru Oda do an admirable job of bringing the characters to life. I was pulled right in and binged listening to the audiobook. This is more than a thriller. It’s an examination of how life can go bad when long held dreams and beliefs are pulled out from under you. Think Thelma and Louise, but give it a literary vibe. 

How’s the weather in your little corner of the world? We’ve been having lots of sunshine but the wind has been keeping the temps cooler. 

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #bookrecomendation #bookworm #booklover#bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #killerpotential #hannahdeitch #harperaudio 

About the Author

Hannah Deitch is a former SAT tutor with an M.A. in English from UC Irvine, where she studied Marxist theory and contemporary pop culture. She previously worked as an arts magazine editor and holds an M.A. in journalism from USC. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She currently lives in Los Angeles. Killer Potentialis her first novel.

The Splinter Effect

 

Author: Andrew Ludington 

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Year: 2025

If you could time travel, where would you go? Andrew Ludington serves up a fun time travel tale in his debut novel The Splinter Effect. Time traveling archaeologist Rabbit Ward is on a mission to bring back a precious long lost menorah from 6th Century Constantinople. What should be a routine job quickly goes wrong and he must join forces with a mysterious and attractive competitor also looking for the menorah. If Rabbit doesn’t succeed he could lose his job or be stuck in the past for the rest of his life. 

I couldn’t resist a time travel story set in Ancient Rome. This is a fast paced romp filled with lively intrigue. The characters and the setting were interesting. Ludington did an excellent job describing the grandeur and flaws of Constantinople during that time period. I recommend this entertaining and enjoyable book. I’m looking forward to Rabbit’s next adventure. 

#thesplintereffect #andrewludington #minotaurbooks #sciencefiction #timetravel #constantinople #ancientrome #debutbook #2025debut #debutauthor #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary

About the Author

Andrew Ludington writes transportive adventure stories intended to make you forget your commute. He graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in English Literature and lives in Evanston, IL where he moonlights as a technologist for Northwestern University. Splinter Effect is his first novel.

The Ascent

 

Author: Adam Plantinga

Narrators: Charles Halford and Christine Lakin

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing 

Year: 2024

Happy Friday! Any exciting plans for the weekend? 

Kurt is a former hard charging Detroit cop. Grieving the death of his wife, he goes on a road trip for a change of scenery. When he sees a young girl being lured away by a predator, he steps in to help and beats the guy up. Kurt didn’t know the guy was connected to the corrupt local sheriff. Kurt is arrested and charged. Instead of keeping Kurt in the local lockup until his arraignment, the sheriff sends him to a high security prison. Julie, the governor’s daughter, is a grad student on a tour of the prison as part of a class assignment. While at the prison, the security and communications systems go down, releasing all the prisoners. Mayhem ensues. Kurt helps Julie and two state troopers fight to survive an onslaught of the state’s most dangerous convicts as they try to make their way up to the top floor of the prison to call for help. 

This is an over the top, action packed thriller by author Adam Plantinga. Kurt is a rough and tough guy who’s not afraid of a fight and to mete out his own form of justice. He reminded me of Jack Reacher, but bloodier. The pace is nonstop and I enjoyed the narration by Charles Halford and Christine Lakin. This one reads like an action movie on steroids. Is it believable? Nope. Did I like it anyway? I sure did. Will I read the next book in this series? I sure will. 

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram#librarybook #lovemylibrary

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec

#theascent #adamplantinga #grandcentralpublishing #backlistbook 

About the Author

Adam Plantinga is a patrol sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department whose first two nonfiction books— 400 Things Cops Know and Police Craft— have become his calling cards to the world of thrillers. 400 Things was nominated for an Agatha, a Macavity, and was deemed “the new Bible for crime writers” by the Wall Street Journal. Adam’s fiction debut, The Ascent, was published in 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. Hard Town, his second novel, published earlier this month. 

Heartwood

 

Author: Amity Gaige

Narrators: Justine Lupe, Alma Cuervo, Rebecca Lowman, Ali Andre Ali, Cary Hite, Helen Laser

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook. 

I’ve seen this book all over bookstagram and I’m here to say the hype is real. Heartwood by Amity Gaige is the story of a woman who goes missing while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine. When Valerie  doesn’t rendezvous with her husband at particular point, the authorities are notified. Beverly, a veteran Maine State Game Warden, leads the search and rescue. While the search unfolds, Lena, an elderly woman in a retirement home miles from Maine, becomes obsessed with the mystery of the lost hiker. 

I really enjoyed how the author wove together all the different threads into a riveting and emotional story. Valerie’s personality really comes out in her journal entries and in interviews with a fellow hiker she befriended on the trail. I really liked Beverly’s story of making her career in what was once a male only profession. Her dedication and service in the job she loved fueled her search for Valerie. The multiple POV kept the tension steady as the search went on. The mystery of what happened to Valerie kept me listening. I binged listening to this one because was so riveting. The multi cast narrators did a fantastic job of bringing the characters and story to life. I highly recommend Heartwood if you’re looking for a story full of heart with strong female characters. 

Have you ever taking on a physically and mentally demanding goal like hiking the Appalachian Trail? 

#heartwood #amitygaige #simonaudio #mysterybooks #audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec 

#adventurefiction #hiking #appaliciantrail #reader #readwithjenna

About the Author

Amity Gaige is the author of four previous novels, O My Darling, The Folded World, Schroder, and Sea Wife. Sea Wife was a 2020 New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Mark Twain American Voice Award. Schroderwas also a New York TimesNotable Book and a best book of 2013 according to TheWashington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among others, and was shortlisted for UK’s Folio Prize in 2014. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages. In 2018, Amity was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her family and teaches creative writing at Yale. 

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

 

Author: Ron Currie, Jr.

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Year: 2025

Babs Dionne is a very proud Franco American, loving grandma, and ruthless crime boss. She knows everybody and everything that goes on her small town while she controls the drug trade with the help of her oldest friends and older daughter. Her enterprise and her family are threatened when another drug kingpin who wants Babs and her network to work for him sends a ruthless fixer to Babs’s town. It can’t be a coincidence that Babs’s younger daughter goes missing at the same time. 

This is a dark and sometimes darkly humorous book. I liked that the town’s criminal enterprise is run by a bunch of grannies and they can be cold-blooded- especially Babs. I don’t want to give too much away because I think the less you know going in the better. The pace is fast, the town is bleak, the characters are well drawn, and the story is heartbreaking at times. I recommend this one especially if you’re looking for a different kind of thriller/suspense story. Just be aware there are numerous trigger warnings including sexual assault, PTSD, and physical abuse. 

Several characters in this book speak English and French. Can you speak more than one language? 

Sadly I can’t. I took Spanish, Latin, and Greek in high school. Never kept up with it after high school. 

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary #thesavagenobledeathofbabsdionne #putnambooks 

About the Author 

Ron Currie is the author of four novels. He has won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award, the Addison M. Metcalf Award, the Alex Award, and the Pushcart Prize. His books have been translated into fifteen languages, and his short fiction and nonfiction have received recognition in Best American anthologies. As a screenwriter he worked most recently on the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations and has developed projects with AMC Studios, Amblin Television, and ITV America. He lives in Portland, Maine and teaches in the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program.

Class Clown

 

Author: Dave Barry

Narrator: Dave Barry

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Publication date: May 13, 2025

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook. 

Humorist Dave Barry recounts his life & career in his latest book Class Clown. He began his career as a small town newspaper reporter who covered everything from the city council to local flooding. He started writing humorous columns for the paper. He then spent a number of years as a writing consultant teaching corporate business people to be better communicators. He continued to write his humorous takes on whatever captured his attention, eventually landing a job as the humor columnist for the Miami Herald. His column was syndicated in newspapers across the country. He also played in a rock band with Stephen King and other prominent writers. 

Barry is a funny guy with a quirky sense of humor that’s on full display throughout this book. He helped popularize Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) when the two guys who came up with the idea wrote Barry asking to get the word out. He lead his readers on a crusade against telemarketers. This was in the time before caller id and cell phones. He urged his readers to turn the tables on telemarketers by calling the national telemarketers association. The association had to stop answering its phones because of all the unwanted calls. His work as a humorist took him on the campaign trail, the Johnny Carson Show,  and David Letterman. He even won a Pulitzer Prize for his work at the Miami Herald. His life wasn’t all full of laughs though. He recounts his father’s battle with alcoholism and his mother’s depression and eventual suicide. 

I’m old enough to remember reading Barry’s columns in the newspaper when they were syndicated around the country. This was like a trip down memory lane for me. I really enjoyed Barry’s narration. He does a wonderful job. It made the listening experience more satisfying. This was a fun, quick, and entertaining read and celebration of an incredible life & career. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a book to make you laugh. Class Clown comes out May 13 so preorder it or add it your tbr now. 

About the Author

Dave Barry is an author and humorist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated column, which ran in more than 500 newspapers and was the inspiration for the TV show Dave's World. He has also written dozens of bestselling books, most recently Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog. His new novel, Swamp Story, will be published by Simon and Schuster in June of 2023.

Along with Ridley Pearson, Barry wrote the bestselling Starcatchers series of young-adult novels, one of which was adapted as the Tony-award winning Broadway play Peter and the Starcatcher.