Buyer Beware

 

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Two women. One house. A whole lot of reasons to never trust a real estate listing again.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard is exactly the kind of layered thriller I can’t stop pushing on people. You’ve got Ellie, moving into 1 Delaney Row with one suitcase and a past she’s desperate to keep buried, except someone wants her out of that house fast, and that just screams something’s off. 

Then there’s Erin, a driven student with dreams of a virology career abroad until Jason enters the picture. And Hannah, an entrepreneur who built her business from nothing and is genuinely happy on her own terms, until she meets Jason too. 

You know these threads are heading somewhere. Howard just makes you wait for it, cranking the tension a little more with every chapter. When it all clicks into place your jaw will be on the floor. 

This is a full binge read. Atmospheric, unsettling, that creeping sense that the house is either haunted, cursed, or Ellie’s just losing it. I really couldn't tell which for most of the book. The multiple POVs and shifting timelines could’ve felt like a lot, but they kept me locked in trying to piece together where it was all going. 

Narrator Ayoola Smart brings each woman to life so distinctly you never lose track of whose head you’re in.

Underneath the twists, this one’s really about female rage, and how some men have a way of making women shrink themselves and hand over their own dreams without even realizing it’s happening.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out today. Thank you to Simon Audio for the gifted early listen.

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of Killer Vibes. A directionless stoner inherits a house in a swanky neighborhood from an uncle her barely knew and quickly finds himself in a mess of trouble.

About the Author

Catherine Ryan Howard is an award-winning, #1 bestselling thriller writer from Cork, Ireland. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the UK Crime Writers Association John Creasey/New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Awards, and the An Post Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. Her novels have been included in The New York Times Best Thrillers of the Year, The Washington Post’s Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the Year, and The Sunday Times (London)’s Best Thrillers of the Year. She is published in twenty languages, and a number of her titles have been optioned for the screen. Follow Catherine on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

Keep Them Close

 

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Keep Them Close by David Ellis was one of my most anticipated books of the summer, and it delivered. I started with the ebook, then my Libby hold for the audio came in, and I ended up listening to about 75% of it. No regrets. Total binge.

Two siblings. One murder. A whole lot of secrets neither of them wants dug up. Allison is a high-powered defense attorney who has had it with her cheating husband, Finley. Her brother Luke is a good guy who has landed himself in real legal trouble. When Finley turns up dead, Detective Louise starts pulling threads, and the closer she gets, the more the family’s buried history threatens to come apart. Told across three points of view with timeline shifts, this one asks you to pay attention, and it rewards you for it.

Ellis’s writing is as sharp as ever and his plotting is diabolical. So many twists and turns, but he weaves every thread together without a single loose end. Masterful storytelling, plain and simple.

The full cast narration is a huge part of why the audio works so well. Kelli Tager as Allison, Sean Patrick Hopkins as Luke, and Robin McAlpine as Louise are all fantastic, and the distinct voices make the complex plot so much easier to track. Bonus points to whoever decided to note which character each narrator voiced up front. Small touch, big help.

Fast paced, complex characters, twisty, great writing, and narration that nails it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ all the way. Do not miss this one. Out now.

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of Ellis's book The Best Lies.

About the Author

David Ellis is a judge and a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Edgar Award–winning author of twelve novels of crime fiction, including Look Closer, as well as ten books coauthored with James Patterson. He has served as a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court since 2014. Ellis lives outside Chicago with his wife and three children. 

Objects in Lakes

 

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A body in the lake on the Fourth of July. Again. 

Seven years ago, Olive and Richie’s four-year-old daughter drowned during their neighborhood’s big Fourth of July party on Duck Lake, Michigan. Olive has spent every day since numb with grief and pills while her oncologist husband thrives in the spotlight. Now it’s the Fourth of July again, and another body comes out of the lake. This time it’s a neighbor, a former NFL star with demons of his own. And suddenly Olive can’t stop asking questions about the night her daughter died.

My honest take as a retired librarian who has read a LOT of these: this is a solid debut. Entertaining, well paced, twisty, with a satisfying ending. Olive is a complex lead, and the backstories in this picture perfect neighborhood kept me interested. Did it break new ground? No. There were a couple of slow spots, and Richie is your standard issue pompous doctor.  But for a debut? Impressive. I’ll be watching what Ramas does next.

The dual narration by Rob Brinkman and Megan Tusing really made this one pop on audio. If you’re deciding between formats, go audio.

This one perfect for readers who love psychological thrillers, domestic suspense, and family drama. Fans of Shari Lapena and Stacy Willingham, this is one you should check out. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted early listen. Objects in Lakes by Rachael Ramas is out July 21. Grab a copy on Bookshop.org and support an indie store while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of Before I Go to Sleep.

About the Author

Rachael Ramas is an American author, producer, and Michigan native who writes gripping thrillers rooted in emotional truth and moral complexity. A member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers, she co-owns a law firm with her husband in Boca Raton, Florida, where the legal world offers endless story inspiration. Living with a rare autoimmune disease and partial hearing loss, Ramas advocates for authentic disability representation in literature. Objects in Lakes is her debut novel. Follow Rachael on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her work.

Don't Look Away

 

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This is a pure popcorn thriller, and sometimes that’s exactly what I’m in the mood for.

Leslie Woodhouse, a former defense attorney, is living a quiet life as Florida retiree. She and her husband Robert have a condo on the beach and are enjoying their time together. Their lives are shattered when Robert is arrested and accused of being the Gulf Coast Killer, the man who’s been terrorizing the coast for months. She’s certain it’s a mistake, so she comes out of retirement to defend him herself. Problem is, his DNA was at one of the crime scenes.

Leslie carries this whole book. She’s smart, vivacious, down to earth, exactly the woman you’d want on your side of a courtroom. Robert, I’ll be honest, bored me a little. But the secrets and lies stacking up between him, Leslie, and his son Weston kept me locked in. The ending got a touch more complicated than it needed to be, but it still landed somewhere satisfying.

I did this one on audio and the full cast made it. Nancy Linari, Frederick Sanders, and Gary Tiedemann voice the three POV characters, and those three distinct voices really made the story pop.

Domestic suspense, serial killer, and legal thriller all rolled into one. Perfect for the pool or the beach bag. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Simon Audio for the gifted listen. Don't Look Away is out now. 

grab a copy on Bookshop.org and support an indie store while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you may be interested in Two Kinds of Stranger, a legal thriller by Steve Cavanagh.

About the Author

Daniel Kenitz is the author of The Perfect Home and several short stories, including the Pushcart Prize–nominated “A Hand to the Plow” (2022, Red Rock Review). He lives in southeastern Wisconsin within jogging distance of dairy cows. Don’t Look Away is his second novel. Follow Daniel on Instagram and visit his website for more news and information about his books.

Hot Girl Murder Club

 

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There is so much going on in Hot Girl Murder Club that I sometimes needed a flow chart to keep it straight.

Scout and Isabel have been best friends since childhood, and they move to Hollywood together to chase acting careers. Scout's younger sister Georgia follows them out to California for college. When Georgia's socially awkward classmate, the creepy son of a rich guy, develops a crush on her and invites the girls to his father's party, it should be the night of their lives. Instead Georgia is killed there. Ten years later Scout is still clawing through the industry looking for justice, collecting a network of ambitious women along the way. Then a string of targeted murders hits LA and every arrow points at Scout, and the detective on her case is carrying some tragedy of her own that ties right into it.

There is a lot to love here. Winstead's writing is sharp and the twists come out of nowhere. I was all in for the story of rich powerful men doing terrible things and women who were done waiting around for justice. Scout and her girl gang looking out for other women in need? Yes. Grey, the relentless LAPD detective? Loved her.

Here is where it lost me a little. Once Luca and her agenda entered the picture, the whole thing started to feel bloated. Winstead pulls it all together, but the heart of the story got convoluted and Grey basically vanishes when the plot shifts. Sometimes less really is more.

Brittany Pressley does a phenomenal job with the narration, but this is a book crying out for a full cast. Another voice or two would have made the dual timeline and the parade of characters so much easier to follow.

Bingeable, entertaining, and it has real things to say about grief, abuse, female rage, and vigilante justice. I just wish the message had not gotten a little lost in all that plot. 3.5⭐ rounded up to 4.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted early listen. Hot Girl Murder Club is out now. Grab a copy on Bookshop.org and support an indie store while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of Ashley's book This Book Will Bury Me.

About the Author

Ashley Winstead is the national bestselling author of many beloved thrillers, including This Book Will Bury Me, The Last Housewife, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and Midnight Is the Darkest Hour. In addition to being an acclaimed thriller writer, Ashley is also the author of two romantic comedies, Fool Me Once and The Boyfriend Candidate, with more on the way. Her novels have been optioned for television; chosen as Book of the Month, Best of Amazon, LibraryReads, Indie Next, Apple Books, and Lone Star picks; and received attention from major outlets, from The New York Times to The Washington Post. Follow Ashley on Instagram. Find more news and information about Ashley's books at her website.

How the Penguins Saved Veronica

 

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I showed up to book club as a full penguin. Everyone else wore black and white and called it a day.

That felt fitting for this one, because How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior is all about actually showing up for something.

Veronica McCreedy is 85, rich, and cranky enough to clear a room. She’s estranged from everyone, so when a penguin documentary catches her eye, she decides the Antarctic research team studying them should inherit her fortune. But first she has to see the penguins herself, which means flying to Antarctica against everyone’s advice and parking herself at a research station where three scientists absolutely do not want to babysit her. She also goes looking for living family and turns up Patrick, a directionless grandson she does not click with even a little.

Then she talks the team into rescuing an orphaned chick, and the whole thing cracks open. Veronica finally has something to love, and her friendship with Terry, one of the scientists, gives her somewhere to put all that armor down.

Here’s what got the whole book club: Veronica is not likable for a good chunk of this book. But once you learn where the hardness came from, losing her parents in the Blitz, losing a child, decades of nobody, you stop wanting to shake her and start rooting for her. That’s hard to pull off and Prior does it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me and a unanimous yes from the group. Bring tissues for the backstory.

How the Penguins Save Veronica is out now. Grab a copy on Bookshop.com and support an indie store while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you may be interested in another cantankerous old woman, Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth.

About the Author

Hazel Prior lives on Exmoor with her husband and a huge ginger cat. As well as writing, she works as a freelance harpist. Hazel is the author of Ellie and the Harp-Maker, the #1 ebook and audiobook bestseller Away with the Penguins and its follow-up, Call of the Penguins. Life and Otter Miracles is her fourth novel.

Follow Hazel on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

The Forest Becomes Her

 

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This book made me want to walk outside and put my hands in the dirt.

The Forest Becomes Her by Julie Carrick Dalton follows three women in Concord, Massachusetts after a centuries-old forest gets clear-cut to make room for a development of eco-friendly homes. The irony is lost on the developers. One massive oak is left standing alone, and that tree is what pulls these three women into each other's lives.

Polly is a grieving teenager who scattered her mother's ashes at the old oak, a place the two of them loved. Stella is the real estate agent selling the new homes, lonely after losing her best friend, Polly's mom. Hazel is Stella's neighbor, trying to make sense of a devastating loss, finding her only comfort in the soil of her backyard. Together they set out to save the tree, and they find friendship, community, and a way through their grief.

I loved all three women, but Polly especially. She's smart, shy, observant, and kind. She's carrying two kinds of grief at once, for her mother and for the forest, and she starts out alone but slowly finds her voice and her people. Dalton's writing is poignant without ever tipping into saccharine. You feel the weight these women are carrying, but the book never tries to manipulate you into feeling it. The magical realism is woven in so gradually it never feels forced, and the idea of finding solace in nature shows up in ways I won't spoil here.

Atmospheric, engrossing, and full of heart. The right reader for this is anyone who loves found family, magical realism, women's fiction, or stories about our connection to the natural world. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Megan Beatie Communications and St. Martin's Press for the gifted ARC. The Forest Becomes Her is out July 14. Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie store while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might like Little Wild by Laura Evans.

About the Author

As a journalist, Julie Carrick Dalton has published more than a thousand articles in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, Orion Magazine, Electric Literature, and other publications. A former beekeeper and organic farmer, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of writing fiction in the age of climate crisis and is a member of the teaching faculty at Drexel University’s MFA Program. When she isn’t reading, writing, or teaching, you can probably find her skiing, swimming, kayaking, working in her garden, or trying to keep track of her four children and two dogs.

Follow Julie on Instagram and visit her website for news and information about her books.

Lydia Cooper Is a Lie

 

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One photo. That’s all it took to turn Lydia Cooper’s quiet life with her dad into a full-on run for survival.

Lydia’s dad works in cybersecurity, so he knows exactly what the internet can do to a person. No social media, heavy parental controls, the whole lockdown. Lydia thinks he’s just being the most overprotective dad on the planet. So when she gets left out of yet another group chat and misses movie night at her crush’s house, she’s had enough. She figures out his password, makes the account everyone at school is on, and finally starts to feel like she belongs. Then an innocent group photo she’s tagged in changes everything, and suddenly she and her dad are running for their lives from people she didn’t know existed.  

Turns out her whole history is built on secrets, and she’s not even sure who she really is.

Lydia Cooper Is a Lie is smart, fast, and packed with twists. What I loved most is that Meaghan McIsaac writes Lydia as an actual kid. No eye-rolling sarcasm, no 13-going-on-30 attitude, just an earnest girl who wants to fit in, which makes you root for her hard when things go sideways. 

Jensen Olaya’s narration is a big part of why it works. Her voice sounds young, and she nails all the swirl of nerves and confusion Lydia’s feeling. It’s the everyday middle school stuff, fitting in, first crushes, the pull of social media, dropped into a movie-style thriller, and the combo really works. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Quick note for parents: this gives your middle grade reader a genuine thriller without anything beyond a PG-13 rating.

 

Thank you to Simon Audio for the gifted early listen. Lydia Copper Is a Lie is out tomorrow. Grab a copy on Bookshop.org and help an indie store while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might also be interested in Julie A. Swanson's book North of Tomboy.

About the Author

Meaghan McIsaac is the author of several books for young readers, including Lydia Cooper Is a Lie, Cheat Code, Movers, and The Bear House. She has an MA in writing for children from the University of Winchester and is also an illustrator for picture books and graphic novels. 

Follow Meaghan on Instagram and find more news and information about her books at her website.

The Neighbors Are Watching

 

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If you love rich people behaving badly in a picture-perfect suburb, Aggie Blum Thompson is your author. The Neighbors Are Watching is set in Eastbrook, Bethesda, one of those leafy DC-area neighborhoods that looks flawless on the surface and is absolutely rotten underneath.

Caren blacks out shortly after leaving a graduation party and wakes up with a head wound near the house where a nanny was murdered a year ago. She thinks she was drugged. Her husband and the police aren't so sure. When she teams up with Finn, a new neighbor desperate to solve his best friend's murder, the two start pulling at threads that the whole neighborhood wants left alone.

This one has multiple POVs, a dual timeline, gaslighting, unreliable narrators, and characters making the worst possible decisions at every turn. It's a lot. And it works. The dual timeline was a smart structural choice; it let Thompson weave in the backstory of the original murder without it ever feeling like a detour.

The only two characters in this book NOT actively scheming or covering something up are Finn and his sassy landlord, which tells you everything you need to know. Oh, and Finn is a librarian. So he was automatically my favorite. 😄 There's also a diverse cast and solid LGBTQ+ representation woven throughout.

Narrator Alex Picard handles a large, chaotic cast with real skill. I never once lost track of who was who, which is genuinely impressive given how many people are up to no good here.

My only quibble: the big reveal of who the killer was fell a little flat for me. Not a dealbreaker, but I wanted more of a gut punch at the end.

Still, if you need a perfect pool or beach listen this summer, this is your book. It's entertaining, twisty, and I wanted to yell at Caren to run from the toxic bougie neighborhood the entire time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Thank you Macmillan Audio for the early listen! The Neighbors Are Watching by Aggie Blum Thompson is out June 30. Grab a copy on Bookshop.org and help an indie store while you're at it.

If you liked this review, you might be interested in The Dead Girls Book Club by Zia Rayyan.

About the Author

Before turning to fiction, Aggie Blum Thompson covered real-life crime as a newspaper reporter for a number of papers, including The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. Aggie is a member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives with her family in the suburbs of Washington, DC.

Follow Aggie on Instagram or visit her website to keep up with news and information about her books.