Tag: thriller

Book Review | The Talisman Series by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Posted June 15, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Talisman Series by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman—the only thing that can save Jack’s dying mother. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States but also through the wondrous and menacing parallel world of the Territories.

In the Territories, Jack finds another realm, where the air is so sweet and clear a man can smell a radish being pulled from the ground a mile away—and a life can be snuffed out instantly in the continuing struggle between good and evil. Here Jack discovers “Twinners,” reflections of the people he knows on earth—most notably Queen Laura DeLoessian, the Twinner of Jack’s own imperiled mother. As Jack “flips” between worlds, making his way westward toward the redemptive Talisman, a sequence of heart-stopping encounters challenges him at every step.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (see below)

The Reason

For my Stephen King challenge and because the third book in this series is coming out this year!

The Quotes

“Everything goes away, Jack Sawyer, like the moon. Everything comes back, like the moon.”

“You don’t own a thing unless you can give it up, what does it profit a man, it profits him nothing, it profits him zilch, and you don’t learn that in school, you learn it on the road, you learn it from Ferd Janklow, and Wolf, and Richard going head-first into the rocks like a Titan II that didn’t fire off right.”

“A universe of worlds, a dimensional macrocosm of worlds—and in all of them one thing that was always the same; one unifying force that was undeniably good, even if it now happened to be imprisoned in an evil place; the Talisman, axle of all possible worlds.”

“That’s how craziness works. You make connections that aren’t real.”

The Narrator(s)

Frank Muller. He has a kind of inflection at the end of sentences that distracted me at first but I got used to them as I went further into the book and stopped noticing them. Other than that, I loved his narration! His voices and the way he portrayed the characters were amazing!

My Thoughts

These books were written years apart; The Talisman in 1984, Black House in 2001, and finally, Other Worlds Than These only coming out in October 2026 (so it’s not out yet at the time of this writing). I haven’t read many of Straub’s works (I very much intend to!), but everyone knows I’m a fan of King, and I love that he often writes stories where we see the protagonists as children and then later as adults (IT, The Shining and Doctor Sleep, etc.) and we still feel the continuity and consistency of the characters and their growth. This is my first time reading these books in The Talisman series so I’m seeing these characters for the first time. In hindsight, maybe I should’ve waited until the final book came out but I got caught up in the excitement and I wanted to be ready for it.

Book 1 – The Talisman
For the reading challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #9: Featuring a natural disaster)

As usual, the best part about King’s books is his characters. Meeting Jack Sawyer for the first time as a 12-year old, I love how realistic it feels to have a boy his age facing all the difficult things that happen, the way he handles them, and how he had to step up and grow up. I feel so much for Jack having to do difficult things but I also believe in the resilience and the adaptability of children his age. They learn fast, they adapt to new realities more easily, they bounce back and try again, and I loved seeing Jack do all of those things.

I also love the other characters; Wolf, Speedy, and even Richard Sloat. Wolf is the purest and best person in the world and if you’ve read the book, you won’t wonder why he has my heart. Richard was difficult to like at first but he grew on me, and maybe claiming love for him is a little too strong but I did like him in the end.

This book was such a journey. I love how King’s books transcend genres; it’s portal fantasy, which I love, but it’s also horror, epic fantasy, thriller, adventure. He just tells the stories and disregards categorizing them – as we all should. I also want to acknowledge Straub as co-writer, I don’t mean to ignore his contribution to the book, I’m just not familiar enough with his works and have no frame of reference to comment upon who he is as a writer in relation to this book. I mean to remedy that as soon as possible! I can definitely see the difference in voice with this book as compared with other King books though, and I’m attributing that to Straub’s contribution. I’m looking forward to more of this series, and more from both these authors!

Book 2 – Black House
For the reading challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #35: Character with a secret identity)

So many years have gone by since we first saw Jack Sawyer as a 12-year-old. He’s now 31 years old and a retired cop; he’s able to retire young because he’s got money from his family. He moves to a new place which is of course, in a crisis, from a serial child murderer, and is asked to come back from retirement to help catch the murderer. He resists but the killings are related to his childhood adventure and he is uniquely qualified to fix it.

I love seeing him as an adult and still recognizing the same spirit in him that we saw in the first book. Again, the characters are the best thing about this book, and one of the things I love most is how the characters are portrayed; now that Jack is an adult and the victims are children, we initially see the children as helpless and vulnerable (which is still true in a case such as this!), but we are later reminded by a 10-year old Tyler that children are also smart, resilient, and powerful. I just love that. Obviously, I don’t like that any child was hurt by a serial killer or put in any dangerous situation, but I love that King and Straub write Tyler as having his own agency and power and not just as a helpless victim.

The other characters are amazing too, no surprise there; Beezer, Doc, Dale, Judy/Sophie, and my darling Henry. I love them all. If I had read this series before knowing the third was coming out, I’d have been satisfied with the ending but definitely filling in the blanks with my own ideas of what happens next. Now I’m just anxiously waiting for the next book so I can have some questions answered.

As of this writing, I have not read The Dark Tower series but I’ve seen references to it on Stephen King’s various fan sites, and I’m so excited to see that this story has some connections to The Dark Tower series. I can’t wait to read TDT series next and see what all the hype is about!

Book 3 – Other Worlds Than These
For the reading challenge(s):
TBD

Coming in October 2026!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this series? Would you read this series? Did you like the books or do you think you would like them?

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Book Review | The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

Posted May 25, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.

The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.

Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers.

Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.

Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #7: Title starts with the letter “P”)

The Reason

I was looking for books starting with the letter “P” for the prompt above and had been curious about Jeneva Rose for a while. This one was immediately available on Libby so I decided to try it.

The Quotes

“Even when you have nothing left in your life, hope is the one thing that can never be taken away.”

“That’s the thing about relationships, you never really know what’s going on in them, unless you’re a part of them.”

“Two women trying to make it in a man’s world. We work twice as hard as our male counterparts to make it just an inch ahead of them.”

“I’ve learned that everyone has skeletons in their closet and that the people who appear to be good are usually the worst of them all.”

The Narrator(s)

Andrew Eiden. Mozhan Navabi. Both the narrators were fine.

My Thoughts

The first thing I’d note is that this is not a legal thriller. I thought we’d see more courtroom scenes based on the book’s description but there’s almost none, which is fine. I hoped for a better story though, because from the beginning I felt like there was a big plot hole that wouldn’t fly in real life, but I let it go for the sake of suspension of belief. When it turned out to be the actual plot point of the story though… I don’t know, it felt almost comical.

Spoiler
The wife representing her husband in a murder case where his mistress is the victim; as they were investigating possibilities, it seemed obvious to me that the wife should be a suspect as well – it’s kind of a huge motive. Early on in the book, I felt like the murderer could easily be the wife and it would’ve been a huge conflict of interest for her to defend her husband, as she could’ve just let him take the fall for the murder. It was so ridiculously obvious that I was sure the story wouldn’t go that way, but it did!

I originally chose to suspend belief because if this happened in real life, there would be ethical issues with wife representing husband in the first place, and then if he lost, he could’ve appealed by stating bad representation because of the conflict of interest. It just never would’ve worked and I’m mad the author did this to her readers!

The characters were all so unlikeable too, I wanted to like Sarah but I didn’t connect to her at all. Her husband, Adam, was an idiot through and through. The writing itself wasn’t bad though and although I’m not happy with this book, I may consider giving the author’s books another chance some time down the road.

My Rating

⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

Posted May 22, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into – Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls – nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that this stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner named Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #43: A Goodreads recommendation for you)

The Reason

It was already on my TBR and I was looking for a book that fit the above prompt, and this book turned up in my Goodreads recommendations!

The Quotes

“Your biggest enemy is always the person you see in the mirror.”

“People are grief vampires. They just want to suck on your sorrow, feed on your fear, and feast on your failures. It makes them feel better about themselves.”

“Some people love a good party; personally, I prefer a good book.”

“Accepting that things change and learning to navigate wrong turns is the secret to a happy life.”

The Narrator(s)

Bel Powley. Henry Rowley. Richard Armitage. It was a great cast and I enjoyed all of the narration.

My Thoughts

I’m not sure where to start with this book. I had very high hopes for it because it has been reviewed so highly and it started so well. It really devolved at the end, however, to the point where I wondered if I had been reading a completely different story and missed important details or imagined the whole first half of the book.

I get the concept of the unreliable narrator and that mystery fiction tend to hide the true story from us, but the way this story is presented and told is just sloppy, inconsistent, and undeveloped. The characters blatantly gaslight the reader in the weirdest ways and it makes me wonder what exactly are we reading on the page? Are we reading the character’s internal thoughts on the page? Are we reading their diaries? Are they writing down false information to mislead us? Who exactly is their audience? Because it doesn’t make sense for them to say the things they say throughout the whole book when we finally get to the reveals.

It’s just plot hole after plot hole after plot hole, and I have no idea what the story is trying to achieve. I don’t get it and I’m very disappointed.

My Rating

⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Posted May 12, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #38: Domestic fiction)

The Reason

The hype. I’m sorry, but the hype got me! I’m seeing this book everywhere, and everything people are saying about it had gotten me so intrigued!

The Quotes

“The way some women so willingly compromised every ounce of themselves in the name of building a life for themselves that they didn’t enjoy.”

“All men wanted to become legends. It was so embarrassing.”

“The goal of an influencer is not to be lovable, and it is not to be unbearable. The goal is to be both at once. In other words: addicting.”

“And please give my husband a spine. I’m tired of him needing to borrow mine.”

My Thoughts

This book has gotten me so confused I don’t know if I loved it or hated it. I don’t know what to feel about the MC, Natalie, because she’s completely unrelatable for me and sort of encompasses everything in a person I dislike – she’s entitled, inconsiderate, smug, judgmental, delusional… But at the same time, I can’t help but feel a bit of compassion for her. How scared must you be inside, to be this kind of person outside.

To be fair, she’s had people fail her as well. Her mom, her husband, her in-laws, but she could’ve made a dozen different choices at different points in her life and she just kept choosing to pretend everything was all good on the outside. And at the end of it all, none of it excuses the person she chose to be.

This book was an absolutely fascinating character study. I don’t like Natalie, I don’t relate to her, I don’t understand her, I don’t want to know her, I can’t excuse any of the things she said, or did, or believe, but I do feel sorry for her and I wonder about what goes on inside her head and why. This book doesn’t give me any of those answers and I still don’t know if I liked it, but I do think it’s very well-written and well worth the read.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Posted April 27, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

From Chuck Tingle, author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus, comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he’s pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―”for the algorithm”―Misha discovers that it’s not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what’s right―before it’s too late.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)

The Reason

A bookclub friend recommended this book and author very highly, and I finally got around to reading it!

The Quotes

“On a long enough timeline, endings are inevitable. Tragedy is inevitable. Fortunately, so is joy.”

“It’s not just about telling queer stories… It’s about telling all kinds of queer stories. Yes, there can be tragedy and death and darkness. There’s an important place for that. But don’t forget about queer beauty and queer catharsis and queer joy. Every gay character doesn’t need to die in the first scene, or in a third act blaze of glory to save everyone else. Support queer heroes, not just on screen, but off screen, too.”

“This is how scary stories work, how horror works. We’re all still here, safe and alive. We’ve had that primal rush and exercised those muscles to remind us death is eventually coming for everyone, but not today.”

The Narrator(s)

André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, Georgia Bird, Liz Kerin, Mara Wilson, Mark Oshiro, Sarah Gailey, Stephen Graham Jones, T. Kingfisher, TJ Klune. I loved the narration and it all felt very seamless.

My Thoughts

I pretty much went into this blind and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was! It came highly recommended but I had no idea what to expect because the author has written several books with risque titles and while I was open to trying new things, I was also prepared for maybe some NSFW content within the story.

It turned out to be quite an interesting sci-fi futuristic horror story, and I absolutely loved how creative it was! I also love the commentaries about how queer characters should be represented more without needing queerness to be a part of their identity in the stories, and the one about why we love horror stories and how they often serve as cautionary tales to make sense of why certain bad things happen.

It was all very thoughtful and well-written, humorous and yet also thrilling. I got really anxious near the end. There was also a reference to Camp Damascus, another book written by the author which I haven’t read but is on my TBR. He’s got a couple of other books with “normal” titles I’d like to read, but if I’m feeling brave enough I might try his risque titles one day.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

Posted February 17, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

A thrilling page-turner of sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)

The Reason

I borrowed a bunch of Hepworth’s books after loving the last one I read; The Good Sister.

The Quotes

“Even after all these years, yearning for the love and attention of someone who couldn’t give it to her was much more comfortable than actually receiving it.”

“Some people are so busy chasing perfection they don’t appreciate the wonders right in front of them”

“When cruelty becomes familiar in your tender, adolescent years, of course you start to become comfortable with it. You believe you deserve it. But you don’t.”

“When it came to vengeance, Miss Fairchild preferred to play the long game.”

The Narrator(s)

Jessica Clarke. I enjoyed her narration more than Barrie Kreinik’s for The Good Sister.

My Thoughts

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Good Sister but I thought it was pretty good too. I’m discovering that I often find the author’s stories predictable but I still really like their storytelling style and I’m happy to read more. It’s the psychological horror that gets me; the author writes those emotional scenes so well and I find myself feeling all the feelings. This book features motherhood, foster children, and the complicated issues that come with that. I loved the story overall, but I have to say that I found the last chapter unnecessary and unrealistic. It was a twist for shock factor but it doesn’t make sense to the story, in my opinion, and it not only weakens the shock factor but the whole psychological horror aspect. It was a great story up to that point.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Never Flinch by Stephen King

Posted February 17, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Never Flinch by Stephen King

From master storyteller Stephen King comes an extraordinary new novel with intertwining storylines—one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.

Thrilling, wildly fun, and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #30: Author related to another author)

The Reason

I’m reading all of King’s books and Holly Gibney is one of my favorite characters.

The Quotes

“He’s dangerous because he thinks he’s sane.” She pauses. “To belabor something else that’s obvious, he’s not.”

“The bastards don’t get to win.”

“It’s not courage she lacks, it’s the fundamental self-worth necessary to call someone out on their hurtful behavior.”

“…because deeply religious people in every sect or faith can always find justification for what they want to do in one holy book or another.”

The Narrator(s)

Jessie Mueller, with an afterword read by Stephen King. Seriously, Mueller is damn good, but even more so, she can sing! There are parts in the book where music and performance comes in, and Mueller delivers so well I am in awe.

My Thoughts

I know many King fans are lukewarm about Holly but I love her and can’t get enough of her. This book’s story isn’t the best compared to the previous Holly stories, but I still love it because of Holly and her friends. I’m glad to see Jerome, Barbara, and Izzy again, and I love seeing how they have all grown in so many different ways. I also fell in love with Corrie as a character and I’m hoping we’ll see her again in future books. There was some mention of the possibility of Izzy joining Holly as a PI, and honestly, I’m so excited about the prospect of that as well as seeing more of Corrie in future books. I don’t care what others say, this book made me want more Holly books!

The story itself is good, but it’s tough to compare King’s books because he’s got so many amazing books. I think my biggest complaint is that there weren’t enough supernatural elements here although I wonder if that’s the point. I’ve always loved that while King writes about supernatural monsters, he also often makes a point that some of the worst monsters are the real life ones. To be fair though, despite not having enough supernatural elements, I did enjoy the book very much. I had about three hours left of the book just before bed and it got so thrilling I couldn’t sleep and ended up staying up to finish it, so I’d call that a win.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

Posted February 13, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth, the author of The Mother-In-Law delivers a knock-out of a novel about the lies that bind two sisters in The Good Sister.

There’s only been one time that Rose couldn’t stop me from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be…dangerous.

When Rose discovers that she cannot get pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.

Fern’s mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of what families keep hidden.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #19: A nosy neighbor character)

The Reason

I have enjoyed Sally Hepworth’s books in the past and this one sounded good.

The Quotes

“The library belongs to everyone. The library, Janet used to say, is one of only a few places in the world that one doesn’t need to believe anything or buy anything to come inside.”

“I’d always found there was something agreeable about people who liked dogs and something untrustworthy about those who didn’t.”

“If it were up to me, every child would have a year in the library before they went to school.”

“Sisterly relationships are so strange in this way. The way I can be mad at Rose but still want to please her. Be terrified of her and also want to run to her. Hate her and love her, both at the same time. Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best.”

The Narrator(s)

Barrie Kreinik. She was overall good, but there were times when her voices for each character was inconsistent and I wasn’t sure who was talking.

My Thoughts

This is one of the best mystery thrillers I’ve read in a while. I was so incredibly invested in the story and it really felt like I had my heart in my throat for most of the second half of the book. The first half was also very interesting because Fern’s POV read like a wholesome romance, while Rose’s POV was so sad and difficult to read at times.

I did figure out early on what was happening, but it didn’t ruin the story for me because the journey from beginning to the end was just so good. These are some of the most interesting characters I’ve come across and I especially love Wally/Rocco’s character. To be clear, some of these characters aren’t necessarily good people and I do question some of their actions, but they are so interesting to read about and get to know as we move through the book.

It’s early in the year and I already feel like this may be one of my favorite books this year. I would be very happy to be proven wrong because that only means that I’ll have many more great books to look forward to, but this one was just incredible.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

Posted January 22, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.

But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #25: Includes a red herring)

The Reason

This book caught my attention last year but I didn’t get around to reading it. I saw that the author has a new book coming out this year, so I thought I should probably read this one first.

The Quotes

“I hope you never have to watch the one person you love most in the world, the person who loves you just as fiercely in return, lose that love, day by day, bit by bit, a steady draining away until there’s nothing left. Until they’re just a person who sleeps inches from you at night, and eats meals across a table from you, and reads books at your side, even smiles at you or laughs with you, but whose heart has shut you out forever.”

“There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever.”

“The truth isn’t some finite thing, it’s what we all choose to believe.”

“I had just turned forty, an interesting point in a woman’s life, the age at which she finally begins to feel like she might have finally become the person she was meant to be.”

The Narrator(s)

Dan Bittner. Eliza Foss. John Pirhalla. Patti Murin. They all did a very good job. The storytelling felt seamless and very natural. I loved it.

My Thoughts

The story itself was pretty good, but I think what I loved most about it was the storytelling style. I love the way things were revealed, the way the twists were doled out, the way we are able to guess at some things and be surprised at others. The funny thing is I’m usually a character-driven reader, but I don’t think I like any of the characters in the story very much at all. However, I did find them all very interesting, and I love hating some of them. I was very much invested in each of their individual stories as well as their interlocking stories, and even though I found Cam boring and Jules suspicious, I was still rooting for them somehow. I enjoyed this story very much and I’m definitely looking forward to other books by the author.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Falling by T.J. Newman

Posted December 15, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Falling by T.J. Newman

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
N/A

The Reason

I love thrillers and I was really excited about the premise and the fact that the author used to be a flight attendant.

The Quotes

“You don’t think everyone actually lives, do you? Most people just exist and roam around. It’s a choice, to actually live.”

“Accept the given circumstances and deal with what you can control. Don’t waste time on what you can’t.”

“Everyone dies. No one escapes it. It’s the only fair thing in the world. Sometimes you’re young, sometimes you’re old, sometimes you deserve it, sometimes you don’t.”

The Narrator(s)

Steven Weber. He was absolutely fine.

My Thoughts

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It really could’ve been a great story but there were several issues with it that I couldn’t ignore. I won’t speak to the accuracy of flight and crew details because I’m obviously not an expert on these things, but the biggest thing for me is that the plot device just didn’t work. I’m usually not a stickler for details and as a reader, I want to enjoy the story so I try not to be nitpicky, and try my best to suspend belief, but the one thing that I need is for the characters and their motivations to make sense. I’m a character-driven reader; I don’t need to like the characters, but I need them to make sense and I need them to be interesting.

The plot was so weak because the bad guys’ motivations didn’t make sense at all. They had no real plan, no rhyme or reason to their actions, there was no true conviction, and their actions contradicted their words and what they said were important to them.

What I love about thrillers are the feelings of high stakes and being on the edge of my seat, but I couldn’t enjoy this one because I was just like, wtf are they doing?, why are they doing this when they said they wanted that?, and finally, who cares? It didn’t feel important to me, the characters didn’t feel real, the scenario didn’t feel real, I couldn’t take it seriously.

My Rating

⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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