Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II”

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Book: “Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II: An Indigenous Horror Anthology” by Shane Hawk (Ed.) & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Vintage, August 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC26

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: They’re baaaaaaaaaack!

As any savvy horror fan the monster never truly dies. The team that brought you the bestselling dark fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night has risen, hungry, from the grave to summon more dark delicacies for your delectation. In these twenty-one brand-new, groundbreaking, gruesome stories—authored by both established and newly unearthed Indigenous talent—the contributors are fully embracing both supernatural horrors and the everyday horror of living under colonialist rule.  

Featuring stories of unspeakable yet satisfying terror, from twisted psychological tales to gore-filled monster hunts, this new selection of sinister stories will sate your darkest appetites and leave you slavering for more. Never Whistle at Night, Part Back for Blood is a further celebration of Indigenous survival and the enduring tradition of transforming adversity into art.

Review: Thank you to Vintage for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC26!

Before I go to ALAAC every year I make a list of books that I hope to find there. I never get my hopes up for any of them, because I know that access is limited (and I’m never upset with the selection of ARCs that the publishers provide), but I do have a few I really cross my fingers for. One of those sought after titles this past year was “Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night II: An Indigenous Horror Anthology”, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore Van Alst Jr., because I so enjoyed the first collection and wanted to see which Indigenous voices were going to provide tales of terror this time around. And the hooting and hollering I did when I did see it and did get it was pretty substantial. I had such high hopes for this new collection, and I’m thrilled to report that it was just as grand as I had hoped it would be!!

As I always do for short story collections, I will review my three favorite stories and then the entire series as a whole.

“Party at the Alvarez Ranch” by Mat RudeWalker: It is probably no shock that one of my favorite stories in this collection involved the folklore of a ravenous monster that could be an urban legend, but could also be a true threat in the woods. Two teenagers are attending a party when they stumble upon a lofa, a large beast that eats the flesh of those who are unfortunate enough to encounter it. This one is a pulse pounding down and dirty monster tale, and I really enjoyed the build up, the lore, and then the way it all settles out, as creepy and nasty it was.

“We Don’t Talk About It” by Alina Pete: I think this was my favorite story in the collection, as while it definitely has some scary as hell monster stuff it also has a heartbreaking examination of addiction and denial/familial rejection after being burnt out by a loved one being an addict. A woman returns home one night to find her brother, having left rehab early and asking for help even though she and the rest of the family have tried to create distance after years of anguish. But it becomes clear that her ‘brother’ is actually something else, a being that feeds and feeds on despair and has come to take her as well. I found this one incredibly emotional as well as scary, as Pete brings in mythology about “That One” and creates a devastating tale about how addiction can tear families apart.

“The Corpse Room” by Debra Magpie Earling: This is probably one of the darkest, if not THE darkest, stories in the collection, but that’s no shocker given that it is set in a Catholic boarding school where Indigenous children are abused, tortured, and killed. Teenage girls at a boarding school endure horrific abuses at the hands of the nuns and a new priest, and all fear being sent to the ‘corpse room’ where girls enter but never come out. After one girl goes in, the others are desperate to find out what happened to her. This one made my heart ache on a whole other level, and Earling doesn’t mince words when describing the atrocities perpetrated against children (and babies too) by the Church. It also makes it one of the more cathartic stories in the collection, but it’s just brutal and devastating.

But honestly, it was SO HARD to narrow it down to three, because there were so many FANTASTIC stories in this anthology. I think with the exception of one or two I genuinely enjoyed pretty much all of them (and even the ones that didn’t work for me were more about genre or stylistic choices than anything else). The genres have a large range, and many of the stories not only had some serious scares, but also a poignancy and a reflection of societal issues facing Indigenous people (as well as larger crises, like climate change, that are coming for us all as much as we don’t want to think about it). I also appreciated the large swath of different groups that the authors are members of, showing that there are distinct beliefs, mythologies, and practices between the groups. It’s really just a great collection of horror and dark fantasy stories, and it will surely stick with the reader long after the last page is turned.

“Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II” is another banger of a horror anthology. If you are a horror fan, definitely pick this one up.

Rating 9: Another solid collection of Indigenous horror and dark fiction, “Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II” has some unique tales of terror as well as poignant reflections on being Indigenous in North America.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II” is included on the Goodreads list “Indigenous Books 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “The Unknown”

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Book: “The Unknown” by Riley Sager

Publishing Info: Dutton, August 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again.

Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot.

Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one.

Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island’s previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again.

Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Perhaps some people remember that last year I read and reviewed Riley Sager’s previous novel “With a Vengeance” and didn’t really care for it. I have generally been super down with Sager’s books but that one didn’t really work for me. I was excited to see that his next novel, “The Unknown”, was stepping away from locked room whodunnits and coming back to a spooky horror/thriller story. I’m already really excited for a story with people mysteriously disappearing on a strange island, but if you add in spiritualism and potential witchcraft it just sweetens the deal. And I’m happy to report that we’ve returned to form with “The Unknown” because I found it to be super fun!

Sager knows how to craft a fast paced thriller that keeps me engaged, and “The Unknown” kept me invested pretty much from the start. We jump between two timelines: the first is that in the present day, where aspiring actress Marin has been cast as the lead in a highly anticipated historical horror film, which is based on a true story of multiple women mysteriously disappearing on the island New Avalon in the 1920s, inspired by the diary of one of the women who wrote of potential ghosts, demons, and witchy activity. Marin and the rest of the cast have been brought to the island to experience it in a method way, and things start happening to THEM in a similar way as the diary. The second timeline is the diary of Daisy, who ended up on New Avalon and wrote the entries the movie takes inspiration from. It’s a great hook, and Sager creates a mystery with themes of grief, spiritualism during the 1920s, and misogyny across centuries. Marin was sometimes a grating narrator, but she is the perfect protagonist who has so much to lose if the movie doesn’t work out, but also becomes more and more frightened as the movie crew slowly disappears in the same way the other women did. I liked the way Sager showed the circumstances, revealed the twists, and turned up the tension with what could be ghostly encounters and witch activity.. Or maybe something more Earthly.

And the atmosphere is top notch. An isolated island with a strange and witchy history is always a fun locale to explore, and Sager really figures out how to bring the Gothic vibes to the tale of isolation and questions of supernatural hijinks vs insanity in this book. I really enjoyed some of the beats and imagery, with a few points making me genuinely creeped out, and the claustrophobic island with woods, a potential murderer, and potential ghosts was eerie. I also liked that we got the history of New Avalon through the diary entries that could line up with what Marin and the rest of the cast was experiencing so we could expand the lore of the island and get it in context. While it’s true that I could parse out some of the surprises, overall I liked how things ultimately unfolded and the setting made it that much more addictive.

I’m quite pleased that “The Unknown” was an enjoyable read! Sager may have stumbled last time around in my eyes, but clearly that was a temporary stumble!

Rating 8: A tense psychological horror/thriller novel that brings us back to the Riley Sager basics! A great summer read as we start to wind down the season.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Unknown” is included in the Goodreads article “A Month-by-Month Guide to Summer’s Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “Hot Girl Murder Club”

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Book: “Hot Girl Murder Club” by Ashley Winstead

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, July 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?

Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.

But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across LA, all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build—including the justice she wants for Georgia—will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.

Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood—an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

One would think that a book that has a premise in which a Taylor Swift-esque pop sensation is leading a group of women vigilantes against scummy men in Hollywood would be one hundred percent my jam. I mean, on paper it absolutely is! And given that I have enjoyed books by soapy thriller author Ashley Winstead in the past, when I read the description of “Hot Girl Murder Club”, her newest book, I was pretty damn eager to get my hands on it. So it’s really too bad that I didn’t particularly like it.

There was just so much going on in this book. I understand wanting to have an intricate thriller that has a lot of working parts that seem separate, and then how satisfying it is for both author AND reader for those parts to finally come together in a mind blowing way. But this book never had that kind of pay off, because there were SO MANY parts that it was hard to keep track of all of it. I don’t deny that with a thriller like this with a huge web of lies, abuse, privilege, and greed at its heart that you probably want a large scope, especially since we all know by now that Hollywood DOES have a lot of festering corruption that leads to vulnerable women getting hurt and it’s very entwined. But the problem is that all of it in this book is confusing and feels pretty shallow even when it all does come together. Surprise, this person is actually THIS person, and THIS person has THIS motive that has been hidden that has a connection to this OTHER person. It made my head spin and I found myself continuously having to try and recalibrate to figure out who was doing what. I already have a difficult time dealing with a book that has a whole lot of twists and turns just for the shock of it, and when they feel like they are not only unearned but also half baked it’s that much more frustrating to read. Sure, it all did mostly come together by the end, but I didn’t really buy it.

And because of all of these perspectives and connections and players, MANY of our characters didn’t get the amount of page time that they deserved, and that in turn led them all to feel underdeveloped and two dimensional. I love the idea of a vigilante Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande as much as the next person, but Scout was pretty darn boring. It’s true that we never really got fully into her head as she didn’t have perspective chapters (and that’s no doubt by design), but with multiple people having lots of thoughts about her I had hoped we would get a little bit more than we did. Even characters like Isabel, Scout’s assistant/best friend/enabler, who WERE interesting suffered a bit because while I understood her motivation the most, she still had to cede the floor to lots of other characters that weren’t as interesting. Too many players.

“Hot Girl Murder Club” was disappointing. I had high hopes, but sadly they were not met.

Rating 5: There was just too much going on, and while it mostly did come together, the character development suffered quite a bit.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Hot Girl Murder Club” is included on the Goodreads list “Popsugar 2026 #37: A Book About a Pop Star”.

Kate’s Review: “The Whisper”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Whisper” by Chelsea Iverson

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, July 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman and Riley Sager’s Middle of the Night, comes a sweeping, atmospheric thriller following a group of friends and the power given to them by the trees…

Rule 1: When the trees whisper, listen. 

Rule 2: Don’t go into the woods alone. 

In the small mountain town of Whisper Ridge, the girls were inseparable. Joey, Quinn, Sophie, and Elena. Together, they channeled magic in the woods, living by six simple rules. The first when the trees whisper, listen. 

But all rules are forgotten, all bonds broken, when Quinn is found dead in the trees. 

In the aftermath, the friends scattered. All except Joey, who still can’t move on. Until now, over a decade later, she again hears the trees whisper. 

Those woods remember some of Quinn’s last words, and for the first time, Joey realizes she may learn the truth of what happened to her best friend. And so, the friends return to Whisper Ridge, to the woods that once held their magic and their secrets. But unearthing the truth about Quinn puts them all in danger, and in order to survive they’ll need to channel their power for the first time in fifteen years to finally put the past to rest.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an eARC of this book via NetGalley!

I know that it’s the end of July and Summer isn’t really winding down yet (hell, it’s still so damn hot here in Minnesota it’s hard to deny that we are definitely still in my least favorite season). But I am one of those people that once we get part way through July, I start to think about Autumn. And inevitably when I think about my favorite season, I think about spooky books that I can recommend to people for the weeks leading up to Halloween. And I have my first one ready to go with “The Whisper” by Chelsea Iversen, a thriller/horror witch tale about three former witches reuniting after one of them thinks that they have new information about their friend who was killed when they were all still in high school and coming into their magic. If that doesn’t scream ‘autumnal reading’, I don’t know what does!

It’s never too early to prepare for the Season of the Witch, spell and reading alike. (source)

We follow the perspectives of four women. In the present day we have Joey, Sophie, and Elena, whose friendship fractured and went their separate ways after high school, and after their friend Quinn was found murdered in the woods. All of the were young witches who were bearers of forest magic, trained by older witches to learn to care for the magic, but after Quinn’s murder Sophie and Elena left, while Joey stayed unable to let go. But Joey thinks that she hears in the tree whispers some new information about Quinn’s death, and she brings the other two home so they can all try and solve what happened once and for all. And in the past is our fourth perspective, which is that of Quinn in the days leading up to her death as we see secrets, tensions, and friendships shifting and Quinn is both trying to use the magic for bolder things, but isolating herself in a dangerous way. All four of the perspectives add something to the story and give us insights not only into the mystery of what happened to Quinn and what led up to it, but also into the minds of traumatized and grieving women who never got the closure that was needed and have tried to carry on with their lives, but are still haunted. I liked the suspense and tension as it was building throughout the chapters, not only as to the murder mystery but also the tension between the women who were once close but are now fractured, and I also liked the exploration of complicated friendships trying to reconnect after so much has happened.

The magical system in this book is also pretty well done and creative to boot. We have a magic that is passed down to women in the community, with previous generations training and supporting the younger ones, and I liked the idea of the magic being tied to nature, to women, and to a strong community. We see the dangers of trying to force the magic to work outside its intents, as well as the way that bad actors can try to weaponize it and take it for themselves. With the trees being able to whisper things to the witches and the magic being nature based in a lot of ways it just felt very ethereal and grounded in a clear intention of story, and I thought that was very cool. It also has some pretty solid horror beats as we follow Quinn’s journey and start to slowly see what actually happened to her, and while I kind of figured out what had happened, I still found it to be a well done mystery that kept me interested.

“The Whisper” is an entertaining witch tale with well done horror beats, and I think that anyone who wants to get a head start on planning their autumn reading would do well to put it on their lists for the spooky season.

Rating 8: A suspenseful and witchy thriller about friendship, secrets, and grief, “The Whisper” is an entertaining read and will be perfect reading for the upcoming Autumn season.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Whisper” is included on the Goodreads list “All the New Horror Books Arriving in July 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “Love Bites: Volume 1”

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Book: “Love Bites: Volume One” by Alicia Wallace (creator) and Ele (adaptor)

Publishing Info: WEBTOON Unscrolled, August 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC26

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: As a teenage vampire, Kieran has always been warned to stay away from werewolves, but everything changes when he falls for Mason—the Alpha’s son.

What started off as disdain, lines drawn in the sand between two opposing sides, quickly turns to fascination after the two share one fateful kiss.

Kieran and Mason know they can’t be together, their communities would never approve. And with every hidden kiss and rendezvous, keeping their secret takes on a whole new set of problems.

Avoiding the eyes of both society and Kieran’s extremist family grows more and more challenging, and as silver blades sharpen, the two must choose to stand up for a love worth fighting for.

Review: Thank you to WEBTOON Unscrolled for giving me an ARC at ALAAC26!

Whenever ALA Annual is coming up I start perusing authors and signings a couple of months in advance, always on the look out for horror and thriller names that I know, as well as titles that could fit within those categories. That was how I discovered “Love Bites: Volume 1”, a graphic series based on the Alicia Wallace book “Bite Me”, adapted by ELE, as the title intrigued me and lo and behold it was a paranormal MLM YA romance about a vampire and a werewolf! I figured that maybe I’m not in the age demo, and maybe I have thoughts about vampire romance, but at the same time it looked kind of cute and I know that I do like a fun and not high stakes read every once in awhile. So I grabbed it!

And I have no regrets because it’s pretty cute (source)

As a paranormal romance story, this has elements that I like in a romance. I enjoy enemies to lovers tropes, and while it’s not a top trope for me I do find the occasional forbidden lovers story to be enjoyable because usually it means LONGING. In “Love Bites” we get both, as teenage vampire Kieran and teenage werewolf Mason find themselves drawn to each other even though the relationships between werewolves and vampires are tenuous at best and deadly at worst. There is tension from the jump as Kieran decides he doesn’t like Mason even without knowing his background, but then it gets even more complicated because Kieran’s mother was killed by werewolves when he was a child, so his trauma, grief, and anger are all twisting his judgement a bit. This is really Kieran’s story so far as he grapples with his emotions, as well as his anxiety at home with a stoic father and angry older brother, but the seeds and laid for the romance to start building with angry banter, sexual tension, and an impulsive kiss. I like both Kieran and Mason, though I will say that the other characters thus far, like Kieran’s best friend/Mason’s maybe girlfriend Cella, are kind of static and two dimensional as of now. There is obviously room to grow, but it’s too bad that thus far the girl who seems to be cool and full of potential may be a road block for Kieran and Mason. There are also some pacing issues that feel stilted, as Kieran being antagonistic from the jump without even knowing Mason is a vampire felt pretty fast and maybe not super well earned. But for the target audience who just wants a fun read, I’m sure it will be easy to overlook (I mean, I had fun!).

I also enjoyed the vampire and werewolf lore and world building that we get in this story. It may have been easy to just rely on well known beats and tropes, but instead we have two distinct groups that have their own rules, mythology, and characteristics. We haven’t seen much of the werewolves yet, but we have a fair amount of info about the vampires thanks to Kieran’s perspective, from the pact that the vampires and werewolves made to keep the peace, to the different kinds of vampirism you can take depending on your decisions and innate skills, and the way that family lines work. I imagine we will learn more about Mason’s family as the story goes on, as right now we just know that he’s the son of an alpha and is dealing with some issues with his wolfiness. I enjoyed the mythos quite a bit, which made up for some of the flat characterizations seen outside of the main characters.

I will definitely be going forward with the “Love Bites” graphic novels as they come out! It’s cute and fluffy and sometimes ya just gotta lean into the fluff.

Rating 7: A promising start to a supernatural enemies to lovers romance series, “Love Bites: Volume 1” has some potential to be a fun story arc for a vampire and a werewolf who are drawn to each other despite being on opposite sides of a conflict.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Love Bites: Volume 1” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Comics and Graphic Novels of 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “Fabulous Bodies”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Fabulous Bodies” by Chuck Tingle

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, July 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: From Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Bury Your Gays, comes Fabulous Bodies, a supernatural joyride where Drive meets Beetlejuice.

Fashion influencer by day and grave-robber by night, Poppy Stringer is on call when Eddie Michaels—a flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar and queer icon—unexpectedly dies. All Poppy has to do is retrieve Eddie’s body from the medical examiner’s office, but what starts as a routine delivery quickly goes off course when Eddie wakes up.

Poppy must fight for her life in a blood-soaked night of carnage and fabulous entertainment all across Palm Springs.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

It’s that time again folks! It’s time for another Chuck Tingle horror novel! I have found myself looking forward to these each year they have come out, and I will fully and happily eat crow because I know that when I heard that Tingle, previously known for his “Tingler” romances, was going to write horror I was skeptical. But he definitely made me eat my hat with “Camp Damascus” and “Bury Your Gays”, and now we have “Fabulous Bodies”! And once again we have a winner!

This was such a fun and fast paced read, I basically devoured it in one sitting and time flew by. Tingle always has such a creative bent to is ideas, as this one could have been one thing but it went in a wholly different direction than I expected but it completely fit within the concept even if it wasn’t what I anticipated. We have Poppy and Eddie racing around Palm Springs and wreaking havoc with lots of blood and gore and mayhem, all done in unique ways. I found myself cringing and wincing while also really enjoying the outlandishness of it all, and while I don’t really want to give anything away here I will say that the paths this book takes are pitch perfect executions of the genres that they are functioning within.

And it’s probably no surprise that our two main characters, protagonist Poppy and antagonist Eddie, have great chemistry and banter as they go on their spree around Palm Springs. I enjoyed the character arc that Poppy took, from ambitious and self absorbed would be influencer to hostage to a possibly undead rock star that was her idol who wants her to take him around while he kills people, without any clue as to what his motivations is. She started out as prickly and unenjoyable because of how single minded she is about fame and influencer culture (though we have perfectly understandable motivations, I must add), but as the night goes on and gets more chaotic she discovers some uncomfortablte truths about herself in a lot of ways and has to re-evaluate. It’s really a critique on fame at any cost, and while that’s a pretty well worn trope and has been for awhile I still found Tingle’s take on it enjoyable. And I really enjoyed the nasty and kind of hilarious psycho that Eddie is. He had me laughing out loud multiple times, but was also deeply sinister.

“Fabulous Bodies” is another great horror tale from Chuck Tingle! I am so pleased he keeps doing the horror stories and love the perspective he brings.

Rating 9: Fun, frenetic, gory, and creative, “Fabulous Bodies” is another winner from Chuck Tingle!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Fabulous Bodies” is included on the Goodreads lists “Best Summer Horror Books”, and “July 2026 Queer Releases”.

Kate’s Review: “Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Cross My Heart, Hope You Die” by Mallory Arnold

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, July 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: One isolated cabin. One cheating boyfriend. One plan to get even.

When Nora, Ruby, and Cham discover that they’ve each been dating the same man, what starts as outrage quickly spirals into a plot for revenge. Together they hatch a plan to lure their boyfriend to a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin at the top of a snow-covered mountain.

Only what was meant to be harmless payback soon takes a chilling turn when their not-so-adoring boyfriend is found dead in the cabin. 

Stranded and snowed in, the women begin to look at each other with increasing suspicion. And as tensions rise, hidden motives come to light. To survive, each woman must confront her own demons as they fight to uncover if one of them is the killer, or if something else lurks in the freezing wilderness, waiting to pick them off one by one. 

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I’m always down for stories where shitty men get their comeuppance, especially if it is in part due to women getting vengeance against said shitty men. It just feels cathartic these days in a lot of ways. And because of this I was more than eager to read “Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die” by Mallory Arnold. It sounded soapy and fun, which is a great vibe for summer time reading. And if you are looking for a fast and suspenseful mystery to add to your pool reading, it’s a solid choice.

The premise sucked me in from the get go. Nora, Ruby, and Cham are three strangers, totally unconnected to each other except for the fact all of them are dating Jason, and don’t realize it, and when they do realize they’ve been duped (not only in love, but also out of a substantial amount of money), they decide to team up to get revenge… only for it to go horribly wrong. It is kind of like if you take the Millennial black comedy “John Tucker Must Die” and amp it up a bit into an actual murder mystery, with a potential cult issue lurking. And it all works really well. We follow the perspectives of Nora, Ruby, and Cham, and they all felt like they had clear personalities (even if at times they could feel a little two dimensional) that made them all stand apart. Some of them had issues that could work as red herrings to make all of them sometimes question each other (and make the reader question them too), and while I was mostly able to predict a fair amount of what was going to happen, it was still fun to see.

I also liked the weird implications of cult activity, as Ruby’s mysterious past comes into play as a believable device for the setting and the fallout (as she is adopted but finds herself the owner of a cabin in the wilderness after some inheritance stuff is worked out from her biological family…. which may be weird and creepy). I love weird cult stories and we get pieces of the lore through diary entries and transcripts, and I absolutely live for that kind of thing. It’s just absolutely cat nip to me and if you are a total freak like me and love cult stories, this one could be a fun read for you too!

“Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die” is some solid summer reading with twists and turns that I found super fun.

Rating 8: A fun thriller with some creepy cult elements, “Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die” is fun summer reading.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die” is included on the Goodreads blog post “Stock Your Summer Shelves With Highly Anticipated Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “The View from Here”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The View from Here” by Rachel Howzell Hall

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, June 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publicist

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A paranoid widow fears her late husband isn’t gone at all in a gripping psychological thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of Anthony Award–nominated These Toxic Things.

After eleven years, Nicole Baxter and her husband Truman’s marriage is beginning to fracture. Suddenly, during a scuba diving accident near Catalina Island, Truman is gone. No body. No signs of foul play. Presumed dead.

Clinging to the hope that Truman might still be alive, Nicole is devastated, in denial, and struggling with insomnia, as well as guilt over the secrets she kept from the man she loved—a pregnancy, a miscarriage, and an incautious fling with an attentive neighbor. Then come the strange occurrences putting Nicole further on edge. The scent of Truman’s cologne. The wet footprints in the house. The cryptic texts from his phone. And the message written on her bathroom: I’ll luv u 4ever.

Nicole has never felt so alone, isolated, and paranoid. If she’s losing her mind, then why does it seem so real? If it’s real, how is that possible? As Nicole’s grip on reality slips away, the answers are becoming a matter of life and death.

Review: Thank you to Sparkpoint Studio for sending me an ARC of this novel!

We are in the thick of summer now, and I always kind of feel like summer is for thriller reads. I have read a few thrillers by Rachel Howzell Hall before, and I was interested in checking out “The View from Here”, her newest. Not only did I like her previous ones, this one sounded like it could be engrossing. A missing husband? A wife with secrets? MAYBE a ghost? Well yes, that’s definitely my kinda read!

The mystery is a classic one: Nicole’s husband Truman, with whom she has been having a strained relationship/marital problems with as of late, disappears while on a scuba diving trip, and is presumed dead. But then Nicole starts having weird experiences in her home, experiences that she can’t explain. The suspense builds up as Nicole tries to figure out just what is going on, unsure if it’s a ghost, or her grief, or perhaps Truman tricking her and tormenting her because perhaps he knew her secrets that she thought she had kept. It doesn’t really tread into new territory, but Hall still keeps it tense and interesting as more people question her sanity and Nicole insists, INSISTS, that something else is happening beyond her trauma and despair.

I also liked how this book really does manage to blur the lines between what is happening and what isn’t in Nicole’s life, whether it’s something supernatural, something earthly, or something all within Nicole’s head. There are plenty of hints to ANY of those outcomes, and all of them felt fairly plausible at least to a degree. I always like a claustrophobic high tension thriller that captures the mental state of an unhinged protagonist, and Nicole is UNHINGED. But is it because she’s being haunted, grieving and medicated, or someone messing with her (like perhaps a husband who isn’t dead? THE POSSIBILITIES). I kind of discerned pieces of the puzzle as it fell into place, but I will admit that I was questioning a lot because of all the plausible alternatives that Hall did, with lots of due diligence.

“The View from Here” is another enjoyable thriller from Rachel Howzell Hall. Throw it on the summer reading list!

Rating 7: A mystery thriller that blurs the lines between reality and paranoia and grief, “The View from Here” kept me guessing.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The View from Here” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now but it would fit on “Horror/Thriller Books by Black Authors”.

Kate’s Review: “Slasher Summer”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Slasher Summer” by E.L. Chen

Publishing Info: Crown, June 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at PLA 2026

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In this campy love letter to the slasher films of the 1980s, seven friends reunite for a weekend of fun—only to be hunted down by a cold-blooded killer. But the real horror is not being able to escape who you were in high school…

The sleepy town of Cedar Lake Falls is best known as the shooting location of the campy ’80s horror flick Slasher. In high school, preppy Patrick, jock Jason, cheerleader Tiffany, stoner Freddy, goth Jennifer, and nerdy Michael had played the cast of Slasher during midnight showings, with virginal Carrie as the Final Girl, of course.

Years later, the friends reunite at the remote cabin where Slasher was filmed. They’ve changed since high school—Patrick came out, Mikey bulked up, and, well, Freddy’s still stoned—and they’re looking forward to a weekend to catch up. But when night falls, and the eponymous masked killer is spotted, the reunion takes a deadly turn. The friends discover their tires deflated and the phone line disconnected, and soon they’re being stalked by a mysterious assailant. Is someone trying to make their Slasher experience as authentic as possible?

One thing is for sure. Before the night is over, they each will have to take on the role they thought they’d left behind.

Review: Thank you to Crown for handing out ARCs at PLA 2026!

It is NO secret that I absolutely adore horror movies. You almost always find some kind of horror or horror adjacent nonsense on my “Not Just Books” highlights every month, and I’m still very much a part of my Terror Tuesday movie club (though admittedly it’s more like once every two months now as opposed to every week now that the pandemic has wound down). I especially love slasher movies for their over the topness, and it’s a genre that you don’t really get as much in the book world, possibly because so much of it relies upon visual gore and nonsense. But that said I’m always on the lookout for slashery stories, so of COURSE E.L. Chen’s “Slasher Summer” was a must read for me. And it was such a fun ride! My slasher loving heart was singing! And it’s the perfect time of year for it!

Nothing says summer like weirdos warning young adults about their impending deaths in the woods! (source)

This is such a fun love letter to slasher films. Chen knows the history of the genre, the important themes that the genre needs, and the character archetypes necessary for the genre. There are also Easter eggs dropped all over the place and references to other horror or horror adjacent movies, be it due to the characters being fans of horror movies, or just little nods in the narrative (for example, all of the characters having names derived from horror film villains). It all feels very meta and very tongue in cheek in some ways, but then when it wants to go hard on the slasher gore, it goes HARD. Yes there is a lot of humor as the story goes, but when the kills happen, they don’t hold back and they escalate in the way that you would expect from a slasher film. It’s not for the squeamish. And it definitely reads like a slasher movie plot, with each character fitting a role and each plot twist feeling right out of a movie. I could easily see this in my mind’s eye on a movie screen with my Terror Tuesday friends and I just vibing along with it.

BUT, it also has some really great deconstructions of the genre as well, playing with tropes that have become expected and turning the on their heads. Admittedly I can’t really go into too much detail without dropping some significant spoilers (which I don’t want to do), but I will try and talk about some that don’t feel particularly spoiler-y for me but make the point. The first is that one of our main protagonists who is incredibly much the ‘capable male hero’ is Patrick, who also happens to be a Black man who is a bit of a nerd and is obsessed with horror movies. In horror films, especially ones of the 80s and 90s, the trope of ‘the Black man always dies first’ was an unfortunate theme for a very long time. By making Patrick basically the expert on the genre who knows what to do and how to maneuver was a great subversion. Along with that, we have the queerness of both Patrick, who is an out gay man, and Jason, the stereotypical jock with the glossy blonde girlfriend, who is a closeted bisexual and who has a huge crush on Patrick (and thinks the feelings are not returned; BUT THEY ARE!). It’s no secret that ‘bury your gays’ has been another sad device in horror and thriller stories (and other stories too), as well as gay or queer people being villainous or mocking stereotypes. But in this they are just two guys pining for each other and it’s incredibly sweet and MAN was I rooting for them. It’s the things like this that really made this book pop. It’s a book that clearly loves the genre, but is also more than happy to critique it and improve upon it.

“Slasher Summer” is the PERFECT summer horror book, especially if you are a horror fan. I had a blast reading it.

Rating 8: A fun love letter to the slasher genre that not only perfectly pays tribute to slashers of the 80s, but also deconstructs old chestnuts in interesting ways!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Slasher Summer” is included on the Goodreads list “June 2026 Queer Releases”.

Kate’s Review: “Death in the End Zone”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Death in the End Zone” by Lynn Slaughter

Publishing Info: Melange Books LLC, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a copy from the publicist

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: In this sequel to “Missed Cue”, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor is once again faced with a puzzling case: the murder of two star football players whose bodies are discovered in a compromising position in the end zone of their high school’s football field. While Caitlin identifies several suspects who might have had reasons to want to harm the boys, no clearcut evidence points to the culprit. She’s worried that she may get pulled off the case if she can’t figure out who killed the boys.

Review: Thanks to Books Forward for sending me a copy of this book!

It’s always nice to have a procedural mystery series to keep up with, and I say that as someone who has long loved a procedural mystery series be it on my TV or on my book shelf. It’s also nice following women detectives, and it’s the woman detective at the center of “Death in the End Zone” by Lynn Slaughter that brought me back for a second book. Caitlin O’Connor is a detective who is savvy and bright in her work life, but a little more hesitant to say such things about her personal life, and I enjoyed her personal life so much last time around I was game for another round with her to see how she has grown from Book One to Book Two.

So similarly to the previous Caitlin O’Connor book, the mystery at the heart of the novel was interesting enough, this time involving the deaths of two popular football players who are found posed in a compromising position on the high school football field. Their sexuality may play a part in what happened, and Caitlin wants to not only figure out who murdered them and why, but also keep them protected as best she can after their death sparks rumors and gossip. It’s a compelling concept, though I once again found myself wanting a bit more complexity in the mystery and the twists and turns. Whether it was witness or suspects or family members, I felt like they were mostly pretty two dimensional and interchangeable.

But it’s once again Caitlin’s personal life that made this for me. We are not only still getting therapy sessions (I am still very pleased to see this, let’s give our protagonist some mental health support!) for Caitlin, we are also seeing her start to build a more healthy relationship with her boyfriend Hank and his son Jack, even though they themselves are having some tricky moments in their lives that she has to witness. While we do have some realistic anxieties on her part about being a good romantic partner, especially to a man who has a child from a previous relationship, it’s refreshing to see her do less self-sabotaging and more introspection and maneuvering around healthy boundaries and what she herself wants from the relationship. This is in contrast to her partner Stan, who had been experiencing some bumps with his sobriety in the previous book, and who seems to still be struggling but unable to confide in anyone about it, which adds to her stress as the case goes on. The personal life problems enhanced the story for me and strengthened it where the mystery was shaky.

Overall, I’m still all about Caitlin O’Connor in “Death in the End Zone”. Hooray for self aware hard boiled detectives!

Rating 7: I really enjoyed the personal life side of this book with Caitlin O’Connor having to deal with some difficult realities about her partner, as well as some daunting changes in her relationship.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Death in the End Zone” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit on “Women Who Solve Crimes”.