Tag: Thriller

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”

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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”.

Joint Review: “The Intrigue”

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Book: “The Intrigue” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Publishing Info: Del Rey, July 2026

Where Did We Get This Book: NetGalley

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

Book Description: Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won’t last forever, and he’s desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.

He thinks he’s found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn’t expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt’s household.

When Inés discovers Ulises’ true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They’ll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast and clean.

But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained on. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.

Venture into the streets of a small town where the patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.

Kate’s Thoughts

I always look forward to Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s books, as she has truly shown herself to be an adept author who can dip her toes into different genres with ease. When I read the description it sounded like it could be a thriller, with a con man and an ambitious young woman teaming up to scam a cold and repressed spinster. But as I was reading it I kind of started to realize that it’s not really a thriller, nor is it a mystery or a romance. As Serena says below, I’m not certain it’s totally definable, but I DID know that it has a certain vibe to it, and that vibe is soap opera. But even beyond that, because while soap operas have archetypes that serve very clear character choices and paths, “The Intrigue” has far more complicated players at hand.

Did I like anyone in this book? Not really. Was I rooting for anyone? Not really. But I did enjoy that Moreno-Garcia was willing to have unlikable characters at the center, and that she made them not only morally grey but also interesting in their motivations (some more than others; I never fully got on board with Ulises’s bullshit but I fully understood where both Perla AND Inés were coming from). Thrillers with soapy elements aren’t unheard of and I like nice and dramatic reads with thrills and chills, but I liked that this ‘soap’ didn’t feel so cliché even though there were familiar beats.

And as always we get some insight into Mexican history that I wasn’t as familiar with. We see the way that Mexico has been affected not only by World War II, but also how the reverberations of the revolution are affecting various people in the story and society as a whole. Moreno-Garcia is always putting this history in her stories and I always enjoy it very much.

“The Intrigue” is another enjoyable read from Silvia Moreno-Garcia! I look forward to her books every summer and the streak continues!

Serena’s Thoughts

I really enjoyed this one! I wasn’t even quite sure what genre this was when I picked it up, and I was struggling a bit to classify it even by the end. But the author’s note (never neglect the author’s note!) put a great perspective on things: essentially, her inspiration was a combination of thriller, classic soap operas, and a unique point in Mexican history. And, looking back, all of this was on display!

One thing that I’ve always loved about this author is her complicated characters. There are very rarely any truly heroic characters, and the villains are often given almost the same amount of attention, so much so that you often find yourself sympathizing with their circumstances almost in spite of yourself! Such was the case here, but even more so. The “heroes,” such as they are, are a con artist and, essentially, a woman who was just waiting her turn to jump on the criminality bandwagon. And the villain, while very hateable, is a woman who was set up for failure by her parents, the point in history in which she was living, and the lies that were sold to her early in childhood about the “right” way to live.

I loved the exploration of this point in Mexican history, the effects of WWII, and the continued fallout from the shakeup in their own government. This is a world very much in transition, and the book highlights how adaptation to drastic change is not an easy thing for everyone.

I also really liked the “soap opera” elements. Kate can speak more to how this weaves together with typical thriller conventions, but for me, I loved the dramatic, over-the-top nature of certain aspects of the story. Our “heroes” bumble their way from one scheme to another, and it’s easy to see the influences of the dramatics of soapy tales. I also really liked the romance we got here, very much also feeling like it came straight from a daytime TV show.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one! It’s definitely a slower story, focused on the oppressive nature of the house, this remote town, and the limited options available to women in particular. But the characters were all so well fleshed out that I was always eagerly turning the page to find out what they would get up to next!

Kate’s Rating 8 : A soap opera rooted in a true history of hardship in Mexico with no heroes but some really fun morally grey characters. Moreno-Garcia does it again!

Serena’s Rating 8: Another banger from this author, this time focusing on a “soap operate”-like tale set in a remote village in WWII-era Mexico.

Reader’s Advisory

“The Intrigue” is included on the Goodreads lists Noir Fiction and Books with Big Title in Yellow Letters.

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

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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: “What Happened to Those Girls?”

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

Book: “What Happened to Those Girls” by Carlyn Greenwald

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, June 2026

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

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

Book Description: Pretty Little Liars meets The Blair Witch Project in this harrowing thriller from the author of Murder Land, brimming with betrayal, unsettling town secrets, and a killer lurking in the woods.

Emma knows her friends all lie to her. And everyone knows Emma is the outcast of their group. She’s usually fine with that, until her friends go on a camping trip that she planned…without her. The next morning, she wakes up to the news that all three of them died at the campsite.

When Emma starts receiving unnerving videos of the girls the night they died from an anonymous source, it becomes clear their deaths weren’t an accident. And if this becomes a murder case, Emma will be suspect number one. Because while everyone knows she had been excluded from the plans, what they don’t know is that she went to the campsite that night after all, and someone has proof.

Emma teams up with Beck, one of the victims’ sisters, to return to the woods and figure out what really happened the night her friends died, uncover who is behind the mysterious videos she is receiving, and make sure that nobody can pin their murders on her. But stranded in an eerie town that doesn’t welcome outsiders with a murderer on their heels, Emma and Beck just might be next…

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

While Summer is probably my least favorite season (it’s just too hot, guys), I do like a nice scary story that is set in a time that just has Summer vibes. I also love a weird and spooky forest thriller, especially when there are perhaps supernatural things afoot. So “What Happened to Those Girls?” by Carlyn Greenwald was absolutely a book that I was totally on board with. A story were an odd one out girl is left out of her friend group on a camping trip and is hurt and angry, only for her friends to be murdered on said trip, and then being pulled into the mystery of what happened to them is already golden. But then you tell me that there is maybe a witch in the woods responsible?

Please, DO go on. (source)

The main plot just feels like it was written with me in mind. It’s pretty straight forward: Emma is the outsider in her friend group of Paisley, Opal, and Harlow, never really fitting in even though she is constantly trying. Her friends ditch her on a camping trip that was her idea, but then they ended up murdered and Emma is pulled into trying to figure out what happened to them. Not only do we have a mysterious murder mystery and a spooky woods, we also have a witch urban legend that some people believe is the cause of the mysterious deaths in the state park. We all know how much I love a witch story, and any story that sounds a bit like “The Blair Witch Project” at its heart is going to appeal. And overall I did enjoy this mystery with a spooky undercurrent. Greenwald balances the thriller elements with the ‘what if it’s a witch tho?’ elements really well, and I enjoyed seeing Emma and Beck, the older sister of one of the victims, Paisley, go into the woods looking for answers after Emma starts getting weird and creepy text messages from a mysterious sender. It’s suspenseful and well plotted, and while I kind of figured out a lot of the reveals and solutions pretty early on, the journey was well done enough that I didn’t mind and I enjoyed the ride. I also love a creepy wood setting and this book delivers that and then some.

But what really struck me most in this book was Emma as a main character. Emma is an engaging and easy to root for narrator from the very start, as I’m sure there have been PLENTY of people who have felt like the odd one out in social groups and friendships, especially in high school. But what made her even more interesting is that she is autistic, which brings in even more challenges for her when it comes to her friend group because she never QUITE clicks with them due to their inability to fully understand her. She is the kind of autistic representation that we don’t see as much in literature and other kinds of media. For one, she is a girl (as autistic woman characters in media lately I can count on one hand, the most recent being Quinni from “Heartbreak High” and Mel King on “The Pitt”). And two, her traits aren’t the stereotypical cold and savant-like that is so often seen to portray autistic people (though both Quinni and Mel also buck this; maybe because they are women? I’ll have to ponder this), as she definitely feels things incredibly deeply and is more inclined to anxiety and a lack of social graces as opposed to robotic indifference. I found Emma to be so incredibly relatable and nuanced (as someone who herself is on a wait list to be evaluated for autism), I just loved her from the jump. I also loved her relationship with Beck, as they are not only united to solve the mystery of what happened to Paisley, Opal, and Harlow, Beck also sees Emma for who she is and holds very little judgement or contempt for her. Any obvious relationship bumps other authors may have taken with these two kinds of characters are not taken here, and I found it refreshing.

“What Happened To Those Girls?” is a really entertaining YA thriller. It’s a great summer mystery and I definitely recommend getting it for any summer reading you are looking for.

Rating 8: A propulsive mystery with some spooky undertones, not only is “What Happened to Those Girls?” a good YA thriller, it’s some of the best autistm representation I’ve seen in a book this year.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Happened to Those Girls?” is included on the Goodreads lists “Neurodivergent YA Novels”, and “Queer Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “The Break-Up Retreat”

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

Book: “The Break-Up Retreat” by Camilla Sten

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, June 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: An undercover journalist goes to expose an exclusive psychological wellness clinic where women go to recover from heartbreak, with dire consequences, in this creepy thriller from The Bachelorette Party author Camilla Sten.

Welcome to Himlafall Clinic, where we use revolutionary therapy techniques to heal you from heartbreak. Whether you are going through a devastating breakup, or can’t seem to stop picking the wrong partners, we are here to help you change your life, once and for all…

Isobel Anderssen has heard rumors. Nestled deep in the Swedish woods, there is a clinic. Primarily aimed at helping women who have gone through devastating break-ups, the Himlafall Clinic is meant to heal your mind and help you move on.

Sometimes people are never heard from again.

Armed with a fake story and a contraband phone to record interviews, Isobel is ready to expose Himlafall’s founder and get closure for the families of missing loved ones. But when she gets there, nothing goes to plan. Her contact is missing. The founder, Dr. Martina Hastings, knows how to get under Isobel’s skin in ways she didn’t anticipate. And all the while, the ghosts of the missing haunt her at every turn. It is clear something is going wrong and Himlafall, and Isobel must uncover the truth, before she disappears once and for all.

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

After my previous therapist retired at the beginning of the year, I have started with a new person this summer and I am finding it to be incredibly gratifying and cathartic. I’ve been in therapy on and off basically since I was a teenager (of SO many different types), and this new one has been really challenging me to look inside myself and reflect on a lot, which has been great. Whenever I read a book that has some kind of therapy as a focal point, especially a thriller, I thank my lucky stars that I’ve only had good experiences with my mental health counselors, and I was thinking about that as I read Camilla Sten’s new thriller “The Break-Up Retreat”. No weaponized therapising in my life, I’m happy to report! But it does make for a solid thriller premise, and if you throw in an undercover reporter posing as a patient it makes me all the more intrigued.

“The Break-Up Retreat” has a lot of positives going for it! By having our protagonist Isobel being an undercover reporter checking into a trendy but potentially sinister mental health retreat, we hit the ground running and the tension starts right away. Himlafall Clinic has a lot of hype around it for women who are going through rough relationship fallout, with its founder Dr. Martina Hastings being a media darling and a beaming advocate for helping women work through their despair. But at least one person has disappeared after going to Himlafall, and whispers online have made Isobel think that there is something dark going on, which could be a great story to break out with. I love that concept and have loved it since reading up on good ol’ Nelly Bly, and Sten makes things go weird from the jump which builds the tension almost immediately. Isobel’s contact has gone missing, the other patients are offputting, and the staff seem strange and like they are hiding things, all while Martina is doing unconventional methods in therapy while isolating her patients from the outside world. I love this kind of thing, and I loved the questions about Martina’s motives as she psychologically picks at people she is supposed to be helping. Sten keeps a lot of her cards close to her vest and lets suspense go tauter and tauter until it’s about to snap.

I also enjoyed how we got this from not only Isobel’s POV, but also through found media like message boards, interviews, Internet comments, and news articles. I absolutely love supplemental clues that give us perspectives outside of the protagonist, and these are all pretty subtle at first until things start clicking into place. It broke up the chapters pretty well too, and given that sometimes I did find myself lagging behind at times when the chapters could feel a little repetitive as Isobel investigates these parts did a good job of getting me back on task and back into it.

“The Break-Up Retreat” is a perfect summer read for the beach or the pool, with a solid mystery and a promising premise rising to the top.

Rating 7: A really enjoyed the tension and the entire concept of this one, with a potentially sinister therapist and a plucky undercover reporter trying to expose it all.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Break-Up Retreat” is included in the Goodreads post “A Month-By-Month Guide to Summer’s Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “You First”

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

Book: “You First” by Caroline Kepnes

Publishing Info: Random House, June 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: Joe Goldberg is ready for his life to start. He’s seventeen years old, working in Mr. Mooney’s bookshop, falling in love with every girl on the subway all while wondering who will be the one. He knows what he needs: A woman who will force him to get his GED, go to night school, and make something of himself. But who would ever fall in love with him?

Then he spots it: MISSED CONNECTION, NYC Bookstore Babe.

Someone is looking for Joe. And that someone is Vail Gunderson, a production assistant with a passion for rom-coms. The only catch: she’s twenty-four, which means that Joe has no choice but to lie about his age…and, naturally, nearly everything else in his life. Joe thinks he’s found true love, but when Vail needs more convincing that Joe is her happily ever after, he’s determined to convince her…no matter what it takes…

With her incisive and darkly comedic prose, Caroline Kepnes captures Joe poised on the edge of manhood, entering the vicious, dog-eat-dog New York dating scene for the very first time, and buffeted by forces that will determine what kind of man he will become—and how he will write his own twisted love story.

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

It’s been a couple of years since we last saw stalker super creep Joe Goldberg in book form. His show on Netflix had its run and finale, and I was pretty satisfied with how it all shook out, but it’s been since his time in “For You and Only You” that we’ve seen him on the page. And he’s very different on the page. I will admit that after time passed and I was cycling through my insomnia listens of his books, that previous book was the one I revisited the least, and I was a bit worried that it was the end of his story. When it was announced we were getting a fifth book I was excited. When I saw it was going to be a prequel instead of a sequel I was…. apprehensive. What could teenage Joe tell us that we don’t already know about him? Was it going to be a little bit of a retcon that upends the canon? I didn’t really need to be nervous, because Caroline Kepnes’s “You First”, while a shift in the timeline, is still entertaining and a solidly ‘Joe’ story, giving us a glimpse into what made him Joe, terrible personality and all. I’m still a okay with shitty villain protagonists and their gross twisted stories, and this one keeps it up!

Footage of me when I see people complaining about trash main characters doing obviously trash things in a thriller novel as if its an endorsement of trash. (source)

This is less of a thriller this time around just based on the fact that TECHNICALLY Joe doesn’t really start getting fully into his murderous ways until AFTER this point in the timeline just based on what happens in the other books in the series (there is a little bit of wiggle room here, just to note), and more of a character study set in a historical fiction genre (oh GOD, the early aughts are now historical fiction, I’m Joe’s age and this makes me feel OLD). We meet Joe when he’s seventeen, working at Mooney’s Books (hooray for the return of Mr. Mooney!), and the entire city is still dealing with 9/11, which only happened a few months earlier. He’s hyper-focusing on the Internet and Missed Connection ads, and through his he meets Vail, a twenty four year old woman who works on the “Sex and the City” set. Vail is the blueprint for his future obsessions, and she is neurotic, self absorbed, and flitty. But this is through the eyes of seventeen year old Joe, who has basically been abandoned by his parents, left to his own devices with the occasional support from the weird and abusive Mr. Mooney, and we see how his experiences are, indeed, warping his sense of love and connection. This may sound like it’s getting into excuse territory, but I don’t feel like it is for the most part. Something that does have to be kept in mind is that he is still, technically, a kid here, and it’s an interesting trajectory to see his obsession form and how it stays with him from here on out. Especially since everyone else in this book that influences and interacts with and affects him is a full on adult. It explains a lot. And he does sound like a nervous teenager in his inner monologue with insecurities that feel familiar, even if they are dark and fucked up. It’s a twisted coming of age story to be sure.

Kepnes still keeps the weird dark humor and the seediness of the other books in this one! That is part of the reason I love these books so much, just how damn funny Joe can be and how skeevy they can make me feel as I read them. It’s a little harder to swallow at times in this book given that Joe is only seventeen, and Kepnes does tread a fine line with some of the sexual situations in this book between him and Vail, but it’s far more restrained than previous books. We are seeing similar patterns with bad people being bad to each other, and it’s getting a LITTLE repetitive, but it didn’t drag it down too much. Vail is grating but she’s supposed to be, but she also captures that wannabe Carrie Bradshaw NYC delusion that I remember well from being a high schooler and young adult from this time period (I remember binging “Sex and the City” with my roommate and being so insulted she thought I was a Charlotte even though now I’m like ‘yeah probably, but without the WASP-iness’). It has the vibes I look for in these books. But I do wonder how much longer they can be sustained.

I am curious to know where Joe is going from here. “You First” gives us a backstory, and I wonder if it is telegraphs what is next for the character. I’m still fully on board to go on whatever ride Kepnes wants to make me on with this character, and his lore has expanded in a way that worked for me.

Rating 8: Teenager Joe Goldberg as a concept gave me a little pause, but the execution was pretty well done and the outcome was seedy, twisted, and exactly what I’ve come to expect from Joe, even as a teenager.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You First” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “I’ll Be Watching You”.

Kate’s Review: “Dead Weight”

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

Book: “Dead Weight” by Hildur Knútsdóttir & Mary Robinette Kowal (Translator)

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, May 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: An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs—or even bodies—in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of The Night Guest.

Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.

Trying to do the right thing, Unnur reunites the lost pet with its owner—a young woman named Ásta who is in desperate need of some help. Unnur reluctantly agrees to take in the cat until Ásta is able to care for it again herself.

Soon, Ásta becomes a fixture in Unnur’s life and the two form an unlikely friendship. But like a black cat, trouble is tailing Ásta, and Unnur is the only one there when things take a violent turn.

Nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novella!

I’m a big fan of stories that like to talk about women’s rights AND women’s wrongs, and especially love stories like that if it’s a cathartic story about women getting revenge on the men that cause them harm. Basically I love a story that has a “Goodbye Earl” kinda vibe to it. When I read the description of Hildur Knútsdóttir’s “Dead Weight”, I DEFINITELY caught that kind of vibe from it. I enjoyed Knútsdóttir’s previous book “The Night Guest”, and this one sounded perhaps less strange, but still very much my thing. I jumped in and was pleased that not only did it have the ‘get revenge’ theme, but also CATS!

This novella is definitely more of a thriller than a horror story this time around, but Knútsdóttir still manages to find ways to not only bring out suspense but also dread at times. The plot is fairly straightforward as we follow Unnur, a woman living in Iceland who keeps to herself and is carrying on an affair with a married man, convincing herself she’s okay with all of it. One night a cat named Io randomly ends up in her apartment, and a woman named Ásta comes looking. Unnur and Ásta are different in temperament, they get to know each other and Unnur takes on Io (and a surprise kitten!) at Ásta’s behest, as her boyfriend Ragnar doesn’t like the cat and she worries he’d flip about a kitten. As the story quietly unfolds we see more and more hints and evidence that Ragnar is a very dangerous man, we also see two women confiding in each other and finding strength in their friendship as they become closer and danger starts to threaten both of them. It’s pretty clear where this story is going, but I was still kept on the edge of my seat as Knútsdóttir lays out the building blocks for a visceral climax.

I also liked the burgeoning friendship between Unnur and Ásta, and the way that Knútsdóttir compares and contrasts their romantic relationships and deconstructs the different ways that they are toxic. For Ásta it’s pretty straight forward, and Unnur is horrified to see Ásta being dominated and intimidated by her boyfriend Ragnar, and his vileness is pretty apparent with how he treats not only Ásta but also the cats (whose presence has helped Unnur and Ásta bond). But we also see the toxic relationship that Unnur has with her boyfriend Joi, who is married with a family and who has been stringing Unnur along for awhile, making promises that she clings to even though she knows deep down that what she is doing is not only cruel to Joi’s wife, but also to herself. I loved the way that both women could see the damaging facets of their friend’s relationship, but had the blinders put on due to the manipulative and abusive, be it overt or not, relationships they themselves were in. As they disentangle and find connection with each other (and the cats!), we see this really empowering story about female friendship, which has a little bit of the “Goodbye Earl” vibes that I was hoping for.

I definitely enjoyed “Dead Weight”! It’s cathartic and atmospheric and I found it incredibly satisfying.

Rating 8: A quick and enjoyable thriller about friendship, solidarity, and the sour parts of relationships where men mistreat women and the women have to fight back one way or another.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dead Weight” is included on the Goodreads list “Creepy Statue Covers”.

Kate’s Review: “The Drop”

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

Book: “The Drop” by S.R. Masters

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, April 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: A terrifyingly twisty, wholly original thriller following a group of amusement park visitors who get stuck on a roller coaster high above the ground—with no way down.

Six hundred and fifty feet in the air, no one can hear you scream.

Some might say that thirtysomething Cady Ellison landed herself a strange creative career, but Cady finally feels like she’s found her footing. Now an online theme park influencer, she is invited to the opening of a brand-new park by her old friend, Danny, who wants to use her online profile to help build buzz for its flagship ride, Hysteria, a record-breaking 650 foot-tall roller coaster.

When she arrives at the half-complete theme park site in the middle of the desert, Cady is unexpectedly met with her old college friend Femi, an award-winning actor, Naseem, a decorated novelist, and Winston, a member of a popular rock group. Wanting them all to sing the praises of Hysteria online, Danny has arranged an exclusive private ride for them, capped off with the stunning desert sunset. But when their coaster cars get to the top of the first hill, the ride stalls 650 feet above ground. With no one due on site for days and over 100-degree heat awaiting them once the sun rises, the four friends soon realize that they must unravel the secrets from their complicated past if they are to find their way to safety.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

While I can still do some mid level rollercoasters whilst visiting a theme park here or there, it’s been a long time since I could do something really intense. While at Disney World a couple years ago I was fine on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Snow White’s Mine Cart Ride, but I steered clear of the likes of Tron, Space Mountain, and Guardians of the Galaxy. I definitely envy people who can do the big scary coasters (this will be my kid in the future almost assuredly), but I imagine even they would have a problem with being stranded on a rollercoaster ride with no ride operators to be found. That’s basically the premise of “The Drop” by S.R. Masters, a new thriller where a group of friends from university have a reunion at a not yet opened theme park in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, only to be trapped by themselves at the top of the highest coaster in the world. I love creative thriller premises like this, and “The Drop” really leans into the hook with pretty solid results.

Cady is a youtube influencer who reviews and livestreams amusement park rides, and is thrilled when she is contacted by her university friend Danny, who is working for a company that has a theme park being built to be the best in the world. She arrives, sees that hers and Danny’s friends from college Femi, Naz, and Winston, are also there, and Danny puts them in the cars of Hysteria, the tallest rollercoaster in the world, and promises them a good time… Only for the car to stall hundreds of feet above the ground, and Danny to basically ghost them. It’s a good device, and it has a growing dread as the friends go from amused, to irritated, to absolutely horrified that they may be stuck with no help coming, no water, and no shade as the hot sun is set to rise in hours. These kinds of thrillers can be hard to pull off, but when you do pull it off it makes for such an unsettling experience for the reader/viewer. I mean the very idea of being trapped in this way is SO scary to me, especially since it is drawn out and mentally torturous as well as physically. We have reasons as to why this is all happening, and while it’s not super creative or reinventing anything in terms of motivations the setting of being trapped on a coaster more than makes up for it.

But I will admit, I also loved all of the over the top soapiness that came with this book. All of our characters, be they be the ones trapped on the rollercoaster as the night goes on and the threat of desert temps has them terrified, or the ones who have a beef with others, are dramatic and have things they are hiding and stewing over. I found twist after twist and reveal after reveal to be enjoyable and very sudsy, and while some characters felt more caricatures than others, I was definitely turning the pages to see who had backstabbed whom, and how it was all going to shake out after their revelations were out in the open. We get insights not only through their confessions in the moment, but also in flashback sequences for the various players to show where they were coming from when they were making the choices they were making.

If you are looking for a fun read, especially with summer approaching sooner rather than later, “The Drop” is one to add to your to be read pile. And it may put you off rollercoasters for a bit.

Rating 7: A creative thriller with a suspenseful main storyline (and some soapy asides to build the suspense even more) kept me reading and invested.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Drop” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Theme Parks”.