Tag: Thriller

Kate’s Review: “What’s Yours Is Mine”

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Book: “What’s Yours Is Mine” by Jennifer Jabaley

Publishing Info: Lake Union Publishing, August 2025

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: Determined daughters. Controlling mothers. There’s no such thing as friendly competition in a twisty novel of suspense about ambition, revenge, and unrealized dreams.

Valerie Yarnell is a hardworking single mother who’d do anything for her daughter, Kate. Kate is a dancer with dreams of stardom, just like her talented best friend, Colette. Despite Valerie’s sacrifices, it’s Colette’s mother, former prima ballerina Elise, whom Kate adores. And Colette has become like the practically perfect sister Kate never had. How can Valerie not feel frustrated, ineffectual, and a little jealous of the queen bee of dance moms? Not only has she hijacked her daughter, but Elise is married to the man Valerie pines for.

Rivalries are forming. Tension is mounting. In preparation for an elite dance competition, Kate outshines the more promising Colette onstage, and the pressure is on for Colette to keep her position in the spotlight—and especially to keep her demanding mother happy. Who could have foreseen the violent attack that sabotages everything? Anyone who’s been watching closely.

As ruthless and sinister ambitions are exposed, a media firestorm and an explosive town scandal erupt. Before it’s over, two mothers and two daughters will learn just how fierce and dangerous a rivalry can still get.

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

My kid is five years old and my husband signed her up for soccer this past Spring into Summer. I was talking to book club about this during our cabin weekend and how I’ve somehow been wrangled into the role of ‘soccer mom’ since his work schedule means that more often than not I was the one taking her, and probably will be in the future (as the kid LOVED it), and it was pointed out that at least soccer, comparatively, is cheaper than other popular sports and pastimes (we’re in the land of hockey, after all). One that came up was dance, and I kept thinking about that as I read “What’s Yours Is Mine” by Jennifer Jabaley, a new soapy thriller about teenage dance rivalries spilling into mother’s circles and running amok. It was either a stark reminder that it could always be worse, or a scrying glass into my future (hopefully without the extra drama and bodily harm).

As a thriller, it worked fairly well for me. The set up is simple: Kate and Colette are teenage dancers and best friends, Kate’s mother Valerie being a single mom who works a difficult and time consuming job, and Colette’s mother Elise being a former prima dancer turned powerful and put together housewife. Kate has ambition to be the best, while Elise has that same ambition for her daughter. When it becomes clear that Kate may be outshining Colette, and Kate starts to REALLY want to become the best, tensions rise between friends, and mothers and daughters, until Colette is injured in a suspicious accident. The crux of it is who wants to hurt Colette, and how far are some of these characters willing to go to get what they want? It’s simple, it’s straightforward, but it has a good amount of suspense with lots of suspects, clues, and misdirections to keep me guessing in general. Were all of the reveals surprising? It was a bit of a mixed bag. But the pacing was well done and the suspense was there.

And I mean it’s just so dramatic and soapy, and that is truly my catnip when it comes to domestic thrillers. We have best friends who are now fully competing with each other! We have class wars! We have a former dancer who wants her daughter to be a star no matter what! We have potential affairs! It has so many suds just spilling out of it that I was eating it up and reveling in the histrionics of it all, and I fully mean that in a complimentary kind of way. I liked jumping perspectives between characters so we could get an idea of what they were all thinking, but Jabaley was successful in keeping clues hidden away for the most part even when we were getting into each character’s head. A nice soapy vibe is usually going to be something I like and this book had it and then some.

As a whole I enjoyed “What’s Yours Is Mine”. It has some twists and turns and a lot of dramatics, and if you are still looking for easy poolside reading this summer, this is a good choice.

Rating 8: A tension filled domestic thriller about ambition, rivalry, and passion that kept me guessing and kept me invested. Also, VERY sudsy, which is always a plus.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What’s Yours Is Mine” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but if you like Megan Abbott this will surely be a good fit.

Kate’s Review: “Influencer”

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

Book: “Influencer” by Adam Cesare

Publishing Info: Union Square & Co, October 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy at a panel at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: Aaron Fortin is new in town. He drives a brand-new Acura—a gift from his parents for uprooting him in the middle of senior year. Showing up on his first day at the local public school in that nice of a car? He knows he’ll never blend in, and he doesn’t care to try. The car, the new kid mystique, he can use all that…

Crystal Giordano carpools to the same school in her friend Trevor’s beat-up van. In the van along with Crystal and Trevor are Paul, Harmony, and Gayle. Crystal’s technically part of their misfit group, but most of the time, she feels like she’s the only one who doesn’t fit.

When Aaron Fortin sits at their lunch table, Crystal can see he’s not who he says he is. But how big of a fraud is Aaron Fortin? Crystal clumsily exposes Aaron and becomes his target, falling victim to his insidious campaign to erase her. Only then does she discover who he truly is—and it’s so much worse than she thought.

As her friends begin to follow him one by one, Crystal wonders if she can protect them or if his influence is just too strong.

Review: Thank you to Union Square & Co for giving me a finished copy of this novel at ALAAC25!

So here is a story that perfectly reflects the fates of some of my ARCs. During the ALA Annual Conference in 2024, I picked up an ARC of the book “Influencer” by Adam Cesare. I grabbed it because 1) I have enjoyed other books by Adam Cesare and was happy to see he had a new one, and 2) I just love a thriller or horror story that uses social media influencers as a sticking point in their plots. Fast forward to the ALA Annual Conference in 2025, where I find myself attending a panel that has Adam Cesare, and he is talking about his 2024 “Influencer”…. A book that I wholly left by the wayside the year before. As I listened to him talk I thought to myself ‘ah shit, I really should have read “Influencer” by now, it sounds great’. Well good news! I got a new copy at ALAAC25, and I DID READ IT THIS TIME!

Hooray! (source)

I had a lot of fun with this book! Once it hooked me in the very first chapter (which was a start that had QUITE a shocking bang I must say!), I had a really hard time putting it down. It’s a very readable thriller with a well done narrative structure of two narrators, one being our psychopathic ‘influencer’ Aaron and the other being awkward but observant Crystal. Through both of their perspectives we see the making of a cat and mouse game as Aaron slowly dismantles Crystal’s life and isolates her from her friends, and as Crystal tries to figure out a way to expose him for the dangerous villain he is. We can slowly start to tell what Aaron is plotting on one hand, but on the other we can see Crystal coming up with her own counter moves, and the tension of seeing who ends up on top propels the story. And as someone who used to have an unfortunate hyperfocus on serial killers, I definitely picked up on a lot of what Cesare was referencing. It’s also just a wicked take on how social media stars and influencers build upon parasocial relationships to create a profit, whether that’s money in our world or Manson-like control and violence mongering to make oneself feel powerful in the story at hand. Cesare isn’t afraid to really go balls to the wall in disturbing content in this book, but it makes his point (also, note that this book has instances of animal abuse, sexual assault, and many murders including that of a pregnant person, just to put some content warnings out there. Also, the book has a page of content warnings to refer to). It’s just a thriller that really worked for me.

But my favorite part of this book was the character of Crystal, our protagonist who can see right through Aaron due to her incredible intuition and pattern recognition. Crystal is very observant and perceptive, but she is also riddled with anxiety and awkwardness and constant worries about the status of her friendships and how her friends perceive her. If we’re being honest, Crystal was a LOT like me in high school, never quite feeling like she totally fit in with her peers and even her friends outside of perhaps one or two exceptions, and I thought that she was very, very endearing because of it. In fact, I also really enjoyed (as much as one can, I suppose as a villain’s perspective!) Aaron’s POV chapters as we see his manipulations, his deviousness, and his absolute sociopathy. It’s a shocking contrast between the two main POVs, and I thought that Cesare nailed both of them pretty well. Some of our supporting characters could have used a bit more oomph, specifically Harmony and Paul, as I felt like I didn’t know them well enough to know if I believed their quite heel turns as happy lapdogs to Aaron’s plots and plans no matter how crazed and violent, but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief a bit just because I enjoyed so many other things about the book.

Me finally getting to “Influencer” took some time, but I’m thrilled I finally got the kick in the pants I needed to pick it up. If you are looking for some more fast and fun reads as the summer winds down, check this one out for sure!

Rating 8: Fast paced, twisted as hell, and suspenseful until the end, “Influencer” is a darker tale from star on the rise author Adam Cesare!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Influencer” is included on the Goodreads list “Fiction About Influencers”.

Kate’s Review: “The Between”

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Book: “The Between” by Tananarive Due

Publishing Info: Harper Perennial, October 2021 (originally published 1995)

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: When Hilton was a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. 

When Hilton’s wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors—macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are these bizarre dreams the dark imaginings of a man losing his hold on sanity—or are they harbingers of terrible events to come? 

As Hilton battles both the sociopath threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep, the line between reality and fantasy dissolves . . . 

Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between is the haunting story of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves as he slowly loses himself. 

Review: Back in 2024 when I read Tananarive Due’s “The Reformatory”, I told myself that once I had processed the absolute magnificence of that book I would need to start reading her back catalog. And it admittedly took me awhile, probably not just because I was processing (out of sight, out of mind is basically how I function, unfortunately). But I finally kicked myself in the pants and told myself READ MORE TANANARIVE DUE, and I decided to go back to her debut novel “The Between”. Staring at the beginning is a very good place to start after all! It helped that it had been re-released a few years ago, and my local library had a copy ready to to! So as I read the story of Hilton James, a Black man who nearly drowned as a child but was saved by his grandmother, and who is now married and having horrifying nightmares AND dealing with racist threats on his family, I could tell from the jump that starting here was the right choice.

My initial thought was, as an elder Millennial horror fan, that this has similar vibes to “Final Destination”, but this came out long before that first movie made its grand entrance into the zeitgeist. So it goes to show that Due was ahead of the curve! I really enjoyed the weird and ever building tension as Hilton starts to have weirder and more distressing dreams, just as his wife (and the entire family really) is getting death threats from a stalker with a racist hatred for the family. It makes for some good muddling of the waters, in that it’s not fully clear if Hilton is really experiencing premonitions or harbingers of doom due to something supernatural, or if it’s because of a very real threat of racist violence against his family. Due taps into both the worldly and otherworldly, and I found myself just completely wound up as Hilton spirals more and more and alienates himself from those he loves as things become more and more out of control for him.

But what really stood out to me, and what I have greatly appreciated in Due’s other work, is her take on American racism and the harm it has caused and continues to cause. Setting aside the strange dreams and setting aside the lapses in memory and setting aside Hilton’s history and his potential outrunning of Death when he wasn’t supposed to, the letters and threats that he and Dede and their children receive are terrifying, vile, and, unfortunately still all too real even in the decades after this book was first published. Hilton has a lot of trauma that has been passed down through the generations as well, and the themes of grief, loss, trauma, and race all come together in ways that are incredibly powerful and absolutely heartwrenching. It’s really terrible that so few things have changed in this country since it was first published in 1995.

“The Between” was a stellar debut from a horror author that I really, really enjoy. I’m glad I went back to Tananarive Due’s first novel, as now I am going to work my way through the rest!

Rating 8: Haunting and incredibly tense, “The Between” is a strong debut from a now legendary horror author.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Between” is included on the Goodreads list “BELLETRIST”.

Kate’s Review: “Not Quite Dead Yet”

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Book: “Not Quite Dead Yet” by Holly Jackson

Publishing Info: Bantam, July 2025

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 seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.

She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.

Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder.

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

I’ve been on the Holly Jackson hype train for a few years now, having read most of her books and enjoying all of them to varying degrees. But imagine how surprised and excited I was when I found out that she had written a new thriller for an adult audience instead of the expected YA crowd. “Not Quite Dead” yet is her adult debut, and boy does it have a banger of a premise: a woman named Jet is brutally attacked, leaving her with a brain aneurysm that is going to eventually kill her in a few days time, and she decides to use her final days to figure out who killed her. If that doesn’t grab ya, I don’t know what will. And WOW. I absolutely loved this book.

No doubt in my mind this is going to be on my Top 10 list of this year. (source)

As a mystery and thriller, I was pretty much hooked on this book from the moment I picked it up until the moment I finished. Jackson has crafted well done mysteries in the past, but this one, for me, is her at her best. I think that perhaps because it’s for adults this time around she has a little more freedom to explore the darker tendencies, and in “Not Quite Dead Yet” explore she does. I thought that the mystery about who attacked/will ultimately kill Jet was well done, with a town full of secrets, a family full of problems, and a very plucky but addled amateur detective at the forefront. The idea of having to solve one’s own murder is horrifying, and we have lots of clues, lots of suspects, and some well done misdirections and some well done reveals as well. While I could call a few things here and there, I was mostly kept in the dark, and Jackson really keeps things tight lipped and well hidden until she’s ready to start explaining. Jet and her friend Billy follow leads, find suspects, and look for clues, all while her health continues to deteriorate, and the very enjoyable mystery mixed with a building dread of her about to die at any moment made for a LOT of suspense as I read.

But the heart and soul of this story is Jet and the ever present reality of her imminent mortality as she races the clock to solve her eventual murder. Jackson has always had a knack for writing witty dialogue and interesting and well rounded protagonists, but she really takes the cake with Jet, who is snarky and steely and a pain in the ass while also being incredibly vulnerable and easy to care about. The messy family dynamics, her chronic illness and the way it affects her relationships with those around her, the way she has to peel back really dark and upsetting truths about people and things she thought she knew, it’s an amazing emotional journey, and the fact that she is going to die soon and knows it makes it all the more emotional. Her relationship with childhood best friend Billy was also one of the strongest pillars of this story, as her rough around the edges personality combined with his gentle soul as they desperately search for answers makes for a wonderful duo. Sometimes with foregone conclusions when it comes to characters stories I don’t find myself getting too attached, but Jet? Good lord did I absolutely adore Jet, and that made all the emotional beats resonate all the more.

“Not Quite Dead Yet” is a fantastic mystery with a deep emotional well it pulls from. I absolutely loved it. I hope that Holly Jackson writes more adult thrillers because this one was tops.

Rating 10: A suspenseful mystery with some perfect twists, and enjoyable main character, and a deeply emotional core, “Not Quite Dead Yet” is a fantastic adult debut for Holly Jackson.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Not Quite Dead Yet” is included on the Goodreads list “Mystery & Thriller 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Everyone Is Lying To You”

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

Book: “Everyone Is Lying To You” by Jo Piazza

Publishing Info: Dutton, July 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC25.

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

Book Description: Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college. After graduation, Bex vanished, leaving Lizzie confused and devastated.

Fifteen years later, Bex is now Rebecca Sommers, a “traditional” Instagram influencer with millions of followers who salivate over her perfect life on her ranch with her five children and handsome husband, Gray. Lizzie is a struggling magazine writer, watching reels while her young children demand her attention.

One night out of the blue, Bex calls Lizzie with a career-making proposition—an exclusive interview with her about her multimillion-dollar business venture and an invitation to MomBomb, the high-profile influencing conference.

At the conference, Bex goes missing and Gray is found brutally murdered on their ranch. Lizzie finds herself plunged into the dark side of the cutthroat world of social media that includes jealousy, sordid affairs, swingers, and backstabbing. She must learn who her old friend has become and who she has double-crossed to try to find her, clear her name, and maybe even save her life.

Piazza’s master storytelling and razor-sharp insight into the world of social media brings us a pulpy, juicy, and cleverly plotted read that will have you guessing all the way through and leave you gasping for more.

Review: Thank you to Dutton for giving me an ARC at ALAAC25!

In recent years we have seen an uptick in ‘tradwife’ content online. For those unaware, tradwife influencers generally create content surrounding traditional family values, homemaking, motherhood, and pushing a conservative (and oftentimes far-right) agenda. It’s interesting seeing it play out as our societal Overton Window in the U.S. has shifted further right, making these influencers centerpieces of aspirational ‘and you can be an ideal traditional housewife and mother too!’ content, even though by being incredibly successful (and certainly monetized) influencers they are already not following the ‘be a submissive homemaker’ ideal they are pushing but being the actual breadwinner who supports their families with their content creation more than many of their husbands do. This kind of stuff fascinates and unsettles me, and when I heard that Jo Piazza had a tradwife centered murder mystery coming out called “Everyone Is Lying To You” I knew that I HAD to read it. And man, it was great.

At the heart of “Everyone Is Lying To You” are two women, who are both wives and mothers and who were best friends in college but lost touch for years. We have Lizzie, a determined journalist who works for a women’s publication, but has been struggling to adjust to working passion and becoming a mother to two children with a newly unemployed husband (who is supportive and great but a little aimless). The other is Rebecca, formerly Bex, who is a very popular family influencer who shows off her perfect marriage on a sprawling ranch while she raises six kids and homesteads with her traditional and conservative husband Gray. Rebecca reaches out to Lizzie promising her a juicy story if she attends the biggest female/family centered influencer convention, and while they are there Bex disappears and Gray is murdered on the ranch. We follow Lizzie’s perspective as she tries to figure out if her friend is a murderer whilst also fending off gossipy and perhaps cutthroat influencers, finding pieces of the puzzle and hoping to clear Bex while also wondering if she is actually a murderer. Piazza has some solid pacing, some really well done reveals and twists, and has so many misdirects and suspects that I really was kept guessing for most of the story. Hell, it was so well done that I didn’t even roll my eyes at any of the more out there reveals, as the story itself was so strong that it was easily forgivable.

The mystery of a murder and tradwife influencers is great, and I was already fully in, but it’s the two women we are following that really made this story a true knockout for me. I found Lizzie to be incredibly relatable, as a woman who never really took to the motherly instincts that we are told we all have, and who feels frazzled and sometimes overwhelmed by her family and the expectations that come with being a mom even if she really really loves every bit of her kids and her husband. But it was Rebecca/Bex that really shined, as we slowly learn her story through her perspective chapters and how she has ended up incredibly famous, while hiding so many of the darker aspects of her life because it would hurt the brand she has built around herself, and because she doesn’t want the world to know what her husband is really like. It was pretty clear to me that a lot of the inspiration for her was from Hannah Neeleman, aka Ballerina Farm (if you want a summary of the really insidious undertones of Hannah and her creepy husband’s vision, Jordan and McKay have a GREAT breakdown as former Mormons who have a lot of insight, or a REALLY deep dive from Fundie Fridays that postulates it’s pure Christian Nationalist propaganda), and Piazza makes Rebecca incredibly easy to root for while also making it hard to know if she could be capable of murder. I loved Rebecca’s chapters and wanted the best for her, even when I didn’t know if she was a killer or not.

In instances like this I’m down to support women’s rights AND wrongs. (source)

And finally, Piazza clearly knows her stuff when it comes to influencers and tradwife Internet/media content, because she knows all the ins, outs, controversies, and hypocrisies and finds ways to showcase them front and center. Whether it’s women who peddle wellness lifestyles while doing not so healthy things off camera, or mommy influencers who hide their nannies from the camera, or women who feel like they have to promote really exploitative things, usually at their children’s expense, for clicks and engagement, this book tackles a LOT and makes it snappy, cutting, and incredibly engaging. It’s such a great deconstruction of all the hypocritical and damaging things that tradwife content promotes as ideal, and I savored every bit of it.

“Everyone Is Lying To You” is a fast and addictive thriller with a bit of satirical bite to it. It’s a surefire winner for summer reading, and I really, really loved it.

Rating 9: I mean this book was basically written for me and all of my special interests and I was totally absorbed by all of it. PERFECT summer reading.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Everyone Is Lying To You” is included on the Goodreads list “Fiction About Influencers”.

Kate’s Review: “With A Vengeance”

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

Book: “With A Vengeance” by Riley Sager

Publishing Info: Dutton, June 2025

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

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

Book Description: One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.

In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.

Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.

But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge—and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.

With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them—even though it means putting her own life at risk.

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

For me, summer has some guarantees that I can always count on, and one of those things is a new Riley Sager book. I’ve been reading a Riley Sager book every summer for the past eight years, starting with “Final Girls” and going with a new book every year from there. It’s just a staple of the season to me. And because of this it was obvious that I was going to read his newest novel “With A Vengeance”. It’s just what summer brings. I know that Sager has his fans and his detractors, but I haven’t had a bad experience with any of his books, finding all of them at the very least entertaining and ultimately good reads. That is, until now.

Hey, eight out of nine ain’t bad, right? (source)

But first the good. I an always respect and author who wants to switch things up in their writing, and “With A Vengeance” is a huge tone shift for Sager, as the sub-genre is an Agatha Christie-esque locked door mystery and the time period if post-WWII 1950s America. It’s a huge shift from his previous works, and I definitely applaud him taking this risk. I also think that he has the bare bone foundation of a solid locked room mystery, with a dubious cast of characters who could all be suspects, and with a pretty well thought out motivation at the heart of Anna wanting revenge for her brother’s and father’s deaths and her ruined life, as well as having pretty clear reasons for many of the conspirators that sought to take her father down. Sager has a solid set up here, I can’t deny that.

But the execution was off. There were so many twists and turns that were supposed to be interesting and scandalous, but they were either predictable, or they just felt like they were too many things going on at once. We’d have one solution, only to have another new solution, only to backtrack on ANOTHER solution, with a few obvious red herrings thrown in that didn’t really work. By the time we got to the third or fourth shocking twist, I was pretty much over it, and I was just ready for the train to pull into the station so that it could all be over and done with. On top of that, while I thought that the characters had believable motivations to want to set up Anna’s father to take a pretty horrendous fall, I didn’t feel like I got to know ANY of them beyond their villainy (with one possible exception I won’t spoil here, but their reasoning was at least humanizing to the character which made them a bit more interesting), or their need for revenge in Anna’s case. Anna also didn’t do much for mer, as her rage and desire to get her vengeance was understandble, but there wasn’t much else to her, which made her less interesting and made her less likable because of it. I know that Sager can be pretty hit or miss for lots of people when it comes to his protagonists, but this was the first time I just really didn’t care about a main character in one of his books. I really and truly wanted more and it just sputtered out.

“With A Vengeance” had so much potential but never quite reached it. I’m not giving up on Sager after one misstep, but as someone who has been a staunch defender of him in the past, it was a disappointment to be sure.

Rating 5: While I appreciate Sager experimenting with other sub-genres of thrillers, “With A Vengeance” was too muddled and didn’t have enough well developed characters to really endear me to the story.

Reader’s Advisory:

“With a Vengeance” is included on the Goodreads list “Haunting Books For A Stormy Night”.

Kate’s Review: “The Whyte Python World Tour”

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

Book: “The Whyte Python World Tour” by Travis Kennedy

Publishing Info: Doubleday, June 2025

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: It’s Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring drummer Rikki Thunder, life is good—even if he is sleeping in a condemned paint store and playing with a band that’s going nowhere. But when he gets a shot to join L.A.’s hottest up-and-coming band, Whyte Python, Rikki’s young life turns up to 11. Soon he has a hit single scorching up the charts, and the new love of his life in the audience. Rikki couldn’t ask for anything more.

But good fortune can be deceiving. With the Cold War breathing its last gasps and American music blasting through the Iron Curtain, a youth revolution is taking hold – and a hair band is unknowingly playing host to the final battle for the hearts and minds of the Eastern Bloc. Rikki Thunder soon realizes there is a deeper web of influence propelling Whyte Python, and the stakes for his mission—to spread peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe—are far more dangerous than he could ever imagine.

Raucously funny and refreshing, The Whyte Python World Tour is a head-banger of a debut, steeped in ‘80s music culture nostalgia and international suspense.

Review: Thank you to Wunderkind PR for sending me an ARC of this novel!

In the past few years I have fully embraced my love for glam metal. My husband has been a big Motley Crue fan since we were teenagers, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized that I, too, love the over the top melodramatics of hair metal and the spandex and make up and androgyny that goes with it. So when I was asked if I wanted to check out “The Whyte Python World Tour” by Travis Kennedy, I couldn’t help but say yes. The idea of a tongue in cheek music story with hints of “Spinal Tap” and ‘Behind the Music’ lunacy mixed with a Cold War Espionage tale is so funny to me. Because why would you want a hair metal band involved in global politicking and coups?!

This may be a deep cut, but it’s too perfect to pass up. (source)

This is part espionage thriller, part raucous coming of age rock and roll tale, and while it doesn’t take itself too seriously it also never treads into cheap laughs or lazy tropes. We follow Rikki Thunder, a young hair metal drummer in L.A. right as the Cold War is starting to see serious cracks in 1989. He is recruited to be the new drummer for the hot band Whyte Python, but what he (and the band itself) doesn’t know is that everything is being manipulated by the C.I.A. in hopes of brining the rebellion of hair metal to the U.S.S.R. and starting a rebellion by the youth. We have Rikki’s POV, but we also follow members of the agency, including his handler who calls herself Tawny and presents herself as a rock and roll groupie. I really enjoyed both of these perspectives, whether it’s golden retriever and deeply earnest Rikki, or the Cold War politics and spy thrills of Tawny and the agency trying to pull off a glam metal fueled revolution. It’s a bit of a goofy premise. but Kennedy leans fully in and I found it entertaining and at times very suspenseful. It is also very funny at times, and I found myself laughing throughout the story at the ludicrous situations and musings that Rikki and his fellow cast members would get into.

But this book is also such a love letter to glam metal and its entire essence and aesthetic. Whether that is the Southern California roots that Whyte Python has, or the fashion styles described in this book, or the little nods to other legendary bands, be it directly or indirectly (I mean come on, Rikki’s love interest/handler gives herself the name Tawny. I said to myself ‘yeah, as in KITANE!!!’ when we first met her), this book clearly adores the entire oeuvre of hair metal. I enjoyed the moments of Rikki interacting with his bandmates, and even real life people (there is a scene between him and Brett Michaels that was practically killing me), and I also enjoyed the way that Kennedy shows how powerful and unifying music can be for people of many backgrounds and experiences. It’s just such a wholesome concept, and it really reminded me of the original premise of the “Bill and Ted” movies about how hair metal could change the world for the better. In a time where cynicism has really taken root and some really dark things have been happening, it was just a nice balm, even if for a moment.

“The Whyte Python World Tour” is an entertaining and heartfelt read that centers a healthy affection for glam metal music and the power it holds. I really enjoyed it.

Rating 8: A tongue in cheek, goofy espionage thriller with a glam metal sheen, “The Whyte Python World Tour” is entertaining, funny, and filled with heart and a love for the power of music.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Whyte Python World Tour” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists a of now, but it would fit in on “Fiction Involving Rock/Pop Music”.

Kate’s Review: “Never Flinch”

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Book: “Never Flinch” by Stephen King

Publishing Info: Scribner, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: I am always so happy whenever Stephen King has a new book coming out. I’m happy he’s still writing, I’m happy he’s still consistent with his novel release timelines (usually about once a year), and I’m happy that he is still giving attention and voice to Holly Gibney, his somewhat quirky but incredibly competent private detective. I pre-ordered “Never Flinch”, his newest Holly thriller, and devoured it pretty quickly. Little did I know as I was reading it how tragically relevant some parts of it would feel her in Minnesota.

I’m always happy to see Holly Gibney at the forefront of one of King’s books, and I know that can be a polarizing stance to take. But she has grown and changed so much as a character while also retaining the things that make her what I would expect from her as a character, and in “Never Flinch” we see her back in action. This time she is in a dual role of unofficial consultant to her detective friend Izzy as a serial killer terrorizes Buckeye City, but also as a bodyguard for a polarizing feminist speaker/activist named Kate McKay as she goes on a tour with a violent stalker hot on her trail. It’s quite the caseload for Holly, but it never feels like it’s too much, and King devotes a solid amount of time to both stories, as well as a few seemingly side stories and perspectives that he weaves together with ease. I was a bit shocked at how much he was taking on in this book, because it is a LOT, but he manages, and barely skips a beat.

Holly remains a delight, her ‘quirks’ (aka neurodivergence) still feeling highly relatable and not cartoonish, and he has really fine tuned her personality and thought process. She’s a detective I love following, and I love seeing her interact with her friends, as well as with more adversarial people, whether it’s potential suspects, or even Kate, who is pretty aggravating but also pretty admirable (I really liked the King wanted to make her as complicated as she was; she is absolutely correct and I totally agree with her on so many things, but she is also SO condescending and kind of an asshole, which also makes sense for how she has to steel herself against constant threats and danger). Honestly, most of the characters felt realized. I especially enjoyed the dynamic between Izzy and Holly, as well as the reappearances of Jerome and Barbara Robinson.

That segues well into a couple of stumbles, which I will need to spoil a bit to talk about it, but hopefully not too much. The first is that we got a bit of a repetitive streak with Barbara, in two different ways. The first is that she has once again started to form a friendship with an influential older woman who connects with her on an artistic level, and the other is that she is once again put into danger that Holly has to foil. I didn’t really mind it, really, but I did think that this poor girl has just terrible luck, just awful. The other thing I had, which I will also have to be vague about, was the way one of the antagonists was portrayed when it comes to their motivations. I think that it was treading a little close to some ablism when portraying mental illness, but I don’t think it actually crossed the line. It just got close.

But I do love that King has no qualms wading into political discourse again. Last time he was definitely tearing down the way that COVID was politicized and downplayed in this country when people were dying, and this time he is addressing domestic far right terrorism associated with supposed ‘pro-life’ extremists and the organizations that fund them. With the Kate McKay storyline we also follow a religious zealot who is stalking her and hoping to kill her because of her stance on abortion, and King not only calls out the fanaticism of far right Evangelicals, but also that of the organizations that encourage such violence from their followers whilst shielding themselves and their money from any kind of responsibility. This is an especially sore spot for me right now, as here in Minnesota we just experienced the assassination of State Rep Melissa Hortman (as well as her husband Mark and her dog Gilbert) and the attempted assassination of State Senator John Hoffman (he was shot nine times, his wife Yvette was shot eight, though they are both expected to make a full recovery), who were on a target list that also had the names of abortion providers and activists as well as other lawmakers who had pro-choice stances. These murders happened not too far from where I live, and it has shaken me and filled with with grief and anger. King clearly wanted to make the point that this kind of violent ideology is still a threat, even devoting part of his author’s note to it, and that horrific fact was made all the more clear just this past weekend in my home state, a couple weeks after I had finished the book.

So sure, “Never Flinch” had some plot points we’ve seen before, and sometimes repetitive scenarios, and maybe a bit of a clunky depiction in one of the antagonists. But an underlying point King wanted to make was emphasized in my home state this weekend, which goes to show the man is on to something, and knows how to harness it in a way that makes for a gripping thriller that is also deeply unnerving. And I can’t ever be mad at Holly Gibney.

Rating 8: What can I say? I just love Holly Gibney and I love Stephen King, and “Never Flinch” was entertaining, even with some repetitive plot points we’ve seen before. But it is also far too relevant sadly.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Never Flinch” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025“.

Kate’s Review: “Lady Or The Tiger”

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Book: “Lady Or The Tiger” by Heather M. Hermann

Publishing Info: Nancy Paulson Books, June 2025

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 twisty, darkly seductive murder mystery, starring a teenage killer whose trial in the Wild West is upended when her first victim, her husband, arrives alive with a story to tell.

When nineteen-year-old Belle King turns herself in for murder, the last thing she expects to see is her abusive husband standing outside her Dodge City jail cell. He was the first man she ever meant to kill (but certainly not the last!). Somehow, though, her husband is there, hale and hearty, and very much not dead. With his arrival her plans in jail are jeopardized, and she’ll be forced to resort to all the tricks in her arsenal to prevent him from ever being in control of her again. But as a girl in the 1880s Wild West, the last thing anyone will believe is a woman—even when she confesses to her own crimes.

This story—of how Alice Springer, a mountain girl from Kentucky, became the infamous Belle King, of how she found the tiger in her heart, becoming the wickedest woman in the Wild West—is a love story that cuts through time and patriarchal ties.

Review: Thank you to Books Forward for sending me an ARC of this novel!

As a rule, I don’t usually like the Western genre. I have a few exceptions, of course, but that is usually when the conventions of the genre are flipped on their head. I’ve encountered this in books like “Lone Women” by Victor LaValle and “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones, and it has happend once again with the new YA Western “Lady Or The Tiger” by Heather M. Hermann. When I read the description of this book I knew that I really needed to check it out, and I am so glad I did.

We are following the story of Belle King, previously known as Alice Springer, as she becomes a sought out desperado in the Wild West, murdering men and living life on her own terms. We meet her as she has been arrested, and learn about how she became the fearsome villainess through flashbacks and jumping around timelines, showing how she became the hardened woman we meet at the start. Hermann takes her time unwinding this complicated, bleak, and at times absolutely maddening story, revealing the cost of being a woman during this time in a place that was almost wholly lawless, while also contrasting how it was STILL dangerous for women even if they were doing everything ‘right’. We follow Belle go from being orphaned, to being institutionalized, to being forced into the role of child bride, and then get to see her find her freedom, even if maintaining it means committing murder. This is not a romanticized Western by any means, and I loved how frank and brutal it was, with so many moments of tension just twisting up as I was reading it. We see violent misogyny, we see racism, we see classism and colonialism, and the realities of this time and place is on display in all of its nastiness. I was a bit shocked that this book is YA, but I like that Hermann trusts her readers to be able to understand it and take it on.

I also really liked our main character, Alice/Belle, because I absolutely LOVE seeing a morally grey female protagonist. It isn’t too often that women in fiction are afforded the opportunity to be unlikable, difficult, and sometimes unapologetically cruel, but Alice/Belle does a lot of really morally questionable things and I still found myself rooting for her. Hermann takes great care to give her a backstory without making her sappy or cloying, while also making her choices, both gook and bad, completely believable and in general easy to understand. Even in the times that I was taken aback by some of the things she did, her actions always fell in line with what I expected, and her circumstances were such that I never really questioned it. It’s so often in the Western genre that we get morally grey men to follow, so seeing a woman, when women are mostly sidelined or made passive in Westerns, take on the role of the desperado while also making it unapologetically feminist, was deeply, deeply satisfying.

“Lady Or The Tiger” is a relentless and angry battle cry of feminine rage. I am absolutely going to check out whatever Heather M. Hermann takes on next, because this was a stellar take on a genre I don’t usually enjoy.

Rating 8: Gritty, unapologetic, and brutal in all the right way, “Lady Or The Tiger” is a Western filled with feminine rage and proud defiance.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Lady Or The Tiger” is included on the Goodreads list “2025 YA Historical Fiction”.

Kate’s Review: “Bald-Faced Liar”

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

Book: “Bald-Faced Liar” by Victoria Helen Stone

Publishing Info: Lake Union Publishing, June 2025

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: Living a lie becomes a matter of life and death for a woman hiding from her past in a novel of mounting psychological suspense by the bestselling author of Jane Doe and The Hook.

Traveling nurse Elizabeth May has a promising new home in Santa Cruz. And another new identity. It’s a pattern of reinvention for a woman escaping her traumatic childhood—and hiding from the decades of notoriety and destruction that followed. Invisibility has kept Elizabeth safe. Until now. After all these years, someone sees her for who she is.

Threat by threat, a vengeful stalker is dismantling Elizabeth’s carefully constructed lifetime of lies. And no one in her temporary circle can be trusted—not her fleeting new love interest, not the supportive friend she knows only from online forums, and certainly not the police. They’ve never been there for her.

As fear sharpens to terror, Elizabeth soon discovers something about her past that even she didn’t know. The revelation could finally set her on a path of healing and redemption. Or, now alone in the dark, it could be Elizabeth’s worst nightmare.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Perhaps, if you have been following our blog for awhile now, you will see that I have picked up a thriller with a pretty significant Satanic Panic theme, and are now asking yourself ‘hey, doesn’t Kate get absolutely incandescent with rage when it comes to this topic?’ And you would be correct. The Satanic Panic really gets me steamed, so much so that I have been known to skip episodes of favorite podcasts if they are focusing on it. FAVORITE PODCASTS, GUYS. But when I was sent information about “Bald-Faced Liar” by Victoria Helen Stone, even though it was Satanic Panic themed, I had a feeling that I really wanted to give it a chance. The description of a traveling nurse named Elizabeth being stalked, possibly due to her long ago involvement in a false accusation of Satanism at her daycare, just tantalized me. I had to give it a go, even if it was going to set me off. And I’m happy to say that not only did it NOT set me off, I also really liked this book!

The mystery at hand about who is stalking Elizabeth is well crafted and well executed. Triggering for me or not, using The Satanic Panic as a backdrop means that there could be PLENTY of people with motives to get revenge on Elizabeth, and Stone has so many threads here that she pulls together. The clues are there but not too easily deciphered, and Stone takes her time to lay them out and build the suspense of Elizabeth’s past as well as the stalking incidents that start to plague her. I also liked the slow burn mystery of Elizabeth’s history of being a five year old ‘witness’ to Satanic Panic charges that she was coached to say, with a timeline being put forth in a measured way that filled me with frustration but NOT with blinding rage as I have experienced with other Satanic Panic themed thrillers. Some reveals I kind of predicted, but for the most part I was pretty well surprised, and was VERY surprised by an element of the climax that I don’t want to spoil here. But I will say that it went in a direction that I wasn’t expecting, and it added a new level of stakes, AND some genuine humor that didn’t feel out of place even though things were a bit, shall we say, hectic.

I also really liked our protagonist Elizabeth. I am always cagey when I read thrillers with hot mess female protagonists, but Elizabeth doesn’t really fall into any well worn traps or tropes of the genre. She has her problems, but her background with the Satanic Panic and the trauma involved with being a false whistleblower was unique enough made her very sympathetic and her actions completely believable. I also really appreciated the grace that was given to Elizabeth by other characters in spite of her notoriety, because at the end of the day she was a child when she did those monumental and damaging things. I’ve seen other Satanic Panic based stories that try to demonize this kind of character, but Stone makes it VERY clear that no, a five year old being manipulated and coerced by adults around her for their OWN motives should not be held accountable for her actions. I was rooting for her basically from the jump. Honestly, I thought that all of the characters were fun! Be it librarian Violet, who wants to help Elizabeth in any way she can, to landlord Grigore, who is a bit shady but who has a soft spot for Elizabeth, I thought that our cast was stellar.

I really enjoyed “Bald-Faced Liar”. The twists were good, the characters were enjoyable, and I think it will make a great read for thriller fans this summer!

Rating 8: A taut and suspenseful thriller about lies, trauma, and running from all of it, “Bald-Faced Liar” kept me on the edge of my seat.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bald-Faced Liar” isn’t included on any super specific Goodreads lists as of yet, but similar titles include Clay McLeod Chapman’s “Whisper Down the Lane” and Gillian Flynn’s “Dark Places”.