Kit is Natalie’s younger sister, and she has been incommunicado for 6 months at a wellness retreat. When Natalie received an email from the facility threatening to spill a long kept secret of Natalie’s to Kit, Natalie drops everything and goes to the secluded island retreat to talk to her sister. Strange things happen to her on the island, and Natalie doesn’t understand how her sister can be happy in this environment. Kit’s loyalty to the retreat, Wisewood, seems cult like to Natalie.

A young girl grows up in a house with seemingly arbitrary rules - you must accumulate a certain number of points before you are allowed to sleep, and points are subtracted for weaknesses like crying, faltering, or mistakes. The point system changes, and the girl is always on edge, not knowing how Sir, her father, will treat her each day. He says he wants to push her to endure and succeed, but all she can think about is when she can escape his domineering rule.

These two stories are told in alternating chapters, and the reader must grasp at clues to see how they are connected. Will Natalie come clean to Kit? What is Natalie’s secret, anyway? And how does the mysterious girl play into the storyline? If you enjoy domestic thrillers with suspense and twists, This Might Hurt is for you.

Stephanie Wrobel has come up with another dark, chilling tale that will keep the reader engrossed and eagerly turning pages. Thank you to Ms. Wrobel and Berkley Publishing for the advanced copy!

Pre-order your copy now, and check out Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel in the meantime!!

The Younger Wife will keep you on your toes and make you question everything. You’ll laugh at some of the character quirks, wonder at their motives, and feel happy when they achieve some sort of breakthrough. This is one of my favorites of Sally Hepworth’s novels!

Tully and Rachel have been through a lot throughout their lives, but they don’t share their individual struggles with each other. Until their middle-aged mom going into a care home due to her early onset dementia, and their dad, Stephen, decides to divorce her! To make matters worse, he’s falling in love with their interior designer, who is younger than the sisters. Both sisters are shocked, and work to cope in their own ways - through eating and petty theft. 

While sorting through their mom’s belongings, they find a mysterious note with Tully’s name and an unfamiliar name, Fiona. Although their Stephen denies knowing this name, there‘s something strange about the look on his face and the pause before his denial. 

In the meantime, the new fiancé, Heather, starts having terrible accidents, and she begins to suspect her husband to be is abusing her and lying about it. But she tends to drink and is never quite sure if she can trust her memory. Is Stephen using her drinking to as an excuse to hurt Heather and hide it? Or is Heather imagining his involvement in her accidents? And Rachel and Tully start to suspect things - their mom had a lot of accidents too, but never when she was alone. Is their father an abuser? 

I loved the quirkiness and uncertainty of the characters throughout this novel. As a reader, this propelled me through the book. I laughed, I wondered, I worried, and I couldn’t stop reading!! Throughout the story, the point of view shifts between characters each chapter, and this helps the reader feel they have more of an omniscient view. However, the reader still can’t be sure whom to trust.  Sally Hepworth has written a quirky thriller and domestic drama that I absolutely loved for its reality yet exaggerated character traits. If you enjoy family drama and mysteries with a little bit of a love triangle thrown in there, you won’t want to miss this one!

The saying “money can’t buy happiness” has never been more true than when it comes to Layla and Graham. They have a lifestyle that is unimaginable to most - their glamorous house is built into the side of a mountain, they have staff to take care of their every need, and money to buy anything they want, but yet they are bored. Instead of seeking adrenaline in a more traditional manner by skydiving or another risky hobby, they choose to rent out the house below them and then “play games” to mess with the tenant’s life. Does their tenant have a family? No problem, they’ll stage an affair and gambling problem. Or maybe they’ll find a way to get the tenant hooked on drugs. Or maybe they’ll make the tenant so miserable that they will commit suicide. It doesn’t matter, as long as the tenant loses and Graham is entertained. 

Now it’s Layla’s turn to prove herself to Graham. Can she make the new tenant miserable and destroy her life? Or will the new tenant “win”?

Good Rich People is twisted, gruesome, messy, and quite the page turner! As much as I would cringe on one page, I’d need to keep reading the next to uncover the next grisly turn of events. Kudos to Eliza Jane Brazier on a thriller that was both macabre and enthralling!

Thanks to Berkley Books and Eliza Jane Brazier for the advanced copy! Good Rich People is on shelves today, January 25. Be sure to check it out!

Natalie has discovered that her husband, Michael, had an affair. She has witnessed him turn violent several times, and is petrified for the safety of her children if she confronts him. Instead, Natalie decides to take their two young children and run, and when she is safely hidden away, file for divorce. However, her plan doesn’t go as smoothly as she hoped, and Michael is working to hunt her down. 

On the other hand, Michael is worried sick about his children. He knows that Natalie is struggling from the effects of significant, long term insomnia, to the point that she has been hallucinating. When his family goes missing, he is desperate to find them, as he fears what will happen as Natalie’s insomnia causes her to be increasingly delusional. 

I’ve heard that there are 3 version of every event - yours, mine, and what actually happened. My Wife is Missing leaves the reader continuously questioning whose version of events is accurate. Is Natalie reliable as a narrator, or is she paranoid? Is Michael a violent man, or the victim of his wife’s delusions brought on by her insomnia? As the tale unfolds and we learn more about each character, we are caught up in an increasingly complex web of events that propel us forward to a dramatic conclusion. 

My Wife is Missing has elements of mystery, drama, psychological thrillers, and a parents worst nightmare. Don’t miss out on this one!! Coming to bookshelves near you May 10, 2022, but available for pre-order already! Thank you to D.J. Palmer, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the early copy!

Heartbreaking and gut wrenching. The Last House on the Street is an utterly captivating and horrific story about racism in the south and irreparable divides in a family.

Ellie is coming into her own in the 1960s, and becomes passionate about equal rights. She joins SCOPE, an organization that was working to inform black US citizens about a possible change to voter registration laws, against her parents wishes. 

Kayla is a widowed architect, raising her little girl in her own and moving into the house that she and her husband designed prior to his untimely death. She runs into present day Ellie, who seems very different from the Ellie of the 1960s.

As the dual storyline emerges, we learn more about Ellie’s experiences while working for SCOPE, including needing to hide from whites while canvassing with black SCOPE volunteers. Ellie is passionate about civil rights, and working for SCOPE helps her see the great divide in living conditions and opportunities for blacks and whites, as well as the blatant racism of the KKK and towards blacks in general. However, her passion for this cause has repercussions for her family - her dad loses customers, her mom is kicked out of bridge club. Ellie is forever changed, and cannot go back to living her old life. 

Frightening things begin happening to Kayla and her daughter as she prepares to move into her new home. A strange woman threatens her, her daughter disappears. 

Who doesn’t want Kayla in the house at the end of the street? What catalyzed the changes that we see in Ellie? This is one you won’t be able to put down. Diane Chamberlain has eloquently put into words the horror of racism while weaving a compelling narrative around this tragedy. 

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy.