Book List 2021

Release Week Part 2: A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong

Title: A Stranger in Town

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 6)

Release Date: February 9, 2021

Genre: Mystery, horror

My Thoughts: This book. This book. I can’t believe it ended like that but at the same time I really can’t tell you how it ended because I don’t believe in spoilers.

This book was filled with tension, and anticipation that gripped me as I flipped through the digital pages and pretty much left finger imprints on my tablets. I would say this was the most mysterious book of all of the Rockton series, as several different storylines entwined.

When they stumbled across the tourist in the forest I really found myself agreeing with Dalton’s opinion about whether or not people should even be allowed in the Yukon wild. The town and its working are explored even ore in this book, who gets in, who gets out.

We also found out how hostiles were created, and it was intense (apparently that’s the watchword).

Thank you to Kelley Armstrong and her publisher for giving me a free copy of this book.

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Release Week Part 1: A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong including questions with Kelley.

Title: A Stranger in Town

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 6)

Release Date: February 9, 2021

Genre: Mystery, horror

Summary: Detective Casey Duncan has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. Something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.

When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, the sole survivor of a hostile attack, it’s all hands on deck. Even a member of the elusive Rockton council comes in to help. This council member also comes bearing news: Rockton is being shut down due to the hostile situation.

Casey and Eric must now race to save the town that has allowed residents to have a fresh start, away from the mistakes of their past, while also getting to the bottom of this latest attack. 

Continue reading “Release Week Part 1: A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong including questions with Kelley.”
Book List 2021

Countdown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with Alone in the Woods

Title: Alone in the Woods

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 5)

Genre: Mystery, horror

Summary: Every season in Rockton seems to bring a new challenge. At least that’s what Detective Casey Duncan has felt since she decided to call this place home. Between all the secretive residents, the sometimes-hostile settlers outside, and the surrounding wilderness, there’s always something to worry about.

While on a much needed camping vacation with her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, Casey hears a baby crying in the woods. The sound leads them to a tragic scene: a woman buried under the snow, murdered, a baby still alive in her arms.

A town that doesn’t let anyone in under the age of eighteen, Rockton must take care of its youngest resident yet while solving another murder and finding out where the baby came from – and whether she’s better off where she is.

Continue reading “Countdown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with Alone in the Woods”
Book List 2021

Countdown to a Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with Watcher in the Woods

Title: Watcher in the Woods

Series: Rockton (Book 4)

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Summary:

The secret town of Rockton has seen some rocky times lately; understandable considering its mix of criminals and victims fleeing society for refuge within its Yukon borders. Casey Duncan, the town’s only detective on a police force of three, has already faced murder, arson and falling in love in less than the year that she’s lived there. Yet even she didn’t think it would be possible for an outsider to find and cause trouble in the town she’s come to call home.

When a US Marshal shows up in town demanding the release of one of the residents, Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Dalton, are skeptical. And yet only hours later, the marshal is shot dead and the only visible suspects are the townspeople and her estranged sister, in town for just the weekend. It’s up to Casey to figure out who murdered the marshal, and why they would kill to keep him quiet.

Continue reading “Countdown to a Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with Watcher in the Woods”
Book List 2021

Countdown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with This Fallen Prey

Title: This Fallen Prey

Series: Rockton (Book 3)

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Summary:

In This Fallen Prey, the next installment of New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s thriller series, Casey Duncan is about to face her toughest job as police detective in Rockton yet.

When Casey first arrived at the off-the-grid town, an isolated community built as a haven for people running from their pasts, she had no idea what to expect, with no cell phones, no internet, no mail, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. She certainly didn’t expect to be the homicide detective on two separate cases or to begin a romantic relationship with her boss. But the very last thing she expected was for the council to drop a dangerous criminal into their midst without a plan to keep him imprisoned, and to keep others safe.

Of course Oliver Brady claims he’s being set up. But the longer Brady stays in town, the more things start to go wrong. When evidence comes to light that someone inside Rockton might be working as his accomplice, helping him to escape, Casey races to figure out who exactly Brady is and what crimes he’s truly responsible for committing.

In the next page-turning entry in Kelley Armstrong’s gripping series, life in Rockton is about to get even more dangerous.

Continue reading “Countdown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with This Fallen Prey”
Book List 2021

Countown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with A Darkness Absolute

Title: A Darkness Absolute

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 2)

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Buy: Indigo here.

Kobo

Summary:

When experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. What she didn’t expect is that Rockton comes with its own set of secrets and dangers.

Now, in A Darkness Absolute, Casey and her fellow Rockton sheriff’s deputy Will chase a cabin-fevered resident into the woods, where they are stranded in a blizzard. Taking shelter in a cave, they discover a former resident who’s been held captive for over a year. When the bodies of two other women turn up, Casey and her colleagues must find out if it’s an outsider behind the killings or if the answer is more complicated than that…before another victim goes missing.

Continue reading “Countown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with A Darkness Absolute”
Book List 2021

Countown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with City of the Lost

Title: City of the Lost

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 1)

Genre: Mystery, horror

Buy:

City of the Lost on Kobo

Summary:

Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey’s best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana’s husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it’s time for the two of them to disappear again.

Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you’re accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. As a murderer, Casey isn’t a good candidate, but she has something they want: She’s a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn’t the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.

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Book List 2021 · Reviews

Review: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (Read by Isabelle Ruther)

Title: Spoiler Alert

Author: Olivia Dade

Read by: Isabelle Ruther

Trope: Sort of enemies to lovers

Buy: Chapters/Indigo click here. (Affiliate link)

Summary: Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who’s secretly posting fanfiction of his own.

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he’s known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction.

Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.

With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?

Continue reading “Review: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (Read by Isabelle Ruther)”