Book List 2026

Review: First Sign of Danger by Kelley Armstrong

Title: First Sign of Danger
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Haven’s Rock (Sequel series to Rockton)
Note: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Summary: Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven’s Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven’s Rock, they realize they’re in danger of being exposed. 

When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they’re no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven’s Rock. Only by tracing the hikers’ movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down. Otherwise, the lives of everyone in Haven’s Rock—and their safe, secure new existence—are at risk.

My Thoughts:

Characters

The characters in Kelley Armstrong’s books are always standouts for me and the strength that Dalton and Casey began with only continues to grow and solidify. April is quickly becoming a fave as well. Casey remains a total badass, even as a mom and I love her all the more for it.

As always there is a background cast of characters who I adore, such as Will, Kenny and others.

Setting

I am so sad to hear we will soon be saying goodbye to the Yukon as this is the second last book in the series (who knows maybe we’ll get another sequel series). It remains equally beautiful and dangerous to those arrogant enough to venture without the proper preparedness required. And sadly, someone keeps finding bodies (ahem, Casey, ahem), which could really put a cramp in the whole situation

The plot

This book was exactly the mystery I was looking for and then some, with a little bit of thriller thrown in for good measure. There are so many twists and turns every time I thought I had something figured out I ended up being wrong.

It’s a pleasure to read a book and not be able to figure out what’s happening until you get hit with that moment of clarity and realize there were clues you missed all along.

Book List 2025 · Reviews

Review: The Entanglement of Rival Wizards

Title: The Entanglement of Rival Wizards
Author: Sara Raasch
Series: Magic and Romance
Release Date: August 26, 2025
About this Book: Here
Source: Local bookstore.
Would I buy it as a gift for others? Absolutely. It’s so good.

My Thoughts:
Cause of my bruised heel? Me kicking my feet into the arm of the couch while reading.

I loved this book more than most words can say which is why it’s taken me days to figure out it out.

Sara Raasch creates characters I can’t help but immediately fall in love with, whether they are the central characters in the book or background characters who are amazing. This book, my third of hers, and the first in a new series is no exception to that rule. This book was partly inspired by Critical Role which just made me fall in love with it even more.

Continue reading “Review: The Entanglement of Rival Wizards”
Book List 2025 · Reviews

Review: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave

Title: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave
Author: Elle Cosimano
Series: Finlay Donovan
TW: Domestic Abuse, Cheating
About this Book: Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.

When the focus of the investigation widens to include Finlay’s ex-husband, Steven, though, Finlay and Vero are left with little choice but to get closer to Mrs. Haggerty and uncover her secrets . . . before the police start digging up theirs. But who will solve the mystery first?

My Thoughts:

Continue reading “Review: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave”
Book List 2025 · Reviews

Review: Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson

Title: Death at Morning House
Author: Maureen Johnson
TW: Talk of eugenics, not the main character.
About this Book: The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.

With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.

Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?

Maybe this job isn’t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that’s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing.

All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down—if someone doesn’t bury Marlowe first.

Continue reading “Review: Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson”
Book List 2025 · Reviews

Review: Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

Title: Nine Liars
Author: Maureen Johnson
Series: Truly Devious
About this book: Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.

Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an axe.

The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.

Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.

Continue reading “Review: Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson”
Book List 2025 · Reviews

Review: Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Cold as Hell
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Haven’s Rock
Trigger Warning: Emotional abuse, cheating (not the MC’s), torture, murder, giving birth in dangerous situations.

About this Book: Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. A resident gets drugged, and then another goes missing and is found dead, and it’s time to figure out not only who committed these crimes but if the screening process they have in place is secure enough.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and honestly? It scared the shit out of me.

Continue reading “Review: Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong”
Book List 2025 · Reviews

Review: As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson

Title: As Good as Dead
Author: Holly Jackson
Series: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Genre: YA, Mystery/Thriller

About this Book: This book is a mystery/thriller starring a teenage true crime podcaster set in either Connecticut or England depending on where you live and what version of the book has been sold to you.

It is the third book in a trilogy, about Pip, who started out in book one solving the disappearance of one of her schoolmates and the suicide of another.

In this book she is ready to head off to college, but unlike a lot of her friends and classmates she is a little less than excited, consumed by the last case she worked on.

Continue reading “Review: As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson”
Book List 2023 · Reviews

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano

Title: Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice
Author:
Elle Cosimano
Series:
Finlay Donovan
Source:
Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre:
Mystery, Thriller.
Trigger Warnings:
Violence, death, wouldn’t say too graphic but take care of yourself.
Explicit?
Low level spice.
Summary:
Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are in sore need of a girls’ weekend away. They plan a trip to Atlantic City, but odds are―seeing as it’s actually a cover story to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero’s childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car―it won’t be all fun and games. When Finlay’s ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on tagging along too, Finlay and Vero suddenly have a few too many meddlesome passengers along for the ride.

Within hours of arriving in their seedy casino hotel, it becomes clear their rescue mission is going to be a bust. Javi’s kidnapper, Marco, refuses to negotiate, demanding payment in full in exchange for Javi’s life. But that’s not all―he insists on knowing the whereabouts of his missing nephew, Ike, who mysteriously disappeared. Unable to confess what really happened to Ike, Finlay and Vero are forced to come up with a new plan: sleuth out the location of Javi and the Aston Martin, then steal them both back.

But when they sneak into the loan shark’s suite to search for clues, they find more than they bargained for―Marco’s already dead. They don’t have a clue who murdered him, only that they themselves have a very convincing motive. Then four members of the police department unexpectedly show up in town, also looking for Ike―and after Finlay’s night with hot cop Nick at the police academy, he’s a little too eager to keep her close to his side.

If Finlay can juggle a jealous ex-husband, two precocious kids, her mother’s marital issues, a decomposing loan shark, and find Vero’s missing boyfriend, she might get out of Atlantic City in one piece. But will she fold under the pressure and come clean about the things she’s done, or be forced to double down?

Continue reading “Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano”
Book List 2023 · Reviews

The Boy Who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Boy Who Cried Bear
Author:
Kelley Armstrong
Series: Haven’s Rock
Source:
Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre:
Murder Mystery.
Trigger Warnings:
Kidnapping, child endangerment.
Explicit?
Not explicit, but gruesome.
Summary:
Haven’s Rock is a well-hidden town surrounded by forest. And it’s supposed to be, being that it’s a refuge for those who need to disappear. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton already feel at home in their new town, which reminds them of where they first met in Rockton. And while they know how to navigate the woods and its various dangers, other residents don’t. Which is why people aren’t allowed to wander off alone.

When Max, the town’s youngest resident—taught to track animals by Eric—fears a bear is stalking a hiking party, alarms are raised. Even stranger, the ten-year-old swears the bear had human eyes. Casey and Eric know the dangers a bear can present, so they’re taking it seriously. But odd occurrences are happening all around them, and when a dead body turns up, they’re not sure what they’re up

Continue reading “The Boy Who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong”
Uncategorized

Some of Us Are Looking by Carlene O’Connor – out October 24, 2023

Title: Some of Us Are Looking
Author:
Carlene O’Connor
Series:
County Kerry Mysteries.
Source:
Netgalley. Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre:
Mystery.
Trigger Warnings:
Animal cruelty, torture.
Explicit?
Not in a sexy way but there are semi-graphic depictions of both animals and people being hurt.
Summary:
In late summer, the Dingle peninsula is thronged with tourists drawn to County Kerry’s dark mountains and deep, lush valleys. For Irish vet Dimpna Wilde, who has returned to run her family’s practice after years away, home is a beautiful but complicated place—especially when it becomes the setting for a brutal murder . . . 

In Dimpna Wilde’s veterinary practice, an imminent meteor shower has elevated the usual gossip to include talk of shooting stars and the watch parties that are planned all over Dingle. But there are also matters nearer at hand to discuss—including the ragtag caravan of young people selling wares by the roadside, and the shocking death of Chris Henderson, an elderly local, in a hit-and-run.

Just hours before his death, Henderson had stormed into the Garda Station, complaining loudly about the caravan’s occupants causing noise and disruption. One of their members is a beautiful young woman named Brigid Sweeney, and Dimpna is shocked when Brigid later turns up at her practice, her clothing splattered in blood and an injured hare tucked into her shirt.

Brigid claims that a mysterious stranger has been trying to obtain a lucky rabbit’s foot. Dimpna is incensed at the thought of anyone mutilating animals, but there is far worse in store. On the night of the meteor shower, Dimpna finds Brigid’s body tied to a tree, her left hand severed. She has bled to death. Wrapped around her wrist is a rabbit’s foot.

Brigid had amassed plenty of admirers, and there were tangled relationships within the group. But perhaps there is something more complex than jealousy at play. The rabbit’s foot, the severed hand, the coinciding meteor shower—the deeper Dimpna and Detective Sargeant Cormac O’Brien investigate, the more ominous the signs seem to be, laced with a warning that Dimpna fears it will prove fatal to overlook.

Continue reading “Some of Us Are Looking by Carlene O’Connor – out October 24, 2023”