Heads Will Roll - Josh Winning

 

"After sitcom star Willow tweeted herself into infamy and had to be dragged blind-drunk out of a swimming pool, her agent shipped her off to the woodsy and wonderfully anonymous confines of Camp Castaway. Tucked away in the trees of upstate New York, Castaway is a summer camp for adults in desperate need of leaving behind their mistakes, their social media accounts, their lives. No real names, no phones…no way to call for help.

Willow is relieved to find that her fellow campers seem okay. To her shock, her own favorite actress is here, sitting by the campfire and roasting a s’more. And did that jaded writer, Dani, just wink at her? But the peaceful vibe is shattered when a terrifying woman pops shrieking from the wardrobe in Willow’s room. Soon after, one of the campers vanishes. Is Willow about to get cancelled all over again, this time for good?

Soon, terror grips the group, campers begin to lose their heads—literally!—and Willow and her new friends are on the run. As paranoia grows and disturbing past deeds come to light, this escape from their shallow lifestyles might just lead to a set of shallow graves."

What Worked for Me:

The set up for this worked fantastically.  I loved the idea of this 'unplugged' camp where folks can just decompress and disconnect.  It easily solved the problem in modern slashers of the 'why didn't they just call for help' trope and didn't feel overly contrived.  We get a good mix of characters at this camp - all with different reasons for wanting a reset which helped with the balance.  I also enjoyed the fact that since this camp was basically anonymous, there were some good red herrings when it came to figuring out who the killer might be. 

I also loved the folk horror aspect and there were times where I wondered if we were going to get into supernatural horror territory.  I think the legend was a perfect mix of a little over the top combined with plausible.  Like we could 100% see the real story behind the campfire tale.   

What Didn't Work for Me:

I wanted more character development before the bodies started dropping.  I know that is sort of the point of a slasher is that the characters are basically cannon fodder which normally I'm ok with.  However, with how emotional the other characters got at certain deaths, I felt like there was a disconnect between the characters and the reader.   

I felt the social media message was a little heavy handed in this and at times, felt like this was an 'issue' book instead of a slasher that had some commentary on modern day media.  I think maybe that sort of overt messaging would be better suited for maybe a younger YA book.  I think the message is important, but I just didn't need to be hit over the head with it - the overall plot made the point clear enough.

Most of the kills were off page and the characters would find the body afterwards.  I didn't particularly mind this, at first, due to the overall folk horror elements.  However, there was one fantastic fight scene that just made me wish we got of that action on page.  We do get more as the book progresses, mostly due to the fact that our MC is now involved in the action a lot more, but I think maybe some multi-POV so we could see more of this killer would have been fun.

Overall, I think this just ended up in the 'not quite for me' category.  I really liked the set up and setting, but wanted more character development before the bodies started dropping.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC.  Publication date was July 30, 2024

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret - Benjamin Stevenson

"My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN, THE ASSISTANT, THE EXECUTIVE, THE HYPNOTIST, THE IDENTICAL TWIN, THE COUNSELLOR, THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it. After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?" 

What Worked for Me

Stevenson is wonderfully consistent in this series, so if you enjoyed the first two books I would say 100% pick this one up as well.  We get the same character voice, fun side characters, and interesting investigation plots.  I really love this series so I want to have each of the books be consistent in these ways so I know that when I pick up one of these books, I get what I wanted.  But please don't take that to mean the books are boring or stale - exactly the opposite.  Stevenson does such a great job being consistent with the foundational elements, such as Ernest's voice, that the mysteries can go a little off the rails and the reader is along for the ride. 

I enjoyed that Ernest had extra 'rules' for us this time around given that this was a Christmas special, not just a normal mystery read.  Stevenson did a good job of really capturing the essence of what a Christmas special is.  This series is set in Australia and I believe Stevenson is Australian (although I'm not 100% sure since I could not confirm on his own website) - while I'm American who consumes a good amount of UK/Aussie TV and books. I do find that the execution of the 'Christmas Special' is slightly different in American media vs these other areas and I don't feel that American media really play up these types of specials. That being said, I think the rules we get about what makes a Christmas Special really hit the nail on the head, at least from my experience with UK TV shows, mostly.  

I was sort of expecting this mystery to be a little easier to solve since the book was a bit shorter so I actually paused a few times while reading to really think over the different characters and motives to see if I could figure it out (since Ernest does always give us all the clues, after all).  I couldn't quite put it all together so I was pleasantly surprised with the solution to the mystery.  I think Stevenson does a fantastic job plotting out these mysteries and the different clues/suspects/red herrings.  So far, each of the three books in the series have each felt completely unique and there hasn't been repeated elements that stick out to me.  These are the types of mystery books that I love to read when I want a classic mystery read where we get some bodies dropping, some clues, and a whole cast of characters to evaluate. 

What Didn't Work For Me

This was more of a novella-length read at 192 pages vs the 384/336 pages of the first two books in the series.  As such, I found the pacing a bit rushed to fit in as many investigation twists and turns that we would get usually.  I also thought that the family connection in this book was a bit underplayed and could have had more emotional depth to it in the same way we got some emotional development in the 2nd book if we had just had more pages to explore. 

Overall, this was another fun installment in the series.  I wish it had been longer and the mystery more involved but as Ernest himself said, this was a Christmas Special episode.  I look forward to the next book in the series. 

Romance Wrap-up October 2025

 Dealing with a Desperate Demon - Charlotte Stein

Stein has hit it out of the park yet again!  I really love this series and how much fun and heart it has.  Nancy and Jack are so immediately obviously into each other but they are both playing it cool for reasons that become apparent as the plot goes on.  They were one of those couples where I could see some readers getting frustrated that they wouldn't just tell each other that they liked the other person, but I think Stein does a good job of giving plenty of explanations as to why so this didn't feel like a miscommunication trope book.  Their chemistry was off the charts and I love the dating lessons that Nancy was giving Jack because he was such a cinnamon roll MMC who just wanted to do a good job.  The chemistry between them was absolutely sizzling and I was glad that they were able to act on that chemistry earlier on in the book than I was expecting. We get more world building with the small town setting and even some cameos of the couple from the first book - which is always fun.  Overall, this was a really fun read and I look forward to more books in the series.

Tropes: Supernatural, Dating Lessons, Single POV, Cinnamon Roll MMC

Series: The Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures #2

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.  Publication date was October 7, 2025

My Big Fat Vampire Wedding - Jessica Gadziala

This was a pretty solid book that just didn't quite work out perfectly for my tastes. Based purely on the title - if you liked all the family antics in My Big Fat Greek Wedding - you will like this book.  Unfortunately, I wanted less family and more of our main couple in the book. I get that the whole point of the read is that she a vampire, her whole family are vampires, and he's a human but every time their personal time would get interrupted by someone, I would get frustrated.  Now, that's not to say the family parts were bad or boring - actually I found them to be quite funny and entertaining, but I just thought the balance of the book was leaning a bit too much toward the family antics side.  I thought the chemistry between our two MCs was really great and I loved how their fake dating/marriage of convenience progressed to a real relationship. The spicy scenes were fantastic and really ramped up the romantic tension.  As of now, I can't find any mention of a book 2 in the series, but there were two characters who were certainly set up for one that I would absolutely love to read so I hope we get that book in the future. Overall, this was still a good read, just wish there was a bit less family and a bit more of the main couple.

Tropes: Supernatural, Fake Dating, Marriage of Convenience, Single POV

Series: Standalone

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC.  Publication date was August 14, 2025

The Wasp Trap - Mark Edwards

 "A dinner party in a beautiful Notting Hill townhouse turns into a sinister game, as six old friends are forced to spill their darkest secrets…or else.

Six friends reunite in London to celebrate the life of their recently deceased ex-employer, a professor that brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing.

But what is meant to be a night of bittersweet nostalgia soon becomes a twisted and deadly game when the old friends find themselves held at gunpoint. They are given an ultimatum: reveal their darkest secrets to the group or pick each other off one-by-one.

It soon becomes clear that their current predicament is related to their shared past. The love questionnaire they helped develop in 1999 for the dating site was also turned into a tool for weeding out The Wasp Trap. This and the other tragic events of that summer long ago may help reveal the truth behind a killer hiding in plain sight."

What Worked for Me

If the premise above catches your eye at all, please pick this read up.  The entire main plot takes place during the dinner party so there isn't a whole lot of fluff to take away from the premise.  I love when reads with these really high level plots just jump right into it without a lot of set up or exposition.  Like, we all know why we picked up the book, let's just dive right in.

In hindsight, I really enjoyed the dual POV, but I didn't love it until the last 3rd of the book.  I think the dual POV mechanic worked very well as a way to give the reader backstory to these characters and that fateful summer without having the characters in the current day plot unnaturally explain things they all already know. It also served as a way to give the reader a break from the tension in the main plot - although I did feel, while reading, that it was too much of a break at times. 

The tension in the main plot was perfection.  When the main conflict kicks off, it ramps up very quickly and at first, I thought it would stagnate.  Instead, Edwards manages to find new ways and new angles to add tension and complications. There were a good number of reveals and twists before we actually got to the resolution of the main mystery, none of which I saw coming.  This was a relatively shorter read at 330 pages, so to fit all of the dual POV, plus twists and reveals, meant the pacing and tension had to be on point.  This really feels like it was meant to be a one-sitting read.

What Didn't Work for Me

The extra ending reveal/twist felt a bit heavy handed and I didn't think it was necessary.  I really enjoyed the main reveal of the core mystery/situation but Edward tacked on a little extra reveal right at the end that I could have done without. It is one of my least favorite tropes in mystery/suspense books (but naming the actual trope would be a spoiler). 

I do wish the past POV would have gotten around to the main plot a little more quickly.  There were a number of times when we switched to the past POV and I thought to myself "why do we keep coming back here? Is it just for a break in tension?  Some easy character development?" And when we do, eventually, get around to the main plot, I was extremely intrigued - I just wanted to get there a little sooner so I didn't feel quite so much like my time was being wasted.

Overall, this was a great read that really paid off on the premise. Fantastic tension and reveals with an interesting dual POV element.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.  Publication date was September 16, 2025

Malice House - Megan Shepherd

 "Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father’s remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right?

Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father’s obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven’s bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets―completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process."

 What Worked for Me:

The characters in this were absolutely fantastic.  Haven was a really interesting character to follow as much as she was frustrating at times.  I think she had a good balance of being frustrated with the choices she was making but also intrigued with how everything was going to turn out.  The side characters were developed just enough for us to get a sense of them, but they were a little flexible enough that when Haven starts questioning everyone around her, we can also be reasonably suspicious of everyone which made for a fun read.

The world building - both the physical world and imaginary world - was spot on.  The setting of this small town on an isolated island was very eerie and atmospheric.  Plus, we have an old, abandoned house that hold far more secrets than Haven could ever imagine.  The world building in the Bedtime Stories for Monsters was also really well developed and I loved that we would get a little snippet of a story at the beginning of each chapter.  Since these stories became so important to the overall plot, it was really nice to have such a good feel of these spooky characters and what they are capable of.

Speaking of the monsters, they perfectly rode the line between scary and intriguing.  They really felt like The Brothers Grimm fairytale level of scary and, at times, grotesque. We get a lot of interesting relationships between the different characters and stories which makes everything feel more cohesive.  Right around the middle of the book, I was getting spooked just enough that I couldn't read this book after dark.  Shepherd does a great job with her descriptions of the creatures and atmosphere that really got under my skin.

 What Didn't Work for Me: 

 I didn't know that this was book 1 in a series when I requested the ARC so I wasn't expecting the type of 'open door' ending we got.  I generally am not a series reader so this was a little bit of a downer for me.  However, I did appreciate that we get answers to most of the questions posed throughout the book and I think if you stopped here, it was still a satisfying read. It sort of felt like a detective fiction series in that way, we get most of our answers in this book but there is just enough left over to encourage continuing on - which I will be doing.

Overall, this was a super fun and spooky read with great characters, scares, and world building. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the ARC.  Publication date was October 4, 2022 

The Hunter - Jennifer Herrera

"After reckless behavior costs NYPD detective Leigh O’Donnell her job and her marriage, three suspicious drownings in her hometown cause her to return to Copper Falls, Ohio in the hopes that solving a triple homicide just might get her life back on course. Leigh had stayed away from Copper Falls for decades, even though her trio of loving uncles and her brother still call it home. Because Copper Falls may seem idyllic, but something rotten lies at its core.

Headstrong and intuitive, Leigh isn’t afraid to face a killer. But she will have to do more than that to learn the truth about Copper Falls; she must unravel a complicated web of insidious secrets going back generations and truly confront what the town keeps hidden—as well as what she is hiding from herself.

Both a taut mystery and a deeply affecting examination of the stories and lies we build our lives upon, The Hunter signals the arrival of an unforgettable character and a major new writing talent."

What Worked for Me

The investigation elements were on point.  Very logical progression with few 'summing up' parts that I can find annoying if they are too frequent.  I think this book is a police procedural at its core with some more folklore/folk horror parts sprinkled on top and as such, the investigation needs to be spot on, which it completely was. While we know from the synopsis that Leigh lost her position on the NYPD, we don't find out until later in the read what the exact reason/situation was.  However, I never found myself doubting her actual investigation skills - although she does go rogue a few times, like any good detective in a police procedural read.

We have a great cast of characters in a small town setting.  I loved that we saw not only Leigh's family connections but also many other members of the community.  The setting is a rural, small town, but Herrera does a great job of really showing a lot of different characters from all different walks of life in the same town.  Also, since it is such a small town, we do run into the same characters over and over again which is great during an investigation because we are able to keep progressing the plot without having the main character constantly introducing herself or explaining the situation.

Leigh was a great main character to follow.  Herrera does a good job with her character development throughout the book.  I think we got the perfect balance of Leigh the person coming back to her hometown vs Leigh the investigator doing her job.  Herrera does play around a little bit with the typical character of the detective we see in a lot of police procedural books. 

What Didn't Work for Me

The ending sort of fell apart for me in a number of different ways - not anything too drastic, but I felt it could have been tweaked to fit the rest of the narrative better.  First, the pacing was noticeably faster than the rest of the book.  Now, most endings are faster paced as we ramp up the tension, reveals, and danger but this felt more like a 0-to-100 sort of deal.  I would have liked either a more gradual ramp up or to slow down the ending events just a little.  We get so many details, events, and reveals in the last 10% that I just wish we had more time to breathe.  Also, I found myself missing a sort of 'summation' type of ending that we get in a lot of police procedurals where we tie up loose ends.  There were a number of 'bad guys' that I was missing finding out what happened to them or what the outcome of the investigation was for those characters.  

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC.  Publication date was January 10, 2023.

The Swell - Allie Reynolds

 

"The waves are to die for.

Three years ago, passionate surfer Kenna Ward lost her two great loves—after her boyfriend drowned, she hung up her surfboard and swore off the water for good. But she is drawn back to the beach when her best friend, Mikki, announces her sudden engagement to a man Kenna has never met—a member of a tight-knit group of surfers. Kenna travels to a remote Australian beach, entering a dangerous world far from civilization world where the waves, weather, and tides are all that matter. Kenna is tempted back into the surf, and drawn into the dazzling group and the beach they call their own.

But this coastal paradise has a dark side, and members of the group begin to go missing. Kenna realizes that in order to protect Mikki and learn more about the surfers, she must become one of them…without becoming one of their victims. What follows is an adrenaline-fueled thriller packed with twists and turns, exploring the dangerous edge between passion and obsession."

What Worked for Me

This book really nailed the creepy vibes.  It was such a great contrast to have this basically paradise have a constant undercurrent of unease. The book is primarily from Kenna's POV, but we do get a brief chapter here and there from one of the other characters. These other chapters each seem to show a slightly new angle to something Kenna is concerned about.  However, these chapters don't serve to show that Kenna is completely wrong, and often further complicate the situation while posing more questions than answers - which was always great.  This is also an isolated setting with a pretty closed cast and those two tropes always bring certain creepy vibes on their own.

There is a great building of tension and danger throughout the read from multiple different directions. We have environmental danger from the isolated setting and wild ocean along with interpersonal danger that slowly develops over the course of the book.  The pacing is spot on and it is a slow, but steady build until it really ramps up at the end.

The actual reveals we get are excellent especially given the secretive nature of the group overall.  The premise of the book - Kenna meeting this group of people who are wary of outsiders and then being incorporated into the group - really lends directly to some explosive reveals.  Reynolds has so many different people and aspects to choose from as the story builds and I really think she used everything to her advantage.  This is an isolated, closed circle mystery in a more tropical locale which is a really fun contrast to the usual snowy or rainy settings we get a lot.  It reminded me a lot of Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins in that way. 

The setting was fantastic and Reynolds does a great job of really immersing the reader in the nature of this isolated beach.  I don't know much about surfing, but these characters all love it and we get a lot of surfing on page.  The way the surfing was entwined with their daily life on this beach really helped fill in some gaps in my knowledge because Reynolds was able to sprinkle in some details or background info in a more organic way. I loved the way Kenna was a bit of a fish out of water and was not used to the insects, animals, or weather in Australia so we have a natural way of building the setting around her.

What Didn't Work for Me

The multi-POV was a little odd.  As mentioned above, most of the chapters (I'd say around 90%) were from Kenna's POV.  The other chapters did help build some vibes and tension but also ended up taking me out of the flow of the read.  I get so settled into Kenna's POV since we get chapter after chapter of her but then when we get another characters, that flow gets broken.  I love multi-POV isolated mysteries but this was just too lopsided for the POV choices to really work for me. 

Reynolds spent so much time slowly ramping up the tension and danger but I think she should have pumped the brakes a little more at the end.  The pacing really picked up at the end and just kept accelerating more than I wanted.  We get so many reveals right at the end and so many "the answer is A ... just kidding, the answer is B .... no, wait, the answer is C" type of reveals. And when these sort of reveals come too quickly, it ends up feeling like my brain was just getting beat up a bit by the story. I thought the pacing was great until the last 15% or so. 

Overall, this was a really solid isolated, closed circle mystery.  Great setting, tension, and pacing right up until the end.  There were a couple of things that didn't entirely work for me, but they didn't take too much away from the read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC.  Publication date was June 14, 2022