Romance Wrap-Up July 2025

 Out on a Limb - Hannah Bonam-Young

This has been on my TBR for a long time and I hesitated to pick it up only because I don't love surprise pregnancy stories.  But I'm so glad I did finally read it due because I ended up having a good time.  I found this leaned more on the friends-to-lovers trope and the pregnancy was more off to the side than in some surprise pregnancy books I've read in the past.  The disability rep was consistent, but not in an overwhelming way meaning their disabilities came up enough and in realistic, daily ways that made the disability just another part of the character.  The tension between our characters was fantastic - they obviously had a ton of chemistry but then both are trying to be so kind during the pregnancy that neither wants to risk their friendship or budding co-parenting arrangement. 

Tropes: Disability Representation, Surprise Pregnancy, Friends to Lovers

Series: Out #1

All Bats are Off - Kelly Reynolds

I'm absolutely not a fan of baseball, but I'm in love with this series.  This novella follows one of the players and a sports journalist who end up having a one night stand that just doesn't end.  I would have eaten this up if it was a full length read, but I still really enjoyed this book. Reynolds does a great job of giving us fantastic character details up front so I didn't feel completely lost in the story.  It was a generally low-angst read so I was bummed that we still had a third act break up based on bad communication when I really didn't feel like it was realistic for these characters.  I think the character development was a little lacking simply due to the page length and there were a few times where I didn't quite understand or believe one of our MCs would do something but I just went with it. Overall, I'll always take more of this series and I'm looking forward to the next full length read from Reynolds.

Tropes: MM, Novella, One Night Stand

Series: Rose City Roasters #2.5

Roll for Romance - Lenora Woods

Obviously TTRPGs (table top role playing games) are gaining popularity recently and this read is very much a love letter to playing these games.  Our MCs are both fairly new to town and have a mutual friend who is starting a TTRPG for beginners and invited them both (and others) to join.  The two become friends and soon romance is blooming both inside and outside the game.  An interesting element of this read is that we get chapters from inside the game.  When it first happened, I found it jarring and since I'm not really a fantasy reader, I wasn't super interested.  However, as the story went on these gameplay chapters were some of my favorites because I was invested in that sub-plot as well as how our MCs were interacting via their characters.  The romance was on the slower side and I didn't feel any real chemistry until the 25% or so point.  Despite the slow start, I did end up really enjoy our MCs and how they were so different but also so similar. I also enjoyed how the main conflict was handled and thought both MCs were being very mature and reasonable. This was a great debut and I look forward to reading more from Woods in the future.

Tropes: Small Town, Opposites Attract, Single POV

Standalone

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for the ARC.  Publication date was July 15, 2025

Well, Actually - Mazey Eddings

Mazey Eddings does it again!  This was absolutely phenomenal which is extra amazing considering second chance romances are hard to hit right for me. It felt like Eddings was listening to my thoughts because it really felt like she addressed every one of my concerns with second chance romances.  This had the perfect mix of history between our MCs while also addressing why things failed earlier and what has changed now.  All too often, I find second chance romances have such a good reason to be broken up initially combined with not a lot of significant change which just leads me to believe they will break up later.  Not in this read.  The chemistry between our MCs was always an undercurrent even when they were seemingly completely opposed.  However, the more time they spend together, both in front of the camera and on their own, that chemistry can't stay buried forever. I love fake dating stories so much partly because we get so many individual scenes with the characters interacting and this read was no exception.  I also really enjoyed how the third act conflict was handled in a way that felt really realistic for the characters where the same situation could feel very contrived and overly-dramatic. Eddings really took so many tricky concepts and tropes that could easily become overblown but instead they all tie together perfectly into a really fun and heartfelt read.  

Tropes: Second Chance, Black Cat/Golden Retriever, fake dating

Standalone

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.  Publication date is August 5, 2025

You Are Fatally Invited - Ande Pliego

"When renowned anonymous author J. R. Alastor hires former aspiring writer Mila del Angél to host a writing retreat at his private manor off the coast of Maine, she jumps at the chance—particularly since she has an ax to grind with one of the invitees. The guest list? Six thriller authors, all masters of deceit, misdirection, and mayhem. Confess the crimes, survive the tropes.  Alastor and Mila have masterminded a week of games, trope-fueled riddles, and maybe a jump scare or two—the perfect cover for Mila to plot a murder of her own. But when a guest turns up dead—and it’s not the murder she planned—Mila finds herself trapped in a different narrative altogether.  One by one, you’ll lose your turn.  With a storm cutting off the island, and the body count rising, Mila must outwit a killer who knows literally every trick in the book."

This is one of those books where if the above premise interests you at all - just go and read it.  I had such a fun time with this isolated, closed circle mystery and fully recommend it to anyone who enjoys those tropes.  We open with the characters already on their way to the island for the writing retreat so we waste absolutely no time in getting right into the meat of the story.  The bodies start dropping early and often and there are a good amount of twists and red herrings to keep things interesting. I absolutely loved this debut and look forward to reading more from Pliego in the future. 

Just like with any mystery, there are always going to be some readers who can guess every twist seemingly from the beginning.  I'm not generally a reader who makes a point to guess along the way and am happy to be reading along and seeing where the story takes me.  The one mystery I was keen to try and sort out was who Alastor was and I did sort of guess it a few chapters before we get the reveal. I loved that there was an added mystery that came in about half way through the read that injected the plot with a little more urgency and I think would have re-intrigued any readers who were getting a little sick of the deaths we were getting until that point.

The game elements were fantastic and I wanted more of them.  Each of these characters have a secret that they don't know Alastor knows. Instead, their secrets are hinted at through various party games that give just enough information for the particular character to know what Alastor is alluding to but they aren't super obvious when the other characters see.  There is a Clue-like game where they have to match up the name, occupation, and secret of each character and I found that especially well done because the secrets were vague enough that numerous people could claim the same one for different reasons pretty easily which lead to more interpersonal tension as alliances start coming together. 

The character work in this read was fantastic.  I felt like each character was distinct and easy for me to keep straight. We get POV chapters of multiple characters, but not consistently through the read.  The first time a new POV popped up, I was a little annoyed because I was settled into the POV we started with.  However, I ended up really liking this choice because a POV change always happened at just the right moment to propel the plot forward or give the reader some insight into a character that was more on the sidelines but will become more prominent soon. This also eliminates the 'plot armor' of only having one or two POVs and then knowing those characters will most likely make it out alive.  In this story, you can't tell by POV only who, if anyone, will make it out alive.

The ending wrapped things up a little too much for my personal tastes.  With this much murder and mayhem, I didn't expect everything to connect so perfectly by the end.  It didn't necessarily detract from the rest of the story, but I did find myself reacting in a sort of "yeah, alright, I guess..." kind of way.  I loved the way the situation on the island wrapped up but the final chapters that acted as a sort of flashforward/epilogue didn't feel realistic enough given what we now know about these characters and the situation overall. 

Overall, this was exactly what I wanted out of an isolated mystery - great characters, interesting mystery plot, and lots of death. The resolution to the ending fell a little flat for me, but everything up until that very last bit was fantastic.

It Was Her House First - Cherie Priest

 

"Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. And she's not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan—her eternal nemesis—watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita's unrelenting wrath. Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it's Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house's blood-soaked history. But her arrival has stirred up more than just dust and decay. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence. Venita's fury awakens, and a deadly game unfolds. Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie's skepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn't as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita's house, survival might be just an illusion."

This was a fun and lighter read than I was expecting.  Lighter in terms of the stakes that Ronnie is facing in this haunted house.  We are told that Venita terrorized previous owners in a seemingly sinister way.  However, we really don't see that on page with Ronnie to the extent I was expecting. I wanted more stakes and more haunted house shenanigans. I thought that because we knew about the ghosts from the book description, that the haunting would get going early on in the book.  Once I tempered my expectations that this was less of a scary haunted house read and more of a Beetlejuice type of haunted house I had a lot more fun.

I did enjoy that we got a POV from one of the ghosts in the house which helped bridge any gaps between the two timelines in the book.  We alternate between the past and present timelines and are slowly watching Ronnie learn about Ventia and the house at the same time that the reader is also seeing what happened in the past.  Priest does a great job of overlapping information just enough to give the reader a full picture without it feeling repetitive.  We also know from the beginning what happened in the past, but not the why behind the events which is always a plot dynamic I enjoy. 

The pacing was pretty spot on and we moved very quickly from plot point to plot point without a lot of down time.  I did find myself wishing we had some more time to sit and learn more about these characters.  Priest does a good job introducing Ronnie as someone who seems to want to ignore her problems by staying busy but I was waiting for the moments where she's alone in the house and can't help but have her own demons start to infiltrate.  We get a little of that character development, but it wasn't as much as I was expecting or wanted and then we were on to the next plot point. 

I loved the ending and how Priest was able to bring everything together.  There were so many little details that felt like a knife hanging over our characters but were small enough that I wasn't sure exactly how it would all play out.  But by the time we are at the finale, I was so excited to see everything come together. 

Overall, this was a fun haunted house story that wasn't exactly what I was expecting but was still a good time.  Priest does a great job of balancing the dual timelines and multi-POVs to make a very engaging read. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.  Expected publication date is July 22, 2025.

The Bachelorette Party - Camilla Sten

"On a remote, craggy island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina—meet every year. Best friends since childhood, the idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life's expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. One night of reckless fun and secret-sharing, and then they return to their normal lives.

 Ten years later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared on their annual trip to a remote island together. As her true crime fervor turned into a wildly popular podcast, Tessa urgently covered Sweden’s most gruesome cases, but could never find the answers behind what happened to these women who disappeared, leaving a few maddening clues but no concrete answers. Now Tessa’s podcast has crashed and burned, any chance she had at uncovering the truth vanishing with it.

 Anneliese is Tessa’s best friend, and before she walks down the aisle, she wants to have a bachelorette party. The Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast—one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. The idea is to drink gallons of cava, do sunrise yoga, and get in their last chance to bond with the bride. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women, once and for all.

 And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge."

I'm almost always guaranteed to have a good time with an isolated, closed circle mystery.  And I did have a good time with this read.  However, I did lose some steam when the mystery solving was happening so far after the actual mystery event occurred.  We do get some flashbacks but this felt very much more of a straight up mystery rather than a mystery/thriller which is where most isolated, closed circle mysteries end up for me.  I still had a good time and I enjoyed the reveals, but overall there was less tension and it felt like the stakes were pretty low most of the time. 

The structure of the beginning did throw me off a bit.  The opening chapter introduces to the reader to the four friends who meet their demise at the end of the first chapter.  Then, we switch to follow Tessa for the rest of the book (minus the flashbacks we get).  I didn't love this as I was drawn into the initial four friends dynamic way more than Tessa and the other women attending the bachelorette weekend. That first chapter certainly got the book off to a very exciting start, but then all momentum felt like it was lost as we then had to be introduced to the new characters and have a much longer wind up to the new plot. I did like that we mostly got to see what happened to the four women on the island so we had some touch point for Tessa's investigation. 

I do think Sten does a great job with the individual interpersonal conflicts and tensions.  Each of the two groups of women have their own little rifts and issues that come into play throughout the book.  I loved the constant playing off of the issues between the characters in order to keep the peace.  There's also some wonderful passive aggressive or at the very least foot-in-mouth situations that were expertly done. I think the awkward stage of weddings where old friends and new friends are combined and aren't meshing as well as expected was really well developed.  There were more than a few awkward moments that I felt the cringe in my bones. 

I did find the mystery investigation to be lacking.  There was so much build up that Tessa is going to use this bachelorette weekend to get to the bottom of the mystery of the missing women. And while she does a lot of thinking about investigating, there just doesn't feel like there was enough time and space for her to dig around.  We get maybe 3 instances of her doing some light looking-around before the finale of the book.  And it does feel like the events of the finale (which would have happened without her investigation so it ended up feeling even more pointless.  

Overall, this was a pretty entertaining read.  It wasn't my perfect isolated, closed circle mystery but I enjoyed a lot of the character elements and I had a great time once the pacing picked up in the last 25%.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.  Publication date was June 10, 2025.

Fifty Fifty - Steve Cavanagh

 

"“911 what’s your emergency?”

“My dad’s dead. My sister Sofia killed him. She’s still in the house. Please send help.”

“My dad’s dead. My sister Alexandra killed him. She’s still in the house. Please send help.”

One of them is a liar and a killer.

But which one?"

This is one of those books where the concept is really straightforward - two sisters accuse each other of the murder of their father - and it is expertly executed. I'd say if you are at all intrigued by that set-up, then you should pick up this book.  Full stop.  No notes. 

When I saw this on NetGalley, I had never heard of Steve Cavanagh nor the Eddie Flynn series.  I didn't do any research prior and only found out this is book #5 in the Eddie Flynn series when I went to get the cover art from Goodreads. There were a few spots where Eddie was mentioning his past that I wondered, briefly, if there were previous books but those wonders were quickly dismissed as the book addressed those points in such a way that felt more like book 1 in a series instead of book 5.  I didn't feel like I was out of the loop on anything and would still recommend this read if you've never read any other Eddie Flynn books.  I do plan on going back and reading the earlier books in the series.

The characters in this were great - we get 5 different POVs - and each of them felt very well developed and distinct.  Our POVs are both sisters, Eddie, another lawyer Kate, and then the POV of the killer who we know per the premise is one of the sisters but the specific sister is never named in these killer POV chapters.  I loved that these different characters also all interacted with each other throughout the read so we not only get Eddie's view of Kate but also Kate's view of Eddie.  I think this was a great way to get character development into the story while keeping the main plot moving ahead quite quickly. 

The mechanic of the killer POV was fantastic.  The first time it showed up, I thought it was obviously referring to one specific sister and maybe this read was going to turn into the type where the reader knows more than the characters.  But then the next time we got the killer's POV, it seemed to point to the other sister. It continued like this, flip flopping back and forth between the two sisters, for the rest of the book.  We got so much information, but it was still muddied all the way until the end for me.  

I haven't read a lot of legal thrillers, so I don't have a lot to compare this one to.  I did like that it wasn't too focused on the actual court proceedings and instead felt more like a PI investigation/detective fiction.  The legal stuff we do get on page is very well explained that I think even someone not versed in this genre could follow just fine.

Overall, this was a great legal thriller and I very much enjoyed the characters and POV mechanics.  I will 100% be reading the back books in this series and look forward to reading on in the series as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.  Publication date was June 3, 2025. 

A Trace of Hares - Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

 "Dr Nell Ward is in the lush, emerald-green hills of Ireland to attend the wedding of two dear friends at a picture-perfect farmhouse. But family tensions are running high in the days before the happy couple tie the knot. And when Nell hears a fox kill a hare in the early morning, the bad omen sends shivers down her spine. Almost like it is a sign of something to come. Then one of the locals makes a gruesome discovery in a nearby peat bog. The habitats are famous for the ancient bodies they can preserve for thousands of years. This woman, however, died much more recently and was clearly a victim of foul play. Nell and her friends are suddenly in the middle of another murder case. Can they trace the truth to unmask a long-hidden killer and save the wedding, before it's too late?"

We are back with another great installment of the Dr Nell Ward Mystery series. Yarwood-Lovett really seems to be finding her groove with these mysteries and each one is more intricate than the last.  I loved that this book is centered around one of the side characters fro the previous books and not Nell herself.  We are in a new setting, with some fresh characters, and there are new secrets to be revealed. 

Yarwood-Lovett does a fantastic job at large group murder mysteries.  She has a real knack for being able to introduce the reader to a large cast of characters in such a way that I have no trouble remembering who is who and how they are all connected.  Being able to keep track of characters is a frequent issue I run across in books with large casts and I know it is primarily a me-problem.  However, there is something about the way Yarwood-Lovett writes that really works with my brain and helps me remember which makes the reading experience so much more smooth.  We have a good mix of characters we know and love as well as some new ones mixed in.  There is a good amount of family tension due to some secrets of the past and Nell and her group, as newcomers, had a bit of catching up to do which allowed the details to be given to the reader without feeling overly info-dumpy.

The mystery itself was expertly plotted and we get a good amount of ecology/science coming into play to crack the mystery which is a main draw of the series for me. I loved that we started with just some family tension and animosity and this wasn't a murder mystery from the get-go.  Instead, thanks to the build up and background info, when the body does drop, the reader already knows the stakes and what this body means to our characters. Solving the mystery was half hard science, half behavioral analysis which I liked very much and found it to be a good balance.  Since we were in a new location, it was interesting to see the group be more on the outside of the investigation than in previous books in the series but they sure didn't let that stop them from investigating anyway. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Embla Books for the ARC.  Publication was March 27, 2024.

The Sharp County Slasher - Andrew Alman

 

"If you like Dexter, you'll love this! In the quiet backwoods of Sharp County, retired detective Hilrey Higgins has spent years burying his past—both as a lawman and as something far darker. But when a new killer emerges, mimicking the gruesome precision of his own long-buried crimes, Hilrey is forced back into the game."

So like any good comp title, the Dexter comparison really drew me in to pick up this book.  I was a bit on the fence because while I love the Dexter TV show, I had some significant issues with the book (review here, if you're interested).  So I was pleased when the comparison was more on the subject matter in the book and not so much on the tone of the writing. I do think the description above makes the book seem like it will have a darker tone than what we actually get on page.  I overall had a good time and found the characters as well as the mystery plot to be well developed.

Hilrey's character is obviously the center of this read and I think he was a really interesting character to follow.  I did find the first chapter or two to be a big info-dumpy with his history - both professionally as well as his past crimes.  After those first few pages, however, we get right into the current narrative and it was smooth sailing from there. I loved that we got the details of Hilrey right from the beginning so this is one of those reads where it wasn't so much of a mystery of what happened in his past, but more so of when the other characters will find out.  Hilrey's character was well developed and had a very distinct voice which I always like in these type of reads.  While Hilrey was retired, he obviously hasn't lost his detective instincts and so following him for this investigation was interesting and I loved seeing the contrast between his history and the newer methods that are used now.  The other characters in this read are also well developed and I got a really good sense of all of their characters.  Since this is book 1 in a series, I hope we get to see more from these side characters in future books.

The mystery of the current murder that Hilrey and Dakota are investigating was really interesting and well plotted.  We get a lot of bodies dropping and a lot of different leads for our investigation team to follow.  We get a lot of leads especially when connecting the current murders with crimes in the past and I think Alman does a great job of leading the reader through these investigation points without anything feeling overly dry or repetitive. Because we had so many victims in only a little over 300 pages, I did find myself not remembering the names of each victim.  So by the end of the book, when they are going over each of the crimes and how they are connected, I couldn't really remember specifically which one they were talking about unless they noted specific details of the kill or something specific to each victim (like their job). I know that the character name issue is something I have and might not be an issue for all readers.  

Alman does not shy away from the kills in this book - both in number and severity.  The horror aspect comes in mostly from the brutality of the kills but the actual descriptions and certainly leans into a body horror sort of descriptions.  The kills reminded me a lot of the kills in the Hannibal TV show where the bodies are mutilated and displayed in certain ways.  The descriptions of these scenes is given in a sort of clinical way and not overly drawn out. 

This is being listed as book 1 in The Campfire Murders series, I wasn't sure how it would end.  There are a couple ending options that this sort of story would naturally conclude with and it somehow manages to touch on each of them.  This does not end up in a cliff hanger, which is one of the ending options I was worried it would be.  It ends in a similar way to most police procedural series where the case is solved but there are other plot points that are left open for the next book in the series. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC.  

Publication date was February 26, 2025.