Romance Wrap-Up December 2025

 He Sees You When You're Sleeping - Alta Hensley

I'm pretty sure anyone remotely looking for holiday romances this year has seen a video/TikTok/Reel/etc about this book.  I love me a good unhinged romance every now and again and this read did not disappoint in that area.  We get sort of thrown into the plot without much backstory about our two characters and why the MMC is stalking our FMC.  We do find out later and I wasn't a big fan of this reveal or how some side characters treated this information - it was sort of like the reason given was made to soften our MMC and make him not seem like such a big red flag but it didn't really work for me. I do think Hensley did a great job of building these characters up so they could have a sort of 'your crazy matches my crazy' romance and I think it was really fun in that regard.  I do love the little bit of suspense we got as well in regards to these secret lives being revealed.  I'll probably pick up the next book in the series during the next holiday season.

Tropes: Dark Romance, Stalker, Kinky, Firefighter MMC

Series: Naughty or Nice #1

 

Chilled and Thrilled - Cleo White

As many age gap romances as I read, I do have some pretty specific guidelines I like to stick to.  I generally don't like age gap romances where the characters have known each other since the younger one was under-aged, only to 'suddenly realize' they were perfect once they're barely 18.  Even more so when a daughter/son is involved.  In this case, I really enjoyed that our MCs don't meet until the youngest is in college and it sounds like they didn't have a ton of interaction until our FMC came to work at MMC's company.  I think this read more like a boss/employee romance first with the daughter's best friend angle not really pushed until later.  I think these touchy tropes were handled well and I didn't really find myself icked out at any point.  White did an excellent job of really showing the reader how much both MCs liked the other as a person which helped keep the creep factor low.

Tropes: Boss/Employee, Age Gap, Best Friend's Dad

Series: Daddy Issues #1

You Make it Feel Like Christmas - Sophie Sullivan 

Sophie Sullivan books are always solid comfort reads for me.  I really enjoy her style of character development and the couples in the books always give off the feeling that they were inevitable which gives me the warm and fuzzies.  I think the fun and games element was handled well with just enough family games/competitions to see different personalities and dynamics, but it didn't feel overly-chaotic or overblown. I do wish we could have seen the one night stand or maybe the morning after first hand because I did have a bit of an odd time trying to pin down the characters and their feelings about those events.  We do, eventually, get details but I think it would have been more impactful for me if we saw that up front.  I loved that there was no real third act breakup - but instead was some realistic challenges that they had to work through.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.  Publication date was September 23, 2025

Tropes: Small Town, Second Chance, One Night Stand, Sports (Hockey)

Standalone

 

A Heart for Christmas - Sophie Jomain

This was an early Christmas gift from my sister - which is 100% the only reason I picked it up and finished it.  I haven't read YA romance since I was in college and while I'm not opposed, it just isn't something I'm reading for any more.  That being said, when I saw this was a YA romance, I was still excited to read it given the 24 chapters/Advent read layout.  The plot seemed pretty straightforward based on the synopsis on the book - best friend's brother, small ski town, our FMC finding herself after a health scare - all perfectly fine in theory.  However, this was probably the worst written book I've read in a long time - plot, characters, and actual writing were all super low quality.  It honestly had me wondering, at times, if an editor had looked at this at all.  It was published by a big publisher, so it must have, but goodness it was rough. From a little looking around on Goodreads, it seems Jomain writes primarily in French but this was an English book with no notes of a translator so I assume she's bilingual but I don't think that excuses the amount of poor writing (and goodness, the amount of exclamation points was absolutely unhinged!).  I think a lot of the plot issues I had were to do with the very short amount of pages we actually had to get through the story so that I blame more on the publisher than the author.  I did finish the read as it was a pretty fun gimmick to 'unseal' and read a chapter a night before bed, but I absolutely do not recommend this book. 

Tropes: YA, Best Friend's Brother, Small Town

Standalone

 

Good Spirits - B.K. Borison

This is, for me, the absolute perfect Christmas romance.  I loved everything about this from start to finish and the amount of Christmas magic was spot on.  There are romances that take place during Christmas, but this one went a step above and truly captured that special, sparkly, holiday feelings.  Our MCs are well rounded and their slow burn coming to terms with their feelings was delectable. I'm excited that this is the start of a new series because the supernatural world Borison introduced us to deserves a whole pile of books exploring the different entities. 

Tropes: Paranormal, Fated Mates, Grumpy/Sunshine

Series: Ghosted #1

 

The Bright Side of Christmas - Morgan Elizabeth

Every year, I pick at least one cutesy, small town romance and this was the pick for this year.  I think Christmas romances always fit those tropes so well that finding good examples of those tropes can sometimes be a bit of trouble.  I wanted  a good amount of characters, good world building, but without characters or plot elements feeling overly cliche.  This book starts with our FMC being absolutely OBSESSED with Christmas to the point where I was initially worried she would come across more like a caricature than a real person.  However, that sort of characterization quickly settled down and we got to see her as a well-rounded character.  The opposites attract elements were fantastic and I really enjoyed that we got to see early on just how much these two were attracted to each other.  I also found the main conflict to be very realistic given their dynamic and personalities.

Tropes: Small Town, Grumpy/Sunshine, People Pleaser FMC, Fame (Songwriter)

Series: Holly Ridge #1

 

Scrooged for the Holidays - Kayla Grosse

I didn't think I needed 'A Christmas Carol but make it smutty and kinky' but I stand corrected.  Grosse does a great job of really building out the world and the details on how her version of the three Christmas ghosts work.  I loved that our FMC was a true scrooge, down to the evicting people during the holidays and saying some absolutely horrible things.  That being said, she wasn't too far gone so her eventual change into a nice person didn't feel unreasonable.  We got a good mix of seeing the different relationship dynamics between all the characters and I loved that we got all 4 POVs. 

Tropes: MMMF, Paranormal, Scrooge FMC

Standalone

 

Elf Against the Wall - Alina Jacobs

I was pleased that book 2 in this series was just as unhinged as book 1 was - which I very much enjoyed.  If you enjoyed book 1, then you should absolutely pick up book 2 as well. They are so similar, I had to go back and check that we are following a different family this time around.  It did feel very copy+paste - our FMC is a huge doormat for her absolutely horrible family, our MMC doesn't seem to care about anything anyone thinks and says the most unhinged things, the two end up fake dating for plot reasons and eventually everything works out.  I'll absolutely continue on in the series next holiday season, and it looks like book 3 might be a little different and not so similar to books 1 and 2.

Tropes: Fake Dating, Bad Boy MMC, Revenge Plot, Awful Family

Series: The Wynter Brothers #2

Romance Wrap-Up November 2025

Thirsty - Lucy Lehane

I really enjoyed this paranormal read, especially the characters and world building.  Currently, I don't see that this is part of a series, but I hope we do get more books in this universe some day.  Lehane does an absolutely fantastic job of fleshing out this world where humans have fairly recently become aware of supernatural creatures.  While our one MMC is a vampire, we get to see a whole host of other creatures in this read and I would love to see more.  We get some fantastic banter between the MCs as well as with side characters and everyone feels so incredibly well-developed.  I think the journey from enemies to lovers was also well developed and I liked that the reason they were enemies was something they could realistically get over.  The main conflict didn't quite work for me and I found that I often forgot about it for large pieces of the book until the one MC would mention it.  It felt like something that would be more pervasive in the overall relationship and friendships with the other supernatural characters in the book.

Tropes: MM, Paranormal (human x vampire), Secret Identity, Enemies to Lovers

Standalone

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.  Publication date was October 14, 2025.

The Home Wrecker - Sara Cate

This was absolute perfection.  I loved how different all of the characters were and how they each were working through their own things but all three came together so perfectly. This really balanced the spice with the emotional so well for my tastes. I haven't read a lot of the marriage in trouble trope, so I don't have a lot to compare this to, but I think Cate did a great job of showing the reader the connection between Caleb and Briar so we could see where they came from and how far they'd grown apart. I think the different dynamics between the different character pairings as well as when they were all together were a great way to show off the different character developments.  While book #1 in the series is not necessarily needed to read before this one as each one centers around a different Goode brother, I think book 1 lays a lot of ground work for the relationships and history of the Goode family that I would recommend reading it first. 

Tropes: MMF, Queer Awakening, Marriage in Trouble, Sex Worker MMC, Kinky

Series: The Goode Brothers #2

Disciplinary Action - Onley James

This wasn't quite it for me.  There were parts that really worked well, but I think the whole thing went a little off the rails at the end.  This is very much a sort of 'if you can suspend your disbelief enough, you'll have a good time' sort of read, which I generally don't mind.  And I was able to forgive a lot in the name of a fun romance read such as the reason our MCs end up meeting in the first place.  But it really stopped working for me when it came to the main conflict and how our MCs ended up resolving it.  It felt very much like James had written the characters into a corner and devised the most outrageous plot twist to get them out of it. 

I want to mention that, based on reviews I was reading on Goodreads from when the book was first released in 2020, the book I read was different so it seems like James made some updates in the past 5 years. 

Tropes: MM, Age Gap, Kinky, Student/Headmaster, Hurt/Comfort

Standalone

Spicy or Sweet - Sophie Snow

This was a super fun read and I loved being back in this series.  We get great banter between our MCs as well as the rest of the characters and some of that great small town pushy busy-bodiness that I love.  Snow does a great job of giving her characters realistic depth often with conflicts outside of the main relationship which I really appreciate.  I did keep forgetting about the age gap (30/46) until the characters mentioned it, but I think overall it was handled well.  I especially liked how the younger MC was the more aggressive of the two which made it feel more equal and less predatory like some age gaps can get.  

Tropes: FF, Enemies to Lovers, Small Town, Age Gap

Series: Wintermore #2

Mountain Boss - S.J. Tilly

There is something about Tilly's writing that my brain just absolutely loves and this was no exception.  We get a ton of short chapters and frequent POV changes which could absolutely feel like whiplash, but it was like potato chip reading where I just wanted to keep reading long past my bedtime. I completely adored both our MCs and their personal journeys and loved that our FMC was not a pushover or bad at her job.  She was a very resourceful person who was proud to do a good job which I loved to see in a male-dominated industry.  Tilly writes the best unhinged heroes and Sterling is the perfect mix of unhinged obsessed with absolutely adoring.  We get a little touch of romantic suspense/danger as well which I loved.

Tropes: Boss/Employee, Age Gap, Forced Proximity, Hurt/Comfort

Series: Mountain Men #1

Hammered - Jasinda Wilder

This was another one that didn't quite work for me.  I found our FMC to be incredibly annoying and the main conflict very repetitive despite it feeling resolved time after time.  Our FMC recently finalized her divorce and has some personal body image issues and overall confidence issues from the marriage that she's still working through.  I loved the sort of meet cute aspect of her needing a last minute handyman to fix her window and the connection the two had from the start was really great.  However, our FMC was very hot/cold on the MMC as well as on her own body despite him constantly telling her how attractive she was and how much he wanted to be with her.  I could believe this coming up once or twice, but the way it seemed like it came up every other interaction was just exhausting to read. This is one of those times where I think it is more 'realistic' that these issues don't disappear after just one time of the MMC telling her that he likes her, but it wasn't doing the flow of the story any favors to be 'realistic' like this.   I do think I'll read on in the series as I am interested to see how the couple in the next book plays out. 

Tropes: Handyman MMC, Love After Divorce, Older MCs 

Series: Dad Bod Contracting #1

Silent Vows - Jill Ramsower

This was a pretty solid mafia romance read but I wasn't overly wowed by it.  I did find the FMC deciding to be mute to be an interesting aspect that I think was used well in the overall narrative. This hits all the usual mafia romance tropes - arranged marriage, possessive MMC, etc - but I found that it focused mostly on the main couple and we didn't get a whole lot of 'mafia business' on-page. While our MCs were pretty well developed, any side characters felt very one dimensional and the overall world didn't feel developed enough for my liking.

Tropes: Mafia, Arranged Marriage, Possessive MMC

Series: The Byrne Brothers #1

A Forbidden Arrangement - J Wilder

I picked this book up because I saw a video where it was described as a "dark romance with a walking red flag MMC" and that was all I needed to hear. I love my MMCs in dark romances to be basically unhinged obsessed with the FMC and in this case, she disappears after a one night stand and when he finds her, he forces (or forges?) her into a marriage with him so it completely fits the bill.  This is the 4th book in the series and I didn't read the first three (but I will probably go back and read them at some point) so it was pretty glazed over what the brothers do but it seemed like some sort of secret society but not quite mafia (but I could be wrong about that). I loved our FMC and how smart she was when it came to figuring out the MMC.  

Tropes: Dark Romance, One Night Stand, Forced Marriage, Red Flag MMC

Series: Twisted Vows #4

Most Likely to Deny Love - Mary Waterford

This was a super fun read that was unexpectedly sweet.  Our FMC needs a date to her sister's wedding, ideally someone who can help her shake off her sister and mother's constant comments about her weight.  Good thing her boss is already obsessed with her and offers to step in, I loved their chemistry both in the office as well as outside of it.  Both have complicated family relationships and I loved how the FMC gets her chance to help the MMC as well.  We get a lot of heat along with a lot of heart in this read.  The fake dating was fun - complete with a practice kiss so it looks real when we do it in front of your family. 

Tropes: Fake Dating, Boss/Employee, Age Gap, Plus Sized FMC

Series: The Yearbook Series #2

Zomromcom - Olivia Dade 

This was a fun read and a good first entry in a new series.  I loved the banter between our MCs and absolutely cackled anytime our FMC would break out into song.  We have some great side characters and moments of action as well.  Dade gives us some great world building and character development as our MCs work to discover the truth behind the zombie breakout. I did struggle with the tone of the read for the first half of the book. I think Dade was going for heavy real world stuff with moments of levity between the MCs but instead it sort of felt like they couldn't decide if they wanted to take the zombie breakout seriously or not. I think the second half of the book balanced that tone much better.

Tropes: Paranormal (human + vampire), Romantic Suspense, Zombies

Series: Supernatural Entanglements #1

The Chestnut Man -Søren Sveistrup (trans. Caroline Waight)

 

"If you find one, he’s already found you. A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen.

His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery—a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago.  A tragic coincidence—or something more twisted?

To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues. Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over. And no one is safe."

What Worked for Me:

I love weird, ritualistic murders and this book had a bunch of bodies which was great.  No one really used the words 'serial killer' in the book, but we certainly had enough bodies drop on page to qualify.  We don't get to see much of the actual violence on the page - any time we get close we are quickly changed to a different POV - and I didn't really mind because the violence isn't really the interesting part.  I found the investigation into how the killer was choosing victims to be much more interesting.  

I really enjoyed all the different POVs we get in this read.  It did take me maybe the first 10-15% of the book to get used to the quick chapters combined with the POV changes.  It was a bit jarring at first, especially in the beginning as we are being introduced to many different characters.  However, as the investigation moves along and we get to see how these characters are related and interact in the plot, it becomes much easier to just go with the flow of the narrative.  

I really enjoyed following our main investigation pair - Thulin and Hess.  They are a bit of an odd couple, especially at the beginning, but end up complementing each other well.  I feel like each of them embody the sort of cliche detective main character you get in these sorts of reads.  Thulin is a no-nonsense sort of detective, very motivated and thorough but can rub others the wrong way (although she doesn't seem to care much about that).  Hess is the other cliche - a bit of an odd bird, quirky, lone wolf type that gets in trouble easily by not following orders and instead following his gut with the investigation.  I really liked how the two of them equally contributed to the investigation.  

What Didn't Work for Me:

The pacing was not working for me.  It was very stop/start in a way that was more frustrating than anything else.  I've read a good number of police procedurals including Nordic Noir ones and usually the pace does sort of ebb and flow in order to give the reader time to rest and absorb the new information. In this case, it felt much more like we were full speed ahead at times followed by slamming on the breaks.  The times when it was fast-paced and we were getting a lot of action and reveals in the investigation - I loved it.  But the times in between really lagged and brought my overall enjoyment down. 

While I liked where the investigation eventually lead and the overall reveal, I did feel like most of the time we didn't have a lot of suspects or, at least, not serious suspects.  While on paper there were some people who were looked at more closely than others, I never really got the sense that our main two detectives actually found any of them to be serious suspects in the killings. I personally like the sort of mysteries where almost everyone is a very viable suspect and up until the final reveal, it could really be anyone.  In this case, it felt like the investigation was just plodding along until the right clue came up. 

Overall, I enjoyed this read but felt the pacing wasn't quite working for me and I thought there could have been more of a build up in the overall investigation plot. This is the first book in the Naia Thulin series and while it appears that book 2 (published in 2024) does not have an English translation yet, I would be interested in continuing the series.

We Are All Guilty Here - Karin Slaughter

"Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?"

What Worked for Me:

Just about everything, if I'm being honest. I was a bit hesitant to pick up a 400+ page police procedural read as I find sometimes they can get really slow or repetitive with the investigation elements.  However, I was hooked from pretty much page 1 until the very end.

I loved the character work in this - each of the characters was really well developed and felt like a real person.  I think Slaughter does a great job of really finding the humanity in her characters, even the bad guys, which makes for a very compelling read.  As this is a small town setting, there are a lot of side characters, many of whom are interviewed during the investigation.  Slaughter has such a good writing style for my brain that I was never confused about who was who or how they were connected to the investigation.  While this is only the second Karin Slaughter book I've read, her character development has stood out in both of the reads so I'm looking forward to reading more of her backlist. 

The investigation was really well plotted and I enjoyed that we had so many different suspects and theories during the investigation.  The final solution was not one that I saw coming (I had a very different theory while I was reading) but I think all the pieces fit together perfectly.  There were a few times during the book where the characters would sit down and sort of re-go over the details of the crimes, trying to look at them from different angles or figure out where a new piece of information fit.  This happened just enough to be helpful reminders to the reader but not enough to feel overly hand-holdy.  I really enjoyed that once they did find the solution to the mystery, we got a really detailed recap of the events and how they transpired so we could see what really happened which helped to fill in some gaps. 

What Didn't Work for Me:

There is a pretty significant time jump in this book (12 years), which I didn't mind, but found the character details after the jump to be a little jarring.  Obviously people can change a lot over 12 years, but Slaughter would drop in new character details in such a way that it felt like I should have already known them was a little odd.  It makes sense because the characters we are following would already know these details, but the way they would just be dropped casually into conversations had me doing a few double read overs to make sure I actually read that right.  

Overall, this was a great read that balanced an interesting investigation plot with some really dark details.  It read like a really good episode of a TV crime drama and I was hooked the whole way through.  This is listed as the first book in the North Falls series so I look forward to reading the next book in the series as well as Slaughter's backlist.

The Living and the Dead - Christoffer Carlsson (trans. Rachel Willson-Broyles)

"Small towns sometimes have a voice of their own.

On a snowy winter night in 1999, Sander and Killian leave a house party together outside a small town in rural Sweden. The very best of friends, the two seventeen-year-olds imagine they will remain so forever. But by the next morning, a corpse is found in the trunk of a car, and each boy is a suspect in the murder. Each has something they want to conceal from the police. And from the other.

The hunt for the killer will take more than twenty years. It will see the lead detective leave the force forever. And it won’t end until a second body turns up in similar circumstances, and the tight-knit community’s secrets are finally brought to light."

What Worked for Me:

This was an expertly plotted mystery investigation.  At the beginning, it seemed pretty straightforward and I found myself wondering why this would take 20 years to solve.  I didn't anticipate all the different layers to the crime, characters, and investigation.  I loved that we got to follow the detectives as well as the other characters who were also finding out information from the police and from each other. I think Carlsson does a really great job of drilling down to the human element in this read and I would be interested in reading more of his novels.  

The setting of this rural town in Western Sweden was fantastic and as someone who has never been to any part of Sweden, Carlsson does a great job of describing it in a way that felt very understandable.  There was a sort of feel of 'this could be any rural town' that really made it easy to connect to the story. Since we do have a 20 year time span, it was interesting to see the ways in which the town changed and the ways in which it didn't.  

The pacing was a bit of a slow burn and it took a little longer to start putting pieces together than I was expecting.  Now, this wasn't a problem and I ended up thinking everything paced out just right in the end.  I think I just needed to re-calibrate my mind from the mystery/thrillers I had been reading back to a police procedural mystery.  But I think the slower pacing really allows the reader to sink into the story and get a feel for all the characters. 

This is the 3rd book in the Hallandssviten series, and I had not read the first two books.  Based on the descriptions, they seem to follow different towns in the same area of Sweden and there are mostly different detectives.  It does look like some of the detectives overlap in the books, so it would be interesting to read the series and find the connections.  That being said, I don't feel like I lost out or was confused about anything because I started on book 3.

What Didn't Work for Me:

There were a lot of characters in this read and it took a little while for me to really get a grasp on who everyone was and how they all relate to each other.  There was a list of characters and brief descriptions of their relationships in the beginning of the book, but I read it on an ereader so it wasn't super easy to keep flipping back and forth.  I would say by the 25% mark, I had all the characters straight in my head and didn't have any issues for the rest of the read. 

Overall, this was a great slow burn Nordic Noir read.  It took me a little while to get a handle on all the different characters and their relation to one another, but once I did, I was very much invested.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Hogarth.  Expected publication date is December 2, 2025

The Forest of Missing Girls - Nichelle Giraldes

 

"Lia Gregg always hoped to outgrow her fear of the woods surrounding her childhood home. The dark, menacing trees have long been the site of whispered legends and disappearances of girls like her. But after a breakup sends her back to live with her family, the woods feel more sinister than ever. 

When a teenage girl disappears from their backyard, Lia's childhood fear becomes terrifyingly real. The missing girls are no longer just faces on the news. Now, the danger is closer than she imagined, and her younger sister could be next.

As Lia digs into the disappearances, she begins to suspect her mother knows more about the forest—and the horrors within—than she's letting on. To save her sister and uncover the truth, Lia must confront the secrets lurking in the trees and the darkness they conceal…before it's too late."

What Worked for Me:

Small town creepy history really sold this read to me from the beginning.  I absolutely love small town secrets - the more sinister, the better.  We get to meet a lot of characters as the town begins to search for the missing girl which I immediately tried figuring out who might be involved with the crime. Giraldes does a great job of building tension within the small town because it is more likely than not that someone near by knows what happened or was involved. We get some details about a few of the past disappearances including Lia's memories about the more recent ones.  However, I do wish we had gotten some more lore of the town and the disappearances in the past. 

I loved how the forest worked as its own character.  It was a constant foreboding presence that seemed to follow our characters wherever they went. It was interesting to see Lia's connection with the forest between her good memories of her childhood combined with the sinister feeling that the answer to the missing girls was out there. The other POV in the book also had a connection to the forest that was different than Lia's.  Again, an interesting contrast to the other views we get in the book.

The reveal about what happened to the missing girls really toed the line for me on if it worked or not.  When we first get some hints revealed, I thought for sure I was reading too much into it and that I must be misunderstanding.  But as we got more clarification and the implications of that information became clear, I really enjoyed the direction the book headed in. Giraldes did a great job of really holding the reader's hand the right amount where I felt like "this is weird, but I'm trusting this author knows what she's doing." I do think it won't work for some readers as it is an odd choice, but I really liked it.

What Didn't Work for Me:

I wanted more out of Lia's character.  She felt a little underdeveloped for me but in a way where it was a little like she was acting as a reader stand-in.  It felt like were were told a lot of things about her like her feelings about her mother and relationship with her ex but the way that information impacted her actions throughout the book just didn't quite come together for me.  I was much more interested in her sister as it was her best friend that was taken. 

I really wanted to learn more about the past disappearances and how the town handled (or didn't handle) them.  Despite the current missing girl, the other girls in the past almost seemed to be forgotten and I would have expected Lia's investigation to maybe look more into the past missing girls to try and find a link or pattern. 

Overall, this was a really great atmospheric read.  The small town creepy vibes were well woven throughout the book.  I do wish Lia was a little more developed and for us to get some more information about the past disappearances.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.  Publication date was November 11, 2025.

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