Book Review: Peril in Pink by Sydney Leigh

Title: Peril in Pink
Author: Sydney Leigh
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Hudson Valley B&B #1
Date of Publication: March 19, 2024 
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

---

Synopsis

Everything is coming up rosé for innkeeper Jess Byrne until a murder on opening weekend gives her B&B’s killer vibe a whole new meaning.

Schitt’s Creek meets Only Murders in the Building in this sparkling debut mystery.

It’s the grand opening of The Pearl B&B in Hudson Valley, and owner Jess Byrne has prepared the ultimate, Insta-worthy welcome, complete with her ex-boyfriend—reality singing sensation Lars Armstrong—performing live. As guests check in and mimosas are poured, Lars arrives with his stepdad-turned-manager Bob in tow. But things go south when Bob is found dead, and Lars is the prime suspect.

After a desperate plea from Lars, and knowing the reputation of her B&B is at stake, Jess agrees to help clear Lars’ name, but the more she digs, the less sure she is that he’s innocent. Especially when he’s found at the scene of another murder.

With the guests under lockdown, the B&B in the press for all the wrong reasons, and a killer on the loose, Jess is in over her head. With the help of her best friend and business partner Kat, Jess is determined to uncover the truth before Lars is put behind bars and The Pearl is permanently cancelled.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

A cozy mystery for millennials! 

This is a fun cozy mystery for the younger generation. It’s full of pop culture references (lots of nods to one of my favourite podcasts–”My Favorite Murder!”). The book even uses a lot of the “millennial” slang. This isn’t just in the dialogue, but in the inner thoughts of the narrator. While this feels like a strength, it also felt very odd to read. I’m used to cozy mysteries being written by older folks, and they typically have a conversational, yet still somewhat old-fashioned way of speaking–even when they’re writing from the POV of a younger character. Any time the heroine of this book said “cringe” or “shook”, I was… shook (haha). As is expected with cozy mysteries, this book has a lighter tone with some humour. I appreciated that the main character is delightfully snarky.  

Book Review: Behind a Closed Door by J. D. Barker

Title: Behind a Closed Door
Author: J. D. Barker
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Date of Publication: May 13, 2024
Publisher: Hampton Creek Press

---

Synopsis

50 SHADES meets David Fincher’s THE GAME.

Would you kill a total stranger to save someone you love?

Sugar & Spice is the latest app craze taking the world by storm, but for Abby and Brendan Hollander, downloading it leads to a dangerous game of life and death. When the app assigns them a series of increasingly taboo tasks, they soon find themselves caught up in a twisted web of seduction and violence in this sexually charged dark thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey—master of suspense, J.D. Barker.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

Brendan and Abby are having marital problems, so they book an appointment with a couple’s therapist. She recommends an app – Sugar and Spice – to bring adventure back into their romantic lives. A sexy version of truth or dare, it starts off innocently enough, but the app’s demands quickly go off the rails. 

Would you kill for the one you love? 

Behind a Closed Door takes a fun concept and gives it a sinister twist. Throughout the book, we primarily follow Brendan and Abby, but there are other characters who get POVs, including the mysterious Romeo and Juliet. Their scenes were fascinating to read, and I do wish we’d gotten more of the story written from their perspective.

As much as I wanted to love this book, it required a few suspensions of disbelief that were a little too out there. I’m not talking about anything that the app made them do, or all the drama that occurs later in the book. I found it incredibly difficult to believe Brendan, who is a professional working in investigation and security, would download this app in the first place. The red flags were flying high when the program required them to provide access to their microphones and cameras. They had to enable location services and tracking across other apps. The very first thing that the app does is book them a date at a restaurant that’s very difficult to get into, and covers the bill for them. Nothing is free. If an app doesn’t charge you money or make you watch ads, then you’re the commodity. It’s profiting off your data. 

Brendan uses this phone for work, so even if he didn’t care about his own cybersecurity, he would know that his career could be on the line by compromising a device he uses for work. 

There’s also something that the app does very early on in the book that didn’t sit right with me. Not because of what happens, but because of how the husband reacts. It was at that point that I knew for certain “JD” is a man, because a woman would never be so casual about SA in a book like this. If I were Brendan in this situation, I would have insisted we delete the app immediately. 

Despite these plot holes/inconsistencies, the book was a fun read, with many great twists along the way. 

*Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for the ebook to review*

Find the book:

Goodreads | Amazon

Book Review: Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons

Title: Find Him Where You Left Him Dead
Author: Kristen Simmons
Genre: Horror, Young Adult 
Date of Publication: September 26, 2023
Publisher: Tor Teen

---

Synopsis

AT DAWN HE’LL BE GONE AND YOU’LL BE HERE FOREVER.

Kristen Simmons’s masterful breakout horror novel that’s ” Jumanji but Japanese-inspired” (Kendare Blake) about estranged friends playing a deadly game in a nightmarish folkloric underworld.

“Twists, turns, and genuine palpable emotion.” ―David Levithan • “Haunting and unforgettable.” ―Melissa de la Cruz • “A nightmare I didn’t want to end.” ―Terry J. Benton-Walker • “Absorbing.” ―C. L. Herman • “Bone-chilling.” ―Lauren Shippen • “Heart-pounding.” ―Margaret Rogerson • “Twisted.” ―Lish McBride • “Won’t let me sleep!” ―Chelsea Mueller • “Full of surprises.” ―C. J. Redwine • “Intense.” ―Kendare Blake

Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived.

Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors―Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax―have reunited for one strange and terrible they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.

Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished―an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.

As soon as they begin, they’re dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen’s grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules:

They have one night to complete seven challenges or they’ll all be stuck in this world forever.

Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices―blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.

And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

The marketing describes this book as a horror Japanese Jumanji, and it is right on the money. 

This book’s plot is completely over-the-top, fast-paced, and freaking wild from start to finish. 

One of the pros of this book is just how fast-paced it is, though it does feel like it tried to hit on every single potential trope in a short, only 270 page book. As a result, it didn’t really get to go in depth on any of them. That said, as a horror addict and a gamer, it was fun to see a lot of these horror and game tropes come to life. The book is very meta and well-researched, and it shows. 

Book Review: Dark Corners by Megan Goldin

Title: Dark Corners
Author: Megan Goldin
Series: Rachel Krall # 2
Genre: Thriller
Date of Publication: August 8, 2023
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

---

Synopsis

Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his freedom approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? Why was she visiting him in the first place?

When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel Krall goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.

When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Rachel Krall, the true crime podcaster star of Megan Goldin’s acclaimed Night Swim returns to search for a popular social media influencer who disappeared after visiting a suspected serial killer.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

Our favourite true crime podcaster is back for an encore! 

In this book, Rachel Krall, whom we met in The Night Swim, is on another case. Rachel Krall’s name has come up in an FBI case. Terrence Bailey, who’s in jail for armed robbery but suspected of being a serial killer, mentioned her name to a social media influencer who visited him in prison. And now that social media influencer is missing. 

This book is fast paced and has a lot going on. The chapters are short, so it’s easy to fall into that trap of – “Just one more chapter!” 

I love Rachel as a protagonist, and it was fun to watch her progression as a character. While this is the second in a series, there are only a few brief mentions of the first book. You definitely don’t have to have read (or remember) what happened in that book to enjoy this one. 

Book Review: Ghosted by Amanda Quain

Title: Ghosted
Author: Amanda Quain
Series: Northanger Abbey # 1
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal
Date of Publication: July 25, 2023
Publisher: Wednesday Books

---

Synopsis

Never Have I Ever meets The X-Files in Amanda Quain’s Ghosted, a gender-bent contemporary retelling of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey.

Hattie Tilney isn’t a believer. Yes, she’s a senior at America’s most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she’s hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors and thermal cameras, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living–like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger’s formidable headmistress, buries herself in her work. If Hattie just works hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mom will finally notice her.

But the mask starts slipping when Hattie’s assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, a golden retriever of a boy who’s transferred to Northanger on—what else—a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two are partnered up for an investigative project on the school’s paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove that it’s not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person that makes her want to believe in something—and someone—for the first time.

With her signature wit and slow burn romance, Amanda Quain turns another Austen classic on its head in this sparkling retelling that proves sometimes the ghosts are just a metaphor after all.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

A gender-bent retelling of Northanger Abbey with a paranormal twist… 

Despite attending America’s most-haunted high school, Hattie doesn’t believe in ghosts. 

Hattie is grieving her ghost-hunting father, and the loss of a solid relationship with her mother, who’s the headmistress of Northanger Abbey. Hattie is laser-focused on graduating high school and attending her dream school–-which she’s worried might reject her. There’s a lot going on in this book–including complex relationships with her younger brother and older sister, her best friends at school, her mom, and, of course, the new boy in school. There was almost too much going on, which resulted in the pacing of the book being quite slow. 

That said, my favourite part of the book was the worldbuilding. We get lots of history about Northanger Abbey, as well as spooky stories about the (alleged) ghosts that haunt the grounds. They each have a unique backstory and I lived for those little snippets. I wish that the author had spent more time on this aspect of the book (the ghosts!), and maybe cut one of the friendship storylines. 

The romance between Hattie and Kit is super adorable. It’s interesting, because I love grumpy-sunshine tropes (especially when it’s the girl that’s the grump!), but in this book, I liked Kit a lot more than Hattie. 

This is a fun book for those who enjoy paranormal ghost hunter shows and sweet young adult romances.

*Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for the ebook to review*

Find the book:

Goodreads | Amazon

Book Review: Let Him In by William Friend

Title: Let Him In
Author: William Friend
Genre: Horror
Date of Publication: October 3, 2023
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

---

Synopsis

“Daddy, there’s a man in our room…”

Alfie wakes one night to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed, claiming there’s a shadowy figure in their bedroom. When no such thing can be found, he assumes the girls had a nightmare.

He isn’t surprised that they’re troubled. Grief has made its home at Hart House: nine months ago, the twins’ mother Pippa died unexpectedly, leaving Alfie to raise them alone. And now, when the girls mention a new imaginary friend, it seems like a harmless coping mechanism. But the situation quickly develops into something more insidious. The girls set an extra place for him at the table. They whisper to him. They say he’s going to take them away…

Alfie calls upon Julia—Pippa’s sister and a psychiatrist—to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters’ minds, with dark and violent consequences.

Whatever this “friend” is, he doesn’t want to leave. Alfie will have to confront his own shameful secrets, the dark past of Hart House, and even the bounds of reality—or risk taking part in an unspeakable tragedy.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

Let Him In is an atmospheric, character-driven literary suspense. The story is told in dual first-person POV. First, we get the perspective of Alfie, a newly widowed single father of twin girls. It’s been ten months since their mother passed, and they’ve made a new… friend. This imaginary friend, named Black Mamba, is unsettling and Alfie isn’t sure of what he should do. The second POV comes from his late wife’s twin sister–Julia. She’s a psychotherapist, and she comes to the house regularly to check on the girls.

Book Review: A Love Catastrophe by Helena Hunting

Title: A Love Catastrophe
Author: Helena Hunting
Genre: Romance
Date of Publication: June 13, 2023
Publisher: Forever

---

Synopsis

The fur is about to fly between a cheerful cat sitter and a grumpy hockey nerd in this hilarious and charming rom-com  by the New York Times bestselling author of Meet Cute .

Kitty Hart has become internet famous as the Kitty Whisperer for her expertise on all things feline, and as a result, her cat-sitting business is booming. But lately, she has a terrible feeling that maybe her life isn’t  quite  going where it’s supposed to—especially after falling face-first into her newest client.  Not exactly the best first impression .

Fortunately, Miles Thorn is just as bad at first impressions. Strike he doesn’t like cats, especially Prince Francis, the haughty and mischievous Sphynx his mom left in his care. Strike tackling Kitty to the floor in a misguided attempt to save the pet he continually calls “the gremlin.”

As awkwardness slides into attraction and things start to turn purr-sonal, will these two complete opposites ever be able to find their furry-tail ending?

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

A Love Catastrophe is a sweet, feel-good rom com with spice and laughs. 

A lot of the situational humour in this book is a little far-fetched, but it’s still enjoyable. It’s cringe-humour, particularly in the beginning–so if you’re a fan of awkward sitcoms like The Office, this book might hit right for you. I’m not going ot lie, but I did groan a few times! It felt like Dad humour at parts, which can be a hit or a miss for most. 

I love books where the hero and heroine dislike each other instantly, and Miles definitely does not make a good first impression! While the book is a rom com at heart, it does attempt to touch on some tougher topics, which I found made the book a little depressing at times. Miles’ mother has recently been diagnosed with dementia, and his brother died when he was only a little boy. Kitty’s father died years ago, and her mother has never been the same. 

Book Review: Killer Story by Matt Witten

Title: Killer Story
Author: Matt Witten
Genre: Thriller
Date of Publication:  January 17, 2023
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

---

Synopsis

How far will she go to catch the killer—and make her podcast a hit?

Petra Kovach, a talented and idealistic young reporter, is on the brink of being laid off from her third failing newspaper in a row. To save her job, she pitches the launch of a true crime podcast about a sensational, unsolved murder.

Years earlier, an alt-right YouTuber was killed in her Harvard dorm room, and the case went cold. Petra knew the victim—she was once her camp counselor and loved her like a little sister, despite their political differences.

Petra’s investigation gets off to a rocky start, as her promising leads quickly shrivel up. In her passionate quest for justice—and clicks—Petra burns sources and breaks laws, ultimately putting her own life on the line. Even as her star rises, she worries it could all come crashing down at any moment if her actions are exposed.

When her machinations start to backfire, there’s only one way to fix everything and solve the murder—even though it may cost her everything she loves. 

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

Killer Story is an incredibly fast-paced mystery that has countless twists and turns in the plot. Petra Kovach is a newspaper journalist in a world where traditional newspapers are dying. But she has a case she wants–no needs–to solve. Two years ago, a girl she mentored was murdered, and her killer was never caught. Petra is about to pitch this story to her boss when he fires her because of cutbacks. She convinces him that she has new evidence in the case, and he keeps her on his payroll to create a podcast about her friend’s murder. 

This book is a highly politically charged thriller. It seems like this book touches on all the potential triggers for a reader. Petra will do whatever it takes to find Olivia’s killer. But at what cost? It isn’t too long before she throws all pretense of journalistic integrity out the window. I cringed at some of the difficult and, quite frankly, disgusting decisions she makes. She ruins lives for her podcast. She does this under the pretext that she wants to find Olivia’s killer, but it seems like it’s truly her ambition and desire for fame that drives her. 

Book Review: Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Title: Tell Me I’m Worthless 
Author: Alison Rumfitt
Genre: Horror
Date of Publication:  Jan 17, 2023
Publisher: Tor Nightfire

---

Synopsis

Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends, Ila and Hannah. Since then, Alice’s life has spiraled. She lives a haunted existence, selling videos of herself for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to sleep.

Memories of that night torment Alice, but when Ila asks her to return to the House, to go past the KEEP OUT sign and over the sick earth where teenagers dare each other to venture, Alice knows she must go.

Together, Alice and Ila must face the horrors that happened there, must pull themselves apart from the inside out, put their differences aside, and try to rescue Hannah, whom the House has chosen to make its own.

Cutting, disruptive, and darkly funny, Tell Me I’m Worthless is a vital work of trans fiction that examines the devastating effects of trauma and how fascism makes us destroy ourselves and each other.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

I’m going to start off this review with a preface that the writing style is phenomenal. Rumfitt has a talented way of making her story leap from the page, selecting just the right words to illustrate a point, and creating a sense of madness in the reader, which she does from the very first page.

Tell Me I’m Worthless is a transgressive horror novel that tackles a lot of themes. It does so in an obvious, in your face way, where metaphors are a thing of the past, and the author explicitly tells you what “lessons” you’re meant to walk away from the story with. I’m not a big fan of this approach. While the haunted house itself was terrifyingly original, and I liked the parallels in the character’s lives, I thought the entire book was too heavy-handed with the off-putting content in a way that ended up being over the top and at the same time, a little boring. The plot itself is also very slow, with bucketloads of anecdotes and analogies and descriptions tossed at the reader, dragging down an already slow plot to a snail’s pace.

The book opens with a trigger warning and a non-apologetic apology for including one. Ordinarily, for horror novels, I’d say trigger warnings aren’t critical (with some obvious exceptions), but with this book, you should definitely read the warning and heed it. The author doesn’t just graze these triggers, but faces them head-on, unflinchingly and gratuitously. I was already numb to the disturbing content by the third chapter, and it doesn’t let up for the entire book.

Book Review: Witcha Gonna Do? by Avery Flynn

Title: Witcha Gonna Do?
Author: Avery Flynn
Series: Witchington #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Date of Publication:  December 6, 2022
Publisher: Berkley

---

Synopsis

An unlucky witch and her know-it-all nemesis must team up in the first of a new, hot romantic comedy series from USA Today bestselling author Avery Flynn.

Could it possibly get any worse than having absolutely no magical abilities when you’re a member of the most powerful family of witches ever? It used to be that I’d say no, but then I keep getting set up on dates with Gil Connolly whose hotness is only matched by his ego. Seriously. I can’t stand him. Even if I also can’t stop thinking about him (specifically kissing him) but we’re going to pretend I never told you that part.

So yeah, my life isn’t the greatest right now, but then it goes straight to the absolute worst hell when I accidentally make my sister’s spell glitch and curse my whole family. And the only person who can help non-magical me break the spell? You guessed it. Gil the super hot jerk.

Now we have to work together to save my family and outmaneuver some evil-minded nefarious forces bent on world domination. Oh yeah, and we have to do all that while fighting against the attraction building between us because I may not be magical, but what’s happening between Gil and I sure feels like it. 

Riveting and explosively original, A Sliver of Darkness is C. J. Tudor at her most wicked and uninhibited.

– Goodreads

My Thoughts

Witcha Gonna Do? is a light, sweet, and funny rom com set in a fantasy world where there are witches, unicorns, and other supernatural creatures. This book is surprisingly spicy at parts.

This is my first Avery Flynn novel. I was surprised by how casual and informal the writing style is. The first lines of the book are literally “Hi. *Waves.* That’s me.” It’s a little too informal and casual for my liking. It feels a little immature, which made me constantly question the age of the two protagonists. That said, the style adds to the humour of the story, and it will definitely appeal to those who appreciate that type of writing.