A missing persons, serial killer thriller from two POV- starting in the mid-90’s the popular girl Jules and the brooder Quinn – we follow them until 2011.
Big on nostalgia, I appreciated the pop culture and current event references to set the tone with each time jump.
They are in Nebraska and each May 1, a girl is abducted and killed. It takes them a very long time to solve this mystery, but as the time jumps it is a really fast paced novel. Alex Finlay is a master of storytelling, spending just the right amount of time in character building, plot reveals, and building suspense.
It was creative and clever to see things from both Quinn and Jules’ POV and how they came together at the end. The ending was also very satisfying.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC. Book to be published May 11, 2026.
Minnie is a truly intriguing character. She is from the only Asian family in Colorado Springs but then at college is struggling to find her place. She is a pretty typical talented but insecure teenager and she licks in on the new boy band HOURglass. They are a k-pop inspired band who shoots to stardom and inspires a message board culture and community of fans.
Alternating POE chapters go to Eason, whose stage name is Halo. Similarly insecure, he isn’t a good dancer he’s running from a difficult family situation. Many chapters were by far better, and I found Eason‘s chapters to be a little bit lacking. It all comes together in a dramatic moment when many finally is able to meet the band. It’s definitely a book that explores fandoms and obsession with celebrity. The content is mildly dark, and definitely intriguing in terms of setting. I would’ve liked a little bit more character building on the part of the band members. That said, it was definitely well written and worth reading if you like YA and books about celebrity culture.
Audiobook review- there are some parts of the narrative that are messages and message board material. This has a lot of depth and can be difficult to follow on audio. The performance for Minnie is great and really captures her voice. I was fortune to have a digital copy as well and I enjoyed reading along with audio in an immersive read.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan audio for the ALC and Flatiron Books for the ARC.
Holly is a successful author, but it has been a while since she has had a hit. She also has writers’ block, so she is leaving Manhattan for the small beach town that she spent summers in as a kid. Because she is the last surviving member of her family, she is going to inherit the home. What she finds there is a teenage squatter named Jade, who ends up being a very intriguing character as well. What is Jade‘s backstory? I loved Holly and found her to be very relatable, and I found Jade to be very spunky and intriguing as well. I trusted them both and was really surprised by the ending.
And what happened to Hollie‘s sister Anna? After working at the rich family the Carmichaels estate, she ends up dead in a gas explosion in their guest cottage. But was this an accident?
This is my favorite Jamie Day thriller so far, while technically it takes place in a beach town, that isn’t very important to the setting. However, I do think it would be the perfect popcorn thriller to read on the beach! I read the entire book on a flight, and was very engrossed in the story. I could have done without Ethan, I thought that Holly‘s character was intriguing enough without a romantic arc. I was shocked at the ending, and didn’t see that coming at all! If you like a twisty, popcorn thriller, add this one to your TBR.
Thanks to NetGalley and Saint Martin’s press for the arc. Booked to be published June 8, 2026
A delightful YA Dystopian satire that will warm your heart and make you laugh. This speculative fiction read is about AI taking over in the not-too-distant future. Our hero is Wyoming, a dumb yet lovable prep school kid in Washington, DC. He comes from money and doesn’t see the need to try too hard at life. He figures he should interview for Harvard, since that’s where his parents would want him to go. And he would like to “lie in the grass” there, he mentions this several times. However, he crosses paths with Kayleigh, who has been ostracized for seeing that AI may be sentient. Soon Kayleigh and Wyoming need to team up and save the world.
I stumbled across this funny book offered on NetGalley, it was a delightful surprise. As someone concerns about the rise of AI and the problems it could cause, I also find the teenage boy endearing. Because I am a mom to a teenage boy, who is as smart as he is dumb. The book gave me a lot to think about but plenty of opportunities to laugh. I loved the idea that the AI started putting extra fingers in our art as a way to give humanity “the finger.” Kayleigh was a great foil. The book has a great message without being too heavy handed.
Also- the acknowledgements are written from the PoV of the main character, who thanks the author, which was creative and really cute.
Thank you to NetGalley and Houston Street Press for the ARC. Book out now! Congratulations Houston Street on your debut title!
Exactly the kind of heart wrenching drama and thriller I always expect from Caitlin Weaver. She is absolutely an auto-buy author for me and for good reason. Her books are often on kindle unlimited, and they always have strong female leads and always shitty dudes. I gotta say, I love this formula.
In this case we follow Lacey, who is down on her luck- going through a divorce from her awful ex husband Judd (the perfect name for him)- he is vile and won’t pay for their son Elliott’s ADHD medication or even administer it to him when he is with him. Judd is fighting Lacey for custody. She is fired from a job and accidentally hits a parked car. Life is hard. Then she finds a group of moms in communal living who share living expenses and child care and offer a loving environment for their kids.
Elliott is a dollface 8 year old, but parenting a child with an ADHD diagnosis is always challenging even in the best of circumstances. I really was so sucked in and wanted to throw my kindle across the room at Lacey’s custody issues. The moms get her the opportunity to be an executive assistant and get a job better than the one she has before— but are they hiding something?
If you love a thriller but you aren’t interested in the higher stakes- bloody murdering or random type thrillers, Caitlin Weaver proves you can have a beachy-popcorn thriller that is just as much of a page turner without all that.
Thanks to @netgalley and storm publishing for the ARC. Book to be published January 15, 2026
Lightly magical, this is a romcom tech industry with a wristwatch that works exactly like the time turners from the Harry Potter universe. A few different POV, ideal life is a company owned by Talia Morgan, a Stanford grad with the ability to quickly rewind time. Her lifelong best friend Sam is in love with her. He makes Talia promise to only use it in case of an emergency. As time goes on, she finds herself becoming perfectionists and controlling.
A blend of magical realism, romance and tech boom culture, I would have liked a bit more character development and a Deeper dive into the Ideal Life products and how they work. I saw infinite possibilities and I wish it had been explored a bit more. A clever premise! For me, this one was a like, not necessarily a “love.”
Recommend? Sure. It was harmless and cute.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC. Book to be published August 18, 2026.
If you like a slightly manic, nervous wreck unreliable female main character, you’re going to love this book. Cady is dealing with grief of losing her twin sister, Dana, with whom she had a codependent relationship. In the emergency room, she sees and becomes obsessed with a woman named Morgan, who is frantic to hear about her son who has been taken in for injuries sustained by an accident. When she discovers that the woman’s son has died, she joins her grief group and becomes obsessed with her and begins following and stalking her.
Audiobook review- what a performance. The tone becomes increasingly frantic as the book escalates, it is all first person narrative with plenty of anxious internal dialogue. The book is written as a “letter” to her sister Dana, so she speaks directly to Dana, calling her by name several times each chapter. I found it a bit distracting but I do think this helps the reader to remember the obsession that Cady had with Dana. Which is a big old advertisement for therapy.
Recommend? Yes. It’s a debut and I sort of wonder if the author has ghost written for other thriller authors in the past. This book is perfect for fans of Shari LaPena, Lisa Jewell and Gillian Flynn.
Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC. book to be published February 3, 2026.
I am so grateful that we have a female POC author in closed-door romance! 💘
Ari and Drew meet on New years as she is about to be the captain the British women’s hockey team in the Winter Olympics. He is a photographer and little does Ari know, he is the brother of one of her rivals from the US team. It becomes mutually beneficial to fake date him to avoid her narcissistic Olympian ex, Harrison.
I am shocked at the amount of fake dating tropes that have arisen in 2026 romcoms. It is by far the most common trope that I am seeing for this year, despite the fact that fake dating almost never happens in real life. That aside, I enjoyed this very sweet story and loved the Olympic setting. I don’t know much about hockey, but I loved the storyline about female athletes, how they work together as a team, and the interpersonal relationships. Some really fun and inspiring minor characters. I also love a good kiss cam scene, and I really enjoyed the banter between Drew and Ari.
Audiobook review – I thought that the performance was well acted and easy to follow. Great narrator and the pacing is perfect for audio. This is the perfect winter romcom if you are looking for something lighthearted in the new year.
I might even watch Olympic women’s hockey instead of just figure skating and skiing this year!
Thanks to NetGalley and McMillan audio for the arc. Book to be published 2/2/26
Olivia is floundering a bit. Well, at least she is according to her stepmother. At 19, she deferred her first year in college at Northwestern in order to work part time at a bookstore and to spins lots of time with her grandmother, Annie, who is deteriorating with dementia. Annie is Olivia’s favorite person in the world, and while sometimes she greets her as her believed granddaughter, sometimes she honks Olivia is an aide at the assisted living facility. Sometimes she says things that don’t make sense, but Olivia is doing her best at loving Annie the best way she can.
After she finds some photos of Annie on Martha’s Vineyard that raise a lot of questions, Olivia is determined to find out what her grandmother was like before her dad was born. She doesn’t count on reconnecting with Connor, who she went to camp with, nor does she count on getting sidetracked by love.
I am grateful for the chance to early read this book- I loved KL Walter’s While We’re Young and find her YA work to be very effervescent and positively uplifting. I loved this book’s first 20% as we got to know Olivia and Annie, and the portrayal of caring for a loved one in dementia was very touching.
For me; the story somewhat slowed when she got to the island. Connor seemed fine and the chemistry was sweet. I was anxious to return to Annie’s storyline and the ending was just as magical.
I definitely recommend this clean YA romance for the grandma and mostly the vibes.
Thanks to NetGalley and sourcebooks fire for the ARC. Book to be published May 5, 2026.
A truly magnificent book about our agency, not just how much power we have over our own bodies when pregnant, but as people. It starts when 77 year old Pepper gets into a car accident, her daughter takes her driver’s license, and she moves her into the same assisted living facility that her ex-husband is in. But doesn’t that make sense? That Pepper’s kids would want her to be in the same place as their father? Still, this is where the theme begins that Pepper loses her ability to make decisions about her life. She didn’t expect to fall in love, and NO ONE expected her to become pregnant.
What a crazy premise? I thought this would be more speculative, and although the premise is a little “out there” it is told in a realistic way. There is a fictional plot reason why she is an outlier of pregnancy. But even with such a fantasy-driven premise, this book ends up really making the reader think. If you like well written found-family books that make you think, this is the perfect book for you.
I have loved all of Laurie Frankel’s novels, and this one absolutely met my SKY HIGH expectations. One of my pet peeves on GoodReads is when an early reader says “well I liked this book but I didn’t like it as much as the author’s previous work which is my favorite” – Early readers can fall into that trap of having high expectations that result in lesser than fair ratings. In this case I can confidently tell you that I absolutely LOVED this story, LOVED the characters, I laughed so hard at Pepper, her English teacher observations, and her general acceptance of her life.
I could not tell what was going to happen next, and it was also sad to see so many people exploiting the pregnant septugenarian for their own political gains, you just wanted to scream, she is a HUMAN BEING not your mascot! Wow. I was fiercely protective of her.
Laurie Frankel is just a genius, “Family Family” was very pro-adoption without being anti-choice, and this was so, so needed in women’s literary fiction. This book takes an equally divisive topic and makes it really about the story. If you are sensitive about reading books about narrators that may not make the same decisions you would, this book could trigger you. But either way, I think it would be an excellent book club book to encourage lively discussions.
One of my top books of 2026!!
Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt for the ARC. Book to be published May 4, 2026.
