death

two young girls walking across a snow-covered land

The Girls in The Snow by Stacy Green – Defintely Putdownable

Special Agent Nicole “Nikki” Hunt returns to her hometown Stillwater, Minnesota for the first time in twenty years. The last time she was here was when she discovered her parents’ dead bodies in their home one night and she was the primary witness in the case. She had seen Mark Todd that night and following her testimony, Mark was arrested. This time Nikki was invited to visit a crime scene in Stillwater, where the local police had found the dead bodies of two young girls dumped in the snow. Since she is the expert in the serial killer Frost cases, she was informed, but this is not how Frost behaves; there are several differences. Will she be able to find who killed these girls? Shockingly, new evidence reevals that Mark Todd is innocent. Is this case somehow connected to her parents’ murders?

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a man standing at the bottom of a staircase, holding the hand of a woman who stands a few steps above, both of them facing each other, smiling

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston – Time-Travelling Meets Cozy, Chick-lit Romance

While the first few chapters might give you the feeling that this is a slow-burn romance novel, filled with pain and grief, it quickly picks up pace from the moment Clementine meets Iwan, which is where the magical realism element also begins. As the shy, grieving woman with no purpose other than her work finds Iwan, a handsome, charismatic, sweet young man in her aunt’s magical apartment, travelling through time, she experiences shock, attraction, and awe. Meeting Iwan changes her life. While magical realism forms the main foundation of the story, it also normalizes homosexual relationships, breaks gender stereotypes, reminds the reader of their favourite person they look up to, and makes one’s thoughts wander about in fantasy, thereby serving as a good escapist break.

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a young woman walking inside a tunnel, looking for something in the dark

A Murder of Crows – Not your Average Thriller Novel but A Rare Treat for Fiction Lovers

A Murder of Crows is a promising, feel-good page-turner. The author’s writing is so good that you don’t notice how time passes by or pause to see how many more pages are left. Starting from the smart word play in the title to the ability to beautifully blend in details of ecology with a murder mystery, the storytelling is almost perfect. The narration also smoothly alternates between light moments and the more serious ones, as we experience spontaneous, witty humour, romance that feels deep, and the curiousity to learn what happens next. Sarah Yarwood-Lovett delivers the complete package, not just another thriller story.

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a house that is on fire in the evening hours

The Roommate by Andrea Mara – A Gripping, Short Thriller Story

The Roommate is a short story, a psychological thriller written by Andrea Mara, published recently as part of the Deadly Ambition collection by Amazon Original Stories. Elena lives with her husband Richard and two kids in Dublin. She is grateful for all the luxury and peace they have. Richard is the perfect husband, but he does not know about a dark incident from her past. When the two sit down to watch a crime show on TV, Elena is shocked to learn that the show is an exact narrative of what happened in her past, what she has tried to forget and has told nobody about. Her past comes back to haunt her? But who is behind this and what do they want?

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A Welcome Reunion by Lucinda Berry

A Welcome Reunion by Lucinda Berry – Is This Novella a Fitting Sequel?

In this sequel to The Perfect Child, Janie, an eighteen-year-old is released from juvenile detention, and this is the talk of the small town because Janie was one of the most violent, sociopathic children. She had gone through severe torture, abuse, and neglect during her childhood, so she herself was a victim, but she had murdered two people when she was a child and had severely harassed and tortured roommates, peers, and others she lived with. Now, though, she has changed her name, she claims to have changed as a person, she has published a bestseller book detailing her past, and is promoting the same, blaming the Bauers, the couple who adopted her when she was a troubled kid. While Janie advocates that everyone deserves second chances, Hannah Bauer is certain that Janie couldn’t have changed. The plot thickens with unbelievable acts of torture and smart plot twists.

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a poster showing a middle-aged woman looking shocked, a amiddle-aged man, and a young girl

Then She was Gone by Lisa Jewell

An emotionally layered psychological thriller that mixes grief, memory, and unanswered questions about how a young girl went missing. The story unfolds gradually, focusing on how the past continues to shape the present in unsettling ways, especially for the mother who cannot think of anything except for her missing daughter. There is no purpose or anything interesting in her life until she meets a man her own age, who she starts dating, and to her surprise, his daughter looks very similar to her own.

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a woman sitting inside a prison cell, crying

Death Row by Freida McFadden – A Suspenseful Thriller

Death Row is a short thriller story by Freida McFadden, the author of the highly popular The Housemaid YA thriller series books. This story is about Talia Kemper, a young woman, who is highlys ensitive to being cheated and betrayed because her own mother and she experienced that in their lives. Now, she is in prison, on death row, for the murder of her husband Noel kemper, but it turns out that her husband might be alive?

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Two Women Walk Into A Bar

Two Women Walk Into a Bar – A Memoir by Cheryl Strayed

This is a poignant short story, a memoir based on Cheryl Strayed’s experience and reflection of her relationship with her mother-in-law who is dying due to old age and illness. The author narrates her version of what Joan was like and the reader gets to witness the grief of losing an aging parent through someone else’s eyes or voice. Avoid this book if you cannot handle grief and loss.

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