The Mannequins By C. Toms-Arbel

C. Toms Arbel’s The Mannequins is a debut that does more than just dip its toes into the dark waters of psychological thrillers. It dives headfirst and drags you under with it. This is as much a detective procedural as it is a chilling psychological horror, and it is an absolute banger. DI Cora Steele is a standout, a woman carving her path in a male dominated field with grit, intelligence, and hard earned determination. She feels fully realized, as do the other characters, all three dimensional and layered with flaws, strengths, and motivations that make them feel hauntingly real. The fact that the antagonist remains unnamed for part of the story only heightens the tension, keeping readers guessing while pulling them deeper into the nightmare.

What really sets this apart is how well Toms Arbel handles the pacing and perspective. The novel alternates between the procedural investigation and the twisted mind of a serial killer whose childhood trauma and abuse are revealed in unsettling, gut wrenching detail. You do not just read about the horrors he endured, you feel them, and you grow to loathe the forces that shaped him, especially his mother. The murder scenes are graphic and visceral, written with such sensory intensity that I could hear the bones break and smell the aftermath. It is uncomfortable, but in a way that makes the novel unforgettable.

This is a dark, gritty, and deeply disturbing ride, a story layered with grit, gore, and psychological depth that does not shy away from the horrors of violence or the complexities of human behavior. The mix of horror, murder, and procedural detail kept me awake long past midnight, and as someone who has been eagerly awaiting this release and following the author’s journey, I can say it was more than worth the wait. For a debut, this is astonishingly confident, unsettling, graphic, and impossible to put down.

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Remain By Nicholas Sparks & M. Night Shymalan

I picked this book up solely on the fact that Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan collaborated on this project. I didn’t even read the blurb – my instincts chose this one for me.   I love Nicholas Spark’s books and M. Night Shyamalan’s work on the big screen, so this had to be a win.  I was right.  Let’s make this a little better – there is going to be a movie based on this book with M. Night Shyamalan directing the movie and writing the screenplay so watch for in October 2026. That being said, go into this blind and just love it. 

Remain is a rare beast—a mash up of genres for all the right reasons. Nicholas Sparks brings the tender, soul-deep romance, while M. Night Shyamalan layers in an eerie, slow-creeping dread. Tate Donovan isn’t just another wounded hero looking for a fresh start; he and his late sister Sylvia share an otherworldly connection that defies reason. When Wren walks into his life—magnetic, mysterious, and possibly not of this world—the line between healing and haunting blurs into something unforgettable. It’s part romance, part supernatural thriller, all wrapped in Cape Cod’s windswept, salt-bitten atmosphere.

And then come the twists. The kind that rearranges everything you thought you knew about the characters, the powers at play, and even the nature of love itself. Sparks makes you ache for these people, and Shyamalan makes you question every page—right up until the ending hits like a full-blown tilt, flipping the board and leaving your heart in freefall. It’s haunting and beautiful, impossible to put down.

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The Midnight Knock By John Fram

John Fram’s The Midnight Knock is a locked-room thriller draped in horror, gore, and supernatural dread. Eight strangers, each running from something and carrying secrets they’d rather bury, converge at a desolate desert motel. None of them know each other, yet they are tied together in ways that defy logic. When a murder occurs, it becomes clear that their arrival isn’t chance—it’s fate. And the true danger might not be the killer among them, but something older, darker, and far less human that prowls just beyond the glow of the motel lights.

This was my first book by Fram, and I was hooked from the start. I love a locked-room mystery with teeth, and this one sunk in deep. The structure, broken into parts, gave the story a relentless rhythm, and when I reached the end of the first night, I actually stopped and thought: holy fright, this is a mistake. But there was no turning back. From that point on, the tension tightened like a noose—hold on to your pants, people, because what unfolds is no simple whodunnit.

What makes this novel unforgettable is the atmosphere. Fram paints scenes so vivid they feel alive: roads that hunger, motels that breathe, landscapes that loom with menace. Inanimate objects pulse with life, liminal spaces swallow up reality, and every page feels like stepping deeper into a nightmare you strangely don’t want to wake from. I can say with certainty—I’ll never wander the borderlands, never stop at an outpost, and never risk getting caught in a liminal space. But I was thrilled to live it vicariously in these pages, where the horror is irresistible and survival is anything but guaranteed.

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War On The Porch By Travis Davis

War on the Porch by Travis Davis is a fictional account inspired by real events and a soldier that overcame odds and turned his loss into inspiration.  This novel channels the voice of a WWI soldier so authentically that it reads like a personal remembrance—harrowing, reflective, and hauntingly intimate. Blinded in combat and forever changed, Patrick King recounts the events that stole his sight during the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918—truths he never revealed, not even to his wife. What unfolds is a confessional, decades in the making, marked by silence, trauma, and the ache of memory finally set free.

Travis Davis writes with more than skill—he writes with heart. Drawing from his own military experience, he brings authenticity, compassion, and deep emotional truth to every page. His stories aren’t just about war—they’re about what it means to carry a promise, to love without limits, and to find connection even in silence. Every word reflects the time, care, and research he pours into his craft. Davis doesn’t just tell a story; he invites readers to feel it—to understand what it means to serve, to listen, and to truly be heard.

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The Gunman Jackson Swagger By Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter’s The Gun Man: Jackson Swagger throws every ounce of classic Western energy onto the page with dusty trails, gunfights, horses, saloons, and a hierarchy of power built on money and control. I couldn’t help but picture Sam Elliott stepping into the boots of Jackson Swagger, his quiet authority filling every scene. The  sun beats down on a land still haunted by war, where tension lingers like smoke after a shot. There are plenty of men eager to prove themselves with a gun, but Jack Swagger doesn’t need to boast; his steadiness and precision say it all. He’s the kind of man who’s seen too much, yet still lives by a code that feels carved in stone.

What makes this story stand out isn’t just the action, though the gunfights will absolutely satisfy, but the authenticity in every detail from the sound of spurs to the smell of gun oil and grit. Hunter’s knowledge and history of weaponry is stellar, giving the story an expert realism that never feels forced. I also loved how true events from the time period are woven seamlessly into the story, grounding the fiction in believable history. The pacing builds to an ending that leaves you breathless, not for the shock or spectacle, but for the weight of legacy it leaves behind. This isn’t just a Western about bullets and bravado; it’s about the cost of survival, the measure of a man, and the quiet understanding that sometimes the truest battles are the ones that never make a sound.

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The Gallery Assistant By Kate Belli

This book doesn’t just tell a story—it places you in New York in the raw, fractured aftermath of 9/11. The author captures the city's ache with the sensitivity of a portraitist—layering mood and memory like oil glazes on canvas. Through the lens of the art world, we see how creation, destruction and criminal activity layer together to make a page turner that is completely immersive.   It’s a thriller that doesn’t just chase danger, but emotion, beauty, and truth in a world forever altered.

This is a tightly-wound mystery that plunges you into a web of deceit and trail of money, when an emerging painter is found dead.  Chloe Harlow thought the art community was close and protected, but after a night of black out drinking and she finds one of the gallery’s top artists is dead she is left with hazy memories that are blurred with conflicting accounts of what happened that night.  Chloe never imagined she would be a “Nancy Drew” in her own story.  Especially when she is being questioned by the police and protected by her employers.

Kate Belli delivers everything mystery readers crave: layered, unreliable characters that feel strikingly real, razor-sharp pacing, high stakes, and just the right amount of red herrings and misdirection. Set against a vividly immersive art world backdrop, the story blends suspense, emotional depth, and gallery-life intrigue in a way that truly sets it apart.

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The Devouring Light By Kat Ellis

When Haden Romero and her bandmates, along with their rivals, crash deep in the swamplands on their way to a music festival, they think they’ve found shelter in an abandoned house rising from the muck. But this house isn’t just setting — it’s a predator. The deeper they explore, the more it devours their sanity, their secrets, and one by one, their lives.

What makes The Devouring Light unforgettable is how Ellis turns atmosphere into menace. The storm, the swamp and the sticky claustrophobia of the decaying house all presses down like a fever dream. Mixed media elements like found footage, transcripts, and news reports pull you in even deeper, making the terror feel disturbingly real. The pacing never lets up, barreling forward with that relentless, pulse-pounding rhythm. And then comes a twist at the end that will absolutely gut you.

Beyond the blood and leeches, though, Ellis leaves you chewing on something more sinister — the cost of wanting too much. What price would you pay for fame, for fortune, for being seen? How far would you go to grasp the spotlight, even if it burns you alive? Don’t let the YA label fool you this one bites hard, sinks its teeth deep, and refuses to let go. It is a perfect addition to your spooky season reading.

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Keep This For Me By Jennifer Fawcett

From the very first line—“The lake is the great devourer; the giver and taker of life”—I knew this was going to be more than just a mystery. Jennifer Fawcett’s Keep This for Me is layered, haunting, and deeply atmospheric. What begins as a decades-old disappearance tied to a notorious serial killer grows into something much larger: a meditation on grief, identity, and the shadows that linger across generations. The lake itself is more than a backdrop. It is a living metaphor for memory, loss, and inevitability, the unknowns, fear, swallowing secrets and reflecting truths in equal measure.

One of the aspects I loved most was the use of multiple points of view and shifting timelines. Instead of distracting from the story, these perspectives added richness and emotional depth, allowing me to connect not just with Fiona, but with the echoes of her mother’s disappearance and the reverberations through the Ward family. The book takes its time, unfolding layer by layer, building both suspense and meaning. Yes, there’s a mystery to unravel, but what you are the reader will take away, are the undercurrents: mental illness, depression, motherhood, trauma, and the ways silence and secrets can ripple through families for decades.

The atmosphere is chilling, the characters flawed and human, and the themes profound enough to spark long conversations. My own thoughts have shifted and evolved even as I write this review, which for me is a sign of a story with real staying power. I could talk about this book for days, and I believe it would make a phenomenal book club pick because there’s simply so much to unpack. Dark, unsettling, and unforgettable, Keep This for Me should not be missed.

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Cry Havoc By Jack Carr

Jack Carr’s Cry Havoc is a relentless plunge into the shadows of the Vietnam War where history and fiction collide in a way that feels frighteningly real. At the center is Tom Reece, a Navy SEAL attached to MACV SOG, whose call sign “Havoc” marked the men willing to go behind the fence on missions no one else would dare take. This isn’t just a war story; it is the origin of the Reece legacy, showing exactly where James Reece inherited his grit, skill, and uncompromising sense of justice (aka badassery). From covert operations in Laos to Soviet spies feeding intelligence to the North Vietnamese, Carr pulls readers into a world of betrayal, sacrifice, and ruthless courage.

Carr does not flinch from the brutal realities. The USS Pueblo incident, the tangled web of espionage with Soviets inside the United States government and Americans in the GRU, and the devastating reality of SOG teams ambushed because of leaks are all presented with a rawness that cuts deep. The battles are cinematic, the tension is suffocating, and the moral weight is unforgettable. Tom Reece himself embodies everything readers crave in a hero. He is ruthless when justice demands it, guided by a moral compass that will never allow harm to the innocent. He is loyalty, ferocity, and courage personified, the definition of an authentic American forged in war. Retribution by his hand is not just payback; it is a reckoning.

This is Carr’s most military history-rich and factually grounded thriller yet, and the effect is stunning. His author’s note reveals that many of the operations woven into the narrative are based on actual events, and that knowledge makes the story reverberate even more. The emotional punch is lasting. Images of what these soldiers endured and the creed of “leave no man behind” will stay with you long after the last page. Cry Havoc is not just a book you read; it is a book you feel in your bones. Do not hesitate. Just read the book. It is that good.

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Victim #8 By Traci Hunter Abramson

Traci Hunter Abramson’s Victim #8 picks up right where Hometown Vendetta left off, throwing readers straight back into the lives of Luke Steele and Amberlyn Reiner. Still reeling from the trauma of their last mission, both characters are learning to navigate loss and healing while realizing just how much stronger they are together. Their next challenge comes quickly when eight stabbing victims are discovered along the banks of Istanbul’s Faith District—one of them an American journalist. With stakes that stretch from Turkey to Azerbaijan, Russia, Washington D.C. and other places across the globe, Luke and Amberlyn are once again pushed into a deadly game of espionage and betrayal. And while nothing is ever a coincidence in this world, their partnership might be the only constant they can truly rely on.

What makes this book so easy to recommend is the perfect blend of high-stakes international intrigue and emotional depth. Abramson gives us that ticking-clock thriller energy—murders to solve, conspiracies unraveling, and nuclear threats looming—while never losing sight of the human core of the story. Luke and Amberlyn aren’t just operatives; they’re two people healing, learning to trust, and letting a believable and slow-burn romance unfold in the middle of chaos. Readers will love the globe-spanning settings that feel like a spy movie come to life, the authentic detail Abramson brings to intelligence work, and the irresistible chemistry between her leads.

By the end, it’s impossible not to root for this dynamic duo. Luke and Amberlyn are kindred spirits who balance grit with vulnerability, attraction with loyalty, and patriotism with personal sacrifice. Abramson has a gift for writing clean, heart-pounding stories that leave readers both satisfied and impatient for the next installment. Victim #8 is proof that this series is only gaining momentum—and if you’re not already invested in these two, now is the perfect time to dive in.

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Silent Creek By Tony Wirt

Tony Wirt is firmly on my auto-read list, and Silent Creek proves exactly why. He’s a master of slow-building dread—the kind that doesn’t just sneak up on you, it moves in, settles on the couch, and dares you to look away. His take on small-town life is dead on: the gossip, the grudges, the way people cling to tradition like it’s gospel. In Wirt’s world, secrets don’t just stay buried—they ferment, sour, and eventually explode. And wow, does it get messy.

What I loved most is how real these characters feel. Wirt doesn’t do cardboard cutouts; he gives us flawed, complicated people you might actually bump into at the gas station, went to high school with—or secretly cross the street to avoid. Each fractured friendship, every layer of jealousy or regret, feels like it’s been simmering for decades. By the time everything boils over, you’re clutching the book tighter than a cup of bad diner coffee, desperate to know how it all ends. And trust me—the ending? Shocking, in the best way.

This is dark tension at its finest—an emotional reckoning that drips with suspense and nostalgia, twisted together in a way only Wirt can pull off. He doesn’t just hand you a thriller; he hands you a story about people, about the ways hate and love can coexist in a single heartbeat, and about the fallout of never letting go. If slow-burn suspense is your jam, and you like your small towns served with a side of secrets and revenge, Silent Creek is an absolute must.

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Photograph By Brian Freeman

Brian Freeman’s standalones never miss, and Photograph proves it yet again. One old snapshot—just a little girl in the rain—turns into a live wire of secrets, lies, and danger. Shannon Wells a PI who runs her business out of a high-top table at a tiki bar in Daytona called  Beachside, charges into the case with grit sharpened by her own bruised past, her trauma and tangled family history pushing her to dig deeper when anyone else would’ve walked away. She’s strong, she’s flawed, and she’s relentless—exactly the kind of protagonist you want leading you through a maze where every clue cuts a little deeper.

And oh, the way he weaves this web. The layers and connections between characters that span twenty-six years, looping and tangling in ways you’ll never predict. Every time you think you’ve got it pinned down, another revelation flips the board. It’s proof of just how much history, heartbreak, and even the keys to the future a single photograph can hold. Lean in, because this isn’t just a mystery— it’s a relentless, twist-loaded chase through the shadows of the past, and it will not let you go.

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The Hitchhikers By Chevy Stevens

The Hitchhikers transported me straight back to 1976 in the most vivid, immersive way. From the setting of the Olympics to the prices at thrift shops and grocery stores, every detail felt authentic and alive. Rotary phones, hitchhiking culture, hippies passing joints on the roadside—Chevy Stevens captured it all. I was hooked from the very first page.

The story follows Tom and Alice, a couple on a road trip, who cross paths with Ocean and Blue, two strangers camping under the same summer sky. What begins as an act of kindness soon turns into something far more dangerous. Tom and Alice couldn’t have known that their friendly gesture would thrust them into the lives of two young people fleeing a violent, chaotic past—leaving behind a trail of unpredictable chaos and death.

Told through dual points of view—Alice and Jenny (a.k.a. Ocean) —the novel explores the inner lives of two strong women, each shaped by their own trauma and survival. Their voices are raw, compelling, and heartbreakingly real. I loved the way their backstories were slowly revealed, adding tension and emotional depth as the story unfolded. It reminded me that life is like a chess game: every move is a reaction, and the past always has a way of catching up.

What stood out most to me was the unshakable suspense. Stevens expertly weaves a psychological thriller that is not only chilling, but deeply human. The realism is partly what makes it so haunting—the fear and vulnerability of hitchhiking in the '70s, inspired by real-life dangers, feels both distant and disturbingly familiar.

If you're a fan of character-driven thrillers with immersive settings and emotional weight, this one delivers!

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Denied Access By Don Bentley

Don Bentley’s Denied Access hits like vintage Rapp with a fresh emotional charge. Yes, it’s book #24, but it’s not in series order—it snaps back to the early days, not long after Mary’s murder. That loss lit the fuse on Mitch Rapp’s vengeance arc, and Bentley leans into the fallout. Now Mitch is with Greta, and for the first time you feel him reaching for something beyond payback—a chance to make amends and move on. Greta isn’t just a love interest; she’s the granddaughter of an ex-Soviet banker-turned-spy who once worked with Thomas Stansfield, now serving as interim CIA director. The past refuses to stay buried, and Bentley wrings both menace and meaning from it.

Bentley gives voice and depth to threads fans have been following for years. You see Irene Kennedy, Stan Hurley, Thomas Stansfield, Greta, and other side characters from a fresh perspective—not just as archetypes, but as people with histories, loyalties, and vulnerabilities. The mission itself is a powder keg: Irene, Hurley, and Stansfield are scrambling to stop a war between Russia and Latvia, and there’s only one man they can call to get the dirty work done. Enter Mitch Rapp.

As the capstone to the origin arc that began with Vince Flynn’s American Assassin and Kill Shot, Bentley had enormous shoes to fill. He meets the challenge by leaning into the series’ core elements—broken intelligence networks, betrayals in the shadows, and the lingering shockwaves of the Soviet collapse. And while the novel is rooted in the post–Cold War era, the parallels to today’s Russia–Ukraine conflict ripple off the page. It’s eerie—in the best way—to read a story that feels both historical and urgently current. That resonance gives the action extra voltage and the quieter moments unexpected weight.

Bottom line: chronology buffs will love where this book lands (early in Rapp’s life, late in publication), and longtime fans will appreciate how it deepens the canon. A true Mitch Rapp fan devours each book, and this is exactly the kind of payoff that loyalty deserves—high-stakes, tightly wound, and surprisingly moving. If you want Rapp both lethal and human, Denied Access delivers.

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The Whisper Place By Mindy Mejia

The Whisper Place is Book 3 in the Iowa Mystery Series following Jonah Kendrick and Max Summerlin and their not so traditional private investigation firm, Celina Investigations.   First of all, let me say the first two books are fabulous and the more you read, the more invested you are in Jonah and Max and their quirky but fun relationship as friends and co-workers, but if you don’t have time to read those, it is safe to jump in here.  The author will give you just the right amount of information to catch up and not be repetitive for the series readers. 

With Max Summerlin’s law enforcement past and Jonah Kendrick’s psychic gifts, they’re an unlikely pair—but exactly the team you’d want on your side when someone goes missing.  One day Charlie walks into their office and asks them to find his girlfriend.  This is where the questions start. (1) He does not know her last name and a lot of other basic information;  (2) He has stacks and stacks of cash and; (3) It is obvious he is holding some secrets of his own. 

This story tells us about Darcy (maybe Kate) who is running from something, but what or who is unknown.  The Whisper Place  is told in a linear timeline, through multiple POV’s with gut wrenching and heart-breaking flashbacks.  This book is part mystery and part psychological thriller.  Mindy Mejia doesn’t just tell a story—she drops you right into the heart of it. You feel every ounce of the trauma and terror the main character endures. The pacing? Flawless. Just when you think things are settling down, Mejia hits you with a twist that pulls you right back in. The red herrings? Constantly keep you guessing. I won’t be missing a single thing she writes.

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Scar The Sky By J. Todd Scott

One moment. One spark. One chance encounter—and Andi Ellis's entire world changed. Once a vibrant teacher who lit up every room and loved her work, her life took a drastic turn when she was struck by lightning during a field hockey game. She died… and was brought back. But the woman who returned was no longer the same. Unable to find understanding in her hometown, she sets out in search of others who have experienced what she has—other lightning strike survivors.

Enter Adan Rio and Linnea Wren—former FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit agents turned private detectives with a bond forged through past trauma and years of unshakable trust. Linnea possesses a near-supernatural ability to draw meaningful conclusions from the faintest of clues, while Rio brings emotional intelligence, physical strength, and social finesse to their partnership.

Years later, Andi and her young daughter Ruby are living in quiet seclusion in New Cornelia, Arizona, when Rio and Linnea are pulled into the search for a senator’s missing daughter. What begins as a separate investigation slowly unravels into something much larger and darker. Two paths, thousands of miles apart, collide—connected by a serial killer obsessed with Lichtenberg figures and the power of lightning.

J. Todd Scott is completely in his element here. This story is a masterful blend of suspense, horror, and science fiction, wrapped in themes of trauma, isolation, and survival. I love how he messes with my head just enough to make me wonder—have I met Rio and Linnea before? He subtly builds their backstories and trauma across the pages, grounding their characters in a deeply human way as the tension escalates.

The pacing is tight, the red herrings are devious, and just when I thought I had it all figured out—boom, the suspect slips away. This is not a story you skim. It’s one you live in, every single page pulling you deeper into its electric current.  In Scar the Sky, lightning rewires fate and unleashes a killer obsessed with scars, storms and anyone left in its wake.

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The Wasp Trap By Mark Edwards

Mark Edwards’ The Wasp Trap is the very definition of a wickedly clever thriller—ingenious, chilling, and impossible to put down. What begins as a nostalgic dinner among six former college friends quickly mutates into the dinner party from hell, where secrets are the only currency and survival depends on revealing them. Edwards traps his characters—and his readers—in a grand house where phones die, the internet vanishes, and escape is impossible. The tension builds with every page as Will, Sophie, Rohan, Lilly, Theo, and Georgina realize their captors don’t want money—they want truth, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it.

Told through dual timelines, the novel shifts seamlessly between the summer of 1999—when a dating app experiment spiraled into a test to identify psychopaths—and the present, where the fallout of that fateful summer crashes down. Each flashback peels away layers of betrayal, ambition, and regret, while the present-day scenes escalate into a claustrophobic game of “who has the secret?” Edwards saves his sharpest blows for Part 3, where the pace becomes so relentless you’ll be glued to the pages until the very end.

With locked-room suspense, morally tangled questions, and secrets sharp enough to sting, The Wasp Trap is fast-paced, binge-worthy, and completely unpredictable.

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Family Ties By Michele Packard

Michele Packard has done it again—but not in the way you’d expect. I’ve read everything she’s written, and Family Ties is not even remotely in the same wheelhouse…and I am absolutely here for it. This book is a barn burner, the perfect genre mashup of psychological thriller and horror, with a tension that grips you by the throat and refuses to let go.


The patient’s journal entries are chilling and disorienting, and the fact that the book is split into two parts only heightens the madness—you’re constantly questioning whether you’re reading the truth, the dangerous unraveling of lies, or if you’re the one losing it. Packard leans hard into the unreliable narrator trope, and she nails it. The ambiguous, unpredictable ending left me reeling and clutching the book with a million questions—will there be more? Can there please be more? Family Ties is the kind of story that makes you want to text your bookish friends at 2 a.m. just to scream, “you are NOT ready for this ending.”

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Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

The Quietist By Daniel David Gothard

At just 168 pages, The Quietist is proof that brevity can be powerful. There isn’t a single wasted word—every page carries weight, and every scene feels essential. What impressed me most was how fully formed the three characters, Dr. Christopher Lansing, Catherine Stannard and Patrick Hawton are; they’re not just figures on a page but living, breathing people whose inner lives you can feel. Each of them reacts to grief and trauma in such different ways that their stories become a mirror for how grief, trauma and survival reshape us all—sometimes breaking us down, sometimes allowing unexpected strength to surface.

As I read, I found myself deeply moved by the way each character reflects on their life before and after the accident. Their thoughts reach across time—about the joy they once had, the regrets they carry, the futures they imagine, and the pasts they wish they could rewrite. It’s a haunting, beautiful meditation on loss and possibility, one that I’d recommend to anyone who appreciates character-driven fiction that goes straight to the heart.

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Purchase The Quietist
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Leverage By Amran Gowani

Leverage is a whip-smart, punchy debut that drags the high-powered, low-morality world of hedge funds straight into the light—and doesn’t care who it offends along the way. Al Jafar, our quick-tongued antihero, is losing millions by the minute, his life is on the line and still somehow managing to make us laugh out loud with deadpan one-liners and spot-on pop culture jabs. Team America, superheroes, corporate buzzwords (and I think I remember Monty Python being referenced in ‘your general direction) —it’s all fair game, and Al’s sarcasm isn’t just sharp, it’s survival. In a world this toxic humor might be the only thing keeping him from going under.

The title isn't just a nod to financial jargon—it’s a razor-sharp metaphor for the pressures, power plays, and moral compromises that define the protagonist’s world. On the surface, it refers to the risky borrowing tactics hedge funds use to amplify profits (and losses), but for Al Jafar, it’s also the emotional and psychological weight used against him. His firm leverages his identity, his fear, and his desperation to protect itself, while Al scrambles to hold onto his career, his sanity, and his sense of self-worth. Gowani uses the concept to explore who gets power, who gets crushed by it, and what it really costs to survive in a system where everything—including people—is currency.

Gowani doesn’t flinch from the ugly stuff either. The racism? Constant. The bullying? Corporate and casual. The gaslighting and moral rot? Oh, it’s thriving. Everyone in this world has sold their soul, but Al is still clinging to a receipt—and watching him maneuver through the greed and hypocrisy is part thrill ride, part slow-burn tragedy. Leverage is biting, bold, and brutally honest.

Follow Teresa on Twitter or Instagram or contact her via the site.

Purchase Leverage
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Meet The Review Team