Goodreads

Release date: April 29, 2025

Publisher: Minotaur

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

Bestselling author Julia Spiro’s Such a Good Momis a brilliant standalone mystery that’s the perfect beach read. In the heat of summer, a murder on Martha’s Vineyard rocks one new mom to the core, leaving her to search for answers.

With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. But Brynn is struggling. Her husband, Ross, grows more distant by the day, and the challenges and exhaustion of postpartum make Brynn feel like she’s slowly losing pieces of herself to motherhood. Pieces that she might never get back.

But it’s summer on the Vineyard, a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. Except for locals, like Brynn, who know all too well that tragedy can strike at any point. And this time, it hits close to home when a friend of the family is found washed ashore. Dead. And Brynn’s already hectic life is turned upside down when Ross is arrested for the crime.

Left reeling with more questions than answers, Brynn’s only path forward is to find out who really killed Cecelia Buckley, even if it means it was her husband. She’s not sure who she’s able to trust anymore. And with dizzying, endless cycle of sleepless nights, diapers, and bottles, Brynn’s not even sure she can trust herself. She’s not sure of anything anymore, but she won’t stop until she finds the truth.

Bestselling author Julia Spiro is known for writing characters readers instantly connect to. With Such a Good Mom, Spiro brings the real and layered Martha’s Vineyard to life through the eyes of a new mom trying to get her family out of the eye of the storm that is a murder investigation.

Review:

This was slightly different than what I expected, less thriller more light mystery is what it is and I assumed it would read more like a thriller. It’s more character driven than I thought it would be as well, it takes a hard look at Brynn’s experience with post partum depression and that made the whole thing feel pretty heavy. Sort of a weird combo with the mystery feeling lighter and easy to predict and the rest of it feeling so dark, at least for me. The setting of Martha’s Vineyard was well described and makes this an ideal one to read during the summer and I did enjoy some of the authors prose, there was a sharpness that came through a few times, I just wish there was more of it and more complexity with the mystery aspect. If you are newer to mysteries or enjoy lighter style suspense you should try this though!

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: April 29, 2025

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

In a dark thriller from USA Today bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey, a TV reunion brings costars back for the drama and betrayals their viewers once craved—and this time, the stakes are deadly.

Ivy Westcott fled LA as her acting career imploded. In a flash, she lost her first love and chosen family—her Hello, Juliet castmates. But she never discovered who turned her closest friends against her. Now the whole world knows her as #PoisonIvy.

A decade later, Ivy is horrified when a celebrity exposé thrusts the Hello, Juliet cast back into the limelight, dredging up the old scandals she hoped to escape. Desperate for a fresh start and some financial stability for her mother and manager, Ivy agrees to participate in a top-secret reunion episode.

Ivy’s poised for a comeback, but past betrayals become a present danger when she and the man who once broke her heart find their costar dead.

Determined to find justice and clear her name, Ivy must tear down the facades of cast and crew to uncover chilling secrets that have plagued the Hollywood set from day one. Or she could be the next to die.

Review:

I love books set in Hollywood and bonus points if they take a look at the dark side of the industry and not only did this one do that, it did it in a very unique and intriguing way. It flips back and forth between present day as Ivy prepares for the TV reunion and the past when she was a budding actress and getting her first break on the set of Hello Juliet. Both timelines were engaging, in the past you’re trying to figure out where it all went wrong and in the present there’s an interesting murder mystery. I think that’s all you should know about the plot but it’s very well executed and the reveals and secrets were pretty damn shocking and surprising. Definitely a solid thriller that I recommend!

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: April 22, 2025

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Genre: General fiction

Synopsis:

For readers of J. Ryan Stradal and The Music of Bees (with a dash of FX’s The Bear) comes a quirky and refreshing epistolary novel about family of culture-shocked Brooklynites transplanted to Goodnight, Kansas and their fight for their unexpected lifeline: the legendary May Day Diner.

Welcome to Goodnight, Kansas.

Population: Many Kansans, three New Yorkers, and one chance to save the place they love most

With more wind chimes than residents, folks don’t move to Goodnight when their lives are going well. That’s why all eyes are on chef Sid Solvang and his family from the moment they turn down Emporia Road to the dilapidated Victorian they inherited.

While Sid searches for work and a way back to Brooklyn, his daughter searches for answers to the cryptic messages her grandfather left behind to save both her family and the town. But then Sid makes an impulsive purchase: the fledgling May Day Diner, an iconic eatery under the threat of the wrecking ball.

As the Solvangs search for their ticket out, they discover the truth of Goodnight: one of heart and tradition, of exploitation and greed, and neighbors you would do anything to save. And the Solvangs must navigate all of it—plus wayward girl named Disco, a host of rambunctious alpacas, and the corrupt factory sustaining the town—in order to find their way back home…wherever that may be.

Told through diary entries, emails, school notes, and an anonymous town paper of the Lady Whistledown variety, A Town with Half the Lights On is a tender testament to the notions that home isn’t just the place you live, family isn’t just your relatives, and it’s almost never easy to find the courage to do what’s right.

Review:

I absolutely love an epistolary novel, I feel like I rarely come across one, so I was super excited to get my hands on this one. I think they can be difficult to pull off, but the author did an amazing job tying everything together here and I know it couldn’t have been easy. There are so many characters and so many pieces of them throughout, whether it’s from their journal entries or emails, or even a note passed during math class and this gave the whole book such a fly on the wall feeling. The town of Goodnight is super quirky and charming in its own way and the residents match that as well, so lots of fun and cute moments but there was also a lot of depth here as well. Each character was fully fleshed out and I felt like I truly knew them by the end and the plot was fun and unique. Overall a really sweet and heartwarming read that I enjoyed so much.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: May 6, 2025

Publisher: Bantam

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.

Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.

On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both their cases eventually went cold.

Nic wants nothing more than to move on—from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into her life and offers Nic something she hasn’t felt in a long hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.

Review:

I feel like this would be a great choice if you’re in a book slump and you want something to pull you out of it. I raced through it, the pacing was fast and there were some twists and turns that kept me engaged. I found I didn’t want to put it down when I needed to, always a great sign! I absolutely loved the ending and I can be super picky about them, but this was just a really strong and solid read for me across the board. I enjoyed the authors previous release but I liked this one even more, it was more nuanced and complex and it really felt like she found her stride.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: April 16, 2025

Publisher: Bookouture

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

My little girl has vanished. And I can’t tell anyone…

My nine-year-old daughter Hollie should be leaving school smiling and laughing with all the other children but she’s not here. I run frantically, checking everywhere, my voice growing louder, but I can’t see her bright blue eyes and heart-shaped face anywhere. Pure panic washes over me. This is my worst nightmare.

Her teacher asks me if she should call the police. My heart stops. I shake my head and pretend I’ve made a mistake. I see a look of suspicion creep into the teacher’s eyes. But the police can’t know. No one can. My hands shake as I realise I’m completely on my own.

I know in my gut my daughter hasn’t just wandered off. She’s been taken. Someone must know the truth about my past…

I’ve spent so long protecting Hollie, but I always knew this day might come. And I’ll stop at nothing to get my little girl back.

An absolutely nail-biting, addictive psychological thriller novel from multi-million-copy, bestselling author JD Kirk. This book is sooooo fast-paced you won’t be able to put it down! For anyone who loves Freida McFadden, John Marrs and T.M. Logan.

Review:

This was not your typical missing child thriller, Elizabeth does not behave how a normal parent would when she realizes her daughter has vanished so it’s strange right from the start. She’s worried for sure, she just doesn’t tell anyone, including the police and it’s clear that she has secrets she’s willing to go to great lengths to hide. So I definitely judged her the whole time, she’s not a likable character but she was interesting for sure. The pacing here was on the fast side with short chapters and plenty of action. It did veer into some outlandish turns but some of the twists were solid so it all kind of balanced out for me in the end. If you want a thriller with a pretty fresh angle try this, I really haven’t read anything else exactly like it and I always appreciate that, I just wish it would’ve been a bit more grounded and not so silly. 

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: May 6, 2025

Publisher: Minotaur

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.

Review:

If you’re someone that is new to the mystery/thriller genre I feel like this would be a great place to start. It’s super fast paced, there’s a decent mystery and there’s plenty of characters giving you lots of options as to whodunnit. For me personally it wasn’t surprising enough for me, I found the reveals predictable, but this wasn’t a bad read for me at all. It kept my attention and although there were a lot of characters to keep track of, I didn’t have trouble keeping them straight. I really liked some of them, especially Keller and would love to see her character again in the future. If you like fast paced mysteries with an ensemble cast and lots of drama, this may be for you.

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Release date: April 15, 2025

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmarl

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

The Paris Apartment meets A Simple Favor in an unputdownable thriller about a honeymoon gone horribly wrong.

Sometimes, Paris is a terrible idea.

This is not how she imagined it, any of it. Taylor Quinn arrives at her honeymoon suite in the City of Love alone, sans suitcase, but with wads of stolen cash. When she catches a glimpse of newlyweds Cassie and Olivier enjoying their happily ever, she can’t tear her eyes away. And Cassie makes their antics easy to follow as she reveals every detail of their picture-perfect trip on social media. Taylor’s obsession builds as she tracks their every move. This was the kind of life she was supposed to be living, this was the marriage she should have had, this was the honeymoon she dreamed of.

The illusion is shattered when she overhears a heated argument between Cassie and Olivier, which reveals that they’re not the lovestruck couple they pretend to be. But Cassie and Olivier have agendas of their own and Taylor can’t see the danger in getting in the middle of this until it’s too late. And now, no one will get out of Paris unscathed.

Review:

I loved the premise here and the tagline about Paris not always being a good idea was intriguing to me. You figure out almost immediately that none of the characters are very likable or even decent people but in a thriller, who cares? I found the pacing to be pretty fast and while some twists were surprising some weren’t but that was ok for me. I was assuming this would be about four stars for me until the ending and now I’m def bumping it down. I hate an ambiguous ending where you’re not sure what happened and that’s what we were given here. It could be seen as two different outcomes and I don’t like that at all, I want clear and concise answers. Blah. But if you enjoy that type of thing the rest of this was a pretty fun popcorn style wild thriller! The ending was just disappointing for me.

Overall rating: 3/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: April 1, 2025

Publisher: Atria

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.

Beloved romance author Margot Bradley has a dark secret: she doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, and not even for her characters, for whom she secretly writes alternate endings that swap weddings and babies for divorce papers and the occasional slashed tire. When her Happily Never After document is hacked and released to the public, she finds herself canceled by her readers and dropped by her publisher.

Desperate to find a way to continue supporting her chronically ill sister, Savannah, Margot decides to trade meet-cutes for murder. The fictional kind. Probably. But when Savannah books Margot a six-week stay in a remote Alaskan resort to pen her first murder mystery, Margot finds herself running from a moose and leaping into the arms of the handsome proprietor, making her fear she’s just landed in a romance novel instead.

The last thing Dr. Forrest Wakefield ever expected was to leave his dream job as a cancer researcher to become a glorified bellhop. What he’s really doing at his family’s resort is caring for his stubborn, ailing father, and his puzzle-loving mind is slowly freezing over—until Margot shows up. But Forrest doesn’t have any room in his life for another person he could lose, especially one with a checkout date.

As long snowy nights and one unlikely trope after another draw Margot and Forrest together, they’ll each have to learn to overcome their fears and set their aside assumptions before Margot leaves—or risk becoming a Happily Never After story themselves.

Review:

This was soooo cute and I was floored when I saw it was a debut! Obviously you know by the title that this will play with different romance tropes and there’s basically every single one you can think of here but it was done in such a fun and cheeky manner! It took a pretty cliched series of tropes and put an original and funny spin on things that I just adored. If a romance has witty banter I’m pretty much sold and there was plenty of that goodness here. Besides the amazing romance between Margot and Forrest the relationships with the secondary characters were just as charming too. Margot’s bond with her sister was so special and Forrest’s relationship with his dad made me teary at times. Since she is a romance author this was one big love letter to romancelandia and I thought that was such a cute addition. Loved this one clearly and can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: April 8, 2025

Publisher: William Morrow

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Synopsis:

One of the most anticipated books of the year, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, a glimmering novel set in the world of pop music about sisters, motherhood, young love, and the dreams we chase.

Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.

On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.

But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.

Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again?

Review:

I love the author and I always look forward to her books, she seems to explore womanhood in a way that really speaks to me and I was interested to see how she would examine this through the lens of the early aughts. As with all of her work, this is very character driven as it focuses on sisters Zoe and Cassie and Zoe’s daughter, Cherry. It’s a family drama told in the present day and in the past and it also alternates between all of their perspectives. I didn’t connect with Zoe at all, I thought she was awful actually, but I adored Cassie. She deserved so much more than what she got, but the author did a great job exploring her loneliness and melancholy, my heart ached for her. It wasn’t all sad and dramatic, the nostalgic aspect was so fun but also eye opening looking back at that time period as an adult instead of a child. Overall this was great, I loved the messy family drama and the 2000s throwback and if you enjoy books that focus heavily on music try it!

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Goodreads

Release date: June 10, 2025

Publisher: Scarlett

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

Some secrets keep a couple together.

If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you she and her husband Jack are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Wealthy, popular and genetically blessed, theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. Newly empty nesting with their daughter Maggie away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect.

Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what.

But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding.

So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife—think Ripley in yoga pants—and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge. But everything will be fine. Jill still loves Jack and believes he’s the only one for her. She’ll do anything to keep him. Anything. She always has.

Review:

I always have such a fun time with the authors books, she writes some over the top characters that you love to hate and this book introduces us to two new classic Kaira Rouda characters. Jack and Jill are playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse the entire book and I was hooked on their crazy antics. There are some secrets and surprises along the way too, overall a fun and sometimes silly popcorn read that will keep you entertained over a weekend!

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.