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When Freya falls for the manipulative Kane, her life changes beyond her wildest imagination. When the luxurious life she craves gradually becomes intolerable she realises escape is out of reach. Her life has changed and so has she. She knows that when she least expects it, he will return and make good his promise to exact revenge and ensure she pays the price he felt he is owed. Can Freya ever be free? Whoever knew love could be so dangerous?

Following Freya from her carefree twenties up to the present day, Over My Shoulder is an intricate tale of blinkered love and obsession.

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MY REVIEW

Freya falls for Kane. She thinks he’s pretty great, but as they get more involved, she realizes just how manipulative he is. Eventually his manipulation gets dangerous, very dangerous. Freya decides to escape from her life with him, but she fears he will come back for revenge one day.

Over My Shoulder is told from Freya’s viewpoint. She is recalling her past with Kane to explain her current situation. Freya has a difficult story to tell, as it involves a lot of mental and physical abuse. Freya is a little naive and entranced by the lifestyle she thinks Kane can offer her. Kane is never really likable, but he gets more sinister as the story progresses.

Over My Shoulder is dark and intense. Good for fans of psychological and domestic thrillers.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Patricia Dixon:

1. Over My Shoulder
2. They Don’t Know
3. Death’s Dark Veil
4. Liars
5. #MeToo
6. Blame
7. The Other Woman
8. Coming Home
9. Birthright
10. Venus Was Her Name
11. A Good Mother

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Roz Nay’s Our Little Secret is a twisted tale of love, pain, and revenge that will stay with the reader long after they turn the last page.

They say you never forget your first love. What they don’t say though, is that sometimes your first love won’t forget you…

Angela Petitjean sits in a cold, dull room. The police have been interrogating her for hours, asking about Saskia Parker. She’s the wife of Angela’s high school sweetheart, HP, and the mother of his child. She has vanished. Homicide Detective J. Novak believes Angela knows what happened to Saskia. He wants the truth, and he wants it now.

But Angela has a different story to tell. It began more than a decade ago when she and HP met in high school in Cove, Vermont. She was an awkward, shy teenager. He was a popular athlete. They became friends, fell in love, and dated senior year. Everything changed when Angela went to college. When time and distance separated them. When Saskia entered the picture.

That was eight years ago. HP foolishly married a drama queen and Angela moved on with her life. Whatever marital rift caused Saskia to leave her husband has nothing to do with Angela. Nothing at all. Detective Novak needs to stop asking questions and listen to what Angela is telling him. And once he understands everything, he’ll have the truth he so desperately wants…

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MY REVIEW

Angela’s high school sweetheart’s wife is missing, and the detective on the case is questioning Angela. The detective thinks Angela knows something about the missing woman’s disappearance. Angela does have a story to tell, and it starts at the beginning… when she and her high school sweetheart first met.

This is Angela’s story. As the story progresses, it seems Angela does know more about the missing woman than she is letting on, but it is unclear if she was involved with the disappearance. I really enjoyed the first half of this book, then lost interest. The writing is solid, but the characters fell flat.

Our Little Secret is a good debut novel. Slow-paced, but still a quick read. Dark, dramatic, and suspenseful.

Books by Roz Nay:

1. Our Little Secret
2. Hurry Home
3. The Hunted

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A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away

It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm–and one another.

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MY REVIEW

A snowstorm traps ten guests and two employees in a secluded inn. The guests are snowed in, without electricity or any contact with the outside world. When one guest dies, it could be an accident. After a second death, the remaining guests start to be afraid that one of them is a killer.

With twelve characters to keep track of, An Unwanted Guest starts off a bit slow as everyone is introduced. Once the characters are established, this turns into a suspenseful and entertaining read.

This is more of a whodunit mystery. The relationships and dynamics between the characters are intriguing. The characters are all trapped together while the mystery plays out, which makes the story fun and spine-tingling.

An Unwanted Guest is a great choice for fans of the classic whodunit. Suspenseful, engaging, and clever.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Shari Lapena:

1. The Couple Next Door
2. A Stranger in the House
3. An Unwanted Guest
4. Someone We Know
5. The End of Her
6. Not a Happy Family
7. Everyone Here Is Lying

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On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.

Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, this is a “captivating and eerie page-turner” (The Wall Street Journal) from the Agatha Christie of our time.

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MY REVIEW

Hal is down on her luck. She’s behind on bills, and in serious need of some cash to catch up on her debts. When she receives a letter stating she is to receive an inheritance from her deceased grandmother, she realizes this may be the answer she to her problems. The only glitch, her grandparents are long deceased and she was mistakenly sent the letter. Since Hal is a tarot card reader, she figures she can use her people reading skills to claim the inheritance and get a little money to pay off her debts. Hal takes a chance and travels to the funeral, where she soon realizes that something is not quite right with the home and family of the deceased Mrs. Westaway.

I have read and enjoyed Ruth Ware’s previous novels (In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game), but The Death of Mrs.Westaway is now my favorite of her books. Ware’s writing tends to be more of a slow-burn, and she has nailed it in this latest novel.

The Death of Mrs.Westaway is a psychological thriller that is both spooky and suspenseful. A great book for fans of suspenseful mysteries with a gothic feel. Dark, atmospheric, and intriguing.

Books by Ruth Ware:

1. In a Dark, Dark Wood
2. The Woman in Cabin 10
3. The Lying Game
4. The Death of Mrs. Westaway
5. The Turn of the Key
6. One by One
7. The It Girl
8. Zero Days
9. One Perfect Couple

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Gripping, emotional, and wire-taut, Not Her Daughter raises the question of what it means to be a mother—and how far someone will go to keep a child safe.

Emma Townsend. Five years old. Gray eyes, brown hair. Missing since June.

Emma is lonely. Living with her cruel mother and clueless father, Emma retreats into her own world of quiet and solitude.

Sarah Walker. Successful entrepreneur. Broken-hearted. Kidnapper.

Sarah has never seen a girl so precious as the gray-eyed child in a crowded airport terminal. When a second-chance encounter with Emma presents itself, Sarah takes her—far away from home. But if it’s to rescue a little girl from her damaging mother, is kidnapping wrong?

Amy Townsend. Unhappy wife. Unfit mother. Unsure whether she wants her daughter back.

Amy’s life is a string of disappointments, but her biggest issue is her inability to connect with her daughter. And now Emma is gone without a trace.

As Sarah and Emma avoid the nationwide hunt, they form an unshakeable bond. But what about Emma’s real mother, back at home?

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MY REVIEW

Emma is a five-year-old that lives a sad life. Her mother and father are less than perfect parents who don’t seem that interested in their daughter. When Sarah first encounters Emma, she has an immediate connection with the little girl because Sarah’s childhood was a bit sad and she often felt unwanted too. On a chance encounter, Sarah takes Emma. As the two avoid the nationwide search for Emma, they bond. However, Emma’s parents are back home wondering what happened to their child. Amy, Emma’s mother, is taking the worst of the suspicions and attacks on the family. To complicate matters, Amy is an unhappy wife and mother, and starts to question if she really wants her daughter to come back to them.

The story is told from both Sarah and Amy’s points of view. The story also alternates from before, during, and after the kidnapping. This was mostly fine, but there were a few times when the changing of timelines was confusing.

Not Her Daughter is fast-paced and compelling. I wasn’t sure how I wanted things to be resolved, but I wanted to keep reading to see how it would end. It’s sad to imagine a child growing up in an abusive household and feeling unwanted, but it’s near impossible to imagine a child living a safe life with a kidnapper. Basically, both Sarah and Amy were unstable, so I couldn’t really root for either one of them.

Overall, Not Her Daughter is a great debut novel. I would have enjoyed a little more resolution toward the end, but, then again, it’s nice to ponder a few things.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Rea Frey:

1. Not Her Daughter
2. Because You’re Mine
3. Until I Find You
4. Secrets of Our House
5. Don’t Forget Me

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In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.

A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.

Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions.

The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.

Then the game changes.

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.

Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap?

But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?

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MY REVIEW

Claire is a struggling actress in New York City. She needs money and has a hard time getting decent acting jobs, so she works undercover with a law firm to catch cheating husbands. It’s not glamorous, but it pays the bills. When her latest client ends up dead, the husband is suspect number one. The police hire Claire to help catch him. They are certain she will be able to get him to confess, but nobody expects the twists involved with Claire on the case.

A fast-paced psychological thriller. This novel keeps the reader guessing as to what is really happening, but it also gets a little confusing. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, though things got a little too twisty for me as the story progressed. Good for fans of twisty thrillers.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by J.P. Delaney:

1. The Girl Before
2. Believe Me
3. Playing Nice
4. The Perfect Wife
5. My Darling Daughter
6. The New Wife