Book 27 of 2025 🎧 The Good Girl by Mary Kubica (3.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 29 July 2014
“I’ve been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don’t know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she’s scared. But I will.”
One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn’t show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia’s life.
When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia’s mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family’s world to shatter.
I’ve read this author before and enjoyed her, but the real reason I chose to listen to this story was because it is partially set in Minnesota and mentions my home town.
That fun fact aside, I didn’t love this one. Though perhaps that is because I listened to the audio? The varied perspectives and timeline had me lost more than once. I’m not saying I don’t recommend the book overall, but I would say if you’re interested in reading it, opt for a physical or digital copy rather than audio.
Book 28 of 2025 📖 The Crash by Freida McFadden (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 28 January 2025
The nightmare she's running from is nothing compared to where she's headed.
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn't realize she's heading straight into a blizzard.
She never arrives at her destination.
Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she's made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.
But something isn't right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn't what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.
And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself―and her unborn child.
McFadden’s books are always quick reads, but also always good! I had no idea how things would turn out for any of the characters. The story was told from multiple perspectives, but it was easy to identify whose POV a chapter was in, which I appreciated. This one didn’t have any jaw-dropping moments for me, but I still enjoyed it!
*possible spoilers to follow* I can’t say I loved how this ended. It was kind of neat how McFadden wrapped it all up, but I also hate how Polly didn’t have to pay for the consequences of her actions. I know she ended up doing a great service to Tegan in the end, but I still felt like she should have had real consequences. I also recognize this is a fictional story and I shouldn’t care that much about the made up consequences to a made up character’s made up actions!
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Book 29 of 2025 📖 Desert Star by Michael Connelly (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Police Procedural
🗓PUBLISHED: 8 November 2022
A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him.
First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission.
I read a Michael Connelly book earlier this year and it was a good reminder on how much I like his writing. I knew I had another of his in my TBR pile, so I moved it to the top of the pile. Then, halfway through this one, I ordered 5 more from Book Outlet! Anyway, this book covered two cases, and though one was covered much more in depth, they were both intriguing. I’ve liked the character of Harry Bosch both in writing and in the tv series on Amazon Prime. I don’t remember reading the character Renee Ballard before, but I enjoyed her as well and look forward to reading more with her as a MC.
Book 30 of 2025 🎧 This is Why We Lied (Will Trent #12) by Karin Slaughter (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 20 August 24
One toxic family. Eight suspicious guests. Everyone is guilty...But who is a killer?
For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night.
A murderer in their midst
Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the McAlpine family and the other guests, they realize that everyone here is lying….Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.
Who killed Mercy McAlpine?
It soon becomes clear that normal rules don’t apply at McAlpine Lodge, and Will and Sara are going to have to watch their step at every turn. Trapped on the resort, they must untangle a decades-old web of secrets to discover what happened to Mercy. And with the killer poised to strike again, the trip of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…
💭 FAVORITE QUOTE“…I opened a bottle of wine and watched a crime show on Hulu.” “What show?” “The one about the detective with the dog.” 😂 IYKYK
I had to wait a long time on Libby for the audio of this one! Some of the Will Trent books fell flat for me. I think I’ve listened to them all on audio which doesn’t usually help. That being said, I was extra tuned in to this one. I’m glad it was a long, 18-hour listen, because I didn’t want this book to end. There were some bits I found predictable, but I liked how the story went. I felt it was fairly fast-paced, especially for the length of the story.
Book 31 of 2025 📖 Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: YA
🗓PUBLISHED: 10 March 1998
During her preschool years, Tara Sullivan lived in terror that something bad would happen to her mother while they were apart. In grade school, she panicked during the practice fire drills. Practice for what?, Tara asked. For the upcoming disaster that was bound to happen?
Then, at the age of 11, it happened. Tara heard the phrase that changed her life: Step on a crack, break your mother's back. Before Tara knew it, she was counting every crack in the sidewalk. Over time, Tara's "quirks" grew and developed: arranging her meals on plates, nonstop prayer rituals, until she developed a new ritual wherin she kissed her fingers and touched doorknobs....
I picked this book up because Hilarie Burton Morgan mentioned it being a favorite in one of her memoirs. This is a young adult novel, so it was a quick easy read. Though it’s not a memoir, it does read like one. The author did mention both in the beginning and the end of the book that though this wasn’t her exact experience with OCD, it did draw on some of her lived-experiences. Even though it’s a fictional story, I thought that the author did a good job portraying the emotions of both somebody experiencing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the experiences that those around them have witnessing their compulsions. I felt so bad for the main character, because she didn’t even understand herself what she was going through, let alone help other people understand how to help her.
Book 32 of 2025 📖 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) by Suzanne Collins (5/5🌟)
📚GENRE: Dystopian
🗓PUBLISHED: 18 March 2025
When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
I loved this. I just loved this. It tore my heart apart and stomped on it, but I loved it.
Ever since I heard Haymitch’s story would be available as a prequel (and in movie form too!) I’ve been counting down the days.
I know this is fictional, and I was also just getting over a stomach bug when I got to this part of the story, but it seriously made my stomach hurt when the hunger games began. Reading about kids being put in that situation. Ugh. Sometimes I get too invested and it takes a moment to remember the story isn’t real.
As agitated as the games make my stomach feel when I think too much about them, this story was also did a number on my heart! The thing with it being a prequel is you know how it ends, you just find out how the characters get there. And man, the journey was rough.
This book was a great bridge between The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and the original trilogy. I loved not only the connections of the characters, but symbols and details (like the mockingjay pin!)
I’m very excited for the production of this movie. I loved Haymitch’s character before, but I love him even more now!
Book 33 of 2025 📖 After Life by Gayle Forman (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: YA Fiction
🗓PUBLISHED: 7 January 2025
One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams.
Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she’s inexplicably riding now.
This return doesn’t only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber’s estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther out: Amber’s friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone’s turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?
This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.
Oh, this was such a sweet, yet heart-breaking story.
This is a YA read, which I *think* I knew when I bought it, but I’ve always enjoyed Gayle Forman’s stories, so the intended audience never deters me.
The organization of this story was interesting. It alternated between the FMC - girl who came back from the dead - narrating, and an assortment of other people narrating. I wasn’t sure on this format at first because I felt like I was constantly left hanging, but I ended up appreciating the effect in the end.
For parts of this story I felt like the characters could be a little deeper. It was hard for me to put a pause on my adult, suspense-craving brain and remember this was a YA contemporary story and not an adult thriller (though there were some unexpected twists that made my jaw drop!)
Spoilers to follow: I loved how this all wrapped up in the end. I didn’t want to see Amber go, but it was such an emotionally beautiful way to end the story. Also, it was really neat how the storylines intertwined and wrapped up together in the end.
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📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 14 January 2025
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
💭 NOTABLE QUOTATIONS:
“why do some men always think they are right, despite having so much previous experience of being wrong?”
“… So the men on the island did what men always do when they are afraid, and started killing the things that scared them.“
Though the majority of this book wasn’t very twisty, I still enjoyed reading it. The twisty parts come at the end, and I did not see them coming, though maybe I should’ve at least seen one of them. Or at least part of one. The book wasn’t super fast paced, but I wouldn’t call it a slow burn exactly either. I couldn’t decide if I found the male main character likable, though I did feel a little bit sorry for him.
Book 35 of 2025 🎧 Count My Lies by Sophie Stava (3.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 4 March 2025
Sloane Caraway is a liar.
Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.
So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can’t help herself—she tells the girl’s (very attractive) dad she’s a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl’s foot.
With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.
But maybe Sloane isn’t the only one lying, and all that’s picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.
The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.
Careful what you lie for.
Despite my lack of visible interaction with them, posts in book-themed Facebook groups constantly pop up in my Facebook feed. I’d pretty much run out of audiobooks on my TBR list that were also available on Libby to borrow, so on occasion I browse said posts and add them to my Libby holds if they sound interesting so I’ll have something to listen to.
This was one such book. It also happened to be immediately available, though there were many holds waiting while I was reading it!
Possible spoilers to follow: I didn’t find any of the characters to be very likeable. That being said, there was a way I was hoping this story would end and it seemed like it was going to go my way. Until it didn’t. And then it did. And then it definitely didn’t! I ended up liking the way the author ended this story, even though the characters were not great people.
Book 36 of 2025 📱 The Fourth Girl (Haven Cliff #1) by Wendy Corsi Staub (3/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 1 April 2025
On prom night, Caroline Winterfield walked away from the ruins of an abandoned mansion called Haven Cliff and into the woods…never to be seen again. Only her three best friends know what really happened. But a secret is a secret, and a promise is a promise―even when it shatters lifelong friendships.
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of that night, Midge, Kelly, and Talia reunite at Haven Cliff, now a gleaming architectural jewel. But they aren’t alone. Someone is watching. Someone who knows what really happened to Caroline―and to the man who now lies dead a stone’s throw from where she was last seen.
Police detective Midge knows she’s dealing with a murder the moment she sees the item clutched in his lifeless hand. Only three other people in the world would grasp its significance. That means Kelly and Talia are either involved or in danger, because Caroline is long gone…or is she?
This was a prime free read for the month of March, and since it was labeled as a thriller, it was the one I chose. I wasn’t super into the story, and I’m not sure if it was because it was my gym book so I only read it when I went to the gym, or because I just was not into the story. The flip-flop around of the timeline and the character perspective felt a little bit disjointed. I had kind of predicted the ending as well. For all I wasn’t a bad story, and I would definitely read something by this author again.
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(Summaries are from Amazon, but all thoughts about them are my own!)
Reading Challenge: 36/100 books read in 2025
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