Tuesday, January 21, 2025

#BookReview: The House by the Cemetery by Lisa Childs



Six Feet Under meets Succession with a gothic twist after the suspicious death of a midwestern funeral home empire’s wealthy patriarch in New York Times bestselling author Lisa Childs’ dark, twisty, horror-tinged new series for readers of Megan Collins, Samantha Downing, Stacy Willingham, and Rachel Hawkins.

In Gold Creek, Michigan, legend has that the ghost of a local grave digger still walks the cemetery, swinging his shovel, looking for his next victim to bury. But when the town’s wealthy undertaker dies, his estranged daughter must contend with the ghosts that haunt her own family . . .

After she left home at seventeen, River Gold swore she would never return to Gold Creek. Growing up at the Gold Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens was a nightmare. Classmates constantly teased her for being part of the “Ghoul” family, while her own family denied that she was actually a Gold. Her father, undertaker Gregory Gold, certainly never acted like a father. He was far more interested in profiting off other people’s tragedies. But now Gregory has died. And River has surrendered to her mother, Fiona’s, pleas that she come back for his funeral.

But the mourning period is cut short when it’s revealed that Gregory died of poisoning—and Fiona is arrested for his murder. Clearly, Fiona, his third wife and the funeral home’s cosmetologist, is being framed. There are plenty of more likely suspects, and River is determined to prove her mother’s innocence. That she’ll have to work with the sheriff—her high school enemy—is a small price to pay.

With a fortune at stake, River is sure the killer lies among Gregory’s first two wives, their children, and grandchildren. Yet soon, other discoveries will be made, and longstanding secrets unearthed. But when teenagers start disappearing from the cemetery, the danger hits closer to home than River imagined possible. Drawn back into the lives—and lies—of the Golds—she’ll have to use her every resource to keep herself, and her loved ones, safe.



#BookReview: Haunted to Death (Domestic Partners in Crime #3) by Frank Anthony Polito




This All Hallows’ Eve, partners and home renovation hosts Peter Penwell and JP Broadway try not to flip when their newest fixer-upper is rumored to be a haunted house . . . Kicking off season three of their hit reality TV show Domestic Partners is a home renovation project with an irresistible hook. Woods Hall is a lavish 1913 manor home in the Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods, once belonging to the town’s founding family. It also comes with its own ghost. Twenty-five years ago during a Halloween night party, automotive heiress and beauty queen Emma Wheeler-Woods, wearing a white Princess Diana wedding gown as a costume, fell from a third-floor balcony to her death. Or was she pushed? Fiona Forrest recently inherited the home after learning she was Emma’s daughter, and she and her fiancé have hired the Domestic Partners to restore the family property to its original splendor. But ghostly sightings, injured crew, secret passageways, locked rooms, and sabotage beg the Is the place actually haunted? And perhaps more practically, was Fiona’s mother murdered? Hustling to have work finished in time to shoot the finale on Halloween—the anniversary of Emma’s mysterious death—do Peter and JP have a ghost of a chance of also solving a cold case from a quarter of a century ago before someone else takes a fall?


Monday, January 20, 2025

#BookReview: The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska



The Wicked Deep meets House of Salt and Sorrows in this new standalone YA fantasy set in a snow-cloaked kingdom where witches are burned, and two enchantresses secretly compete for the heart of a prince, only to discover that they might be falling for each other.

It's Karnawał season in the snow-cloaked Kingdom of Lechija, and from now until midnight when the church bells ring an end to Devil's Tuesday time will be marked with wintry balls and glittery disguises, cavalcades of nightly torch-lit "kuligi" sleigh-parties.

Unbeknownst to the oblivious merrymakers, two monsters join the fun, descending upon the royal city of Warszów in the guise of two innocent girls. Newfound friends and polar opposites, Zosia and Marynka seem destined to have a friendship that's stronger even than magic. But that's put to the test when they realize they both have their sights set on Lechija's pure-hearted prince. A pure heart contains immeasurable power and Marynka plans to bring the prince's back to her grandmother in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own.

When neither will sacrifice their ambitions for the other, the festivities spiral into a wild contest with both girls vying to keep the hapless prince out of the other's wicked grasp. But this isn't some remote forest village, where a hint of stray magic might go unnoticed, Warszów is the icy capital of a kingdom that enjoys watching monsters burn, and if Zosia and Marynka's innocent disguises continue to slip, their escalating rivalry might cost them not just the love they might have for each other, but both their lives.



#BookTour: Never Broken by Everly Claire @RRBookTours1


Never Broken (The Unchained)

Publication Date: January 15, 2025

Genre: Dark Fantasy Romance in a Dystopian World

Forbidden Love
Dark Dystopian World
Rich Girl/Poor Boy
Enemies to Lovers
Morally Gray MMC
Us Against the World
Captivity
Forced Proximity
Touch Her and 💀
Hurt/Comfort
Spice in Secret


The rules say we can’t touch. The only solution? Burn them all ...

New North America, 2025

Louisa

My family name is an empire. I was destined for a fortune built on the bloodied backs of slaves.

But I’m one failed college course away from losing it all.

The only one who can help me is my father’s newest purchase: the golden-haired slave with eyes too sharp for hard labor, with hands that should be discovering universes, not locked in shackles. The one who just whispered something shocking as he passed me with the wheelbarrow.

The one I know is dangerous.

His words don’t matter. He’s here to clean gutters, not to teach me, not to save me, and definitely not to make me spiral with every stolen glance.

We’re forbidden. He shouldn’t look at me. He’s not allowed to touch me.

And I won’t let him. Not my hand, not my heart, not anything …

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A number. Not a name. That’s all I’ve ever been to them. I’ve been whipped, chained, beaten, and brutalized by everyone who’s ever owned me.

But never broken.

And now I’ve clawed and schemed my way through pain and grief to get to this manicured wasteland, find my sister, and kill those who stole her away. So what if one of them is my new master?

And If I have to use his spoiled brat daughter to do it, fine. I’ve spent my whole life playing their game, but this time, she’ll be a pawn in mine.

Except, okay, Louisa’s not spoiled. She’s brave, she’s learning, and she’s making me want things I’m not allowed to want. Things I won’t allow myself to want.

They stole everything else from me. I’ll never give my heart, too.

But here, just one broken rule can kill you, so we might just have to shatter all of them.

Starting with the ones we made for ourselves.

Never Broken is your first taste of an epic, twisty, us-against-the-world forbidden romance trilogy set in a chilling dystopia a little too much like ours. Although the world and themes are dark and potentially triggering, the romance has a soft side. This book ends with a combined happy-for-now and a cliffhanger that will make you gasp. And with Never Bound and Never Lost, you get a complete arc with a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

#BookReview: The Four by Ellie Keel



"I don’t regret what we did. And I would do it all again."

Each of the four had, for their own reasons, been desperate to come to High Realms. Marta, Rose, Sami, and Lloyd beat out thousands of applicants for spots at one of the most exclusive private schools in the UK, whose alumni can be found at the highest levels of society. As the only scholarship students in the class of 1999, the four form a crucial comradery as they navigate the school’s web of rivalries, honor, loyalty, and revenge.

Because within the maze of red brick buildings, between the stables and the vast old library, a sinister undercurrent of violence is brewing. And when one of the four reveals a devastating secret, each of the friends must wonder what risks they will take to remain at High Realms.

What follows is a hauntingly atmospheric and compulsively page-turning academic noir that explores the secretive world of elite institutions and the complex and often dangerous bonds of friendship.

A dark academia suspense debut perfect for fans of The Secret History and If We Were VillainsThe Four follows a group of scholarship students whose dreams become a reality when they are accepted into an exclusive boarding school, but they are soon bound by a dark secret that could save one of them… or destroy them all.