I hoard books and currently have a ridiculous number of them that I need to read. My problem is that life gets in the way and time is precious. Currently, I am editing a novel (due out later this year) and trying to take care of everything in my house including three dogs and two kids and everything else.
Recently I got back from my vacation where I did enjoy uninterrupted reading time- I read a novel in one day which was heavenly- but I feel like a solid week of nothing but reading would be fantastic. Instead of a vacation or even a staycation, how about a BOOKCATION? Where you do nothing but read ALL WEEK. That would probably equal one book each day! Id love that. 2018 has been an awesome reading year and I will most definitely meet my Goodreads reading challenge.
If I could get all comfy cozy on my couch and let go of all my responsibilities, here’s what I would read in one week…
Still Water by Amy Stuart
This is a follow up to the novel, Still Mine. While this book can be read without knowledge of the first book, its probably best you read Still Mine first. I love a book that hooks you quickly and is able to draw out the suspense like this one.
Here is what you need to know:
Sally Proulx and her young boy have mysteriously disappeared in the stormy town of High River. Clare is hired to track them down, hoping against all odds to find them alive. But High River isn’t your typical town. It’s a place where women run to—women who want to escape their past. They run to Helen Haines, a matriarch who offers them safe haven and anonymity. Pretending to be Sally’s long-lost friend, Clare turns up and starts asking questions, but nothing prepares her for the swirl of deception and the depth of the lies.
Did Sally drown? Did her son? Was it an accident, or is their disappearance part of something bigger?
In a town where secrets are crucial to survival, everyone is hiding something. Detectives Somers and Rourke clearly have an ulterior motive beyond solving the case. Malcolm Boon, who hired Clare, knows more about her than he reveals. And Helen is concealing a tragic family history of her own. As the truth surges through High River, Clare must face the very thing she has so desperately been running from, even if it comes at a devastating cost. Compulsively gripping and twisty, Still Water is a deep dive of a thriller that will leave you breathless.
I was just about to start this but decided to get a hold of Still Mine so I could have the full scoop on the characters!
Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall
What captured my interest was the title, it just sounds intriguing! When I read the synopsis, I knew I’d have to get my hands on this psychological thriller. There is nothing better in a story like this, than an unreliable narrator. In fact, every thriller needs someone who they may or may not trust.
Read this:
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely life, before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job, he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together.
It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his emails or phone calls. It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus. It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move he’ll know just when to come to her rescue…
A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.
I am wildly excited to read this and I want to see if I can figure out the ending. I try to do that with thrillers and guess which direction the author will take us in!
I’m bursting with excitement to read Cross Her Heart By Sarah Pinborough. Another twisty thriller? YES. Give me all the dark thrillers that will keep me up late at night and make me want to read all day long.
I enjoy compelling literary fiction and humorous “chick-lit” books here and there but I always come back to thrillers. I have seen a real surge of these creepy page turners since Gillian Flynn came out with Gone Girl. I feel like that book was the catalyst for a whole new genre of writers to unleash their darker sides. And I am thankful because some of the best fiction I’ve read stems from unreliable narrators with secrets.
Synopsis:
Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job, and her best friend Marilyn, but when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it’s time to let her terrifying secret past go. Then her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see. Lisa’s world explodes, and she finds everything she has built threatened. Not knowing whom she can trust, it’s up to her to face her past to save what she holds dear.
This one is topping my TO-READ pile and is getting awesome reviews.
All The Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth is a YA mystery. Though I have written a YA suspense/mystery (The Blondes of Bel Air) I rarely read the genre BUT there are always books that I find and want to read. Im always glad I did!
A few of my past favorites include 13 Reasons Why, One Of Us Is Lying, We Were Liars. And now All These Beautiful Strangers.
Here’s the 411:
In the last day of summer, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Allister Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions.
Years later, seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s “it” crowd.
Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s—the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood.
As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.
I always joke about wanting a sick day where I am really not sick but cant have some guilt-free time to spend an entire day reading. I would start with these four books! What would you read on a “Bookcation” ?
