Tag: E.F. Schraeder

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Freebie

On By JolieIn book reviewLeave a comment

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

She assigns a topic each Tuesday and then posts her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re welcome to join her and create your list of top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.). Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link to That Artsy Reader Girl in your post, so others know where to find more information.

I can’t believe that Halloween is almost here!! So, I will showcase 10 books with creepy/spooky covers in celebration of Halloween. All of these books will be off my Read shelf on Goodreads.

Enjoy!!

1. The Prisoner of Fear by Chad Miller

2. A Sliver of Darkness by C.J. Tudor

3. Fleshed Out: A Body Horror Collection by Rob Ultiski

4. The Black Tide by K.C. Jones

5. Daughter by Kate McLaughlin

6. The Devil’s Whispers by Lucas Hault

7 Liar: Memoir of a Haunting by E.F. Schrader

8. Golem by P.D. Alleva

9. Our Trespasses by Michael Cordell

10. Evil Eye: A Slasher Story by April A. Taylor

December 2021 Wrap Up

On By JolieIn book review2 Comments

I know this is late but my kids were on winter vacation and I decided that I was going to unplug for 2 weeks (well 3 because my 16-year-old tested out of her End of Course testing and she was home). Unfortunately, that did carry over to my reading. I read nothing from December 13th to January 3rd. So, I am very behind on NetGalley ARC’s. Not so much with Indie authors, though. I have those all caught up.

I am behind with reviews. As of right now (and counting the book I am reading), I am behind 4 books and they are all NetGalley. My requests from indie authors have slowed down (I have had two all of December). I have also stopped requesting from NetGalley (as I said in my last Wrap-Up) but still accepted 9 books (yikes!!).

I plan on reading my little head off the next few days. It should be easy with the kids in school and my housework done early in the morning (my 8-year-old is in school by 8:10 and I am done cleaning by 9:30). So wish me luck!!

As always, please let me know if you have read any of these books and what you have thought about them!!

Books I got from NetGalley

Summer Nights with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews

Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan

Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst

The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

The Date From Hell by Gwenda Bond

Together We Burn by Isabel Ibanez

The Favor by Nora Murphy

Never Broken by Lori Duffy Foster (This will be in under Books I got from Author’s/Indie Publishers also)

Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers

Never Broken by Lori Duffy Foster (author asked me to review and sent me a NetGalley link)

Shadow Guard by Reily Garrett (book isn’t on Goodreads yet)

Rupture State by M.B. Bartkowski

Books Read and Reviewed

Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves (review here)

The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings by Stephen Mitchell (review here)

Spies Never Swoon by M. Taylor Christensen (review here)

Glory Unbound by Deborah L. King (review here)

Masters’ Promise by Jamie Schulz (review here)

Diary of an Angry Young Man by Rishi Vora (review here)

Golem by P.D. Alleva (review here)

The Secret of the Rai Zamindars: An Aalo & Adhir Mystery by Tanmoy Bhattacharjee (review here)

Liar: Memoir of a Haunting by E.F. Schraeder (review here)

Silent Depths by Reily Garrett (review here)

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (review here)

Liar: Memoir of a Haunting by E.F. Schraeder

On By JolieIn Non ARC1 Comment
Book Cover

Publisher:

Date of publication: February 22, 2021

Genre: LGBTQ+, Horror

Purchase Links: Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis:

Who doesn’t crave a little escape? Dreaming of small-town life and rural charm, Alex and Rainey find a deal on an old rustic home they can’t resist. But soon after Rainey moves, her preoccupation with weird local history and the complications of living alone in the woods take a toll. Alex worries that the long nights and growing isolation are driving her stir crazy. When the Sugar House is damaged and Rainey goes missing, Alex doesn’t know where to turn. Was it a storm, vandals, or something worse? What happened at the Sugar House? The only thing worse than wondering is finding out.

First Line:

All we wanted was a cabin in the woods. We didn’t want this story.

liar: memoir of a haungting by e.f. schraeder

When I first read the blurb for Liar: Memoir of a Haunting, I was a little intrigued. I have read horror, and I have read LGBTQIA+. But, in all the years that I have been book blogging, I don’t think that I have ever read the two together. So, ultimately, that is why I decided to review Liar. I am glad I did, but I will warn, this book might not be for everyone.

The plotline for Liar: A Memoir of a Haunting is interesting. Rainey and Alex are a queer couple looking to move to a place that is more accepting of their lifestyle. They settle on Vermont, a state that has always been more accepting of alternative lifestyles. After seeing multiple houses, they are shown Sugar House. They fall in love with the house and the more laid-back lifestyle. But things aren’t what they seem at Sugar House. When Rainey finds a strange journal that has mad rambling about aspens and a space between the worlds, she slowly starts moving her mind. What happens to Rainey and Alex? Is Sugar House haunted, or is it all in Rainey’s head?

Liar: A Memoir of a Haunting is a slow-burn book. It starts off slow and keeps up the slow pace for 90% of the book. The plotline didn’t get going until Alex showed up at Sugar House after Rainey went missing. At that point, it did pick up and kept a steady, medium pace until the end of the book. I enjoyed it and I feel that the flow of the book would have been interrupted if it went any faster.

The book is told from a dual point of view, Rainey and Alex. The book’s primary focus is Rainey and her deteriorating mental health, but some chapters were told from Alex’s POV. I felt that those added some extra depth to both characters. I got to see what was going on with Rainey from some else’s perspective.

Mental health is a significant part of Liar: A Memoir of a Haunting. Rainey has issues that she is working on when she moves to Vermont. Those issues come to a head during her time at the house. At points, the author made me wonder if Rainey is haunted, or is it all in her head? By the end of the book, I was still wondering that.

The horror angle of Liar: A Memoir of a Haunting is very subtle and gradual. There were points in the book where I wondered if Rainey’s isolation was messing with her head or if something was going on. That is what made me like this book the most. You didn’t know. Tie in the mental health angle made for a fantastic read.

Also interwoven in Liar: A Memoir of a Haunting is the story of Rainey and Alex’s relationship. I thought they had a great relationship at the beginning of the book, but I knew by the middle that it was in trouble. I know how hard it is to have a partner who travels. My SO of 17 years travels all the time for work (3 days a week, every week), and it sucks. But I have three children and live in a populated area while Rainey was alone and living in isolation. That is a huge difference, showing Rainey’s worsening mental state.

The end of Liar: Memoir of a Haunting was interesting. The author wrapped the storyline so that I wondered what happened. It also wasn’t ended on a HEA. Instead, it ended with two people trying to find each other and figure out what happened at Sugar House.

I would recommend Liar: Memoir of a Haunting to anyone over 16. It is a clean book with very subtle scares. There is language, some mild violence, and some mild gore.

WWW Wednesday: December 15th 2021

On By JolieIn book reviewLeave a comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

What I Recently Finished Reading:

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Raghav is an ordinary seven-year-old growing up on the ‘good’ side of Colaba in Bombay. His is a safe, protected world and he is kept well away from the ‘other’, darker side of Colaba, which nevertheless, holds a deep fascination for him with its colorful, busy alleys bustling with activity, people and mystery – the ‘real’ world as far he is concerned.

But life has other plans and Raghav’s entire world comes crashing down one day. In the space of a few crucial hours, his childish innocence is ripped away brutally, and he also loses the one person who may have made his world right again – his mother. That fateful day alters the course of his life and the ‘other’ side is the only place he can escape his now truly miserable home life and his bitter father who he resents more and more each day. He never tells even his closest friends about the horrific abuse he suffered the day his mother died, the day a fierce, burning anger took root in his very soul.

Now, 20 years later, all his peers and friends are settling down into jobs and the business of growing up. But Raghav is still trapped between his now suffocating relationship with his father, his own inability to find a job and make a life for himself and the painful memories of his childhood ordeal that still haunt him. And this is when he meets Rani one day, an orphan beggar girl who knows life on the streets of Mumbai, but not in the way Raghav does. He wants to ‘save’ Rani from the beggar mafia and give her a chance at a better life. His strong need to stand up for something, to truly help someone is fueled by the recent Nirbhaya gangrape case in New Delhi, that evokes painful memories of his own past trauma.

Set in Bombay in 1992 and Mumbai in 2012, and inspired by true events, Diary of an Angry Young Man is a coming-of-age urban drama that explores the complex layers of humanity. And the city that engenders them.

What I am currently reading:

Book Cover
Detective. Angel. Victim. Devil.

A haunting tale of suspense, loss, isolation, contempt, and fear.

On November 1, 1951, war hero John Ashton was promoted to detective. His first assignment: find the district attorney’s missing daughter. But his only lead is Alena Francon, a high society sculptor and socialite committed to Bellevue’s psychiatric facility.

Alena has a story for the new detective. A story so outlandish John Ashton refuses to heed the warning. Alena admits to incarnating Golem, a demonic force, into her statue. A devil so profound he’s infiltrated every part of New York’s infrastructure. Even worse, he uses children to serve as bodily hosts for his demonic army, unleashing a horde of devils into our world.

When Alena’s confidant, Annette Flemming, confirms the existence of Golem, John is sent on a collision course where fate and destiny spiral into peril, and the future of the human race hangs in the balance.

What books I think I’ll read next:

Book Cover
Strange things are happening in the sleepy Bengal village of Dongajora. A thief being chased by the only village policeman vanishes into the thin air, an old woman paralyzed with drugs is found at the site of the theft, and the only object stolen is a bottle of turpentine, instead of the highly coveted statue rumored to be the key to fabulous treasures. Puzzled, the constabulary enlists the help of the village doctor and his two gifted children.
Aalo and Adhir are anxiously awaiting news of their mother, an army major who has been missing in action for three months; and jump at the chance of a distraction. As they delve deeper into the mystery with their mentor Shayeen, all leads start pointing towards the local Zamindars – the Rai family. Hints of foul play in the death of the family head, of his wife being blackmailed, and of dangerous ancestral secrets begin to emerge… and so does the motive for a heinous crime.
A catastrophic storm about to hit the village will provide a perfect cover and wipe away all the evidence… Aalo and Adhir have only a few hours to get to the heart of the mystery and stop a murder…
Book Cover
Who doesn’t crave a little escape? Dreaming of small-town life and rural charm, Alex and Rainey find a deal on an old rustic home they can’t resist. But soon after Rainey moves, her preoccupation with weird local history and the complications of living alone in the woods take a toll. Alex worries that the long nights and growing isolation are driving her stir crazy. When the Sugar House is damaged and Rainey goes missing, Alex doesn’t know where to turn. Was it a storm, vandals, or something worse? What happened at the Sugar House? The only thing worse than wondering is finding out.
Book Cover
What is your freedom worth?

Callie’s mind holds the key to weapons of mass destruction, both nuclear and biological. Kidnapped as a child by an obscure branch of the military, she escapes the bowels of a Think Tank and risks everything for freedom.

Nate Crofton left his black-ops unit seeking a quieter existence as a private investigator. When an ex-teammate draws him into a web of tangled lies and betrayal, he can’t resist the young prodigy in need of protection.

Little does he know the blue-eyed enigma holds incredible secrets and can take care of herself, along with the team sworn to protect her.

Together, they must rely on each other’s strengths to stay one step ahead of agents, both foreign and domestic, while navigating their growing attraction.
Book Cover
Fourteen years ago, Delphine abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg––taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now 36 years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career––and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she’s been away…and some secrets can’t stay buried forever.

Moving between the trio’s adolescent years and the present day, The Ballerinas explores the complexities of female friendship, the dark drive towards physical perfection in the name of artistic expression, the double-edged sword of ambition and passion, and the sublimated rage that so many women hold inside––all culminating in a twist you won’t see coming, with magnetic characters you won’t soon forget.
The Sisters Sweet: A Novel by [Elizabeth Weiss]
Leaving was my sister’s choice. I would have to make my own.

All Harriet Szász has ever known is life onstage with her sister, Josie. As “The Sisters Sweet,” they pose as conjoined twins in a vaudeville act conceived of by their ambitious parents, who were once themselves theatrical stars. But after Josie exposes the family’s fraud and runs away to Hollywood, Harriet must learn to live out of the spotlight—and her sister’s shadow. Striving to keep her struggling family afloat, she molds herself into the perfect daughter. As Josie’s star rises in California, the Szászes fall on hard times and Harriet begins to form her first relationships outside her family. She must decide whether to honor her mother, her father, or the self she’s only beginning to get to know.

Full of long-simmering tensions, buried secrets, questionable saviors, and broken promises, this is a story about how much we are beholden to others and what we owe ourselves. Layered and intimate, The Sisters Sweet heralds the arrival of an accomplished new voice in fiction.
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Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. The whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Winter TBR

On By JolieIn book review6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

She assigns each Tuesday a topic and then posts her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

I have a ton of books that are on my winter TBR. I am a little overwhelmed looking at the list….lol. I also made a pact not to request any more books until I get everything read on this list. I am not including the books currently on my Goodreads TBR because if I am sick of seeing them on there, I figured that you all would be too.

Let me know if you have read any of these books and if you did, what you thought of them.

1. Golem by P.D. Alleva

Book Cover
Detective. Angel. Victim. Devil.

A haunting tale of suspense, loss, isolation, contempt, and fear.

On November 1, 1951, war hero John Ashton was promoted to detective. His first assignment: find the district attorney’s missing daughter. But his only lead is Alena Francon, a high society sculptor and socialite committed to Bellevue’s psychiatric facility.

Alena has a story for the new detective. A story so outlandish John Ashton refuses to heed the warning. Alena admits to incarnating Golem, a demonic force, into her statue. A devil so profound he’s infiltrated every part of New York’s infrastructure. Even worse, he uses children to serve as bodily hosts for his demonic army, unleashing a horde of devils into our world.

When Alena’s confidant, Annette Flemming, confirms the existence of Golem, John is sent on a collision course where fate and destiny spiral into peril, and the future of the human race hangs in the balance.

2. Girls Before Earls by Anna Bennett

Book Cover
WHAT A GIRL WANTS

To survive her difficult childhood, Miss Hazel Lively relied on two things: a tough outer shell and a love of books. Now, at the age of twenty-eight, she’s finally realized her life-long dream of opening a school for girls. She’s hoping that the wealthy families who flock to the shore for the summer will entrust their daughters to Bellehaven Academy―and help pay the way for less fortunate students. All Hazel must do is maintain a flawless reputation and raise a good deal of money. It’s a foolproof plan…till a sinfully handsome earl strides into her office.

WHAT AN EARL NEEDS

Gabriel Beckett, Earl of Bladenton, has had a monstrous headache since the day his teenaged niece became his ward. She’s been expelled from two London boarding schools and is doing her damnedest to scare off his potential fiancée. But Blade has a plan of his own―enroll his niece at Bellehaven Academy, where she’ll be out of town and out of his hair. He just needs to convince the buttoned-up headmistress with the soulful brown eyes to take on his niece.

LEAD TO AN IRRESISTIBLE DEAL

When Blade makes a generous offer to the school, it’s impossible for Hazel to refuse. But she has one non-negotiable condition: the earl must visit his niece every other week. Soon, Blade discovers there’s much more to Hazel than meticulous lesson plans. In moonlit seaside coves and candlelit ballrooms, their sparring leads to flirtation…and something altogether deeper. But the passion that flares between them poses a threat to Hazel’s school and Blade’s battered heart. They say a good thing can’t last forever, but true love? Well, it just might…

3. The Secret of the Rai Zamindars: An Aalo and Adhir Mystery by Tanmoy Bhattacharjee

Book Cover
Strange things are happening in the sleepy Bengal village of Dongajora. A thief being chased by the only village policeman vanishes into the thin air, an old woman paralyzed with drugs is found at the site of the theft, and the only object stolen is a bottle of turpentine, instead of the highly coveted statue rumoured to be the key to fabulous treasures. Puzzled, the constabulary enlists the help of the village doctor and his two gifted children.
Aalo and Adhir are anxiously awaiting news of their mother, an army major who has been missing in action for three months; and jump at the chance of a distraction. As they delve deeper into the mystery with their mentor Shayeen, all leads start pointing towards the local Zamindars – the Rai family. Hints of foul play in the death of the family head, of his wife being blackmailed, and of dangerous ancestral secrets begin to emerge… and so does the motive for a heinous crime.
A catastrophic storm about to hit the village will provide a perfect cover and wipe away all the evidence… Aalo and Adhir have only a few hours to get to the heart of the mystery and stop a murder…

4. Liar: Memoir of a Haunting by E.F. Schraeder

Book Cover
Who doesn’t crave a little escape? Dreaming of small-town life and rural charm, Alex and Rainey find a deal on an old rustic home they can’t resist. But soon after Rainey moves, her preoccupation with weird local history and the complications of living alone in the woods take a toll. Alex worries that the long nights and growing isolation are driving her stir crazy. When the Sugar House is damaged and Rainey goes missing, Alex doesn’t know where to turn. Was it a storm, vandals, or something worse? What happened at the Sugar House? The only thing worse than wondering is finding out.

5. Silent Depths by Reily Garrett

Book Cover
What is your freedom worth?

Callie’s mind holds the key to weapons of mass destruction, both nuclear and biological. Kidnapped as a child by an obscure branch of the military, she escapes the bowels of a Think Tank and risks everything for freedom.

Nate Crofton left his black-ops unit seeking a quieter existence as a private investigator. When an ex-teammate draws him into a web of tangled lies and betrayal, he can’t resist the young prodigy in need of protection.

Little does he know the blue-eyed enigma holds incredible secrets and can take care of herself, along with the team sworn to protect her.

Together, they must rely on each other’s strengths to stay one step ahead of agents, both foreign and domestic, while navigating their growing attraction.

6. Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

Book Cover
When Lux McAllister and her boyfriend, Nico, are hired to sail two women to a remote island in the South Pacific, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Stuck in a dead-end job in Hawaii, and longing to travel the world after a family tragedy, Lux is eager to climb on board The Susannah and set out on an adventure. She’s also quick to bond with their passengers, college best friends Brittany and Amma. The two women say they want to travel off the beaten path. But like Lux, they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape.

Shimmering on the horizon after days at sea, Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. But what they don’t expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe’s sandy beaches. The owners of the Azure Sky, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple: gorgeous, laidback, and if their sleek catamaran and well-stocked bar are any indication, rich. Now a party of six, the new friends settle in to experience life on an exotic island, and the serenity of being completely off the grid. Lux hasn’t felt like she truly belonged anywhere in years, yet here on Meroe, with these fellow free spirits, she finally has a sense of peace.

But with the arrival of a skeevy stranger sailing alone in pursuit of a darker kind of good time, the balance of the group is disrupted. Soon, cracks begin to emerge: it seems that Brittany and Amma haven’t been completely honest with Lux about their pasts––and perhaps not even with each other. And though Jake and Eliza seem like the perfect pair, the rocky history of their relationship begins to resurface, and their reasons for sailing to Meroe might not be as innocent as they first appeared.

When it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in on them. And when one person goes missing, and another turns up dead, Lux begins to wonder if any of them are going to make it off the island alive.

7. The Maid by Nita Prose

Book Cover
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

8. Rupture State by M.B. Bartkowski

Book Cover
Buried among the million inhabitants of a society evolved into disjointedness, Otto struggles. He flounders alone in Brownton, the only home he has ever known. Those struggles, though, become secondary under the angst dispensed by the unforeseen tragedy of an otherwise idle Thursday. A restaurant he designed collapses, leaving hundreds dead. Banished from all that is familiar as penance for this calamity, Otto is thrust on an uncharted journey to the US, accompanied by little more than the burden of his own guilt and doubt.
Through the uncertainty of his voyage, Otto finds support where it is least expected. Samantha Justus and her brothers retrieve him from the clutches of an enemy he does not fully grasp. He finds himself an unknowing target in the midst of a strife much larger than his own tribulation. But buoyed by his newfound community—heretofore a foreign concept—Otto discovers a secret that holds in its fragile hand the survival of his homeland. Though brandished a criminal in two realms, he is left with the challenge of navigating a return to the scene of the crime in the hope of saving those who would convict him. It is not a mission he can accomplish alone. It will require the combined efforts of Sam, E.J., Benny, Marcos, Desmond, Bree, Hardy, and Tika—the tribe that has assembled along the way.

9. How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan

Book Cover
Interior Design School? Check. Cute house to fix up? Check.

Sexy, grumpy neighbor who is going to get in the way of your plans? Check. Unfortunately.

Grace Travis has it all figured out. In between finishing school and working a million odd jobs, she’ll get her degree and her dream job. Most importantly, she’ll have a place to belong, something her harsh mother could never make. When an opportunity to fix up—and live in—a little house on the beach comes along, Grace is all in. Until her biggest roadblock moves in next door.

Noah Jansen knows how to make a deal. As a real estate developer, he knows when he’s found something special. Something he could even call home. Provided he can expand by taking over the house next door–the house with the combative and beautiful woman living in it.

With the rules for being neighborly going out the window, Grace and Noah are in an all-out feud. But sometimes, your nemesis can show you that home is always where the heart is.

10. Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester

Book Cover
There’s something out there that’s killing. Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.

2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother—the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she is punished for using it.

2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape—both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waves her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.

As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty.