Category: Book Review
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đ First impressions:Sarah Vaughan has been an auto-buy author for me ever since Anatomy of a Scandal, so when I heard about Based on a True Story I didn’t even need to read the blurb. Of course I read it anyway, and it sounded delicious. Dame Eleanor Kingman is a beloved children’s author. Her bestselling books…
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đ First impressions:I will admit that I came to The Madman with fairly high expectations. Henning Mankell is a name that carries enormous weight in Scandinavian crime fiction, and his Kurt Wallander series cemented him as one of the most important voices in Nordic noir. The Madman sits outside that beloved series, and that alone made me curious. What would Mankell do without his most famous detective to anchor the story? The premise drew me in immediately: a tale that blends moral complexity…
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đ First impressions:Let me be upfront about who is writing this. My shelves are ninety percent fae courts, cursed bargains, enemies to lovers, and men with tragic backstories and unnecessarily good bone structure. So when May We Feed the King started popping up everywhere in 2026, I read the blurb the way I read everything, which is to…
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đ First impressions:I had been circling this one for weeks before I finally picked it up. Honey is Imani Thompson’s debut, and it arrived carrying the kind of hype that usually makes me suspicious. Nearly every outlet with a books page named it one of the most anticipated novels of the year, and the premise alone explains why:…
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đ First impressions:Don’t Fall in Love with Me is a contemporary romance set almost entirely in the Ardèche region of southern France, and it works from a premise Paige Toon has always handled well: the love that arrives too early and refuses to leave. Grace has been in love with Jackson since she was fifteen, back when…
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đ First impressions:I picked up Dandelion is Dead after seeing the tagline that immediately hooked me: “Jake has fallen head over heels for Dandelion. The only problem? Dandelion is dead.” That premise alone is the kind of thing that makes you stop scrolling and actually pay attention. This is the debut novel from Rosie Storey, a writing coach…
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đ First impressions:When I spotted The Island Retreat on the shelves, it felt like exactly the kind of book I needed. The premise is irresistible: six strangers arrive at a luxury villa on Corfu, each hoping that a week of therapy, sunshine, and writing their life stories will somehow fix what is broken inside them. Running…
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đ First impressions:After the massive success of First Lie Wins, which became a number one New York Times bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick, Ashley Elston was firmly on my radar. So when Anatomy of an Alibi landed, I was genuinely excited to dive in. The premise sounded irresistible: two women from completely different worlds…
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đ First impressions:I picked up The Other Passenger because I had heard so many good things about Louise Candlish, particularly after her award-winning novel Our House took the Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. She has been called the “queen of the sucker-punch twist,” and honestly, that kind of reputation…
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đ First impressions:I first heard about The Finest Hotel in Kabul when it started picking up serious literary attention, landing on the Baillie Gifford Prize longlist and eventually winning the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. Lyse Doucet is the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, one of the most respected voices in war reporting, and this is her first book.…