Book Review: Greenwich

📚 Book Review: Greenwich

Kate Broad

🗓️ Publication Date: July 22, 2025 - OUT NOW!

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: This book pulled me in with its moody summer setting and plot full of tension, emotion, and quiet drama. I found the writing to be really vivid, and I liked how the author captured the confusion of growing up and the thrill (and danger) of first love. The characters felt real, with secrets simmering just beneath the surface, and the stakes slowly building until everything came to a head! It was a gripping, emotional read about loyalty, truth, and the moment everything changes.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: Summer, 1999. Rachel Fiske is almost eighteen when she arrives at her aunt and uncle’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her glamorous aunt is struggling to heal from an injury, and Rachel wants to help—and escape her own troubles back home. But her aunt is oddly spacey and her uncle is consumed with business, and Rachel feels lonely and adrift, excluded from the world of adults and their secrets. The only bright spot is Claudia, a recent college graduate, aspiring artist, and the live-in babysitter for Rachel’s cousin. As summer deepens, Rachel eagerly hopes their friendship might grow into more.

But when a tragic accident occurs, the family turns on Claudia in a desperate bid to salvage their reputation. Caught between her upbringing and her feelings for Claudia, her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. She’s the only one who knows what really happened—and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.

Book Review: Hot to Go

📚 Book Review: Hot to Go

Kristen Bailey

🗓️ Publication Date: July 18, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

📚 My Review: This was such a fun read with the perfect mix of sunshine, and slow-burn romance. I loved the witty banter, the awkward (but hilarious) school moments, and the undeniable chemistry between Suzie and "not-Carlos". The writing had an easy, breezy flow that made it impossible to put down. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if your vacation fling followed you home and then sat next to you in a staff meeting... this book is for you! A perfect escape with just the right amount of spice and swoon.

Thank you to Storm Publishing via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: The vacation ended. The heat didn’t…

Meet Suzie French teacher, newly single, newly heartbroken. After an awful break-up, she heads to Mallorca for a much-needed holiday with her cousins, expecting sun, sangria, and siestas.

She isn’t expecting to fall in love – especially not with the handsome Spaniard who rescues her when she gets separated from her group during an ill-judged midnight skinny dip.

But what starts as a steamy holiday romance built on white lies and mistaken identities turns into something more complicated when “Carlos” shows up at the school she works at.

Except his name isn’t Carlos. It’s Charlie Carter, and he’s the new Spanish teacher.

Now they’re stuck in department meetings pretending they haven’t seen each other naked, both feeling thoroughly duped, both wondering if that hot holiday fling can exist in real life? But when they’re thrown together again on a school trip to Seville, the heat between them proves impossible to resist

Book Review: Haley Hope is Gone

📚 Book Review: Haley Hope is Gone

Michele Dominguez Greene

🗓️ Publication Date: July 10, 2025 - OUT NOW!

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: This was a solid mystery with an eerie small-town setting and a dark, slow-burning plot. Emily Ray’s return to Lake Arrowhead brings emotional depth, and the tension builds nicely as she digs into a case no one wants reopened. The stakes felt real, especially with her father’s declining health adding urgency. That said, some of the twists were a bit easy to see coming, and the pacing seemed slow to me in spots. Still, the underlying mystery and themes of long-buried secrets kept me interested to the end and I'm invested enough to go back to read the first book!

Thank you to Storm Publishing via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: Every small town has its secrets. Lake Arrowhead’s run bone-deep.

After closing the case that nearly destroyed her career, Special Agent Emily Ray is placed on mandatory leave and retreats to Lake Arrowhead with her father—a mountain town where she spent childhood summers. A peaceful vacation is just what she needs—until she learns about Hayley Hope, a fifteen-year-old girl found drowned in Papoose Lake. When Emily meets Hayley’s best friend Lillian Knox, the teen is convinced it was murder.

The local sheriff’s department dismissed it as a tragic drowning, case closed. But when threatening messages appear, she begins to unravel the small community’s web of silence and complicity. As Emily investigates—despite explicit orders not to—she uncovers a web of corruption. Young girls have been disappearing for years—vulnerable teens whose voices were silenced.

With only Lillian’s testimony and scattered clues to guide her, Emily races against escalating threats. Evidence vanishes, witnesses disappear, and her father’s deteriorating health puts him at risk as shadowy figures close in. Emily must uncover the dark truth behind Hayley’s death before another girl disappears.

Book Review: Party of Liars

📚 Book Review: Party of Liars

Kelsey Cox

🗓️ Publication Date: July 1, 2025 

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: A glitzy fast-paced spin on the classic locked-room mystery. A Sweet Sixteen in a possibly haunted Texas mansion? YES, please! I loved how secrets unraveled and the motives surfaced. I also really enjoyed the multiple POV twisty writing style and oh! So much drama! This is perfect for fans of juicy whodunnits with a dark, glamorous edge.

Thank you to Minotaur Books via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: A lavish, Texas-sized Sweet Sixteen turns deadly in this twisty, pulse-pounding new novel — serving up a fresh take on a classic locked-room whodunnit. Let the festivities begin…

Today is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party, an exclusive black-tie bash in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where secrets are as deep-rooted as the sprawling live oaks. Sophie’s dad has spared no expense, and his renovated cliffside mansion—once thought haunted—is now hosting the event of the season. Then, just before the candles on the three-tiered red velvet cake are blown out, a body falls from the balcony onto the starlit dance floor below.

It’s a killer guest list . . .

DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since the birth of her own baby girl

ÓRLAITH: the superstitious Irish nanny who senses a looming danger in this cavernous house

MIKAYLA: the birthday girl’s best friend who is not nearly as meek as the popular kids assume

KIM: the cunning ex-wife who has a grudge she can’t let go of . . .

Everyone is invited in. Not everyone will get out alive.