The Library

When I spotted this at the bookstore, I bought it without knowing a thing, as I tend to really enjoy Shari Lapena’s books. This one is about Jill and Ted, a wealthy couple in Brooklyn who have made a few bad investment decisions. They’ve grown accustomed to their extravagant lifestyle and have fallen victim to the mindset “the more you have, the more you want.” Realizing that they are on the verge of losing their beloved brownstone, they make a plan to murder Ted’s brother Greg (as one does, right?) This will, they believe, solve all their problems. They’ll just throw him off of his sailboat, and claim it was an accident. And Greg is kind of an asshole, anyway. With the two of them as the only witnesses to Greg’s death, their story will be ironclad. Or will it? Can they really trust each other? What about their longtime housekeeper? What about Greg’s ex-wife? Or the Coast Guard official who can’t seem to stop sniffing around? I’d describe this more as suspenseful than twisty (twisty is my preference) but I still really enjoyed this. Really Liked It!

Read this if you loved: Shari Lapena’s other books; this was her tenth! I didn’t love this quite as much as The Couple Next Door, but still really enjoyed it.

I am not usually a huge romance reader, but so many of my girlfriends had raved about this one. And I love a fake dating romance… also, the coastal New England backdrop felt particularly appealing, as it is summer and I miss Cape Cod. Dolly is a hard-working, no-bullshit single mom, home for the summer to help out her father and disabled brother after a fire at their house. When a chance incident puts handsome (and helpless) billionaire Stewart in her path, the two enter into an unlikely fake dating relationship. Dolly will prove to Stewart’s family that he can be in a relationship, and in exchange, he gives her the money to fix the roof of her family’s house. What could have been cheesy and unbelievable actually turns into a very plausible, heartfelt book. I loved the characters, especially Dolly, and Stewart’s effervescent sister Busy. I couldn’t put it down and wanted more when it was over. Highly recommend; it is the perfect summer read!

Read this if you loved: Happy Place, by Emily Henry

This was an absolute delight; I couldn’t put it down. It has all of my favorite things: rich people behaving badly, the beauty industry . . . and, it’s partially set in Charleston. Christine Russo is a young journalist at Bespoke Weddings, and she’s just gotten the assignment of a lifetime: covering billionaire Gloria Beaufort’s favorite grandchild’s wedding. Gloria is the founder of the billion-dollar beauty empire Glo, and the wedding will be set in an old castle that’s been turned into a five-star hotel off the coast of Ireland. It sounds like a dream! A dream until: Gloria turns up dead on the first morning of the celebratory weekend. The family insists on having the wedding go business as usual, keeping Gloria’s death quiet until after the wedding. And as Christine gets to know the wedding party, she can’t help but wonder if one of them is her murderer. Fast-paced with loads of twists, this is unputdownable and extremely fun to read.

Read this if you loved: The Guest List, by Lucy Foley, The Rules of Fortune, by Danielle Prescod . . . or anything with rich people behaving badly!

I loved this and couldn’t put it down. The way that Ann Patchett builds characters and writes about family (especially complex family relationships) is incredible. Daphne is 53 years old and at The Met with her husband when they realize they might be being followed by an older gentleman. When they say hello, they realize he is actually Eddie — her beloved but estranged stepfather — her mother had divorced him when Daphne was nine, after a traumatic event. Daphne and Eddie form a new friendship as adults, determined to never let the other one go again. I loved the characters and wanted more of them. I wish Eddie was my friend; he’s one of the best characters I’ve read. I loved how imperfect each character was (but how you root for them all—there are no villains here). The book is simple in its nature, but wonderful. I felt completely transported to Daphne’s world and could picture every character so vividly. This one is definitely more characters > plot but the characters are so fabulous that they more than make up for the sleepier pace.

Read this if you loved: Any of Ann Patchett’s books but especially The Dutch House or Tom Lake; if you love the way that she writes about family, you’ll really love this.

I never miss a Freida McFadden book. I like to set aside the evening and read her books in one sitting, like watching a movie. That is how they are best consumed. I really liked this one; it had some great twists. Naomi is living her perfect life. She’s married to the man of her dreams, with an adorable son. Then, without any warning, he kicks her out, drains their accounts, hires a divorce lawyer, and takes up with a twenty-eight-year-old. Veronica is beautiful, charming, and kind . . . too good to be true, thinks Naomi. She quickly becomes obsessed with Veronica, fixating on her past and digging up old secrets. Naomi will go to any lengths to keep her family together, but at what cost? I flew through this, couldn’t put it down! The ending is a little bit off the rails, but that’s kind of the point!

Read this if you loved: Any of Freida McFadden’s books. She has a formula. Straightforward writing and killer twists. This one is one of her better ones, in my opinion!

Like many Jodi Picoult books, the less you know, the better, so I’m keeping my review a little bit vague. It’s better that way, trust me! I will note that there is a content warning for sexual abuse and postpartum psychosis. That out of the way, this one starts sleepy (the first hundred pages were a little slow for me) and then bonks you over the head with a big twist. So if you’re bored at first, stick with it — the payoff is worth it. Also, there is a fun tie-in to My Sister’s Keeper. Molly Fitzgerald runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, keeping the state safe from whatever disasters might occur. But when her own life is upended, everything implodes in a way that even she, the most prepared person ever, couldn’t have anticipated. This is packed with twists, it’s really heartwarming, and the storytelling is just as you’d expect (amazing!) from a Jodi Picoult book.

Read this if you loved: The Lies That Bind

Billie has built the life of her dreams. She’s a successful doctor in New York, running her own medical practice (with two of her best friends!). She’s newly engaged to a man she adores (Dean) after spending years trying to move on from Mick, her high school and college sweetheart. Everything seems absolutely perfect, until one morning, Billie gets a call from Mick. He has tragic news to deliver and in an instant, her whole world changes. Billie is pulled back to her hometown in Wisconsin. Old friendships, old choices, her old love. This made me cry (something that doen’t happen very often!). I really loved it — I read it in a single 24 hours because I couldn’t put it down.

Read this if you loved: The Light We Lost (the books are very different, but tug on your heart in similar ways: read this if you want to have a good cry!)

In 1926, five women disappear from New Avalon, a remote island in Vermont. It’s rumored that the women were practicing witchcraft. The only remaining sign is five dresses hanging from the branches of an old tree. A hundred years later, a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery is about to begin filming, and Marin Keane is stunned to have been cast as one of the leads. The only catch? The cast and director must spend a weeklong research trip on the island. When Marin arrives on the island with her castmates, she is immediately awed. There’s Violet Wright, a legendary actress (I imagined Meryl Streep) and famed director Ronan Peters. It all seems too good to be true until cast members begin disappearing and she hears strange voices at night. When a health emergency leaves them stranded on the island without their phones, all bets are off. Is someone trying to derail the movie, or is the island’s rumored supernatural past actually coming true, a hundred years later? I couldn’t put this down. It was scary! I finished it in under 48 hours.

Read this if you loved: Any of Riley Sager’s books, this feels classic Sager, right up there with The Only One Left, Final Girls, and The House Across The Lake.

I listened to this book and found it to be so gripping. It’s the story of the Brettler family, living in London. One evening, their youngest nineteen-year-old son, Zac, jumped into the River Thames. Across town, his mother, Rachelle, is worried about him. Zac told her that he was staying with a friend, but then he didn’t come home. Days later, the police confirm her worst fear: her son was dead. As Rachelle and her husband Matthew struggle to understand what happened to their son, they unlock secret after secret. Zac had his troubles, but he never seemed suicidal. Only after his death did they learn that Zac had an alter ego. He’d been known to some as Zac Ismailov, the son of a Russian oligarch. Under this alias, he’d become entangled with slippery businessmen and gangsters. It’s a truly wild ride, I cannot believe it’s a true story.

Read this if you love: The Talented Mr. Ripley, true crime podcasts!

Oh my goodness, this book. My mom kept telling me to read it (it’s her fave of 2026 so far), and I kept putting it off because it’s so long (nearly 650 pages). Don’t be like me. Read this immediately, though you will not be able to put it down. Birdie is living with her mother and grandmother in rural Mississippi. They are down on their luck and behind on taxes, so she heads to Oxford, Mississippi to visit her sister Frances. Frances has married into a well-to-do Southern family and Birdie hopes to ask them for a loan. All is not what it seems. Meanwhile, Meg (a smart and feisty eleven year old) is living in an orphanage, abandoned by her mother and hated by the head of the orphanage. When Birdie and Meg’s stories intersect (Birdie helps out with bookkeeping at the orphanage), the two form an unlikely bond. And when Charlie (a young woman fresh out of prison with nothing to lose) joins the plot, they make a plan to reclaim what they’ve lost. I loved this. I had absolutely no idea where it was going, so I won’t say anything more or give spoilers, just say that the story is incredible, the characters are delightful, and I wish there could be a sequel!

Read this if you loved: The Help(obviously). To be honest, I haven’t read anything quite like this. The plot is really creative. I would say City of Girls in the slightest way (a huge compliment, I loved that one) because of the bold, brave feminist characters that jump off the page.

This was a wild ride, with loads of twists and turns. Ten years ago, Scout Sage and her best friend Isabel attended a swanky Hollywood party with Scout’s little sister Georgia. Only Georgia never made it out, she ended up murdered (in a case that remains unsolved). Now, in modern day, Scout has finally succeeded as a mid-tier popstar, with a close network of equally successful (hot, too!) girlfriends. When a slew of targetted murders makes L.A. headlines, all signs point to Scout as the killer. Scout knows she is being framed. Overnight, she goes from pop star to the world’s most famous alleged murderer. Everything she’s worked so hard to build is on the verge of falling apart unless she can prove she’s not guilty (or hand the FBI another suspect). Meanwhile, the young, ambitious detective assigned to her case is dealing with her own sister’s unsolved murder. As she dives deeper into her investigation, it seems like maybe these cases are all connected. I couldn’t put this down. It goes a little bit off the rails but is highly enjoyable, the sort of book that’s meant to be devoured in a single afternoon.

Read this if you loved: The Comeback

This was a wild ride, with loads of twists and turns along the way. Jodie grew up poor with abusive parents (and has only just now been released from jail after serving five years), but has built her dream life. She lives in LA and is married to a handsome, wealthy (older) therapist, Roy. They live in a gorgeous home, and she has everything she could ever want. She spends her days cooking and cleaning (which she genuinely loves) and butting heads with their housemaid, Marie. The other women in her neighborhood could be kinder, but ultimately? Her life is pretty ideal. Still, she can’t let go of the sneaking suspicion that Roy murdered his previous wife, Deborah. Everyone (including Roy) talks about Deborah constantly. There are photos of her all over the house. Is Jodie just jealous, or did Roy do something sinister?

Read this if you loved: Any of Freida McFadden’s books (straightforward writing, loads of plot twists), Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores

Emily is in the thick of a postpartum haze. A new mom, feeling misunderstood by everyone in her life, missing her college roommate Daisy who disappeared after dancing at a seedy strip club. Emily begins a search for Daisy, convinced that if she can just find her, everything will be okay. The search takes her across message board after message board, to high-end strip clubs, then a trip to Atlantic City and then Texas. Just as she is about to give up, Daisy reappears, seemingly out of thin air. Daisy brings bakc a sense of purpose to Emily’s life. She has access to an empty luxury skyscraper, and the two use it to launch a luxury mother’s group: think matcha on tap, sleep pods, beautiful decor, Aperol Spritzes in the afternoon. But as the two grow closer, Emily needs to take a hard look at Daisy. Where has she been all these years? Is she the key to all of her problems or her undoing? It starts out slow and goes off the rails very quickly (in a good way!). I loved the ending and will be thinking about it for a while.

Read this if you loved: Anything by Emma Rosenblum (especially Mean Moms), A Special Place for Women, or you really liked the ending of Yesteryear and want something that will give you that feeling.

Julie Chan is struggling to make ends meet as a supermarket cashier. Meanwhile, her estranged twin sister, Chloe Van Huusen, is a popular influencer with what seems to be a glamorous career. The two were separated at a young age when their parents died, and Julie got the short end of the stick, while Chloe was adopted by a wealthy Manhattan couple. One night, Julie receives a call from Chloe that just says, “I’m sorry.” When Julie goes to her apartment, she finds her sister dead. Instead of calling the police, she steps into her sister’s “perfect” life full of high-end fashion, parties, and skincare. Will her followers notice? It seems easy enough at first, but Julie soon realizes that her sister’s life wasn’t as perfect as it had seemed. When she finds herself trapped on a private island with Chloe’s inner circle (an elite crew of influencers), she must keep up the act as events spiral out of control. Julie discovers sinister forces at work that may have led to her sister’s death. Is she next?

Read this if you loved: Yellowface, The Herd

This is another fun 831 stories book; I absolutely loved it. This one felt warm and cozy, like a cup of chicken soup. I don’t read a lot of romance, which is not to say I don’t enjoy the genre. I just need the characters to be capable, fully formed adults (nothing infuriates me more than a messy twenty-something who needs saving by some wealthy/successful hero). This one delivered. Ndidi Davis is the wife of a billionaire tech mogul who has died in a tragic accident. A year later, she is determined to give away her wealth and has created a foundation with plans to give it all away over the next ten years. When Geoffrey Campbell, an ambitious (handsome) journalist, is assigned to cover her philanthropic foundation, sparks fly. Ndidi wants to remain professional and not be the woman who moved on so quickly after her husband’s death, but she finds herself falling for Geoffrey. Add to that: Ndidi is keeping a secret about the real way her husband’s company was started. I love these books. Under 200 pages, easy to gobble up, satisfying ending!

Lisa Jewell is probably my favorite author. I will read anything and everything she writes and think she is the absolute queen of the thriller. This one was not my favorite of her books, but it was still very good! I hold Jewell to a higher standard than other authors. I pre-order every one of her books and drop everything to read them when they arrive. If I were still grading books, I’d give it an A-! It held my attention well enough that I finished it up in a single day. Jane Trevally has been married twice, has an army of stepchildren she loves, many dogs, and a country house that is falling apart. Her days are pretty empty until she spots a small white terrier while out walking, no sign of the teenage girl he’d been staying with. The dog is lost, and when she tracks down his owner, he doesn’t seem to know anything about the teenage girl, who has now been reported missing. Furthermore, the owner lives at a house where Jane experienced a traumatic incident years ago. What are the odds? Jane, an aspiring PI, becomes determined to figure out what has happened to the girl. In an alternate timeline, we meet Stuart. Stuart is a recovering alcoholic who has become obsessed with a mother he sees at the bar each day, drinking herself into a stupor before picking up her daughter. It’s dark and twisty, definitely a wild ride. It is sleepy at times, but then hits you over the head with a very dark banger of an ending.

This one is a little bit scary! Jennifer Hillier is one of those authors I auto-preorder. Her thrillers are just so good! This one scared me a lot, probably because I find amusement parks (and clowns!) to be scary. It’s set at Wonderland, an aging (but charming, in a retro sort of way) amusement park in the Pacific Northwest. The park has dark secrets. Its CEO has a penchant for younger boys, a dead body has just turned up below the ferris wheel, and several workers have gone missing over the past few years. Vanessa Castro is the new deputy police chief of the town, and her first day is a banger (when they find the dead body and a teenage boy goes missing). She’s moved to Seaside with her children to escape her own scandalous past, but quickly realizes this town has secrets: lots of them. Can she figure out what has happened before it’s too late and more employees go missing? I couldn’t put it down!

Oh my goodness. I don’t think I quite knew what I was getting myself into here. I just knew it was by the author of Strange Sally Diamond (loved!) and that Freida McFadden and Lisa Jewell (my twist queens) raved about it. Instant YES for me! It grabbed me from the first line and held my attention for 24 hours and now I’m still thinking about it. I will say that there are pretty big triggers for substance abuse and sexual assault, but this is the sort of book that willkeep you up all night. Ruby and her older sister Erin are teenagers growing up in Boston during the nineties. Their life is idyllic: a comfortable life, a tight-knit family, until Ruby is involved in an incident with Erin’s boyfriend Milo. I am purposely keeping this vague so not to give you any spoilers. This incident fractures the family. Ruby and her mother flee to Ireland, Erin stays in Boston with her father. The book follows Ruby and Erin into their mid-forties as the women take very different paths. I couldn’t put it down. I still can’t stop thinking about it!

I am doing that thing I do where I get home from somewhere wonderful (Croatia) and read books to help me relive it. This is such a beautiful story about family, belonging, and identity — I loved it. Marina returns home to Sirana (her family’s cheese factory on the island of Pag, Croatia) to regroup and figure out her next steps after separating from her husband. There, she finds the family business is struggling. Meanwhile, an old rivalry (and romance) comes to light, as do old, lingering family tensions. Marina realizes she has to do everything she can to save Sirana! She finds herself increasingly immersed in the world of cheese: learning to make it, hiring a new cheesemaker, and figuring out workarounds for old equipment they can’t afford to replace. The writing is beautifully transportive, and as a foodie, I loved learning so much about the cheesemaking process. I also thought the parts about Croatia joining the EU were really interesting, as the book was set in the year leading up to that.

It has been a minute since a book had me in a chokehold the way this one did. Maybe since Verity. At times, I felt paralyzed, like I physically could not put the book down. I will warn you that it’s dark and messed up, but I like dark and messed up. There is a content warning for abuse. The protagonist is deeply unlikeable and hard to relate to. She makes horrible decisions! Still, I loved it. These things were all intentional on Knoll’s part, and her writing (specifically Faye, the main character’s, observations) is incredible. Faye Heron is a successful Hollywood actress and part of a powerhouse producing duo with her husband. When her very beloved former professor suddenly passes away, she returns to her college campus, where she will speak at the memorial. There, she runs into her ex-boyfriend from college, Henry. Henry is the one who got away, the person she never stopped thinking about, her first great love. Old feelings come spiraling back, and things get very dark when Henry drugs and kidnaps her. Is she being punished? Protected? I will say no more, just this: clear your afternoon, you won’t be able to step away.

Multiple friends had told me to read this. Truthfully, I don’t read a ton of historical fiction (I tend to enjoy it more when it’s a dual timeline), but the premise for this piqued my curiosity immediately. The true story of the conjoined twins from Siam, Eng and Chang Bunker, and the Yates sisters who married them. It was fascinating. The book spans five decades of their family’s life on a plantation in nineteenth-century North Carolina, from the 1830s through the Civil War and the years afterward. We meet Sarah (Sallie) and Adelaide (Addie) as headstrong teenage girls, intrigued by these wealthy, well-traveled, sophisticated twins. Addie sees an opportunity, while Sallie is more uncertain. The book carries us through fifty years, through love, loss, and war. It’s heartbreakingly sad at times, infuriating at others, but ultimately unputdownable. The book is clearly very well researched. I cannot even imagine how much work went into that, and giving this family’s story proper justice. The storytelling is beautiful: you really feel like you are back in the nineteenth century. I still can’t believe it’s all true.

This is an older one, read for research for my book. Stephanie is Mark Madoff’s widow (you might remember that Mark died by suicide two years after his father Bernie was arrested). I wanted to listen to it for research on rich people and financial crimes, but it was a hard listen because it’s so sad. It sounds like Mark was an amazing person and dad, and my heart really goes out to her and her kids. I cannot imagine enduring what their family went through. It had a lot of salacious, gossipy bits, too, but mostly I just felt really sad for them.

I am embarrassed to tell you that I almost gave up on this one. I’m so glad I did not. It’s a massive slow-burning psychological thriller. It starts out very literary — languid, like Capri, where it is set — and quickly intensifies, becoming very, very plotty. I initially struggled with all of the different characters . . . and didn’t particularly care for any of them. I am really happy I kept going, because I ultimately loved it. The premise is that thirty years earlier, Sarah Lingate is found dead, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Her death was ruled an accident, and every summer the family returns to the island. Except this time, a surprise awaits them: the necklace that Sarah wore when she died. Add to that, the disappearance of the family assistant. We meet the privileged Lingate family (quite the cast of characters), their housekeeper, and her son . . . everyone is a suspect in Sarah’s murder, and not everyone will make it out of Capri alive. I will say no more but I absolutely loved this. It’s the perfect summer read.

This book is a rare blend of thriller and love story. Joy and Benny are best friends who host a podcast together. From the first episode about Joy’s severe narcolepsy, it’s been a runaway success: a comedy podcast about life-or-death situations and survival stories. Now managed by Joy’s husband Xander, Joy and Benny are on the verge of signing a massive $30mm deal with one of the biggest podcast networks. One morning, Benny heads to Joy and Xander’s home to record, only to find broken glass and neither Joy nor Xander anywhere to be found. An investigation takes place, and Benny (armed only with Joy’s unfinished memoirs) is determined to figure out what happened. Things get more and more complicated as Benny discovers secrets about Joy and Xander’s marriage, that someone was stalking Joy, and that something darker was at play with one of their advertisers. Meanwhile, he finds himself at the center of the investigation, a suspect in their disappearance. I will say no more but this is very very twisty and definitely kept me on my toes!