en-US Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:41:48 -0700 60 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 242765427 In this nail-biting thriller, a horror-themed birthday party turns deadly when guests start disappearing—and the birthday girl realizes that she must face a long-buried secret to make it out alive.

Tippi is ready for a fresh start. After breaking off her engagement to an increasingly demanding, controlling, and emotionally unstable man, she is newly inspired to do whatever it takes to put herself first. Plus, her thirty-fifth birthday is coming up: a perfect occasion to ring in this new era. Tippi’s friends see the opportunity, too, and lean into her love of horror films by throwing her a lavish theme party at a secluded mansion, where everyone dresses as characters from iconic scary movies. But Tippi's attempts to enjoy the night are shattered when she starts receiving terrifying messages from her ex, Oliver, to expose a secret she was ready to take to the grave.

At first, Tippi can’t believe her eyes. Oliver moved across the country after they broke up—he can’t have crashed her party. Could one of her friends have found out? But when her guests begin to disappear one by one, it becomes clear that the threats have very real consequences. And the messages make clear one the call is coming from inside the house.

As Tippi is forced to navigate the deception of those closest to her, she realizes that in the end, some things are indeed like in the movies, and she’ll do whatever it takes to just survive the night.]]> 291 Miranda Smith 0593983203 Nyssa 0 3.59 2026
author: Miranda Smith
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/21
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 228534560 Three mysterious sisters, dancing at the knife’s edge of benevolent and malevolent, lie at the heart of Witchcraft ― a maelstrom swirling together horror and comedy, magic and religion, colonialism and indigenous folklore.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1768. It is a dark and foreboding night when the boat arrives from Europe, bringing three shadowy figures to shore. The María sisters have come to take the New World by storm. At once righteous and menacing, the sisters will exert their insidious powers over generations, leaving a wreckage of shattered spirits in their wake.

Told through the eyes of the people whose lives the sisters have cast asunder, Witchcraft is a mesmerizing mystery to piece together. Strange magic, dark humor, and a fiery undercurrent of female rage cohere into a heady tale of colonialism, indigenous folklore, and modern agoraphobia. A kaleidoscopic work of literary fiction, crafted with vision and verve, that assures Sole Otero as one of South America’s most dynamic cartoonists.

Full-color illustrations throughout.]]> 376 Sole Otero Nyssa 4
this was such a fun & cool reading experience! it definitely makes me want to get more into graphic novels!! <3 ]]> 3.66 2023
author: Sole Otero
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/20
date added: 2026/09/20
shelves:
review:
*3.5 ⭐️*

this was such a fun & cool reading experience! it definitely makes me want to get more into graphic novels!! <3
]]> 65212021
I told you they were real.

After his estranged father’s mysterious death, Charlie Remick returns to Seattle to help with the funeral. There, he discovers his father left him two parting the keys to the family record store and a strange black case containing four antique records that, according to legend, can open a gate to the land of the dead.

When Charlie, his sister, and their two friends play the records, they unwittingly open a floodgate of unspeakable horror. As the darkness descends, they are stalked by a relentless, malevolent force and see the dead everywhere they turn.

With time running out, the only person who can help them is Charlie’s resurrected father, who knows firsthand the awesome power the records have unleashed. But can they close the gate and silence Schrader’s Chord before it’s too late?]]> 434 Scott Leeds 1250232074 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 4.01 2023
author: Scott Leeds
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 231126846 A relentless, horror-inducing psychological suspense for fans of The Push and Baby Teeth by New York Times bestselling author CG Drews.

Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.

Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son?

Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.]]> 294 C.G. Drews 1250369991 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.60 2026
author: C.G. Drews
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 231249727 Ten children, abducted in broad daylight—and buried alive.

Sage and her sister won’t make it home from school today. Neither will the other children on Bus 315. But that’s only the beginning of the nightmare.

New bus driver Jessa blames herself for what happened. She couldn’t protect the kids she was supposed to deliver to daycare, just like she couldn’t protect her own daughter three years ago. But this time, everything will be different. It has to be.

Trapped in a shipping container buried twenty feet underground, Jessa and the children do their best to stay calm. The kidnappers insist that if everyone behaves, they’ll be freed when the ransom is paid. But Sage isn’t sure they’ll last that long. Neither is Jessa. It’s dark and cramped, and with every passing minute it’s getting harder to breathe.

With time—and air—running thin, Jessa and the children must find a way to outsmart their captors, or face an unthinkable fate.

Such Quiet Girls was inspired by actual events.


]]> 352 Noelle W. Ihli Nyssa 0 currently-reading 3.76 2025
author: Noelle W. Ihli
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 13597723
Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Naturals is a gripping novel with killer appeal and a to-die-for romance. Don't miss the other books in the Naturals: Killer Instinct,  All In, and Bad Blood.  
 ]]> 308 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1423168232 Nyssa 4 4.23 2013
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/19
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves:
review:
ok this was SO fast paced and so fun!! love this storyline and really enjoyed all the characters. will definitely be continuing with this series!!
]]> 36680369
A grieving journalist surfaces from the wreckage of her shattered life.

Their unlikely alliance leads to a dangerous cat and mouse game that will leave you breathless.

Who can you trust when you can't trust yourself?

Trust Me is the chilling standalone novel of psychological suspense and manipulation that award-winning author and renowned investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan was born to write.]]> 400 Hank Phillippi Ryan 0765393077 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.34 2018
author: Hank Phillippi Ryan
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 640282

Awakening in a jail cell and bleeding from his head, Val Haines remembers nothing. Not even his name.


As his memory slowly begins to return, Haines discovers that the world thinks he's dead. If his nightmares ring true, it may be for the best. Around him brews a conspiracy of embezzlement and murder for hire, fueled by the rage of personal vendetta. As he searches for a safe haven, enigmatic Audrey beckons, but can she be trusted?


With nothing but a few personal belongings and a sizable amount of cash, Haines must run. With his past behind him, he'll do anything to claim a new life for himself. Or die trying.]]> 349 Davis Bunn 1595541845 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.61 2005
author: Davis Bunn
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195888874
A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters’ harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story

Daughters are the Ang family’s curse.

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed.

Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family’s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.

From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they’ve known also comes new freedom—to take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story.

Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.]]> 400 Eve J. Chung 0593640535 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.44 2024
author: Eve J. Chung
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61111034
A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.

For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?

Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, Our Share of Night is a novel like no other: a family story, a ghost story, a story of the occult and the supernatural, a book about the complexities of love and longing with queer subplots and themes. This is the masterwork of one of Latin America’s most original novelists, “a mesmerizing writer,” says Dave Eggers, “who demands to be read.”]]> 588 Mariana Enriquez 0451495144 Nyssa 0 4.07 2019
author: Mariana Enriquez
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/18
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 231681636 Siblings return to the house they fled eighteen years before, called back by the ghost of their long-missing brother and his haunting request to come home.

Strange things happen in Fell, New York: A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For Violet, Vail, and Dodie Esmie the final straw was their little brother's shocking disappearance, which started as a normal game of hide-and-seek.

As their parents grew increasingly distant, the sisters were each haunted by visions and frightening events, leading them to leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. Now after nearly two decades it’s time for a homecoming—because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared.]]> 337 Simone St. James 0593200411 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.70 2026
author: Simone St. James
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 174137255 A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.]]> 349 Simone St. James 0593200403 Nyssa 4 3.82 2024
author: Simone St. James
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/18
date added: 2026/09/18
shelves: summer-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr, summerween-tbr
review:
I enjoyed this sooo much and feel like I flew through it! Although I was expecting it to be scarier, it was still very creepy and I also enjoyed the investigative aspect. It honestly reminded me of ‘Supernatural’! The writing was great, the storyline was solid, the setting was spooky and immersive, and the pacing was just right to where I didn’t want to stop reading! This was my third Simone st. James read and prob my second favorite from her after The Sun Down Motel! Can’t wait to read more from her :))
]]> 231127025 A fast-paced, juicy debut novel that peeks behind the curtain at the cutthroat world of hip-hop music and the glamorous magazine scene in the late 1990s, written by the ultimate insider

It’s 1999, and Nikki Rose is the only Black editor on the staff of a prestigious fashion magazine she once thought would be her ticket to becoming a respected editor-in-chief. But after being told one too many times by her boss that “Black girls don’t sell magazines,” she walks away to take over Sugar, a struggling hip-hop music and lifestyle magazine with untapped potential.

Thrown into an entirely new world of wealth, decadence, and debauchery, Nikki has just six months to save Sugar—and her own dreams. As she pulls all-nighters at the office and parties with the era’s most influential bad boys, Nikki must prove she has what it takes to lead. But her most dangerous challenge is evading Alonzo Griffin, her very married, very powerful ex-boyfriend and former boss, who’s determined to destroy both her and Sugar. Along the way, Nikki leans on a circle of loyal friends, and navigates unexpected romances that force her to reckon with what—and who—she truly wants.

If I Ruled the World is a smart, utterly immersive romp through one of the most dynamic eras in pop culture history—a story of ambition, friendship, love, and the journey to finding your own voice.]]> 352 Amy Dubois Barnett 1250378125 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.84 2026
author: Amy Dubois Barnett
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 228143079 In this sweeping, second-chance romance, a twist of fate forces two former roommates to move back into their beloved New York City brownstone and face the events that led to their estrangement—and confront their unresolved feelings for each other.

Subject 74 Perry Street

So begins the email that turns June Wood’s entire world on its head. Five years ago, she lived on Perry Street with her former best friend Adam Harper. But why is the management company reaching out to her about it now? 

Still smarting from the news of her hit TV show being canceled, June has nothing else to lose. She boards a plane from Los Angeles to New York City to find out more about the mysterious email and the promised opportunity it alludes to. It turns out that, thanks to an unbelievable legal loophole, if she and Adam can live together in the stunning West Village brownstone for a month, it’s theirs. Any true New Yorker knows you don’t pass up prime city real estate, and that fall in the city is magical—so what’s there to think about?

And yet, though most things have changed in the time since they last spoke, one thing hasn’ June and Adam have unfinished business. They didn’t exactly end on good terms when they each went off to chase their dreams. Now, confronted with the consequences of their choices, they must navigate the minefield of their past the best way they know together.

Every day they move closer to owning Perry Street reveals misunderstandings, long-term resentments, and long-buried feelings . . . which are suddenly feeling very, very not so buried. But they’ve already lost their friendship once before, devastating them both. Can they risk losing it again for something a little different this time?]]> 432 Joss Richard Nyssa 4 fall-tbr 3.91 2025
author: Joss Richard
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/16
date added: 2026/09/16
shelves: fall-tbr
review:
such a sweet and cozy fall romance! enjoyed this so much <33
]]> 58447437 Hot on the heels of the New York Times bestsellers The Twin and The Lake, the undisputed queen of YA thrillers is back.

Don't be afraid. Be terrified.

It’s just a stupid meme that’s going around their small fishing town in the dead of winter—people reposting and sharing their biggest fear. But when her classmates start turning up dead—dying in the way that they said scared them the most—Izzy knows it’s no joke.

With each death hitting closer to home, Izzy sets out to try to stop the killer. Could her older sister’s friend Tristan have something to do with the deaths? He’s given her some strange vibes. Or what about his brooding cousin, Axel? But he’s in her classes at school. He’s not a murderer . . . is he? Izzie’s soon on a path that will lead her right to the killer . . . and her own worst nightmare.]]> 360 Natasha Preston 0593125010 Nyssa 0 3.82 2022
author: Natasha Preston
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/15
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr, winter-tbr
review:

]]> 30316182
The police suspect the skeleton is that of the wife of the previous owner of the B&B, but no one in town seems to want to say much about her. As the inn owners try to juggle renovations with their own amateur investigations, their grand opening looms closer and closer—and a friendly ghost in their walls starts playing tricks. But it all comes crashing to a halt when a new body is found stabbed to death on the beach below the inn—the victim chillingly close in resemblance to Melanie herself.

It seems someone doesn't appreciate newcomers prying into the small town's past, and now it's up to Melanie and Liza to get to the bottom of these murders to save their business...and their lives.]]> 288 Kate Kingsbury 1683310098 Nyssa 3
a very cute & cozy murder mystery read! the writing & storyline was a bit basic but I enjoyed it for what it was :) ]]> 3.56 2017
author: Kate Kingsbury
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2026/09/15
date added: 2026/09/15
shelves:
review:
*2.75 ⭐️*

a very cute & cozy murder mystery read! the writing & storyline was a bit basic but I enjoyed it for what it was :)
]]> 234039589 For fans of Monika Kim and Rachel Yoder, a twisted debut horror novel in which a disgraced movie star returns to Hollywood 10 years after the kidnapping of her young daughter, intent on seeking revenge.

NOTHING FEELS BETTER THAN REVENGE.

Ten years ago, Lila Devlin was an A-list actress with a movie star husband and a beautiful baby girl, Josie. When Josie was kidnapped out of her home and never seen again, Lila’s previously pristine public image twisted into that of an Unfit Mother. Driven mad by the hungry press, incompetent cops, and relentless true crime–obsessed “fans,” she disappeared into anonymity. 

Now, Lila Devlin returns to LA with a grand vision for a radical new skincare brand to reinvent herself and honor Josie’s legacy. She's prepared to move into the next chapter of her life with forgiveness in her heart, when an encounter with a parasitic blogger ends with him dead. Lila suddenly discovers forgiveness isn’t nearly as satisfying as a body hitting the floor.

With the help of her devoted publicist Sylvie, Lila begins a relentless, blood-soaked hunt through LA. Giving her skincare the edge it needs, they introduce a secret ingredient—revenge-sourced—from the bodies piling up. But as the company’s success skyrockets and Lila begins unraveling the truth behind her daughter’s kidnapping, her murderous side hustle threatens the life she’s painstakingly rebuilt.

Both a striking portrayal of grief and womanhood, and a twisting, cynical satire on celebrity and toxic beauty standards, Cruelty Free is an ambitious debut from a talented star on the rise. ]]> 308 Caroline Glenn 006341919X Nyssa 0 to-read 3.48 2026
author: Caroline Glenn
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 241675506 A native Hawaiian teen travels to a luxury island resort in search of her missing twin and uncovers the dark side of paradise, in this YA supernatural thriller that's Mexican Gothic meets She is a Haunting.

For the world’s wealthiest, Kōpaʻa Island Resort is more than a destination. It’s the ultimate escape. With no cell service or Wi-Fi, the Hawaiian island is a coveted wellness retreat renowned for its persimmon orchard and promises of rejuvenation.

But their dream vacation is Lehua’s nightmare. When her twin sister, Ohia, goes missing, Lehua follows her trail to Kōpaʻa to find her. Instead, Lehua is cut off from civilization—and help—after the island’s boat leaves without her, stranding her with the resort’s lavish guests and enigmatic staff.

As Lehua investigates Ohia’s disappearance, she discovers her missing sister isn’t the island’s only mystery. Kōpaʻa’s rich exterior and sweet persimmons hide its dark plantation past. And Lehua can’t ignore the dreams haunting her each night—nor the warning telling her to leave the island at once. To uncover what happened to Ohia, Lehua will have to unearth the island’s bloody history and face the horrors that lurk within its sugarcane fields—or risk being consumed by them.

Sharply observed and gorgeously written, That Which Feeds Us explores the true cost of paradise as Lehua must fight to reclaim the land, the stories, and the very souls of her people.]]> 352 Keala Kendall Nyssa 0 3.92 2026
author: Keala Kendall
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/15
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 58884738 For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer.

Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild.

Felicia "Fe Fe" Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes. It's the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.

As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls' families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer--just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed--Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.

Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one's own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home -- both in one's history and in one's self.]]> 212 Toya Wolfe 0063209748 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: Toya Wolfe
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 244444620 Set in Victorian London during Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror, this gripping, original novel is perfect for fans of V. E. Schwab, Dana Schwartz, and Sarah Penner.

When Caroline Foster arrives at the Whitechapel Full Moon Society in search of her missing brother, she finds a dilapidated façade belying an interior as opulent as any exclusive gentlemen’s club. In exchange for room and board, Caroline is hired as the Full Moon’s maid, where she is given three orders: don’t ask personal questions, stay out of the iron-barred room on the second floor, and remain in her bedroom from sunup to sundown on the full moon.

But when it is revealed that the previous maid was murdered—an early victim of Jack the Ripper—and her brother has left behind no answers, only more questions, Caroline begins to suspect her hosts might be hiding something. As more bodies turn up with a connection to the Society, Caroline fears she may have unwittingly stumbled into a bedtime story, the kind with monsters and curses, family secrets and ancient lore.

Tantalizing and pulsing, Elizabeth DeLozier’s sophomore novel gives an exciting alternative look into the infamous Jack the Ripper story with a major, supernatural twist.]]> 368 Elizabeth DeLozier Nyssa 0 to-read, fall-tbr 3.76 2026
author: Elizabeth DeLozier
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr
review:

]]> 218437514 But the house isn’t empty. Three vengeful spirits lie in wait, vowing to destroy the woman who sent them to hell. Given just one night of freedom, they will bleed every second dry, taking all their rage, suffering, and hatred out on her.
The three inflict agony twisted with pleasure until all secrets spill out of their coffins in the hallowed hours of the darkest night. Blood splatters the walls of the haunted house until cries of depraved pleasure wipe away sins and horrors past.
But what will happen when dawn rises, locking the gates of hell once and for all?
The rules are clear. Pain for pain. Blood for blood. Death for death.

This book was previously published as The Ghosts of Halloween trilogy including the three following Jacked, Carved, and Gutted. This new edition includes original art and bonus content.
This book is a dark, spicy Why Choose romance with sword crossing. It’s meant for adult readers only. For dark content warnings, refer to the author’s website. Stay safe.]]> 414 Layla Fae Nyssa 0 to-read 3.62 2025
author: Layla Fae
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221251808 Two sisters examine what they owe each other and what they are willing to sacrifice to make their family dreams come true.

What would you give up for the person you love most? What would you expect in return?

Mia and Cricket have always been close. The gifted daughters of a young single mother, the “Lowe girls” are well-known in the small Maine town they call home. Each sister has a role to fill: The responsible and academically minded Mia assumes the position of caregiver far too young, while Cricket, a bouncing ball of energy and talent, seems born for soccer stardom. But the cost of achieving athletic greatness comes at a steep price.

As Mia and Cricket grow up, they must grapple with the legacy of their mother’s secret past while navigating their own precarious future. Can Mia allow herself to fall in love at the risk of repeating a terrible history? Will Cricket’s relentless chase of a lifelong goal drive her sister away? When does loyalty become self-sabotage?

A sharply observed and tender portrait of sisters, love, and ambition, Spectacular Things is a sweeping story about the impossible choices we’re forced to make in pursuit of our dreams.]]> 368 Beck Dorey-Stein 0593446283 Nyssa 0 to-read, fiction-tbr 4.02 2025
author: Beck Dorey-Stein
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/12
shelves: to-read, fiction-tbr
review:

]]> 216785385 If you could swap your life for a better one, which would you choose?

On the outskirts of Rainbow Town, there is an old, abandoned house. They say that if you send a letter detailing your misfortunes there, you could receive a ticket. If you bring this ticket to the house on the first day of the rainy season, you'll be granted entrance into the mysterious Rainfall Market—where you can choose to completely change your life.

No one is more surprised than Serin when she receives a ticket. Lonely and with no real prospects for a future, Serin ventures to the market, determined to create a better life for herself.

There, she meets a magical cat companion named Issha and they search through bookstores, perfumeries, and fantastical realms while Serin tries to determine what her perfect life will look like.

The catch? Serin only has one week to find her happiness or be doomed to vanish into the market forever.

And all the while, a shadow follows quietly behind them…]]> 214 You Yeong-Gwang 0593952669 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.45 2023
author: You Yeong-Gwang
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199292220
Amélie Cœur has never known what it truly means to be happy.

She thought she’d found happiness once, in a love that ended in tragedy and nearly sent her over the edge. Now, at seventeen, Mel is beginning to piece her life back together. Under the supervision of Laurelle Child Services, the exclusive foster care agency that raised her, Mel is sober and living with a new family among Manhattan’s elite. It’s her last chance at adoption before she ages out of the system and she promised, this time, she’ll try.

But a casual relationship with a boy is turning into something she never intended for it to be, causing small cracks in her carefully constructed walls. Then the sister she has no memory of contacts Mel, unearthing complicated feelings about the past and what could have been.

As the anniversary of the worst day of her life approaches, Mel must weather the rising tides of grief and depression before she loses herself, and those close to her, all over again.]]> 336 Myah Hollis 0063341980 Nyssa 4
this was such a touching and heartfelt read, and relatable in quite a few ways :’) it was a bit slow in the beginning but I think it’s a good book to take your time with anyway. definitely a solid YA contemporary! I loved reading about Amelie’s journey <3 ]]> 3.88 2024
author: Myah Hollis
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/11
date added: 2026/09/11
shelves:
review:
*3.75 ⭐️*

this was such a touching and heartfelt read, and relatable in quite a few ways :’) it was a bit slow in the beginning but I think it’s a good book to take your time with anyway. definitely a solid YA contemporary! I loved reading about Amelie’s journey <3
]]> 244201756 International bestselling author Morgane Moncomble is the #3 fiction author in all of France. This new adult romance features a fast-paced story and emotionally gripping romance between a law student and the man accused of murder who's living with regrets and will do anything for a fresh start.

A highly motivated law student with a passion for justice, Camélia O'Brien has just learned of the mysterious death of Rory Cavendish, who used to bully her in high school, and who instigated all his friends bullying her too. The presumed murderer is Lou McAllister, Rory's best friend—the boy who humiliated her ten years ago, whom she's neither forgotten nor forgiven.

Camélia has to decide whether she can set aside her thirst for revenge in order to help Lou, which will also help her career by giving her some real world criminal defense experience.

Lou has always been the black sheep of his family, but he never expected to be accused of murder. From one day to the next, he's abandoned by everyone he's ever trusted. The only person who can get him exonerated is Camélia O'Brien. Rory's first victim. The girl who Lou ridiculed when he was younger and who has haunted his thoughts ever since. 

Lou will do anything to atone for his mistakes and start afresh. But first Camelia has to agree to help him, and why should she? Lou knows he has to prove himself to her--not only his innocence, but that he deserves her forgiveness.

An emotionally gripping story of forgiveness, enemies to lovers romance, and how dire circumstances can turn into the most satisfying of happy ever afters.]]> 445 Morgane Moncomble 1464248109 Nyssa 0 to-read, fall-tbr 3.76 2023
author: Morgane Moncomble
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/11
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr
review:

]]> 224003977 'This is a bad place. I don't think people are meant to live here.'

Longtime residents of Harper's Cove believe that something is wrong with the Widow's Point Lighthouse. Some say it's cursed. Others claim it's haunted.

Originally built in 1838, three workers were killed during the lighthouse's construction, including one who mysteriously plunged to his death from the catwalk. That tragic accident was never explained, and it was just the beginning of the terror. In the decades that followed, nearly two dozen additional deaths occurred in or around the lighthouse including cold-blooded murder, suicide, unexplained accidents and disappearances, the slaughter of an entire family, and the inexplicable death of a Hollywood starlet who was filming a movie on the grounds.

The lighthouse was finally shuttered tight in 1988 and a security fence was erected around the property. No one has been inside since. Until now.

Told across two harrowing incidents from 2017 and 2025, those who enter the Widow's Point Lighthouse searching for supernatural proof and the next big thing find themselves cut off from the outside world. And although no one has recently stepped foot inside the structure, they are not alone.

In this remarkable collaboration, father and son writing team, Richard and W.H. Chizmar combine forces to tell a terrifying ghost story that will make you think twice about what's waiting for you in the dark.]]> 336 Richard Chizmar 1668057700 Nyssa 0 3.68 2025
author: Richard Chizmar
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/11
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 54197718
A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation.

She thought this would be a break from the stresses of work and raising her young children. A chance to repair her damaged marriage. A week of hiking and hot tubs with two other couple friends. It sounded like heaven.

Then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a lonely dirt road. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel. But it turns out the woods aren’t as easy to navigate as they thought.

Hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost.

And as they navigate deeper into the woods, the members of their party are struck down mysteriously one by one. Has a wild animal been hunting them? Or is the hunter one of them?

But as more time passes, one thing becomes clear:

Only one of them will return home alive.]]> 295 Freida McFadden Nyssa 3
mehhh not my favorite from Freida. it was definitely engaging and I flew through it but something about it just fell a little flat for me and I did find it to be a bit predictable]]> 3.83 2020
author: Freida McFadden
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2026/09/10
date added: 2026/09/10
shelves:
review:
*2.75 ⭐️*

mehhh not my favorite from Freida. it was definitely engaging and I flew through it but something about it just fell a little flat for me and I did find it to be a bit predictable
]]> 245423933
Sixteen-year-old Quinn is used to being told that what she feels inside isn't quite right. After getting kicked out of multiple foster homes and narrowly escaping juvenile detention, she's undergoing therapy at a residential treatment center for "troubled" girls. Looking for a night of freedom, Quinn sneaks onto the roof with her best friend Keisha, and what she sees changes everything…

She witnesses the start of the zombie apocalypse.

As zombies, or "carriers" as the news calls them, infiltrate the treatment center, escape becomes crucial. Quinn and Keisha make a pact to leave together, but several unexpected complications screw up their plans.

As the girls battle the carriers and wrestle with their doubts about each other, Quinn realizes she has never felt more alive. Maybe this is exactly the kind of world she was built for. And part of thriving in this cutthroat environment means cutting off the dead weight – even if that means putting other lives at risk…But even if she's willing to sacrifice everything, can anyone really outlive the apocalypse?]]> 352 Jo Salazar 1464299293 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.11
author: Jo Salazar
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 243315012 Guangdong, 1940 When Ha Yut Ying narrowly escapes Japanese soldiers by turning invisible, she knows her new-found magic must be kept a secret. But her mother, whose dreams foretell the future, suspects her daughter has changed, and warns her of a curse upon their family. For her protection, she gives her a gold bracelet whose links are shaped like fishbones.​

After the war, Ha Yut Ying is sent to live with her father and his second wife, who have become wealthy factory owners in Hong Kong. Her stepmother, jealous of her beauty, forces her to work in the family's shoe factory.

But when Yut Ying collides with a boy on a bicycle on her way to work, she loses her bracelet. The boy is Tommy Yeung, scion of a local soymilk tycoon. And their encounter will change both of their destinies forever...]]> 448 Elizabeth Lim Nyssa 0 to-read, fantasy 4.43 2026
author: Elizabeth Lim
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/10
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> 248003390 132 C K Walker Nyssa 0 to-read 3.77
author: C K Walker
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50833559 What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?]]> 389 Riley Sager 1524745170 Nyssa 4 fall-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
this was definitely a very engaging read and the plot twists were decent!! Not one of my favorites from Riley Sager, but I still enjoyed myself! ]]> 4.02 2020
author: Riley Sager
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/09
date added: 2026/09/09
shelves: fall-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:
*3.5 ⭐️*

this was definitely a very engaging read and the plot twists were decent!! Not one of my favorites from Riley Sager, but I still enjoyed myself!
]]> 220652192 An irresistible, juicy contemporary novel based on the TikTok phenomenon #BamaRushTok—about four sorority sisters brought back to the top-tier house they ruled at the University of Alabama, when secrets they’d thought long buried threaten to resurface.

Four sorority sisters. Each with dark secrets. They must stop the unexpected opening of a time capsule created as part of a sorority rush ritual that was supposed to hold their deepest secrets buried forever...

Five years after they thought they’d said goodbye forever, a group of sorority sisters find themselves back at the University of Alabama for Rush Week. Some return to rekindle their friendships, and others to keep long silent secrets from being exhumed. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the infamous “Spill Book” they wrote confessions in as a trust (hazing) exercise over the years was placed into a time capsule—now it’s been stolen, and the anonymous thief is threatening to expose them all on Bid Day.

Rush Week is a juicy, wild, drama-packed novel filled with good—and not so good—girls behaving badly, dark humor, and sexy scandals. As the sisters navigate their present and not-so-distant past, unbreakable bonds of friendship are put to the test, and regrettable mistakes threaten to change everything if exposed. But perhaps if they confess their sins to each other, they can begin to mend not only themselves, but their sisterhood— before the world finds out just how wicked they are.]]> 400 Michelle Brandon 0063424436 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 2.87
author: Michelle Brandon
name: Nyssa
average rating: 2.87
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/09
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 216601270 There can be no victory without betrayal.

Hara Duja Gatdula, queen of the island nation of Maynara, holds the divine power to move the earth. But her strength is failing and the line of succession gives her little comfort. Her heir, Laya, is a danger—a petty and passionate princess who wields the enormous power of the skies with fickle indifference. Circling the throne is Imeria Kulaw—the matriarch of a traitorous rival family who wields recklessly enhanced powers of her own—with designs to secure a high-ranking position for her son and claim the crown for her family. Each woman has a secret weakness—a lover, a heartbreak, a lie. But each is willing to pay the steepest price to bring down her rivals once and for all.

Filled with passion, romance, betrayal, and divine magic, Black Salt Queen journeys to a gorgeous precolonial island nation where women—and secrets—reign.]]> 416 Samantha Bansil 1959411985 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.81 2025
author: Samantha Bansil
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43822698 Be careful of the dark, dark wood…

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.

From New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance perfect for fans of Practical Magic, where dark fairy tales and enchanted folklore collide after a boy, believed to be missing, emerges from the magical woods—and falls in love with the witch determined to unravel his secrets.]]> 323 Shea Ernshaw 1534439412 Nyssa 0 3.80 2019
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/08
shelves: to-read, fantasy, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 75251680
As a child, Faith acquired the ability to see when and how people would die—a “gift” she neither wanted nor could get rid of.

After foreseeing a family tragedy and being ostracized, Faith learns to control her visions, and returns to perform in her family’s traveling carnival. But when an unruly customer attacks her, she has a vision in full view of a crowd.

She is banned from the carnival she loves—and loses her only source of income to support her dying mother. Desperate to support her mother and with only one friend standing by her, she sees no reason to continue hiding her ability and goes to dangerous lengths to earn money. But when she sees herself in a man’s future death, Faith must face her own fears of her powers and tune into her gift to fight against a future that would ruin her life—and end someone else’s.

With The Sight, celebrated author Melanie Golding delivers another suspense-driven masterpiece with unforgettable characters and an ending that will leave you stunned.]]> 272 Melanie Golding 1639104623 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.32 2023
author: Melanie Golding
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 242811845 In this lyrical debut, three generations of Palestinian women must put the haunting of their ancestral home to rest, before the secrets of the past drown them all. Our Cut of Salt is a powerful and intimate look at what it means to make a home, to lose it, and to return, only to find it irrevocably changed.

There is something haunting Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart.

And, in return, the house did the same for her.

After Nuhad passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother’s home after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. Marina's mother, Haifa - named for the city that was lost to their family - reluctantly agrees to her trip, though she knows firsthand that some secrets are better left buried.

But the house is no longer a home. It is a painful, festering wound that infects everything it touches. The more Marina digs into her family’s past, the sicker she becomes. Despite Nuhad’s ghostly warnings, Haifa rushes to help her daughter.

As the three women converge in their ancestral home, they must put the haunting to rest before the secrets of the past drown them all.]]> 288 Deena Helm 1250434661 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.20 2026
author: Deena Helm
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199222233
For Jolene “Jo” Baker, the least she can do for her adoring husband, Dominic, is give unwavering support for his North Carolina gubernatorial run. He is not only the love of her life, he's also helping her prove that she's far more than just a pampered trophy wife. With huge crowds showing up at Dominic’s speeches and the polls consistently in his favor, she's never been happier to stand proudly by his side . . .

Until she and Dominic start seeing the same, strangely ominous woman turning up all along the campaign trail. Until their tour starts becoming a nightmare of botched events, crucial missed information, and increasingly dangerous “accidents.” Suddenly Jo can't get any answers from Dominic—or understand why he is acting so paranoid and terrified . . .

What Jo can do is start digging into his past—one she's never really questioned beyond his perfect image and dazzling accomplishments. What results is an alarming series of events that leave her Good friends turn into enemies, truths are revealed to be lies, and all clues lead back to one secret, shattering weekend that changes Jo’s entire life. With her world splintering into pieces, can Jo risk trying to set things right? Or will hiding the bitter truth by any means necessary destroy her as well?]]> 320 Shanora Williams 1496745825 Nyssa 0 did-not-finish 3.78 2024
author: Shanora Williams
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/02
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> 56805052
The previous owners have moved just across the road and they seem like the perfect family. Their daughter Amy is beautiful and enigmatic but Tom is sure she's got something to hide. And he isn't going to stop until he finds the truth behind those locked doors. . .

Will their dream home become a nightmare?]]> 400 Vincent Ralph 1728231892 Nyssa 3 3.71 2022
author: Vincent Ralph
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2026/09/02
date added: 2026/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 40725259 From the celebrated author of Rich and Pretty, a novel about the families we fight to build and those we fight to keep

Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny.


Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. She feels profoundly connected to the woman who essentially taught her what it means to be a mother. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son. As she soon learns, navigating motherhood for her is a matter of learning how to raise two children whom she loves with equal ferocity, but whom the world is determined to treat differently.


Written with the warmth and psychological acuity that defined his debut, Rumaan Alam has crafted a remarkable novel about the lives we choose, and the lives that are chosen for us.]]> 304 Rumaan Alam 0062667629 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.06 2018
author: Rumaan Alam
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40893132
But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future. That is, until her personal assistant Monica makes a generous offer that will make all of Abby's dreams come true.

Or all of her nightmares.

Because it turns out Monica isn't who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby's child has dark, twisted secrets.

And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.]]> 298 Freida McFadden Nyssa 4
oh Frieda LMAOO this was bonkers & incredibly entertaining!! ]]> 3.80 2018
author: Freida McFadden
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/25
date added: 2026/08/25
shelves:
review:
3.5 ⭐️

oh Frieda LMAOO this was bonkers & incredibly entertaining!!
]]> 239320028 From mega-bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson comes this highly anticipated follow-up to her middle grade debut Blood in the Water.The Only Black Girl on the Ghost Tour is another spine-tingling, can't-put-it-down mystery, this time set in America's Most Haunted City.Savannah, Georgia is a city on edge when twelve-year-old Harmony arrives with her blues musician father for a summer gig. The recent disappearance of a local boy remains unsolved and the trail has gone cold, leaving the simmering community without answers or closure.Savannah, with its mossy trees and ornate old homes, is also a place rich in history...and ghosts. Ghosts are what pique Harmony's interest. Still reeling from her losses back home, Harmony wants to believe in ghost stories...but isn't sure what's real. When she goes on one of the many ghost tours around town, she takes a photo of what might be a ghost. Or is it a hoax?As Harmony and her new friends look into the truth behind the ghost picture, they stumble into a dangerously tangled web of ambition, lies...and murder.Can Harmony unravel the mystery in time...or will she have to give up the ghost?New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson delivers thrills and chills once more with this layered, evocative mystery that is sure to give readers goosebumps.]]> 288 Tiffany D. Jackson Nyssa 3 3.85 2026
author: Tiffany D. Jackson
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2026
rating: 3
read at: 2026/08/23
date added: 2026/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 3250347
Are you, like millions of Americans, caught in the happiness trap? Russ Harris explains that the way most of us go about trying to find happiness ends up making us miserable, driving the epidemics of stress, anxiety, and depression. This empowering book presents the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) a revolutionary new psychotherapy based on cutting-edge research in behavioral psychology. By clarifying your values and developing mindfulness (a technique for living fully in the present moment), ACT helps you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life.

The techniques presented in The Happiness Trap will help readers to:

• Reduce stress and worry
• Handle painful feelings and thoughts more effectively
• Break self-defeating habits
• Overcome insecurity and self-doubt
• Create a rich, full, and meaningful life

“ . . . a powerful beacon showing us another way forward.” —Steven Hayes, PhD, author of Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life]]> 240 Russ Harris 1590305841 Nyssa 0 currently-reading 4.09 2007
author: Russ Harris
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 220160476 Spanning twenty years and one life-altering summer in Croatia, Slanting Towards the Sea is at once an unforgettable love story and a powerful exploration of what it means to come of age in a country younger than oneself.

Ivona divorced the love of her life, Vlaho, a decade ago. They met as students at the turn of the new millennium, when democratic Croatia was alive with hope and promise. But the challenges of living in a burgeoning country extinguished Ivona’s dreams one after another—and a devastating secret forced her to set him free.

Now Vlaho is remarried and a proud father of two, while Ivona’s life has taken a downward turn. In her thirties, she has returned to her childhood home to care for her ailing father. Bewildered by life’s disappointments, she finds solace in reconnecting with Vlaho and is welcomed into his family by his spirited new wife, Marina. But when a new man enters Ivona’s life, the carefully cultivated dynamic between the three is disrupted, forcing a reckoning for all involved.

Set against the mesmerizing Croatian coastline, Slanting Towards the Sea is a cinematic, emotionally searing debut about the fragile nature of potential and the transcendence of love.

“Oh, what a beautiful book this is—deeply felt, humane, gorgeously written. Hilje’s prose is positively hypnotic— I sunk in and didn’t want to come up for air.” — Claire Lombardo

“Artful, intensely moving, and unforgettable in every way.” —Thao Thai

“Fans of Rachel Cusk will love this.” — Publishers Weekly]]> 336 Lidija Hilje 1668078678 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.08 2025
author: Lidija Hilje
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23341894 If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.]]> 358 Tamara Ireland Stone 1484705270 Nyssa 4 4.19 2015
author: Tamara Ireland Stone
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/20
date added: 2026/08/20
shelves:
review:
as someone who was recently diagnosed with OCD, this book gave me some hope :’) loved the characters, the writing, and the storyline. also I kinda saw that twist coming but it still got me lol
]]> 49127718
Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X Nyssa 4 incredibly touching read and I’m excited to see the movie adaptation!! ]]> 4.15 2019
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/17
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:
*3.75 ⭐️*
incredibly touching read and I’m excited to see the movie adaptation!!
]]> 244709611 Mara Brock Akil, the award-winning creator of Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever, pens an emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening.

What happens when one knock at your door sends your entire world into chaos? When a stranger becomes a lifeline? When the reality you’ve meticulously curated seems to be a mirage?

From the outside looking in, one might say that Dionne Daphne had it being the beauty editor at a prestigious New York magazine, a boyfriend who could have been plucked out of its model pages, the social life of the upper echelon, and a girlhood steeped in debutant balls.

But that is from the outside. When the now ex-boyfriend arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep Dionne imagines reconciliation, going back to the good life brimming with the possibility of marriage; the life her mother always wanted for her. Instead, he delivers life-threatening news that creates a crack in her picture-perfect world. A crack that grows legs and runs her right into her past, unearthing a secret that she has hidden since childhood.

In an effort to run toward the truth and away from a lie, Dionne sets out on a spur-of-the-moment road trip with an unlikely stranger to confront the long-buried darkness of her past and the family who made it so. As Dionne comes to a final reckoning, she begins to unravel new layers of herself and fresh possibilities for her life, her family, and even her love.

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.]]> 288 Mara Brock Akil 059359777X Nyssa 0 to-read 4.29 2026
author: Mara Brock Akil
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221754287 An enchantingly warm and funny novel about family, love lost and found, discovering who you are, and how difficult it is to slay a vampire from the beloved national bestselling author of the TikTok sensation In the Company of Witches.

Cassie Beckett’s life is anything but magical. With a wild younger sister, three unruly kids, and an absent husband, she’s really not looking forward to the witching month of October. At least the gorgeous, foggy Prince Edward Island is always quiet.

That is, until the vampires arrive.

As the creatures sink their teeth into Cassie’s tenuous grip on normalcy, she’s forced to come face-to-face with long–disregarded family secrets. The legacy gifts her with power, but also a lofty rid the island of vampires, or let them win. (Both options suck, in more ways than one.)

Armed with her family, newfound friends, and a baby in a spectacularly garlicky onesie, Cassie must learn what it is to be a witch and how to fight for what she loves before time runs out. Because on Halloween night, the stakes will be higher than ever before...and it’s up to Cassie to finish what the witches that came generations before her started.]]> 400 Auralee Wallace 0593818555 Nyssa 0 to-read, fall-tbr 3.58 2025
author: Auralee Wallace
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/15
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr
review:

]]> 239147548 Mississippi, 1927. The groanings are coming.


No town is perfect, but East Cobb comes close. It’s a wealthy all-Black Free Town—untouched by white oppression—where ambitious Thea Elliot and her husband plan to make good on their big dreams. Little do they know that the idyllic town teems with ghoulish, walking nightmares . . . that only the women can see.


Marah knows the groanings well. She is one of the carriers—women with the ability to pull traumatic memories from men. Populated by men entirely freed of their pain, East Cobb has flourished, even as the remnants of their memories haunt the town’s women. When an unexpected death drives Marah to discover more about her own power, Thea’s and Marah’s worlds collide. The sisters must confront the rotten core at the heart of East Cobb’s prosperity and choose what—and who—will survive the reckoning.


A gripping blend of historical fiction and Southern gothic psychological horror, Our Sister’s Keeper is a fierce exploration of Black sisterhood, rage, and resistance.]]> 336 Jasmine Holmes 1967967105 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.18 2026
author: Jasmine Holmes
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11901 1216 Anne Rice 0099471426 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.11 1990
author: Anne Rice
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 235992685 For fans of Dolly Alderton and HBO’s Hacks, a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny debut novel about faking it (and “making it”) as a writer in Hollywood.

TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist husband, thinks it’s time for her to press pause on her career ambitions and focus on getting pregnant, despite Caroline’s serious ambivalence about having children.

When Caroline accidentally stumbles on Harry’s patient session notes and offhandedly mentions what she finds in a meeting with a producer, the momentum of Hollywood takes over. Before she knows it—and unbeknownst to Harry—Caroline finds herself pitching a TV show about the deepest, darkest secrets of her husband’s favorite patient, a woman known to Caroline only as the Teacher.

Amid the indignities of the Hollywood development process, Caroline must balance her burning desire for professional validation against her own morality and the health of her marriage. And when Caroline forms a real-life relationship with Teacher herself, the lines between art and life begin to blur further, shaking up Caroline’s understanding of what it means to be the “likeable female protagonist” of her own life.]]> 304 Hallie Cantor 1668088584 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.19 2026
author: Hallie Cantor
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123029113
Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her magical Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Aunt Jasmine run an inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep the talking fox in check, and longs for the magical future she lost.

When she learns about an old spellbook that holds the secret to restoring her power, she turns to Luke Larsen, a gorgeous historian who might just be able to help her unlock the book’s mysteries. Luke, who has his own reasons for staying at the inn, never planned on getting involved in the madcap goings-on around him and certainly had no intention of letting certain grumpy innkeepers past his icy walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he not only agrees to help, but also finds himself thawing .

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone... and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.]]> 352 Sangu Mandanna Nyssa 0 to-read, fall-tbr 3.89 2025
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/11
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr
review:

]]> 55566545 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The L Word in this fresh, sizzling rom-com by Lana Harper.

Emmy Harlow is a witch but not a very powerful one—in part because she hasn't been home to the magical town of Thistle Grove in years. Her self-imposed exile has a lot to do with a complicated family history and a desire to forge her own way in the world, and only the very tiniest bit to do with Gareth Blackmoore, heir to the most powerful magical family in town and casual breaker of hearts and destroyer of dreams.

But when a spellcasting tournament that her family serves as arbiters for approaches, it turns out the pull of tradition (or the truly impressive parental guilt trip that comes with it) is strong enough to bring Emmy back. She's determined to do her familial duty; spend some quality time with her best friend, Linden Thorn; and get back to her real life in Chicago.

On her first night home, Emmy runs into Talia Avramov—an all-around badass adept in the darker magical arts—who is fresh off a bad breakup . . . with Gareth Blackmoore. Talia had let herself be charmed, only to discover that Gareth was also seeing Linden—unbeknownst to either of them. And now she and Linden want revenge. Only one question stands: Is Emmy in?

But most concerning of all: Why can't she stop thinking about the terrifyingly competent, devastatingly gorgeous, wickedly charming Talia Avramov?]]> 352 Lana Harper 0593336062 Nyssa 0 to-read, fall-tbr 3.56 2021
author: Lana Harper
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/11
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr
review:

]]> 18189606
On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um...

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait...what?]]> 449 Morgan Matson 1442435003 Nyssa 3 this was so cute and honestly should’ve been adapted into a fun coming of age film in the 2010’s :’) ]]> 4.07 2014
author: Morgan Matson
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2026/08/10
date added: 2026/08/10
shelves:
review:
*3.25 ⭐️*
this was so cute and honestly should’ve been adapted into a fun coming of age film in the 2010’s :’)
]]> 7735333
Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.]]> 369 Ally Condie 0525423648 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.62 2010
author: Ally Condie
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6482837 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction. Like Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Gayle Forman's If I Stay, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others.

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

Named to numerous state reading lists, this novel was also recognized as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, The Daily Beast, NPR, and Publishers Weekly. It has been optioned for film by Fox 2000 Pictures.

Supports the Common Core State Standards.]]> 470 Lauren Oliver 0061726818 Nyssa 0 3.89 2010
author: Lauren Oliver
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2026/08/04
date added: 2026/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 14891 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident.

The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years.

By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.]]> 496 Betty Smith 0061120073 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.29 1943
author: Betty Smith
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214438358 This deluxe edition is printed with stenciled edges and a stunning foil-stamped case!

An Instant New York Times and Indie Bestseller

A Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror Novel

"A true blood-soaked Southern Gothic for the modern age.” —Andrew Joseph White, New York Times–bestselling author of Hell Followed With Us and The Spirit Bears its Teeth

Four unlikely allies in a small town investigate a local teen's disappearance, and what they discover festering at the core of their community is far more sinister and ancient than they could’ve ever imagined. For fans of She is a Haunting, True Detective, Mexican Gothic, and Midsommar.

When Dawson Sumter goes missing, all he leaves behind is a smattering of blood in room 4 of the debt-ridden motel owned by Neera Singh's family. Disappearances like this aren't uncommon in the rural Georgia town of Carrion, especially every thirteen years when a periodical cicada brood returns from underground, shrieking their deafening screams.

For Neera, Dawson is another reminder that in this corner of the South, the rich only get richer, and the poor—well, nothing good comes their way.

Neera sets out to investigate Dawson’s whereabouts—if he even still lives—along with three other teens: Isaiah, son of a prominent judge and clandestine true crime podcaster; Reid, son of the wealthiest man in the region; and Sam, estranged daughter of the local hitman. As they find themselves entangled in a messy web of secrets and lies, they discover the riches of the adjacent Lake Clearwater community may have a terrifying source of power dating back to the town’s founding and an ancient urban legend about three devils, each more sinister than the next. How deep does the rot go, and can they find a way to escape its reach?]]> 388 Xan Kaur 1250357179 Nyssa 0 3.72 2025
author: Xan Kaur
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/09
shelves: fall-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr, to-read
review:

]]> 222376577 Good girls deserve a treat.

Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.]]> 368 Olivie Blake 1250883458 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.30 2025
author: Olivie Blake
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 250319385 96 Time Inc. 1547870761 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.50
author: Time Inc.
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61251242 Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend's sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed....

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they'd been spending time with all summer.

Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can't account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer--the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.

At her mother's house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father's book that didn't stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank's cabin....

Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.]]> 321 Ana Reyes 0593186710 Nyssa 0 did-not-finish 3.04 2023
author: Ana Reyes
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/20
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> 248341061 After a true crime podcast reopens her cousin’s murder case, a woman must confront her past at a glamorous European castle-turned-hotel where she follows a trail of toxic family secrets and deadly lies.

When they were teenagers, Mia’s beloved cousin was murdered during their stay at an infamous castle in the Austrian Alps. As the only witness, Mia’s testimony put the killer behind bars, but it tore her life apart: the media accused her aunt, a controversial true crime author, of being involved. Now, a decade later, the murderer is appealing his conviction, and a popular true crime podcast starts covering the case, determined to exonerate him, and resurfacing lies about Mia’s family in the process.

Desperate to protect her aunt—and what she knows to be the truth—Mia returns to Austria. The castle is being revamped as a luxury hotel, and Mia gets a job as a nanny for the new owner, hiding in plain sight as she investigates, needing to set the story straight once and for all. But after someone mysteriously disappears on the property and sinister new evidence emerges regarding her cousin’s death, she realizes she might have accused the wrong man...and put her own life in danger.]]> 320 Tara Goedjen 1668217112 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.73 2026
author: Tara Goedjen
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 246256722 The Greers built their fortune on alligator bones.

Dartrine Beaumont believes her mother’s sudden death has left her alone in the world—until she learns of long-lost wealthy relatives living in Florida. Confused but delighted by the possibility of extended family, Dart travels to her grandmother’s stately Gilded Age mansion on Amelia Island for answers, just in time to stake a claim on an unusual inheritance: an alligator farming empire.

Her arrival at Greer House isn’t everything she hoped. Without warning, Dart finds herself in fierce competition with her grandmother’s arrogant heir-apparent, and tensions rise as threatening acts of vandalism escalate on one of the farms. More unsettling is her hostile grandmother’s fanatical belief that the danger stems from a curse; according to legend, a larger-than-life alligator hunted down by a bloodthirsty ancestor still haunts the family. Yet Dart can’t deny that the farm’s placid alligators hiss only at Greers, or that a shadowy figure creeps through the mansion’s halls, plaguing her with suspicions that the mythical alligator and monstrous, long-dead matriarch may have unfinished business.

As Dart uncovers the truth about her violent birthright, she faces a terrible accept her place in her family’s grim legacy or forge a new path by slaying a different beast entirely.]]> 384 Sophia Huneycutt Nyssa 0 to-read 3.70 2026
author: Sophia Huneycutt
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35297461 A twisted tragedy leaves Brooke and her siblings on their own in this provocative new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used To Be.

How do you let go of something you’ve never had?

Junior year for Brooke Winters is supposed to be about change. She’s transferring schools, starting fresh, and making plans for college so she can finally leave her hometown, her family, and her past behind.

But all of her dreams are shattered one hot summer afternoon when her mother is arrested for killing Brooke’s abusive father. No one really knows what happened that day, if it was premeditated or self-defense, whether it was right or wrong. And now Brooke and her siblings are on their own.

In a year of firsts—the first year without parents, first love, first heartbreak, and her first taste of freedom—Brooke must confront the shadow of her family’s violence and dysfunction, as she struggles to embrace her identity, finds her true place in the world, and learns how to let go.]]> 369 Amber Smith 1481480731 Nyssa 4 3.69 2018
author: Amber Smith
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/09
date added: 2026/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 57836903
Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul. But their vow is tested when their friend disappears—the second girl to vanish in a week. And yet the authorities are reluctant to investigate.

Heather is terrified that the missing girls are connected to what she and Brenda stumbled upon that night. Desperately searching for answers on her own, she learns that no one in her community is who they seem to be. Not the police, not the boys she met at the quarry, not even her parents. But she can’t stop digging because she knows those girls are in danger.

She also knows she’s next.]]> 335 Jess Lourey 1542034302 Nyssa 0 4.01 2022
author: Jess Lourey
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/06
shelves: to-read, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 241685588 A sizzling, soapy summer debut, in which two women in a wealthy lakeside suburb clash over a cute male nanny, pulling the town’s darker secrets to the surface.

When Danika Crawley attends events at the Aldon Lakes Country Club, heads turn. Danika has it all—beauty, money, a successful husband, and two perfect children. She plans on making this summer her best season yet and has a secret weapon to secure the envy of her neighbors.

Augie Elling has lost it all. Reeling from a post-grad scandal amidst her now-former life in New York, she returns to Aldon Lakes with her tail between her legs. Augie wants to keep her head down, save money, and find a way to leave her hometown for good, but someone keeps distracting her.

Danika and Augie have one thing in they are both a little obsessed with Chat, the male nanny Danika hired for the summer. But, unbeknownst to either woman, Chat’s appearance in town sets off a chain reaction that threatens Aldon Lakes' carefully maintained ecosystem. As the heat rises between the three of them, the truth behind a long-buried scandal comes to light, and everyone at the club must reckon with the consequences.

The Lake Club is both an addictive, rollicking beach read, and a stylish, deft exploration of a lesser-known region of American wealth.]]> 320 Lina Patton 0063447290 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.31 2026
author: Lina Patton
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 229897599 Marvin is a man beaten down by life, haunted by a troubled past and barely scraping by. Driven by guilt and a desire to do the right thing, Nate extends a helping hand, offering Marvin a job and a fresh start.


But good deeds don't always go unpunished.


Marvin hasn't forgotten what happened when they were just boys—-and the role Nate played in his downfall. Resentment lurks beneath his gratitude, and as he weaves himself into Nate's life, a sinister plan begins to unfold. By the time Nate discovers the truth, it may already be too late.


Friendships might fade--but some grudges never die...]]> 261 Brandon Massey Nyssa 3 3.97
author: Brandon Massey
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2026/06/29
date added: 2026/06/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 58014893
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.]]> 320 Carley Fortune Nyssa 3 4.13 2022
author: Carley Fortune
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2026/06/23
date added: 2026/06/23
shelves:
review:
this was very cutesy, but I can’t say it did that much for me? 😭 definitely better than her other book Meet Me at the Lake which I read a few summers ago loll. overall, I’m not mad at this & will still be reading One Golden Summer!!
]]> 121537188
"I gave you fifteen years, two kids, and my everything. You still chose to give a woman you barely knew the ring, the house, and my happily-ever-after."


Dallas once believed in forever love, but that was before her marriage had hit a dead end. When Trenton Smith walks into her life, he’s ready to love her the way she deserves to be loved—only Dallas’ walls are up. In time she will know if he is merely history on repeat, or the kindred connection she’s been praying for.

Sasha wanted nothing more than to have a baby with her fiancé, Hunt. After years of trying to conceive, she’s finally concluded that a baby may not be in the cards for her. Sasha begins to question her womanhood, and before long, it sends her into a fit of depression—until she finds comfort in the arms of another man.

After dating the momma’s boy, the thug, and her ultimate favorite—the tired brother with good sex but no money, Candace finally finds her knight in shining armor. Things are going well until she discovers the roommate he conveniently failed to mention. When Sasha’s brother, Diego, decides to help mend her heart, Candace soon realizes that her soul mate may have been right under her nose the entire time.]]> 256 Danielle Marcus Nyssa 0 to-read 3.76
author: Danielle Marcus
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195391794
Saoirse Sorkova is on the run. Accused of several murders, her siren identity compromised, even the newly crowned King Hayes can't protect her if she's caught. The only way to save her life is to send her on a dangerous mission across the magical barrier that surrounds the kingdom.

Forced to travel with Carrick - once her best friend, now her greatest betrayer - she begins to unravel multiple plots that threaten the safety of her family, the livelihood of the entire kingdom, and her future with Hayes. And the more time she spends with Carrick, the harder it is to keep hating him . . .

Soon, Saoirse is forced to what if Hayes isn't the right ruler for the kingdom? And if he's not, is she willing to betray her king - and her heart?

Featuring an all Black and Brown cast, a forbidden romance, and a compulsively dark plot full of twists, this thrilling YA fantasy series is perfect for fans of A Song Below Water and To Kill a Kingdom.]]> 432 Gabi Burton 1547610417 Nyssa 4 *rounded up from 3.75 ⭐️* 4.00 2024
author: Gabi Burton
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/07
date added: 2026/06/07
shelves:
review:
*rounded up from 3.75 ⭐️*
]]> 127975602
Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect, and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated.

When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show—someone is out for blood. And the game can’t end until the world knows who the contestants really are…]]> 320 Heather Gudenkauf 0778310795 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.61 2024
author: Heather Gudenkauf
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/06
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 12628635      But when Luce and Dorian meet, they start to wonder if love can overpower the hatred they know they should feel for each other. Can Luce fulfill her rightful role as queen of the mermaids without sacrificing her forbidden romance with Dorian?]]> 400 Sarah Porter 0547482515 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.85 2012
author: Sarah Porter
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195820717 The truth is never skin deep.
 
It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.
 
But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, Ty is nowhere to be found and there’s a stranger dead in the foyer—the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed Janelle Beckett. Soon, both the police and an army of Internet sleuths are asking questions Bree doesn't know how to answer. Desperate to find Ty and to keep her own secrets buried, Bree realizes there’s only one person she can turn her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. 

Fierce, smart, and thrilling to the end, Missing White Woman not only explores “Missing White Woman” syndrome and traveling while Black, but deftly inverts the hallmarks of the domestic suspense genre to How well can we truly know the people we love? And what happens to these stories when seen through the eyes of a Black woman?]]> 336 Kellye Garrett 0316256978 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.47 2024
author: Kellye Garrett
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 223854473 A 1960s boy band determined to conquer the music world must contend with the cost of fame—and a ghost with a grisly past—in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Kids.

Odysseus Johnson dreams of musical stardom for his three Roman, the rebel, more interested in being a teenager than a performer; Rocco, arguably the most talented of the bunch, but different in a way the world doesn’t understand; and dutiful River, the youngest, who dreams of fame just like his dad.

Driving back from another failed audition in Detroit, the Johnson boys come upon the ghost of Christmas Jones the Third, an ebullient, if lonely, young Black orphan who carries the scars of a horrific past as a minstrel sensation. Desperate for family, Christmas begs the Johnsons to bring him home with them. When Odysseus refuses, Christmas stows away in the family Cadillac. Despite their initial horror, Christmas becomes a part of the Johnson family.

With the promise of opportunities in California, Odysseus moves the family out west, and the boys’ talent starts getting noticed. But just as the brothers are finally on the cusp of fame, Christmas commits a violent act that wreaks havoc on the Johnsons’ lives and the family is torn asunder in the aftermath. Roman flees the country. Rocco is institutionalized. River’s solo star rises. Christmas disappears.

Spanning decades, roving from the rapacious music industry and the ravages of Vietnam to the dark corridors of a mental institution and the very planes of the afterlife, The Johnson Four is epic in scope. And at its beating heart is the unforgettable story of a family trying to find their way back to one another.]]> 496 Christina Hammonds Reed 0593724488 Nyssa 0 to-read 4.08
author: Christina Hammonds Reed
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63077620 On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son's death--but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules...

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son's bedroom, she's perplexed. She's never heard of it before, but soon learns it's a tiny island off of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow's home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island's twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She's been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders' beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow's brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth--that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined--he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

If he can get out alive...]]> 439 Jimmy Juliano 059347192X Nyssa 0 3.66 2023
author: Jimmy Juliano
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/27
shelves: to-read, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 207611566 There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Nyssa 4 favorites
I just loved the girls in this and the representation of sisterhood, throughout all the brutality they were facing as literal children. I really enjoyed the witch storyline and I was very creeped out by Miss Parcae. Also the body horror in this was sooo intense 😵‍💫

Overall, such a well-written, engrossing, brutal, & heartfelt story. I think these characters will stick with me for a while. <3 ]]> 3.87 2025
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/25
date added: 2026/05/25
shelves: favorites
review:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book & I will definitely be reading more from Grady Hendrix. I can genuinely say that although this book was written by a man, it didn’t *feel* like it was written by a man lol (which I very much appreciated). After reading the acknowledgments and seeing the amount of research and care that went into writing this book, it made me appreciate the story even more.

I just loved the girls in this and the representation of sisterhood, throughout all the brutality they were facing as literal children. I really enjoyed the witch storyline and I was very creeped out by Miss Parcae. Also the body horror in this was sooo intense 😵‍💫

Overall, such a well-written, engrossing, brutal, & heartfelt story. I think these characters will stick with me for a while. <3
]]> 204640265 From Vulture's "master of horror" Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and When Evil Lurks

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.]]> 384 Clay McLeod Chapman Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.25 2025
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/23
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 235993046 Follow the Rites...

Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake.

From Marcus Kliewer, a new “titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), comes a supernatural horror about a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist, only to discover the position has consequences far greater—and more dangerous—than she ever could have imagined.

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY:
Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.

Macy Mullins can’t say why the job posting grabbed her attention—it had the pull of a fisherman’s lure, barbed hook and all—vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she's not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for.

Besides, it’s only three days’ work…

Three days, cooped up in a stranger’s house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness.

What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property—and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity.

Follow the Rites...

Follow the Rites...

Follow the Rites...

..--- / ..... / ---..]]> 295 Marcus Kliewer 1982198818 Nyssa 4 thriller-horror-tbr
overall, very enjoyable and binge-able read!! ]]> 3.56 2026
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/20
date added: 2026/05/20
shelves: thriller-horror-tbr
review:
ok so I just finished this in one sitting and I can genuinely say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I honestly enjoyed this just as much as We Used to Live Here. it had a very unique horror premise, similar to We Used to Live Here that I honestly really liked! This book stressed me the hell out too I can’t imagine being in a situation like that 😭😭

overall, very enjoyable and binge-able read!!
]]> 221473233 A girl unravels a townwide conspiracy when she moves to her late father’s family estate in this dark small-town mystery that's like a YA Mare of Easttown.

Sixteen-year-old Lola Boyd suffers from a mysterious disease. Her doctors have no explanation for the chronic lethargy, migraines, and lightheadedness that plague her. But when Lola and her mom and stepdad move to Claret Creek, a small rural Colorado town, to live in her late father’s family home, she starts experiencing a new symptom. Sudden episodes give her visions from another time, piecing together snippets of a conspiracy that happened over 100 years before. The more Lola researches the town’s history and its revered Dr. Clarett, the more her suspicions begin to rise. Could what happened to her ancestors at the doctor’s hand have something to do with her illness? And why does it seem that her new friends—and the entire town—are so keen to keep her from digging into their past? The more Lola discovers, the more she doubts who can be trusted—including her own mother. Now it’s up to Lola to untangle the web and get to the bottom of a multi-generational mystery. For her family, for the town, and for her future.]]> 368 Shannon Schuren 0593621433 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.47 2025
author: Shannon Schuren
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 26154406 In case you were wondering, I didn’t do it. I didn’t have anything to do with Frank’s death. I don’t have an alibi, so you’ll have to take my word for it...

Forty-eight hours after leaving her husband’s body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. It’s not the first time.

She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitive’s eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasy―and dangerous―alliance is born.

It’s almost impossible to live off the grid today, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret…can she outrun her past?]]> 304 Lisa Lutz 1451686633 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.67 2016
author: Lisa Lutz
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/20
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 235992322 304 Allison Gunn 1668046660 Nyssa 0 3.72
author: Allison Gunn
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/19
shelves: to-read, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 145654483 A suspenseful and entertaining debut thriller—and love letter to vintage horror movies—in which a teenager must overcome her own anxiety to protect the two children she’s babysitting when strangers come knocking at the door.

October 1993. One night. One house. One dead body.

When single mom Eleanor Mazinski goes out a for a much-needed date night, she leaves her two young children —sweet, innocent six-year-old Ben and precocious, defiant twelve-year-old Mira— in the capable hands of their sitter, Amy. The quiet seventeen-year-old is good at looking after children, despite her anxiety disorder. She also loves movies, especially horror flicks. Amy likes their predictability; it calms the panic that threatens to overwhelm her.

The evening starts out normally enough, with games, pizza, and dancing. But as darkness falls, events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn —unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight, little Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a dead body at his feet.

In this dazzling debut novel, Emily Ruth Verona moves back and forth in time, ratcheting up suspense and tension on every page. Chock-full of nods to classic horror films of the seventies and eighties, Midnight on Beacon Street is a gripping thriller full of electrifying twists and a heartwarming tale of fear and devotion that explores our terrors and the lengths we’ll go to keep our loved ones safe.]]> 195 Emily Ruth Verona 0063330512 Nyssa 0 2.81 2024
author: Emily Ruth Verona
name: Nyssa
average rating: 2.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/19
shelves: to-read, fall-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 173404023
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.]]> 339 Tia Williams 153872670X Nyssa 3
I honestly enjoyed this but I will say that within the 25-50% mark, I genuinely considered DNFing multiple times 😭 It just felt like the story was progressing veryyy slowly and I didn’t start to get hooked and truly enjoy where it was going until the 55% mark. Although I am glad I didn’t end up dnfing, I wish it hadn’t taken that long to get to that point.

But overall, a very sweet & unique love story and a unique plot in general. I thought the writing was great and this book made me chuckle quite a few times lol! I think this would honestly make such a cute movie too! Despite it feeling pretty slow within the first half, I’m glad I continued with the story and think it’s worth the read (if you don’t mind a slow build up to the plot) 🩷]]> 3.94 2024
author: Tia Williams
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/19
date added: 2026/05/19
shelves:
review:
*3.25 ⭐️*

I honestly enjoyed this but I will say that within the 25-50% mark, I genuinely considered DNFing multiple times 😭 It just felt like the story was progressing veryyy slowly and I didn’t start to get hooked and truly enjoy where it was going until the 55% mark. Although I am glad I didn’t end up dnfing, I wish it hadn’t taken that long to get to that point.

But overall, a very sweet & unique love story and a unique plot in general. I thought the writing was great and this book made me chuckle quite a few times lol! I think this would honestly make such a cute movie too! Despite it feeling pretty slow within the first half, I’m glad I continued with the story and think it’s worth the read (if you don’t mind a slow build up to the plot) 🩷
]]> 235992397 In this sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut, a woman escapes into the uncanny woods of southern Georgia and must contend with ghosts, haints, and most dangerous of all, the truth about herself.

When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she’d severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. She didn’t have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own.

Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer.

But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the woman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline.

Haunting and thought-provoking, On Sunday She Picked Flowers explores retribution, family trauma, and the power of building oneself back up after breaking down.]]> 231 Yah-Yah Scholfield 1668091216 Nyssa 0 3.86 2020
author: Yah-Yah Scholfield
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/18
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr, summerween-tbr
review:

]]> 199798460
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.]]> 299 Emiko Jean 1668023938 Nyssa 0 3.93 2024
author: Emiko Jean
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr, summerween-tbr
review:

]]> 55878030 320 Cynthia Pelayo 1951709209 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.36 2021
author: Cynthia Pelayo
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/15
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 234313865 From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground.

After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school—Allie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she’s a little jealous of Allie's globe-trotting life. Who wouldn’t be?

As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guy—and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive.

Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn’t so random after all.

Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?]]> 323 Taylor Adams 0063394138 Nyssa 0 4.12 2026
author: Taylor Adams
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/14
shelves: to-read, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 235992687 Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their fourteen-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his family’s lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wife’s sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization.

With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drew’s gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.

Adrift is gripping exploration of the ties that bind when everything spirals out of control.]]> 352 Will Dean 1668080052 Nyssa 0 to-read 3.73 2026
author: Will Dean
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 251241223 “Who do you think you are? Part Twilight Zone, part Mulholland Drive, Anne Hellman’s debut is a tantalizing detour into the uncanny.” —Stewart O’Nan, author of A Prayer for the Dying

A pair of identical twins reconnect on a road trip where they realize they’re being stalked—by themselves—in this unsettling, imaginative tribute to Hitchcock’s Psycho and Vertigo

Meet Ava and Brin, identical twins on a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, from San Francisco to Joshua Tree, in honor of their late mother. This is more than a pilgrimage—it’s a reunion after a year-long rift, after Ava almost died of a mysterious illness. From their first night on the road, the sisters encounter strangers who insist they’ve met them before—a waitress who is certain she served them a few days ago, a mechanic who shows Ava and Brin a picture of themselves driving a different car from earlier that day.

Ava and Brin realize that another pair of twins, seemingly identical to them in name and appearance, are stalking them. The cat-and-mouse game between the four identical women quickly devolves into something sinister and supernatural as the lines between them begin to blur. Doppelgängers, prophetic hallucinations, an unwavering fog—what do these shadow twins want? And what are Ava and Brin hiding?

The Indecipherables is a fever dream of a debut novel, a journey into the weird and uncanny, and an exploration of what horrors arise when we keep secrets from those we love—and from ourselves.]]> 272 Anne Hellman Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 2.82 2027
author: Anne Hellman
name: Nyssa
average rating: 2.82
book published: 2027
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/14
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 226744164 On an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago, there is a house. An abandoned house where, once upon a time, terrible things happened. The children who live on this block are told by their parents to stay away from that house. But of course, children don't listen. Children think it's fun to be scared, to dare each other to go inside.
Jessie Campanelli did what many older sisters do and dared her little brother Paul. But unlike all the other kids who went inside that abandoned house, Paul didn't return. His two friends, Jake and Richie, said that the house ate Paul. Of course adults didn't believe that. Adults never believe what kids say. They thought someone kidnapped Paul, or otherwise hurt him. They thought Paul had disappeared in a way that was ordinary, explainable.
The disappearance of her little brother broke Jessie's family apart in ways that would never be repaired. Jessie grew up, had a child of her own, kept living on the same street where the house that ate her brother sat, crouched and waiting. And darkness seemed to spread out from that house, a darkness that was alive—alive and hungry.]]> 305 Christina Henry 0593953959 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.83 2025
author: Christina Henry
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/12
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 197036035
On the night before graduation, seven students gather in the basement of their university's rare books library. They're not allowed in the library after closing time, but it's the perfect place for the ritual they want to perform—one borrowed from the Greeks, said to free those who take part in it from the fear of death. And what better time to seek the wisdom of ancient gods than in the hours before they'll scatter in different directions to start their real lives?

But just a few minutes into their celebration, the lights go out—and one of them drops dead. As the body count rises, with nothing but the books to protect them, the group must figure out how to survive the night while trapped with a murderer. That Night in the Library is a chilling literary mystery that transports readers to a world where secrets live in the dark, books breathe fears to life, and the only way out is to wait until morning.]]> 288 Eva Jurczyk 1728295696 Nyssa 0 to-read 2.63 2024
author: Eva Jurczyk
name: Nyssa
average rating: 2.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 36213422 A New York Times bestseller.

“A wickedly chilling debut.” —School Library Journal
“Complex and sweetly satisfying.” —Booklist
“Prepare to be bewitched.” —Paula Stokes, author of Girl Against the Universe
“A story about the redemptive power of love.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be
“Eerie and enchanting.” —Jessica Spotswood, author of The Cahill Witch Chronicles

Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meets the Salem Witch trials in this haunting story about three sisters on a quest for revenge—and how love may be the only thing powerful enough to stop them.

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to save Bo, or save herself.]]> 321 Shea Ernshaw 1481497367 Nyssa 4 fantasy, thriller-horror-tbr 3.90 2018
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/12
date added: 2026/05/12
shelves: fantasy, thriller-horror-tbr
review:
this book was so atmospheric and I loved the storyline. definitely a solid ya fantasy thriller novel! also the twists?? I think it would’ve been predictable if I had known there was gonna be any sort of plot twist but bc I didn’t I was GAGGED. but I had such a good time with this one. I love a spooky, witchy story and it being gloomy, beachy/coastal just made it even better!!
]]> 233717202 From the Bram Stoker award-nominated author of The Spite House comes a bone-chilling new novel about a private investigator hired by a mysterious billionaire to discover why he can’t die.

When private investigator Shyla Sinclair is invited to the looming mansion of mysterious Texan tycoon Saxton Braith, she’s more than a little suspicious. The last thing she expects to see that night is Braith’s assistant driving an iron rod straight through the back of his skull. Scratch that—the last thing she expects to see is Braith’s resurrection afterward.

Braith can’t die, it turns out, but he has no explanation for his immortality, and very few intact memories of his past. Which is why he wants to pay Shyla millions to investigate him, and bring his long-buried history to light. 

Shyla can’t help but be intrigued, but she’s also trapped by the offer. Braith has made it clear that he knows she’s the only person he can trust with his secret, because he knows all about hers. 

Bold, atmospheric, and utterly frightening, Johnny Compton’s Dead First is spine-chilling supernatural horror about the pursuit of power and the undying need for reckoning.]]> 368 Johnny Compton 0593854314 Nyssa 0 to-read, thriller-horror-tbr 3.14 2026
author: Johnny Compton
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/12
shelves: to-read, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 232206214 A YA thriller about a Black teen whose family vacation to a town with a terrifying history becomes a desperate search for two missing girls and a fight for survival.

When sixteen-year-old Naomi Stoakes and her family head to a secluded cabin in the Shenandoah Valley for summer vacation they don’t know the small, mountainous town of Sparksburg, Virginia has a dark and twisted past. But when they arrive, Naomi can’t shake the feeling that something about Sparksburg just isn’t right. When she learns Sparksburg had once been a Sundown Town—a town where Blacks weren’t allowed after sunset lest they be murdered—well Naomi’s unease starts to make sense.

As Naomi digs more into Sparksburg’s violent origins, she finds herself haunted by the ghost of a girl, appearing nightly outside her window. Then she learns of two girls who’ve recently gone missing and suspects the past may still be present in Sparksburg and beneath the quaint façade of this tourist town is a palpable danger.

When Naomi decides to track the disappearance of the two girls herself and confronts the ghost of another, she become suspicious of a local man who has kindled fear in Naomi more than once. When she learns he has a connection to one of the missing girls, Naomi is certain he’s responsible for the disappearances.

When no one believes her, Naomi takes matters into her own hands. But to save the missing girls, she’ll have to finally face her own past trauma as a “missing girl”, and risk losing everything she loves.]]> 320 L.S. Stratton Nyssa 0 to-read 4.05 2026
author: L.S. Stratton
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65213911 Songs of Irie is a sweeping coming-of-age novel from Asha Bromfield about a friendship struggling to survive amidst the Jamaican civil unrest of the 1970s.

It's 1976 and Jamaica is on fire. The country is on the eve of important elections and the warring political parties have made the divisions between the poor and the wealthy even wider. And Irie and Jilly come from very different backgrounds: Irie is from the heart of Kingston, where fighting in the streets is common. Jilly is from the hills, where mansions nestled within lush gardens remain safe behind gates. But the two bond through a shared love of Reggae music, spending time together at Irie's father's record store, listening to so-called rebel music that opens Jilly's mind to a sound and a way of thinking she's never heard before.

As tensions build in the streets, so do tensions between the two girls. A budding romance between them complicates things further as the push and pull between their two lives becomes impossible to bear. For Irie, fighting—with her words and her voice—is her only option. Blood is shed on the streets in front of her every day. She has no choice. But Jilly can always choose to escape.

Can their bond survive this impossible divide?

Asha Bromfield has written a compelling, emotional and heart-rending story of a friendship during wartime and what it means to fight for your words, your life, and the love of your life.]]> 400 Asha Ashanti Bromfield 1250846803 Nyssa 0 4.26 2023
author: Asha Ashanti Bromfield
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/09
shelves: to-read, romance-tbr, summer-tbr, caribbean-reads
review:

]]> 58927329 Where is the line drawn between doing what is lawful, and doing what is right?

After a body is found gutted in the road, Sheriff Elven Hallie discovers the murder was collateral damage to an abduction. One that leads out of his jurisdiction. And one that pushes the boundaries of everything he stands for.

Madds is missing.

Monacan County is rooted in criminal activity, corrupt law enforcement, and most of all, superstition. Elven will do whatever it takes to find Madds, even if it means forming a partnership with the man he despises most.

Hollis Starcher.

But how many of his own values will it cost him? And will it be enough to save Madds before it’s too late?]]> 523 Drew Strickland Nyssa 0 to-read 4.33 2022
author: Drew Strickland
name: Nyssa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44074800 Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.

Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.

But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she—and her book club—are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.]]> 410 Grady Hendrix Nyssa 0 3.77 2020
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/07
shelves: to-read, summer-tbr, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

]]> 229070401 A vacation in paradise turns deadly when four teens' sailing charter hits stormy seas in this propulsive new thriller from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Megan Lally!

Hannah is having an incredible spring break. A week at a resort in Mexico with her best friend Emmy and her family is perfect for de-stressing from senior year, even if it’s awkward being around Emmy's older brother, Jackson, who she’s had a crush on for as long as she can remember.

Still, the beach is gorgeous. So is the guy they meet in the surf. Except Hannah is now the third wheel in Emmy’s vacation romance.

Eager to impress Emmy, her wealthy new boyfriend charters a private sailboat to make the most of their last day in paradise, and Hannah and Jackson are invited along. As the clouds roll in and the skies darken, their boat is the only one leaving the marina. And the further they get into open water, the more unsettled Hannah becomes. A storm is brewing onboard that’s as deadly as the one racing toward them. Forget surviving graduation. Who will make it back to land alive?]]> 279 Megan Lally 1728270170 Nyssa 4 3.61 2026
author: Megan Lally
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/06
date added: 2026/05/06
shelves:
review:
literally just read this in one sitting! this might be my favorite from Megan Lally so far… this was just a lot of fun. the perfect YA summer popcorn thriller! very fast-paced, action packed, & the twist 🥲🥲 omfg. I knew what was coming but it still hurt LMAO!! also really enjoyed the main character in this. just a super enjoyable read overall!!
]]> 179031758
Inez is missing, but missing things can always be found.

Mae knows this as a fact, even though the police investigation has come to a standstill, even though her parents are moving on. But when she goes to clear out her older sister’s studio, she finds a mess of research and a white canvas that seems even older than the ornate frame it is set in. The closer Mae gets to the canvas, the more difficult it is to pull her eyes away from its mottled surface, its heavy layers of white paint, its peeling top corner she is tempted to pull to see what’s beneath. But she doesn’t. Not yet.

Mae decides to trace her sister’s last steps in the hopes of finding answers, certain that Inez’s disappearance is related to the painting. And she knows she is desperate enough to let the strange boy who claims to have been Inez’s neighbor tag along. Even if his good looks don't help distract from his avoidance of her questions. So begins a scavenger hunt piecing together what they can find from what Inez left behind. One that leads to centuries-old questions best left unasked and secrets best kept in the dark.

From the author of A Guide to the Dark comes another tender horror story about the lengths we are willing to go for the truth and the ones we love.]]> 251 Meriam Metoui 1250863287 Nyssa 3 3.29 2024
author: Meriam Metoui
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/06
date added: 2026/05/06
shelves:
review:
this was a decent read & I had high hopes for the premise but I felt as though it was lacking a lot of elements. unfortunately, it just felt kind of unfinished & underdeveloped, and the plot fell flat for me :( not a bad book by any means but was hoping to enjoy it more.
]]> 56179356
Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.]]> 119 Alix E. Harrow 1250765358 Nyssa 0 to-read, fantasy 3.55 2021
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/05
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> 17571466 –Carl Jung

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip – a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. The boys are a tight-knit crew. There’s Kent, one of the most popular kids in school; Ephraim and Max, also well-liked and easygoing; then there’s Newt the nerd and Shelley the odd duck. For the most part, they all get along and are happy to be there – which makes Scoutmaster Tim’s job a little easier. But for some reason, he can’t shake the feeling that something strange is in the air this year. Something wicked . . .

It comes to them in the night. An unexpected intruder, stumbling upon their campsite like a wild animal. He is shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry – a man in unspeakable torment who exposes Tim and the boys to something far more frightening than any ghost story. Within his body is a bioengineered nightmare, a horror that spreads faster than fear. One by one, the boys will do things no person could ever imagine.

And so it begins. An agonizing weekend in the wilderness. A harrowing struggle for survival. No possible escape from the elements, the infected . . . or one another.

Part Lord of the Flies, part 28 Days Later – and all-consuming – this tightly written, edge-of-your-seat thriller takes you deep into the heart of darkness, where fear feeds on sanity . . . and terror hungers for more.]]> 358 Nick Cutter 1476717710 Nyssa 0 3.82 2014
author: Nick Cutter
name: Nyssa
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/05
shelves: to-read, summerween-tbr, thriller-horror-tbr
review:

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