“Think before you speak. Read before you think."

The Last Place You Look - Nikki Smith

Nikki Smith’s The Last Place You Look delivers that delightful blend of suspense and emotional warmth that keeps you turning pages long after you promised yourself “just one more chapter.” Even though the story deals with secrets, tangled relationships, and the shadows of the past, Smith’s writing has an ease and clarity that makes the whole experience feel surprisingly light on its feet.

The characters are drawn with a relatable messiness that feels human rather than heavy, and watching their lives intersect is a bit like peeking into a very twisty soap opera—only smarter and far more addictive. Smith sprinkles in just enough tension to keep you guessing, but she never forgets to give the reader moments of levity, empathy, and genuine heart.

The pacing zips along, the reveals land with satisfying little jolts, and the emotional beats feel earned without ever weighing the story down. It’s the kind of thriller you can devour in a weekend and then immediately recommend to a friend with a cheerful “You’ll fly through this!”

If you’re in the mood for a suspense novel that’s gripping without being grim, The Last Place You Look is a wonderfully entertaining choice. I raced through this. Sometimes you come across a book that grabs you, holds tight and doesn’t release you until it’s done!

Piscium - Peter Wedderburn

Piscium is one of those rare novels that feels both intimate and expansive, a story that begins quietly but deepens with every chapter. It’s a book that rewards attention — not because it’s difficult, but because it’s deliberate. Wedderburn writes with the confidence of an author who trusts his readers to follow subtle currents rather than crashing waves. Excuse the pun.

Based around a GMO programme gone wrong, set up by a rich fishing enthusiast, for bragging rights and profit, starting in Yorkshire and ending, well, who can really say. Interleaving various layers of culture, politics, socioeconomic panic and the impact of managing pubic outcry. Genetic engineering has insurmountable uses  and could create amazing opportunities, it is also unbelievably profitable, clever, and like AI, dangerous in the wrong hands. When things go wrong, especially when altering nature, you can set in motion a chain of events that far surpass what is thought to be a simple change in one organism.

Where Piscium truly shines is in its atmosphere. Peter has a gift for crafting scenes that feel quietly immersive: the hush of a shoreline at dusk, the claustrophobia of a room filled with unspoken tension, the strange calm that comes with scary knowledge. These moments give the novel a cinematic stillness, as if each chapter is a frame in a larger, slow‑moving film. Piscium is a quietly powerful read, reflective, atmospheric, and rich with symbolic depth. Peter has crafted a novel that doesn’t shout to be heard but resonates long after the final page. It’s the sort of book that stays with you not just because of what happens, but because of how it makes you think and feel.

 

Trad Wife - Saratoga Schaefer

A sharp, unsettling horror novel for the age of curated domesticity. Trad Wife is a razor‑edged, deeply contemporary horror story that burrows under the skin precisely because it understands the anxieties of our hyper‑performative era.

Drawing on the glossy, hyper‑feminine world of “traditional wife” influencers, a narrative that is equal parts psychological unravelling, social commentary, and supernatural dread. At the center is Camille Deming, a woman who has built her identity and her online following around the aesthetics of perfect domesticity: homesteading, cooking, cleaning, and presenting a serene, submissive femininity. But Camille’s carefully curated persona has a gaping hole: she has no baby. And in the tradwife ecosystem, motherhood isn’t just a milestone; it’s the ultimate credential.

As her husband grows distant and her online relevance feels increasingly fragile, Camille’s desperation becomes the engine of the novel. When she discovers a mysterious well near her new farmhouse, the story pivots from social satire into something far darker. Her wish for a child triggers a series of visions, visitations, and bodily changes that blur the line between divine intervention and demonic manipulation. Schaefer leans into body horror, rapid pregnancy, raw cravings, unnatural swelling, but always ties it back to Camille’s psychological state and the pressures of her self‑constructed identity.

Trad Wife is a timely, incisive horror novel that uses the supernatural to illuminate something very real: the danger of losing oneself to an identity built for public consumption. Trad Wife is a metaphorical sink into despair and salvation, it is visceral, clever, and uncomfortably relevant. It’s a book that lingers, not because of its monsters, but because of the mirror it holds up to societal ‘norms’.

 

The Messy Years - Alexandra Slater

The Messy Years is like opening a time capsule of adulthood where the contents are equal parts wine-stained journals, unanswered texts, and the faint smell of takeout containers. It’s nostalgic in the best way—reminding us of the chaos of our twenties and thirties—yet funny enough to make you laugh at the very disasters you once cried over.

The novel follows Maeve, Hadley, and Lizzie, three inseparable college friends now navigating the unpredictable terrain of adulthood on Boston’s South Shore.Reading their story feels like flipping through your own scrapbook of questionable decisions: the job you thought would define you, the relationship you swore was “the one,” and forever finding new ways to not get out of your own way.

It is a bittersweet reminder that the family we choose—our friends—often carry us through the chaos.

 

Time for books…