Current Read: Hide

Hide

Author: Kiersten White

Publication Date: May 24, 2022

Publisher: Del Rey

Isabella recently got her greedy little paws on the upcoming Hide by Kiersten White, so she and I will be starting it this weekend. It’s a supernatural thriller about a hide-and-seek competition that takes place in an abandoned amusement park… yes, please!

From the publisher:

A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White. 

The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught. 

The prize: enough money to change everything. 

Even though everyone is desperate to win—to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past—Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that. 

It’s the reason she’s alive and her family isn’t. 

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive. 

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run. 

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Hide here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: True Crime Story

True Crime Story

Author: Joseph Knox

Publication Date: December 7, 2021

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox is an intriguing and unique novel. Written in ‘documentary’ style, the author includes himself as both narrator and character in his own book. This creates a highly immersive experience, which I found to be extremely effective. At times it’s difficult to remember this is a fictional account. I’ve not read anything quite like it and if you’re a true crime enthusiast or a fan of suspense thrillers like I am, this is a book I highly recommend. 

From the publisher:

What happens to all the girls who go missing?

The thrilling story of a university student's sudden disappearance, the woman who became obsessed with her case, and the crime writer who uncovered the chilling truth about what happened...

In 2011, Zoe Nolan walked out of her dormitory in Manchester and was never seen or heard from again. Her case went cold. Her story was sad, certainly, but hardly sensational, crime writer Joseph Knox thought. He wouldn't have given her any more thought were it not for his friend, Evelyn Mitchell. Another writer struggling to come up with a new idea, Evelyn was wondering just what happens to all the girls who go missing. What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?

Evelyn began investigating herself, interviewing Zoe's family and friends, and emailing Joseph with chapters of the book she was writing with her findings. Uneasy with the corkscrew twists and turns, Joseph Knox embedded himself in the case, ultimately discovering a truth more tragic and shocking than he could have possibly imagined...

Just remember: Everything you read is fiction.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on True Crime Story here.

Current Read: A History of Wild Places

 

A History of Wild Places

Author: Shea Ernshaw

Publication Date: December 7, 2021

Publisher: Atria Books

From the publisher:

Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it…he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease—rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on A History of Wild Places here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Nanny Dearest

Nanny Dearest

Author: Flora Collins

Publication Date: November 30, 2021

Publisher: Mira

Shortly after her father passes away, Sue Keller unexpectedly runs into Annie. Annie remembers Sue quite well from her days as her childhood nanny. Sue’s initial reaction toward her former nanny is ambiguous, but her feelings slowly evolve into something different. Is it Annie herself or is it what she represents that brings up such deep emotions within her?

Annie is ultimately a mysterious and shadowy figure. As the novel progresses and more about the past is revealed, there are startling surprises - some not so pleasant, but debut author Flora Collins manages to convey them in a way that serves the purpose of the story. 

From the first page I experienced an immediate sense of apprehension, and this inexplicable eeriness continues throughout the book. With themes of alienation, obsession, memory and betrayal, Nanny Dearest is a riveting read - disturbingly dark and twisted.

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for the advanced copy provided for review.

From the publisher:

In this compulsively readable novel of domestic suspense, a young woman takes comfort in reconnecting with her childhood nanny, until she starts to uncover secrets the nanny has been holding for twenty years. 

Sue Keller is lost. When her father dies suddenly, she's orphaned in her mid-twenties, her mother already long gone. Then Sue meets Annie. It’s been twenty years, but Annie could never forget that face. She was Sue’s live-in nanny at their big house upstate, and she loved Sue like she was her own. 

Craving connection and mothering, Sue is only too eager to welcome Annie back into her life; but as they become inseparable once again, Sue starts to uncover the truth about Annie's unsettling time in the Keller house all those years ago, particularly the manner of her departure—or dismissal. At the same time, she begins to grow increasingly alarmed for the safety of the two new charges currently in Annie's care. 

Told in alternating points of views—Annie in the mid-'90s and Sue in the present day—this taut novel of suspense will keep readers turning the pages right up to the shocking end.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Nanny Dearest here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: You'll Be the Death of Me

 

You'll Be the Death of Me

Author: Karen M. McManus

Publication Date: November 30, 2021

Publisher: Delacorte Press

A day off turns deadly for three old friends, in the exciting new thriller by One of Us is Lying author Karen M. McManus! 

Told from the multiple viewpoints of the three leads, the story is fast-paced and exciting. The suspense of what was going to happen next kept me glued to my chair! I loved the interaction between the main characters and how it contributed toward their development. I’ve immensely enjoyed all of Karen’s books and You'll Be the Death of Me is a solid YA mystery that does not disappoint. 

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Penguin Teen Canada for the advanced copy provided for review.

From the publisher:

From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new pulse-pounding thriller. It's Ferris Bueller's Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly—and fatally—wrong. 

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out from working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again.  
  
So when the three unexpectedly run into each other, they decide to avoid their problems by ditching. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say. . .  
  
. . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school—and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse. It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common...like a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.  
  
Could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?  

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on You'll Be the Death of Me here.

Book Birthday: The Witching Tree by Alice Blanchard

The Witching Tree 

A Natalie Lockhart Novel (Natalie Lockhart, 3)

Author: Alice Blanchard

Publication Date: December 7, 2021

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Happy Book Birthday to The Witching Tree and author Alice Blanchard!

This is the third title in the thrilling Natalie Lockhart series. If you’ve not read them yet, now is the perfect time to get started!

From the publisher:

Welcome to Burning Lake, a small, isolated town with a dark history of witches and false accusations. Now, a modern-day witch has been murdered, and Detective Natalie Lockhart is reluctantly drawn deep into the case, in this atmospheric mystery from Alice Blanchard, The Witching Tree.

As legend has it, if you carve your deepest desire into the bark of a Witch Tree, then over time as the tree grows, it will swallow the carvings until only a witch can read them.

Until now.

Detective Natalie Lockhart gained unwanted notoriety when she and her family became front and center of not one, but two sensational murder cases. Now she’s lost her way. Burned out and always looking over her shoulder, Natalie desperately thinks that quitting the police force is her only option left.

All that changes when a beloved resident―a practicing Wiccan and founder of the town’s oldest coven―is killed in a fashion more twisted and shocking than Natalie has ever seen before, leaving the town reeling. Natalie has no choice but to help solve the case along with Detective Luke Pittman, her boss and the old childhood friend she cannot admit she loves, even to herself. There is a silent, malignant presence in Burning Lake that will not rest. And what happens next will shock the whole town, and Natalie, to the core.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Dark and Shallow Lies

 

Dark and Shallow Lies

Author: Ginny Myers Sain

Publication Date: September 7, 2021

Publisher: Razorbill

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain is such an impressive debut! I love everything about this book. It’s gorgeously atmospheric, with a lush setting, eerie story, and mesmerizing characters. Haunting and lyrical, this is the perfect Autumn read to kick off the Halloween season!

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Penguin Teen Canada for the advanced copy provided for review.

From the publisher:

A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.

 

This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World—and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey's best friend, disappeared six months earlier.

 

Grey can't believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something—her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.

 

When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou—a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town's bloody history—Grey realizes that La Cachette's past is far more present and dangerous than she'd ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn't know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent—and La Cachette's dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Dark and Shallow Lies here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: The Final Girl Support Group

 

The Final Girl Support Group

Author: Grady Hendrix

Publication Date: July 13, 2021

Publisher: Berkley

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is a unique take on the horror genre and so incredibly exciting and fun! I loved the characters and the story. If you’re a fan of slasher films you’ll especially enjoy this title. I’m looking forward to read more books by Mr. Hendrix!

From the publisher:

In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after? 

Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. 

Lynette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. 

  

But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Final Girl Support Group here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Falling

 

Falling

Author: T. J. Newman

Publication Date: July 6, 2021

Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster

Captain Bill Hoffman’s family has been kidnapped and he’s been given an agonizing choice. He must crash the plane he’s flying, killing all 149 souls on board or his wife and children will die. This an excruciating decision he refuses to make! What follows is nonstop action from start to finish. 

Complete with an ensemble cast of multi-dimensional characters, author T.J. Newman creates an authenticity based on her background in the airline industry. Falling is an immensely enjoyable read, which begs the question, what would YOU do in such a nightmarish scenario? 

From the publisher:

“Stunning and relentless. This is Jaws at 35,000 feet.” —Don Winslow

“Falling is the best kind of thriller…Nonstop, totally authentic suspense.” —James Patterson

“Amazing...Intense suspense, shocks and scares...Chilling.” —Lee Child

“The perfect summer thriller. Relentlessly paced and unforgettable.” —Janet Evanovich

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Falling here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Hairpin Bridge

 

Hairpin Bridge

Author: Taylor Adams

Publication Date: June 15, 2021

Publisher: William Morrow

Hairpin Bridge is the first book I’ve read by Taylor Adams and I’m so glad I picked it up. This was a manic, wild thrill ride with plot twists I never saw coming! The action never lets up and it was so much fun. Recommended if you like your suspense dark and crazy!

From the publisher:

Three months ago, Lena Nguyen’s estranged twin sister, Cambry, drove to a remote bridge seventy miles outside of Missoula, Montana, and jumped two hundred feet to her death. At least, that is the official police version.

But Lena isn’t buying it.

Now she’s come to that very bridge, driving her dead twin’s car and armed with a cassette recorder, determined to find out what really happened by interviewing the highway patrolman who allegedly discovered her sister’s body.

Corporal Raymond Raycevic has agreed to meet Lena at the scene. He is sympathetic, forthright, and professional. But his story still seems a bit off. For one thing, he stopped Cambry for speeding just an hour before she supposedly leaped to her death. Then there are the sixteen attempted 911 calls from her cell phone, made in what was unfortunately a dead zone.

But perhaps most troubling of all, the state trooper is referred to by name in Cambry’s final enigmatic text to her sister: Please Forgive Me. Lena will do anything to uncover the truth. But as her twin’s final hours come into focus, Lena’s search turns into a harrowing tooth-and-nail fight for her own survival—one that will test everything she thought she knew about her sister and herself...

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Hairpin Bridge here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: The One

 

The One

Author: John Marrs

Publication Date: February 20, 2018

Publisher: Hanover Square Press

A remarkable gene is discovered that can pair you with your soulmate and all that is needed is a simple DNA test. 

I recently watched the new Netflix series based on The One by John Marrs and it was fantastic! I was so impressed that I decided to do something I rarely do, which is read the book after watching the adaptation. 

The novel and the series are extremely different - the premise is pretty much all that is the same, but I was absolutely riveted nonetheless! I’m now on a mission to read the author’s subsequent thrillers The Passengers and The Minders! 

Do you prefer to read a book after watching an adaptation of it or before? 

From the publisher:

How far would you go to find The One?

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner—the one you’re genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…

A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The One here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Too Good to Be True

Too Good to Be True

Author: Carola Lovering

Publication Date: March 2, 2021

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Skye Starling, a wealthy young woman with debilitating OCD, is about to marry her dream man, except what she doesn’t know is he’s already married! When the truth is revealed, her world falls apart, but even more startling revelations are to come in this rollercoaster ride of suspense by author Carola Lovering.

Too Good to Be True is told from the alternating viewpoints of Skye, her fiancé Burke and his wife Heather. I’m not generally fond of the multiple narrator technique, but in this case the individual voices are distinct and contribute greatly to the effectiveness of the storytelling.

Character-driven rather than action packed, Lovering creates an in-depth study of the characters, providing an ample amount of backstory to support their motivations. The book contains lots of twists and turns. It takes a lot to surprise me but this unique thriller did just that! The story is well-written and precise and I was anxiously turning the pages until it reached its more than satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended.

From the publisher:

ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH. 

Too Good to Be True is an obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Upstairs, from Carola Lovering, the beloved author of Tell Me Lies.

Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips―she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family―she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.

But now Burke―handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before―says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.

In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past―or will he find his way into her future?

On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Too Good to Be True here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: If I Disappear

If I Disappear

Author: Eliza Jane Brazier

Publication Date: January 26,2021

Publisher: Berkley

When Sera Fleece’s favourite true crime podcaster Rachel Bard disappears, she fears her idol has been kidnapped or worse. She becomes convinced Rachel has left behind a series of clues for her to save her. Sera sets out on a road trip to Rachel’s hometown determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, but what she finds there is nothing like what she expects in this fascinating and compulsive thriller. 

If I Disappear is a novel to immerse yourself in completely. There is a constant feeling of dread and despair as Sera continues on her quest to find Rachel. None of the characters are entirely trustworthy, including the narrator, but you can’t help but give yourself up to her somewhat confusing and unsettling thoughts. Sera leads you down a path you’re not entirely sure you want to go down, but once you start there’s no way to stop! Recommended.

From the publisher:

When her favorite true crime podcast host goes missing, an adrift young woman sets out to investigate and plunges headfirst into the wild backcountry of Northern California and her own dangerous obsession. 

Sera loves true crime podcasts. They give her a sense of control in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She's sure they are preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it's time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts. 

Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel's small hometown to begin her search. She's convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won't be the last... 

Rachel did try to warn her.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on If I Disappear here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Shiver

Shiver

Author: Allie Reynolds

Publication Date: January 19, 2021

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Five former friends reunite for the first time in ten years for snowboarding and reconnecting at a secluded ski resort in the French Alps. All is not as it seems though, and as old secrets emerge, so does some sinister activity and an approaching snowstorm...

Shiver, the superb debut novel by Allie Reynolds is chillingly suspenseful! The isolated wintry setting is menacing with a sense of unease added for good measure. The characters are elusive and somewhat slippery, fitting perfectly into the ominous mystery. Reynolds writes with flair as she seamlessly alternates between the past and present. I’ve been anticipating reading this book for some time now and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this tense thriller! Highly recommended.

From the publisher:

In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm. 

When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition. 

Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead. 

Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear...

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Shiver here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: In the Garden of Spite

In the Garden of Spite

Author: Camilla Bruce

Publication Date: January 19, 2021

Publisher: Berkley

In the Garden of Spite is historical crime fiction based on the shocking real life murderer Belle Gunness. Enter if you dare! 

Told from the perspectives of serial killer Bella and her sister Nellie, the story is a descent into the mind of a terrifying psychopath. Bella thinks only of herself and displays a callous disregard for human life. She’s completely devoid of any compassion and yet I couldn’t stop reading to see what she could possibly do next. The book started a little slow, but before long so much was happening my head was spinning and I couldn’t put it down. 

Highly recommended.

From the publisher:

An audacious novel of feminine rage about one of the most prolific female serial killers in American history--and the men who drove her to it.

They whisper about her in Chicago. Men come to her with their hopes, their dreams--their fortunes. But no one sees them leave. No one sees them at all after they come to call on the Widow of La Porte.

The good people of Indiana may have their suspicions, but if those fools knew what she'd given up, what was taken from her, how she'd suffered, surely they'd understand. Belle Gunness learned a long time ago that a woman has to make her own way in this world. That's all it is. A bloody means to an end. A glorious enterprise meant to raise her from the bleak, colorless drudgery of her childhood to the life she deserves. After all, vermin always survive.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on In the Garden of Spite here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: The Woman Outside My Door

 

The Woman Outside My Door

Author: Rachel Ryan

Publication Date: November 24, 2020

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Georgina’s life unravels when her beloved mom is diagnosed with cancer and passes away. She becomes reasonably unsettled when her young son Cody insists he’s been interacting with an elderly woman who he claims wants to be his ‘New Granny’. However, there are no witnesses to these conversations or proof this woman even exists. 

One night Georgina becomes convinced someone is watching her and her husband Bren through their window. When she comes home to find her outdoor plants destroyed and the pots smashed, she begins to wonder if there may be some truth to her son’s sinister declaration that ‘New Granny’ is angry at her.

The Woman Outside My Door is a fast-paced suspense thriller and quick read with plenty of intrigue and nefarious activities! Alongside the mystery of Cody’s ‘friend’, who may or may not be imaginary, author Rachel Ryan manages to seamlessly add a potentially suspicious neighbour, infidelity and a secret from the past into the mix. Recommended.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for the copy provided for review.

From the publisher:

An unforgettable new voice in suspense fiction, Rachel Ryan weaves a thrilling page-turner about a young mother who can’t shake the feeling that her son’s “imaginary” friend is putting him in danger and who will stop at nothing to keep him safe—perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Mary Kubica.

How far would you go to protect your family?

All children have imaginary friends, Georgina tells herself. It’s perfectly normal, and they all grow out of it in the end. But when seven-year-old Cody tells his mother about “New Granny,” the new friend he’s met in the park, Georgina is instantly suspicious. Something—call it maternal instinct—tells her he isn’t making it up.

But maybe Georgina is losing her mind. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all. And with her own mother’s recent death leaving her bereft and trying to cope with life as a busy working mom, it’s no wonder she’s feeling paranoid that Cody has invented a “New Granny” to replace his beloved grandmother.

Her husband, Bren, becomes the voice of reason, assuring Georgina that it’s just a game, the product of their son’s overactive imagination. But what if Cody’s imaginary friend is not so imaginary after all?

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Woman Outside My Door here.