Bookwild - Our Next 3 TBR Picks with Gare Billings and Steph Lauer

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

This week, Gare, Steph and I talk about the next 3 books on our TBRs!Books We Talked AboutTemperRabbitsVantage PointThe Dark Hours A Long Time GoneA Killer’s MindThe ReformatoryWhere Are the Children?The Last Caretaker Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

I am back with Gare and Steph, and we have all been updating each other about everything. So we have broken all of the ice. And now we're trying to shift into podcast mode. So, yeah, we've just been yapping. But hello again, Garrett and Steph. Well, hello. Hello. Hello, hello.

Steph has new hair. I'm here for it. I love it. I do. Thank you. It was time. You know, like Rafiki and the Lions King. He's like, it is time.

It is time. That's how I feel. Like, it was too dry. Yeah. Did you just cut or did you die? I cut. And then the back is dark. Like, it's still light in the front, but the back is darker.

I can truly be the brunette that I'm on my driver's license again. Oh. A little extra fact. Back to my roots. I know. I feel like I'm back to my almost natural color. That must be crazy because you have like really light eyes. Yeah.

But they really pop. when you're like grunette. Yeah, I mean, natural color. Do you know how it's like, people like, no, it probably isn't. But it's kind of like this like mousy, really cool brown. So I like having some kind of like warmth in it. And then with like my gray coming in, I did really like light blonde, which I like, but it dries it out so much.

Yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, thanks. It's going to getting used to it. I like. I told AJ it was like, I'm changing it. I'm all about changed in 2025. You know what?

Cut off the dead weight. That's what we're doing. Get rid of 200 pounds of stress. Yeah. I mean, that's a major improvement. All the, all the split ends. Trash. All the split ends and the trash.

The trash. There's so much trash. We have to have some positive changes in 2025, you guys. I know. Something has to start working, right? Right? Yeah. Yeah.

We'll see. I knew 2025 was going to be trashed because of how mine started off. I'm just going to tell you now. How many weeks has it been? Three? Three. Three. I literally feel like it's like 2028 at this point.

I'm just like, oh, my God, it's not a lot. Yeah, it has been long. I started it off sick. And I'm like, can we not have that set the tone for the year? Good start. Yeah, start. But we were talking about T-Based. And what we're trying to fit in now at the beginning of the year.

So I think we're just going to talk about three of our TBR picks. Yeah. Yeah. I will say my reading of January has been, January typically has been a pretty good month for me, ratings-wise. And it has continued in 2025. So I don't know if you two feel that way. But that is a highlight. Kate.

Sorry. Oh, sorry, Kate. Not for me. Kate was like, maybe it's just me. I think it's just me. No, it's you and year. The tricky thing is I read January books in December that I really loved. So there is that. Oh, the releases. I loved the favorites.

I loved. There are ones I read, but the ones I've chosen, oh, I have let myself down this. month. We've still got, we've still got a 10 days-ish. Yeah. Well, actually, I can turn this positive because I think the next book that I'm going to start this evening, I feel like it's going to get me out of it. Is it your first book you're going to talk about? Yes. Kick us off, girl. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get to it. I will say, though, just as a quick little pause moment, your facial expression, when Steph said that was like the facial expression of Durinda saying not well bitch on like the real houseways in New York I'm Googling this way she's like what are these references what are these wrong people talking about I'll tell you how I'm doing

not well bitch did she kind of looks like I miss her like I know she's problematic but she's not as problematic as like Ramona no there's a lot of fan art of them moment. It is iconic. It's canon at this point. It is iconic. I'm going to I'm going to make sure I put that on the video. So if you're just listening, you can also go to YouTube if you want to see what we're talking about. Put the little picture of her in the corner of her. Yes. The novel. I love that. I love that. Okay. But I feel pretty confident this is going to get me out of it because I loved the favorites by Lane Fargo so much. I'm going to read Timper by Lane Fargo is my next. Let's go.

Foray. Dark as fuck. Oh my God. I'm so excited then. Okay. But it seems like it's dark in a fun way. And before we were recording, we discovered like I need something in a fun way because I was so depressed by my last book. But this one's going to be fun.

So Timper by Lane Fargo, after years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress, Kira Rasher finally lands the role of the lifetime. The catch, the Mercurial Malcolm Mercer, is the director, and he's known for pushing his performers past their limits. On stage and off. Kira's convinced she can handle Malcolm, but the theater's co-founder, Joanna Kyler, it's C-U-Y-L-E-R, that's why I can't tell, but I think Kyler is another story. Joanna sees Kira as a threat to her own thwarted artistic ambivalier.

ambitions, her twisted relationship with Malcolm, and the shocking secret she's keeping about the upcoming production. But as opening night draws near, Kira and Joanna both come to the realization that Malcolm's dangerous extremes are nothing compared to what they're capable of themselves. An edgy, addictive, and fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deceit, and power suited for fans of the film Black Swan, temper, temper revels, I swear I can read. I'm just having to discipline my dog at the same time. Revels in its mind games delivering twist after twist as it races towards a Shakespearean climax.

Okay, as you started reading, I was like, this sounds like Black Swan a little bit. Yeah, so I don't know that makes sense. I just feel like it. I had the same thing when I got to then. I was like, okay. Yep. Yeah. It feels like it when you're reading it.

It feels very like ominous. Yeah. Gosh. Black Swan has a. really memorable moments of like one of my scary thing for me is when you like look in the mirror and see something else yeah or like when she gets the little like goose bump things it's so creepy so that's kind of interesting black swan was exciting i feel like the further way we get from its release i'm actually kind of impressed that it came out when it did it was a little bit ahead of

it's time. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that cast was like... Fantastic. I'll never, like, I'll never forget, like, Winona Ryder just, like, popping up and, like, being like, this is how you fucking do it. Mm-hmm. Crushing her little small role. Yeah. So what are you guys going to read? Ooh. Here you go.

Okay. Um, well, I am going to not step out of my comment. number zone whatsoever. Why? I just got a book on NetGalley and I was like, you know, I just got my little macha Kindle to pop off 2025. She's a beauty. She's cute. I got a suction cup pop socket.

So I can like move it around. And then I got a TikTok ad for it after you told me. Of course. That's where I found. I was like, so now I'm ready to pop this little beast off. And I got a book on NetGalley call. The Dark Hours by Amy Jordan. And it is for fans of Tana French and Jane Harper, which I'm obsessed with.

So it is about Julia Hart has found the perfect place to disappear. Kwanthag. That is a weird name. I was like, I don't remember the reading this part. But anyway, she's on a secluded coastal village on the east coast of Ireland, home to less than 1,000 residents, a popular day trip for tourists. It has proven to be a scenic corner in which to erase a life. This corner of the world is so peaceful at times it feels uninhabited. That's why she chose to disappear here, but Julia knows anything is possible in the dark hours. 30 years ago, she helped bring down the most prolific serial killer Ireland has ever seen, and while that case spurred a successful career in bestselling book, it also is the reason she's in hiding now. all alone and haunted by the things that happened all those years ago. Without the husband she had depended on.

When a copycat killer strikes, Julia is called back to active duty, but this time she's not the young naive officer she was then. She knows killers like this one who hunt for sport and she's determined to put a stop to his plans or die trying. That sounds good. I kind of like such an asshole. I have no. That pronunciation, I looked at the name and I'm like, who I know how to say that? I was like, eh.

Juan. Well, and, like, go ahead. Sometimes when I get, like, the synopsis for a book or, like, what it's about, I see it on, like, Amazon or, like, the publisher sends it to me, and it's different than what's on good reads. So, like, I always do a screenshot of good reads whenever we record. And so, like, I didn't really read it because I was just like, oh, I know what this one's about, but, like, whatever.

And then, like, I started, I was like, Kuang bag. I was someone's name and I was like, oh boy. Like, what is this mean? I was just like, I was like, I bet it has, have you heard how strange Irish pronunciations are? I was just going to bring up, Sersha Ronan was like on a show and she like pronounced all these words and names and you're like different than what you would think. So this actually probably has the craziest pronunciation too. I'm going to look it up. It's probably like Walmart.

I know we like need we must know now Steph and I are in a type different dialects depending on where you are okay who one is the first Kuwan maybe Kuan Kuan is how other people say it Koon and Kuan is how another dialect says it What was the big Big big

Oh here we go I was like, uh, she's in Ireland. Bug. Bug. Koonbug. Bug.

Kwan bug? Boog is how some of them say it. Bogue and bug. So you could say it anyway and pretty much it might work out. Except for the way I said it when I was reading it. Yeah. Except for that way. Never mind.

Yeah, that is. sounds good sounds really good sounds like a gear book oh yeah just hit up one yuck oh my god

this is going to be like book wild canon well I was like I was like am I the only one that found that really funny I've realized that AJ was we were watching

modern family and he's like how come you laugh at always the exact opposite parts that I laugh I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I was like, well, I thought that was really funny. Sometimes I feel bad.

Like, if someone should be. Well, good luck following that up, Steph. Boring. Boring. Actually, I was going to look up how to pronounce something before I did this one. Now I need to for sure. Please embarrass yourself like I just said. Oh, shoot.

I know, I'm like, what's coming next for me? Actually, I think I would have had it right. Okay. So I've been trying to mood read. So I kind of manipulate this. But for one of my next book clubs, we are reading The Reformatory by Tananariv Do. And I've heard a lot of really good things about this one. When I first read it, had you guys ever read The Nickel Boy?

It came out maybe like five years ago. I keep hearing about it. I think it's a similar, like, setting. So, Graystown, Florida, June 1950. 12-year-old Robbie Stevens, Jr. is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call the reformer.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window into the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hints at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules of how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member in connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it. it's too late. The reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written by award winner Tananariv Do. And it's, I think, based on the dozer school for boys, which is like a real place.

And so this is, sometimes I struggle with horror as we've discussed, like, the abstract nature of it. But I think this one, the thing is like there's some ghosts, but they're more like characters than, like, super scary. I think the horrors are more like what people do in this book. Yeah. Like what was happening at the time. Yeah. Social horror. Yeah.

Which is. I can do that though. It's like the way to blood. It's hard in its own way. Yeah. It's like anything by Jacqueline Boblitz. Yeah. And ask for Andrea.

Mm-hmm. And even like the sundown motel. Yeah. No. They're like scary in real life. Yeah. So I've heard really, really, really good things about that. book and it's kind of a chunky one but I've heard it goes pretty quickly so I said and hearing about

it too I keep seeing it on TikTok it's the historical fiction part that will always be the hardest for me but then I bet once I'm in it I'm fine is kind of how I am starting to feel yeah yeah I think that it will be like one of those things where it's kind of like scary and probably really bleak but yeah I've heard it's really good nice so it might be a good one for gear I'm not sure yeah I was like oh really you had me at hello so earlier I don't think we were recording

we talked a lot before so it's hard for me to remember but gear brought up we used to live here you know my hyper fixation that still is not gone away and someone in the YouTube comments recommended this one as having some similar vibes. So this book, Rabbits by Terry Miles is my next one.

And it says it is a surreal and yet all too real techno thriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself. So it's a long synopsis. So buckle up. It's an average word. the name of the author? Sorry, what was the name of the author? Okay, it's an average day. It's an average work day. You've been wrapped up in a task and you check the clock when you come up for air 4.44 p.m. You go to check your email and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it's

April 4th, 4.4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,44, coincidence, or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole? Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast, it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, 10 iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward,

which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past, and the body count is rising. And now the 11th round is about to be in. Enter K, a rabbit's obsessive, who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. The path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpeo.

That is such a billionaire name. The alleged winner of the sixth iteration, Scarpeo says that something has gone wrong with the game, and that Kay needs to fix it before 11 starts, or the whole world will pay the price. Five days later, Scorpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and 11 begins.

And suddenly the fate of the entire universe is at stake. Damn. That cover is cool. That cover is very cool. That gave me the most anxiety. I think I would freak the fuck out. Oh, and also, This is our book club pick for,

uh, Mary. See you guys in March. So, um, Lauren, Justine and I will be reading this. I saw, um,

it just, I keep seeing like taro readers on TikTok. Mm-hmm. And they're like angel numbers. Like, watch out for like 11, 11 or 4,4 or like, whatever. So like, whenever I like see that, I'm like,

Okay, well, this doesn't apply to me because I like never pay attention to that. But like when you were, when you were reading that synopsis, I was like, oh my God, this is all I'm going to see now. And I like started to like swat and get nervous. That's crazy. All the fours. So it does sound right up your alley. It does sound like my alley. Have you guys ever watched that show?

So it's not very this. It's not that much the same. But it reminded me of the. Maybe it's a movie. It's a movie self-reliance with Jake Johnson and like Anna Kendrick. We did. We did watch it. I thought the ending was like a lot different, but I did like it. I honestly don't remember anything about it except for the fact that it was like a game. So when I thought about it, I was like, oh, and it was not what I expected at all. And I was like just immediately picturing like those characters.

Yeah. Actors and actresses. Anyway. Maybe I will. I've never seen this thing. I don't like it. It was kind of weird. The wind whispered it was so funny.

You're not the only one. I really don't like her. I don't have enough of an opinion, but I've been hearing how she's like demanding. I just don't think that, I feel like she plays the same character no matter what genre she does. it just pisses me off. Her personality seems kind of the same a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. Like I really want to watch that movie she's in about the woman from the 70s who like went on the- Oh, I think you'd like it. You'd like it. But I can't stand her the whole time. She's not in that much. He's not in as much you think she is. It's actually more about other characters.

It's way more like bright young women than you're thinking. That's what I needed to say. Like it is up your alley. You need to, I think you should watch it. Bite the bullet. Is it woman of the hour? Is that what it's called? Yes.

I think that's what it's called. Yeah. Yeah. I think that there's like multiple little storylines that kind of are equal. Like hers isn't. She's actually kind of the background. Oh, good. Actually should be.

Yes. But. Yeah. Oh my God. Gere, I think that you will. You will. The ending. The ending, I think.

think you will love you will love I hope like there's one there is one you yeah there is one character that I think you will just yeah I'm adding it to my list incredible and it's not that long it's only like an hour isn't it I think it's like an hour 20 or something yeah it was very short oh I'm into long movies now so I'm like totally okay with that new year new queer so tagline hashtag here I am

okay okay well another book I'm excited another book I'm excited I just love how you guys are like oh there's like a character who like you're going to love and I'm like she's probably the meanest fucking character in the movie

and the ending you're going to love and I'm like, this is probably the most depressing ending ever, so I'm super pumped now. But I'm like, these are the things that make life worth living. Well, speaking of bleak, I'm very excited for the new Ben Packard novel by Joshua Molling, a long time gone. Ben Packard was just a boy when his older brother disappeared. Ben watched him walk out the back door of his grandparents' house and into the cold night. His brother was never seen again. Decades later, Deputy Packard finds himself with too much time on his hands.

A shooting has him on leave and under investigation, and for the first time in years, new information about his brother has surfaced that may lead him to locate the body. The midwinter ground is frozen solid. Worse, Packard is cut off from the department resources. As he strikes out to finally uncover the truth behind his brother's disappearance, he stumbles on a a separate, suspicious death. A tenuous connection exists between the two cases, and as Packard starts to dig, he meets fierce resistance

from friends and foes alike who want him to stand down. I'm so excited for that. Joshua told me that there's an Easter egg in that book for me. Oh my gosh, dear. Because I'm like, I want to marry Ben Packard.

Like, I love him. And so maybe I'll be the book? No, I don't think so. I'm probably just going to be like the crazy ex-boyfriend or like one of the dead bodies will be like, oh, Gare. Ben Packard had sex with him once and it was the best sex he ever had. Just kidding. But if that's the Easter egg, I will gladly take it to the grave. I'm obsessed with that. I really hope that that's how it turned out. I do too. That would be amazing. What if there's like a dog named Gare or something? thing. I know, right. Oh, okay, that too. That too. Or there's like a mean, like, reporter who's like, your brother's death was fake. And it's like, oh, reporter gear with like the shalak hair. Oh, my God. That's hilarious. Oh, that's so funny. So my next one is actually a few months out,

but it's another book club pick. And I, we voted on three, between three books of all. kind of like old school female mystery authors. So it was a choice between a Agatha Christie book, the Sue Grafton book. She does all the alphabetical order books. And then the winner was, where are the children by Mary Higgins Clark? Have either of you read that before? Like I haven't read any of the like not current authors ever. So I'm interested to see like how it is. but Nancy Harmon long ago fled the heartbreak of her first marriage, the macabre deaths of her two little children and the shocking charges against her. She changed her name, dyed her hair, and left California for the wind-swept piece of Cape Cod.

Now remarried, she has two more beloved children and the terrible pain has begun to heal. Until the morning when she looks in the backyard for her little boy and girl and finds only one red mitten, she knows that the nightmare is beginning again. Wow. I was like, man, that kind of sounds like a synops. of a book today. Yeah. And it's 1975. Oh my god. So I'm kind of like

into, I don't know. I'm kind of interested to see like, is it hinting at time loops? Right? I don't know. Or like someone's like maybe a repeat Oh, it's beginning. She's a repeat target. It didn't mean restarting. Okay, never mind. I took something too.

Yeah. Oh, I see what you're saying. I just, I'm not sure. But I'm just like interested. Mary Higgins Clark was doing time travel. I was like, I was shocked by the last sentence. I was like, this is like wrong place, wrong time, but like forever ago. Might have. I honestly think. I think I just wanted it to be that.

Yeah. I saw some reviews that are like big triggers in this one. Whoa. There are a lot of them are five stars. We love that. Mm-hmm. There was, um, I think it was Samantha Downing had recommended, like, some sort of Christmasy Mary Higgins-Clark book.

Oh, really? I think she has, like, a bazillion books. She has, like, a ton, and I can't find out which one it was. But I remember reading it, and it was, like, about, like, a woman being stalked around Christmas time, and I, like, loved it. Oh, really? Yeah. So, hopefully it hits the spot for you. Yeah.

I tried looking up just, like, because we were. I was trying to pick just like the most popular one by each of those authors just to introduce people to them. And she, Marin Higgins Clark had like quite a few really popular ones. It's called The Stranger is Watching. Ooh, scary. And I was like, oh. Now it's one called, you are making me realize like that's at least a 2025 goal. I want to read something that's like, backlist, backlist.

back. I know it's fine. Like something 30 plus, right? That's like 95. That's depressing me. Yeah, 90s aren't supposed to be yet long ago. I guess is what I'll say. Kay, I think you should try some Dean Coons. Okay.

Really? Was that kind of sci-fi-ish or horror-ish? Yeah, he's like sci-fi, like horror-y. I like this. I mean, you know, I was going to do it for the women, but you got me with the sci-fi. I know if it makes you feel any better, if it makes you feel any better, I know a lot of women who love Dean Coons. There we go.

I thought you were going to tell me he was gay. Maybe, I don't know. I thought you're going to be like, if it makes you feel any better, he's not a straight man. Watch him say something super problematic in like a week for that. I'll be like, oh, fuck. You're like, can, cut it out. He looks like the grandpa on Modern Family, who I know is a famous actor, but I can't really remember.

There's, um, what is his name? Hmm. What is the hideaway? Hideaway. I think is the one I read by Dean Coots, and it was pretty good, but I was like lost on a lot of it because it was sci-fi. But I was like, damn, this is fucking crazy. That's just kind of what I'm looking for.

there's a lot of one name I just need my brain engaged and sometimes that just like makes it it's like this like so much more guy this like guy gets in like a car accident and like he dies but like the when he goes to the hospital

they like bring him back and then he starts getting these like really weird visions from like a serial killer and like he starts seeing like his daughter through the eyes of the serial killer so he's like trying to find this guy so the serial killers go off his daughter it was pretty good. I think it's like a movie too.

I'm getting a deja vu because I think my dad was telling me about this book. Gary, you know, or some of a very similar pod. It has to want to read. It has to be told me. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you talked about it because I'm like, God, I feel like I've heard this before. Wow. That is creepy. I remember Jeff Goldblum is in the movie and like Alicia Silverstone is his daughter.

Oh my gosh. It came out in 92, like literally my birth year. It was probably the pub date was like when you were born. Yeah. And it was just like, here's this little angel who's going to read this book. So you said you did finish it or you didn't finish it? I did finish it. But like because I'm not a sci-fi person, a lot of it was lost on me. But because you are a sci-fi person and like diving into horror a little bit more,

I think it would be good for you. Oh my gosh. I think that's a really interesting premise to have visions. Sometimes with year or quarter or something. My next one is I'm trying to remember who's really good review I saw of this that made me like, oh, I really want to read it. Vantage Point by Sarah Slygar. I think that's how you pronounce that name. The old money, Wylan family has it all.

Wealth, status, power. They're also famously cursed. Clara and her brother, Teddy, grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents' tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. 14 years later, they've mostly put their turbulent pass to rest. Teddy has married Clara's best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling remote family mansion known as vantage point. Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate, an unnerving prospect made much worse

when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part is that she doesn't remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Are they deep fakes? is someone trying to take down the wildens once and for all. Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grip on reality, but she knows the videos are only the beginning. Years ago, the curse destroyed her parents. Now it's coming for her.

Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point reveals a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition. There raises questions about the blurred lines between public and private personas and the nature of truth in the digital age. What a final sentence thing. It also says it's Succession meets Megan Abbott. If that matters to anyone.

I think Halley put this on your radar. Yeah, Halley mentioned it. And then I saw, I had kind of forgotten about it because I just got denied on that galley. And then it just came out. And then someone else posted about it this week. And I was like, oh, that's out now. So yes, Hallie was the first one to us. ever talk about it.

I want to read this too because I think... I bought it because it was like double Kindle Points Day, the day that I saw the person's review. I wanted to read this one because it does sound really good, but also Jessica Knoa blurb that. Yes. Oh. I saw that too.

Yeah, it just came out on January 14th. So yeah, that's why I think I saw it again. I was like, ooh, I can read it now. Dude, deep fake videos are so pretty freaky. Like, I hate... I hate technology sometimes. Yeah, that scares the shit out of me. Yeah.

And there's like really smart people that have, that do not use it for good at all. And it frustrates me so much. There's somebody on Twitter who just, um, makes like deep fake AI videos of, um, celebrities eating bowls of pasta. But they're like so real that I'm like that, like, the fact that you can do that, like you could do so much worse. Mm-hmm. you know what I mean?

Hopefully you don't, but that's scary. Yeah, hopefully you don't. One girl I follow said that she wasn't sure about this one because she thought that it was a tech thriller. Like, she wasn't sure if she would like a tech thriller, but she really enjoyed it. And she thought the family drama was really good. Yeah, I really want to read this one. Nice. I want to read a...

Yeah. That cover is like really... I love the cover. some people hate it which i get it's a very different cover i wanted to be actually reflective i know like the physical copy that would be so cool i wonder if it is i hope so i'm gonna see if they have it it calls it a gothic suspense which like they are going away to like a family home yeah or a mansion they don't have it at the bookstore near me oh that's annoying did it just come out January 14th so yeah like a week ago nice nice annoying well I'll get it on my macha Kindle

nice um well the other night I was scrolling on TikTok the minute it came back and I was like kind of like the mood that you were in like today that we were discussing earlier um I wanted something that was like really fast-paced that would like grip me and like keep me on my toes. And thankfully to Haley, her handle is, that's what Haley read on TikTok. She introduced me to a trilogy by Mike Omer. And this book is called A Killer's Mind, and I, like, need to read it ASAP. Three Chicago women have been found strangled, embalmed, and posed as if they were still alive. doubting the findings of the local PDs profiler, the FBI calls on forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley to investigate. Zoe quickly gets off on the wrong foot with her new partner, Special Agent Tatum Gray.

Zoe's a hunter, intense, and focused. Tatum's a smug maverick with little respect for the rules. Together they must descend into a serial killer's psyche and entangle his twisted fantasies or more women will die. When the contents of three inconspicuous envelopes reveal a, a chilling connection to the gruesome murders from Zoe's childhood. Suddenly, the hunter becomes the hunted. That's a really cool cover, too.

In concepts. 60,000 reviews and a 4.2. Wow. Yeah. That's hard to do. Yeah. And it's a trilogy. Wow.

And one of my 2025 goals was to read a few series. Oh, nice. So I'm going to read this one. I'm going to do Lisa Gray. And then there's one other. I haven't mentioned yet, but I think that it has some supernatural elements, so I'm a little nervy. Let's go. So I'll mention it some other time.

We'll see how it goes first. Yeah. Talk about it another day. But yeah, this sounds good. So I'm kind of pumped for it. And I think it's on Kindle Unlimited. Ooh, even better. Oh, thank you for that segue, actually.

So I will be traveling, so I only am going to bring my Kindle. So I was looking, I was like, I'm going to pick a book that I have on my shelf that's also on Kindle Unlimited. And I heard some really good things about this book called The Last Caretaker by Jessica Strauser. It says it's either the perfect place to start. or the perfect place to hide. Katie's divorce was, in a word, humiliating. So when her friend Bess offers a fresh start, a resident caretaking job at a nature preserve, Katie accepts.

No matter that she's not exactly a nature person, how hard can it be? But from day one, something feels off. Katie's new farmhouse looks as if the last caretaker barely moved out at all. When a frantic, terrified woman arrives late at night, expecting a safe place to hide, it's clear caretaking involves way more than Katie bargained. for suddenly katie is no longer sure who she can trust the brooding groundskeeper the daily

regulars hikers dog walkers bird watchers photographers even best as katy digs deeper for clues in the last caretake that the last caretaker left behind she must discover courage she never knew she had and decide how much she'll risk to do the right thing i can't believe i'm not heard of this Yeah, I saw some, a few people that I know that I follow that have read it really liked it. I'm trying to figure out like what the mystery even is. Yeah. Yeah. I think I always assume they're not mysteries.

I agree. I wasn't sure. It almost made me seem like historical fiction and maybe a very character driven. Oh, you read it? I've read other books by her. Oh, okay. it's very light on like the suspense thriller mystery aspect but it's very character driven like I read one called I think it's called like forget you know me or something to that effect

and it's like two friends are video chatting and one of them gets kidnapped in front of the other one or like taken and yeah they're very like they're very like character driven books but like her writing's exceptional yeah it's just like when you're in the mood for something that's not super fast-paced. Like twisty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

There's someone that's in one of my book clubs that, like, isn't always into thrillers, but she, like, love, love, loved this one. And so, like, that kind of makes sense that that would be a description for it, potentially. So, yeah. I would see. Let me see here. I almost wonder if it's, I mean, I hope this isn't a spoiler because it's literally

just a guess. It seems like is this it almost seems like a refuge where like maybe women that are like need to get away might go. Yeah. I could see that. And that might be dangerous. I don't know. Did you read? Because she said it's super dark.

She said it's really dark and like. Oh, wow. I think there might be like some trigger warnings. So I'm wondering if it's like like domestic issues. Very well could be. Mm-hmm. Did you? What the hell was the name?

The man in the attic. Someone in the attic. Did you read that? Andrea Mara. Yeah. I did not. Have you? I did.

That's what I would compare Jessica Strausser to. Oh. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I've heard that. I've heard of her books and a lot of people liking Andrea Mara, but I have not read anything by her yet.

Yeah. Interesting. So I'm kind of going to see that and my neck galley shelf. I think I'm going to start reading. reading on Kindle. Fewer and fewer of my TBR are on Kindle Unlimited, which is a little, I wish there were more on there of the books I already have. Yeah. Because I do love a, I do love my Kindle.

I'm so excited to read on my new one. Yeah. I just am like, I love having my books be pristine. So if I have a paper act copy, like I always will prefer. the Kindle. Oh, yeah. I don't want to bend my books. Yeah.

I love when my books are like, beat the shit out of them when I'm done. Do you? I like, that's awesome. Yeah. I can see that once it happens. I think for me it's that like initial corner bend. Yeah.

Yeah. Like my spine here of like a little life is like pretty bad to shit. But that was. a lot of like throwing and there's like tears stuck to the cover and I have heard so like full on sob yeah I think that and that rabbit hole and how we name the stars were probably like my ugliest cries while reading but this was like the ugliest cry I've ever had reading