Great books I’m determined to dive into!
Welcome back!
How often do you look back, realize how many books you didn’t pick up the previous year, and find yourself hit with the unavoidable fact that you will never get to them all? You read one and watch it be replaced with ten others.
A perfect, never-ending story.
The books below are some of the more exciting-to-me reads that I was and am hoping to complete this year.
Fingers crossed!
Are any of them on your list?
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Any purchases made through my links may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you.)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it.
Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens.
The Destruction of Sevyn by Ember Michaels
She thought she got away with murder.
Now I’m back to remind her that no sin goes unpunished.
Seven years ago, Sevyn Langdon shattered my family.
She initiated a plan, drenched in lust and envy, which stole my sister’s life.
Her family’s wealth ensured her involvement vanished.
Her pride stroked my desire for revenge.
And my wrath will end them all.
Where the justice system failed, I will not.
I will never forget.
I will never forgive.
May God have mercy on their souls—because I won’t.
Seven years I waited and now the seven responsible will atone for their wrongdoings.
I won’t stop until they all pay–starting with the mastermind of it all.
And I won’t be satisfied until she’s destroyed.
Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
This is what they deserve.
They wanted me to be a monster.
I will be the worst monster they ever created.
Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will—she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods.
Under the Lucis’ brutal rule, her identity means her death if her powers are discovered. But when she is forcibly conscripted into the Lucis army on her fifteenth birthday, Sloane sees a new opportunity: to overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training, and destroy them from within.
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I’m long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel. After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of 28, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.
When Grace Bernard discovers her absentee millionaire father has rejected her dying mother’s pleas for help, she vows revenge and coldly sets out to get her retribution—by killing them all, one by one. Compulsively readable, Bella Mackie’s debut novel is driven by a captivating first-person narrator who talks of “self-care” and social media while calmly walking the reader through her increasingly baroque acts of murder. But then, Grace is imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit.
The Pain Colony by Shanon Hunt
A secret society of true believers will do whatever it takes to become Pure.
…unaware that they will soon be victims of the most chilling medical discovery in human history.
And this is only the beginning.
DEA Special Agent Peter Malloy is no stranger to the devastating impact of drugs. So when six bodies turn up with surgical ports implanted in their spines, he’s sure a potent new opioid is the culprit. But when lab tests show zero evidence of any known narcotics, he fears something far more sinister.
Allison Stevens thought she knew everything about her boss. But after he disappears, she’s stunned to discover his secret genetic research in pain tolerance. When she becomes the target of the FBI’s investigation, Allison has only one move. She must expose his illegal experiment. There’s just one problem. Some secrets will be protected at any cost.
Their search for answers leads them to a dark, eerie cult, where true believers seem perilously addicted to suffering, devoted to purification.
Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda
Astonishing X-Men and Black Widow writer MARJORIE LIU returns to comics with artist SANA TAKEDA (X-23) for an all-new ONGOING SERIES!
Steampunk meets Kaiju in this original fantasy epic for mature readers, as young Maika risks everything to control her psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, placing her in the center of a devastating war between human and otherworldly forces.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel from the author of the “innovative, unexpected, and absolutely chilling” (Mira Grant, Nebula Award–winning author) The Twisted Ones.
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become.
Dark Dead Stars by Cassie Sharp
“The living needed answers for the dead. Answers that skulked in dark places. Places that would break them to go. I wasn’t the breaking kind.”
It only takes a second to die.
Or to kill…
Alexa Storm, a self-diagnosed psychopath, is no stranger to murder. The Death Chaser , as critics like to call her, has spent her career following serial killers around the country, blogging about their victims.
Drawn to the choppy shores of the Pacific, Alexa discovers a community that harbors a dark secret… For the last year, someone has been killing homeless men in a brutal, ruthless fashion. And nobody is trying to stop it.
But Gray’s Harbor doesn’t like outsiders. Especially ones who ask questions.
With a rising body count, and her efforts to find answers thwarted at every turn, it’s not long before Alexa earns the attention of a vicious predator.
Will she uncover the truth in time to save herself from becoming the next victim?
Or will the pull for revenge turn her into the very type of monster she’s hunted her whole life?
Because under the right circumstances, anyone can become a killer.
The Night Will Find Us by Matthew Lyons
They say never go into the woods at night…
School’s out for summer and that means one thing to Parker, Chloe, and their four friends: a well-deserved camping trip in the Pine Barrens, a million-acre forest deep in the heart of New Jersey. But when old grudges erupt, an argument escalates into the unthinkable, leaving one of them dead and the killer missing. As darkness descends and those left alive try to determine a course of action, the forest around them begins to change…
In the morning, more of the group has vanished and the path that led them into the woods is gone—as if consumed by the forest itself. Lost and hungry, the remaining friends set out to find help, only to realize that the forest seems to have other plans—a darker, ancient horror lies dead and dreaming in a lake in the center of the woods. And it’s calling to them.
Meanwhile, deep in the trees, the killer is still at large, and one of the group’s own has started to transform and warp into something other. Something inhuman. Something that wants to feast.
Banding together to survive, the friends soon begin to understand the true nature of the horror waiting for them in the Pine Barrens—and that not all of them will make it out alive.
The Necromancer’s Daughter by D. Wallace Peach
A healer with the talent to unravel death. A stillborn child brought to life. A father lusting for vengeance. And a son torn between justice, faith, and love. Caught in a chase spanning kingdoms, each must decide the nature of good and evil, the lengths they will go to survive, and what they are willing to lose.
A healer and dabbler in the dark arts of life and death, Barus is as gnarled as an ancient tree. Forgotten in the chaos of the dying queen’s chamber, he spirits away her stillborn infant and in a hovel at the meadow’s edge, breathes life into the wisp of a child. He names her Aster for the lea’s white flowers. Raised as his daughter, she, too, learns to heal death.
Denied a living heir, the widowed king spies from a distance. But he heeds the claims of the fiery Vicar of the Red Order—in the eyes of the Blessed One, Aster is an abomination, and to embrace the evil of resurrection will doom his rule.
As the king’s life nears its end, he defies the vicar’s warning and summons the necromancer’s daughter. For his boldness, he falls to an assassin’s blade. Armed with righteousness and iron-clad conviction, the Order’s brothers ride into the leas to cleanse the land of evil.
To save her father’s life, Aster leads them beyond Verdane’s wall into the Forest of Silvern Cats, a wilderness of dragons and barbarian tribes. Unprepared for a world rife with danger and unchecked power, a world divided by those who practice magic and those who hunt them, she must choose whether to trust the one man offering her aid, the one man most likely to betray her—her enemy’s son.
These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall
Helen Vaughan doesn’t know why she and her mother left their ancestral home at Harrowstone Hall, called Harrow, or why they haven’t spoken to their extended family since. So when her grandfather dies, she’s shocked to learn that he has left everything—the house, the grounds, and the money—to her. The inheritance comes with one condition: she must stay on the grounds of Harrow for one full year, or she’ll be left with nothing.
There is more at stake than money. For as long as she can remember, Harrow has haunted Helen’s dreams—and now those dreams have become a waking nightmare. Helen knows that if she is going to survive the year, she needs to uncover the secrets of Harrow. Why is the house built like a labyrinth? What is digging the holes that appear in the woods each night?And why does the house itself seem to be making her sick?
With each twisted revelation, Helen questions what she knows about Harrow, her family, and even herself. She no longer wonders if she wants to leave…but if she can.
River of Ashes by Alexandrea Weis
SOME TRUTHS ARE BETTER KEPT SECRET. SOME SECRETS ARE BETTER OFF DEAD.
ALONG THE BANKS OF THE BOGUE FALAYA RIVER, sits the abandoned St. Francis Seminary. Beneath a canopy of oaks, blocked from prying eyes, the teens of St. Benedict High gather here on Fridays. The rest of the week belongs to school and family—but weekends belong to the river.
And the river belongs to Beau Devereaux.
The only child of a powerful family, Beau can do no wrong. Star quarterback. Handsome. Charming. The “prince” of St. Benedict is the ultimate catch.
He is also a psychopath.
A dirty family secret buried for years, Beau’s evil grows unchecked. In the shadows of the haunted abbey, he commits unspeakable acts on his victims and ensures their silence with threats and intimidation. Senior year, Beau sets his sights on his girlfriend’s headstrong twin sister, Leslie, who hates him. Everything he wants but cannot have, she will be his ultimate prize.
As the victim toll mounts, it becomes clear that someone must stop Beau Devereaux.
And that someone will pay with their life.
Voices in the Snow by Darcy Coates
Clare remembers the cold. She remembers abandoned cars and children’s toys littered across the road. She remembers dark shapes in the snow and a terror she can’t explain. And then… nothing. When she wakes, aching and afraid in a stranger’s gothic home, he tells her she was in an accident, a crash in the snow. He claims he saved her. Clare wants to leave, but a vicious snowstorm has blanketed the world in white, trapping them together, and there’s nothing she can do but wait.
At least the stranger seems kind… but Clare doesn’t know if she can trust him. He promised they were alone here, but she sees and hears things that convince her something else is creeping about the surrounding woods, watching. Waiting. Between the claustrophobic storm and the inescapable sense of being hunted, Clare is on edge… and increasingly certain of one thing:
Her car crash wasn’t an accident. Something is waiting for her to step outside the fragile safety of the house… something monstrous, something unfeeling.
Something desperately hungry.
Heaven’s Official Blessing by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù and Suika (Translator)
This epic historical fantasy about a prince and the mysterious man by his side is now in English, for the very first time.
Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedicated study and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise may also fall, and fall he does–cast from the heavens and banished to the world below.
Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time, angering most of the gods in the process. To repay his debts, he is sent to the Mortal Realm to hunt down violent ghosts and troublemaking spirits who prey on the living. Along his travels, he meets the fascinating and brilliant San Lang, a young man with whom he feels an instant connection. Yet San Lang is clearly more than he appears… What mysteries lie behind that carefree smile?
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
You won’t want to leave. . . until you can’t.
Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.
An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept.
Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge–there’s something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.
Elin is under pressure to find Laure, but no one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she’s the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they are all in. . .
Thank you for stopping by!
I’d love to know if you’ve read any of these (or plan to) and what your thoughts about them are..
Stay safe and Happy reading!
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I think you’ll like the Stephen King book. His writing is phenomenal.
Thanks, Tessa! He really is an incredible author.. Hard to imagine I won’t like it.
The night will end us sounds like such a gripping story. In fact, all these books sound great! I do have crawdads on my tbr. Loved the post! ❤️
Thanks, Nehal! The Night Will End Us really does.. I love books that are super intense so I’m hoping it ends up being as good as it sounds (hopefully they all will!) And I need to read Crawdads soon.. we won’t be able to watch the movie until I do. 😆
Are you enjoying your current read?
Ohhh 😂.
I’m reading Eleanor and park lately and that’s kind of disappointing honestly. So i started rereading a Rick Riordan book alongside it. Wbu?
That’s a shame.. but Riordan’s good. Which book?
I just started Monstress and I’m so in love with the art.
The first in the Kane chronicles. Have you read it?
And ohhhh, sounds nice!
Ohmygosh.. not in years and years. Are you enjoying it?
And Monstress was amazing. Now I just need the other 6(?) volumes.😅
Yeah it’s good 😂.
Ohhh damn
Glad to hear it.
Hope you’re staying safe, hun, have a beautiful weekend.
You too!
So many of these are on my list too, Sheri. I’ve seen mixed reviews of Fairy Tale, and I (like everyone else) loved Where the Crawdad’s Sing. The cover of Monstress (all that gold, right?) is irresistable, and I’ve heard good things about The Hollow Places. And, of course, I was thrilled to see The Necromancer’s Daughter in the mix. You brave woman… Thank you. Happy Reading!
Lol. Well, I hope we both enjoy them! Fairy Tale could get poor reviews all around and I’d still have to read it, it’s Stephen King. And I hear Where the Crawdad’s Sing is a love/hate kind of read.. but everyone apparently loves the movie. I just started Monstress and I already love it.
But yours.. reading yours still makes me nervous.. I want very much to like it.😅
I’m glad you’re enjoying Monstress. It sounds great. And I’m crossing fingers about TND, Sheri. If it isn’t your cup of tea, just toss it aside. I have rhino skin. I’m grateful that you’ll give it a try no matter the result.
Lol! I think I’ll end up loving it and all this worry will be for nothing. 😋
There will be no ‘just tossing it aside’ though.
(I adored Monstress, btw, both the author and artist are now among my top favorites.)
What are you reading?
I just started a poetry book River Ghosts, that I’m really enjoying. Next is one of your recommendations: What Moves the Dead. 🙂 Can’t wait for that one.
That sounds intriguing.. I’ll have to check it out. And, yes! You’re going to love What Moves the Dead, just watch.
I should finish it today. So damp, moldy, and creepy!
Well, I guess you have a theme. 🤭
It was great. I need to write my review today.
Yes! So glad you liked it!
You have a lot of books here that I’d really love to get to this year, too. Hope you enjoy them all!!
Thank you! Here’s to hoping we both do!
Are you a mood reader? Because that’s what keeps getting me..