July & August 2025 Reads

Someone Knows by #ViKeeland – 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As a college English professor, Elizabeth looks forward to the start of each new semester teaching her creative writing seminar. At least until she reads chapter one of The Reckoning, a tale about a high school senior who has an affair with her teacher. To anyone else it would be the beginning of a great page-turner, but to Elizabeth it is the beginning of the end.

She knows this story. It’s all familiar because she lived it. The girl in the story was her best friend Jocelyn, and Elizabeth knows exactly how the story will end—with the professor dead. Because she was the one who killed him.(GOODREADS)

A Flicker In The Dark by #StacyWillingham – 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren’t actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?(SOURCE)

Whiskey Scars by #KristiCopeland – 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Trigger Warnings! This book was very difficult to read.)

Angels don’t do what he did

Kennedy:
I didn’t need to tell him my story, the blood running down my face made it clear. One look at me stumbling down a dark backroad during a midnight thunderstorm and he knew. The years of torment evident in the Whiskey Scars I tried so hard to hide.

Soaked to the bone, frozen, and scared, escape from my abusive past had never been an option. But I was put in his path for a reason. He saved my life that night and for that I will be forever grateful.

Jake:
I wasn’t looking for trouble, but for some reason it always seemed to find me. I got turned around outside a small town and found her in a muddy, torn dress—broken and bruised.(SOURCE)

Broken Country by #ClareLeslieHall – 10/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Highly Recommended 👍🏻👍🏻)

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.(SOURCE)

All The Dangerous Things by #StacyWillingham – 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.

Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.(SOURCE)

The Lighthouse by #ChristopherParker – 3⭐️⭐️⭐️

Something strange is happening in Seabrook. The town’s lighthouse–dormant for over thirty years and famously haunted–has inexplicably started shining, and its mysterious glow is sparking feverish gossip throughout the spooked community.

Amy Tucker is only visiting for the night and has no plans to get caught up in the hysteria, but that changes when she meets Ryan, the loyal, hard-working son of a ranch owner who lives on the outskirts of town.(SOURCE)

The Cheating Husband by #JamesCaine – 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ (I tolerated the writing style of the author but the twist in the end just left me angry. I didn’t like it 😂😅).

He seemed perfect, until I uncovered one of his lies.
He’s already married.

I know I should break it off, but it’s not that simple. He’s been hiding more than just his wife from me.
He is not what he seems.

When I discover who his wife is, everything takes a darker turn.
They are not a normal couple.(SOURCE)

In Cold Blood by #JamesHunt – 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (1st book of a mystery thriller series. I have the 2nd & 3rd on my TBR pile.)

After a highly decorated police officer is found brutally murdered in the ski resort town of High Peaks, the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation steps in. Upon hearing the news, homicide investigator Noah Sutherland returns to his hometown in the Adirondacks, believing his brother’s death to be more than just a cold, methodical ambush.

Every town has secrets.

Amidst millions of acres of wilderness where one mistake can be deadly, Sutherland and his slain brothers K-9, Axel – both distressed by loss – soon bond. As they pursue the violent and ruthless through the high peaks, he uncovers the truth behind the shocking crime and the secrets of a tight-lipped community.

Every family has a past. (SOURCE)