The Fantastic World of A Reader

The Doomsday Code Sara Yager Publication date: November 14th 2023 Genres: Adult, Thriller In an artificial intelligence lab in Shanghai, something has gone terribly wrong. Days after a major breakthrough in machine learning, CyberGen Industries’ lead AI scientist is dead—and their precious prototype has vanished into the ether. An investigation reveals that, against all odds, the lab’s “unhackable” system has been breached. The discovery, an algorithm mimicking human intelligence, is growing quickly—becoming more cunning and unpredictable with each passing hour. Soon its capabilities will eclipse its creators entirely. Who stole it? And more troubling, what do they plan to do with it? Ex-NSA hacker Adrian Pryor may be the only person on the planet capable of reining it in. He spent his career keeping the world safe, a vigilance for which he paid an enormous, personal price. Adrian knows there are people who will stop at nothing to control the powerful technology. He must fin

Petulant Shadows Martha Sweeney Publication date: October 17th 2023 Genres: Adult, Romance, Supernatural, Thriller Dedicated to: those who have been abducted, trafficked, abused, and murdered; the families who have lost someone; and the sheepdogs who fight to save them. May your souls find peace. …………………………………………. There is a sinister evil hidden in the shadows. Some do not know of its existence yet others are haunted by it every waking moment and every sleepless night. The legends say that it arrives quiet like the wind, lurking in the shadows as the darkness sets upon the earth each night. It leaches into towns through the smallest of cracks and festers, growing like a fungus that makes everything rot in its path. A sudden opportunity to flee presents itself to Paisley. Something within her commands her to run. As if guided by the hand of God, she finds shelter in the town of Biernhard and through a man named Grayson. As Paisley begins to come to grips with her past and emb

Defying Evil: A Dark Romantic Thriller Abbie Roads (Blood is Thicker Than…, #1) Publication date: October 17th 2023 Genres: Adult, Romance, Thriller He’s the son of a serial killer. She’s his father’s only surviving victim. He’s obsessed with her. She’s frightened of him. Before it’s all over they’ll need each other to survive. Cain Killion’s life has revolved around blood. From a childhood of torture by his father, to his gruesome ability to solve crimes. When a current case is directly connected to his past, there’s only one person with answers. But she isn’t talking, and the bodies are stacking up. The only solution… Kidnap her. Defying Evil is the first book in the Blood is Thicker Than Series of dark romantic thrillers. It features a man tortured by his past who never thought he was capable of love. If you devour edge of your seat thrillers and romance novels, you’ll love a series that combines both in a roller-coaster ride of mind games and tragic love. Read this dang

Watch Your Back Stacy Claflin (Ariana Jones, #1) Publication date: May 22nd 2022 Genres: Adult, Thriller Even perfect neighborhoods have deadly secrets. Ariana and Damon moved to the gated neighborhood of Rosy Hills to leave behind their traumatic pasts. Now they have their dream jobs and are part of a tight group of friends. All of that crumbles when their neighbor Rita disappears without a trace. Now it looks like one of their own could be a killer. Ariana and Damon must figure out who it is, or they risk never finding Rita alive. If they don’t reach her in time, they could all end up dead… Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play — EXCERPT: “Rita, where are you?” he called. She readied herself to run again. His footsteps sounded close. “Ready or not, here I come.” She held her breath. Waited. Had to get the shoes off. “Rita…” A shiver shot down her spine. “You can’t hide forever,” he said, now sounding farther away. Stomach

Saving Piper Moonlight Joann Keder (Piney Falls Mysteries, #2) Publication date: July 13th 2020 Genres: Adult, Thriller Piper has lived her entire childhood on the run. She’s about to uncover the deadly reason why… In the second book of the Piney Falls Mysteries series, Piper Moonlight is tired of constantly looking over her shoulder, afraid of the remaining Fallen Branch cult members. She decides the best place to land is in Piney Falls, Oregon, where the cult originated. At least everyone there knows her story and she’ll be safe. When she arrives, she finds employment under the watchful eye of Cosmo Hill, also a former Fallen Branch member, at his bakery. Cosmo doesn’t trust Piper or her story. He enlists the help of his fiancé , marketing wonder and super sleuth Lanie Anders to uncover the truth of Piper’s past. Lanie and Cosmo soon discover there are still shocking secrets buried within the layers of the former cult. As those secrets come to light, those who keep them w

Things We Do In The Dark by Jenniffer Hillier Synopsis: Things We Do in the Dark is a brilliant new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, the award-winning author of the breakout novels Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts. Paris Peralta is suspected of killing her celebrity husband, and her long-hidden past now threatens to destroy her future. When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future. Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who

We Are All Villains Here Quinn Blackbird Publication date: July 1st 2023 Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Romance, Thriller From the author of the DARK FAE comes this *dark slasher romance* in vein of our beloved 90s Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Sailors Bay has a bit of a problem… a serial killer problem. What should be a sleepy old fishing town—a place so silent and forgotten that it slips off the map—has murder in the air and secrets poisoning the heart of the town. Here… no one is safe when a masked killer starts terrorising the town. Blood Hood is coming after them: Billie—from the wrong side of the tracks—and her friends… The ones who have a deadly secret of their own, one they kept for seven years… a dark secret that Blood Hood seems to know all about. One by one, Blood Hood hunts them down to avenge the murder that started it all. And Billie finds herself running from Blood Hood as well as the love of her life and ex, Dalton. With slashed-up bodies pil

Stars Like Gasoline Jessika Grewe Glover Publication date: April 24th 2023 Genres: Adult, Thriller When Celia, a Florida art curator, purchases the haunted house of her brother’s deceased fiancé, the spirits threaten her life and her career. To rid the home of the malevolent ghosts, she enlists the help of her brother, Oscar, and Adrian, the best friend of Oscar’s late fiancé, who’d been killed as an Afghanistan veteran. The three are about to be thrown into a chasm of events involving a dead French artist, a Dutch aerospace heiress, and a missing Japanese painter who is presumed to be dead. Not to mention a stalker that begins to threaten Celia and Oscar. The link between these events appears to be a hidden journal from the 1980s Celia discovers in the home, belonging to a dead, but revered French artist. As Adrian helps decipher the clues, an attraction burns between him and Celia, raising the stakes of the game someone is playing. A game that no one might make it out of ali

The Kind Worth Killing  by Peter Swanson Synopsis: A devious tale of psychological suspense involving sex, deception, and an accidental encounter that leads to murder. Fans of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train will love this modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith’s classic Strangers on a Train from the author of the acclaimed The Girl with a Clock for a Heart—which the Washington Post said “should be a contender for crime fiction’s best first novel of 2014.” On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his marriage that’s going stale and his wife Miranda, who he’s sure is cheating on him. Ted and his wife were a mismatch from the start—he the rich businessman, she the artistic free spirit—a contrast that once inflamed their passion, but has now become a cliché. But their game turns a l

If We Were Villains by  M. L. Rio Synopsis: Oliver Marks has just served ten years for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day of his release, he is greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, and he wants to know what really happened a decade before. As a young actor at an elite conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same characters onstage and off – villain, hero, temptress – though he was always a supporting role. But when the teachers change the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into real life. When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless... Review: "If We Were Villains" by M.L. Rio is a literary mystery novel that delves into the world of classical theater and the complicated relationships of a group of teenage

Tell No One by  Harlan Coben Synopsis: For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive. Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible -- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive. Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope. But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret -- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there. Review: Harlan Coben's "Tel

Stolen Tongue by  Felix Blackwell Synopsis: A romantic cabin getaway doesn’t go exactly as planned. High up on the windswept cliffs of Pale Peak, Faye and Felix celebrate their new engagement. But soon, a chorus of ghastly noises erupts from the nearby woods: the screams of animals, the cries of children, and the mad babble of a hundred mournful voices. A dark figure looms near the windows in the dead of night, whispering to Faye. As the weather turns deadly, Felix discovers that his terrified fiancée isn’t just mumbling in her sleep – she’s whispering back. Originally a contest-winning story on reddit.com’s horror community NoSleep , Stolen Tongues has received widespread acclaim and is now being adapted into a feature film. Review: Let me begin by mentioning that the horror genre is something I try to stay away from as much as possible; this stems from a terrible television program I watched as a child. You could say it was traumatic, therefore I try to stay away from anything horrif

Carrie by  Stephen King Synopsis: Carrie may be picked on by her classmates but she has a gift. She can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. This is her power and her problem. To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie — the first step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues. Until an unexpected cruelty turns her gift into a weapon of terror and destruction that no one will ever forget. Review: It's my first Stephen King novel, and it won't be my last! Carrie is a story about a troubled girl who is frequently bullied at school due to her meek personality. Her religious mother believed her special gift was from the devil. Tommy Ross invited Carrie to Prom Night, and what should have been a perfect night for her turned into a night of terror and destruction. Stephen King has always been an author I've wanted to read, partly because his novels are well-known, but also because the horror genre is fascinating. What b

Behind Her Eyes by  Sarah Pinborough Synopsis: Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes? Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone. When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake, but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise. And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend. But she also just happens to be married to David. And if you think you know where this story is going, think again, because Behind Her Eyes is like no other book you’ve read before. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife. But then why is David so controlling? And why is Adele so scared of him? As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit,

The Housemaid  by Freida McFadden Synopsis: “Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own… Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to s