Book Spotlight: Heart Of Glass by Jennifer Hillier

 

Heart Of Glass by Jennifer Hillier

Book 2: Wonderland Series

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

Format: Hardcover - 368 pages

               Audiobook - 12 Hours 57 Minutes

               Kindle - 351 pages

               Nook - 368 pages

ISBN (Hardcover):  978-1250763181

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FN8RGKRJ

ASIN (Kindle): B0FLYNQ275

BNID (Nook): 978-1250763198

Genre: Psychological Thriller

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Book Description:

A serial killer recants his long-ago confession regarding a small-town high school girl―and her then-best friends are forced to confront what really happened that night and what's happening now.

Seaside is a small coastal town, known originally for the local amusement park. But twenty-five years ago, a serial killer dubbed The Carnival Killer confessed to the murder of a local high school girl. Now, he's recanted that confession.

Barb, Nicolette, and Lorelei were best friends - then they met "Sam" at Wonderland, the local amusement park. After hanging out with him there, and accompanying him to the drive-in movie, where the twenty-something handsome drifter made out with Lorelei in the backseat. That night was the last time Lorelei was seen alive, her murdered body surfacing a couple of days later in a local cranberry bog.

Barb's dreams of leaving Seaside and becoming a successful writer never materialized and she is a freelancer for the local newspaper and, secretly, writes anonymously about reality tv stars for a hugely successful gossip website called Reality Bitch. Specifically, she writes savagely about a long-running show set in Canada called Trophy Wives.

Nicolette left town shortly after Lorelei's body surfaced, never to return. Ultimately, she married a very rich man, moved to Toronto and rebranded herself as Cole Lennox, one of the stars of Trophy Wives.

With the amusement park about to reopen, revitalizing the dying town of Seaside, the Carnival Killer recants his confession about killing Lorelei, the dead body of young woman washes ashore, and the truth about what happened that night twenty-five years ago - and what is happening now - threatens not only the carefully constructed lives of Barb and Nicolette, but the very fabric of Seaside itself.

About The Author

Jennifer Hillier imagines the worst about people and then writes about it.

She's the author of seven psychological thrillers, including the USA Today, Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail bestselling Things We Do in the Dark, winner of the ITW Thriller Award for Best Audiobook. Described as “an intoxicating thrill ride” by the New York Times and “propulsive and chilling” by People magazine, it was a Book of the Month Club selection, an Indigo Top Ten Best Book of the Year, an Amazon Editor’s Spotlight Pick, a Loan Stars pick, and her third consecutive novel to be honored as a LibraryReads pick, which places her in their Hall of Fame.

She's also published six other novels, including the USA Today bestselling Little Secrets (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Anthony Award), and Jar of Hearts (winner of the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel and shortlisted for the Anthony and Macavity Awards). She also wrote Creep, Freak, The Butcher, and Wonderland, which have been recently reissued by Gallery Books in beautiful trade paperback formats. Her books have been published in twenty-four languages so far.

Jennifer is Filipino-Canadian, born and raised in Toronto, but she spent eight amazing years living in Seattle, which is where she first became a published author. She's a Seahawks fan who married a Packers guy, and they have a son in middle school who wishes she wrote books like Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (she does too, kid, she does too).

She's afraid of the dark and can’t sleep unless she's checked the locks on the doors several times. She loves writing when it’s raining, sleeping when it’s sunny, and reading after everyone else has gone to bed. She's a cat person without a cat, which makes her sad. But she's now back in the Toronto area permanently with her family, which makes her happy.

Heart of Glass, her newest thriller, will be coming August 25, 2026 from Minotaur Books. 

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Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman (Book Review)

 

Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman

Publisher: Berkley Publishing

Publication Date: June 9, 2026

Format: Paperback - 368 pages

               Audiobook - 11 Hours 2 Minutes

               Kindle - 366 pages

               Nook - 368 pages

ISBN (Paperback): 978-0593953532

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FSN5GGML

ASIN (Kindle): 978-0593953549

BNID (Nook): 978-0593953549

Genre: Thriller

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Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchased a hardcover copy of the book from my monthly Book Of The Month (BOTM) subscription.

Book Description:

In this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.

Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she’d never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp—and ended with Greer’s friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer’s been fleeing from the grief ever since.

But then Greer’s mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread’s Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends—one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she's never gotten over—and old friends. Including Margo, Steph's best friend.

Greer and Margo didn’t leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph’s death in that horrific fire was an accident—and she’s on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a keep the Cove’s secrets and her own or finally face the truth about that summer.

My Book Review:

In Summer's Never Over, author Darby Bozeman weaves a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader into a dark storyline that follows a five-year-old tragedy at a Georgia summer camp that still haunts the owner's daughter, Greer Olsen.

Five years ago, a wildfire destroyed Dread's Cove summer camp in Georgia. The family-owned summer camp was devastating for the Olsen family: owner Anita and daughter Greer. For Greer, the tragedy was even more traumatic because of the death of her new friend and co-camp counselor, Stephanie Bennett. After the traumatic summer, Greer left the camp and moved to Atlanta, but she is still haunted by what happened at the summer camp. Now five years later, Greer gets the call that her mom has passed away after a sudden cardiac arrest during a nighttime walk around the lake. Anita had rebuilt the summer camp and was going to hold a welcome back event prior to the reopening of Dread's Cove. Greer returns to Dread's Cove to confront her past and figure out what to do with the summer camp, but long-buried secrets and mysteries from the past resurfaces along with the legend of The Phantom that once again terrorizes the summer camp, and Greer is determined to get to the truth this summer. 

Summer's Never Over is a complex and multi-layered tale that is told in the first-person narrative by Greer Olsen. The reader is taken along for the ride as Greer's story unfolds in alternating past/present timelines that revisits the five-year-old tragedy that devastated her family summer camp and the tragic death of her friend Stephanie Bennett. As Greer's story unfolds, there is a dark intensity of long-buried secrets and mysteries surrounding the summer camp and the legend of The Phantom that resurfaces, and Greer is determined to get the truth. This is a slow-building thriller that has so many riveting twists and turns that kept me guessing if The Phantom that has lurked in the woods of the summer camp for all these years was just a legendary ghost story or an actual person, and the uncovering of the long-buried secrets and mysteries surrounding the summer camp kept me in suspense until the very shocking conclusion. 

Summer's Never Over is an intense thriller that will keep you in suspense until the shocking conclusion!

Rating: 4 Stars

About The Author

Darby Bozeman is a Portland, Oregon native who moved to Georgia for grad school a decade ago and thinks she can now officially call herself Southern. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves acting in community theater, discussing pop culture, and going out to buy coffee even when she could very much make it at home. She lives in Knoxville with her husband, Bryan, and their cat, Claude. Summer's Never Over is her debut novel.

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Book Spotlight: Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman

 

Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman

Publisher: Berkley Publishing

Publication Date: June 9, 2026

Format: Paperback - 368 pages

               Audiobook - 11 Hours 2 Minutes

               Kindle - 366 pages

               Nook - 368 pages

ISBN (Paperback): 978-0593953532

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FSN5GGML

ASIN (Kindle): 978-0593953549

BNID (Nook): 978-0593953549

Genre: Thriller

Buy The Book:

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Book Description:

In this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.

Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she’d never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp—and ended with Greer’s friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer’s been fleeing from the grief ever since.

But then Greer’s mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread’s Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends—one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she's never gotten over—and old friends. Including Margo, Steph's best friend.

Greer and Margo didn’t leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph’s death in that horrific fire was an accident—and she’s on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a keep the Cove’s secrets and her own or finally face the truth about that summer.

About The Author

Darby Bozeman is a Portland, Oregon native who moved to Georgia for grad school a decade ago and thinks she can now officially call herself Southern. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves acting in community theater, discussing pop culture, and going out to buy coffee even when she could very much make it at home. She lives in Knoxville with her husband, Bryan, and their cat, Claude. Summer's Never Over is her debut novel.

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Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox (Book Review)

 

Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox

Publisher: Minotaur Books / St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: July 7, 2026

Format: Hardcover - 336 pages

               Audiobook - 9 Hours 43 Minutes

               Kindle - 327 pages

               Nook - 336 pages

ISBN (Hardcover): 978-1250378842

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FP48M1Q9

ASIN (Kindle): B0FLYPRSWV

BNID (Nook): 978-1250378859

Genre: Thriller

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Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchased a hardcover copy of the book from my monthly Book Of The Month (BOTM) subscription.

Book Description:

Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.

2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.

When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.

Some secrets are better left buried.

My Book Review:

In Pretty Dead Things, author Kelsey Cox weaves a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader into a dark storyline that follows a twenty-five-year-old mystery that still haunts the townspeople of a small Texas town.

In 2000, seventeen-year-old Isabelle Whitmore goes missing and is never found. Twenty-five years later in 2025 the town of Anhalt, Texas is preparing for the 50th Annual Lone Star Princess Pageant. Little do the townspeople know that past secrets, petty rivalries, and long-held grudges still live on, especially when on the night of the pageant everyone is trapped in the event hall when a state-wide snowstorm bares down on their town, and the past resurfaces and a murderer still lurks among them.

Pretty Dead Things is a complex and multi-layered tale that is told in alternating first-person narratives by a lot of characters. The reader is taken along for the ride as the characters' stories unfold in alternating past/present timelines that revisit the twenty-five-year-old disappearance of Isabelle Whitmore, and the present confrontations that spark up among the past pageant contestants as they prepare their daughters for the 50th anniversary of the pageant. As their stories unfold, there is a dark intensity with riveting twists and turns that kept me guessing who the murderer is that has lurked in their town for all these years until the very shocking conclusion. 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that while this story is a very twisty thriller that kept me engaged and on my toes, it was really hard to follow because of the alternating character storyline chapters. I found myself writing notes down just to keep up with the past and present timelines, and how they were intertwined throughout the whole story. Nonetheless, I loved the pageant queen theme and all the drama, pettiness and intensity that was a part of the history of that small town pageant.

Pretty Dead Things is an intense thriller that will keep you in suspense until the shocking conclusion!

Rating: 4 Stars

About The Author

Kelsey Cox received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and works from home in the Texas Hill Country. You can often find her writing at Mammen Family Public Library, chasing around her two young daughters, or watching British mysteries with her mom and aunts. On nights when bedtime goes as planned, she enjoys curling up on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, and a book with complicated characters and a killer twist in her lap.

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