{I've Been Reading} The Guest House

 The Guest House by Robin Morgan-Bentley 

This domestic thriller gets off to a frightening start and then keeps escalating from there. A romantic weekend get away before their first baby is born turns into a nightmare for Victoria and Jamie. The plot opens just as things begin to go wrong, but you won't find out what actually happened until much later in the book. Plenty of hints kept me turning the pages to find out. Chapters alternate between the couple's experience in the guest house and a few weeks later as they try to hide what happened. I had to keep checking the dates on the chapter headers and to do some math to figure out how much time had passed. I absolutely loved this one.  

The Stolen Child by Emily Shiner 

This one kept me turning pages! The chapters alternate between Emily, a blogger with a carefully curated life, and Bethany, one of Emily's online fans. Bethany has gotten just close enough to her idol to discover the one thing that Emily is hiding from the world and she's determined to use that thing to force her way into her new best friend's life. It was fascinating to watch the whole thing play out, even though I don't think the situation was all that plausible. People can make up explanations to explain things. They can out and out lie...but Emily doesn't. She just panics. 

Emily thinks of herself as a successful influencer, even though she's only managed a couple of brand details and her husband asks her to stop sharing so many details online. Success is just a viral post away!  She definitely doesn't want to be friends with Bethany, who wears an unflattering shade of lipstick and faded clothing.  In case you can't guess, I didn't care for Emily much.  Underneath that pretty exterior, she's mean. And she doesn't seem too bright.   Bethany, on the other hand, is just plain nuts. 

Watching the two interact was completely entertaining. The author lost me at the very end, but I had so much fun getting to that point that I don't mind one bit. 

Disclosure -- The publisher sent me an advance review copy. This post contains affiliate links.