The Woman in the Cabin by Becca Day
Her name is Mary. She lives a simple life in an isolated cabin, spending each day tending the garden, repairing leaks in the roof, making sure that dinner is hot on the table when her husband walks through the door. It's been ten years since she was anywhere else and her memories of life outside the cabin have faded. The world is dangerous and has nothing to offer her. Then she finds a bundle of letters tucked under a floorboard and realizes that she's not the first woman to have lived here with him. The writing kept me glued to the page even before the real plot twists started.
Lonely Places by Kate Anderson
After travelling the country for years in a converted school bus, a homeschooling family takes up residence at a fire lookout in Utah. The youngest daughter no longer speaks, traumatized by what happened in the woods That Night. After reading this book, I could go the rest of my life without hearing that phrase. which is repeated over and over in a slightly different font from the book's main text. There's also that thing that happened at the lookout that no one wants to talk about. The aspen grove is filled with creepy bones which the youngest daughter keeps picking up and bringing home. It's a young adult novel, so Chase, the older daughter, is extremely critical of her parents and looking forward to getting away from her family at the first possible opportunity. There's an intriguing story here and some really creepy imagery, but it takes a while to get there.
Death at the Dinner Party by Ellie Alexander
The fund raising dinner at the historic farmhouse has barely started when one of the guests collapses. Curtis isn't one of the actors hired for that night's murder mystery, he's actually dead, and quite a few of his fellow attendees have reason to want him gone. I'm practically giddy about this new-to-me mystery series (I jumped in with the third book, which I don't recommend since I'm obviously missing some important back story -- I'll catch up on the first two titles as soon as I can.) It's atmospheric, the event is one that the characters are actually invested in, the protagonist is a trained crimonologist who knows what she's doing... and parts of it read like my favorite bits of the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books I loved as a kid. It's fun and fast paced and I read the whole thing in one delighted sitting.
Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine
This book sat in my to-be-read pile for way too long and I don't know why. Pregnancy related horror and thrillers are right up my alley and reviews compared this one to Rosemary's Baby, a novel that I absolutely loved. Actress Anna Alcott is desperate to have a baby and realizes that time is running out, that she and her husband might have waited too long. When their latest round of IVF results in a pregnancy, she and her husband are thrilled. When she has a miscarriage, they're devastated. There was no heartbeat on the ultrasound. There was so much blood in the hospital room. But she can still feel her unborn child moving inside of her. Pregnancy leaves woman vulnerable and the author absolutely captures that. Anna has been missing appointments and making mistakes with her medication. She's being stalked and receiving warnings about a cult of baby stealing Satanists. And, despite what the medical professionals say, she's still pregnant. I loved this one.
Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies.
