Taylor Fenner's Blog, page 6

Title Reveal: The Echo Trail Series Book 3

Today I’m helping my talented friend Hannah Marae reveal the title of the upcoming third book in her Echo Trail series…

Urban Fantasy, Echo Trail Series #3

eBook, Paperback

Spring 2025 from Somewhere Press

Blurb:

If you like shows with Supernatural vibes this is a must read series! Catch up on books 1 & 2 now! Both are available in Kindle Unlimited and Paperback!

Resurrection Road (Echo Trails Series #1)Blurb:

For as long as she can remember, Eden has been on the run. 
The open road is the only freedom she’s ever known, the only life she’s ever had. But when the road ends in a backwater town, a mysterious phone call sends her on a new journey.

Lazarus is no stranger to ghosts. 
Shades and spirits are his constant companions, it’s the living that set him on edge. The decision to help a troubled mage will find him taking on more than he bargained for.

Becoming a hunter was never part of Zeke’s plan.
He finds himself stepping into all the dark places where horrors lurk and spirits roam free—until a job gone wrong shows him there’s more than one way to deal with a monster.

A missing friend.
A chance to prove himself.
A desire to keep the darkness inside at bay.
Together, the three set out on the long road east, each pulled by a secret.
But a powerful presence lurks in the shadows, eager to make a deal that will change their lives forever.

Read Now Terminal Static (Echo Trail Series #2)Blurb:

After months on the road hunting monsters and freeing ghosts, Eden and the Morgans are ready for some much-needed R&R. While Mab continues the search for her missing sister, they’re off to their next destination: Westwood, Colorado.
A few weeks of small-town charm are just what they need: board games and baked goods, all in the safety of the Morgan family home. Anything to forget the blood mage, Josephine Laurent, and the night that nearly destroyed them all
No jobs.
No ghosts.
No monsters.
But something has followed them to Westwood, a being equipped with their darkest nightmares. The creature lurks behind the television screens, hidden within the static. And whenever it reaches out, someone pays the price.

Read Now

ARC Review: You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego

You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego

Thriller, Standalone

eBook, Hardcover, Audiobook, 384

February 11, 2025 by Bantam Books

Blurb:

An exclusive thriller writer’s retreat hosted on a private island turns lethal when one of the authors is found murdered in this twisty locked room mystery.

When renowned anonymous author J. R. Alastor hires former aspiring writer Mila del Angél to host a writing retreat at his private manor off the coast of Maine, she jumps at the chance—particularly since she has an ax to grind with one of the invitees. The guest list? Six thriller authors, all masters of deceit, misdirection, and mayhem.

Confess the crimes, survive the tropes.

Alastor and Mila have masterminded a week of games, trope-fueled riddles, and maybe a jump scare or two—the perfect cover for Mila to plot a murder of her own. But when a guest turns up dead—and it’s not the murder she planned—Mila finds herself trapped in a different narrative altogether.

One by one, you’ll lose your turn.

With a storm cutting off the island, and the body count rising, Mila must outwit a killer who knows literally every trick in the book.

Until only one of us remains…

My Review:

I loved this book, right from just reading the synopsis I knew I would. It gave me all the And Then There Were None meets Clue vibes and I was hooked from the very beginning!

A group of mystery writers are invited to a remote island off of Maine for a writing retreat with the mysterious, reclusive J.R. Alastor – an author so anonymous he has never done an author event and requires all the writers to sign NDAs. 

Organizing it all is event organizer Mila del Angél who has a plan of her own when it comes to one of the writers – one who did her wrong. But by the second day when one of the writers goes missing it will become clear to everyone in attendance that someone is very, very wrong. Someone knows their darkest secrets and is meting out their own form of justice.

As I said, I loved this book. It kept me going late into the night because I had to know what was going to happen next. I enjoyed seeing in all the characters perspectives and trying to figure out who the killer was. I also loved all the secret passages in the house and the book map that looks like a Clue game board. 

This book is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year (reading this as an ARC in 2024) and I can’t wait to get a physical copy! 

My Rating:

5 of 5 Knives!

The Sunday Post: Snowed In

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Snowed In

Hey Book Blogger Friends! How was your week?

We had a lot of weather extremes this week from freezing rain to high winds and now a snowstorm that dropped about 6-7 inches of snow. It’s been the perfect weekend to grab a blanket, a hot drink, and settle in for a movie marathon or an afternoon of reading.

Last Week on the Blog:

ARC Review: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman

ARC Review: A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

ARC Review: Sweet Girl by Jenn Plummer

This Week on the Blog:

ARC Review: You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego

Title Reveal: Book 3 in the Echo Trails Series by Hannah Marae

Cover Reveal: Once the Skies Fade by Vanessa Rasanen

New Book Mail on My Shelves:Physical:

ARC Review: Sweet Girl by Jenn Plummer

Sweet Girl (Aspen Ridge 2.5) by Jenn Plummer

Spicy Romance, Valentine’s Day Novella

eBook, 212 pages

February 5, 2025 by Wild Lupine Books LLV

Blurb:

Dom
When I see my two best friends looking at my sweet girl with lust-filled eyes, we come up with a plan to ease her into the idea of being shared. One weekend, all four of us. Aidan and Cruz spend weeks flirting with her, edging all of us, and filling her head with dirty possibilities. What none of them know is that I don’t just want to watch Emma with my best friends, I want her to be what keeps the four of us together forever. This is more than just one weekend of fun. I’m confident that our sweet girl is going to melt like candy for all of us. She wants this. Wants us.

Valentine’s Day is just the beginning.

Emma
I’m desperately in love with my boyfriend. But when his two best friends start to flirt shamelessly with me, filling my head with tempting thoughts, my feelings for them rapidly change from platonic to desire. What’s more complicated is that Dom seems to like it when they watch me, muddling my head further. Could Dominik want to share me with Aidan and Cruz?

I may be his sweet girl, but something tells me that whatever they are planning is going to be far from sweet.

**Sweet Girl is book 2.5 in the interconnected Aspen Ridge universe and can be read as a standalone. HEA guaranteed!**

My Review:

This is the second holiday novella I’ve read in this series and although I’m not generally a fan of Valentine’s Day I loved this spicy, why choose romance! You can definitely see Emma gain confidence and allow herself to explore and take what she wants with the help of her adoring boyfriend Dom and his sexy friends Aidan and Cruz. Aidan was my favorite but I loved Cruz too and Dom’s love not only for Emma but his friends as well shines out of every page. And as for spice? This one was so hot. This author is definitely a new go-to for me!

I will say that as usually is with why choose romance I liked one of the guys less, and unfortunately in this book it was Dom. He just didn’t click with me even though he was the one that set everything in motion. Aidan was sweet and had loved Emma from afar since high school and Cruz was wild and dangerous leading to sexual tension build up which exploded into such steamy scenes but Dom was just so-so for me.

I loved seeing a glimpse of Lilith from Ready or Not and seeing her happy with Wes and I was so happy that Emma got a happy ending too!

My Rating:

4 of 5 Knives!

ARC Review: A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

Thriller, Standalone

eBook, Hardcover, Audiobook, 304 Pages

February 4, 2025 by Flatiron Books

Blurb:

A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

My Review:

Theodora Scott is a woman without a past. Before she was adopted as a child her memory is just… blank. Theodora Scott is not her real name.

Now, after a whirlwind romance with the wealthy Connor Dalton Theo is going home for the holidays to the Dalton family winter retreat – Idlewood.

There she will be fed to the wolves – Connor’s implacable grandmother, his grandfather – a wolf in sheep’s clothing, his uncle who insists he knows Theo from somewhere, his troublemaking brother and cold, businesswoman sister. But as she arrives and begins settling in one thing becomes apparent: Theo has been to Idlewood before.

As memories begin to resurface and her past comes back to haunt her Theo finds herself in the crosshairs of a family that will do anything to keep their dark secrets buried.

This book was everything you could want from a chilly winter thriller: an isolated family manse, a snowstorm to keep them all stuck, dark secrets coming to light and a main character fighting to survive. So many of the characters are devious and as the pieces of Theo’s past fall around her like dominoes you’re on the edge of your seat trying to figure out who knows what and what length they will go to to keep their dark secrets.

Kate Alice Marshall’s storytelling is as addictive in this one as it was in the very first book I read by her, Rules for Vanishing. I devoured this book!

My Rating:

5 of 5 Knives!

ARC Review: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman

The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman

YA Thriller, Standalone

eBook, Hardcover, 336 Pages

February 4, 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Blurb:

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us and The Counselors, comes a page-turning murder mystery set at a prestigious New England boarding school and the dark secrets a killer desperately wants hidden.

Secrets don’t die when you do.

It’s the first week of senior year at Middlebrook Academy. For Amy and her best friend Sarah, that means late-night parties at the boathouse, bike rides through their sleepy Connecticut town, and the crisp beginning of a New England fall.

Then tragedy. Sarah and her boyfriend are brutally murdered in their dorm room. Now the week Amy has been dreaming about for years has turned into a nightmare, especially when all eyes turn to her as the culprit. She was Sarah’s only roommate, the only other person there when she died—or so she told the police to cover for her own boyfriend’s suspicious whereabouts. And even though they were best friends, with every passing day, Amy begins to learn that Sarah lied about a lot of things.

Liz, editor of the school newspaper and social outcast, is determined to uncover the truth about what happened on campus, in hopes her reporting will land a prestigious scholarship to college. As Liz dives deeper into her investigation, the secrets these murdered seniors never wanted out come to light. The deeper Liz digs, the messier the truth becomes – and with a killer still on campus, she can’t afford to make any mistakes. 

The Meadowbrook Murders is a gripping mystery about the inextricable way power, privilege, and secrets are linked, and how telling the truth can come at a deadly price.

My Review:

3 tries. That’s how many attempts it took me to get through this book. The blurb sounded like something I would love but right off the bat I could not connect with the story or either of the main characters. Liz comes off like a teenage Gale Weathers and just like Sidney in the Scream movies I majorly wanted to deck Liz. Talk about underhanded journalism… and these are high schoolers.

Then we have Amy, best friend of one of the murder victims. She and her best friend fought the night before her best friend was killed and Amy was in the same dorm suite and slept through the whole thing. I think this was kind of meant to throw some suspicion on her kind of a “let’s team up and clear my name” thing with Liz.

After the first probably 5-10 chapters I really just felt like skimming the rest of the book.  

My Rating:

2 of 5 Knives!

The Sunday Post: Hello February, Hiking, and Catching Up on ARCs

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Hello February, Hiking, and Catching Up on ARCs

Hey Book Blogger Friends! Update from last week: my friend Natalie was able to find me a copy of Onyx Storm and I can now rest happy!

January 2025 is in the books. Thank goodness. I saw somewhere recently someone said January was the Monday of the year and boy is that true. Now we’re on to a new month, new goals, and tons of great books releasing.

This week I was able to get out for a hike since the weather was above average for January in Wisconsin. The trail I went on is more urban, completely paved, and takes you through the city behind a university. Perfect for easing back in.. even though I wore the wrong shoes and I’m currently hobbling around like I’m 80.

A view from the trail!

This month I’ll be primarily getting caught up on ARCs. I have 3 reviews posting this coming week, one the following week, and 3 so far due in March although I’ve already read one of the March ones, just have to compose the full review.

Last Week on the Blog:

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 27 January 2025

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 New-To-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Tears of the Wolf

Book Review: All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles

First Line Friday: 31 January 2025

This Week on the Blog:

ARC Review: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman

ARC Review: A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

ARC Review: Sweet Girl by Jenn Plummer

First Line Friday: 7 February 2025

New Book Mail on My Shelves:Physical:eARC:

First Line Friday: 31 January 2025

This week I’m joining First Line Friday. First Line Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Carrie @ Reading is My Superpower! So grab the book nearest you, your current read, or the book on top of your TBR stack and share the first line.

My pick this week is…

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie WrobelBlurb:

A Hitchcock fanatic with an agenda invites old friends for a weekend stay at his secluded themed hotel in this fiendishly clever, suspenseful new novel from the international bestselling author of Darling Rose Gold.

Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.

To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.

But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it.

After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.

And the first line is…

The crow waits until the guilty one disappears; then he flies down the hallway.

I loved this first line and this book! It’s perfect for fans of Alfred Hitchcock movies with plenty of Easter eggs thrown in!

Book Review: All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles

All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles

Romantic Suspense, Standalone

ebook, Paperback, Audiobook, 384 pages

January 7, 2025 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Blurb:

*This limited deluxe edition comes with gorgeous stained edges and spot gloss*

Sometimes the last thing you expect is exactly what you need, the final missing piece. And sometimes it comes in the form of a towering, broody sheriff, determined to get in your way at every step. 

Ridley Sawyer knows what it’s like to miss someone, to feel like a piece of her vanished—because it happened to her the night her twin sister disappeared.

Now, Ridley channels that loss into hope, traveling the country covering cold cases for her true crime podcast. She might not have found justice for her sister but that doesn’t stop her from finding it for others.

Until Sheriff Colter Brooks gets in her way. 

Colt knows what it’s like to have reporters descend on his town in the wake of a tragedy, and he’s not about to let a fiery podcaster stir up trouble. It doesn’t matter that her haunting blue eyes tell him there’s more to Ridley’s story or that he can’t stop imagining what it would be like to touch her.

But when Ridley’s cold case turns hot and she’s thrust into the crosshairs, Colt has no choice but to step in. Suddenly, Ridley’s living at his house, drinking his whiskey, and stealing his dog’s affections. But she’s also proving that she’s so much more than his first impression.

And as they get closer to the truth, the game they’ve been playing might just turn deadly…

My Review:

After the tragic disappearance of her twin sister, Ridley has made it her mission to help other families of tragedies find justice by traveling the country in her VW bus with her podcast Sounds Like Serial. Sheriff Colter Brooks wants none of the spectacle to touch his sister Emerson, the victim of a botched abduction when Ridley rolls into town to cover the case. But from the moment they meet there is a spark that pulls them from opposite sides of the same case to something closer as Ridley digging up the past has darkness circling the town once more. 

I loved all of the characters in this book! Not only did Ridley and Colt have great chemistry but Shady Cove was well fleshed out with a fantastic cast of characters, each adding so much to the story. This is the kind of small town feel that you wish you could move right in although I do like that the author chose to include a small subplot of the opioid epidemic and other real life issues that are very present in small towns and often get hidden under rose-colored glasses in most small town romances. I also love how this author portrays law enforcement in her books. As a dispatcher for a small town police department I definitely find her depictions realistic. I also really enjoyed the podcast aspect of the story, it was really interesting! And I can’t forget all the furry friends in this book! Tater and her “tooth hugs” was adorable as well as Bear and Bowser! 

My Rating:

5 of 5 Knives!

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Tears of the Wolf!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released.

Tears of the Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley

Fantasy, Wrath and Weeping Book 1

eBook, Paperback, 208 Pages

February 21, 2025 by Book Goblin Books

Blurb:

After the murder of her child, Brynn of the Istovari wants nothing more than to escape the shackles of her birthright. As a sorceress and the last of a once-great bloodline, many still seek to use her for their own schemes. Brynn will do anything for the chance at freedom, even if it means marrying an upstart warrior from the far north.

Cenric needs a wife—but not just any wife—a sorceress. Having recently reclaimed his inheritance after a youth spent across the sea, a sorceress will bring security and legitimacy in his estranged homeland.

A marriage gives both Brynn and Cenric what they want—for now.

In the far northern reaches lies a land ruled by pride and strict codes of honor. As Brynn and Cenric struggle to navigate the aftermath of their hasty union, they soon realize that rival factions within the kingdom are on the verge of war once again.

Alone, they will be destroyed by the coming storm. Together, they might stand a chance.

Why I Want to Read This Book:

I love Elisabeth’s “Book Goblin” content on social media and as I began following her I saw posts about Tears of the Wolf and couldn’t help being curious about it. I like that it’s inspired by Viking and Anglo-Saxon history too. This is definitely one of my most anticipated releases of the rest of the winter.

Will you be checking this book out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?