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As a historically spooky day, I thought Friday the 13th would be the perfect time to share some of my favorite thriller recommendations to read this fall! I tried to think of how I define a "thriller" because to me, the term "thriller" goes hand and and hand with "scary," but thriller books are not necessarily that. I was talking to a friend about this and she put it perfectly: thrillers are books keep you guessing, simple as that - and my favorite ones come with a good twist!
- Verity: This tops my favorite thrillers list, and I know a lot of others agree! This book is what truly got me into reading thrillers, it has a gripping story line with gruesome details that leave little to the imagination. Lowen is a struggling author who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when she is hired to finish a fiction series that injured, secretly incapacitated, and infamous author, Verity Crawford, is contracted to complete. Lowen moves in to Verity's house where she, her husband, and son also live to take on the job where she works in Verity's office and uses her notes. But once Lowen gets reading through Verity's manuscripts, she learns things about her that she realizes no one was ever intended to know. Lowen starts to notice strange things about the house and begins to fear for her safety, but is she just being paranoid? The ending is SO good and it leaves you to speculate about what must have happened after the book ends.
- The Woman in the Window: I think this may be the first thriller I ever read, and it is a true psychological thriller. I read it on a plane and totally could not have guessed the ending - I love books with a twist and I'm typically not good at anticipating them, so they always give me a thrill. This story follows Anna, an agoraphobic loner who gets her dose of the outside world from spying on her neighbors. One night she witnesses something that the shouldn't have, and her reality, safety, and sanity all come into question.
- The Guest List: I absolutely LOVED this book, and it sparked my interest in thrillers and mysteries surrounding weddings (I also loved Big Summer and The Perfect Couple which follow the same theme, but those are better summer reads). It's a murder mystery during an extravagant celebrity wedding weekend which takes places on a remote cliff side in Ireland. It's written from the point of view of four different members of the wedding which I loved, and each of them have a reason to have committed the murder so it keeps you guessing til the very end!
- Little Secrets: I loved this book because it was a bit different than the "typical" thriller. It follows Marin, whose previously perfect life is shattered in an instant when her young son is abducted at a busy market and remains missing after a year. After months and months of ceaseless efforts to bring her child home are fruitless, Marin hires a private investigator to pick up where law enforcement left off. Instead of getting information about the disappearance of her son, she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with another woman. Now with a new problem to solve, Marin throws herself into investigating this woman - she cannot husband on top of everything she's already been through.
- Lock Every Door: This book was a slow burn for me - I thought it moved slowly for the first 3/4 but OMG the ending has you questioning everything. It's set in New York City and follows Jules, a young woman going through a life change who lands a job as an apartment sitter in a prestigious historic building. The job seems too good to be true apart from some strange, strict rules that she has to follow to keep the job. She doesn't take the dark history of the building too seriously until one of the other apartment sitters goes missing and she finds herself down a rabbit hole she would've never expected.
- The Housemaid: A friend of mine recommended this one to me and it's an easy read that keeps you guessing! Freshly off a 10-year prison sentence and looking for a fresh start, Millie gets a job as a housekeeper for a wealthy family that starts out great but quickly takes a turn. She puts up with the strange circumstances she has found herself in for as long as she can in order to keep her job, but eventually something has to be done. I love a book with a good twist and this one definitely throws you for a loop! I'm currently reading the sequel, The Housemaid's Secret, and loving it so far!
- The Wife Stalker: This was my most recent read, I had bought it like two years ago and hadn't gotten around to reading it til this year! It's one of those where you kind of think you know where it's going but the ending get you - that's my favorite! It's a page turner told from the point of view of both Joanna, the scorned ex of a well-to-do lawyer (Leo) and Piper, Leo's new wife. Leo and Piper are trying to push Joanna out of their lives and the lives of Leo's two children, who Joanna loves more than anything. Joanna goes digging into Piper's past to find that she may not be who she says she is and makes her fear for the safety of Leo and the children.
Hater reviews: Along with all of the great books that I've read, there are also plenty that I began reading with high hopes but they fell majorly flat for me! I don't read as much as some people, so I really try not to start a book unless I'm pretty sure I'll love it, which was the case for all of these! Of course, take my reviews with a grain of salt because these are books that most people really like.
- Layla: I read this book shortly after I read Verity because it had just come out at the time and I was excited to read something brand new from Colleen Hoover. It started out so good, but the plot quickly became something so unbelievable that I got about 75% of the way through and couldn't even finish it. I won't spoil anything in case you want to read it but I'll leave you with two words: supernatural romance.
- The Quiet Tenant: OMG this one was SUCH a disappointment to me! I saw SO many people recommend it and was so excited to read it. I ended up blowing through it because I was waiting for it to get good and umm... it really didn't. 😂 It reminds me of if a Hallmark movie was a thriller in that there are no major twists and it ends exactly how you expect it to the whole time you're reading. Once you get to the end, you get nothing on what happens after the resolution of the "climax" and that's the one thing I was desperate for the whole time!
- The Silent Patient: This book wasn't actually bad, but I was so underwhelmed by the twist at the end after all of the hype this book gets! Don't get me wrong, it's a good twist, but I don't know! It just didn't really grab me! I also think I just prefer reading books written from a female point of view, so that may have been part of why it didn't pull me in as much. If you're interested in reading this one I would still recommend reading it, it's a great concept for a story, I may have just been in a weird mood when I finished it. 😂
- The Other Mrs.: This one was a letdown to me sort of in the same way that The Silent Patient was - It wasn't BAD, it just didn't surprise me in the way that it should have! I felt like the ending was drug out a bit where it could've been more gripping.
Let me know what I should read next! I have The Last Mrs. Parrish and Home Before Dark on my list, but I'm open to ALL recommendations!
xoxx, Laura
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