I love, love, love the Sloan Krausemystery series—not so much for the puzzling whodunits, but more for the small Bavarian town surrounded by snow-topped mountains and German-themed breweries! Be still, my heart! Here in Texas, I jump at any chance to visit our very own little German town in the Hill Country called Fredericksburg. It’s just too much fun shopping at cutesy stores and dining at my favorite German-themed microbrewery. Oh, how I love the Enchanted Rock Ale… sigh.
Anyhoo, this mystery was a little weak. The killer reveal was kind of a no-brainer, but whatevs. I enjoyed accompanying Sloan and her fellow microbrewing partner/love interest as they puzzled over the mystery whilst visiting with his family, who, of course, are as charming and lovely as Sloan’s in-laws. Naturally, it would be boring if everything worked out perfectly, so Garrett has to come clean with a secret he’s been withholding for silly reasons. This is why romance books drive me nuts—too much secrecy and miscommunication! At least this time, Sloan chose to actually communicate with him instead of holding it all in. Way to go, girl! This might be the first time she’s gotten out of her own way, and I love this for her.
Overall, this book gave me all the wintry, Bavarian village vibes that made my cozy little heart brim with joy. However, die-hard mystery lovers may feel it’s lacking, so please note that this is more of a 100-piece children’s jigsaw puzzle than a 1,000-piece brain-scratcher. In this case, we’re dealing with a rather shady group of doctors and researchers at the local hospital who are about to announce a “breakthrough” medical miracle study that will rock the entire world off its axis. How this is happening in a tiny tourist town of two thousand residents is beyond me, but let’s not overthink it. As it happens, one of the researchers loses her mind when a flash drive goes missing, and she makes a big scene at Nitro while frantically searching for this thing that apparently will be the death of her. Oops… wrong choice of words. Anyhoo… a murder happens—on the ski slopes, of course—and all signs point to the shady doctors.
Again, I wasn’t too thrilled with the mystery in this installment, but I enjoyed the entire experience nonetheless. There’s a lot to be said for interesting characters, a romance you really want to root for, and a cozy Bavarian town that just brims with holiday charm in the wintertime. So grab yourself a hoppy winter ale—or a hot toddy—and curl up with this book for a cozy night in, away from the madness and crowds.
What’s with all the confusing haunted house stories lately? I’m all for a dose of creepy ambiguity, but this one veered into full-on carnival funhouse chaos. I’m being generous with three stars because, honestly, the beginning hooked me.
We meet Eve and Charlie, a house-flipping couple settling into a dilapidated old property. While Charlie’s out on a beer run, a family shows up at the door asking to look around their former home. Personally, that’s an immediate nope—especially for anyone alone in the middle of nowhere—but Eve can’t shake her people-pleasing ways. Cue the strangers making unsettling comments, overstaying their welcome, and then—oh boy—one of the kids disappears into the basement.
Up to this point, the eerie foreshadowing had me glued to the pages. But then the story swerved hard into alternate-universe territory, and my head started spinning. Way, way, way too much was happening, and not in a good way. I’m not a fan of fantasy horror, so this detour wasn’t my jam.
The ending left me scratching my head rather than shivering in ghoulish delight. That said, plenty of readers are raving about this book, so maybe it’s just me. If you love cosmic horror, you’ll probably eat this up. For me, though, it was a promising start that unraveled into confusion.
The Babysitter Lives and Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones ⭐⭐⭐
Nobody—and I mean nobody—writes like Stephen Graham Jones. His imagination is wild, his characters are messy yet endearing, and his BRUTAL death scenes. Few authors can craft a final girl as fierce and rage-fueled as he does.
Most of his protagonists are Indigenous teenage girls navigating broken homes, poverty, and systemic oppression. That’s true for the fearless heroines in both novellas, Killer on the Road and The Babysitter Lives. Of the two, Killer on the Road easily takes the crown for me. Think Death Proof meets Jeepers Creepers meets Joyride: nonstop action and sheer terror along the Wyoming trucker highway with a cannibalistic monster stalking the asphalt. Some of those death scenes will haunt me forever—especially when I’m driving a lonely stretch of road flanked by semis.
The chase kicks off when a runaway hitchhiker crosses paths with some god-fearing Bible thumpers, only to later find them dead in a ditch. From there, she and her friends spiral into a series of very, very bad decisions—resulting in a massive truckstop fire. Once they hit Highway 81, all hell breaks loose, and the ride is pure nightmare fuel. Did I love this story? Mostly yes, but the ending didn’t give me the answers I needed. Ugh!!! I wasn’t too keen on the teenagers’ reckless endangerment, and I certainly could’ve done without some of these scenes involving innocent dogs. But overall, it’s highly entertaining.
As for The Babysitter Lives, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I went in expecting a creepy babysitter horror story, but what I got instead was a strange blend of fantasy horror—complete with time loops, alternate worlds, and an unreliable narrator. Much of it felt confusing, and I often had to reread passages just to piece together what was happening.
Despite plenty of action unfolding throughout Charlotte’s nightmare, the pacing dragged, and at times the story felt overly long and, dare I say, a bit dull. On the bright side, Charlotte herself was a standout. Her determination to protect the kids was fierce, and I couldn’t help but think Laurie Strode would be proud.
Sadly, I missed Stephen Graham Jones at the Texas Book Festival. After running a ten-mile race that morning, I had zero energy left for the downtown gauntlet of driving, parking, and endless walking. Ugh! I’d love the chance to tell him how much his characters mean to me, especially his ruthless final girls. There’s something about them that resonates deeply…maybe it’s that simmering, repressed rage. Jones has a gift for capturing complex emotions that are nearly impossible to put into words, and he does it with such rawness and humor.
I wish I’d snagged his autograph this time, but maybe he’ll make a stop at BookPeople one of these days. Fingers crossed!
I loved this author’s previous book, Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice, but this one just didn’t really sing to my peppermint mocha-loving soul. It’s a cute story about a teenage couple who grew up together and eventually… what do the kids say these days? Oh yes, they caught feelings for each other—yet were incapable of saying the words out loud. Ugh. Not to go off on a tangent here, but this might be the main reason I don’t love romance. These reasonably intelligent people are always jumping to conclusions and suffering in silence when all their problems could be solved with a single conversation!
Sorry, I digressed. So yeah, this is a case of “it is what it is.” I can’t get too upset with a book that follows the same old romance tropes: miscommunication, friends-to-lovers, annoying internal tantrums, passive-aggressive behaviors, etcetera, etcetera. I think this book could have been exponentially improved with a subplot outside of the romance. It needs a mystery to solve, or a mom-and-pop store to be saved, or perhaps a big peppermint mocha barista challenge in the town square! I just needed something else to move the story along.
Also, I’m just wondering why these two think they could ever make it work. Our protagonist, Emma, has a zest for travel and adventure. She can’t get out of that small town fast enough and yearns to attend a college as far away as possible. Aiden, on the other hand, loves his life in Briar Glen and has no desire to move—which is TOTALLY FAIR! I don’t know if the moral of the story is to accept change and leave everything that makes you happy just for the sake of progress. But I don’t think these two should be together. As the kids say, that’s my “hot take.”
Maybe I’m just not a big Emma fan. She brought her new boyfriend to her hometown without even giving Aiden a heads-up? I mean… who does that? Rude. It would be best for everyone if she went back to her fancy boarding school and pursued her path so Aiden can live his best life in Briar Glen.
Although I didn’t love the romance, I did enjoy the Christmassy sights of Briar Glen and the little cameos from characters in the previous book. I would love another book about the coffee shop. Just putting that out there, Miss Katie Cicatelli-Kuc!
Kelley Armstrong’s books have been hit-or-miss with me lately, but I’m happy to say that this one was a HIT! I love the cover art, I love the Headless Horseman element, and I love the haunted, sprawling estate in spooky Upstate New York. It all just worked for me and my incessant need for cozy, gothic fall horror stories.
The story revolves around a down-on-her-luck protagonist, Samantha Payne, who has just inherited her estranged grandfather’s million-dollar estate. Sweet! Now she can finally pay for her mom’s expensive nursing home and go back to medical school. Oh, wait… there’s a catch. She must stay put at the family homestead—surrounded by spooky woods and a dangerous lake—for a whole month. To me, that sounds like a dream come true, but apparently she’s got some very bad memories to deal with, like the time she caught her dad murdering her childhood bully. However, money talks, and this girl is destitute, so off she goes!
I’ll spare you the spoilers, but I will say this was a fun read with a bonus twist ending. Washington Irving is likely rolling around in his grave yet again, but at least we don’t have a pretty boy playing the role of Ichabod Crane. Yeesh, what was Tim Burton thinking?
When I saw the cover and read the dustcover promising a chilling YA ghost-hunting adventure in the infamous Bechelor’s Grove cemetery, I was all in! I really enjoyed how the group of tweens worked together to solve the mystery of the resident ghost who appears sitting atop a grave—a true legend, I might add! It’s all fun and spooky games until the trio of prospective journalists receives ghostly texts on their phones depicting a phantom farmhouse (another true legend!) that beckons them to come inside—and never leave. Borrowing the countdown-to-doom horror trope, the tension ratchets up when the kiddos learn they must solve the mystery before the house swallows them into the abyss. Yikes!
Overall, this is a fun middle-grade mystery, though I’m not really a fan of texting ghosts. It just seems a little silly, no? That said, compared to this author’s previous books, the lead character is much, MUCH more likable, and her passion for journalism feels genuine—which is more than I could say for little Ginny’s obsession with Agatha Christie and locked-room mysteries in What Lives in the Woods.
Props to the author for adding a history lesson about the old Chicago cemetery! Given the bleak reality of our public school crisis, these history lessons are incredibly valuable.
The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall by Charis Cotter
Shout-out to BookPeople for having the best selection of middle-grade and YA mysteries! This store is one of the few reasons I could never leave Austin.
I haven’t seen this book anywhere else, which is a shame because it’s such a great little magical mystery for young readers and… ahem… the young at heart. Finally, I found a book written by an author who clearly went to sleepaway summer camp! Everything about it reminded me of my sweet memories of camp in the Southern California mountains. So many scenes took me back to those carefree summers with my cabin of trouble-making friends.
I loved the main character, Bee, who deals with A LOT of BS from the mean girls—both at home and at camp. Ugh, this girl can’t catch a break. She has a “hearing problem,” meaning she can hear everything and anything from miles away. To cope, she uses internal walls and gates to block out the noise. When the girls catch on that something’s a little off with her, they make her life miserable. Mean girls are like sharks—once they smell blood in the water, they attack!
Anyhoo, things take a turn when Bee finds a new friend, Zippy, who doesn’t care about fitting in. And once Zippy enters the scene, the story takes off! They soon find themselves in a mystery. Why are the older girls (the Hawks) sneaking out every night? Where are they going, and why are their flashlights always dead?
Soon, Bee and Zippy discover hidden tunnels and a whole new world outside their beloved bird-watching summer camp. Somehow, the enigmatic camp owner catches on to their investigations—and she seems to have some secrets of her own. Oh, the intrigue!
Although this book wasn’t scary, I absolutely adored the summer camp atmosphere, the lovable characters, and the magical world-building. It’s an original, creative story set in the 1960s—a time before gadgets, bizarre teenage slang, and text talk. I loved everything about it and can’t wait to read another Charis Cotter!
Misses!
The Better to Eat You With by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Let’s start on a positive note: the cover is fantastic! The image of a dead girl with glowing eyes bobbing in a spooky lake gives me the willies!
Unfortunately… the cover is total false advertising. This is NOT a scary book, nor is it a mystery. It’s a very serious, emotionally heavy story about a girl grappling with an abusive mother and a life-threatening eating disorder. There’s a whisper of a supernatural element—a supposed monster lurking in the background—but it’s not what you’d expect, and the “reveal” left me scratching my head. It felt like the author wanted to write a book about disordered eating but added a horror hook to draw readers in.
I’m really disappointed. I went in expecting eerie vibes and mystery, but instead got an entirely different story that didn’t deliver on the premise the cover promised. I won’t be picking up another book by this author.
Field of Screams by Wendy Parris
Once again, I’ve been suckered into buying a book with an awesome cover, only to be disappointed by a lackluster story devoid of spooks and scares. Cornfields are inherently unsettling—thank you, Children of the Corn—and the setup promised a deliciously spooky tale: a girl trapped in a haunted house across from a sea of whispering stalks. Yes, please.
But alas, this one was a total dud.
It quickly became clear that the author’s true mission wasn’t to scare or thrill, but to deliver lessons about grief, guilt, and resilience. To be fair, these stories are helpful for young readers, but please don’t put them in the horror section when there are no actual horrors!
So, our protagonist, Rebecca, spends most of the book in a fog of melancholy. Things perk up slightly when she encounters a ghost in a nearby farmhouse and starts connecting with her late father’s interest in the paranormal—but even that spark fizzles fast when the story turns back to grief and struggles with her mom’s new romance. Come on, kid! Let your mom get her groove back. Yeesh!
I kept waiting for the story to kick into gear once the ghost appeared, but the supernatural thread felt more like a marketing hook than the actual plotline. It’s the kind of book that seems to have been written with one story in mind, then dressed up in ghostly garb to snag readers with a creepy cool cover.
Honestly, I’m struggling to write a more detailed review because I’ve already forgotten most of it. All in all? Boo. And not in the fun, haunted-house way.
With a heavy heart, I must announce my breakup with Audible and Spotify. Dammit—I’m gonna miss their all-access libraries of new-release audiobooks, but I can’t stomach their Trump-mongering shenanigans any longer. While watching the blasphemous desecration of the White House’s historic East Wing, I felt sick to my stomach about the soulless, greedy, power-hungry funders behind it. Lo and behold, Heather Cox Richardson (who I consider to be the voice of our nation) shared a list of big tech companies funding the forthcoming King’s ballroom. Google, YouTube (owned by Google), Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and many other tech giants are behind this—and for what? It all comes down to greed, power, and the breakdown of antitrust laws that will soon limit us all to the worst of the worst companies for all our technology.
It’s coming, y’all, if we don’t do something to stop it. And we can stop it! Look at how quickly Disney caved after the mass cancellations amidst the Jimmy Kimmel/freedom of speech debacle. Our pocketbooks wield great power—but it takes all of us to unite against evil. With the click of a mouse, we can cut off their life support. Yes, it hurts a little. Sacrifices will have to be made, but we can do it. Just look at how communities came together and made personal sacrifices during WWII.
I get that we live in an individualistic, isolationist society, thanks to COVID quarantines and social media, which may make it harder for people to see the forest through the trees. However, the forest is burning, and the flames are heading our way. In case you haven’t noticed, SNAP (food stamps) benefits will be cut off in November, leaving many families dependent on charities and food pantries. Meanwhile, the Orange Blob in Chief is tearing down the White House and building a royal ballroom, funded by tech giants that have Americans wrapped around their little fingers.
This has been on my mind all morning, so I spent a good part of my Saturday taking inventory of all my subscriptions and Googling (oh, the irony) which companies own them. This led me down quite the rabbit hole, but it needed to be done. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even know my Ring camera is owned by Amazon, that I’ve been overpaying for my Audible subscription ($18 per month!), and that I’ve been hanging on to my Amazon Prime subscription ($15 per month). My god, I’ve been giving Bezos a good chunk of change every month, which means I’ve been subsidizing the White House desecration among many other traitorous activities.
While traveling down the rabbit hole, I did a little research on Spotify and stumbled across some highly disturbing news. This company—and HBO/MAX (another subscription I have to cancel)—are running ICE recruitment ads with disturbing dystopian language like “protect our American freedom.” Oh. My. God. Well, I guess I can kiss those premium audiobooks goodbye, which really hurts. I’m not going to lie—it’s going to be tough living without these services. But what other choice do I have? Financially support fascism so I can keep my little creature comforts? No thanks. I have plenty of access to free books via the Austin Public Library, and I can always just buy books at the bookstore, thus supporting authors and brick-and-mortar bookstores in the process. Now that’s something I can live with—and I’ll sleep a little better at night.
Anyhoo, if this is triggering your “cancel culture” narrative, I’m so very sorry (but not really). Call it what you will, but at some point, we all need to reconcile with the fact that we are losing our democracy—and it’s time to wake up and start canceling Big Tech as much as we can.
In exchange for an honest review, I have to be—well—honest: this one didn’t quite land for me. While there were undeniably eerie elements that evoked the unsettling atmosphere of The Blair Witch Project (being cornered by unseen forces) and Candyman (those chilling subliminal whispers of “nobody sees, nobody cares”), the overall pacing dragged.
Alex North is talented at weaving creepy plot devices into his stories, and they’re certainly present here, but the slow progression made it tough to stay fully engaged. The audiobook format didn’t help either—alternating narrators between the main character and his father, across different timelines, plus the added layer of internal voices, made it a challenge to keep everything straight. Honestly, it left me feeling disoriented more often than not.
I suspect I might’ve had a better experience reading the physical book, but alas. This wasn’t my favorite by North, but I have to admit—it delivered a few solid goosebumps. So, not a total miss.
Trigger Warning: Mushrooms 🍄 (Seriously, Why?) Okay, first things first—why did no one warn me about the mushrooms? I mean, yuck. How do people eat those things without questioning their life choices? But once I got past the fungal horror, I dove into what turned out to be a stellar middle-grade horror novel. Sure, I’m a few decades past the target age group, but how could I resist a story from the twisted genius behind A Head Full of Ghosts?
Summed Up (No Spoilers, Promise): Casey’s going through a hard time after a humiliating online classroom incident leaves him isolated and friendless. Things take a bizarre turn when a mysterious stranger shows up at his doorstep with an unexpected houseguest: a waxy, practically faceless boy named Morel. He doesn’t eat. He doesn’t sleep. He’s definitely not normal. Who—or what—is Morel? You’ll have to read to find out.
What Worked: This book is unsettling in the best way—even for the young at heart!! Paul Tremblay doesn’t know how to write not creepy, and I’m grateful for that. The story kept me guessing, which is rare in middle-grade horror, a genre that often leans on predictable tropes. What are the dark forces swirling around Morel? Why is his appearance shifting so rapidly? And what’s going on with Casey’s parents, who seem to be drifting into some kind of dazed oblivion? I tore through this in one afternoon because I had to know.
Thoughts on Character Development: Tremblay doesn’t just deliver scares—he builds characters you care about. Casey’s loneliness, his awkwardness, his desperate need for best friend – it all brings back so many memories from my mispent youth. He’s also navigating life with a visible disability, which Tremblay handles with authenticity. Seriously, so many YA authors need to take notes because it seems like they’re just ticking off some boxes to stay on top of the trends.
Final Verdict: This debut middle-grade horror novel is eerie, emotionally resonant, and totally absorbing. Young readers will find themselves in Casey’s struggles—and older readers will appreciate the creepy foreshadowing and twist ending!
Summed Up: Spanning generations from the Civil War through the 1940s, this sweeping saga follows a sprawling family tree entangled in tragedy. Dozens of interconnected lives unravel through wave after wave of misfortune—brief moments of light dimmed by relentless darkness. At the heart of it all lurks a malevolent force, vengeful and unseen, pulling the strings from the shadows. Spooooooky stuff, eh? Well…sort of.
What’s Missing: After an unforgettable book talk with the author—joined by her fiddlin’ and friends from the Dixie Chicks (cousins, maybe?)—I was all in on the Southern Gothic allure: ghosts, legends, and that thick, haunted humidity of lore. But the malevolent shadow lurking in the woods? It felt more like a footnote than a threat. The dark presence made only a handful of fleeting appearances, easy to forget amid the ceaseless stream of sorrows. And when it did show up, it slipped away just as fast—like a mosquito you swat without thinking, while trying to enjoy a cold Shiner on the porch swing.
What I Liked: While the book is short on ghosts, it is heavy on atmosphere and intrigue. I wasn’t too keen on most of the highly flawed characters (particularly the milquetoast women), and oh—don’t even get me started on Luke and his father, who apparently embraced the “gentle parenting” trend way back in the day. Yet despite all that, I was heavily invested in their stories and anxiously watched the impending trainwreck unfold. Most of all, I loved the descriptions of historic Bandera, my favorite vacation spot in all of Texas! There’s even a group of characters from Pipe Creek—a tiny spot near Boerne where my husband and I stay at least twice a year.
Thoughts on the Characters: In this sprawling, multi-generational saga, you’ll encounter a whole cast of characters grappling with more than their fair share of… personal challenges. Unfortunately, the women in this tale feel shortchanged. Many come across as one-dimensional, lacking the grit, depth, and moral backbone you’d expect—even hope for. Sure, the setting nods to a time when women were often sidelined in favor of their rugged, boot-stompin’ cowboy counterparts—but history’s full of exceptions. It would’ve been nice to have at least one kick-ass woman fighting the forces of evil, but oh well.
The Pacing: Grab your Dramamine because the choppiness might make you seasick! Just when I get hit with a wallop of sadness, the next chapter picks up at another time and place. I don’t get to process the tragedy that just happened because the author has already moved on to the next unfortunate event. My unsolicited advice is to take it down a notch and pay homage to the beloved character you just knocked off. I know readers have short attention spans, but dang! Give this girl a chance to grieve!
Overall: Despite my grievances, I would be lying if I said this wasn’t an interesting story. It was worth every penny of the $20 I forked over for a paperback, and I certainly will read another book by this new author. This was a big undertaking for a debut novel, so I give her props for pulling it off. I just hope she can give us some better characters in her next novel.
I’ll begin with a hypothetical question. Imagine working as an actor at a haunted house and somehow getting trapped in a sarcophagus with a dead body. This isn’t just any dead body—it’s your friend who was murdered—someone you actually care about. What do you do? Call the police like a normal person or stay silent and continue to work at the haunted house knowing a deranged killer is on the loose? I’m hoping you’d go with the former, but hey, kids these days.
So, against my better judgement, I decided to soldier through with this book hoping it would get better. It did not. A big chunk of the story involves the main character and his love interest, an edgy coffeehouse barista, running around the haunted house to erase any incriminating evidence…because yeah, it’s a bad look when you find a dead body and stay silent.
I’m sorry, y’all. I couldn’t get passed this. I tried to get involved in the mystery, but it ended up being rather anticlimactic since the suspects were so glaringly obvious. Was this even meant to be a whodunnit? I don’t know. And why is a scary clown on the cover? I was hoping for some psycho clown action, but nope, just a bunch of teenagers running amok at a local haunted house.
I hate to be a downer, so I will end on a positive note! I love the premise of a haunted house gone wrong and all the spooky vibes, but that’s about all I can offer.
BUBBLE BUBBLE BOOKS & TROUBLE 