Book Review: Alone in the Wild (Rockton, #5) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Alone in the Wild
Series: Rockton, #5
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: February 4, 2020
Length: 369 pages
Genre: Thriller/mystery
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In #1 New York Times bestseller Kelley Armstrong’s latest thriller, the hidden town of Rockton is about to face a challenge none of them saw coming: a baby.

Every season in Rockton seems to bring a new challenge. At least that’s what Detective Casey Duncan has felt since she decided to call this place home. Between all the secretive residents, the sometimes-hostile settlers outside, and the surrounding wilderness, there’s always something to worry about.

While on a much needed camping vacation with her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, Casey hears a baby crying in the woods. The sound leads them to a tragic scene: a woman buried under the snow, murdered, a baby still alive in her arms.

A town that doesn’t let anyone in under the age of eighteen, Rockton must take care of its youngest resident yet while solving another murder and finding out where the baby came from – and whether she’s better off where she is.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong again delivers an engaging, tense thriller set in perhaps the most interesting town in all of contemporary crime fiction.

I’m completely hooked on the Rockton series by Kelley Armstrong, and waited less than a month after finishing book 4, Watcher in the Woods, before diving back in with the 5th book, Alone in the Wild. Needless to say, book #5 provided yet another immersive, exciting reading experience — I couldn’t put it down!

Once again, a quick recap of the series premise:

Rockton is a secret hidden town in the Yukon wilderness, a haven for those seeking extreme shelter from dangers in their real lives — or those who’ve committed some sort of wrongdoing and need a place to start over. Rockton, population 200, is filled with an uneasy mix of crime victims and white-collar criminals — although as Sheriff Eric Dalton and Detective Casey Butler come to discover, the town council is willing to defy its own rules for a price and allow more dangerous people to take advantage of Rockton’s protection.

Alone in the Wild picks up the story about six months after the events of the previous books. Casey and Eric are taking a much-needed vacation from their policing duties in Rockton, enjoying a couple of nights of camping out in the wild, when Casey hears an unexpected sound: a baby crying. She makes a disturbing discovery: a dead woman cradling a living baby, both buried under the fresh snow. The death is obviously very recent, but there’s no time to investigate — the baby is alive, but barely; Casey and Eric rush the baby back to Rockton for immediate medical care before returning to the corpse to look for clues.

Their primary focus is identifying the baby, a girl who appears to be about a month old. From examining the dead woman, it’s clear that she is not the mother of the child… and it’s also clear that she’s been murdered. While crimes not related to the residents of Rockton are outside Casey and Eric’s jurisdiction, they realize that solving this woman’s murder might lead them to the baby’s family, and their priority is returning her to her rightful parents, if they can be found.

Meanwhile, Casey and Eric become the baby’s de facto foster parents, with the help of the rest of Rockton, raising important questions for them as a couple. Due to serious injuries sustained during a life-changing attack in her teens, Casey doesn’t know whether she’ll ever be able to carry a pregnancy to term. Caring for the baby forces Casey and Eric to discuss whether they could see themselves as parents, and what it might mean for them as a couple. Meanwhile, concerns about whether the baby’s parents are capable of raising her bring up uncomfortable memories from Eric’s own past. The complicated emotions brought on by confronting these issues move Eric and Casey’s relationship forward in important ways.

Of course, the investigation itself is fascinating, as it involves venturing far beyond Rockton’s borders and making contact with settler communities who abide by very different rules, beliefs, and ethical standards. This broadens the world of the series in new and interesting ways, and I’m sure will have important implications in future books.

As always, there are plenty of twists and turns, and every time I thought I had something figured out, I was surprised yet again by how inventive and unpredictable Kelley Armstrong’s mystery writing can be.

With two books left in the series, I’m trying to pace myself rather than rushing straight through. It’s a challenge! My goal is to finish the Rockton books in 2025, then start the spin-off series, Haven’s Rock, in 2026.

Next up in the Rockton series:

Book #6, A Stranger in Town

Interested in this series? Check out my reviews of the previous books:
City of the Lost (Rockton, #1)
A Darkness Absolute (Rockton, #2)
This Fallen Prey (Rockton, #3)
Watcher in the Woods (Rockton, #4)

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

3Sep2025

Book Review: Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Writing Mr. Wrong
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: June 24, 2025
Print length: 333 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased

From a New York Times bestselling author, a second-chance rom-com about an author who goes viral when readers discover her book’s hero was inspired by a beloved pro hockey player—and her high school crush.

Debut author Gemma Stanton knows romance readers love a bad boy—and she has the perfect prototype for her novel: Mason Moretti. High school hockey god-turned-pro player, Mason was Gemma’s first crush, but she couldn’t forget the sting of his very public rejection. So, she casts him as a hot-headed Highlander in her spicy new historical romance.

She never expected readers would find out on live TV when a morning show host invites Mason for a surprise on-air reunion . . .

As an aging hockey player with a rep for being ruthless on the ice—and roguish off of it—Mason has an image problem. So, when his meet-cute with Gemma goes viral, Mason proposes they build on the momentum with a few fake dates to boost her book sales—and his sagging profile.

But when the fictional flirting gets a little too real, Mason realizes Gemma actually makes him want to become a better man—someone worthy of her trust and her love.

I adore pretty much everything I’ve read by Kelley Armstrong, but I’ll admit I was surprised when she published her first contemporary romance last year, Finding Mr. Write. Quite a departure from her thrillers, ghost stories, and timeslip adventures! And yet, I shouldn’t have been surprised that the book was terrific. She’s such a gifted writer — there’s no doubt that whatever she writes, in whatever genre, will be well worth reading.

And now, Armstrong is back with a follow-up romance: Writing Mr. Wrong. Once again focused on a romance writer, this book connects with the previous in that the main character is the sister of the other book’s love interest. That said, it’s absolutely not necessary to read these in a particular order. (Just grab whichever you can find!)

In Writing Mr. Wrong, the main character is Gemma Stanton, a debut author in her mid-thirties who has returned to her true passion — writing — after a bitter divorce and too many years of stifling her dreams. When she’s invited on a local talk show to celebrate her book’s release, the host — a former high school classmate — blindsides her by including Mason Moretti, a huge hockey star for the Vancouver Growlers, and Gemma’s high school crush.

The first romance Gemma had written featured the kind of guy she liked—sweet and considerate. When it hadn’t sold, her writing group had talked her into penning what the market seemed to want. An alpha hero. A self-absorbed, egotistical, inconsiderate, talks-with-his-fists asshole. So she’d dipped into her past and pulled up the perfect guy for the role.

To anyone who knows Mason the similarity between him and Gemma’s fictional hero (and asshole) Laird Argyle is glaringly obvious. Gemma is mortified, but Mason does his best to save the situation and spare her embarrassment.

As they talk afterward, Mason is kind, but Gemma is wary. He hurt her badly back in high school, and it’s been almost twenty years since then with no contact. Mason has a suggestion: Why not pretend to date for a bit, with support from their publicists? It’s sure to boost her book sales, capitalize on the gossip from the talk show, and will also help with his own PR, which has taken a hit recently.

With hesitation, Gemma agrees, and Mason promises her a perfect date — which he then plans without consulting her in the slightest. It’s a disaster, to say the least. But when they go off-script for a more spontaneous outing, sparks fly, and some of their easy connection from their teen years starts to come back.

Gemma and Mason clearly have unfinished business and unresolved feelings, and could potentially be great together — but Mason is (as Gemma’s mother describes him) careless. He’s not intentionally or knowingly an asshole, but he makes assumptions and fails to see how his good intentions might backfire if he’s not considering the other person involved. Mason gets a rude awakening when he finally reads Gemma’s book and realizes that he should NOT be flattered by being the inspiration for Laird Argyle — the guy is awful, and Mason is forced to consider how much truth there is in his fictional portrayal.

The latter part of the book focuses on Mason requesting anti-asshole lessons from Gemma — he’ll whisk them away to wherever she wants, to her specifications, where she can work on her next book, he’ll do all the meals and organizing, and in return, she’ll explain to him why his choices don’t always work, and where he could do better. Of course, things don’t always go as planned, but there’s quite a bit of fun to be had in seeing the two of them navigate travel mishaps, bad decisions, and readjustment of expectations.

Gemma and Mason clearly have chemistry, and both are portrayed sympathetically. For all that Mason screws up, he’s not a bad guy — not at all — and needs to learn to overcome the avoidance patterns drilled into him from childhood. His intentions and heart are generally lovely; it’s in the execution that he fails. Meanwhile, Gemma has lots of baggage from both her teen years with Mason and the years with her terrible ex-husband. She too has work to do, in terms of overcoming fears, learning to trust, and making sure not to lose herself for the sake of making someone else love her.

I really enjoyed both characters and their story arcs, and the book overall is a treat. There’s terrific banter, plenty of chemistry, and some lovely set pieces and funny mishaps.

I did wonder about Gemma’s book — to me, it sounds pretty unappealing, but I suppose there are readers who would enjoy such a story. (And it’s heartening to see that as Gemma gets her confidence back, she’s able to stand up for herself with her publisher and transform her second novel into the story that she truly wants to tell.)

Writing Mr. Wrong is a delight — clever, funny, serious when it needs to be, and totally entertaining. I’m not sure when exactly Kelley Armstrong sleeps: Writing Mr. Wrong is one of four novels novels she’s releasing in 2025. All I can say is that I’m grateful that it’ll be a very long time before I run out of her books to read!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

28Aug2025

Book Review: Watcher in the Woods (Rockton, #4) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Watcher in the Woods
Series: Rockton, #4
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: February 5, 2019
Length: 364 pages
Genre: Thriller/mystery
Source: Library
Rating:

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s latest thriller, the town of Rockton—and her fans—are in for another hair-raising adventure.

The secret town of Rockton has seen some rocky times lately; understandable considering its mix of criminals and victims fleeing society for refuge within its Yukon borders. Casey Duncan, the town’s only detective on a police force of three, has already faced murder, arson and falling in love in less than the year that she’s lived there. Yet even she didn’t think it would be possible for an outsider to find and cause trouble in the town she’s come to call home.

When a US Marshal shows up in town demanding the release of one of the residents, Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Dalton, are skeptical. And yet only hours later, the marshal is shot dead and the only visible suspects are the townspeople and her estranged sister, in town for just the weekend. It’s up to Casey to figure out who murdered the marshal, and why they would kill to keep him quiet.

In the chronology of the Rockton books, Watcher in the Woods picks up the story three days (3! Days!) after the events of This Fallen Prey. Had I realized that ahead of time, I might have just read straight through… but regardless, even after just a couple of weeks, reentering the world of Rockton is like diving straight into a roaring river — rocks and rapids ahead!

If you’ve read my reviews for any of the previous books, you’ll know (a) I’m hooked, and (b) the overall premise of the series… but just in case, here’s my standard quickie recap:

As Watcher in the Woods opens, the town is dealing with the fallout from events in book #3, but in Rockton, there’s never a moment without some new catastrophe on the horizon. A stranger shows up, watching the town, and there’s no way that should be possible. Confronted by Eric and Casey, he states that he’s a US Marshall come to detain one of their residents, who’s actually a dangerous criminal. Eric and Casey are immediately skeptical: How do they know he’s a marshall? Why would he come alone? How can they trust anything this man says?

It becomes moot after the Marshall is shot as they bring him back to town, although now they have new problems on their hands. Is there actually a killer hiding out in Rockton? Can they trust anyone? Who is this dead man, and what fresh problems does his death present?

Meanwhile, Casey has convinced her distant, talented neurosurgeon sister to make a stealth visit to Rockton to perform surgery on one of their residents — the town’s lack of a resident physician is one of their more urgent problems — and her presence in town raises all sorts of other issues, both personal and professional for Casey.

There’s plenty of danger, and some beautifully orchestrated mind games, as Casey once again has to figure out whether people she trusts have betrayed her (and why), whether people she thought she knew are really who they say they are, and what to do to maintain peace and safety in a town that never seems to know a moment of either.

Casey and Eric’s relationship continues to be a treat, and I love how each book gives us more backstory for different Rockton residents as well. Some new characters promise to add even more depth to the community going forward, and the ongoing struggle with the anonymous council that controls the town continues to be fraught, and clearly will be something that Casey and Eric will ultimately have to confront.

There are a lot of balls in the air in the story, but the author is a master juggler. The narrative is complex and full of twists, but it all comes together and the story moves forward quite well. Can’t say more without spoilers!

Obviously, I’m loving this series, and recommend it highly! But start at the beginning, of course.

That’s four books down, three to go… and I can’t wait to dive into book #5!

Next up:

Book #5, Alone in the Wild

Interested in this series? Check out my reviews of the previous books:
City of the Lost (Rockton, #1)
A Darkness Absolute (Rockton, #2)
This Fallen Prey (Rockton, #3)

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

3Aug2025

Book Review: This Fallen Prey (Rockton, #3) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: This Fallen Prey
Series: Rockton, #3
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: February 6, 2018
Length: 359 pages
Genre: Thriller/mystery
Source: Library
Rating:

In This Fallen Prey, the next installment of New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s thriller series, Casey Duncan is about to face her toughest job as police detective in Rockton yet. When Casey first arrived at the off-the-grid town, an isolated community built as a haven for people running from their pasts, she had no idea what to expect, with no cell phones, no internet, no mail, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. She certainly didn’t expect to be the homicide detective on two separate cases or to begin a romantic relationship with her boss. But the very last thing she expected was for the council to drop a dangerous criminal into their midst without a plan to keep him imprisoned and to keep others safe. Of course, Oliver Brady claims he’s being set up. But the longer Brady stays in town, the more things start to go wrong. When evidence comes to light that someone inside Rockton might be working as his accomplice, helping him to escape, Casey races to figure out who exactly Brady is and what crimes he’s truly responsible for committing. In the next page-turning entry in Kelley Armstrong’s gripping series, life in Rockton is about to get even more dangerous.

To say I’m hooked on Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton series might be an understatement. I’m obsessed! These stories build one upon the other, and so far, each leaves me thirsty for more immediately after turning the final page.

This Fallen Prey is the 3rd book in this 7-book series, and it’s a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled race through danger — and yet, it also gives us time to spend with the characters and in the town that we’ve come to know.

Quick recap (or see links below for my reviews of earlier books): Rockton is a secret hidden town in the Yukon wilderness, a haven for those seeking extreme shelter from dangers in their real lives — or those who’ve committed some sort of wrongdoing and need a place to start over. Rockton, population 200, is filled with an uneasy mix of crime victims and white-collar criminals — although as Sheriff Eric Dalton and Detective Casey Butler come to discover, the town council is willing to defy its own rules for a price and allow more dangerous people to take advantage of Rockton’s protection.

As This Fallen Prey opens, a plane arrives on Rockton’s hidden airstrip, delivering a man named Oliver Brady into the town’s custody. The note accompanying his arrival explains that he’s a serial killer, being sent to Rockton for detention by his wealthy stepfather, who hopes to shield Brady’s mother from the grief of a trial and sentencing. There are all sorts of problems with this, especially (a) Rockton was given no warning of his arrival and (b) the town has no detention facilities except one jail cell, typically used for those needing to sleep off a bar fight for a night. With no preparation yet no way to refuse or send Brady back, Eric and Casey are stuck with a dangerous killer to keep under lock and key.

Complicating matters is Brady’s insistence that he’s innocent, set up by his greedy stepfather who just wants him out of the way in order to grab his share of the family fortune. A further complication is that half the town seem to believe him. Some want to free him, but many others want to lynch him. Eric and Casey need to discover the truth, but when Brady manages to escape into the wilderness surrounding Rockton, they find themselves on a hunt for a man they can’t trust but can’t quite condemn.

As with the previous Rockton books, the danger ratchet up page by page, and the chase through the woods is scary and full of new threats and enemies with each turn of the path. The plot is twisty and misleading and full of contradictions, which all come together by the end with a bang.

This Fallen Prey wraps up the core mystery surrounding Brady, but leaves many more big picture questions hanging — which is probably what makes this series so additive. The main story has a conclusion, but there are several thing that occur that seem like critical new wrinkles in our understanding of how the town works and what the roles of various characters are. I’m desperate to know more!

Meanwhile, Casey and Eric’s relationship continues to be a wonderful centerpiece, as their two wildly different backstories add complications to their already complex work and love lives. I love seeing them navigate their differences, their needs, and their respective roles in the town, while also establishing a loving, respectful, supportive commitment to their lives together.

I can’t wait to start the next book in the series — although I’m trying to force myself to take breaks in between and enjoy a bit of the suspense!

Next up:

Book #4, Watcher in the Woods

Interested in this series? Check out my reviews of the previous books:
City of the Lost (Rockton, #1)
A Darkness Absolute (Rockton, #2)

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

22Jul2025

Book Review: A Darkness Absolute (Rockton, #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Darkness Absolute
Series: Rockton, #2
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: February 7, 2017
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Thriller/mystery
Source: Library
Rating:

When experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. What she didn’t expect is that Rockton comes with its own set of secrets and dangers.

Now, in A Darkness Absolute, Casey and her fellow Rockton sheriff’s deputy Will chase a cabin-fevered resident into the woods, where they are stranded in a blizzard. Taking shelter in a cave, they discover a former resident who’s been held captive for over a year. When the bodies of two other women turn up, Casey and her colleagues must find out if it’s an outsider behind the killings or if the answer is more complicated than that…before another victim goes missing.

A Darkness Absolute is the 2nd book in Kelley Armstrong’s 7-book Rockton series, and it successfully delivers on the promise of City of the Lost, the first book in the series. To catch up those unfamiliar with the series, the basic premise is as follows: There’s a remote town — Rockton, population 200 — located in the wilds of Canada’s Yukon territory. It’s home to those fleeing danger who need complete isolation from the outside world, but it also offers shelter to some with questionable pasts who need a way to hide out and start over. There are no navigable roads in or out — new residents arrive by bush plane, and can only leave the same way. Relocating to Rockton is a serious commitment, requiring the approval of the elusive and morally questionable town council.

The main character is Casey Duncan (known in Rockton as Casey Butler) — a homicide detective who survived trauma as a teen, and has been living with a dark secret every since: After surviving the assault that left her with lasting physical and psychological scars, she confronted the ex-boyfriend who abandoned her to her attackers, and unintentionally shot and killed him. Now, in Rockton, she has a fresh start, which involves working round the clock to solve the surprisingly high number of crimes that seem to crop up in this small, isolated town.

As A Darkness Absolute opens, Casey has been living in Rockton for about four months. The longer she’s there, the more secrets come to light, including the dirty details about some of Rockton’s sketchier residents. Casey reports to Sheriff Eric Dalton, with whom she also has a romantic relationship. Their dynamics are intense, but it works.

When Casey and deputy Will Anders discover a woman held hostage in a cave for a year — someone who’d been assumed to have left Rockton of her own free will — it opens up a new set of dangers and discoveries. Who took her, and why? And how does this connect to the newly discovered bodies of women who’d disappeared years earlier?

The mystery here is convoluted and tricky, with plenty of clues, misdirections, suspects, and conflicting timelines. There’s plenty of danger, too. The forest around Rockton is full of threats — human, animal, and environmental — and each time Eric, Casey, or anyone else from the town ventures past Rockton’s borders, they’re at immense risk. No one comes out of this case unscathed, and even more disturbing secrets about the town, the town council, and the various residents come to light.

The set-up for the series is terrific, and Casey and Eric have a fascinating chemistry, both on and off the job. I loved seeing their relationship progress — they even get a dog! There’s danger around every corner, and any interaction with a Rockton resident needs to be examined for hidden agendas and threats.

The tension never lets up, and while the ultimate solution definitely works, it takes a mind-boggling effort at times to keep track of the players, the timelines, and the possible motives behind each person’s actions. No one is safe — and Casey in particular ends up in grave peril over and over again. The suspense of it all makes A Darkness Absolute a compelling page-turner, while the characters and their relationships and connections add emotional heft and a sense of deep stakes as the action unfolds.

When I picked up A Darkness Absolute, I realized a refresher on book #1, City of the Lost, might be helpful, so I reread that one as well. I’m glad I did: While A Darkness Absolute would have made sense anyway, it was good to become reacquainted with some of the supporting characters and their backstories.

I can’t wait to continue with the series! With five books still to go, plus a spin-off series, there’s plenty left to read. I don’t think I’ll binge straight through, but I do want to keep going while the details are fresh in my mind. So far, the Rockton series is just as great I’d expected, and I’m eager to see what’s ahead for Casey and Eric.

Next up:

Book #3, This Fallen Prey

1Jul2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Books to Read (2025 update)

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s is a Freebie/Throwback, with the prompt: Come up with a topic you’d like to do or go back and do an old topic you missed or just want to do again! Looking back at earlier TTT topics, I thought I’d go back and provide an update on my freebie topic from spring 2024: Backlist Books To Read.

What you’ll see below is a duplicate of my 2024 list… but with notes on which books I’ve read, which I’m still interested in, and which I’m not planning to pursue. I’ve actually read a decent amount of these… yay, me!

Here’s my 2025 update on my 2024 backlist post:

1. Kristin Hannah – Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I read The Nightingale earlier this year, and loved it! My review is here. I’d still like to get to the other two, and probably more beyond that.

2. TJ Klune: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

(Note: Same book; original cover on the left, new cover for the 2025 reissue on the right)

2025 update: Read it, loved it! My review is here. I do have a few other early books by TJ Klune marked as to-read:

I’m not necessarily rushing to pick these up — but please do let me know if you’ve read them and recommend them!

3. William Kent Krueger: Backlist title (series) identified in 2024:

2025 update: Probably going to pass. I’m not really looking to get involved in even more series at the moment, and mysteries aren’t my go-to genre in any case.

4. Dana Stabenow: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Again, probably not. I do love this author, but I think I’ll hold off on any backlist titles, and will look forward to her upcoming 2026 new release, The Harvey Girl.

5. Abby Jimenez: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Yes! Read them all! I didn’t love this trilogy quite as much as the Part of Your World trilogy… but I still enjoyed all of these (especially the 2nd book) and I’m glad I read them!

6. Rachel Harrison: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Yes! This book was so creepy and disturbing, and I loved it! My review is here. And now, I’m eagerly awaiting her 2025 new release, Play Nice, coming this fall.

7. Kelley Armstrong: Backlist titles identified in 2024 (two different series starters):

2025 update: I read City of the Lost, book #1 in the Rockton series, and I’m eager to continue! In fact, I’m hoping to start the 2nd book this month. As for the Cainsville series, this will remain a “maybe someday” read for me, but I don’t feel any urgency about it.

8. Jenny Colgan: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I did read Where Have All the Boys Gone (review)… and didn’t especially love it. I have a feeling that her earlier books may all feel a bit dated to me at this point, so I don’t think I’ll follow through with any others. (But who knows? Never say never, when it comes to favorite authors…)

9. Eva Ibbotson: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I didn’t get to any of these, but still want to!

10. Katherine Center: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I didn’t get to either of these… but I still intend to! And then I’ll have made it through all of her backlist books.

BONUS PICKS: Because why stop at 10? Here are a few more authors I’m adding to my 2025 list, whose backlists I need to explore:

Victoria Schwab: After loving both The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (review) and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (watch for my review later this week!), I’m feeling like I really should try her YA fiction too. Any favorites? Suggestions on where to start?
Jennifer Weiner: I’ve read lots of her books, but there are plenty more that I’ve missed over the years. The two highest on my priority list are Mrs. Everything and Big Summer.
Colleen Oakley: I’ve read her more recent books, but still need to get to You Were There Too and Before I Go.

Have you read any of my backlist picks? Any you especially recommend?

If you wrote a freebie post this week, what topic did you choose? Please share your link!

24Jun2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025.

All of a sudden it’s summer, and… whoosh!… time is flying by. It’s hard to think about the 2nd half of 2025 already, when I’ve barely kept up with my reading plans from the 1st half.

Here are ten books scheduled for release from July through December that I’m looking forward to:

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (7/15/2025)
The Last Wizards’ Ball (Gunnie Rose, #6) by Charlaine Harris (7/55/2025)
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (8/19/2025)
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison (9/9/2025)
The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures, #2) by Katherine Rundell (9/11/2025)
The Shattering Peace (Old Man’s War, #7) by John Scalzi (9/19/2025)
Silver and Lead (October Daye, #19) by Seanan McGuire (9/30/2025)
The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow by Kelley Armstrong (10/14/2025)
The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (10/14/2025)
Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs (10/21/2025)

What upcoming new releases are you most excited for? Please share your TTT links!

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17Jun2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for summer 2025

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List.

It’s impossible to keep up with all the books I have my eyes on! Here are the top 10 I most want to make time for… preferably for reading outdoors, in the sun, with warm breezes and a big iced coffee to go with them!

Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
The Last Wizards’ Ball by Charlaine Harris
Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
The Fair Folk by Su Bristow

What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your TTT links!

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15May2025

Book Review: Death at a Highland Wedding (A Rip Through Time, #4) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Death at a Highland Wedding
Series: A Rip Through Time, #4
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: May 20, 2025
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/mystery
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
Rating:

Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth installment in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s gripping Rip Through Time Novels.

After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she’s developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie’s younger sister’s wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who’s been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat’s injuries don’t match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s unique time travel mystery series continues to entertain as Mallory adjusts to life in the 1870s.

How to talk about the 4th book in a series? I’m tempted to simply say: Read this. It’s good! But no, I’ll attempt to explain why its so good, and why this is a must-read series.

Death at a Highland Wedding is the 4th full-length novel in Kelley Armstrong’s excellent A Rip Through Time series. (There are also a few novellas that serve as little side treats in between the main books).

In this series, Mallory Atkinson, 21st century homicide detective, accidentally crosses through a time anomaly and finds herself in Victorian Era Edinburgh, inhabiting the body of a beautiful but deceitful young housemaid. Four books into the series, the housemaid’s employer has accepted the weird-but-true fact that the person who looks like his maid is actually a highly trained, highly independent detective from 150 years in the future. Mallory has been “promoted” to assistant to her employer, Duncan Grey, an undertaker, trained physician, and lover of science and scientific inquiry. Because Duncan assists his best friend Hugh McCreadie with police investigations, Mallory is able to be of service — and introduces them to all sorts of 21st century forensic procedures not even dreamed of in Victorian times.

As Death at a Highland Wedding opens, Mallory has been living in this time period for about a year, and the household, along with Hugh, is taking a vacation of sorts. An old friend of Duncan and Hugh’s is getting married at his Highlands estate, and this is an opportunity for Mallory to experience yet another aspect of her new life.

At the estate, however, things quickly go off the rails. First, there’s an unpleasant groundskeeper who sets wickedly dangerous traps all over the property. There’s also some tension amongst the party attending the wedding, as former lovers and friends and connections intertwine in uncomfortable ways. The entire wedding is on the verge of cancellation once a dead body is discovered — it’s the best man, killed while out at night wearing the groom’s coat. Who was the true intended victim, what was the motive, and who could have carried out the violent act?

Hugh, Duncan, and Mallory seem like the obvious team to solve the mystery, but the young, inexperienced local constable has jurisdiction, and doesn’t want outside interference. When he bungles the process — badly — our trio undertake their own investigation on the down-low, trying to solve the murder while not letting the constable know what they’re up to.

In a house full of potential suspects and plenty of motives, Mallory et al have almost too many trails to follow. There are red herrings galore, and plenty of scandals to unearth — and naturally, the closer they get to the truth, the more they themselves are in danger.

Ah, this book is such delicious fun! First, the mystery itself is surprisingly twisted. What at first seems like a classic country house murder mystery is revealed to be that, but dialed up to eleven. I loved the fact that my guesses continually turned out to be wrong! Every time I was sure I knew who was particularly shady or dishonest or underhanded, something else popped up to steer me in a different direction. It’s a treat to read a mystery and not see the big reveals coming.

Second, and for me, the absolute best, is the ongoing delight of seeing Mallory navigate her new world. In previous books, it seemed that she’d have an option to return to her own time, but here, she’s fully convinced that she’s where she needs to be. There’s a slow-burn romance with Duncan, which is complicated for many reasons, and they’re both thoughtful enough to avoid bad decisions or letting their emotions cloud their judgment.

Then there’s the fun of Mallory using her 21st century police tactics in this setting — for example, explaining how (and why) to cordon off a crime scene or doing a rudimentary version of taking fingerprints. Seeing the cultures collide and the sharing of tactics and knowledge keeps the storytelling funny in dark moments, and gives Mallory a chance to shine and be appreciated for who she is.

As you can see, I love this series! As I’ve said in all of my reviews so far, you really must start at the beginning! Yes, this one might work as a stand-alone if you’re only interested in the murder mystery itself, but I honestly don’t think the book as a whole would make a ton of sense. The series is just so good — so dive into book #1, and keep going!

Now that I’ve finished Death at a Highland Wedding, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. Highly recommended!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

For more in this series:
A Rip Through Time
The Poisoner’s Ring
Disturbing the Dead
Schemes & Scandals (novella)

25Feb2025

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 books I want to buy in 2025

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here.

This week’s topic is Top 5 books I want to buy in 2025, with the prompt: Is there a book coming out in 2025 that you absolutely want to buy? Even if you don’t want to read it straight away. Maybe it’s a special edition version. Or maybe a fancy cover! Tell us all about it!!

Easy-peasy! The hardest part of this week’s topic is sticking to just five! I’ve been much better about being selective when it comes to buying physical books, but there are always some — whether by a favorite author or an especially beautiful edition — that I just can’t resist.

My five must-buys for 2025 are:

1: The Sirens by Emilia Hart: I have a hardcover edition of this author’s previous novel, Weyward, and it’s so pretty! The cover for The Sirens looks just as gorgeous. (March)

2: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi: This author’s books are auto-buys for me, and I love having the hardcovers! I’ve yet to be able to attend one of his book tour events, but I keep hoping it’ll work out eventually, because I’d love to get a signed edition. If not, though, I’ll be buying the book anyway! (March)

3: The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley: I love Susanna Kearsley’s books, and I always want to read her new releases… but once I saw the deluxe paperback edition, I knew I needed a physical copy rather than just the e-book. (March)

4: Death at a Highland Wedding (A Rip Through Time, #4) by Kelley Armstrong: This is such a terrific series, and since I already own hardcovers of the previous books, this one will be a must for me as well. (May)

5: The Wicked King by Holly Black: I already own hardcover editions of the Folk of the Air trilogy, and then bought the special black velvet edition of the first book, The Cruel Prince, when it was released in 2023. This year, the 2nd book will get a matching edition, and I have to have it! (October)