I probably should have saved my ghosts-themed post from last week for today instead, since I’m just starting my pile of ghost books, but I thought this was a great Halloween-themed topic too! I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I somehow seem to have a pattern of adding books that have creepy houses on the cover, especially when it comes to thrillers. I have no idea why these always catch my attention, but somehow they always seem to automatically make it on to my list. Literally yesterday, a book (not listed here) with a creepy-looking house on the cover drew my attention when I saw it on my Goodreads feed, and it immediately made me want to add it to my list, even before I’d fully read the synopsis! I thought it would make a nice change from the monster-of-the-week topics I’ve done this month so far, but these books still definitely give me Halloween vibes.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) The Mother’s Mistake by Ruth Heald
This is a pretty recent addition to my TBR, and it was added along with the author’s other 2019 release, The Woman Upstairs. Interestingly enough, both of these books were released this year, just 3 months apart! It is about a woman named Claire who realizes that her seemingly perfect life is starting to fall apart after she receives a note in her mailbox saying that she does not deserve her daughter. The synopsis itself is pretty vague, but I was able to gather a tiny bit more information from other reviewers. Claire moves with her husband Matt and newborn daughter Olivia to Matt’s family’s cottage, where she is under the constant watch of her mother-in-law. When Claire starts to see and hear strange things, she starts to wonder if she is just being paranoid or if someone really knows about her past and seeks to destroy the life she’s built for herself. This is a pretty common premise for thrillers by now, but it is one that I generally tend to enjoy as long as it is done well. I’m not sure when I’ll be getting to this one, but it sounds like something I’d probably like.
2) The Family by Louise Jensen
I’m hoping to finally read my first Louise Jensen book in the next couple of weeks, after having literally all of them on my TBR for years now. It’s one of those authors that it’s just become ridiculous that I haven’t tried yet, considering I keep adding all of her new books to my TBR. This one is her most recent release that just came out last month, and it actually caught my attention because of the cover before I’d even realized that it was by Louise Jensen! This one s about a woman named Laura who is grieving the sudden death of her husband, and she and her teenage daughter, Tilly, are offered a home by a local community. When another community member dies under suspicious circumstances, Laura wants to leave but Tilly refuses because she’s drawn to the leader, Alex. Desperate to save her daughter, Laura starts digging into the past of this community and uncovers the reason that she and Tilly were invited in the first place, and why it will be so hard for them to now leave. I’m very interested in this one because I always find cult stories so interesting, but they are surprisingly hard to find! The last one I read was Always Watching by Chevy Stevens, and I’m excited to give another one a try.
3) Friends Like These by Sarah Alderson
I added this one to my TBR back in February, and I highly suspect it was another one that I was drawn to because of the cover. It is about a woman named Lizzie who has always been jealous of her colleague, Becca, who has a seemingly perfect life that she posts about all over social media. Years after the women have lost touch, Lizzie is suddenly pulled back into Becca’s life, and soon realizes that her online persona may not be the most accurate reflection of her real life. I’m a little confused about this one because the reviews seem to suggest quite a different direction for the story compared to the synopsis, but either way, it sounds like something I would enjoy. I love stories that have a focus on social media, and I especially love when thrillers use social media since there are so many great directions that these stories can take. I’d actually completely forgotten that I had this one on my TBR, but it sounds so intriguing! Looking at the synopsis again just might have pushed this one up on my list for next year.
4) The Doll House by Phoebe Morgan
This one has been on my TBR for two years already, and the cover is so creepy! I don’t know why, but I was convinced that I had already mentioned this one before, but apparently not. It is about a woman named Corrine who is on her last chance to have a baby, after three failed IVF attempts. When a small part of a doll house turns up outside her front door, she decides that it must be a sign, but as more pieces start to show up, she realizes that they look strangely familiar. The pieces seem to be parts of the dollhouse that Corinne’s father made for her and her sister, Ashley, which is especially eerie since it is approaching the anniversary of her father’s death. The book is also told in dual perspectives, with the other half focusing on Ashley, a mother of three who suspects that her husband might be cheating, especially when she starts receiving phone calls with no one on the other end. I’ve seen some pretty mixed reviews for this one, but it sounds very creepy! I don’t know why, but creepy phone calls are something that I always find especially scary. I’m a bit hesitant about this one because of the reviews, but many thrillers seem to get quite mixed reactions, so I’m still interested in giving this one a chance.
5) The Woman in Our House by Andrew Hart
This one is a very recent discovery, that I found just under two weeks ago by randomly browsing Goodreads. It is about a woman named Anna who is ready to return to work for the first time after having her children. She and her husband, Josh, reluctantly decided to hire a live-in nanny, and are happy to find Oaklynn, whom her children seem to love and comes with glowing recommendations. However, shortly after her arrival, the children start to come down with strange illnesses and injuries, and Anna begins to feel a bit displaced by Oaklynn’s role in caring for her children, despite her husband and friends’ reassurances that it is normal anxiety about returning to work. As Anna begins to delve into Oaklynn’s past, she soon realizes that they don’t know her as well as they thought, and she may not be the only one who lied. There definitely seems to be a trend of creepy nanny stories lately, but this one sounds very interesting! The synopsis immediately makes me wonder if it is some kind of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy story, but either way it sounds like something that I’d really like to read! This is another one that may make it to the top of my list for next year.
Abyssal Librarian 