The Shippers Audiobook Review

Author: Kathleen Center

Narrator: Patti Murin

Publisher: MacMillan Audio

Special thanks to St. Martin's Press & MacMillan Audio for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own.

One of the hottest, fastest-rising rom-com stars delivers her latest swoon-worthy novel about a destination wedding on a cruise ship.

Review:

The Shippers is a delightful, often hilarious, always heartfelt romcom featuring two childhood best friends who reunite on a cruise ship and share in a goal to get JoJo romanced by a fellow childhood friend/crush on the cruise. At least that's the goal of JoJo. Cooper's motives are questionable. Did I mention that only six weeks prior JoJo fake fainted to get out of her own wedding and escaped with Cooper? Yes, the girl has commitment issues, and strong, steady, faithful Cooper is just the man to help her move on if he can convince her to see what's right in front of her. The story that unfolds is sweet, touching, chaotic, and funny while brimming over with a large dose of miscommunication. All it would take is one honest conversation between JoJo and Cooper to clear things up, but it doesn't happen until the end. And that's okay because the journey getting there is worth the ride.

I listened to the audiobook of The Shippers and highly recommend it. Narrator Patti Murin does an awesome job bringing the personalities of each character to life and distinguishing between each of them. Her performance is flawless, upbeat, and reflective of the personalities of both main characters taking this story to another level.

The Shippers is highly entertaining, funny and heart touching. The secondary plotline involving JoJo's parents added debt and emotional turmoil. The chemistry between the main characters is intense as it evolves throughout the story. I enjoyed the note by the author talking about romance and happy ever after's. Highly recommended to fans of fake dating and friends-to-lovers romance with a heavy side of humor.

Synopsis:

After a whole lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton decides to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. With the help of a little pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest ), and she decides to woo him during the cruise for some long-delayed closure. Only problem is, her sister’s a little busy being a bride at the moment—so JoJo ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, to be her wing man. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but then showed up, anyway. Cooper: who left town without a word four years earlier and moved to London. Cooper: who was, if she’s honest, the worst heartbreak of JoJo’s life. It’s bliss for her to see him again, and it’s agony, too—and the more they team up for Project Conquest, the more she obsesses over questions she can’t bring herself to ask.

Shipboard antics ensue in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance—as JoJo and Cooper fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, treat sunburns, get jealous, rescue each other over and over, and finally, at last, figure it all out in the most blissful, swoony, romantic way.

No one does summer romance quite like Katherine Center. THE SHIPPERS will take readers on the cruise of a lifetime in a story awash with romantic longing, top-notch banter, long-held secrets . . . and true love rediscovered.

Summer's Never Over Blog Tour Review

Author: Darby Bozeman

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: June 9, 2026

Many thanks to Berkley Publishing for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own.

In this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.

Review:

It's been five years since Greer fled her family's highly rated summer camp in Georgia following the tragic death of her friend and co-counselor, Steph, in a fire. At the death of her own mother, the camp matriarch, Greer is forced to return to lay her mother to rest and handle her affairs. Old memories and ghosts of years past haunt her as she gets reacquainted with former camp counselors and attendees. It doesn't take long for the past to cast a long shadow over the camp raising questions and accusations about what really happened the night Steph died. Was it a tragic accident . . . or something more sinister?  It appears Greer will have to either keep the lid on long-buried family secrets or face the truth. 

Summer's Never Over is an addictive, highly atmospheric thriller that's sure to be THE book to read in the summer of 2026, The story unfolds via Greer's point of view in a dual timeline at a remote camp setting with a multitude of suspense and red herrings. A dark, ominous tone drives the story forward through a twisted plot line that includes rumors of a mysterious phantom haunting the woods. While I guessed correctly on a couple of twists, it did not lessen my enjoyment as the tension ramps up chapter by chapter. Author Darby Bozman's outstanding debut novel is one I highly recommended to readers who enjoy books with a camp style mystery and setting and those who enjoy suspense thrillers.

Synopsis: 

Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she’d never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp—and ended with Greer’s friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer’s been fleeing from the grief ever since. 

But then Greer’s mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread’s Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends—one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she's never gotten over—and old friends. Including Margo, Steph's best friend.

Greer and Margo didn’t leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph’s death in that horrific fire was an accident—and she’s on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a keep the Cove’s secrets and her own or finally face the truth about that summer.

Meet the Author:

Darby Bozeman is a Portland, Oregon native who moved to Georgia for grad school a decade ago and thinks she can now officially call herself Southern. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves acting in community theater, discussing pop culture, and going out to buy coffee even when she could very much make it at home. She lives in Knoxville with her husband, Bryan, and their cat, Claude. Find her at @darbyboze and darbybozeman.com.

Beneath A Broken Sky Review

Author: Joshua Moehling

Series: Ben Packard #4

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Release Day: May 26, 2026

Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a complimentary arc of this title for review.

Opinions expressed are my own.

From award-nominated and USA Today bestselling author Joshua Moehling comes a tense, atmospheric thriller about one detective's search for a mysterious killer in the chaos following a deadly storm…

Review:  

Detective Ben Packard is navigating life as a gay man in small town Sandy Lake, Minnesota, having moved there following the death of his partner, Marcus. After devastating tornadoes rip through town, nefarious storm chasers descend upon the town with trees to cut, roofs to repair, and yards to clean up. Tempers smolder as the brutal summer heat blankets the explosive atmosphere already dense from the smoke from brush fires. And now, a woman who recently confronted the school board about the bullying of her gay son is found dead from the hands of an intruder. Suddenly, the facade of a serene, safe small-town cracks, torn apart and divided by whispers, finger pointing and the emergence of dark secrets. As Ben begins a murder investigation, a ghost from his past appears hurling accusations and stirring up old memories he thought he'd buried.

 Author Joshua Moehing has raised the bar on the Ben Packard series with Beneath A Broken Sky. He systematically rips apart the idealistic guise of a safe, peaceful town where everyone is welcome, safe, and treated equally. The murder is especially disturbing to Ben as it hits close to home with homophonic undertones nourished by an undercurrent of malevolence, social bias, bigotry and abuse. The symbolism between the devastation of storm damaged property, destruction of the perfect smalltown persona, and the collision of Ben's personal and professional life both past and present are masterfully delivered by the author. I love getting additional insight into Ben's personal life, having the band aid ripped off and watching as he maneuvers his new circumstances with events occurring that are beyond his control.

 Beneath A Broken Sky is a highly atmospheric, tension laden, tautly written thriller that I could not put down - my favorite of the series! While this book can most certainly be read as a standalone, the background and character development that begins in book one and continues throughout enhances the enjoyment of reading subsequent books including this one. Highly recommended to fans of tense psychological thrillers with an imperfect yet moral hero with a lot of heart.

Synopsis:

Detective Ben Packard has put down roots in the small town of Sandy Lake. A difficult thing to do; it's a hot, miserable summer, and a tornado has swept through causing irreparable damage. Trees are felled, homes destroyed, and people are desperate. Worse, the storm has also blown in a group of storm chasers with something to hide.

Then a woman is killed in her home. The mother of a gay boy and unpopular among the locals for the hell she recently raised at school when the administration refused to punish a group of students who were bullying her son, there's almost too many suspects to count. 

But to Packard, the case hits close to home. And when someone from his past shows up on his doorstep out of the blue, he realizes he'll have to confront the reality of navigating life as a gay man in a small town bent on tradition, no matter the cost.

The heat suffocates. The violence simmers. Before the summer is out, someone else will die.

The Final Target Review

Author: Nora Roberts

Publisher: St. Martins' Press

Release Date: May 26, 2026

Special thanks to St. Martins' Press for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own.

A young author becomes the object of a fan’s desire―and rage―in the gripping new thriller by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Nature.

Review:

Introvert Arden Moxie is a newly published author at her first book signing when she answers questions and signs a copy of her book for Dustin, an oddly disturbing fan who claims to be an aspiring writer. While her inner alarm bells are pinging, Arden tolerates his personal questions in an effort to remain cordial until he begins showing up at each of her book signings in different cities dominating her time and invading her space. When Arden revokes his advances, a fan's obsession turns into a dangerous, terrifying stalking. A tragic event sends Dustin to prison and Arden fleeing to a small town in Oregon near family where she meets an ex-LAPD detective with his own issues. A friendship and budding romance evolve slowly as Arden reclaims her confidence and life while Dustin, playing the part of a model prisoner, passes his days in prison in a silent rage scheming about all the ways he'll make her pay. That day will come sooner than Arden thinks.

The Final Target by Author Nora Roberts is a well-written blend of suspense and romance with familiar themes of found family, resilience, triumph over evil, and nature vs. nurture often found in Roberts' books. In classic Roberts' style, character relationships are developed slowly with a multitude of day-to-day scenes in the life of small-town people that I find endearing. While the story is told primarily from Arden's point of view, the suspense is heightened by including the villain's point of view giving readers insight into the depraved, delusional workings of a psychopath's mind and the dwindling timeline Arden is unaware of.  

Once again, Author Nora Roberts has gifted readers a highly emotional, spellbinding, tautly written story of perseverance and hope in the face of danger. A story rich in place with a character who digs deep to overcome tragedy, find her inner strength and take charge of her own destiny. Highly recommend The Final Target to fans of Romance Suspense. 

Synopsis:

He showed up at Arden Bowie’s debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that.

Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake…

An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitude―but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin’s wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility.

Arden decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?

First-Time Callers Review

 

Publisher: Berkley Romance

Narration by E.J. Bingham and Hathaway Lee

A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.

Review:

As the host of a late-night romance radio call-in show, it's Aiden Valentine's job to give advice on matters of the heart but lately he's having a hard time fulfilling his duties. In fact, Aiden has become downright cynical and vocal about not believing in "love" and the radio stations ratings are spiraling downwards. Until a smart twelve-year-old girl named Maya Stone calls into the show requesting help in the romance department for her single mom. Lucie catches Maya on the phone with a stranger, takes the phone from her demanding the identity of the possible pervert soliciting her child, and ends up talking to Aiden live on-air about her lack of a love life. One call leads to another until Lucie agrees to co-host the show with Aiden in a quest to find her perfect "love" match. Listeners are fascinated by Lucie and the on-air chemistry sizzling between her and Aiden and rating soar. 

First-Time Caller reminds me of Sleepless In Seattle in the best of ways. Both characters are lovable yet in denial over what's right in front of their faces. As the on-air search to find a suitable partner for Lucie plays out, the heartstrings drawing Aiden and Lucie together grow stronger. Readers know from the start that they're perfect for one another, but they have to get there in their own time. First-Time Caller is an endearing, romantic and sometimes hilarious romance story. Narration by E.J. Bingham and Hathaway Lee is pure perfection, bringing both characters to life with banter, wit, and heartwarming vibes. I felt like I was actually listening to the late-night radio show! Highly recommend to fans of contemporary romance.

Synopsis:

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.

Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life—or lack thereof—she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.

A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.

Family Lies Review & Blog Tour!

Author: Karen Rose

Series: San Diego #4; RS#33

Berkley Publishing

March 31, 2026

Special thanks to Berkley Publishing for a complimentary arc of this title for review and for the blog tour invitation. Opinions expressed are my own.

Review:

Family Lies by Author Karen Rose is the fourth book in the San Diego Case Files series and number 33 in the Romance Suspense series overall. Each book in the series is complex and intense with a tautly woven plot line and ongoing character development. As always, readers are hooked from the beginning by an intriguing prologue and held captive until the final big reveal.

Family Lies features San Diego Homicide Detective Kit McKittrick and Police Psychologist Sam Reeves along with other series' regulars. After spending time in the foster system, Kit is finally learning to trust - both her devoted adoptive parents, the McKittricks, and her love interest, Sam, whose patience with her is beginning to pay off. Kit is fiercely independent, loyal, and driven and extremely protective of her adoptive siblings. When Akiko, an adoptive sister, receives a call from someone claiming to have knowledge of her birth mother, Kit and Sam are by her side. When they arrive at the woman's house, shots are fired hitting Kit, and they find the woman they hoped to talk to dead inside her home. What have they walked into? How does it pertain to Akiko? As they begin investigating, the plot thickens, getting more convoluted as bodies begin to pile up. Kit won't stop until she uncovers the truth, and Sam won't leave her side.

Author Karen Rose never fails to deliver an action packed, complex story with multiple threads that eventually intertwine in an explosive climax. The romance between Kit and Sam is a slow developing one with Sam easing Kit into it in hopes of a permanent relationship. Sam is aware of Kit's trust issues stemming from her past but continues to demonstrate his willingness to wait for her. Rose flawlessly weaves the past and present together as family secrets and lies surface with deadly consequences. While this book can easily be read as a standalone, the overall story arc continues to develop with characters introduced in previous books. For this reason, I recommend readers enjoy the first three books in this series prior to reading Family Lies. Highly recommended to fans of police procedurals and romance suspense.

Synopsis:

As an infant, Kit McKittrick’s foster sister Akiko was abandoned at a firehouse. Now 32, Akiko has received an unsettling phone call from a woman who says that she knew her birth mother but refuses to divulge any details except in person. Akiko is nervous but also thrilled at the prospect of finally learning about her blood relations.

Kit has a bad feeling about this and insists on accompanying Akiko to meet the woman. Sure enough, as they stand on Mary Sherman’s doorstep, shots are fired and Kit is hit...and inside the house is a corpse: Mary Sherman herself.

Although she’s on medical leave and forbidden to work the case, Kit cannot rest. With police psychologist Sam Reeves, she undertakes a covert investigation into the mysterious Mary Sherman. Was she Akiko’s birth mother? Why did she reach out after all these years? And who had a motive to kill her?

As more bodies pile up, Kit starts to put together the pieces of the frightening puzzle that is Akiko’s birth family, and she’ll come to wonder whether some secrets should stay buried after all.

Meet the author:

Internationally bestselling, RITA-award winning, author Karen Rose was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. She met her husband, Martin, on a blind date when they were seventeen and after they both graduated from the University of Maryland, (Karen with a degree in Chemical Engineering) they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Karen worked as an engineer for a large consumer goods company, earning two patents, but as Karen says, “scenes were roiling in my head and I couldn't concentrate on my job so I started writing them down. I started out writing for fun, and soon found I was hooked.”

Her debut suspense novel, DON'T TELL, was released in July, 2003. Since then, she has published fifteen more novels and two novellas. Her seventeenth novel, ALONE IN THE DARK, will be released in 2016.

Karen's books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, London's Sunday Times, and Germany's der Spiegel (#1), and the Irish Times, as well as lists in South Africa (#1) and Australia!

Her novels, I'M WATCHING YOU and SILENT SCREAM, received the Romance Writers of America's RITA award for Best Romantic Suspense for 2005 and 2011. Five of her other books have been RITA finalists. To date, her books have been translated into twenty-four languages.

A former high school teacher of chemistry and physics, Karen lives in Florida with her husband of more than twenty years, her two daughters, two dogs, and a cat. 

Antihero Review

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Series: Orphan X #11

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Date: Feb. 10, 2026

A big thank you to Minotaur Books for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own. 

This review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

In the latest in this New York Times best-selling series, Evan Smoak takes on his most complex mission yet―one where he has to not only protect but also avenge, and find a way to balance vengeance with mercy.

Review:

Antihero by Author Gregg Hurwitz is a gut wrenching, action packed, heart stopping thriller. The eleventh book in the Orphan X series and quite possibly the most anguish filled book to date, the story grabbed me by the throat on the first page and never let go. I devoured this book in one sitting as there was never a time I felt I could hit pause and walk away in peace. Carve out alone time to read this one as it'll come for you like a long black train.

 The government raised and trained Orphan X to be a Black Op assassin, a lethal machine that performed upon command, no questions asked. Leary of decisions made by his superiors, he grabbed the first opportunity to go solo and disappeared underground. When he resurfaced, X aka Evan Smoak had reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, a lethal, mysterious, emotionless man on a mission to get vengeance and justice for victims of violence who have nowhere else to turn. The Nowhere Man lives by a stringent set of commandments, one of which is number four, "Never make it personal". A rule he finds increasingly difficult to adhere to after being summoned to the lair of Luke Devin who's suffering a psychotic break and in need of Evan to keep an eye on volatile world events until he recovers. While there, Evan learns of a woman repeatedly brutalized and violated by soulless thugs after having been kidnapped from the subway in New York City. Vowing to find the woman and annihilate her tormenters, X leaves Joey in charge at Devine's and returns to the city. After locating the battered, traumatized woman, Evan is speechless and unable to comprehend when she tells him justice belongs to a higher power, not humans. Standing her ground, she extracts a painful promise from Evan that leaves him struggling with a deluge of emotions he isn't trained to decipher or manage. For the first time in his life, the Nowhere Man faces the dilemma of completing his mission while keeping his promise as he grabbles with conflicting emotions within, including the realization that there are people in his life he cares for. With that knowledge comes the paralyzing fear of losing them. With time running out and X's enemies converging on him from every direction, he’s left vulnerable and off-balance, conditions foreign to him that prove life threatening as he repeatedly ignores the commandment to never make it personal.

 Antihero is a major turning point in the life of Orphan X aka The Nowhere Man as he maneuvers a minefield of foreign emotions that conflict with his rigid training and mission. His disgust for the vile lowlifes that attack innocents propels him to use deadly force to prevent them from doing it again and yet his newly found humanity demands he find a way to balance the scales and avenge victims by inflicting pain, not final judgement. The developing relationship between X and Joey is heart touching, almost a father/daughter thing with Joey spreading her wings and Evan worrying about her safety. Another foreign emotion for him. As always, the pace is insane, increasing with each new revelation and shocking turn, and the tone is dire, at best.

Author Gregg Hurwitz has raised the bar high in Antihero gifting readers  a masterfully written, gripping story that exposes unfamiliar, deeply buried layers in Orphan X. Readers are sucked into the action as the Nowhere Man learns to navigate his emotions and conduct missions in a new, less permanent manner while staying true to his training and commandments. In spite of all the brutality and violence in this book, there's an undertone of hope, respect, faith, and trust woven throughout. Antihero will be a favorite among fans of the series as well as readers who favor high action, take no prisoners’ thrillers. A 2025 favorite for this reader, and one of the author’s best to date.

 Synopsis:

Once a black ops assassin for the government known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak broke with the program and went deep underground, using his operational rules and skills to help the truly desperate with nowhere else to turn.

When Luke Devine, one of the most powerful men in the world has a psychological crisis, Evan flies to the East Coast to meet Luke. While there, he learns of a young woman who was kidnapped off the New York City subway, clearly in danger and in need of aid. With no name and few clues, Evan and his team track down the missing woman, who was assaulted and abandoned. Evan offers his help―and sets out tracking down the young men responsible. But the woman insists that Evan abandon his usual methods―no vengeance and, in particular, no killing. Which will prove no easy feat given the mounting incoming threats from all sides. In a mission that takes Evan from coast to coast, from the poorest corners of society to the richest, Orphan X must figure out a way to protect the innocent, avenge the victimized, and balance justice, with a measure of mercy.