Anticipated Releases 2023

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is my most anticipated releases for the first half of 2023!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins (expected publication January 3rd 2023)

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert (expected publication January 3rd 2023)

Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo (expected publication January 10th 2023)

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire (expected publication January 10th 2023)

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (expected publication January 17th 2023)

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz (expected publication February 21st 2023)

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (expected publication February 28th 2023)

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher (expected publication March 28th 2023)

Happy Place by Emily Henry (expected publication April 25th 2023)

The Only One Left by Riley Sager (expected publication June 20th 2023)

 Books with Geographical Terms in the Title

Once again it’s Top Ten Tuesday time friends!

Here are 10 books I’ve read that have a geographical term in the title:

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young

Book Settings I’d Love to Visit

It’s Top Ten Tuesday time friends!

10 book setting I would love to visit are:

Well Matched by Jen DeLuca – I wanna go to this Ren Faire and see the wonderfulness for myself!

Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo – I would visit Ravka and see the Grishas!

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The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley – I would love to go to Paris & the apartment building without the creepiness does sound amazing lol

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins – a few days stranded on a tropic island sounds great right now

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo – Hollywood in the 30’s sounds magical!

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager – a retreat at a quiet and peaceful lake house, sign me up!

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller – I would die to be on an old school pirate ship!

The Monarchs by Kass Morgan & Danielle Paige – I never went to college or uni so I would love to visit a campus and a sorority house!

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – duh!

One by One by Ruth Ware – a rustic mountain chateau, yes please!

5 Quotes from Last 5 Books

These are five of my favourite quotes from the last five books that I have read!!

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

“Why bother if you’re not going to give it your all?”

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Book of Night by Holly Black

“Everyone loves the guy who brings ice.”

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So Happy For You by Celia Laskey

“If you want to know the story of how my best friend and I ended up trying to kill each other, I should probably start with the night she asked me to be her maid of honour.”

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Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin

“Hope isn’t the sickness. It’s the cure.”

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You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

“I didn’t kill him because I wanted to. That would have been too easy.”

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The House Across the Lake Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

Casey was a little frustrating as a character. I had a feeling she wasn’t telling the whole story in regards to what happened with her husband so in the end when that twist was revealed I wasn’t that shocked. I was just overall confused as to why she was so adamant in finding out what happened to Katherine. She had only just met this woman and had maybe two interactions with her before her disappearance and she is just soo invested in figuring out this mystery.

Boone I was wary of at the start, I usually always mistrust all the characters in mystery/thriller book but Boone seemed a little too good to be true which is kind of an obvious sign that he’s a red herring. I liked the fact that he has his own secrets and we get to learn quite a bit about character and how he ended up at Lake Green. I would of liked a few more interactions and nights of surveillance between him and Casey to build up a little more of a rapport.

Tom and Katherine honestly were kind of bland. We don’t have enough context about them, their relationship and their mannerisms before that night Katherine disappeared. We weren’t shown any of the conflicts between them we sort of just have to take Katherine’s word and believe a drunk Casey that she’s seeing what she thinks she’s seeing. They just weren’t interesting enough for this whole book to be centered around them.

There were some pretty interesting twists and turns throughout the majority of this book, I was surprised a few times and I liked the format of the book with the dual timelines. I just think the supernatural element came out of nowhere and was a bit of a cop out. There was nothing in the book before then that indicated that there was any otherworldly phenomenon happening to it was hard for me to take it seriously, I was kind of just like wtf…

⭐️2/5 stars a little too unbelievable