It’s finally Winter Break! After a whole semester of busting your tail and slugging through assigned reading, you can finally read something you want.
Winter Break gives us a good excuse to grab a soft blanket, a hot beverage and curl up on the sofa or in our favorite chair to read.
The only problem is deciding what to read. A lot of you aren’t really used to picking what you read, since so much of your time is spent reading what is required. Have no fear! I’m here to help.
Here are my Winter Break book recommendations just for you.
AN ANONYMOUS GIRL
Jessica Farris decides to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. The struggling make-up artist actually sneaks into the study because she needs the money.
But the more Jessica learns about Dr. Shields’s experiment and the further she becomes involved, the less she’s certain it’s a good idea. In fact, Jessica may be in danger.
MY LOVELY WIFE
The Amazon review of My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing compares the book to Dexter, and I totally get that comparison. The book is full of twists and psycho logic, but you won’t enjoy it if you take it too seriously.
The book is about a suburban tennis coach and his realtor wife, Millicent. The couple and their two teenagers live what looks like a perfect, cookie cutter life in their upscale neighborhood, until you find out that they’re murderers.
Millicent was supposed to have killed and dumped Lindsay, a woman who went missing a year before she was found in an abandoned hotel. The couple kidnapped Lindsay to spice up their marriage, but Millicent apparently held her captive for a year without her husband knowing. Millicent says she tried to throw police off of their crime by adopting the methods of a local serial killer, Owen Oliver Riley. Her husband thinks this is a good idea initially, until he learns more about Riley and realizes that the story won’t work.
NEVER TELL
Never Tell was my favorite of Lisa Gardner‘s books about Detective D.D. Warren and survivor turned police informant, Flora Dane.
Conrad Carter is shot three times in his home office. His computer is shot 12 times by his pregnant wife, Evie Carter. Evie found her murdered husband, destroyed his computer to hide evidence, then is holding the gun when the police arrive.
Evie is not unknown to the police. Detective Warren immediately recognizes her from an old case. Evie’s father was shot and killed years ago, and Evie was responsible for the accident that killed him.
But Detective Warren isn’t the only one who recognizes someone. Flora Dane sees a news report about Conrad Carter’s murder and recognizes him as a man her former captor tried to sell her to. Could this be the computer evidence that Evie Carter attempted to destroy?
RAPID FALLS
Cara’s boyfriend, the love of her life, died in an accident 20 years ago. Cara’s sister, Anna, went to prison for killing him and has struggled with drug addiction since her release.
Anna’s life is in shambles, but Cara always pauses her successful livelihood (great job, successful husband, beautiful daughter) to rescue her sister. But when Anna decides to come clean, for real this time, she begins to remember things that others in her life can’t afford for her to recall.
SOMEONE KNOWS
Allie Garvey returns home for the funeral of a childhood friend and confronts a secret she’s kept for 20 years.
As teenagers, Allie and a group of her classmates were drinking in the woods and played a prank that turned deadly. The secret has haunted Allie and shaped all of their lives since.
Now Allie has to decide whether telling the truth will heal her or make her life worse. And what about the others? Will revealing the truth help them or exacerbate their issues?
TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET
Ellery’s never been to Echo Ridge, but she’s heard all about the small town where her mom was the homecoming queen and her aunt went missing at age 17.
Ellery’s aunt’s disappearance, which her mother won’t discuss isn’t the town’s only mystery. Another homecoming queen was found murdered. Now Ellery, who is a bit of an amateur detective, has to move to Echo Ridge with her twin brother to live with her grandmother while her mom is in rehab.
The town has secrets, and Ellery is ready to uncover them, when someone begins threatening the upcoming homecoming court and another girl goes missing. The longer she’s in Echo Ridge, the more Ellery begins to think that the town’s secrets are more dangerous and guarded than she expected.
THE GIRLS AT 17 SWANN STREET
Anna Roux was a professional dancer until she moved with her husband from Paris to Missouri. The move is good for him, but not for Anna, who spirals into depression and anorexia.
Anna weighs only 88 pounds and is near death with her husband checks her in as a patient at 17 Swann Street. It’s a final effort to save her life.
At 17 Swann Street, Anna meets other women whose suffering is similar and also different from hers. She makes friends and the women try to support each other through their healing.
THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL
Abi Knight gets the middle-of-the-night call that no parent wants to receive. Her daughter, Olivia, was in an accident and is in the hospital.
Olivia’s “accident” doesn’t seem right to Abi for many reasons. Her daughter is said to have fallen off a bridge and is brain dead. She also is pregnant, which is a shock to her mother. And, if Olivia was alone and fell, why are their bruises around her wrists like someone grabbed her?
Police rule Olivia’s fall an accident, but Abi doesn’t believe it. She does what any mother would do, she sets out to find out what really happened to her daughter.
THE SUSPECT
Kate Waters is sent to cover the story of two British teenage girls missing in Bangkok. She later finds out that the girls were killed in a fire at their hostel.
But the reporter becomes part of the story when it’s determined that her estranged son, Jake, was living at the hostel and may have been involved with the fire.
Now Waters has to step away from the story and try to protect her son, the primary suspect.
WHAT YOU DID
Six university friends, some of whom are married to each other, get together after 20 years for a sort-of reunion weekend at Ali and Mike’s house.
The night seems to be going well, with laughter, the sharing of old stories and perhaps a bit too much wine.
Most of the group has gone to bed when Karen, Ali’s best friend, stumbles into the kitchen, bleeding and claiming that Mike, Ali’s husband, raped her.
Karen is taken to the hospital, the police are called and Ali, a sexual assault victims’ advocate, has to decide who she believes, her best friend or her husband.
It seems that none of the relationships between the friends are what they seemed, but Ali is about to know more about her “friends” than she ever wanted to.
There they are! I love the thriller genre, so you’ll see a lot of that here, but I hope you see something that you’d enjoy curling up with during winter break. Have a wonderful, relaxing break!
As always, happy reading!
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