“Former.ly” is a quick, easy read about the super toxic frat boy culture of a social media tech startup, and the developer who gets swept up in its meteoric rise and fall. Former.ly is a social media website that combines Livejournal with Facebook, where a user can upload their life story, their secrets and accomplishments, and the information only goes live upon their death. It’s a memorial curated by the person before they are deceased for the benefit of those they leave behind. Which is a really interesting concept on its own, but also has the perfect foundation for the kind of mystery and drama the synopsis hints at. Except the website functions mainly as set dressing to the main character, Dan, and the eccentric founders of Former.ly. Because, unfortunately, the part of the synopsis that says there are “unexpected consequences” when these profiles go live, never materialized.

I love a good family mystery that spans generations. Throw in the creepy, small-town vibes where everyone knows each other and keeps mum on the darker aspects of this small town locked in time, and you already have the makings of a very spooky, and atmospheric thriller. But then add some ghosts and unsolved murders on top of that? Perfection. Or, mostly perfection. In “The Sun Down Motel” the story goes between a flashback and flashforward narrative between Carly (the present) and Vivian (the past) to uncover the spooky goings on of Fell, New York, and the Sun Down Motel as a whole. Both Viv and Carly have fairly tragic lives, but the one thing Carly clings too after the loss of her mother, is finding out what happened to her aunt who disappeared in 1982. While, Vivian, desperate to find herself after her parents’ divorce, lands in Fell where she immediately gets sucked into the mystery of several murdered women, and the run-down motel she works at connection to all the dead girls.

While I have a hard time classifying “Sadie” as the thriller it’s listed as, it’s such a heart wrenching and beautifully told mystery that I’m going to mostly ignore the lack of “thriller” aspects. Sadie is a young woman on a crusade to find her sister’s killer, and perhaps heal a teeny tiny bit from her own horrific abuse (trigger warning for child sexual assault and pedophilia). Sadie has been through the worst life has to offer, but she lives for Mattie, her younger sister. Sadie develops the fierce maternal instincts she wishes she had in return from her own mother, who was absent at best due to her alcohol and drug addiction. So, when Mattie is brutally taken from Sadie, she believes there is nothing left of her; her heart, her soul, her LIFE, have been torn out and the only option she sees is to find the person responsible and give them a bit of an “eye for an eye” style justice. Sadie knows, when she starts out on this quest that, if she succeeds, she’ll never be the same, that the hunt for the truth and justice and retribution will change her forever. But she also knows success isn’t guaranteed. And while it took me a bit to appreciate the podcast style duel POV, I absolutely adored the way Sadie’s trauma and grief were presented (and yes, I know that sounds weird).

I’m not that familiar with the hoax that this psychological thriller is based on, in fact, I hadn’t even heard of it before this book. All that to say, I don’t really know what is or isn’t pulled from the annals of history, but even a fraction would be a doozy. This book follows Daniel who, in the early 90’s, is experiencing a type of depression that will be very familiar to many people: a quiet type of loneliness and pain where you just want the time to pass and to wake up to something better. For Daniel, a divorced man cheated out of his full pension, that becomes a reality. But when he wakes up from his sojourn of sorts, things only become more complicated. This book, with its medical and psychological thriller elements, felt like it was leading up to a type of moral the entire time, but even now, a day after finishing, I’m not entirely sure I got the message?

If you’re looking for a cozy thriller that has a team of young women with Charlie’s Angels vibes, tech that even James Bond would be jealous of, and with just a sprinkling of sweet romance, then “Spies Never Quit” may just be for you. In the first book of the series (each book following a different woman in the group) follows Mari, a brand-new college freshman, as she attempts to rescue her mother. Mari’s mother is a brilliant scientist working on nano-bot technology who has been kidnapped in order to force her to give up her specialized codes for evil gains. Mari would do anything to save her mother, and, lucky for her, retrieving her mother’s work just so happens to be the Banana Girls mission, too. Normally, I am all for a spy thriller with a predominately female cast of characters, but something always felt just a tad off to me throughout the story.