Welcome to Bloodson Bay, where the people are strange and the rising body count is even stranger. Peace Christie was warned never to visit the Slaughter Shed, an abandoned house at the edge of her farm with a history of unexplainable mysteries dating back to an unsolved family murder. Corpses vanishing from rafters. A girl’s body recently discovered in the basement. When the news breaks with the dead girl’s identity, Peace has no choice but to uncover the secrets of the house—but someone will kill to keep the truth hidden. Pamela Crane throws on the flannel and combat boots for this 1990s throwback thriller that smells like teen spirit and promises a mystery spanning a century of murder. 🏚️Crane’s genius move is setting this contemporary thriller in the ’90s, giving it that specific cultural texture that generation remembers viscerally—the music, the fashion, the pre-digital way of investigating mysteries. Peace discovers an ancient journal that exposes the terrible history of the Slaughter Shed, and as she reads each entry, more details unravel about who’s behind the murders. The journal becomes both a window into the past and a roadmap to the present, connecting historical atrocities to current crimes. But when Peace reaches the last page, she realizes that reading about the murders isn’t enough—she must return to the house. And she may not make it out alive. 📖
The Slaughter Shed itself is a character—a place where the boundary between past and present blurs, where violence echoes across generations, and where secrets literally won’t stay buried. Crane weaves together multiple timelines, showing how evil patterns persist and how places can become contaminated by the terrible things that happen within them. The rising body count isn’t random; it’s part of a century-old murder spree that someone is determined to continue. Peace’s investigation becomes not just about solving her friend’s murder but about ending a cycle of violence that’s claimed victims for a hundred years. The stakes are both personal and historical. ⚰️
What makes this essential reading: Crane has written a psychological thriller that understands the appeal of ’90s nostalgia while delivering genuinely chilling suspense. The decade-specific setting isn’t just window dressing—it affects how the investigation unfolds, what resources Peace has available, and the cultural context of the violence. For readers who devoured Riley Sager‘s throwback thrillers or anyone who wants a mystery that combines historical horror with contemporary danger, this delivers atmospheric dread and a protagonist willing to risk her “so-called life” to stop a killer who’s been operating for a century. The Slaughter Shed awaits, and Crane makes sure you’ll want to enter—even knowing you might not leave. 🌙
In a dying Ohio town ruled by judgment and old grudges, Reid Powell is the ultimate outcast—forever branded by his family’s tragic past, shunned by everyone, isolated and hardened by years of blame he didn’t earn. He’s given up on redemption because the town of Allen decided long ago who he is and what he deserves. Then Tarryn Long returns home to care for her ailing father after his stroke and stumbles straight into Reid’s world. She sees past the rumors to the rugged, wounded man beneath, discovering a tender and fiercely loyal soul who ignites something deep inside her. But loving Reid means defying the entire town, risking her family’s reputation, and confronting buried secrets that could destroy them both. 💔Sara Celi understands that the most powerful romances are the ones where love is an act of rebellion. Tarryn’s choice to pursue Reid isn’t just about attraction—it’s about refusing to accept the town’s narrative, about believing in someone when everyone else has written him off. Reid has been carrying the weight of his family’s sins, punished for circumstances beyond his control, hardened by isolation into someone who’s stopped expecting kindness. Tarryn’s faith in him becomes both a lifeline and a risk, because letting himself hope means making himself vulnerable again. Celi captures the raw emotion of two people fighting for a love that their community has already condemned. 🔥
As their forbidden passion ignites, long-hidden truths begin to unravel. The secrets that destroyed Reid’s reputation, the real story behind his family’s tragedy, and the town’s complicity in his suffering all come to light. But community prejudice doesn’t dissolve just because the truth emerges—it digs in deeper, fights harder, becomes more dangerous. Celi doesn’t offer easy answers or quick acceptance. The stakes are real: Tarryn’s family relationships, Reid’s fragile hope, their safety as the town’s anger grows. Will their love rewrite Reid’s story and prove second chances are possible? Or will the weight of the past and the pressure of the present tear them apart forever? The emotional tension is almost unbearable as both characters are forced to decide what they’re willing to sacrifice for each other. 💕
What makes this an unforgettable romance: Celi delivers raw, angsty small-town romance with genuine emotional depth and characters who earn their happy ending through pain and growth. This isn’t instalove—it’s hard-won connection between two people brave enough to challenge everyone around them. For fans of emotional, character-driven love stories with high stakes and swoon-worthy heroes who need healing as much as they need love, this hits every satisfying note. The redemption in the title isn’t just Reid’s—it’s the town’s opportunity to correct an injustice, and readers will be completely invested in whether that redemption comes or whether love has to be enough on its own. 💫
Welcome to Maple Glen, where the Mitchell siblings are about to learn that love has a way of finding you when you least expect it—especially when there’s a matchmaker pulling strings behind the scenes. Christina Butrum delivers seven full-length small-town romance novels following the Mitchell family as they navigate the complicated terrain between friendship and forever, between fear and faith in love. From falling for the boy next door to discovering chemistry with the new cop in town to seeing past the rough exterior of the troubled mechanic with a heart of gold, these stories explore every variation of “how did I not see this coming?” romance. 💕Butrum understands the appeal of interconnected small-town romance series: you get to watch an entire family find love, see familiar characters pop up across books, and experience the warm comfort of a community where everyone knows everyone and the matchmaking is a spectator sport. The Mitchell siblings each get their own complete journey, their own obstacles to overcome, their own moment of realizing that the person they’ve been looking for has been right there all along. The variety of romantic scenarios—childhood friends, enemies to lovers, second chances, opposites attract—ensures that each book feels fresh while maintaining the cozy Maple Glen atmosphere readers will want to return to. 🏡
The matchmaker element adds delicious tension to stories where the characters think they’re in control of their love lives. There’s something deeply satisfying about watching people be nudged (or shoved) toward their perfect match by someone who sees what they can’t yet see themselves. Butrum writes sweet romance that doesn’t sacrifice emotional depth for heat level—these are stories about people learning to be vulnerable, to trust, to believe they deserve happiness. The small-town setting provides both support and complication, as everyone has opinions about who should be with whom and privacy is basically impossible. 🌟
What makes this collection irresistible: Seven complete novels means you can binge-read the entire Mitchell family saga without waiting, experiencing the full arc of a community and its interconnected love stories in one satisfying package. For readers who devoured Debbie Macomber‘s Cedar Cove series or Susan Mallery‘s Fool’s Gold books, Maple Glen offers that same combination of warmth, community, and romantic happily-ever-afters. Butrum has created a world where love is inevitable, matchmaking is an art form, and the Mitchell siblings don’t stand a chance against fate—or their determined matchmaker. Perfect for readers who want to lose themselves in small-town romance and emerge several books later with a full heart. 💝
Runebreaker
**Aelie can break runes with her bare hands—magic the fae built their entire world on.** They hate her for it. Fear her for it. And when she’s caught wielding this forbidden power, they sentence her to die. In a civilization where runes are the foundation of everything—power, protection, wealth, status—Aelie is a living threat to the established order. Desperate to survive the executioner’s blade, she does the unthinkable: she shatters the rune enslaving Kairos, a devastatingly handsome fae executioner with a blood-soaked past. 🗡️
Big mistake. Kairos slaughters the court in a spectacular display of centuries of pent-up rage, **drags Aelie to his breathtaking realm—a kingdom of towering forests and shimmering mists** where she’s simultaneously his prisoner and his salvation. Bound to the ruthless king she freed, Aelie must navigate deadly fae politics where one misstep means death, master her forbidden power that everyone fears, and resist the fae who sees her as his greatest weapon… and darkest obsession. 🌲
Between surviving a court that wants her dead, learning to control abilities that could destroy kingdoms, and fighting her growing attraction to a king whose touch both terrifies and thrills her, Aelie discovers that breaking runes is nothing compared to breaking the walls around her own heart. Kairos needs her power to reclaim his throne, but what he’s starting to want—what they’re both starting to want—is far more dangerous than any magic. In a world built on unbreakable runes, Aelie proves that some bonds are meant to shatter. ✨
What makes this captivating: Aelie breaking runes with bare hands—magic fae world built on, sentenced to die then shattering rune enslaving devastatingly handsome executioner, Kairos slaughtering court and dragging her to breathtaking forest realm, navigating deadly fae politics while mastering forbidden power, and resisting ruthless king who sees her as weapon and darkest obsession.
They are not from Earth—yet they rule it from the shadows. When Aldric Vale, a lone freelancer for the Interstellar Concord, follows a mysterious signal to an obscure star system, he expects to find a dead outpost—not a thriving world of eight billion people. **The inhabitants call it Earth.** By rights, the planet should have rejoined the Concord centuries ago after being lost during the Great Expansion. Instead, its existence was buried by a cabal of immortal elites who use Earth as their private paradise, while its people remain oblivious to the vast galactic civilization beyond their skies. 🌍
After a deadly encounter cripples his ship, Aldric is stranded. Trapped on a world that isn’t supposed to exist, he must infiltrate the cabal to escape—and expose the truth that Earth’s inhabitants have a right to know. **Then he meets Lena Hart, a fearless journalist chasing clues she never should have found.** She’s gotten too close to secrets that powerful people have killed to protect, asking questions about strange sightings and unexplained phenomena that the cabal has worked centuries to suppress. 🚀
Protecting her forces Aldric to make an impossible choice: **free an entire world of unwitting slaves… or save the one woman who has made this forbidden planet feel like home.** Between infiltrating immortal conspirators who’ve perfected the art of control, helping Lena uncover truths that could shatter Earth’s reality, and deciding whether to uphold the Concord’s laws or follow his heart, Aldric discovers that some colonies were hidden for reasons more complex than he imagined. The question is: will Earth’s freedom be its salvation or its destruction? 💫
What makes this thought-provoking: Lone freelancer discovering thriving world of eight billion people calling it Earth, planet that should have rejoined Interstellar Concord buried by immortal elites using Earth as private paradise, stranded infiltrating cabal to expose truth, meeting fearless journalist Lena Hart chasing dangerous clues, and impossible choice between freeing unwitting slaves or saving woman making forbidden planet feel like home.
**The fraud. The imposter. The cheater. The fake. The murderer. Which one am I?** The guest list for Brit and Joe’s joint bachelor-bachelorette weekend is small and exclusive: the bride, the groom, the best man, a work friend… and me, the maid of honor. I’ve planned every detail to make this a celebration none of us will ever forget, from the luxury accommodations to the carefully curated activities. Expect daytime drinking, poolside lounging—and a White Lie Party designed to help us share all our little secrets. 🥂
After all, **confession is good for the soul…** and one of us is hiding something truly killer. What starts as harmless fun—revealing embarrassing crushes, small deceptions, white lies about diets and exes—quickly spirals into something far darker when the secrets being shared aren’t so white after all. Someone’s confession isn’t about stealing lipstick or faking a sick day. Someone at this party has blood on their hands, and the White Lie Party just gave them the perfect cover to confess. 💀
Don’t forget to save the date! Love, The Maid of Honor x. Between planning the perfect weekend getaway, orchestrating a party game meant to bond the wedding party, watching as harmless secrets turn sinister, and realizing one of the five guests is a murderer using confession as cover, the celebration becomes a nightmare. The fraud, the imposter, the cheater, the fake—these are just roles we play. But the murderer? That’s real. And they’re one of us. Which role am I playing? More importantly, will any of us survive to make it to the wedding? 🎭
What makes this chilling: Small exclusive guest list for joint bachelor-bachelorette weekend including maid of honor narrator, White Lie Party designed to share little secrets, confession being good for soul when one guest hiding something truly killer, harmless fun spiraling into darkness, and question of which guest is the fraud, imposter, cheater, fake, or murderer.