Author: Christina McDonald

The Assistant by S.K. Tremayne My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow! How did I miss this one last year? This book was incredible! Electric, riveting, and deliciously disturbing, The Assistant is a scarily believable story about the nature of modern technology and our reliance on virtual assistants, like Alexa or Siri. What happens when…

What Lies Between Us by John Marrs This book is just bonkers crazy, with two of the most devious and conniving women I’ve read in a long time! Dark, demented and dysfunctional are my three top words to describe it, with a toxic mother-daughter relationship at its core. We open with Nina and Maggie having…

Long Bright River by Liz Moore My rating: 5 of 5 stars Profoundly moving and beautifully written, Long Bright River is a story about the bond of sisters, addiction, and what’s left in the wake of a shared tragedy. It’s a murder mystery, but one that is quieter, focusing more on the relationship of the…

Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker My rating: 5 of 5 stars Electric and atmospheric, Don’t Look For Me is so much more than a cleverly-plotted, beautifully-written novel. This gorgeously layered thriller is riveting, haunting and emotional, following a family broken by tragedy and asking if redemption is ever an option when the unthinkable…

Rapid Falls by Amber Cowie My rating: 5 of 5 stars Cleverly plotted and utterly compelling, Rapid Falls is that rare story where you root for every single character – even those who may be the worst people of all. It’s sharply insightful while still being compassionate; creepy, while still being a beautiful exploration of…

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan My rating: 5 of 5 stars A dazzling thriller with a compelling and unreliable narrator, To Tell You The Truth is fresh, bold and ferociously smart. The story begins with our protagonist, Lucy, a successful thriller author with a dark past – her little brother Teddy went…

Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wickedly paced and devilishly clever, Girls with Bright Futures is a serious case of moms behaving badly, perfectly showcasing the dark side of ambition in the cut-throat world of elite college admissions. With a ripped-from-the-headlines feel a la Felicity Huffman, we get…

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Some things cannot be undone. There is no reset. But we as a people can be smarter, better, and more focused on keeping it at bay. All of us carry this responsibility.” A few weeks back, I asked some fellow readers…

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo “One cannot change what one refuses to see.” White Fragility is a powerful, thought-provoking, enlightening and deeply meaningful book. It raises startling points about how white people have specific, sometimes unconscious, biases towards race while thinking we are colorblind.…

Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters by Emily Carpenter My rating: 5 of 5 stars A Southern Gothic novel that floats effortlessly between past and present. In the past we follow Dove Jarrod, an evangelist who preys on the faithful to make them believe they’ve been healed. In the present, Eve, Dove’s granddaughter, who learns that beyond…