Annie Gore was Special Forces. Now retired from the Air Force, she is barely making ends meet as a private detective. Recently, she was contacted by a young man named Max, who has been searching for his sister for the past ten years. The cold case takes her to the beautiful Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where three girls went missing a decade ago. One girl mysteriously returned, but two were never seen again. Max, a talented artist about to start college, knows deep down that he cannot begin his new life until he tries one more time to solve the mystery. Having grown up in very similar surroundings, Annie feels at home in this misty holler, where locals are not usually welcoming to outsiders. The inclusion of folklore, witches, crows, and apple head dolls adds layers upon layers to this creepy case, where the girls seem to have vanished into thin air. As Annie uncovers long-buried clues, she leaves no stone—or person—unturned. Because so few come and go from this town, everyone is a suspect. A whodunit with a witchy twist, I could not put down this fantastic debut. Lucky for us, the author is already working on another mystery starring my new favorite detective! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
The First Witch of Boston
Thomas and Margaret Jones arrived from England in 1646. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a strict Puritan settlement, governed by a small group of leaders. After nearly losing hope, the deeply in-love couple was finally blessed with a successful pregnancy and a little girl. Margaret, a midwife, also practiced medicine—common among women of the time who learned to use herbs and natural remedies to heal the sick. Yet her feisty, outspoken personality soon wore on her neighbors, who prized quiet obedience. Her husband Thomas, a skilled craftsman, was easygoing and well-liked, while Margaret’s helpfulness was met with gratitude—or condemnation if anything went wrong. In a community quick to find a scapegoat, unguarded words and suspicion led to her being accused of witchcraft. Word spread like wildfire, and before long others joined in. When local hysteria demanded action, Margaret was imprisoned, and after a one-sided trial, publicly executed. As the first person killed for witchcraft in Massachusetts, Margaret Jones went down in history as a woman who knew too much, spoke too freely, and paid the ultimate price—a grim prelude to the witch hunts that would follow. An incredible work of historical fiction that I could not put down—perfectly chilling and captivating, making it a spellbinding read for Halloween. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Christmas Wishes and Irish Kisses
When Ellie left Cornwall twenty years ago, she never looked back. She built a new life in America while her mother remarried, now living in a tiny Brooklyn apartment, subsisting in a mediocre job and dating Tyler—a reliably nice guy. Who needs sparks when you have stability? But when her father faces a medical emergency, Ellie feels a deep calling to return to St. Tilda’s, hoping to help him—and perhaps mend their fractured relationship. What she finds, however, is a past she had long buried and her best friend Liam, the character she cherished most in every childhood memory. As Christmas approaches, Ellie helps run the pub and reconnects with the person she once was. Even as a dispirited, angry teen, she had loved deeply, and she struggles to understand why she pushed this lovely village out of her life. Grown-up Liam still sparks mischief—but also a chemistry Ellie can no longer ignore. In her search for truth, Ellie explores the past to find her way forward. Moving swiftly and brimming with friends, family, Guinness, and cakes, this small-town holiday tale is utterly delightful from start to finish. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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