New blogger coming at you under the pen name, The BEAUpire Diaries. I am one of three interns at Beaufort Books this Fall 2022 and I will be starting my first blog post off by talking about what’s trending, what I’m loving after reading what’s been trending, and what should have gotten more attention as trends have passed along.
Every few years, the book community seems to change what genre/theme of books is trending amongst readers. There is no predicting what those books will be, but once they’re trending they are suddenly everywhere until we’re all sick of them and onto the next “new” thing. In the early 2000s, vampire/supernatural books were the thing with Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, The Vampire Academy, Vampire Kisses, Eighth Grade Bites, and so many more. It then trends moved on to dystopian novels for a bit with some iconic movies following like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. As much as we would love to bring all those books back for the sake of nostalgia, they are (for now) meant to be left in the past.
What I am really seeing as a trend in books nowadays is the cheesy rom-com with bright and colorful cartoon covers that all kind of look the same. However, I like others have yet again fallen for the trends and am loving and buying all the romance.
Below you’ll find all books that I have loved reading, featuring a little bit of all the trendiest genres/themes — a few have done pretty well in the market, and there are some that deserve to do even better, but enjoy.
Lacie’s Secrets by Teresa Sorkin and Tullan Holmqvist
In no way am I biased by adding this book to what I’m loving, but one of our books, Lacie’s Secrets is one of the best spooky fall time reads to have on hand during these upcoming months of gloom. For readers and fans of Big Little Lies and The Haunting of Hill House, Lacie’s Secrets is a psychological thriller that takes place on the coast of Maine, when Kate’s sister disappears 18 years ago, and in the present time, her mother suddenly dies inheriting their estate motivating Kate’s return and the unraveling of secrets begins.
Somewhere after the boom of dystopian titles, the sci-fi genre attempted to be the next big trend. The 5th Wave did well, but the others that followed lagged behind. Alienated by Melissa Landers was a book that I loved years ago romanticizing life living alongside aliens when Cara Sweeney falls for the first alien exchange student, Aelyx.
With all of the swoon-worthy, new adult romance going around, I am surprised that this book hasn’t received its moment in the spotlight yet. This was the first adult romance book that I had read back when I was a senior in high school (six years ago) and I was so obsessed with it that I had my own fan cast. Bad Romeo follows the good girl meets bad boy trope when Cassie Taylor meets Ethan Holt while in acting school and they are cast to play Romeo and Juliet together.
One of the most recently published and trending books that I wanted to feature is Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood. This is also an example of one of those iconic cartoon romance covers, but I guess they beat the romance covers that have shirtless, hairy men. Ali Hazelwood is well-known for her book, The Love Hypothesis, and a few others. I have yet to read this book, but I did buy it when it came out to add to my neverending TBR stack. Love on the Brain follows the enemies-to-lovers trope when Bee is offered her dream position with NASA the only setback being she is partnered with Levi Ward who has made it clear in grad school his feelings toward Bee.
I am looking forward to continuing to work with Beaufort Books for the Fall 2022 term and writing more wildly interesting and creative blogs. The romance genre has always been a favorite of mine, so the blogs may lean heavier that way, but nevertheless.
April is here, readers! With Spring springing (or just around the corner, depending on where you’re reading from), there is a lot to look forward to this month here at Beaufort Books. The biggest being the publication of our newest suspense novel, Lacie’s Secrets! The cinematic and psychological thriller publishes April 12th, 2022.
While April showers bring May flowers, Beau Weasley has compiled a list of similar thrilling novels to read on a rainy day to prep for the dark twists Lacie’s Secrets will enthrall you with.
To set the scene, reminiscent of classic suspense novels, Lacie’s Secrets is the latest psychological thriller from writing duo Teresa Sorkin and Tullan Holmqvist.
For the past 18 years, Kate Williams has tried to forget that fateful summer, the summer that ripped her family apart. But when her estranged mother unexpectedly dies and Kate inherits Villa Magda, the family’s summer home on the Maine coast, Kate decides that enough time has passed. With the help of her husband, her son, and their close group of friends, Kate decides to face the past and go back to Villa Magda for one last trip.
But the sprawling, ocean-side house isn’t as picturesque as it seems, and as the week goes on, inexplicable incidents and suspicious visitors begin to torment Kate, threatening to expose her deepest secrets.
The closer Kate gets to learning the truth about what happened that summer, the faster she realizes the house might be holding more secrets than she can handle.
As tensions run high and friendships unravel, Kate starts to question her decision to return to Villa Magda. But when tragedy strikes and a body is found floating in the pool, questions arise that demand answers: What really happened at Villa Magda 18 years ago? How much did Kate know? And how can the house be stopped from claiming its next victim? Set on a remote and gorgeous Maine estate, Lacie’s Secrets is an exciting and cinematic psychological thriller with surprising twists that will keep the reader guessing until the very last page.
When Manhattanite Sarah Rock meets a mysterious and handsome stranger in the park, she is drawn to him. Sarah wants to get away from her daily routine, her cheating husband and his crazy mistress, her frequent sessions with her heartless therapist, and her moody children. But nothing is as it seems. Her life begins to unravel when a woman from the park goes missing and Sarah becomes the prime suspect in the woman’s disappearance. Her lover is nowhere to be found, her husband is suspicious of her, and her therapist is talking to the police. With no one to trust, Sarah must face her inner demons and uncover the truth to prove her innocence. A thriller that questions what is real-with its shocking twists, secrets, and lies—The Woman in the Park will leave readers breathless.
When Manhattanite Sarah Rock meets a mysterious and handsome stranger in the park, she is drawn to him. Sarah wants to get away from her daily routine, her cheating husband and his crazy mistress, her frequent sessions with her heartless therapist, and her moody children. But nothing is as it seems. Her life begins to unravel when a woman from the park goes missing and Sarah becomes the prime suspect in the woman’s disappearance. Her lover is nowhere to be found, her husband is suspicious of her, and her therapist is talking to the police. With no one to trust, Sarah must face her inner demons and uncover the truth to prove her innocence. A thriller that questions what is real-with its shocking twists, secrets, and lies—The Woman in the Park will leave readers breathless.
When Manhattanite Sarah Rock meets a mysterious and handsome stranger in the park, she is drawn to him. Sarah wants to get away from her daily routine, her cheating husband and his crazy mistress, her frequent sessions with her heartless therapist, and her moody children. But nothing is as it seems. Her life begins to unravel when a woman from the park goes missing and Sarah becomes the prime suspect in the woman’s disappearance. Her lover is nowhere to be found, her husband is suspicious of her, and her therapist is talking to the police. With no one to trust, Sarah must face her inner demons and uncover the truth to prove her innocence. A thriller that questions what is real-with its shocking twists, secrets, and lies—The Woman in the Park will leave readers breathless.
When a bomb rips the façade off the Kensington Hotel in Tokyo, dozens are killed and injured while one man walks calmly away from the wreckage, a coy smile playing on his lips. Former Army intelligence officer Dan Reilly, now an international hotel executive with high-level access to the CIA, makes it his mission to track him down. He begins a jet-setting search for answers as the clock ticks down to a climactic event that threatens NATO and the very security of member nations. Reilly begins mining old contacts and resources in an effort to delve deeper into the motive behind these attacks and fast. Through his connections, he learns that the Tokyo bomber is not acting alone. But the organization behind the perpetrator is not who they expect. Facilitated by the official government from a fearsome global superpower, the implications and reasons for these attacks are well beyond anything Reilly or his sources in the CIA and State Department could have imagined, and point not to random acts of terror, but calculated acts of war. RED Hotel is an incredibly timely globe-trotting thriller that’s fiction on the edge of reality. The second book in the series, Red Deception, was released in 2021!
Seeking Hyde sticks closely to the biographical record as Robert Louis Stevenson struggles to write another book to be the successor to Treasure Island. After the infamous two characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, take form in a dream, Stevenson writes passionately for three days, convinced that he has crafted his masterpiece. His wife Fanny, a willful and demanding gypsy, offers a scathing critique, obliging him to start over from the beginning. While the revised tale is published to great acclaim, it is ultimately blamed for inspiring a gruesome series of murders in London’s East End. From that tragic historical irony, Seeking Hyde moves beyond the actual story of how Jekyll and Hyde came to be to explore the realm of “what if?” Desperate to address his own guilt, Stevenson enters the dark underworld of Victorian London. As he follows a twisted path through this midnight landscape, the author-turned-detective wrestles with the social demons of prostitution, police corruption, and the hypocrisy of powerful men—ultimately coming face-to-face with Jack the Ripper himself.
A secret destroys a man’s perfect life and sends him on a collision course with a deadly conspiracy in this shocking thriller. The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. Their identity is unknown. Their motives are unclear. Their information is undeniable. Then they whisper a few words in your ear and disappear, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world… Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream: a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life.
Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne’s deception, and realizes that if he doesn’t make exactly the right moves, the conspiracy he’s stumbled into will not only ruin lives–it will end them.
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a job at the hospital cafeteria. If he’s extra lucky, he’ll earn more than minimum wage. But Ray has a gift and a dream–he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he discovers that his great-great-grandfather’s beat-up old fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach. Together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition–the Olympics of classical music–the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Ray will have to piece together the clues to recover his treasured Strad … before it’s too late. With the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-great-grandfather asserting that the instrument is rightfully theirs, and with his family staking their own claim, Ray doesn’t know who he can trust—or whether he will ever see his beloved violin again.
May flowers can’t come fast enough, and neither can Lacie’s Secrets, but there’s nothing better than a good book while we wait.
Cozy sweaters and cooling weather make autumn the perfect time to dive into a few spooky stories. Before you rewatch Hocus Pocus for the fifth time this month, why not pick up a written thriller instead? We put together a list of four of our favorite Beaufort thrillers to curl up with during the month of October. But be careful, only the extremely brave should dare to read these titles alone after the sun sets.
The Woman in the Park
As a summer 2019 release, The Woman in the Park is the latest psychological thriller from Beaufort to hit shelves. While The Purist Magazine called it “the beach read you’ve been waiting for” and SheReads named it one of the 10 best chilling end-of-summer thrillers, The Woman in the Park is just as great of a read while stretched out on the sand as it is curled up on the couch.
Synopsis:
When Manhattanite Sarah Rock meets a mysterious and handsome stranger in the park, she is drawn to him. Sarah wants to get away from her daily routine, her cheating husband and his crazy mistress, her frequent sessions with her heartless therapist, and her moody children. But nothing is as it seems. Her life begins to unravel when a woman from the park goes missing and Sarah becomes the prime suspect in the woman’s disappearance. Her lover is nowhere to be found, her husband is suspicious of her, and her therapist is talking to the police. With no one to trust, Sarah must face her inner demons and uncover the truth to prove her innocence.
RED Hotel
A timely thriller based on real-life acts of war, RED Hotel teeters on the edge of reality until the very end. This action-packed book is a combined effort of authors Gary Grossman and Ed Fuller, in which they use their long-standing experience in the hospitality and entertainment industries to write a novel about a terrorist attack at a Tokyo hotel.
Synopsis:
When a bomb rips the façade off the Kensington Hotel in Tokyo, dozens are killed and injured while one man walks calmly away from the wreckage, a coy smile playing on his lips. Former Army intelligence officer Dan Reilly, now an international hotel executive with high level access to the CIA, makes it his mission to track him down. He begins a jet-setting search for answers as the clock ticks down to a climactic event that threatens NATO and the very security of member nations. Reilly begins mining old contacts and resources in an effort to delve deeper into the motive behind these attacks, and fast. Through his connections he learns that the Tokyo bomber is not acting alone. But the organization behind the perpetrator is not who they expect.
Facilitated by the official government from a fearsome global superpower, the implications and reasons for these attacks are well beyond anything Reilly or his sources in the CIA and State Department could have imagined, and point not to random acts of terror, but calculated acts of war. RED Hotel is an incredibly timely globe-trotting thriller that’s fiction on the edge of reality.
Seeking Hyde
If you love Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you’ll love Thomas Reed’s Seeking Hyde. Reed’s book dives into the history of one of the world’s most famous authors, while taking readers along a gripping, heart-pounding journey through late-19th century London. This Beaufort title is the perfect Halloween read for lovers of historical thrillers and die-hard Stevenson fans.
Synopsis:
Seeking Hyde sticks closely to the biographical record as Robert Louis Stevenson struggles to write another book to be the successor to Treasure Island. After the infamous two characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, take form in a dream, Stevenson writes passionately for three days, convinced that he has crafted his masterpiece. His wife Fanny, a willful and demanding gypsy, offers a scathing critique, obliging him to start over from the beginning. While the revised tale is published to great acclaim, it is ultimately blamed for inspiring a gruesome series of murders in London’s East End. Desperate to address his own guilt, Stevenson enters the dark underworld of Victorian London. As he follows a twisted path through this midnight landscape, the author-turned-detective wrestles with the social demons of prostitution, police corruption, and the hypocrisy of powerful men—ultimately coming face-to-face with Jack the Ripper himself.
Ladies of the Lake
Author Ken Corday, established producer of popular day-time soap Days of Our Lives, made his publishing debut with the chilling thriller Ladies of the Lake. Since publication, Corday’s novel has been adapted into a successful digital TV series by the same name. This thriller offers readers entertaining family drama, a world-class cast of characters, and a shocking twist-ending that will leave you wanting more.
Synopsis:
From the outside, Avalon seems like the ideal place to live; full of rich men and beautiful women. Six couples form a close-knit friendship; the men all golf together, the women all shop together, and their six children all skip school together. But the wives begin to resent feeling like possessions and realize that the men become crueler every day. When more husbands start dying, the so-called “Ladies of the Lake” find themselves under suspicion from the LAPD and their own children. The six children try to uncover their parents’ secrets before the handsome Detective Daniels can discover what is truly going on behind closed gates.
Get into the spirit of Halloween with any one of these Beaufort titles. Visit Barnes & Noble or IndieBound to pick up a copy of your chosen thriller today!
