Tantalizing Tales — July 2025 — Part Three

Was July this huge a month for books in previous years, dear reader, or is this another case of my time blindness? Regardless, we have some delicious reads that have either just or are freshly coming out, beginning with Tess Sharpe’s No Body No Crime, a twisty and gripping romantic thriller about enduring love, true friendship and murder (with an absolutely outstanding cover!)

Murder will either bond you or break you. For teenaged Melanie Tillman and Chloe Harper, their experience of murder was the bonding sort, both in crime and in a love affair that they both believed would last.

But time has a funny way of changing things. Nowadays Mel is single, and a working PI in her rural NorCal hometown. Chloe, meanwhile, has been missing for six years. And their victim Toby Dunne? He’s buried where no one will ever find him.

When the Harper family hires Mel to bring Chloe home to be with her dying father, Mel tracks her ex down to a boobytrapped DIY cabin in the Canadian wilderness. There she learns that what broke them apart wasn’t murder, but the fact that when they buried Toby, they also buried something that belonged to the Newells, the most powerful and politically connected family in town. The Newells are desperate to get it back, and have been hunting Chloe ruthlessly since linking her to Toby’s disappearance. Chloe, in turn, has been hiding out, hoping against hope that doing so will keep Mel safe.

Will the reunited lovers be able to figure out a way to get Chloe home safely to her dad? After losing each other once, they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they’re never parted again.

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Our next selection is a seductive and intoxicating debut. Lauren Wilson’s The Goldens tells the story of a young woman who is swept into a glamorous world of fascinating influencers, glittering parties… and suspicions of murder.

Chloe is a college student with ambitions of becoming a bestselling writer. A little on the awkward side, she’s never really felt like she fits in.

Everything changes when she meets the enigmatic and gorgeous socialite and influencer Clara. When Clara takes Chloe under her wing, Chloe finally feels like she has something to write about.

After they move in to Clara’s grand family estate together, Chloe starts working on Clara’s memoirs, in addition to polishing up social media captions and helping her plan elaborate, decadent parties for the who’s who of the influencer world. When Clara starts to open her home to more girls who crave this lavish lifestyle too, the media insultingly calls their sisterhood a cult. Chloe wants to block out the haters, but soon she’s hearing really unsettling rumors about Clara. When a girl goes missing after an extravagant New Year’s Eve party, the rumors become more and more sinister.

Is Chloe in danger? If she can’t escape Clara’s influence, will she be the next girl to die? Find out in this timely thriller that deftly straddles the line between Young Adult and Adult!

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Virginia Trench’s debut Our Secrets Were Safe is another book with Young Adult connections, as it takes a grown-up spin on Sara Shepard’s blockbuster Pretty Little Liars series.

Ten years after Sofia Eliades was killed in a tragic accident, Caroline Archer and Brooke Winters think that they’ve escaped the shadow — and sinister implications — of their friend’s death. Caroline’s feminist tech startup is thisclose to its big break, while Brooke is newly engaged and starting her dream job at a prestigious prep school. Everything that they’ve ever wanted is finally within their reach.

Until Sofia — or someone claiming to be her — resurfaces in their lives. Worse, she’s definitely in her revenge era.

It begins with threatening comments on the Instagram account of Caroline’s company. Brooke receives an ominous email with photos attached. With Sofia seemingly hellbent on ruining their lives, their carefully constructed façades start to crumble. They must each decide just how far they’ll go to keep the terrible truth hidden, no matter how deadly the cost.

Virginia Trench’s masterful intertwinement of the past and present is told from the distinct points of view of Caroline, Brooke and Sofia, creating an unpredictable and propulsive series of events that will lure readers down this ultimate rabbit hole of revenge. And as someone who dabbles in visual art, I’m obsessed with this gorgeous cover, too!

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Amp up the scares (and obsession) with our next book, Cherie Priest’s It Was Her House First, the latest in her otherwise unconnected series on haunted houses.

Nothing could have deterred Ronnie Mitchell from buying this historic house: not the boarded-up windows, not the reek of mold and suspicion of asbestos, and certainly not the local stories of murderous ghosts and imprisoning curses.

Venita Rost, a bewitching film star and the original owner of the house, greets Ronnie at the door. Venita has stayed put for the last century — raging for her lost daughter, luring ambitious DIYers to their doom, and ensuring that the once-famous detective trapped in the house with her never receives the redemption that he seeks. She’s happy to welcome yet another soul into her tangled web.

While the strange house becomes certifiably mad, Ronnie stands her ground, determined to make something of the walls her brother helped her buy. The question is, will Venita let her see her plans through? It was her house first, after all.

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Continuing with the creepy theme is Ronnie Turner’s Small Fires, a chilling contemporary gothic novel that examines possession, generational trauma, female rage and the perilous bonds of family.

After sisters Lilly and Della are accused of killing their parents, they flee to a remote Scottish island with no official name. The mainlanders call it The God Forgotten Island and the locals do little to discourage their own reputation for strangeness. Stories abound of horrifying screaming and demonic singing and a mysterious Warden that the townspeople refer to as The Devil.

Della seems to settle in easily, but Lilly has a harder time. Afraid of what her sister might do next, she’s plagued by unsettling dreams. Her fears only grow as the island’s annual Festival of the Devil draws near and she learns far more about her new home than she ever imagined possible.

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Our next horror selection is from a Malaysian author whom I love to celebrate. Cassandra Khaw’s The Library At Hellebore is their first full-length novel with horror imprint Nightfire, and the first novel from Nightfire to get a delicious cobalt-blue sprayed edge treatment. This lush, queer horror novel focuses on a magical school for grownups with grisly tastes. This is dark academia as it’s meant to be – a glimpse into a carnage-filled yet devilishly delightful campus where nobody should ever be trusted.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful. The Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers are all assembled here to learn how to control their powers. Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled there.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught how to do: work together.

For if they don’t, this school will happily eat them alive…

This is probably my most anticipated novel on this week’s list, and not just because Mx Khaw is a fellow Malaysian. I love the dark academia meets New Mutants vibes, and can’t wait to find the time to finally read this.

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I’m also feeling a lot of anticipation for the final book on our list today, Gabriella Buba’s Daughters Of Flood And Fury, the sequel to her thrilling fantasy debut Saints Of Storm And Sorrow. Ms Buba is another writer of Southeast Asian origin, and this series — brimming with pirates, unruly magic, moon-eating dragons and sizzling Sapphic romance — draws heavily on Filipino history and legend.

Five years after the fall of the Palisade in Aynila, the Codicíans are closing in with a vast armada. Lunurin and Alon have been working desperately to solidify their alliances across the archipelago. To stand any chance, they must unify the disparate factions of their forces at the festival of the eclipse, when the laho will swallow the moon and the islands’ magic will be at its strongest.

Inez has been training as a tide-touched healer, but the gentle side of her goddess’s gift does not come naturally to her. Aboard a pirate ship, she meets the fierce firetender Umali, who has no fear of her own power and burns more brightly than anyone Inez has ever known. Yet Inez worries that her untamed, hungry magic may prove too much even for a pirate captain, especially with the threat of the Codicíans’ return hanging heavily over both their heads.

Three goddesses stand ready to fight behind our heroines. But without human allies, even their divine power may not be enough to keep Aynila and the archipelago free.

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Let me know if you’re able to get to any of these books before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will help spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books in my Bookshop storefront linked below!