Happy New Year! Dear readers, welcome to another year with many great reads ahead of us! Before I launch into my new adventures in reading for the coming year I would like to share my December favorites with you. I was surprised that I managed to read so many in December despite being busy with the holidays. Below you will find tantalizing choices from the genres of thriller, non fiction, and historical fiction. I hope that one of my recommendations sparks someone’s fancy.

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

I am currently a bit obsessed with Riley Sager’s books. His thrillers just hit all the right “I can’t put this book down!” vibes. This is Riley Sager’s second thriller novel. Each is a stand alone, but since I found I liked this author I have decided to read them in publication order. If you like creepy summer camp stories that involve suspicious rich people, a possibly haunted lake, a deep dark woods, and vanished young campers then this is one for you! This one in particular was very atmospheric with perfectly eerie visuals.

Emma Davis spent a few days at Camp Nightingale when she was thirteen. That stay was enough to traumatize her for life. During her stay the other three girls in her cabin disappeared without a trace. No one knows what happened to them. The mystery remains unsolved. Emma has been haunted by not knowing what happened to her friends into her adult years. She copes by painting them over and over and covering their images with paintings of the forest. No one knows the girls are hidden in the paintings but her. It is an odd coping mechanism, but it helps her. As an artist, Emma is so successful that the rich owner of Camp Nightingale, Franny, takes an interest in her paintings. After purchasing a painting, Franny informs Emma that she intends to reopen Camp Nightingale for the first time after the disappearances. She invites Emma to come work for her as the art teacher. Seeing this as an opportunity to tie up loose ends and solve the mystery once and for all, Emma accepts. Once there odd things start happening and Emma can’t help but feel that she is being watched. Is someone trying to keep the truth from coming to light? Will more girls disappear? Read The Last Time I Lied to find out!

Click HERE to request a copy of The Last Time I Lied

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

This one is a call out to WWII history buffs. The Paris Architect is a work of historical fiction. The story takes place in Nazi occupied France and follows French architect Lucien Bernard. Lucien does his best to keep his head down. He does not want trouble, he just wants to build wonderful buildings to his artistic vision. Unfortunately, architectural jobs in Nazi occupied France are hard to come by. While down on his luck Lucien is approached by a very wealthy man with a business proposition for him. The man wants him to use his architectural abilities to craft ingenious hiding places for Jews. At first Lucien simply takes the job for money and the chance to show his genius. Over time, as he starts to learn more about the Jews he is protecting, Lucien starts to realize that though dangerous, building these hiding places is the RIGHT thing to do.

This book is a real nail biter. It always seems that Lucien and his allies are one step away from being found out by the Germans. I kept thinking “the next chapter he is gonna be arrested and killed.” That feeling of impending doom persists throughout the book. The ending is worth holding out for though. I also found this novel to be an intriguing snapshot of life in occupied France. The character development was also done well. To be honest, Lucien begins as a bit of a distasteful character. As he grew as a person, my thoughts about his character also changed for the better. At the end of the story he is not the same man from the first chapter.

Click HERE to request The Paris Architect

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Final Girls is the first novel by Riley Sager. It is not a novelization of the movie by the same name, (though the movie is a great watch as well.) Final Girls is a fun take on the common horror movie trope where there is one girl left standing after a bloody atrocity. This girl usually survives by inexplicable means and somehow often possesses the strength and smarts to take out the killer by the end of the movie.

Quincy Carpenter, our main character, is one of three women designated “Final Girls” by the media. She was given this title after surviving the slaying of the rest of her college friends at a cabin in the woods. The event was so traumatic that Quincy has no memory of that night as her mind has suppressed it. Not happy with the designation of “Final Girl”, she has done her best to hide from the media and try to move forward with a normal life. Quincy is happy to settle with her fiancé and spend time baking all sorts of goodies for her baking blog (I love baking so I very much enjoyed this aspect of the character). Quincy’s calm life is shattered when she receives news that Lisa, the original Final Girl, has taken her own life. Shortly after, the other Final Girl, Sam, shows up on Quincy’s doorstep. Could someone be hunting the remaining Final Girls? Is there any connection to Quincy’s missing memories? Sam is intent on getting Quincy to remember no matter what darkness she must drag Quincy into.

Click HERE to request Final Girls

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

For many Anne Frank’s diary was required reading in school. Unfortunately, I was never assigned this book to read in my school days. I felt left out as this book is one of those books that my life felt like it was missing. I can honestly say after having finished: you need to read this book! I would like to mention that there are different editions of The Diary of a Young Girl. If you were a student in school they likely gave you the cut down version. If this is you, I recommend rereading the definitive edition published after the death of Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank. Otto did not want certain passages published until after his death. Some of these passages he thought would paint he and his late wife in a negative light. Anne, like any teenaged girl who ever lived, often complained and ranted about her parents. Otto also did not want passages published where Anne expressed her interest and curiosity about sex. I think that it is important to read the diary as a whole. Only with these passages included can we get a whole picture of the person Anne Frank was and the life that was cut far too short.

Going into this book I had some misconceptions that I think were propagated by bits and pieces of the story I had heard throughout my life. I had always thought that the Annex was like the attic out of Flowers in the Attic. This is not so. The Annex was an entire secret small apartment complex off of a warehouse/office building. Anne lived there in hiding with her family (father, mother, and older sister), the Van Daans (Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan and their son, Peter), and the dentist Dussel. These are fake last names that Anne used for those she lived with. I was impressed with Anne’s spunk, her hopes and dreams, and how she could probably easily fit in with teens today. I found her writings to be oddly familiar (besides the hiding from Nazi’s of course). The familiarity was because so many of the things she did, felt, and thought were things that I also did, felt, and thought at that age (especially her relationship with her parents and her thoughts about boys). I think this familiarity added to the feelings of injustice and tragedy when the diary abruptly ends and you know the fate that Anne suffered. It is very sad, but I think it is a story that needs telling.

After finishing The Diary of a Young Girl I found the website https://www.annefrank.org/en/ to be a wonderful resource for more information. This website is the official site of the organization that keeps the Secret Annex as a museum for all to visit and learn about the family. On this site you can even take a virtual tour that brings Anne Frank’s world to life. You can also find out the sad truths of what happened to these people when the diary ends. It is a well done and organized resource that keeps the story alive to educate new generations of people.

Click HERE to request The Diary of a Young Girl

Dear reader, I hope one of these titles sparks your interest. I also wish you a very happy new year and look forward to sharing more of my recent reads with you in the coming months!