currently reading: I am reading Jennifer McMahon’s newest, out this Tuesday, The Children on the Hill. It’s so amazingly chilling and creepy and fun, and I will be recommending this one so hard. It’s the story of two children being raised by their grandmother. After their parents died, they went to live with Gran, the director of a small mental hospital where she experiments with holistic healing. Vi and Eric were home schooled, and they had a fascination with monsters. Now they’re adults. Eric has a wife and kids and sells cars. Vi has changed her name to Lizzy and does a podcast about monsters, traveling around the country to talk to people about dog men and bigfoots. But she’s really after a different kind of monster, a younger sister who Lizzy believes is a killer. I’m about halfway through this one, and it’s so amazing. If you love a creepy thriller, you won’t want to miss this one.

I’ve also started listening to 54 Pigs, a mystery where the amateur detective is a veterinarian. I’m about 25% of the way in, and it’s lovely. I am loving the voice of this character. He is smart and calm and possibly not neurotypical, so you know he’s able to handle whatever happens. And I’ve started reading the latest by Carter Wilson, who had a big hit last year with The Dead Husband. In this one, a widower with two young kids hits the lottery and wins millions. He moves his kids to a new house in a new town, but once he gets there are gets moved in, he finds out that the former resident of the house went missing, along with his two adult daughters and one grandson. Now Marlowe is there with his kids, he knows no one in town, and he finds a letter on his doorstep. The letter says that they are being watched. Whoever wrote it knew that his wife had recently died, that he was living there with his two children, and that he had won the lottery, which was supposed to be secret. He finds the letter enraging. But the next letter is creepy, and Marlowe has to figure to make sure that his children and himself are safe, even though he has no idea where the threat is actually coming from. This one is also chilling, and I am having lots of fin with it.

Up next: The new Janelle Brown also comes out this week, I’ll Be You. But I think I also need some humor or a good rom com, so I’ll be looking or something less creepy too. Not sure what yet, but maybe this guy will help. Or maybe he’ll just keep giving me dirty looks for trying to take his picture. But he is cute, and he is my blogging buddy, keeping me company when I’m reading and sitting on the laptop when I’m trying to write, so I can’t help but love him madly and add his picture here when I don’t have any new bookmail to be excited about.

Important Note: next Saturday, April 30, is Independent Bookstore Day. Make plans to visit your favorite indie bookstores, or load up your online shopping carts if you like to shop from home, and show your support for booksellers and publishers!