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In this sun-dappled mystery from New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan, a risk-averse bibliophile gets in over her head when strange notes in a book draw her into a real-life investigation. Mia Crawford is responsible to a fault. She has to be. Between her high-demand job and taking care of her grandmother and her cats, she has little time for anything else. What time she does have, she pours into reading. Mysteries, romances, thrillers…books filled with women who are far more impulsive than she would ever dream of being. Now, forced into taking a long-overdue vacation, she finds herself on a luxurious private island where she just might have a chance to reinvent herself—for a little while, anyway. She can explore the island. Flirt shamelessly with a cute bartender. Have a vacation fling. Live like a heroine in one of her favorite novels. Or she can curl up with a good book on the beach. Turns out reinventing yourself is easier planned than done. But when gossipy notes written in the margins of an old book turn out to be clues to the disappearance of another guest, Mia finds herself diving headfirst into a dangerous adventure. With everyone at the resort hiding secrets of their own, she’ll have to solve this real-life mystery before she becomes the next target.
Publication Year: 2025
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Brennan Expands Her Storytelling In A New And Refreshing Direction. Long time fans of Brennan, and even those who have only started reading her this decade like me, know she is most well known for very *dark* murder tales and the teams investigating them. This book is not that. At all. While it retains *some* elements of that - bodies are piling up rather rapidly at a small private island resort - this is much more a pure romantic suspense with strong island vibes. Thus, we get a lot more tropical/ island feel here than is typical of Brennan's writing to date... and that is an *amazing* thing to see, as she executes it so well. About the only thing Brennan could have done to be even more different than her usual style would be to go pure bubblegum pop romcom, and while this is nowhere near that... there are certainly both comedic and spicy moments, making the reader literally laugh out loud at times while offering perhaps around a jalapeno level spice - more than a warm glass of milk, but also far less than the ghost peppers of books I read earlier in the week before reading this book. Truly well done, and a very welcome and refreshing departure from where Brennan has been these last several years at minimum, this reader at least is hoping both sides of her storytelling will continue. Very much recommend.