Sabrina Bailey

"Moss and Mirrors" by Nicole M. King is the kind of psychological suspense that slowly unravels secrets it's been holding. Nothing rushes to reveal itself, and you aren't piecing everything together within the first few chapters. Instead, there’s this uncomfortable feeling quietly following you through the story—something unsettling buried beneath the green moss, murky swamp water, and supposed safety of Cypress Hollow. You may not know exactly what’s wrong yet, but you can feel that something is.

Quinn’s story really got to me. After everything she survived, you desperately want her to finally land somewhere safe and have a chance to figure out who she is outside of everything that was done to her. Instead, she ends up at this new “rehab” run by Sterling—and Sterling had my alarm bells going off from the beginning. 🚩 There’s something about the way he acts with Quinn, but it’s also the way he interacts with the other girls living in the house. His attention and behavior just leave you with that nagging feeling that something isn't right.

And then there’s Remy, Sterling’s youngest, who is too damn adorable. 🥹 Between his little bunny and his “boo-berries,” he completely stole my heart. In a book filled with this constant underlying uneasiness, Remy was the sweet little bright spot I absolutely needed.

There were definitely moments where I wanted to reach through the pages and yell, “QUINN! GIRL. NO.” But considering everything she has been through and how much of her life has been controlled and manipulated by other people, you understand why she doesn't always recognize what we can see from the outside.

And I really loved that part of the story. We know things Quinn doesn't. Not enough to have everything figured out, but enough to know she needs to be careful. You're watching things happen around her while she's still learning how to exist in a world completely different from the one she's known for fifteen years.

The deeper you get into Cypress Hollow, the heavier that uneasy feeling becomes. There are secrets tucked into this seemingly quiet little place, and you just know there's something hiding beneath all that Southern charm, Spanish moss, and swamp water.

Nicole did such a good job with the slow burn of this one. It doesn't throw everything at you at once. It lets the discomfort creep in little by little until you realize just how invested you've become in finding out what the hell is actually happening.

And Nicole… after that ending, we need to talk. Because I have QUESTIONS. 👀

📚 BOOK REVIEW | ARC
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Missing by Ivy Blackwell

📅 Release Date: October 31, 2026

Well, this was a creepy little ride. 👀

"Missing" is one of those books I picked up and didn't really want to put back down. The chapters moved quickly, there was always something happening, and I needed to know what the hell was going on.

Gretchen gets pulled into the disappearance of a teenage girl after a summer bonfire, but it becomes pretty clear that this isn't going to be a normal missing-person investigation. Someone is playing a seriously fucked-up game, and the fact that they're willing to put what they're doing out there for people to WATCH made the whole thing that much more disturbing.

There's something especially creepy about knowing someone is behind a camera deciding exactly what everyone else gets to see.

I really enjoyed Gretchen's character and following her as she tried to put everything together. Every new piece of information made me question something else, and even when I started getting an idea of where things might be headed, I still wanted to see exactly how it was all going to play out.

And I'm perfectly okay with figuring out pieces of a thriller before the big reveal. If I'm still invested enough that I don't want to stop reading, the book did its damn job.

This wasn't super heavy or overly complicated. It was just a really good, fast thriller with a creepy premise, some oh shit moments, and enough mystery to keep me flipping pages.

And sometimes that's exactly what I want.

I want to get comfortable, disappear into a story for a few hours, yell at fictional people for making questionable decisions, make my predictions, and find out whether I was right.

Missing gave me exactly that

The story kind of tosses you right into the middle of Dominic’s world—right at the point where everything is already falling apart and he’s being convicted of something that will define the rest of his life. And then from there, it slowly unravels into something completely different and unexpected.

Lovers is one of those short stories that feels heavier than it should in the best way. The pacing is tight and deliberate, never rushed but never slow either. Every scene matters. There’s no filler, no wasted space—just this steady pull that keeps you turning pages whether you meant to or not.

The part that really stayed with me was the emotional weight behind the characters. Penelope and Roslyn’s friendship feels real—like something that existed long before the story started. There’s history there, and you can feel it in the quieter moments just as much as the bigger ones. And then there’s Dom. What he was accused of, what it cost him, and the shadow it leaves behind—it lingers over everything. Even when you’re not directly thinking about it, it’s there, shaping every interaction, every choice.

I liked that nothing is handed to you too easily. The connections between them unfold in a way that makes you question what you think you know without ever feeling confusing or forced. It trusts the reader to sit in that discomfort a little.

And the ending… it hits hard, but not in a loud, dramatic way. It’s quieter than that—more calculated. The kind of twist that feels a little conniving, a little underhanded, like it slipped past you when you weren’t looking. It doesn’t just surprise you—it makes you rethink everything that led up to it.

This is absolutely a one-sitting read, and it’s the kind that leaves you staring at the last page for a minute before moving on. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more that is in this series.