Whatcha Reading Wednesday - The Unfinished

The Unfinished

by Cheryl Isaacs

What they say: The black water has been waiting. Watching. Hungry for the souls it needs to survive.

When small-town athlete Avery’s morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople of Crook’s Falls have long forgotten.

Avery can smell the water, see it flooding everywhere; she thinks she’s losing her mind. And as the black water haunts Avery—taking a new form each time—people in town begin to go missing.

Though Avery had heard whispers of monsters from her Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) relatives, she’s never really connected to her Indigenous culture or understood the stories. But the Elders she has distanced herself from now may have the answers she needs.

When Key, her best friend and longtime crush, is the next to disappear, Avery is faced with a choice: listen to the Kanyen’kehá:ka and save the town but lose her friend forever…or listen to her heart and risk everything to get Key back.

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - A Crown of Ruin

A Crown of Ruin - Blood and Ash #6.5

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

What they say: When everything falls apart, the truth of who they are is revealed.

Poppy has fallen into stasis, her body broken and power spent, carried beyond the mortal realm. While she lies suspended in dreams, Casteel faces a world without her—raw, wrathful, and altered in ways he doesn’t yet understand.

Left to steady a kingdom trembling under the weight of loss, Kieran shoulders what he cannot say aloud, even as the fractures between gods, mortals, and fate widen around him.

In the days that follow, grief becomes a guide, loyalty a burden, and love the only thing holding the realms together.

These are the pieces that fill the silence. The moments of wrath, ruin, resolve, and the spark of what must come next.

A Crown of Ruin reveals the unseen moments of love, loss, and change that happened between The Primal of Blood and Bone and The Throne of Bone and Ash.

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - Midnight on the Celestial

Midnight on the Celestial

by Julia Alexandra

What they say: Roe Damarcus has never been afraid of the dead. Her power to summon spirits has awed the guests of her esteemed family’s galas for as long as she can remember. Her future is certain, and her gift will be another shining jewel in the Damarcus legacy.

But when she fails her realm’s trial to keep her magic and is deemed too dangerous for society, she faces a harrowing choice: give up her gift or serve a punishment sentence aboard the Celestial, a luxurious magical cruise ship where staff members compete for guest votes to earn a coveted retrial.

As a concierge, Roe juggles the demands of affluent guests, cruel bosses, and the suspicion that an infuriatingly handsome silks performer, Ivander, is determined to keep her from a retrial.

But the true dangers surface after her shift ends when the Celestial transforms into halls of nightmares that kill staff members after dark. Faced with the reality of serving aboard, Roe begins to question the ship, trials, and the system that put her there. But the moment Roe sinks into the ship's dark history, she's wrongly framed for a guest's murder. Vowing to conjure her own second chance, Roe will use whatever power she has to uncover the secrets of the ship, her family, and their entwined bloody past... before she becomes the Celestial’s next victim.

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - What We Did to Survive

What We Did to Survive

by Megan Lally

What they say: Hannah is having an incredible spring break. A week at a resort in Mexico with her best friend Emmy and her family is perfect for de-stressing from senior year, even if it’s awkward being around Emmy's older brother, Jackson, who she’s had a crush on for as long as she can remember.

Still, the beach is gorgeous. So is the guy they meet in the surf. Except Hannah is now the third wheel in Emmy’s vacation romance.

Eager to impress Emmy, her wealthy new boyfriend charters a private sailboat to make the most of their last day in paradise, and Hannah and Jackson are invited along. As the clouds roll in and the skies darken, their boat is the only one leaving the marina. And the further they get into open water, the more unsettled Hannah becomes. A storm is brewing onboard that’s as deadly as the one racing toward them. Forget surviving graduation. Who will make it back to land alive?

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - Every Last Liar

Every Last Liar

by Kate Francis

What they say: On the first anniversary of a tragic fire at their high school, seven teenagers jump at the chance of a luxury desert retreat. But when they're left at a ramshackle motel and a sinister text message accuses them of complicity in the fire, they realize someone is playing a deadly game of revenge.

The rules? Every hour, one of them must sacrifice themselves, leaving the motel grounds to be killed, until only one survivor remains. Otherwise, they all die.

As the countdown begins, the stranded students confront the trauma of the previous year and decide who among them deserves to live, and who to die.

With time running out, can they work together to uncover who's running the game before the bodies pile up? Or will it be survival of the fittest?

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - A Scar like a River

A Scar like a River

by Lisa Graff

What they say: Everyone assumes that the day Fallon got the awful scar across her face must have been the worst day of her life. But when Uncle Geebie dies, his funeral starts a cascade of events that force Fallon to confront the big and small tragedies she has lived through, all of which feel worse than Scar Day. Her best friends Trent and Darcy are crushing on each other and feel more distant than ever, the school play in which Fallon is cast as the lead is spiraling out of control, and her Mom’s grief has her in despair. Still, none of these things compare to the worst day of her life—not even close.

Through unflinching prose and with a pitch-perfect voice, Lisa Graff explores the power of confronting the past as a way to heal in the present.

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