Redemption Ark by Eilis O'Neal

Four contestants.

Four crimes.

One shot at freedom.

Lane Holland is a spoiled heiress turned cold-blooded killer.

Dez Okoro-Andromeda is a scholarship kid who hacked her way to vengeance.

Ishaan Viswanathan isn't saying he didn't commit grand theft auto (space style).

Cutter Azevedo is ready to detonate a world that chewed him up and spat him back out.

Welcome to Season 7 of Redemption Ark. Aboard the intergalactic cruise ship hosting the hit reality show of the same name, you are no more than the crime you committed. Unless you can prove to billions of voters across the galaxy that you deserve salvation.

There are seven days until the Ark reaches the an ultra-high-security prison where the losing contestants will serve the rest of their sentences. That's seven days for Lane, Dez, Ishaan, and Cutter to keep their secrets under wraps, and seven days to discover what the show itself is hiding.

Only one lucky contestant will get a second chance at freedom-if they can make it off this ship.

Happy #BookBirthday! Nov 12 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there is ONE book on our lists publishing!

Worse than the Others by Mackenzie Reed

Ames is an aspiring true crime YouTuber, so when she receives an anonymous invitation to a party at the infamous Haven Hotel, she can’t resist going. Because a girl died under suspicious circumstances at the hotel last summer, and this is Ames’s chance to find out what happened.

When she arrives, she finds that the other party guests are a group of friends from the nearby arts high school, and that none of them know who invited them to this party either. But within moments, one of their group is dead.

It’s soon made clear that there’s no way out of the Haven Hotel, not unless the secrets that the friends are hiding are exposed. It’s up to Ames to lead the investigation to find out which of the guests is worse than the others.

American Nightmare by Alexandra Kyllingstad

Thirteen hours. Eight teenagers. One killer.

Specter is always watching. The AI-powered security system that makes Devon High the safest school in America knows its students' deepest desires. It observes that Mia Beaumont can't wait to graduate and escape the legacy of her mother, the architect of Specter. It watches as Larke Daniels prepares to accept her integrity award, guaranteeing her spot at Stanford. It knows Ellis Wexler pines after Larke, despite her dating their best friend Niko, the senior class president who is planning a prank that should be impossible...all thanks to Specter.

Yet on the night of the prank, Specter opens its doors to the eight senior class council members—only for the system to be hijacked, and the school turned into a deadly trap. Mia and her classmates will do anything to survive the night, but as students are picked off one by one, Specter forces them to choose: will they keep their secrets, or will they keep their lives?

Weekly recap - 8 Nov 2026

Happy Sunday, all! Welcome to the weekly recap. 

This week, I reviewed

The Friendship Fairies Save the Wedding - feel good MG with adventures and fun (also a wedding that is saved, oops spoilers)

The Call by Peader O'Guilin - terror in an alternate Ireland as teens are Called, oops spoilers

Cardboard Knight by Matthew Dicks - epistolary with a bittersweet ending, oops spoilers

Afar by Megan E Freeman - the third in a trilogy, oops - wait, that's not a spoiler!

This week, I read

Worse than the Others, Redemption Ark, American Nightmare and Cast Away - Trapped In Place week! 

I DNF'd another title that just wasn't working for me.

Coming up 

A mix of different genres to give myself a break.

Afar by Megan Freeman

River, a budding eleven-year-old nature artist, gains a new viewpoint in life when his estranged cousin, Emma, and her mother come to his off-the-grid mountain compound to escape from a problematic home situation. Through Emma, River learns more about what has been happening in the area outside of their rural outpost (and what his brother, Mustang, has been up to) and starts to question the rules and restrictions that the group has imposed upon the community.

At the same time, Emma’s prevailing sense of dread about her stepfather leads her to cultivate her self-defense skills. With mass evacuations and panic outside the compound and questions stirring within, the cousins must lean on each other to weather the upheaval.

Cardboard Knight by Matthew Dicks

Eleven-year-old Jack Mandeville's life is complicated. Between dealing with his parents' divorce and new (annoying) stepdad, and looking after his siblings, a lot's been changing as he heads into a new school year.

When Jack gets a school assignment to send letters to an astronaut, he realizes that he’s writing to someone who's not weighed down by the same kind of earthly troubles. But as the year goes on and he keeps writing the letters, he discovers that perhaps 'complicated' isn't such a bad thing. Maybe, it's what makes us all human.

Happy #BookBirthday! 5th Nov 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there is ONE book on our lists publishing!

The Call by Peadar O'Guilin

The magical Sídhe have been expelled from their home and forced into the Grey Land - a place under the earth; a place of darkness and death. But now they've returned to take back what they lost.

All teenagers will be called, and when your time comes, you have to be ready to run or fight to the death. The vengeful Sídhe will grab you by surprise - you could be studying or hanging out with friends when suddenly you're pulled into their terrifying world, alone and hunted. Only one in ten will return alive - the rest subjected to a tortuous and painful death.

No one believes Nessa can survive The Call, but after years of torment and, worse, pity - she's determined to prove them wrong . . .

The Friendship Fairies Save the Wedding by Lucy Kennedy and Phillip Cullen

The Friendship Fairies – sisters Emme, Holly and Jess – are off on another adventure, spending the weekend in a mysterious old castle with their parents, while their mum is on a mission for work. The castle owner, Mr Jennings, is in a panic: ghosts are causing mischief, and there’s a big wedding planned for the weekend! Can the Friendship Fairies come up with a plan to clear the castle of ghosts, in time to save the wedding?

Weekly recap - Oct 31 2026

Happy Sunday, all! Welcome to the weekly recap. 

This week, I reviewed

Time to Play, Making Friends and Hide and Seek - the first three of Erin Ampersand's Parenting Apocalypse series

Overworld - a LitRPG with an extremely competent hero.

It's LitRPG week!

This week, I read

Hide and Seek & Overworld - as above

Friendship Fairies Save the Wedding - the newest in the fun series

Cardboard Knight - I cried so hard

Afar - great look at personal power

Coming up 

It's Trapped In Place week!

TBR check in

There's 35 books on my maybe list, most of them publishing next year! Thriller is highest as we head into the colder months, with Mystery and Survival close behind.