The Apartment

by K.L. Slater.

The Apartment is a well written psychological thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. We follow Freya, a down-on-her-luck mother who is in desperate need of a new place to live when an apartment in a decadent mansion is suddenly presented to her. The mansion's owners are more concerned with having the right people living there instead of money so even though it seems too good to be true, Freya moves her and her daughter in immediately. It's a beautiful house but soon Freya is hearing things, her daughter seems unhappy, and the other residents of the house are strange. This is a definite thriller with you wondering what's going to happen next and all but screaming at the main character to take her daughter and run. My only complaint is that I felt Freya acted a little unrealistically at first to make the plot work. It quickly got better though and I didn't see that ending coming!

Bitter Falls (Stillhouse Lake #4)

by Rachel Caine.

First you should know that I am a huge Rachel Caine fan. Her Weather Warden and Morganville Vampires series are both excellent and I highly recommend checking them out.

This is the fourth book in her Stillhouse Lake series, which is a series I am less in love with but it's not bad and I am a loyal author reader. The series follows a mother who was married to a serial killer and her trials trying to find a safe place to live with her two children when all the public wants is revenge for the deeds of her husband.

I liked this book better than some of the previous Stillhouse Lake books. It finally moved away a bit from their past with a serial killer, though the past will always come up. In previous books, the way people treat this poor family makes me so mad that it was actually hard to enjoy the book sometimes. In Bitter Falls, I was able to get into the mystery of the story more and of course, Rachel Caine always gives an interesting plot to follow. Here, our heroine, Gwen, has remade her life as a private investigator and is assigned a new case where a young man as gone missing and a local cult is suspected to be to blame. She investigates the cult while trying to deal with the local militia at home coming after those she loves. It's another harrowing thriller Gwen Proctor isn't sure they'll all survive.

Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic #1)

by Melissa F. Olson.

Loved it! Found a new series and a new author to follow. I love books with magic, witches, werewolves, all of that, and this book has it in spades. The most important thing to me though, is liking the characters and Melissa F. Olson does a great job here. The characters are funny and real and I love the family element especially because it's just how my family is too.

When Lex Luther's twin sister is murdered by vampires, she vows to protect her baby niece, who turns out to be a Null. Lex learns Nulls are coveted by many creatures as they can weaken other supernaturals and it's not long before little Charlie is kidnapped. Lex must team up with vampire Quinn to get her niece back and discovers magical powers of her own. She can only hope it will be enough.