Reading – Page 7 – Write on the World

How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield: A dark Appalachian Trail thriller about control, obsession, and survival

March 11, 2026February 21, 2026 Mandy Webster

What happens when escaping your marriage means hiking into one of the most dangerous stretches of wilderness in America? In How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield, released March 10, 2026, survival isn’t just about the forest—it’s about the stories we tell ourselves to stay alive.

Get your copy of How to Survive in the Woods from my independent online bookstore today!

Set in Maine’s infamous Hundred Mile Wilderness, the novel follows Emma Sharp, a woman raised by a doomsday prepper and later shaped by the ruthless startup world. Now trapped in a suffocating marriage to Logan Grant—a charismatic, image-conscious tyrant—Emma has come to see her relationship as both prison and protection. A cage keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn’t.

Continue reading →

Author Interview

Michelle Maryk on writing The Found Object Society, creative routines, and finding inspiration in the supernatural

March 10, 2026February 28, 2026 Mandy Webster

Michelle Maryk’s The Found Object Society, released February 10, 2026, invites readers into a world where memory, mystery, and the supernatural blur the boundaries of time—and her own creative journey is just as compelling as the story itself. In this interview, Maryk reflects on the unconventional childhood influences that shaped her imagination, the early-morning writing discipline that keeps her grounded, and the spark of inspiration that arrived in a single, unforgettable moment. From ghost stories and cinematic storytelling to the realities of modern book marketing, she shares an honest look at the habits, challenges, and creative instincts that continue to guide her work as an author.

Michelle Maryk’s debut novel, *The Found Object Society*, released February 10, 2026.

Q: What/who were your early literary influences, and how do you think their writing has shaped you as a storyteller today?
A: As a kid, I grew up with a dad who took me to Dairy Queens alongside graveyards so he could tell me ghost stories; bought tickets to Alien as I watched, enthralled, and my Swedish cousin ran to the bathroom and puked; encouraged me to consider all things supernatural and extraterrestrial—in other words, the best-worst dad ever.

Parenting skills (or lack thereof) aside, those wild, terrifying, exhilarating experiences imprinted themselves in my DNA as a human and an author. I’m drawn to stories that feature what-ifs, tales that dance within the realm of reality only to dip into the murk of what could be possible…if.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Served Him Right by Lisa Unger: A witchy revenge thriller that breaks the mold

March 9, 2026February 21, 2026 Mandy Webster

In Served Him Right by Lisa Unger, releasing March 10, 2026, a celebratory brunch spirals into suspicion, sickness, and secrets when Ana Blacksmith’s ex-boyfriend becomes the center of shocking news—and Ana, the obvious suspect.

Get your copy of Served Him Right from my independent online bookstore today!

Ana has gathered her sister Vera and closest friends to toast her recent breakup from Paul. But when disturbing developments about Paul surface, the narrative shifts fast. Ana already has a reputation. She’s already angry. And when one of the women at the brunch falls deathly ill, it doesn’t take much for whispers to turn into accusations. What follows is a twisty, pacy thriller—apt praise from Nita Prose—but this is not your average Lisa Unger novel.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum: A twisty thriller about love, loyalty, and coercive control

March 6, 2026February 21, 2026 Mandy Webster

What happens when your best friend—the person who helped build your life and career—vanishes, and you’re the one everyone thinks killed her? In This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum, releasing March 10, 2026, a wildly popular podcast duo built on survival stories faces a mystery they might not survive themselves.

Get your copy of This Story Might Save Your Life from my independent online bookstore today!

Best friends Benny Abbott and Joy Moore have made a career out of telling “against all odds” survival stories on their beloved podcast. From Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy to countless near-death tales told with irreverent humor, they’ve turned trauma into connection—and connection into a carefully managed empire, thanks largely to Joy’s husband, Xander.

Then Joy disappears.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky: An Icarus retelling weighed down by its own ambition

March 4, 2026February 21, 2026 Mandy Webster

In Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky, the author of The Portrait of a Mirror returns with what’s billed as a modern tragicomedy reimagining the myth of Icarus through bureaucracy, B-list fame, and college basketball. It’s a high-concept premise: a middling Washington lobbyist goes viral-adjacent after predicting a near-perfect NCAA March Madness bracket, while a woman named Cassandra—yes, that Cassandra—watches it unfold with prophetic detachment and literary ambition. The execution, however, is far less aerodynamic.

Get your copy of Medium Rare from my independent online bookstore today!

Phil is the novel’s Icarus stand-in: an ordinary, faintly dissatisfied man who stumbles into the possibility of a billion-dollar perfect bracket during the 2019 tournament. As his predictions hold, attention snowballs. The media circles. The money looms. The ego inflates. You don’t have to be an oracle to see where this is headed. Phil will fly too high. He will burn. The arc is obvious from the start, which might have worked if the journey there had felt sharp or surprising.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson: A twisty Southern thriller about sisterhood, guilt, and revenge

March 2, 2026February 21, 2026 Mandy Webster

What if the person avenging your sister’s death isn’t you—but someone who knows more than you ever did? In Missing Sister, Joshilyn Jackson delivers a chilling, character-driven thriller that explores the razor-thin line between justice and obsession. The novel follows Penny Albright, a rookie cop still reeling from the tragic death of her twin, Nix, five years earlier. Born three minutes apart, the sisters were inseparable—until Nix’s sudden death and a cryptic voicemail left Penny drowning in guilt and unanswered questions.

Get your copy of Missing Sister from my independent online bookstore today!

Now working in law enforcement to honor Nix’s dream of making the world safer, Penny is called to her first murder scene and comes face-to-face with Danny Bowery, one of the three men she’s long blamed for her sister’s death. He’s sprawled in a pool of blood outside an upscale Atlanta shopping center, as if conjured by Penny’s long-harbored anger. And then there’s the blonde woman in blood-soaked clothes gripping a box cutter—a woman who hints that Bowery’s murder is only the beginning of a larger story about sisters before vanishing into thin air.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

I Did Not Kill My Husband by Linda Keir: A modern fugitive thriller fueled by hashtags, headlines, and wildfire

February 27, 2026February 21, 2026 Mandy Webster

What happens when a social media influencer becomes America’s most hated wife and then vanishes into the mountains? I Did Not Kill My Husband, by writing duo Linda Keir, delivers a slick, high-concept thriller about reputation, perception, and what it takes to survive when the entire world thinks you’re guilty—and it hits shelves March 3, 2026.

Get your copy of I Did Not Kill My Husband from my independent online bookstore today!

Cara Campbell built her brand on curated luxury and unapologetic ambition. Married to plastic surgeon Karl Campbell, she seemed to be living the rags-to-riches dream—until she was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life in prison. The evidence is stacked against her: a failing medical practice, a million-dollar life insurance policy, and a social media persona that leans hard into the gold-digger stereotype. The internet convicts her long before the jury does.

Continue reading →

Writers on Writing

F‑ing Freddy Fisher: A novella about seeing what others miss

February 26, 2026April 11, 2026 Mandy Webster

F‑ing Freddy Fisher started as an experiment. I was taking a class on poetry for children and young adults, and we did a unit on novels in verse. I loved the way those books could convey emotion and perspective so efficiently, and I wanted to try something similar. I quickly realized I’m not enough of a poet to carry a full story in verse—but the inspiration stayed. What I ended up with is a novella made of brief, tightly written chapters, each told from the perspective of a different character. I aimed to be concise and to the point, like poetry, but the story is told in prose.

*Get your copy of F-ing Freddy Fisher from my independent online bookstore today!*

I still remember my great aunt Viola’s reaction when she read it. “Wow, Mandy—I didn’t know you had it in you,” she said. That cracked me up, because my family grew up thinking of me as the shy, quiet child who almost never spoke—a child I now suspect had selective mutism, though I was never formally diagnosed. I’ve mostly outgrown that, but I still notice moments when I can’t speak up, and I’ve learned to trust the intuition that tells me when I’m not in a safe space. (If I’d listened to that intuition when I met my ex, I would have never married him—but that’s another story.) My Aunt Rosetta is another huge fan and probably the book’s biggest promoter, telling anyone who will listen that everyone—teenagers, teachers, parents—needs to read this novella.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward: A brutal, brilliant thriller about survival in the ashes

February 25, 2026February 14, 2026 Mandy Webster

A lot of thrillers pretend to be gritty—Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward actually earns it, dragging readers into the Colorado Rockies and refusing to let them look away. Releasing February 24, 2026, Nowhere Burning is a harrowing, genre-blurring novel that folds the dark myth of Peter Pan and the feral desperation of Lord of the Flies into something uniquely Ward: unsettling, intimate, and psychologically razor-sharp.

Get your copy of Nowhere Burning from my independent online bookstore today!

Riley and her younger brother Oliver flee their troubled home in the middle of the night, chasing rumors of Nowhere—an abandoned ranch once owned by a reclusive movie star and now whispered about as a refuge for runaways. What they find is a scorched sanctuary with its own rules, its own hierarchy, and its own buried horrors. It promises freedom. It demands a price.

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Ghost Women by Jennifer Murphy: Tarot, witchcraft, and the ghosts patriarchy tried to bury

February 23, 2026February 14, 2026 Mandy Webster

On a sweltering August morning in 1972, a young art student is found hanging from a tree, posed like the Hanged Man from a tarot deck—and that image sets the tone for Jennifer Murphy’s The Ghost Women, a lush, angry, and often mesmerizing novel about power, vengeance, and the women history tried to erase. Releasing February 24, 2026, this is a book steeped in atmosphere: a remote art academy housed in a former monastery, whispers of witch trials, ancient tarot cards, and long-dead women who may not be finished speaking.

Get your copy of The Ghost Women from my independent online bookstore today!

When Detective Lola Germany arrives at St. Luke’s Institute of the Arts to investigate the death of Abel Montague, she quickly realizes this is no straightforward suicide. An ancient Hanged Man tarot card tucked into his pocket—and his body arranged to mirror it—points toward ritual. As more students are discovered staged like figures from the deck, Lola finds herself navigating a campus brimming with secrets, ambition, and a self-proclaimed coven of young women who may know more than they’re willing to say.

Continue reading →