On this episode, I talk with Heather Chavez about her newest thriller What We'll Burn Last.  We dive into her desire to write a thriller with a wildfire, the complexities of three POVs at war with each other, and how much fun she had writing the wildfire as a POV.  

What We'll Burn Last Synopsis

Three women.

When she was twelve, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works—and vanishes soon after. When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, Leyna’s childhood crush Dominic, who is also Adam’s brother, pleads with her to do the last thing she wants to do: come home.

Three secrets.

But Leyna isn’t the only one who hasn’t been able to leave that fateful night behind. Her mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home—even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns. . . and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly. Because someone in the neighborhood knows what really happened that night—and just how good the forest is at keeping its secrets.

Who will you trust?

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Gare is back!  And we share some of our favorite reads of the first half of 2024.

Books We Talk About

Listen for the Lie

Kill for Me, Kill for You

An Inconvenient Woman

The Man on the Train

This Family Lies

The Hollywood Assistant

The Hunter’s Daughter

Love Letters to a Serial Killer

Bodies to Die For

How We Name the Stars

Rabbit Hole

Missing White Woman

Things Don’t Break on Their Own

No Road Home

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I got to chat with Sarah Easter Collins about her exceptionally emotional debut novel Things Don't Break on Their Own.   She shares how the shifting nature of memory, sibling differences and the first dog in space inspired her book.

Things Don't Break on Their Own Synopsis

A heart-wrenching mystery about sisters, lovers, and a dinner party gone wrong.

Twenty-five years ago, a young girl left home to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. But one of them arrived, and one of them didn’t. 

Her sister’s disappearance has defined Willa’s life. Everyone thinks her sister is dead, but Willa knows she isn’t. Because there are some things that only sisters know about each other—and some bonds only sisters can break.

Willa sees fragments of her sister everywhere — the way that woman on the train turns her head, the gait of that woman in Paris. If there’s the slightest resemblance, Willa drops everything, and everyone, and tries to see if it is her.

When Willa is invited to a dinner party thrown by her first love, she has no reason to expect it will be anything other than an ordinary evening. Both of them have moved on, ancient history. But nothing about Willa’s life has been ordinary since the day her sister disappeared, and that’s not about to change tonight.

Sarah Easter Collins has written an extraordinary novel about memory, lost love, and long-buried secrets that sometimes see the light of day.

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I got to chat with Eliza Jane Brazier about her new erotic assassin thriller It Had to Be You.  We dive into her inspiration for the book, and how she never intended for it to be taken as anything other than fantasy.

It Had to Be You Synopsis

Two contract killers, each with a hit out on the other, must fight their growing attraction as they face off in an epic game of lust and murder across Western Europe.

When Eva and Jonathan hook up on the sleeper train from Florence to Paris, they think they’ll never see each other again. Which is too bad, because neither has ever felt a spark like this for another person. But love isn’t on the agenda in their line of work.

Six months later, they run into each other in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. This encounter is not by chance, because Eva has been hired to kill Jonathan. She’s a contract killer, but what she doesn’t know is that he is too.

Their meeting kicks off a high-stakes adventure across Western Europe. There will be tourism. There will be bodies. Eva and Jonathan might even fall for each other.

As the two get closer to completing their assignments, it becomes clear that they are also being hunted—by something even more dangerous than love. . . .

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Liz Keenan and Greg Wands about the inception of their new podcast Imposter Hour, a show that delves into the syndrome haunting creatives, impacting their lives and work.  We dive into the origin story of the show and their plans for it in the future.

Subscribe to Imposter Hour on Apple or Spotify

Follow Imposter Hour on Instagram

Or check out their website ImposterHour.com for more info!

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week I talk with Rachel Graham and Lee-Ann McGuire Whitlock, who as a writing duo make up pen name Rachel McGuire, about their super-bingeable destination thriller On the Surface.

On the Surface Synopsis

Sawyer Stone III and Dani Fox, a young couple who spend their time circumnavigating the globe aboard their 42-foot sailboat and documenting it for their fledgling YouTube channel Sailing with the Foxes, have anchored in Exuma, in the Bahamas. As they wait for the price of crypto to rebound so they can provision and continue their journey, they’re partying and exploring with their fellow cruisers offshore. On the surface, everything looks perfect. But one night, Dani vanishes after a boat party, and Sawyer has no memory of her disappearance.

The search for Dani is initially fueled by concerns that she drowned during one of her daily ocean swims, but Dani's prescheduled video posts, recorded before she went missing, soon reveal a darker side to her relationship with Sawyer. Meanwhile, Royal Bahamas Police Force Inspector Veronique Knowles has her hands full trying to keep the investigation on course as the story of the American woman missing in the Bahamas goes viral and the internet sleuths unearth secrets from Sawyer’s past. Sawyer Stone is far from perfect, but is he a murderer? 
 

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with May Cobb about her twisty erotic thriller The Hollywood Assistant.

The Hollywood Assistant Synopsis

Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA.

The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury: Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay.

When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy and talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around.

But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh about their new thriller Echo Road, where they combine their Mercy Kilpatrick and Bree Taggert series into one mystery.

Echo Road Synopsis

During a vicious heat wave, a county maintenance worker stumbles upon two suspicious suitcases abandoned by the side of the road. Sheriff Bree Taggert responds to find two bodies stuffed inside the luggage. The press demands action. The community is on edge. Suddenly, Bree is at the center of a media firestorm.

In Oregon, a senator’s daughter goes missing. FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick agrees to keep the politically sensitive case on the down-low. When she finds a link between the disappearance and a double homicide three thousand miles away, Mercy takes the next plane out—and lands right in the middle of Bree’s double homicide investigation.

To save the missing girl, Bree and Mercy must work together to stop a killer who’s playing deadly games with the press and stirring up public rage. Hungry for notoriety, he dares Bree and Mercy to catch him before he kills again.

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about some of our favorite bookish characters!

Books We Talked About

Where Are You Echo Blue?

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment

No Road Home

Lay Your Body Down

How Can I Help You

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The Man on the Train

Follow Her Home

Midnight is the Darkest Hour

Thursday Next Series

Over Her Dead Body

Must Love Books

I Didn’t Do It

Vladimir

The Outlier

Kill for Love

Eight Perfect Murders

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Steph Lauer and I share books that pair well with each other.  If you liked the first one, you'll probably love the second one.

Books Kate Talked About

The Hollywood Assistant

The Force of Such Beauty

The Hunter’s Daughter : Blood Sisters

Pretty Things : On the Surface

Almost Surely Dead : Missing White Woman

Big Little Lies : The Other Mothers

The Lady Upstairs : Twisted

Books Steph Talked About

Do What Godmother Says

Like it Never Was

Ask for Andrea : Before You Knew My Name

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder : That’s Not My Name

Butcher and the Blackbird : The Girl in 6E

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife : The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Notes on an Execution : Don't Forget the Girl

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba