Women

Maren and Topher find each other in a total meet-cute: she stumbles and twists her ankle while jogging, and a handsome kind man comes to her rescue. The attraction is unmistakable, but they part ways with just a smile. When they find each other in the same grief-counseling session the next day, it seems like kismet—Topher is mourning the loss of his fiancée, Abby, and Maren’s father has recently passed—and the relationship takes off. Quickly. Can Topher actually be this perfect? As more details come to light about how Abby died, Maren suspects she doesn’t know the whole truth, and sensing that, Topher tightens his hold on her. With a dual timeline, readers will build parallels between the stories he is trying to hide from his past and what is happening now. Bush builds support nets around both Abby and Maren through an interesting cast of characters both sympathetic and problematic, such as Topher’s alcoholic mother and Abby’s best friend. This is addictive and thrilling, the sense of dread growing as each chapter flies by, with a spectacular ending that readers won’t see coming.—Dodie Ownes

Working at a literary agency while writing her own novel, Savannah meets megastar author Bennett and is smitten. She’s shocked when he seems to feel the same, and soon they’re in a whirlwind romance that rapidly gets serious. Savannah can’t help feeling it’s a little too quick, but tries to put doubts out of her mind. And if Bennett is a little too persistent in his wish for her to move out of New York City to relatively sleepy Bedford and get married, well, she shakes that off too. Who wouldn’t want to quit work and spend her days writing in a mansion? But soon her doubts are back when she hears local gossip that Bennett’s last wife’s drowning death may not have been an accident. And the more she lives with this controlling man, the more she’s convinced that the rumors about that death and other suspicious happenings in Bennett’s past are all too true. Constantine (a pen name for the duo of sisters behind The Next Mrs. Parrish) alternates chapters that impart Savannah’s and Poppy’s points of view, showing each woman’s fall to despair, with the characters’ voices ramping up the tension as the fast-moving thriller unfolds. These authors are already best sellers; this next book will satisfy their fans and bring in more readers who enjoy domestic turmoil and twists.—Henrietta Thornton