Over the past 10 years I have read in excess of 1100 books and have been compiling my top ten books since 2015.
Here’s a selection of the books that made me… WANT TO KICK SOME ASS (BEST FEMALE CHARACTERS) I absolutely LOVED them and gave them all 5 stars.
Sweet Pea – CJ Skuse
The last person who called me ‘Sweetpea’ ended up dead…
Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog…but she’s got a killer secret.
By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list.
A kill list.
From the man on the checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have got it coming, Rhiannon’s ready to get her revenge.
Because the girl everyone overlooks might be able to get away with murder…
The Girl in 6E – AR Torre
Deanna Madden, aka Jessica Reilly, hasn’t touched another person in three years.
She hasn’t left her apartment.
She makes money from performing to webcams on a sex site, where her clients pay $6.99 a minute for her time.
She’s doing alright. The dollars are piling up in the bank. She’s the number 3 model on cams.com.
And she hasn’t killed anyone for years.
But when Deanna sees on the news that a little girl called Annie has gone missing, the story rattles her carefully ordered world. It’s uncomfortably similar to the dark fantasy of one of her most disturbing online clients. She’s convinced he’s responsible for the girl’s abduction – but no one will listen to her.
So, after three years, Deanna finally leaves the apartment.
And this is what happens…
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know – Chloe Esposito
What if you could take the life you’d always wanted?
Alvie has always been in the shadow of her glamorous sister Beth.
So when she’s invited to her identical twin’s luxurious Sicilian villa, Alvie accepts.
Who wouldn’t want seven days in the sun?
With Beth’s hot husband, the cute baby, the fast car and of course, the money.
The thing is it’s all too good to let go . . . and her sister Beth isn’t the golden girl she appears.
It’s Alvie’s chance to steal the life that she deserves.
If she can get away with it.
Jane Doe – Victoria Helen Stone
A double life with a single purpose: revenge.
Jane’s days at a Midwest insurance company are perfectly ordinary. She blends in well, unremarkably pretty in her floral-print dresses and extra efficient at her low-level job. She’s just the kind of woman middle manager Steven Hepsworth likes—meek, insecure, and willing to defer to a man. No one has any idea who Jane really is. Least of all Steven.
But plain Jane is hiding something. And Steven’s bringing out the worst in her.
Nothing can distract Jane from going straight for his heart: allowing herself to be seduced into Steven’s bed, to insinuate herself into his career and his family, and to expose all his dirty secrets. It’s time for Jane to dig out everything that matters to Steven. So she can take it all away.
The Last Mrs Parrish – Liv Constantine
How far would you go to make all your dreams come true?
Amber Patterson is tired of being a nobody: an invisible woman who melts into the background. She deserves more. She deserves a life of wealth, luxury and leisure.
Daphne Parrish is the golden girl of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut. With her model looks, her picture-perfect mansion and her millionaire husband, Jackson, she has everything Amber wants.
Amber’s envy could eat her alive—if she didn’t have a plan. Before long, she has become Daphne’s closest friend, and is catching the eye of Jackson. But a skeleton from her past could destroy everything, and if discovered, Amber’s well-laid plan may end in disaster…
The Good Samaritan – John Marrs
She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?
The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.
Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.
But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?
The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…
Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.
Psychopaths Anonymous – Will Carver
Welcome to the Club…
Maeve has everything. A high-powered job, a beautiful home, a string of uncomplicated one-night encounters. She’s also an addict: A functioning alcoholic with a dependence on sex and an insatiable appetite for killing men.
When she can’t find a support group to share her obsession, she creates her own. And Psychopaths Anonymous is born. Friends of Maeve.
Now in a serious relationship, Maeve wants to keep the group a secret. But not everyone in the group adheres to the rules, and when a reckless member raises suspicions with the police, Maeve’s drinking spirals out of control.
She needs to stop killing. She needs to close the group.
But Maeve can’t seem to quit the things that are bad for her, including her new man…
The Housemaid – Freida McFadden
“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of…
I Kill Killers – ST Ashman
Leah Nachtnebel only kills killers. To the world, she is one of the greatest pianists of our time. Behind the curtain, she hunts predators who slipped through the cracks and makes sure they never hurt anyone again.
But when Leah targets the wrong man, she becomes the obsession of a killer who doesn’t run from monsters.
He is one.
He doesn’t just see her as a traitor. He sees her as a trophy he must possess.
And he isn’t the only one closing in. FBI Special Agent Liam Richter is following a trail of murders that don’t make sense.
Now Leah is fighting a war on two fronts.
One man wants to expose her. The other wants to end her.
And on a killer’s playground, there’s one rule: win and live, or lose and die.
How To Kill Men and Get Away With It – Katy Brent
He was following me. That guy from the nightclub who wouldn’t leave me alone.
I hadn’t intended to kill him of course. But I wasn’t displeased when I did and, despite the mess I made, I appeared to get away with it.
That’s where my addiction started…
I’ve got a taste for revenge and quite frankly, I’m killing it.
My Sister The Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
When Korede’s dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what’s expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This’ll be the third boyfriend Ayoola’s dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede’s long been in love with him, and isn’t prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other…
The Mindf*ck Series – S.T. Abby
Lana: I didn’t expect him. I didn’t want to fall in love. But I can’t let him go.
Logan Bennett makes the world a safer place. He’s brilliant. He’s a hero. He locks away the sick and depraved. But while he’s saving lives, I’m taking them. Collecting the debts that are owed to me.
Ten years ago, they took from me. They left me for dead. They should have made sure I stayed dead. Now I’m taking from them. One name at a time.
Logan doesn’t know how they hurt me. He doesn’t know about the screams they ignored. He doesn’t know how twisted that town really is. He just knows people are dying. He doesn’t know he’s in love with their killer.
No one suspects a dead girl. They’re looking for a monster. Not a girl who loves red. Not a girl in love.
I’m a faceless nightmare. At least until I tell them the story they’ve pretended never happened. But in the end, will Logan choose them? Or will we watch them burn together?
