Book picks similar to
Ashen Rayne by Skye Knizley


fantasy
contemporary
crime
thriller

The Ghostwriter


A.R. Torre - 2017
    I stood in front of the police, my friends and family, and made up a story, my best one yet. And all of them believed me. I wasn't surprised. Telling stories is what made me famous. Fifteen bestsellers. Millions of fans. Fame and fortune.Now, I have one last story to write. It'll be my best one yet, with a jaw-dropping twist that will leave them stunned and gasping for breath.They say that sticks and stones will break your bones, but this story? It will be the one that kills me. This book is not a romance. It is contemporary fiction, but very suspenseful in nature. It is about a famous romance author and a dark secret she keeps.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock


Paul Tremblay - 2016
    Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration. The local and state police haven’t uncovered any leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were with Tommy last, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out at a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock— rumored to be cursed. Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their own windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connected them all and changes everything. As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened becomes more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

Keep Tahoe Blue


Nicole Pyland - 2019
    She’d just watched her ex-girlfriend meet the woman of her dreams. Her broken heart needed a break from it all, and Lake Tahoe was calling her name.Reese Lee has a secret. Only her twin sister knows the one thing Reese hasn’t even told the closest people around her. When she meets Kellan at a fun weekend game of beach football, she knows there’s something interesting about the tourist. She’s never had a problem wining, dining, and sometimes bedding the tourists that strolled into the lake town. But with Kellan, she might just see the possibility of more.Kellan is determined to address the loneliness in her heart. Reese is determined to keep her secret for fear it would change the way people see her. As the two women try to navigate their attraction, they each have to give up something their holding onto that could prevent them from finding what they’ve both been looking for all along. Recommended order of reading the books in the series: Checking the Right Box (San Francisco Series Book #1) Keep Tahoe Blue (Tahoe Series Book #1) Macon's Heart (San Francisco Series Book #2)

Her Name Is Knight


Yasmin Angoe - 2021
    Her Name Is Knight is a propulsive character story and action thriller driven by retribution, passion, strength — and coming to terms with your own true self, regardless of what anyone calls you.

The Missing Sister


Elle Marr - 2020
    The body of her estranged twin sister, Angela—the possible victim of a serial killer—has been pulled from the Seine. Putting what’s left of her life on hold, Shayna heads to Paris. But while cleaning out Angela’s apartment, Shayna makes a startling discovery: a coded message meant for her alone… Alive. Trust no one. Taking the warning to heart, Shayna maintains the lie. She makes a positive ID on the remains and works to find out where—and why—her missing sister is hiding. Shayna retraces her sister’s footsteps, and they lead her down into Paris’s underbelly.As she gets closer to the truth—and to the killer—Shayna’s own life may now be in the balance…

Last Day


Luanne Rice - 2020
    The detective assigned to the case, Conor Reid, swore to protect the sisters from then on.Beth moved on, throwing herself fully into the art world, running the family gallery, and raising a beautiful daughter with her husband Pete. Kate, instead, retreated into herself and took to the skies as a pilot, always on the run. When Beth is found strangled in her home, and Moonlight goes missing again, Detective Reid can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.Reid immediately suspects Beth’s husband, whose affair is a poorly kept secret. He has an airtight alibi—but he also has a motive, and the evidence seems to point to him. Kate and Reid, along with the sisters’ closest childhood friends, struggle to make sense of Beth’s death, but they only find more questions: Who else would have wanted Beth dead? What’s the significance of Moonlight?Twenty years ago, Reid vowed to protect Beth and Kate—and he’s failed. Now solving the case is turning into an obsession . . .

In the Company of Crocodiles


Maggie Brown - 2017
    Too bad those are the least of their worries.After being severely wounded in a covert operation, ex-Australian Secret Service officer Vivian Andrews has built a quiet life for herself in a small fishing village in Northern Queensland. Or so she believes, until she discovers a rotting corpse in the mangroves. An angry crocodile drags the body away, but not before Vivian snags the man’s money belt which contains nearly $75,000—and a phone number that Vivian knows all too well.At the police station to report her discovery, Vivian finds two government agents who are looking for her. A young man has gone missing and they need an experienced guide to help them negotiate the terrain to find him. Vivian knows they aren’t telling her the whole story but is attracted to the idea of returning to action—and to behavioral scientist Claire Walker.When Claire’s partner is injured, tough, resilient Vivian and smart, intuitive Claire must use every skill they possess to complete their mission despite nearly impenetrable walls of vegetation, trails that lead to deadly traps, the damp simmering heat—and another kind of heat neither of them wishes to acknowledge. Could the woman sleeping next to you be a master thief…or worse?

Brilliance


Marcus Sakey - 2013
    In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called "brilliants," and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in - and betray his own kind.From Marcus Sakey, "a modern master of suspense" (Chicago Sun-Times) and "one of our best storytellers" (Michael Connelly), comes an adventure that’s at once breakneck thriller and shrewd social commentary; a gripping tale of a world fundamentally different and yet horrifyingly similar to our own, where being born gifted can be a terrible curse.

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes


Diane Chamberlain - 2006
    Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child. CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies...

The Only Way


Jamie Sullivan - 2014
    When Hart decides that’s not good enough for her, she takes on the high stakes world of no-holds-barred fighting. There's just one problem: women aren’t allowed in the ring. Hair cut short and dressed in her father’s old clothes, Hart ventures into the Alley and the world of arena fighting. There she meets Ruby, the daughter of the Arena owner and a brilliant fighter in her own right. When she offers Hart the chance for friendship, Hart cannot resist.But Ruby thinks Hart is a man, and as she and Ruby grow closer, it gets harder and harder to maintain the façade …

Remember Me This Way


Sabine Durrant - 2014
    And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.A year after her husband Zach's death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband. Someone has been there before her.Lizzie loved Zach. She really did.But she's starting to realise she didn't really know him.Or what he was capable of . . .

The Girls From Alcyone


Cary Caffrey - 2011
    Sold into slavery to save their families from financial ruin, the girls are forced to live out their lives in service to the Kimura Corporation, a prestigious mercenary clan with a lineage stretching back long before the formation of the Federated Corporations. Known only to Kimura, the two girls share startling secret—a rare genetic structure not found in tens of millions of other girls.But when their secret becomes known, Sigrid and Suko quickly find themselves at the center of a struggle for power. Now, hunted by men who would seek to control them, Sigrid and Suko are forced to fight for their own survival, and for the freedom of the girls from Alcyone.

Borage


Gill McKnight - 2019
     Her mission takes her to Black and Blacker Finances, a gloomy office where everyone has something to hide, especially Abby Black, the brooding, enigmatic CEO, who weaves a magic all her own that Astral finds all too alluring. But storm clouds are gathering, and betrayal is in the air. As Astral digs deeper into the strange occurrences at Black and Blacker, she uncovers secrets, lies, and tantalizing clues about her own past. With the help of her coven sisters Dulcie and Keeva, a few surprise allies she collects along the way, and even her ill-tempered familiar, Borage, Astral will have to find a way to save the coven from being engulfed by the dark side. And maybe she’ll find her heart’s desire along the way.

Meant To Be Me


Wendy Hudson - 2019
    It doesn’t help she’s also dealing with a shadowy stalker trying to make trouble for her. But Darcy’s determined not to let anyone ruin her life.Her loyal best friend and boss, Anja Olsen, is stuck in a strange conundrum, forced to question who she has become and who she wants to be.Meanwhile, stranger Eilidh Grey’s first instinct is to run fearlessly toward chaos and love. But this time she’s on a collision course with fate.A chance meeting on a snowy bridge in Inverness, Scotland, binds all three women together, creating an unexpected, tangled, love triangle. What happens when it all unravels?A compelling, slow-burning, romantic suspense that will keep you guessing right to the end.94,000 wordsThemes: Inverness · romantic suspense · Scotland

Big Love


Saxon Bennett - 2016
     The guardian angel, Zing, comes to earth in human form to make it up to her charge, Nell Parker. What doesn’t add up is the internet romance Nell is having. Something (cat)fishy is happening, and now Zing feels obligated to protect Nell’s heart. What Zing doesn’t count on is falling in love with Nell. Can Zing give up everything to follow her heart? Is her love big enough to overcome all obstacles? Find out in this newest romantic comedy from Layce Gardner and Saxon Bennett!