​I don’t read many romantic thriller series that focus on the same leads so Rebecca Zanetti’s Laurel Snow Thriller books have been an interesting shift for me.

Visceral books propelled along by their protagonist, the aforementioned Laurel, who has an eidetic memory & is the possessor of numerous degrees, the Laurel Snow series has intrigued me ever since she first arrived home to an isolated part of Washington state, a place where serial killers have recently come out of the woodwork.

In book 2, You Can Hide, FBI agent Laurel & Fish & Wildlife officer Huck work together to solve a new series of violent crimes, all the while dealing with many external challenges (including Huck’s ex & Laurel’s apparently without-a-conscience sister). Relationship-wise, at the beginning of this book the two leads don’t really have a relationship but they do have a history.

You Can Hide delivers a decent mystery & twist & it effectively sets up the next book. While the tension between leads is still there, I didn’t really appreciate how they’ve lost momentum at the beginning of this one & how it happens off page—it feels like a womp womp moment.

If you’re looking for a romantic thriller that doesn’t skimp on the visceral, the shocking, or the keen observations offered by a genius protagonist, you might like the Laurel Snow series.

I’ve seen people recommend Josh Lanyon before & a 1940s, atmospheric read with a murder mystery seemed like a good place to start.

It feels difficult to sum up my feelings on Snowball in Hell but basically: on one hand, the book’s portrayal of how dangerous it was for queer men in the 1940s feels authentic to real life but on the other, from a romance-reading perspective the book is darker than I expected it would be. And while I think this is book 1 in a series, I didn’t totally appreciate how I felt hopeful but not necessarily settled about where the leads are together or separately at the end of this one.

In Snowball in Hell Lieutenant Matt Spain is tasked with finding who murdered the son of a wealthy man & left his body in a tar pit. Also helping him investigate, but on an unofficial level, is reporter Nathan Doyle.

Bringing in some lingering trauma from their respective war experiences, their various perspectives on their sexuality & the shame & in Matt’s case, denial, about some aspects of it, & the homophobia of the time period in general, Snowball in Hell is not a light read.

The murder mystery aspect is fun, & seeing Matt & Nathan connect, particularly while they’re basically cut off from the world on Christmas Eve & Christmas, is touching. I hope that the next books will allow both men to come to some peace in how they view themselves & their sexuality & carve out a space for their relationship that feels relatively safe.

📖 Q: are you a true crime fan? I don’t read or watch a lot of it but I would like to check out I’ll be Gone in the Dark one day!

Tessa Bailey is one of those authors I’m so grateful for. Mostly because she consistently delivers blisteringly hot romances with typically smooth heroes who are rendered BEWILDERED by the depth & power of their totally unexpected feelings for the heroine. Bewildered I say.

My Killer Vacation offers both of those things in spades with second grade teacher Taylor going on a vacation with her brother, realizing someone at the beach house they’ve booked has been murdered, & encountering the bounty hunter / private investigator asked to check into the case, a hottie named Myles, as she tries to do her own murder solving.

Though the narration was at times a little stiff for me—mostly in the beginning—& the mystery could have been a little tauter, this book delivers where it counts: it’s a sexy, escapist read that I enjoyed soo much (& honestly that counts extra right now).

There’s one scene toward the beginning of Taylor & Myles’s acquaintance where he licks her stomach (!) & one memorable scene in a church. Plus more.

Tessa adds to the sexual chemistry burning up the pages by giving me more of what I want: Myles is supposedly worrying about Taylor catching feelings after sex but instead after their first time she’s casual & he’s like WHAT, DIDNT THAT ROCK HER WORLD TOO? I eat that up.

Not to mention the ending, which is just superb as far as gestures are concerned.

This isn’t a total, unqualified 5 ⭐️ for me, especially if I consider it as a romance with a mystery. But it is sooo good & sooo fun to read—& I’m thankful to Tessa for delivering another book that put a smile in my lustful heart 😆—so after waffling a little it’s 4.5 ⭐️ from me!