Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Q&A with Heather M. Herrman

Q&A with Heather M. Herrman

Q&A with Heather M. Herrman

You might remember the short story, “The Lady or the Tiger” from your reading in school, but this YA author brings a fresh take on that concept. Lady or the Tiger author Heather M. Herrman is here via Q&A to talk about what inspired her to create this gritty, Wild West murder mystery.

We’ll talk about misconceptions about the Wild West time period and why we need stories beyond romance in YA. We’ll also discuss the importance of telling stories with complex heroines and challenging tropes. It’s awesome stuff!

Let’s get right into it, shall we? Here are some details about the book for some context before we get into the Q&A.

About Lady or the Tiger

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A twisty, darkly seductive murder mystery, starring a teenage killer whose trial in the Wild West is upended when her first victim, her husband, arrives alive with a story to tell.

When nineteen-year-old Belle King turns herself in for murder, the last thing she expects to see is her abusive husband standing outside her Dodge City jail cell. He was the first man she ever meant to kill (but certainly not the last!). Somehow, though, her husband is there, hale and hearty, and very much not dead. With his arrival her plans in jail are jeopardized, and she’ll be forced to resort to all the tricks in her arsenal to prevent him from ever being in control of her again. But as a girl in the 1880s Wild West, the last thing anyone will believe is a woman—even when she confesses to her own crimes.

This story—of how Alice Springer, a mountain girl from Kentucky, became the infamous Belle King, of how she found the tiger in her heart, becoming the wickedest woman in the Wild West—is a love story that cuts through time and patriarchal ties.

Q&A with Heather M. Herrman

1. Is there a particular idea that inspired you to write Lady or the Tiger?

First of all, thank you so much for including me on The Story Sanctuary. I really love and respect the important work you’re doing on your site. And thank you so much for reading Lady or the Tiger!

In terms of this particular story, I started with the germ of an idea about a possibly possessed young woman in the Wild West who cuts out men’s hearts and replaces them with stolen diamonds. But from there, the story grew to be more of a response to the current landscape of the Young Adult genre.

In the past few years, I’ve noticed a trend of YA becoming synonymous with Romance. I think some of this is due to the age of YA readers, with polls suggesting that over fifty percent of readers are actually adults.  I love a great romance and am in awe of the incredible authors out there giving us spice. Teen readers, too, need romance as they begin to navigate their own relationships. But they also need other stories. Unlike adult readers who often read for escape, teen readers are still in the process of forming an identity. Romance by its very nature centers the pleasure—and in some ways value—of its female heroines on an external source instead of providing examples of girls who please themselves. I want to see more complicated girls and women in young adult stories who are allowed, even encouraged, to first fall in love with themselves—shadow and all—before worrying about someone else.

2. In both The Corpse Queen and Lady or the Tiger, you’ve written strong female characters who make difficult choices. I love that! Do you think female anti-heroes are underrepresented in teen fiction? And/or what do these stories bring to the genre that we need more of?

Absolutely. I think the world is still very uncomfortable with a woman choosing to do something that doesn’t serve other people but, instead, serves herself. This, coupled with the discomfort surrounding a woman’s sexual autonomy and desire, often gives us girls who can save the world but don’t know how to save themselves. This is why I’m so drawn to the antihero in fiction. These women are allowed to be exactly who they are without cowtowing to the demands the status quo places on them to be both helpful and beautiful. Including more female antiheroes in young adult books gives readers a chance to see the parts of themselves they’ve often been asked to discard—their shadow selves or “outlaw energies” as Jungian psychologist Lisa Marchiano dubbs them—being accepted and valued instead of ignored. Girls and women deserve to be whole. And only by accepting our shadows can we ever truly shine our light.

3. What’s your favorite thing about Belle King?

I love that she is completely unapologetic about being herself. As a trained people-pleaser, I personally often find that hard, and I know a lot of other girls and women do too. Our culture often teaches us to meet others’ needs before our own. I love that Belle is willing to consider what she wants first.

4. What made you choose the 1880s Wild West as a setting for Lady or the Tiger?

 I think that the setting is an interesting one because we typically think of the “Wild West” as a white, straight, male-dominated space. This was absolutely not the case. But this misconception does show exactly what a woman was up against in that time period and by comparing and contrasting our current climate, it also reveals what she continues to face today. By pushing back on certain tropes prominent in typical westerns, I got a chance to challenge these ideas.

For example, the “damsel in distress” trope has always stood out to me—Western films and novels often revolve around cowboys rescuing beautiful women or, if not rescuing them, using their untimely deaths as backstory for the hero. Often, these women serve as justification for a hero’s violence. I wanted to subvert that convention by placing a woman at the heart of the story rather than on its margins. I also wanted to give her the same depth and moral complexity typically reserved for the rugged male outlaws and antiheroes that dominate the genre. I also tried to challenge the myth of a homogenous, cisgender American frontier by including diverse characters and historically grounded details that reflect the cultural richness that existed long before white settlers arrived and continues to exist today.

5. Is there a scene or character that was the most fun to write, or something in the book that you couldn’t stop thinking about, even after you finished the scene or draft?

I mean I loved the ending. That was really fun to write. But I think I also had a great time crafting the scene with Alice, Ama, and Dom on the riverbank. They really reveal themselves to each other there and admit things that other people would maybe judge them for because they know that it’s a safe, accepting space. That was a real moment of trust for the characters, and I think it brought back all the beautiful friendships I’ve been lucky enough to have over the years. I wanted Lady or the Tiger to be a love story, just not a traditional one. Because of this, I wanted it to also highlight some of the more important love stories that we maybe don’t always talk about. For me, my girlfriend growing up were life-changing, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.

6. What do you most hope that readers take away from your novel?

First and foremost, I hope they enjoy it. Creating Belle was a wild ride, and I’m so excited for readers to get to know her. Beyond that, I hope seeing her be exactly who she is without apology will maybe stick with them.  That in some future moment, however small, they remember Belle and feel free to choose themselves instead of trying to please someone else.

7. What is your favorite question readers have asked you about your books?

I had a reader ask me which character from my books I’d most like to go to dinner with, which I thought was such a cool question. Not sure what it says about me, but I immediately chose the murderer.

About Heather M. Herrman

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Heather Herrman is the author of the adult horror novel, Consumption, and the Junior Library Guild selected Young Adult Novel, The Corpse Queen. The Lady or the Tiger, a new YA novel by Heather about a female serial killer in the Wild West will be available from Nancy Paulsen Books June 10, 2025.

Heather’s fiction seeks to explore the relationship between body and landscape, utilizing genre as a medium. She believes that American Horror Fiction provides a lens through which we can undress and view the timeless dis/ease of our society.

Heather holds an MFA from New Mexico State University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications including the Dark Screams Anthology:Volume 10, Cemetery Dance, The Alaska Quarterly, South Carolina Review, and Snake Nation Review. Her fiction has earned the Frank Waters Prize, an Individual Artist Grant from the Nebraska Arts Council, and a scholarship to the Prague Summer Program for Writers.

She is represented by Barbara Poelle from the Word One Literary Agency.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: City Spies by James Ponti

City Spies (City Spies #1)
James Ponti
Aladdin
Published March 10, 2020

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About City Spies

Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI6 agency.

Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When they’re not attending the local boarding school, they’re honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.

Before she knows what she’s doing, Sarah is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival school’s computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain…all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team.

No one said saving the world was easy…

My Review

I’m waaay behind on the City Spies series, but I keep hearing people talk about it, so I wanted to give it a try. I have books five and six on my shelf, so I would love to catch up enough to read them.

The first novel that I read by James Ponti is The Sherlock Society, which I had a ton of fun reading. The tone of that one is different than City Spies, which makes sense, since one is a mystery and the other is a spy thriller. I think personally, I prefer the more low-key, Florida-based mystery vibe in The Sherlock Society, but I still found a lot to like about City Spies.

City Spies rotates through several points of view. It starts out with Sarah’s perspective and then introduces Paris’s point-of-view and that of the mentor they call “Mother.” We also see some scenes from the perspective of a girl no longer on the City Spies team. This allows us to get some backstory on how the team formed and what’s truly at stake. It also created a really nice setup for a sweet moment between Sarah and Mother at the end.

The book perfectly set up the series. It leaves tons of room for future adventures for the team who operate under the names of the cities they were recruited from. I love that little snippet of geography and the fact that future books take the team to different places. I’m interested to read more.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Someone threatens others with a biological weapon.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.

Review: Their Just Desserts by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

Their Just Desserts (The Cookie Crumbles #2)
Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow
Quill Tree Books
Published May 13, 2025

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About Their Just Desserts

Perfect for fans of The Great British Baking Show and Clue, this enchanting and rollicking follow-up to The Cookie Crumbles follows two best friends caught up in a twisty mystery when jewels go missing at a high-stakes baking competition.

Baker extraordinaire Laila Thomas and budding journalist Lucy Flores are living it up at the top of the junior high food chain as eighth graders. But between busy schedules and kinda-boyfriends, these two best friends haven’t gotten to hang out as much. So, when Jaden, an ex-competition rival, begs the duo to step back into the world of cooking competitions and crime—the answer is yes.

Jaden is His father is accused of stealing prized jewels on the set of an amateur kids’ holiday baking show. The plan is for Laila to smash the competition while Lucy investigates behind the scenes—but their half-baked plan gets turned totally upside down when Lucy ends up in front of the cameras instead.

As the investigation and competition heat up, Lucy and Laila’s bond is put to the ultimate test. Can they solve this bakeoff mystery, or will they—and their friendship—crack under pressure?

My Review

Where do I even start?! What a fun book. I love all the references to the holidays. The story takes place near Christmas, and Laila and Lucy reminisce about their own treasured holiday traditions: watching holiday-themed murder mysteries and enjoying delicious baked treats. Can’t beat that! The movie descriptions are fabulous. They have that over-the-top holiday movie vibe. Definitely something I’d watch with a cup of hot cocoa and a holiday cookie.

One of the really sweet, subtle things about the book is the way that it explores loneliness. I remember being Laila’s age and having the loneliest time of my life, even though I was constantly surrounded by people. Laila notices her loneliness and struggles to voice her feelings. As she’s working through this, she notices loneliness in others around her, and that helps her see people in a new way. Some characters she viewed as arrogant or aloof actually turn out to be shy and lonely themselves, and recognizing that helpes Laila connect with them.

I also enjoyed the mystery element to the book. The girls race to find missing diamonds and uncover the identity of the thief before police charge a dear friend’s dad with the crime. Putting the baking show and the mystery together worked really well, as both eliminate suspects within a specific timeline. And the baking show added deadlines and pressure to the quest.

This book was an absolute joy to read. I think middle grade readers interested in mysteries or anyone who loves baking will want to check this one out.

Author Q&A with Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

Don’t miss out on this fabulous Q&A with Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow that I posted last week. I had so much fun learning about some behind-the-scenes story information and the duo’s collaborative process. Be sure to check it out!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to attraction between characters. One character is excited about the possibility of starting a relationship.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to a thief stealing diamonds.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Love at Second Sight by F. T. Lukens

Love at Second Sight
F. T. Lukens
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published April 29, 2025

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About Love at Second Sight

When a teen has an unexpected vision about a future murder, he must juggle newfound interest from the supernatural community with trying to prevent the murder from happening in this new romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author F.T. Lukens.

Tired of being known as the artsy oddball, fifteen-year-old Cam Reynolds hopes to fly under the radar when he changes high schools as a sophomore. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering he’s a human going to school with kids who have super-cool paranormal powers, like his best friend and witch, Al, and longtime werewolf crush, Miguel.

Then Cam has a psychic glimpse of the future in front of most of the student body, seeing a gruesomely murdered teen girl from the point of view of the killer. When Cam comes to, he knows two things: someone he goes to school with is a future murderer and his life is about to change. No longer a mere human but a clairvoyant, one of the rarest of supernatural beings, Cam finds himself at the center of attention for the first time.

As the most powerful supernatural factions in the city court Cam and his gift, he’ll have to work with his friends, both old and new, to figure out who he can trust. Because the clock is ticking, and Cam and his friends must identify the girl in the vision, find her potential killer, and prevent the murder from happening. Or the next murder Cam sees might be his own.

My Review

This is the third novel by F. T. Lukens I’ve read. I went into this book with them as a favorite author, and that distinction remains. This is probably not the kind of story that I would normally pick up– paranormal isn’t my usual go-to, but for an author I really enjoy (also looking at you, Kalynn Bayron), I’ll give vampires or werewolves a chance.

So one of the really fascinating things in this book is the cultural feelings surrounding people with supernatural abilities in the story world. For example, Cam’s parents are super against any involvement with or participation in the supernatural. They’ve long been against Cam hanging out with his best friend because they’re a witch.

Incidentally, Cam’s parents don’t bat an eye at him being gay or his best friend being nonbinary, so the story world is very queernormative. Instead, some characters fixate on whether someone is a human with no supernatural abilities versus someone with abilities.

Whether someone has an ability isn’t a choice. Cam’s gift manifests in a moment of distress and remains undeniable throughout the rest of the book. Yet his parents act as though erasing this part of his identity would be better for him and for them. It’s a pretty powerful metaphor, and it’s used well.

The characters, especially Cam, are engaging and easy to root for. I think Lukens has always written standalone novels, but I found myself really hoping this one would be the start of a series. I would absolutely return to this story world for more hijinks and investigations with Cam’s crew at the helm.

If you like a good murder mystery, especially one with a clever social commentary woven in, you won’t want to miss Love at Second Sight.

Content Notes for Love at Second Sight

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have supernatural/paranormal abilities. Some characters are werewolves, sprites, witches, or fae. Cam sees visions of the future. Another character sees and can interact with ghosts.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Cam sees visions of a girl who has been attacked and is close to dying. Boys get into a fight in a hallway at school. References to a car accident and near car accident.

Some characters react hatefully toward people with paranormal gifts or identities.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Pride or Die by CL Montblanc

Pride or Die
CL Montblanc
Wednesday Books
Published April 15, 2025

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About Pride or Die

In this delightful dark comedy debut, when the members of an LGBTQ+ club find themselves accidentally framed for attempted murder, it’s up to them to clear their names before it’s too late.

It’s kind of hard to graduate high school when you’re the prime suspect in an attempted murder.

Seventeen-year-old Eleanora Finkel just wants to finish her senior year and get the hell out of Texas. But when her club meeting inconveniently coincides with an attack on the school’s head cheerleader, she and her friends find themselves in the hot seat.

In order to clear their names and ensure the survival of their club for future queer teens, they’ll have to track down the real culprit themselves. But Eleanora is far from a professional detective; she’s riddled with anxiety, annoyingly attracted to the case’s cute victim, and her trusty crochet hook feels insufficient for fighting off a murderer. Can this ragtag group of unlikely sleuths find their way out of an entire freaking murder mystery before one of them is next?

My Review

The energy in this novel is absolutely fabulous. Eleanor and her upbeat crew chase down leads with breaks for brainstorming sessions and pancakes at a local diner, determined to discover who hurt Kenley before they have a chance to strike again. The banter is nonstop, and the tentative connection between Kenley and Eleanora is super sweet.

The principal’s character might be a little flat, as he mainly exists to remind Eleanora and her friends what’s at stake if they fail to identify the real culprit before the end of the homecoming dance. There are a few moments when we see things about him that humanize him a little bit. They show there’s more to him than his commitment to shut down the LGBT Club, which he continually refers to as the BLT club.

Reading this one was a lot of fun. If you like upbeat mysteries with a lot of goofy banter, you’ll want to put this one at the top of your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Eleanora walks in on a couple engaged in romantic contact. (The text implies they’re having sex, but doesn’t specifically say so.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Eleanora discovers a girl who has collapsed on the floor with a head wound. Threatening messages indicate violence planned against others. Instances of homophobic slurs and bullying.

Drug Content
Characters attend a party where teens drink alcohol. Eleanora does not drink any.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Heist Royale by Kayvion Lewis

Heist Royale (Thieves’ Gambit #2)
Kayvion Lewis
Nancy Paulsen Books
Published November 12, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Heist Royale

The high-stakes sequel to Thieves’ Gambit, for fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Ally Carter.

It’s been six months since the end of the Gambit. Instead of winning an impossible wish, Ross has the threat of her family’s execution hanging over her head. Devroe, the only person Ross thought she could trust, could wish the Quests into oblivion at any time. Shockingly, despite his betrayal, Devroe is still making a play for Ross’s heart as the two work together pulling jobs for the Organization. But Ross has learned her lesson: A Quest can only trust another Quest.

When Ross finds herself at the center of a power struggle within the Organization, she sees her chance to change her fortunes. As a new deadly Gambit develops for control of the criminal underworld, Ross strikes a risky deal to guarantee protection for herself and her family.

In this final clash, Ross will square off against a ruthless opponent who will stop at nothing to seize power, and in their corner will be not only Devroe but his mother, who wants to destroy the Quests at any cost.

The new Gambit takes Ross and her crew into the intoxicating casinos of Monte Carlo and across treacherous snow-covered slopes in Antarctica as Ross competes against Devroe in a fight for her life. Loyalties will be tested, backs stabbed, hearts broken. May the best thief win.

My Review

Ross is back in a new high-stakes adventure that had me on the edge of my seat. The story took her to a variety of places, including Antarctica and an elite casino.

I was a little nervous in the opening chapters of the story because of the dynamic between Ross and Devroe. She rebuffs his romantic advances in no uncertain terms and he continues to pursue her, convinced that underneath her “no” is a “yes.”

That kind of storyline makes me uncomfortable. Maybe it’s romantic when someone wants to be pursued, but it also romanticizes ignoring boundaries. Not great.

A few chapters in, though, the story veers away from that dynamic, and Ross is more open about her conflicted feelings for Devroe. He gets drawn into other relationship issues, and their romance takes the back burner for a while. When the romantic tension builds again, Ross and Devroe speak more openly about their boundaries and feelings, though the story continues to offer obstacles they must overcome if they want to try a relationship.

The story continues to examine questions about trust and what true friendship looks like. Some of the things Ross goes through as she tries to build friendships for the first time are cute. I enjoyed that journey.

An inclusive cast appears on the page, with team members of different races and nationalities. A side romance develops between two boys. Fans who shipped these two in the first book will love how that plays out.

All in all, this is an excellent finish to a high-energy duology. It’s a good choice for readers who’ve aged out of middle grade books but aren’t ready for some of the content in upper YA novels.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to torture and murder.

Drug Content
Some scenes show Ross and her teammates in a casino and other places where alcohol is served. A couple of people pretend to be drunk.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.