Book Review: Bad Intentions

Title: Bad Intentions

Author: Iliana Xander

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I do like a thriller that turns family secrets into a slow-burning fuse, and Bad Intentions lit mine early and kept it burning. Josie Boots is coming off a very public fall from grace when she returns to Burnville to care for her ailing grandmother, only to find that the town's oldest, ugliest secrets have been waiting for her right along with the casseroles and cold stares.

Josie herself is the book's biggest strength. I've never been "canceled," but we've all felt the burn of online hostility, and it made her an easy narrator to root for even when she was making questionable choices. Xander surrounds her with a town full of peo
ple who are, almost without exception, nasty, guarded, and sitting on secrets they'd rather die than share — and a few of them very nearly do.

The plotting is where this book really earns its keep. I guessed one of the central twists fairly early, which normally would have deflated some of the suspense, but Xander had two more twists in reserve that I never saw coming, and the way the third one brings the denouement was genuinely satisfying. 

What I appreciated most was the moral murkiness at the book's core: the idea that a community might choose its own version of justice over the law, and that this choice ripples down through generations in ways nobody quite intends. It's not a subtle theme, but it's an effective one, and it gives the mystery real emotional weight rather than just plot mechanics.

A big thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley.  I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

@PoisonedPenPress @NetGalley @BadIntentions

Book Review: Heavenfield

Title: Heavenfield

Author: L.J. Ross

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: August 4, 2026

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Heavenfield is the third book in LJ Ross's DCI Ryan series, and I want to say upfront: don't start here. This one continues immediately from the previous two installments, and you need that history to understand who these characters are and why the stakes feel so personal.

The setup is a gut-punch: Ryan, already suspended and cut off from his own team, finds himself the prime suspect in a murder at the remote church of Heavenfield. What starts as a seemingly impossible crime spirals outward into something much bigger, as members of the shadowy Circle begin turning up dead one by one. Ross scatters clues and red herrings with a steady hand.

The real standout for me was the escalating confrontation between Ryan and his own boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Gregson. The eventual standoff between the two of them, with lives literally hanging on the line, is the highlight of the novel — tense, well-earned, and satisfying.

The corruption subplot running underneath it all, with Circle members seemingly embedded at every level of authority, adds a nice layer of paranoia to the proceedings. You're never quite sure who Ryan can trust, and neither is he, which keeps the pacing tight even in the quieter investigative stretches.

A big thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

@PoisonedPenPress @NetGalley