Kimberly Belle is a USA Today and internationally bestselling author with over one million copies sold worldwide and titles including The Paris Widow, The Marriage, a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller, and the co-authored #1 Audible Original series, Young Rich Widows. Kimberly’s novels have been selected by LibraryReads and Amazon as Best Books of the Month and optioned for film and television. She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.
Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie
I love every book Vanessa Lillie has written, though as her co-author for the Young Rich Widows series, I may be a little biased. Blood Sisters follows archaeologist Syd Walker, an Oklahoma Cherokee woman working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. When human bones are discovered at the scene of a crime that took place 15 years ago, Syd uses her experience as an archaeologist to help solve the case. Like her protagonist, Vanessa is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma now living on Narragansett land in Rhode Island, so this story is deeply personal to Vanessa, and it carries an important message about how the US treats its Indigenous population.
Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
I often get asked what books I wish I'd written myself, and I was about two pages into Pretty Things when I knew it would make the list. The writing is gorgeous and so is the setting, a sprawling mountain estate on the wintry shores of Lake Tahoe, a place so vivid and lush it practically leaps off the page. The two main characters are just as compelling—Nina, a con artist who learned the art from her mother, and Vanessa, an heiress and Instagram influencer with a family that’s seen its share of tragedy. This book offers an unexpected and deliciously clever story about two women brought together by the scam of a lifetime, and the ending is chef’s kiss.
The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead
This book has just about every single trigger you could possibly imagine, but if you can stomach that, it’s one of my favorite reads from the past few years. When Shay Deroy learns that one of her college besties has died by what police are calling a suicide, she goes back to the one place she vowed never to return in search of answers. This book is dark and disturbing and chock full of gasp-worthy moments; the kind of story you tear through one sitting then flip back to the beginning and read again to see what you missed (and believe me, you missed a lot). Ashley Winstead really went there with this one, and she knocked it out of the park.
Keep up with Kimberly on Instagram (@KimberlySBelle), Facebook (KimberlyBelleBooks) and Twitter (@KimberlySBelle) or via her website at www.kimberlybellebooks.com.