Hello and a very warm welcome to damppebbles. It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post. I’ve decided to take part in That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday meme to mix things up a little here at dp. My original plan was to participate as and when I had the time to put a post together. That then turned into posting ‘weekly without fail’ until I was forced to take a break following surgery to both shoulders (that recovery happened to coincide with a complete and utter loss of reading and blogging mojo 🤷🏻‍♀️). But now I’m back and I’m going to take a much more chilled approach to all things bookish. Which means TTT will return to being a regular feature on damppebbles but a ‘no pressure’ one (that’s the plan anyway!).

The meme was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish but has lived with Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl since January 2018. It was created to encompass a love of books, of lists and to bring readers together. If you would also like to take part then you’re very welcome: the more, the merrier. Just make sure you link back to Jana’s post every week. If you don’t have a blog then no problem, just add your list to the comments below.

This week’s theme is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025. Blimey, this is a toughie for me. Not because I’m not excited about the new books we have heading our way soon, but because I am normally the LAST person to know that a favourite author is set to release a new book. Saying that, I do have a number of very exciting downloads on my NetGalley shelf so I think it’s best I use that as my starting point.

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1. Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney (Published 30th January 2025)
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.

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2. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Published 18th March 2025)
Etsy Beaucarne is an academic, who needs to get published. So when a journal, written in 1912 by a Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure.

As she researches, she comes to learn of her grandfather, and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. She discovers the journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow.

A blood-soaked and unflinching saga of the violence of colonial America, a revenge story like no other, and the chilling reinvention of vampire lore from the master of horror.

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3. Senseless by Ronald Malfi (Published 15th April 2025)
What do you see…?

When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in the desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the detective assigned to the case can’t deny the similarities between this murder and one that occurred a year prior. Media outlets are quick to surmise this is the work of a budding serial killer, but Detective Bill Renney is struggling with an altogether different scenario: a secret that keeps him tethered to the husband of the first victim.

What do you hear…?

Maureen Park, newly engaged to Hollywood producer Greg Dawson, finds her engagement party crashed by the arrival of Landon, Greg’s son. A darkly unsettling young man, Landon invades Maureen’s new existence, and the longer he stays, the more convinced she becomes that he may have something to do with the recent murder in the high desert.

What do you feel…?

Toby Kampen, the self-proclaimed Human Fly, begins an obsession over a woman who is unlike anyone he has ever met. A woman with rattlesnake teeth and a penchant for biting. A woman who has trapped him in her spell. A woman who may or may not be completely human.

In Ronald Malfi’s brand-new thriller, these three storylines converge to create a tapestry of deceit, distrust, and unapologetic horror. A brand-new novel of dark suspense set in the City of Angels, as only “horror’s Faulkner” can tell it.

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4. Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey (Published 24th April 2025)
‘There is nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator’s nearby…And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil…The way the crack of the rifle seems to come from deep inside Cutter. The way she feels it in her throat; she knows she’s a good killer – and yet. She is stalling…’

The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…

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5. The Liar by Louise Jensen (Published 24th April 2025)
The Abbotts’ new lodger Luke hasn’t told them much about himself, but they can’t expect to know everything about a stranger who’s just moved in.

Only Luke keeps asking about their family photos, and snooping through their things. Why does he want to know everything about them?

Then, suddenly, Mum Mel texts the family to say she needs a break. But Mel has never gone away on her own before. And now it’s been days and no one can get hold of her. While daughters Jen and Amy frantically try to find their mum they’re alone with Luke. They’re scared, and they should be.

The Abbotts’ house is full of secrets and someone is prepared to go to horrifying lengths to protect them.

They say people never tell the whole truth. They’re right.

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6. They Had it Coming by Nikki Smith (Published 15th May 2025)
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer . . .

Nate and Layla, Jude and Sophie. They’ve been a four for as long as they can remember: fancy dinners, dancing ’til dawn . . . Even living and working together.

So when Nate and Layla suddenly quit their lives and move to Bali, with its white sands and exotic beach clubs, Jude and Sophie are their first visitors. Anything to escape their life in London.

But as the two couples reunite, cracks begin to show.

Which is hardly surprising; they’ve been lying to each other for years.

And now, it’s time for revenge.

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7. The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland (Published 5th June 2025)
A MAN MURDERED, LIVE ON CAMERA

When a DVD is delivered in the dead of night, DCI Cara Elliott hits play on a horrifying showreel of violence… This is death, on demand.

A KILLER COUNTING DOWN

Avid viewers are paying for the killings, with twisted specifications. A request, an abduction, a murder. And always in a forty-eight-hour pattern.

A MISSING DETECTIVE

But when the killer finds out they’re being investigated, they reveal their next target. In forty-eight hours, a police officer will be the one in front of the camera. The hunters have become the hunted, and the clock is ticking…

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8. Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor (Published 5th June 2025)
Why would my best friend want to destroy my life? Girl Falling is an atmospheric, psychological mystery from the award-winning author of Dirt Town.

Finn and her closest friend Daphne grew up in the imposing shadow of Australia’s Blue Mountains. Their uneasy bond forged from both losing their sisters at a young age. Now in their twenties, Daphne is at university, while Finn remained in the mountains, falling in love with newcomer Magdu. A young woman with troubles of her own.

After tensions arise during Magdu and Daphne’s first meeting, Finn is looking forward to a day of rock climbing and bonding for the three women on the cliffs near their town. But nothing goes as planned, and in a horrific accident, Magdu falls to her death.

In the aftermath, the friends become the focus of a police investigation. Was it really an accident? Or did something far more sinister play out that day?

Bold, dramatic and utterly compelling, Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor forces us to confront the stories we tell ourselves about the people we love.

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9. A Box Full of Murders by Janice Hallett (Published 5th June 2025)
When siblings Ava and Luke discover a mysterious notebook in their dad’s attic they are instantly intrigued. And, as they read through letters, diary entries, newspaper cuttings and notarised secret recordings, they realise that a decades-old, still unsolved, murder case is unfolding right in front of them . . .

Determined to discover what really happened, Ava and Luke turn detective to try and crack the case. But soon they realise that the killer might still be out there – and might be closer than they think…

YOU know the facts. YOU have all the clues. Can YOU solve the mystery before they do?

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10. With a Vengeance by Riley Sager (Published 12th June 2025)
One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.

In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.

Under false pretences, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.

But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge-and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.

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Yup, that wasn’t easy. Turns out I have no idea what is going on in the world of publishing! I ended up reaching out to Book Twitter for inspiration. I expect this is a fairly regular TTT theme so I will make sure I keep as up to date as possible with new releases happening in the last half of the year (The Final Vow by M.W. Craven is publishing in August. See! I have one already 🤭).

Have you read any of these books? Are there any on my list that take your fancy? What books are you looking forward to reading at the start of 2025? Are you taking part in Top Ten Tuesday this week? Let me know in the comments.

So there we have it! If you fancy joining in next week then head on over to That Artsy Reader Girl’s blog to find out what the next topic is!

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