Wow, it’s September 1st. And apparently autumn decided to make an entrance because we woke up to the best possible surprise: a massive thunderstorm, pouring rain, dark skies, and that first little feeling that summer is finally slipping away. My iced coffee genuinely never tasted better. 🍂⛈️☕
And honestly? Bad Intentions was exactly the kind of thriller I wanted for the first day of September.
Josie Boots returns to her hometown of Burnville after seriously messing up her life, hoping to take care of her grandmother and somehow get herself back on track.
Except Burnville has a very long memory.
Twenty-five years ago, a horrific crime destroyed Josie’s family, and now a stranger is suddenly offering her answers about the secrets buried in her past. Then Josie witnesses a brutal crime right in front of her, and everything she thought she knew about her family starts falling apart.
Maybe being called the “bad seed” all those years ago meant more than she realized.
The story introduces its characters one by one, and almost immediately I had questions about everyone. Josie already seems completely exhausted by everything life has thrown at her, while also caring for her grandmother, who has cancer and refuses treatment. And yet, underneath all of that, she’s still fighting for some version of a normal life.
Then she meets a blue-haired girl who is new to town but somehow already knows things about Josie’s past. There’s also a mysterious man promising to reveal the secrets her grandmother has been hiding, eventually luring Josie toward a house connected to a woman who was once held captive there.
Like??? WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS TOWN?
It’s absolutely insane, but it’s also incredibly action-packed, and that is exactly what I want from this kind of thriller.
And then I finished it.
OH. MY. GOD.
I read this entire book in ONE DAY because there was simply no way I was going to sleep without finding out what the hell was happening in Burnville.
The deeper Josie digs into her family history, the stranger this little town becomes. There’s something almost old-fashioned about the power dynamics in Burnville, with women seemingly holding the town together—and controlling far more than Josie initially realizes. Add a seriously dysfunctional family reunion, decades of buried secrets, killers tangled into the town’s history, and people whose pasts refuse to stay buried, and I was completely hooked.
But one of the biggest surprises for me was the friendship at the heart of everything. I genuinely didn’t expect to care about it as much as I did, but I loved it.
This book was chaotic in the best possible way. Secrets on top of secrets, questionable people everywhere, a creepy little town with way too much history, and enough WTF moments to keep me glued to my Kindle.
Thunderstorm outside. Iced coffee beside me. First day of September. A thriller devoured in one sitting.
Autumn reading season has officially begun.
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