Which Top Thriller Reads Have The Highest Goodreads Ratings?

So my go to litmus test for a new book are reviews from trusted friends. Aggregating all reviews via some algorithm is basically useless to me. I’ve read highly rated “The Fake Mate” by Lana Ferguson. It’s an omegaverse light story set in a hospital which is completely foreign to me, but apparently works. This is a very steamy, funny book with a protective, grumpy hero. It’s manages to walk a fine line between good tropes and new original ideas. For the most part it succeeds in being a great read, a fake relationship to silence office gossip that has a great twist of werewolf biology. If you’re looking for something with a paranormal twist but written with a really contemporary feel then this one deserves its high ratings.

Drinking sips of coffee while reading through the thread. You guys have given me so many more books to add to my TBR. My wallet is hurting right now. I think I'll just start with the one that has the prettiest cover for now. Judge me.

Why choose a romance crime novel? For starters, ‘In the Woods’ by Tana French is a fantastic choice of romance crime novel. The desire between detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox is as compelling as the murder of a young child that they are trying to solve. Then there’s ‘The Wife Between Us’ by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, another twisty and addictive love story. Add historical twist to the mix by grabbing ‘The Alienist’ by Caleb Carr, a chilling 19th century mystery set in New York that has subtle undertones of romance. Without exception the books of crime listed here show that even when you’re in the grip of the central plot of the book, love can creep in and keep you enthralled until the very end.

That's an interesting question. I've never really considered myself to be keeping a ranked list of bands to see live in my head. I know what I want to see when I'm in the mood for something. Maybe I'm just not the best person to ask in a situation like this.

Will it be considered as smut or as romance on Wattpad? There are readers who want closed-door/fade-to-black scenes and there are those who want extremely explicit detailed scenes. Most top-rated stories are in between – they are extremely steamy to satisfy the heat-seekers but not so graphic that others who like to read while feeling the tension instead of reading detailed scenes would be put off. In order to achieve this a writer would have to be extremely good at writing sensually charged scenes and then leave the rest to the reader’s imagination. Anticipation and emotions are more important than details. Meeshawrites is a great example of this kind of writer. She writes extremely sensually charged scenes but they are never graphic. Her scenes are just extremely sensual and therefore very satisfying for readers who are looking for good smut but are also not off-putting for those who prefer to read while feeling the tension instead of reading detailed scenes. The stories that have smut in them and are rated high are likely to have this kind of approach to writing scenes with smut in them. Staying too much in the explicit territory may exclude some readers due to their age or because of their personal preferences while not enough smut may have led readers to expect more smut than what was delivered by the writer under the smut tag.

The algorithm for Kindle Unlimited’ recommendations of psychological thrillers works quite well if you train it. After finishing ‘The Woman in the Window’ by A.J. Finn I got a lot of other titles recommended, including ‘The Breakdown’ by B.A. Paris. In addition to these recommended titles I also participate in a couple of Kindle Unlimited groups on Facebook. In these groups a lot of members recommend quite underrated books, like ‘The Dinner Guest’ by B.P. Walter for example. And then of course there are the short sample reads. If the first chapter already hooks me (like ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ by Alice Feeney did) then I am sure to finish the book.

The ensemble cast of ‘Gulmohar’ has not a single weak link from the youngest grandchild to the oldest servant of the house. All of them are so natural and so nuanced in their individual performances that you believe them to be a family with a long and complicated history. While most family dramas often go wrong because of a bad performance by one or two of the cast members and are then trapped in some sort of theatrics, the entire cast of ‘Gulmohar’ functions at the same high plane of naturalism, thus creating an entirely immersive world of fiction, a feat rarely achieved by writers and actors alike. This is the core of ‘Gulmohar’.

I’m not a huge fan of the super-smart detective. Give me someone who is in over their head, reacting with their gut to not-enough information, making poor choices as they go. Resilience is key to these kinds of characters: they keep getting back up after they’ve been beaten, and they’re scared to death. But they keep going because the alternative is worse. There’s a moment for me where the protagonist is battered and bruised and exhausted, and they look at their evidence board and make one more connection. It’s desperation that sells these characters for me, and it’s a delicate line to walk.

Use Common Sense Media’s website to review books. You can type in any book and get a detailed summary of the book including any romantic moments, language, etc. and a maturity level rating. I rely on this for many of the books I purchase for my kids as I don’t always read the reviews on Amazon as they can vary greatly. Follow librarians and teachers on social media (TikTok/BookTok has a huge ‘clean teen romance’ and ‘middle grade’ community) as they are on the front lines and know what is currently publishing and what kids are actually reading and enjoying as opposed to what is winning awards.

Do the audiobooks count too? I have them all read by James Daniels (with the exception of Elvis, which he read perfectly sardonicically, and Joe Pike, which he read beautifully understatedly). I think that The Watchman is even more of a gripping listen because of the wonderful way the action is rendered. I think that Suspect is a wonderful listen too, particularly in terms of the dog’s POV. For many modern readers, the ‘popularity’ of a book will often be tied to the quality of the audiobook version. So, for example, pacey and dialogue driven books like L.A. Requiem or The Watchman might actually get a higher ranking as audiobooks than some of the longer more slower burn print books. In the digital age of listening, a new listener may well start with the highest rated audiobook on Audible and then read reviews of other books by that same author to see if they are any good.