December really snuck up on us this year, but we at THP are not letting the holidays slip by without giving you our second annual book gift guide! Here’s to another year of incredible book releases and recommendations.
If you know a fellow book lover like us, these boxed sets and holiday-themed books are the perfect gift. Once you have your cart filled, then get ready for our end-of-year book roundups, which we’ll be dropping very soon!
Content warning: The Honey POP encourages mindful reading and checking the author’s website for content warnings.
Jane Austen Gift Set
Image Source: Penguin Random House
She’s an icon, she’s a legend, and she’s put together into a lovely gift set just in time for the holidays. If you know a classic lit lover or any fan of Jane Austen (guilty!), then this three-book collection is perfect. It features the books Pride and Prejudice,Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. In case you haven’t heard, we’re celebrating more than the holidays this year—we’re celebrating 250 years of Jane Austen’s timeless novels!
Order the Jane Austen gift set here!
An Ember In The Ashes Box Set
Image Source: Penguin Random House
If you love epic fantasy series as much as we do, then take a look at the complete box set for An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. This edition features all four books in the series: An Ember in the Ashes, A Torch Against the Night, A Reaper at the Gates, and A Sky Beyond the Storm. We all know at least one person who’s been putting off reading this series until now. And this box set is sure to convince them to pick it up!
The next recommendation on our holiday book gift guide is Mint to Be by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc! It’s a cozy winter romance with a special scratch & sniff cover that will have you feeling festive all the way into the new year. It follows Emma Sherman, who’s returning to her hometown for the holidays. She left for school in New York City without saying goodbye to her best friend Aiden. And Aiden never got the chance to confess his feelings before Emma left…
A Hogwarts Christmas: An Official Harry Potter Coloring Book
Image Source: Scholastic
We wouldn’t be in the holiday spirit without a themed coloring book! The Harry Potter series have become a staple to our holiday traditions. A Hogwarts Christmas by Dizzy Devil Designs calls to our inner child and features some of the most iconic winter and Christmas scenes. For all us Potterheads and coloring fanatics out there, we can think of nothing better to do while on our annual marathon of all eight movies!
Order the A Hogwarts Christmas coloring book here!
Sunrise On The Reaping: Collectors’ Gift Edition
Image Source: Scholastic
The bad news: we still have a year until the next Hunger Games movie comes out. The good news: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins is getting a gorgeous collector’s edition to tide us over. We all know dystopian fiction has been making the ultimate comeback. So on behalf of all the dystopian readers in your life, you don’t want to pass up on this gift edition with new cover art, stained edges, and more!
Order the Sunrise on the Reaping: Collectors’ Gift Edition here!
How did you like our 2025 book gift guide? Do any of these books and box sets speak out to you? Which ones are you giving your favorite bookworm this year? Let us know on Twitter! You can also find us over on Facebook and Instagram!
Want to hear some of our audiobook recommendations? Here’s the latest!
Content Warnings: sexual assault, stalking, blackmail, coercive control, infidelity, trauma
Summary:Jenna, who runs a successful private therapy practice, still struggles with trust issues of her own. She’s made a promise to stop snooping in her husband Colten’s phone, but sometimes she can’t help herself. One night, she discovers a troubling exchange between him and his cousin Bodie, who’s one of his closest friends. A dancer from a bachelor party they both recently attended is threatening Bodie, claiming they crossed a line sexually and that she’ll expose the truth to his family if she doesn’t get what she wants. They don’t know much about this woman, or how far she’s willing to go. But Jenna might.
Lexus Chardonnay, the stage name of the dancer from the party, is one you don’t forget. And Jenna’s heard it before—from one of her clients.
Kaitlyn is a medical school student who dances on weekends to put herself through school. Jenna’s been her therapist for years, except she hasn’t seen her for three months. Not since Kaitlyn stopped showing up for treatment, without explanation. As Jenna begins to listen back to their past sessions, desperate for answers, a more complicated picture emerges, and she must decide who to trust as her career and her family hang in the balance.
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Everyone says they want honesty in a relationship, but how many of us have sneaked a peek at a partner’s phone when nobody’s looking? Jenna knows she shouldn’t, yet one quiet night, she breaks her promise and scrolls through her husband’s texts. What she finds isn’t your run-of-the-mill flirty message or a secret Instagram account. It’s something much more alarming: a digital Pandora’s box that threatens not just her marriage, but the very career built on trust and confidentiality.
Lucinda Berry’s new thriller, This Is A Safe Space, puts a modern twist on the old idea that some secrets refuse to stay buried. In an era when our whole lives (and our darkest lies) can hide behind a lock screen, this story taps into a very real, very today kind of fear. What if the person who creates a “safe space” for others has nowhere safe for herself? It’s a question Jenna is forced to confront as her professional world collides with a deeply personal nightmare.
1. Our Phones, Our Secrets
What would someone find if they opened your phone right now? It’s a disarming question, and in This Is A Safe Space, the answer nearly shatters one family. Jenna’s late-night phone snooping isn’t just a plot device; it’s a painfully relatable lapse in judgment. In an age of fingerprint locks and Face IDs, the smartphone has become a diary, confession booth, and safe deposit box of our secrets all in one. Jenna promised herself she’d trust her husband Colten, but the temptation of that glowing screen proves too strong. And when her worst suspicions appear confirmed by a string of cryptic texts, it kicks off a chain reaction of suspicion and fear.
This thriller gets how a tiny breach of digital privacy can snowball. One moment of “just checking” leads Jenna into a web of lies connecting her home to her therapy practice. It’s a modern scenario that feels disturbingly familiar, tapping into the way real trust issues often begin with a single notification at 2 AM. By anchoring the mystery in something as ordinary as a text message, the story makes its psychological punches hit close to home!
2. One Name, Two Lives
Meet Lexus Chardonnay. It’s a stage name you won’t easily forget. For Jenna, it’s the name that makes her blood run cold. Those threatening messages on her husband’s phone revolve around a mysterious dancer with this flashy alias. But Jenna has heard it before, in a far different context. Lexus is actually Kaitlyn, a bright medical student who has sat across from Jenna in therapy for years. By day, Kaitlyn is studying to heal others; by night, under neon lights, she becomes Lexus, dancing to pay the bills.
This dual life isn’t just a plot twist; it’s a commentary on the curated identities people juggle. On social media, we often present highlight reels of our lives, and some of us even keep whole parts of ourselves hidden under alter egos. The novel deftly shows how those separate worlds can collide in an instant. Jenna suddenly realizes the woman sending shockwaves through her family is the same person she’s tried to help through panic attacks and personal struggles. It’s a collision of worlds that raises the stakes and begs the question: how well do we really know anyone, even those we’re supposed to trust most?
3. Victim Or Villain?
Thrillers thrive on uncertainty over who wears the white hat and who’s hiding a dagger behind their back. This Is A Safe Space takes that uncertainty up a notch. The dancer threatening Jenna’s family might be an extortionist preying on men’s worst fears, or she could be a young woman lashing out after surviving something unspeakable. The story constantly tugs the rug out from under assumptions. One chapter, you’re convinced Bodie (Colten’s hapless cousin caught in the scandal) is being unfairly trapped; the next, you wonder if he’s not as innocent as he seems.
It’s a fascinating tightrope walk between sympathy and suspicion. The novel asks if it’s possible to be both a victim and a perpetrator at once. In real life, people who are hurt sometimes hurt others in return, intentionally or not. Berry isn’t afraid to live in that gray area. She lets readers sit with the discomfort that comes when you simply can’t slot someone into “good” or “bad.” It makes the suspense that much more intense.
4. When Control Turns Coercive
Behind the thriller’s twists lies a sobering commentary on power and credibility. The situation Jenna uncovers isn’t just about a scandal. It’s about who gets believed and who gets blamed. Kaitlyn’s alter ego, Lexus, resorts to late-night threats and demands, behaviors that look like stalking on the surface. But the novel nudges readers to consider why she feels this is her only recourse. Women who speak up about being harmed are too often dismissed as “crazy” or attention-seeking, especially if their story threatens a tight-knit family’s reputation. It’s a frustrating reality that This Is A Safe Space digs into: if Kaitlyn truly was wronged, would anyone believe her without proof or pressure?
The flip side is equally unsettling. If she’s lying, then she’s weaponizing the doubt that real victims face, making it harder for others to trust women’s stories. The narrative walks this fine line without preaching. Instead, it heightens the suspense: every character is unsure who to trust, and that creeping feeling of being watched or manipulated keeps both Jenna and the reader on edge. Coercive control isn’t always overt violence: sometimes it’s a barrage of texts, a veiled threat, or the silent treatment that warps reality. Berry shows how these subtler forms of manipulation can be just as chilling, especially in a world where deleting a message doesn’t erase what happened.
5. Blurred Boundaries, Big Dilemmas
Therapists are supposed to keep a professional distance, but what happens when the “someone” needing help is on the other side of the couch and also at your dinner table? Jenna’s predicament is every psychologist’s nightmare scenario. Ethically, a therapist shouldn’t entangle their personal life with a patient’s, yet here she is, smack in the middle of her client’s secret crisis. When Kaitlyn vanished from therapy without a word three months ago, Jenna never imagined their next encounter would be like this. Now Jenna is combing through old session notes and audio recordings, searching for clues in conversations that were meant to heal, not solve a mystery.
The book grapples with the ethics of these dual relationships in a very human way. Jenna isn’t portrayed as a saint or a sinner for the choices she makes, just a person trying to protect her family and her patient at the same time. It raises tough questions: Can you ever really separate personal feelings from professional duty? Jenna knows the rulebook, but This Is A Safe Space shows how real life often laughs in the face of those rules. The tension of watching her walk that tightrope between what’s right as a therapist and what’s necessary as a wife and mother adds another layer of depth to an already twisty thriller.
6. When Betrayal Hits Home
Beyond the mystery and mind games, Berry delves into the emotional wreckage that betrayal leaves behind. Jenna might be a therapist, but discovering her husband’s possible deceit puts her on the other side of the couch, reeling, doubting, and hurt like anyone else. The novel illustrates betrayal trauma in a way that young readers and older ones alike can feel in their gut. When someone you love breaks your trust, it doesn’t just sting; it alters how you see the world. Jenna’s outlook shifts as she grapples with the notion that the man she built a life with may have dangerous secrets. Her empathy is tested too; can she still sympathize with her client’s pain when she’s drowning in her own?
Lucinda Berry’s background as a psychologist shines through in these moments. The story doesn’t lecture about trauma; it shows it unfolding in real time, from Kaitlyn’s anxiety spirals to Jenna’s simmering panic behind her professional poise. The characters’ reactions feel authentic, messy, and human. This Is A Safe Space isn’t just another page turner; it’s a thriller that truly understands the psychology of broken trust!
The scariest part of This Is A Safe Space isn’t what people confess; it’s what they keep to themselves.
Content Warnings: death, parent deaths, gore, war, violence, illness and plague, cheating
Summary:Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather, Merrick, the Dreaded End and Death himself, to arrive. When he does, he lays out his plan for Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.
But all gifts come with a price. . . .
Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked with ending their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court,where she meets Leo, a rakish prince, and against her better judgment, she falls in love. But Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet when she is called to heal the king. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death for the sake of love?
Imagine being blessed at birth, not by a fairy godmother but by Death himself. That’s the haunting premise of Erin Craig’s The Thirteenth Child, a YA novel that spins a darkly enchanting tale from a Grimm fairy tale. It’s part epic fantasy, part romance, and it’s already topping bestseller lists. So what makes this gothic story stand out? Here are 7 reasons it’s casting a spell on young readers:
1. A Grimm Inspiration Reborn
Based on a Brothers Grimm tale, but far from a quaint fable. It draws inspiration from a lesser-known Grimm story called Godfather Death, but don’t expect a straight retelling. Craig uses that dark premise as a springboard for something much bigger! The novel nods to the original folktale’s themes of bargains and fate, then ups the ante with richer characters and higher stakes. It feels like a classic fairy tale at heart, but with far more twists and teeth.
2. Hazel Trépas: A Heroine With A Dark Gift
At the story’s heart is Hazel, a girl blessed (and cursed) by Death. Hazel Trépas is the thirteenth child of a poor family, promised from birth to the God of Death. When her eerie godfather finally shows up, he blesses Hazel with the power to heal any illness. The catch? She can also tell exactly when someone is beyond saving, and then she must end their suffering. Imagine the burden of that gift! Hazel is compassionate but haunted, determined to forge her own path despite the grim duty hanging over her. It’s impossible not to root for her as she fights for control of her life under Death’s shadow!
3. Death As The Ultimate Godfather
When Death becomes your mentor, expect the unexpected. Merrick, the god of Death himself, isn’t your typical hooded reaper. As Hazel’s godfather, he’s stern and otherworldly, yet oddly caring in his own way (more so than Hazel’s actual parents, frankly). He takes Hazel under his wing to mold her into the great healer he expects. Their bond is a fascinating push-pull of duty and affection. It’s not every day that Death plays dad, and here it’s equal parts chilling and touching.
4. Gothic Atmosphere And Storybook Vibes
Think candlelit castles, misty forests, and ghosts at the door. The book’s atmosphere is pure gothic goodness, from midnight chapel vigils to woodland spirits lurking by the road. Craig vividly renders a world where every blessing comes with a curse attached, making it feel like you’ve stepped into an eerie old storybook. Yet for all the dark, lush detail, the writing stays crisp and clear. It gives you goosebumps without ever getting you lost in the woods.
5. Royal Intrigue And High-Stakes Twists
Palace politics, family secrets, and fate hanging by a thread. When Hazel is summoned to the royal court to heal a dying king, the story kicks into high gear. Suddenly she’s navigating a den of vipers: scheming nobles, hidden agendas, and maybe even a murderous plot. In this kingdom, no one is entirely trustworthy, and danger lurks in every corridor. The novel delivers twist after twist as Hazel unravels what (or who) is behind the king’s illness. The stakes are sky-high, with Hazel’s own future tied to the fate of the realm, so by the climax you’ll be holding your breath hoping she can cheat Death itself!
6. A ‘Romantasy’ Worth Swooning Over
Amid the darkness is a swoon-worthy spark. Even in a dark tale, there’s room for love. Hazel’s chemistry with Prince Leo (the king’s younger son) brings a welcome glow to the gloom. Their banter is quick and witty (Leo’s cynicism meets its match in Hazel’s no-nonsense charm) and their reluctant alliance slowly blossoms into something more. Importantly, the romance never overshadows the main story; instead, it raises the emotional stakes. You’ll find yourself rooting for this couple to find a happily-ever-after, even as doom hangs over them. In a world so shadowed, their romance is a warm, defiant light.
7. Haunting Themes With Heart
A fairy tale that makes you think (and maybe cry). Beyond the magic and mayhem, this story tackles big questions about mortality and sacrifice. Hazel’s very role asks: What makes a life well-lived? How far should one go to save someone they love? There are definitely scenes that tug at the heartstrings (keep tissues handy), but there’s also a thread of hope shining through!
The Thirteenth Child doesn’t just retell a fairy tale: it redefines it for a new generation, turning a morbid premise into a story about the fierce, fragile beauty of life!
