MY REVIEW
Dark Ugly Places by Ashley Mansour is one of those books that can have triggers for some people, but for me, I love walking on the dark side. The title and cover drew me in and by the time I got to the blurb, I was sold.
It all begins when Nicola Holiday, her daughter, Emmy and her husband are in a car crash. Nicole and Emmy survive, but suffer severe emotional trauma. No one is held accountable for the death of her husband. Nicola cannot get past the grief and rage and Martha helps her find a way to cope. It deals with all the things a family is forced to find their way through, from the mental anguish to the financial toll, and everything in between.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, but Nicola’s need burns red hot. So…brace yourself, because this is one wild rollercoaster ride. I’ll definitely have my eye out for more work from Ashley Mansour.
GOODREADS BLURB
Dark Ugly Places is a psychological thriller of identity, grief, and revenge — a haunting domestic suspense for readers of Verity, Behind Her Eyes, and The Silent Patient.
Some wounds don’t heal. They fester. They whisper. They take over.
In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn’t something you survive — it’s something that survives you.
Thirty-four-year-old Nicola Holiday loses everything in a hit-and-run: her husband dead, her body broken, her fourteen-year-old daughter Emmy forever changed. With no one held accountable, she spirals into grief, panic attacks, and financial ruin — awakening a hereditary darkness she’s spent her life trying to outrun.
That darkness has a voice now. Her name is Martha, and she aches for revenge.
As Nicola’s grip on reality loosens, Martha slips into another life — one of wealth, glamour, and moral rot. When she crosses paths with the wife of a famous actor, Nicola’s suspicions ignite.
Pulled between vengeance and annihilation, Nicola and Martha collide with a woman whose secrets may be the key to everything — or the thing that destroys them both.
Dark, provocative, and deeply unsettling — a haunting psychological portrait of female rage, obsession, and the terrifying lengths the mind will go to survive unbearable pain.
Because sometimes the most dangerous place isn’t the past. It’s inside your own head.
- Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
- 49 pages, ebook
- Published September 15, 2026 by Monikher Press
ABOUT ASHLEY MANSOUR
Ashley Mansour is a bestselling author, award-winning film producer, and storyteller known for creating immersive, emotionally charged narratives that blur the line between beauty and darkness.
Her internationally bestselling debut novel, Blood, Ink & Fire, imagined a world where reading was forbidden — a haunting love letter to the power of stories. After its success and film option, Ashley transitioned into the entertainment world, producing and writing book-to-screen adaptations, including Back Roads, the adaptation of Oprah’s Book Club bestseller by Tawni O’Dell.
In 2026, Ashley returned to fiction, this time exploring the darker sides of domestic life. Her upcoming psychological thriller and haunting domestic suspense, Dark Ugly Places and The Girl That Jack Killed, unravel themes of identity, grief, and the shadows that live inside us all.
Beyond her novels, Ashley is the founder and CEO of LA Writing Coach, where she helps aspiring authors and thought leaders bring their stories to life through her acclaimed systems — The TAP Writing Method™ and The PAE System.
She lives in Irvine, California, with her husband and their Bernedoodle, Bernie, who thinks he’s the main character.
Instagram: @ashleymwrites