Raisa's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 12 Apr 2025 04:49:39 -0700 60 Raisa's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Seven O'Clock Club 216522745 Four strangers are brought together to participate in an experimental treatment designed to heal broken hearts in this surprising and heartfelt debut novel from author Amelia Ireland.

In a perfectly ordinary building, four strangers who couldn't be more different meet for the first time. Their skepticism of this new kind of grief therapy—and the unnervingly perceptive group leader—means they're all wary, but as the weeks go by, they find themselves returning again and again, pulled to work toward healing, even if it means first facing the pain head-on.

A sharp-tongued lawyer who has no intention of letting down her walls, a fragile young woman looking for a place to belong, a musician at the top of his game who's one drink away from losing it all, and an interior designer facing the crumbling of her picture-perfect life—this unlikely group slowly opens up, not only to the possibility of a happier future but to friendship, change, and even romance.

When a shocking revelation reveals the real reason they were chosen for this group, it shakes the very foundation of what they thought they knew. What began as a journey designed to heal turns out to be a much greater test of friendship, strength, and love as they realize happiness is just outside the door...if they're brave enough to seek it.]]> 368 Amelia Ireland 0593952634 Raisa 0 to-read 4.13 2025 The Seven O'Clock Club
author: Amelia Ireland
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Same Bright Stars 199797895
Meanwhile, the DelDine group has been snapping up beloved eateries along this stretch of coast, and it is pursuing Jack with a very generous offer to take Schmidt’s off his hands. Jack craves companionship and maybe even a family. He wonders whether closing the door on the restaurant might open a window for him—but who would he be without Schmidt’s, and can he trust DelDine’s claims that it will continue to employ his staff and honor his family’s legacy?]]> 287 Ethan Joella 1668024608 Raisa 0 currently-reading, 2025, own 3.71 2024 The Same Bright Stars
author: Ethan Joella
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: currently-reading, 2025, own
review:

]]> Someone Somewhere Maybe 75718251
Poignant and beautifully written, TikTok fan favorite Sophie Diener’s debut poetry collection takes readers on an introspective journey through first love, first heartbreak, first loss, identity, and self-worth. Filled with honesty and warmth, each poem reveals something new about the human condition, and brilliantly captures what growing up feels like, in a way that is both relatable and affirming.

Someone Somewhere Maybe is the perfect companion for a rainy day, curling up in bed with a cup of tea, sitting on the porch with a glass of lemonade, or lying on the beach watching the waves. It offers readers hope, healing, understanding, and the certainty that they are not alone.]]> 176 Sophie Diener 1250892716 Raisa 3 digital, 2025 4.04 Someone Somewhere Maybe
author: Sophie Diener
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
Very reflective poetry - would be most relatable to heart break, young love, and character growth.
]]> Bloodguard (Old Erth, #1) 61431953
Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie.

Leith of Grey thought coming to this new land and volunteering to fight in the gladiator arena—vicious, bloodthirsty tournaments where only the strongest survive—would earn him enough gold to save his dying sister. He thought there was nothing left to lose.

He was wrong—and they took everything. His hope. His freedom. His very humanity.

All Leith has left is his battle-scarred body, fueled by rage and hardened from years of fighting for the right to live another day.

Then Leith meets Maeve, an elven royal who is everything he despises. Everything he should hate. Until the alluring princess offers him the one thing he needs most: a chance to win the coveted title of Bloodguard—and his freedom.

But in a kingdom built on secrets and lies, hope doesn’t come cheap.

Nor will his ultimate revenge…]]> 448 Cecy Robson 1649374054 Raisa 4 own, 2025 3.57 2024 Bloodguard (Old Erth, #1)
author: Cecy Robson
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: own, 2025
review:
If you liked The Prison Healer Series or Fourth Wing, you’d probably enjoy this. Similar vein and a lot of tension, action, and drama.
]]> Total Dreamboat 217388226 From the beloved author of Just Some Stupid Love Story, an irresistible rom-com about what happens when a cruise ship romance goes…overboard

Hope Lanover needs a vacation. Her relationship has imploded, her creative ambitions have flatlined, and she can’t seem to locate the badass girl she used to be. So when her best friend—a lifestyle influencer looking for a rich husband—invites her along a luxury cruise, Hope goes along with it…despite hating cruises, and having no interest in a fling with their elderly clientele.

Felix Segrave can’t imagine anything worse than a cruise. Sober, determinedly single and a workaholic chef, he hates leaving his restaurant and routine. But when his parents surprise him and his sisters with tickets to celebrate their anniversary, he can’t say no—he’s disappointed them too many times in his troubled past.

Hope and Felix are prepared to grin and bear it—until they lock eyes at check in. Suddenly, a ten-day fling in the Caribbean with a sexy stranger doesn’t seem so bad, despite all the ballroom dancing lessons and cheesy karaoke nights. That is, until Hope’s romantic demons catch up to her, Felix learns that the woman he’s falling for has not been entirely honest with him, and they find themselves stranded together—and at each other’s throats—in paradise. Forced to work together, not to mention share a bed, they must either navigate the stormy seas of love, or face romantic shipwreck.]]> 336 Katelyn Doyle 1250328063 Raisa 0 to-read 4.16 Total Dreamboat
author: Katelyn Doyle
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Island of Last Things: A Novel]]> 217387664 A soaring, propulsive, and unforgettably poignant novel about two zookeepers at the last zoo in the world, in the vein of Téa Obreht and Charlotte McConaghy

Camille has always preferred animals to people. The wild has nearly disappeared, but as a zookeeper at the last zoo in the world, on Alcatraz Island, she spends her days caring for playful chimpanzees, gentle tree frogs, and a restless jaguar. Outside, resistance groups and brutal cartels fight to shape the world’s future, but Camille is safe within her routines. That is, until a new zookeeper, Sailor, arrives from Paris.

From their first meeting, Camille is drawn to Sailor, who seems to see something in Camille that no one has before. They bond over their shared passions and dream up ways to improve their lives. When Sailor whispers the story of an idyllic, secret sanctuary where wild animals roam free, Camille begins to imagine a new kind of life with Sailor by her side.

Sailor knows all too well the dangers beyond Alcatraz, but she increasingly chafes at the zoo’s rigid rules. She hatches a reckless plan to smuggle one of the most prized animals off the island to freedom, and invites Camille to join her. The consequences if they fail would be catastrophic, and Sailor’s contacts at the sanctuary go dark just as the threats from the cartels grow more extreme. Camille must decide if she’s ready to risk everything for the promise of a better world.

Propulsive and fiercely hopeful, with a heart-stopping final twist, The Island of Last Things is an elegy for a disappearing world and a gorgeous vision for the future.]]> 272 Emma Sloley 1250329248 Raisa 0 to-read 4.00 2025 The Island of Last Things: A Novel
author: Emma Sloley
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When the Wolf Comes Home 211004893
As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they're up against, but she's about to learn there's more to these surreal and grisly events than she could've ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.]]> 304 Nat Cassidy 125035434X Raisa 0 to-read 4.57 2025 When the Wolf Comes Home
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Saving Noah 36121086 We forgive murderers, not pedophiles.

Not since Lionel Shriver brought us We Need to Talk About Kevin has a writer delved into the complexities of a disturbed mother/son relationship. Until now.

Meet Noah—an A-honor roll student, award-winning swimmer, and small-town star destined for greatness. There weren’t any signs that something was wrong until the day he confesses to molesting little girls during swim team practice. He’s sentenced to eighteen months in a juvenile sexual rehabilitation center.

His mother, Adrianne, refuses to turn her back on him despite his horrific crimes, but her husband won’t allow Noah back into their home. In a series of shocking and shattering revelations, Adrianne is forced to make the hardest decision of her life. Just how far will she go to protect her son?

Saving Noah challenges everything you think you know about teenage sexual offenders. It will keep you up at night long after you've read the last page, questioning beliefs you once thought were true.]]> 259 Lucinda Berry Raisa 0 to-read 3.89 2017 Saving Noah
author: Lucinda Berry
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living]]> 220161012 For fans of Rupi Kaur and Cleo Wade, this first collection of poetry from the viral TikTok poet Josie Balka, evokes themes of nostalgia, love, envy, and hope, speaking to the universal longings that live deep in our souls.

I’ve never seen anyone at a public pool with a memorable enough body, good or bad, that I think about it ever again.

If this line sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard it in the background of thousands of videos on social media—a humbling reminder from poet and radio personality Josie Balka that what’s important in our lives now isn’t necessarily what’s important to us in the long run.

I Hope You Remember, Josie’s first book of poetry, includes this poem and over eighty others, some previously published and others never shared before. Every page in this collection hits home, rhapsodizing on universal experiences like jealousy, family relationships, complex body image, falling in and out of love (with others and yourself), and the everchanging lens of nostalgia. With sparse, clear prose, Josie’s poetry looks to bring forth deep feelings like grief, envy, apathy, joy, and, most importantly, hope.

Evocative and full of force, these poems will hit you in the gut, pull your heartstrings, and make you long for moments past.]]> 176 Josie Balka 1668077108 Raisa 5 digital, 2025 Highly recommend reading and purchasing a copy, because these poems will perpetually be timely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC!]]> 4.37 I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living
author: Josie Balka
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
Literally the only thing that would make this poetry collection better would be if Josie Balka herself narrated an audiobook version. I loved this so much - the collection was so wholesome, accurate, and soulful. I have followed Balka for a while, and was so excited to receive this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Highly recommend reading and purchasing a copy, because these poems will perpetually be timely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC!
]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 56791389 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BKGYQXW


The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Raisa 0 to-read 4.49 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I, Medusa 228142988 From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a new kind of villain origin story, reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine.

Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else’s story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents—both gods, albeit minor ones—she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home.

In Athens� colorful market streets and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, a drunken night between girl and god ends in violence, and the course of Meddy’s promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered.

Her locs transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity—not as a victim, but as a vigilante—and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth.

Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the cross currents between her heart’s deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.]]> 504 Ayana Gray Raisa 0 to-read 4.41 I, Medusa
author: Ayana Gray
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Language of Dragons 211096516 EVERY ACT OF TRANSLATION REQUIRES SACRIFICE

Welcome to Bletchley Park� with dragons.

London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.

With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job�, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort � if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.

At first Viv believes that her challenge, of discovering the secrets of a hidden dragon language, is doable. But the more she learns, the more she realises that the bubble she’s grown up in isn’t as safe as she thought, and eventually Viv must What war is she really fighting?

An epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, A Language of Dragons is the unmissable debut of 2025, from an extraordinary new voice.]]> 432 S.F. Williamson 0063353849 Raisa 0 3.84 2025 A Language of Dragons
author: S.F. Williamson
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: digital, currently-reading, 2025
review:

]]> You Are Fatally Invited 213243937 An exclusive thriller writer’s retreat hosted on a private island turns lethal when one of the authors is found murdered in this twisty locked room mystery.

When renowned anonymous author J. R. Alastor hires former aspiring writer Mila del Angél to host a writing retreat at his private manor off the coast of Maine, she jumps at the chance—particularly since she has an ax to grind with one of the invitees. The guest list? Six thriller authors, all masters of deceit, misdirection, and mayhem.

Confess the crimes, survive the tropes.

Alastor and Mila have masterminded a week of games, trope-fueled riddles, and maybe a jump scare or two—the perfect cover for Mila to plot a murder of her own. But when a guest turns up dead—and it’s not the murder she planned—Mila finds herself trapped in a different narrative altogether.

One by one, you’ll lose your turn.

With a storm cutting off the island, and the body count rising, Mila must outwit a killer who knows literally every trick in the book.

Until only one of us remains�]]> 371 Ande Pliego 059387157X Raisa 3 digital, own, 2025 Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.59 2025 You Are Fatally Invited
author: Ande Pliego
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: digital, own, 2025
review:
A cast of unlikable characters trapped on an island for a writers retreat that turns lethal, quickly. This is an interwoven whodunnit tale, with six authors, an anonymous host author, and an aspiring writer turned host, who are all stuck together to discover their ugliest secrets and see who survives the week.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Heartwood 220259184 Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.]]> 320 Amity Gaige 1668063603 Raisa 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Heartwood
author: Amity Gaige
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Survivor Wants to Die at the End (Death-Cast, #2)]]> 199531917
Paz Dario stays up every night, waiting for the Death-Cast call that would mean he doesn’t have to keep faking his way through this lonely life. After a devastating day, Paz decides he’s done waiting around for Death-Cast. If they say he’s not dying, he’ll just have to prove them wrong. But right before Paz can die, a boy saves his life.

Alano Rosa is heir to the Death-Cast empire that encourages everyone to live their best lives, but he doesn’t feel in control of his own existence thanks to his father. And with a violent organization called the Death Guard threatening Alano, his End Day might be closer than he thinks. It’s time to live.

Fate brings Paz and Alano together, but it’s now up to the boys to survive the tragic trials ahead so no one dies at the end.

This book contains themes that some readers may find difficult.]]> 720 Adam Silvera 0063240858 Raisa 0 to-read 3.88 2025 The Survivor Wants to Die at the End (Death-Cast, #2)
author: Adam Silvera
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Book of Night (Book of Night, #1)]]> 62711573 A modern dark fantasy of betrayals, secret societies, and a dissolute thief of shadows.

Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make.

She's spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall.

Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but getting out isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that Charlie's shadowless and possibly soulless boyfriend, Vince, has been hiding things from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends into a maelstrom of murder and lies.

Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world―all trying to steal a secret that will give them vast and terrible power.]]> 336 Holly Black 1250812216 Raisa 0 to-read 3.52 2022 Book of Night (Book of Night, #1)
author: Holly Black
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?]]> 198902287 REESE'S BOOK CLUB MAY 2023 PICK

BOOK OF THE MONTH MAY 2023 PICK

A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz

When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.

A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could—and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.

The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.

As Elise digs deeper into Kitty's past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender—and the choices some women make to break free of them.]]> 416 Crystal Smith Paul 1250349028 Raisa 0 to-read 3.73 2023 Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
author: Crystal Smith Paul
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wild Reverence 222376906
Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.]]> 544 Rebecca Ross 1250373352 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.70 2025 Wild Reverence
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> Yellow Wife 58438537 Called “wholly engrossing� by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive� (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.

Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world.

She’d been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. She unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half Acre, a jail in Richmond, Virginia, where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold every day. There, Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailer’s cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive, Pheby will have to outwit him, and she soon faces the ultimate sacrifice.]]> 288 Sadeqa Johnson 1982149116 Raisa 0 to-read 4.44 2021 Yellow Wife
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We Live Here Now 219833105
But these things happen only when Emily is alone, so are they happening at all? She is still medically fragile. Her post-sepsis condition can cause hallucinatory side effects, which means she cannot fully trust her senses. Freddie does not notice anything odd and is happy with their chance at a fresh start. She, however, starts to believe the house is haunted by someone who had been murdered in it even though she can find no evidence of a wrongful death. As bizarre events pile up and her marriage starts to crumble, Emily becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about Larkin Lodge. But just as the house has secrets so do Emily and her husband.]]> 304 Sarah Pinborough 1250394058 Raisa 0 to-read, own 4.14 2025 We Live Here Now
author: Sarah Pinborough
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 213618143 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]> 465 Robert Jackson Bennett 0593723821 Raisa 0 to-read 4.57 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dissolution 215362027 A woman dives into her husband's memories to uncover a decades-old feud threatening reality itself in this staggering technothriller from the bestselling author of Ascension.

Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It's the loneliest she's ever felt in her life.

When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn't losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she's told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back.

Led by Hassan and his technological marvels, Maggie breaks into her husband's mind, probing the depths of his past in an effort to save him. The deeper she dives, the more she unravels a mystery spanning continents and centuries, each layer more complex than the last.

But Hassan cannot be trusted. Not just memories are disappearing, but pieces of reality itself. If Maggie cannot find out what Stanley did all those years ago, and what Hassan is after now, she risks far more than her husband's life. The very course of human history hangs in the balance.]]> 384 Nicholas Binge 0593852168 Raisa 0 to-read 4.16 2025 Dissolution
author: Nicholas Binge
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Caught Up (Into Darkness, #2) 220207768 From the viral TikTok author of the stalker romcom, Lights Out, comes Navessa Allen’s second book in bestselling The Into Darkness Trilogy, upping the ante with voyeurism and play club kink.

“I wanted this woman, and I was a man who always got what he wanted.�

Nico “Junior� Trocci knows Lauren Marchetti is off limits. She is sweetness and laughter, whereas Junior exists in a world of violence and depravity. Men like him don’t get to have women like her. It’s why he pushed her away back in high school and kept his distance ever since.

But when Junior looks Lauren up online, he discovers the shy, bookish girl he remembers is gone. In her place is a strikingly beautiful woman whose social media is filled with scantily clad pictures of herself and a connection to a nearby play club. Junior’s innocent curiosity quickly turns into a dark obsession. Watching Lauren from a distance isn’t enough; he needs to make her his.

“He’s ruthless; a walking red flag. Good thing red is my favorite color.�

Lauren is intrigued by the mystery man who keeps showing up at her club, who tempts her white-hot desires. But as their flirty online messages stir up a deeper form of connection, Lauren worries she’s developing real feelings for this brooding stranger. As their combined desire ratchets up to a breaking point, who will seduce who?]]> 352 Navessa Allen 1638932255 Raisa 0 to-read 4.17 2025 Caught Up (Into Darkness, #2)
author: Navessa Allen
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 213263148 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]> 544 Victoria E. Schwab 1250320526 Raisa 0 to-read 4.55 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> People Watching 222684223 In this sexy and emotional romance from the acclaimed author of Out of the Woods and Out on a Limb, a small-town woman’s journey to spread her wings intertwines with the arrival of an adventurous newcomer who brings out the best in her.

Prudence Welch has found solace in her introverted life in Baysville, a charming tourist town in Northern Ontario. Despite once dreaming of a life beyond its borders, she now finds contentment in her working at her father’s gas station, writing poetry, and caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's shortly after Prue’s nineteenth birthday. But as her mother’s condition worsens and her father’s concerns about her future intensify, Prue feels her world slipping further out of control.

Enter Milo Kablukov, an enigmatic wanderer whose beat-up van covered with ill-advised bumper stickers rolls into town just when Prue needs a change. It’s all too easy to let go with him, and Prue can’t help but strike up an unlikely friendship with Milo, which leads to a wild and sexy agreement between them.

Milo, a man of many adventures and countless stories, is not one to settle down. However, his brother’s urgent need for help has brought him to Baysville, and now the intriguing Prue has given him more reason to stay. Especially once they start spending more time together, their chemistry intensifying, and casual-sex lessons start at Prue’s request.

But as their temporary arrangement blossoms into something deeper, Prue and Milo discover that getting out of their comfort zones is one thing . . . taking that leap together is something else entirely.]]> Hannah Bonam-Young 0593871898 Raisa 0 to-read 4.43 2025 People Watching
author: Hannah Bonam-Young
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays]]> 220458601 A moving manifesto in poems and essays, inviting readers to embrace their humanity and live fully alive in our age of social change, hyper-capitalism, rampant individualism, and loneliness.

yes, everyone is struggling right now
so please be gracious

be kind & patient, but subvert
every institution that relies on our suffering

Something isn’t right. Every generation thinks that, but we have more cause than most. The way our society has been constructed is just not good for our bodies, nor our minds, nor our hearts. What possible chance do our souls have?

Yet, amidst all of this, there is an unwavering desire to embrace life in all its facets. In his debut collection, popular Instagram writer David Gate inspires us to rally for what makes life worth creating art as a form of care, living beyond consumer impulse, loving our neighbors (even the weird ones), and more. This book invites readers to ponder the complexities of self, community, love, and resilience.

Rejecting the notion that despair and positivity are our only available responses, Gate urges readers to foster deep friendships that challenge social orders and embrace questions of meaning and purpose. For, in his words, "saying something true in a world awash with lies is the first act of rebellion.]]> 224 David Gate 059360217X Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.05 A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays
author: David Gate
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jane and Dan at the End of the World]]> 214268974 Date night goes off the rails in this hilariously insightful take on midlife and marriage when one unhappy couple find themselves at the heart of a crime in progress, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise.

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part� all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.]]> 368 Colleen Oakley 0593200829 Raisa 0 digital, to-read 3.79 2025 Jane and Dan at the End of the World
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: digital, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books]]> 200987258
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic� books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome� dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.]]> 298 Kirsten Miller 0063348691 Raisa 5 digital, 2025 Please read the author note, everyone. Like, even if you don’t read the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this copy in exchange for my honest review!]]> 4.07 2024 Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books
author: Kirsten Miller
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
Kirsten Miller is an automatic buy for me. After reading (and loving) her other novel, The Change, I was so eager to read this one. The characters are unforgettable and the story is perfect. Wholeheartedly recommend.
Please read the author note, everyone. Like, even if you don’t read the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this copy in exchange for my honest review!
]]> The Familiar 211004837
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 400 Leigh Bardugo 1250884276 Raisa 0 to-read 4.02 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Murder at the End of the World]]> 197715421
Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

From the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water comes an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop, and an audacious solution.]]> 368 Stuart Turton Raisa 0 to-read 3.86 2024 The Last Murder at the End of the World
author: Stuart Turton
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Flight 51197260 Two women. Two Flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets � Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

The Last Flight is the story of two women � both alone, both scared � and one agonizing decision that will change thetrajectory of both of their lives.]]> 352 Julie Clark 1728215730 Raisa 0 to-read 4.26 2020 The Last Flight
author: Julie Clark
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2)]]> 215806352 Vera Wong is back and as meddling as ever in this follow-up to the hit Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.�

Ever since a man was found dead in Vera's teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly's girlfriend is none other than Officer SelenaGray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn't be ungrateful, even if one is slightly...bored.

Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance. The young woman is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena's, Vera finds a treasure Selena's briefcase.Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer—who also happens to be the friend that the young woman was looking for.

Online, Xander had it a parade of private jets, fabulous parties with socialites, and a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can't seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents.

Vera is determined to solve Xander's murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, andthere is nothing she wouldn't do for her future daughter-in-law.]]> Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546261 Raisa 0 to-read 4.42 2025 Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Things We Didn't Say 51268588
Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy town exploding with hostility. Most patriotic citizens want nothing to do with German soldiers laboring in their fields, and they're not afraid to criticize those who work at the camp as well. When Johanna describes the trouble to her friend Peter Ito, a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.

As Johanna interacts with the men of the camp and censors their letters home, she begins to see the prisoners in a more sympathetic light. But advocating for better treatment makes her enemies in the community, especially when charismatic German spokesman Stefan Werner begins to show interest in Johanna and her work. The longer Johanna wages her home-front battle, the more the lines between compassion and treason become blurred--and it's no longer clear whom she can trust.]]> 416 Amy Lynn Green 0764237160 Raisa 4 digital, 2025 4.14 2020 Things We Didn't Say
author: Amy Lynn Green
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
I loved this - incredible debut. I enjoyed the letter formatting throughout the book, it’s a unique way to tell a story! This format gave such a well rounded reach for all of the characters, and I enjoyed the multiple viewpoints.
]]> Sunny Side Up 217388243 From body-acceptance advocate and MEGABABE founder Katie Sturino comes a heartwarming and hilarious debut novel for fans for Emily Henry and Sex and the City

Sunny Greene is thirty-five, recently divorced, facing the looming prospect of going solo to her little brother’s wedding, and currently trying to find anything plus-sized in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit department that doesn’t make her want to cry. It’s not going well. But isn’t rock bottom the perfect place to start a climb?

She decides it’s now or never. Sunny has her PR empire, her gorgeous Chelsea apartment, her two dogs, and her loyal best friends. Maybe it's time to just love her body and accept herself for who she is. With a new commitment to confidence, her journey begins. Who says a plus-sized divorcee can’t put herself first, feel beautiful, and date up a storm?

Of course things are never straightforward in the dating world. Is fate knocking at her door with Dennis, the charming and down-to-earth mailman, or should she be with Ted, the business tycoon who seems ready to make her size-inclusive swimsuit brand a reality? And what should she do about her ex, who shows up unexpectedly, eager to reconnect?

With the same candor and confidence her followers love, Sturino brings us Sunny Greene, a Carrie Bradshaw for the next generation, and her journey through the trials and triumphs of dating, friendship, and finding yourself.]]> 304 Katie Sturino 1250344204 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 3.90 Sunny Side Up
author: Katie Sturino
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> Summer Rental 13007317
Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction....Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia―whose caustic wit covers up her wounds―has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life. And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what each of them needs.

Ty Bazemore is their landlord, though he's hanging on to the rambling old beach house by a thin thread. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about. Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Maryn needs just a few things in no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity. Ellis, Julia, and Dorie can provide what Maryn wants; can they also provide what she needs? Five people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. Five people on a journey that will uncover their secrets and point them on the path to forgiveness. Five people who each need a sea change, and one month that might just give it to them.

"Mary Kay Andrews spins a beach blanket sizzler around three lifelong friends...This warm weather treat has a lot going for it, not least the sunny forecast that summer love can blossom into a four-season commitment." ―Publishers Weekly]]> 432 Mary Kay Andrews 0312642709 Raisa 0 to-read, own 3.73 2011 Summer Rental
author: Mary Kay Andrews
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, own
review:

]]> Black Sheep 60791833
That’s not the first thing you’d think when you meet Bria Brooks.

She’s reserved. Polite. Charming, when she wants to be. But delve a little deeper. She’s cunning. Brilliant. Ruthless. Bria Brooks is not just a black sheep. She’s a wolf. And she has her heart set on a very elusive prize.

Caron Berger.

Trouble is, she’s not the only one.

Dr. Elijah Kaplan is also on the hunt for the enigmatic leader of the Legio Agni cult. Caron Berger is a phantom, and Eli is keen on catching the ghost. What he doesn’t need is a beautiful and brutal doctoral student haunting his steps. Especially not one who seems so breakable, or who tempts him to bend every rule until it snaps, or who calls to each of his darkest desires. No. He does not need that. At all.

When the pursuit of their elusive prey pulls these two hunters together, they find that their demons might not be so different after all. But just like bodies in a bog, secrets have a way of surfacing, and the ones that Bria and Eli keep are the deadliest kind.

As they draw closer to capturing their prize, can Bria and Eli harness their beasts before they destroy one another? Or will they learn that it’s not what you’ll do to win that matters, it’s what you’re willing to leave behind?

TWs: physical and emotional abuse, graphic violence, torture, swearing; explicit sexual content (consensual), BDSM, breath play.]]> 412 Alexa Harlowe Raisa 4 2025 3.96 2022 Black Sheep
author: Alexa Harlowe
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: 2025
review:

]]> Forget Me Not 217387937 A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.

Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.

With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents� as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.]]> 368 Stacy Willingham 1250887976 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.33 2025 Forget Me Not
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The One That Got Away with Murder]]> 210585806 Be careful who you fall for...

Robbie and Trevor Cresmont have a body count—the killer kind. Handsome and popular, the Crestmont brothers' have enough wealth and privilege to ensure they’ll never be found guilty of any wrongdoing, even if all of Happy Valley believes they're behind the deaths of their ex-girlfriends. First there was soccer star Victoria Moreno, Robbie’s ex, who mysteriously drowned at the family lake house. Then, a year later, Trevor’s girlfriend died of a suspicious overdose.

But the Crestmonts aren’t the only ones with secrets. Lauren O'Brian might be the new girl at school, but she's never been a good girl. With a dark past of her own, she's desperate for a fresh start. Except when she starts a no-strings-attached relationship with Robbie, her chance is put in jeopardy. During what’s meant to be their last weekend together, Lauren stumbles across shocking evidence that just might implicate Robbie.

With danger closing in, Lauren doesn't know who to trust. And after a third death rocks the town, she must decide whether to end things with Robbie or risk becoming another cautionary tale.

This is an edge-of-your-seat debut YA thriller about a teen who is forced to confront her past in order to catch a murderer before she ends up the next victim. Perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson. ]]> 384 Trish Lundy 1250362687 Raisa 0 to-read 4.12 2024 The One That Got Away with Murder
author: Trish Lundy
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Say You'll Remember Me 217182552 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer comes a new playful yet deeply emotional contemporary romance.

There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong�

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]> 368 Abby Jimenez 1538759195 Raisa 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Say You'll Remember Me
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Under the Same Stars 201103108
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too—but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.

In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are slogging through the last few months of senior year when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.

Age Range: 12-18]]> 470 Libba Bray 0374388954 Raisa 0 to-read 4.14 2025 Under the Same Stars
author: Libba Bray
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Raisa 4 2025 3.5 stars. ]]> 3.67 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025
review:
What did I just read?
3.5 stars.
]]> In My Remaining Years 211004103
In My Remaining Years, by creative juggernaut Jean Grae, debunks the myth that coming-of-age narratives should be reserved for the kids, providing a much-needed rallying cry for those of us still trying to figure it out in our forties. These laugh-out-loud essays cover everything from aging gracefully (with and without botox), what happens when you look for community and almost start a cult, befriending childhood demons (Hi Mumm-ra!), gender fluidity in middle age, the cost of being too fabulous, and the various gymnastics we do to avoid becoming our parents, taking us from her childhood in 1980s New York City to present-day Baltimore. In these pages, Jean captures magic in a bottle, distilling the feeling of hanging out with your smartest, funniest, and most brutally honest best friend.]]> 304 Jean Grae 1250857538 Raisa 0 to-read 4.29 2025 In My Remaining Years
author: Jean Grae
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Goldens 219833265
Chloe has always dreamed of becoming a bestselling writer. Then she meets enigmatic influencer Clara Holland, and at last, Chloe has something to write about. They bond instantly, and Chloe moves into Clara’s mansion. But as Clara’s fame skyrockets, she starts behaving strangely, hosting increasingly wild parties, complete with bonfire rituals and moonlit river baptisms.

Clara opens up her home to other girls desperate to live like her. The media call it a cult, and soon Chloe begins to hear unsettling rumours from Clara's past. After one spectacular party, a girl goes missing and the rumours take on a sinister new meaning. If Chloe can’t escape Clara’s influence, she may be next �

THE GOLDENS is about to become your newest obsession.]]> 304 Lauren Wilson 125036230X Raisa 0 to-read 4.11 The Goldens
author: Lauren Wilson
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Poppy Fields 218431658
What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted?

Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.

Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain...and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.

On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.

A high-concept speculative novel about heartache, hope, and human resilience, The Poppy Fields explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person, posing the questions: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go in order to be healed?]]> 324 Nikki Erlick 0063349337 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.12 2025 The Poppy Fields
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> <![CDATA[First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)]]> 213243908 A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.

Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof—she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.]]> 448 B.K. Borison 0593641191 Raisa 5 2025 Perfect rom-com! 4.09 2025 First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)
author: B.K. Borison
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: 2025
review:
Perfect rom-com!
]]> <![CDATA[Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance]]> 214152270 In the tradition of When Time Stopped and The Hare with Amber Eyes, this extraordinary family memoir investigates the dark legacy of the author’s great-grandfather, a talented German-Jewish chemist specializing in radioactive household products who wound up developing chemical weapons and gas mask filters for the Nazis.

When novelist and poet Joe Dunthorne began researching his family history, he expected to write the account of their heroic escape from Nazi Germany in 1935. Instead, what he found in his great-grandfather’s voluminous, unpublished, partially translated memoir was a much darker, more complicated story. “I confess to my descendants who will read these lines that I made a grave error. I betrayed myself, my most sacred principles,� he wrote. “I cannot shake off the great debt on my conscience.�

Siegfried Merzbacher was a German-Jewish chemist living in Oranienburg, a small town north of Berlin, where he developed various household items, including a radioactive toothpaste called Doramad. But then he was asked by the government to work on products with a strong military connection—first he made and tested gas-mask filters, and then he was invited to establish a chemical weapons laboratory. Between 1933 and 1935, he was a Jewish chemist making chemical weapons for the Nazis. While he and his nuclear family escaped safely to Turkey before the war, Siegfried never got over his complicity, particularly after learning that members of his extended family were murdered in Auschwitz.

Armed only with his great-grandfather’s rambling, 2,000-page deathbed memoir and a handful of archival clues, Dunthorne traveled to Munich, Ammendorf, Berlin, Ankara, and Oranienburg—a place where hundreds of unexploded bombs remain hidden in the irradiated soil—to reckon with the remarkable, unsettling legacy of his family’s past.]]> 240 Joe Dunthorne 1982180757 Raisa 0 4.02 2025 Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance
author: Joe Dunthorne
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: digital, 2025, own, currently-reading
review:

]]> It's a Love Story 218153839 USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love.

Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie.

Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it.

Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she opened her mouth and a big fat fib fell out. She claimed that Jack Quinlan, hottest popstar of the moment, has promised to write an original song for the soundtrack. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years.

Now, Jane must turn to the last man she’d ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan’s hometown on Long Island, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan while facing down her past is Jane's idea of hell, but Dan just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?]]> 368 Annabel Monaghan 0593714105 Raisa 0 to-read 4.31 2025 It's a Love Story
author: Annabel Monaghan
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Miss Morgan's Book Brigade 214152250 The New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the “captivating, richly drawn� (Woman’s World) The Paris Library returns with a brilliant new novel based on the true story of Jessie Carson—the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France.

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild devastated French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.

1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsessive research, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.]]> 352 Janet Skeslien Charles 1668008998 Raisa 0 to-read 4.12 2024 Miss Morgan's Book Brigade
author: Janet Skeslien Charles
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Well, Actually 217387831 384 Mazey Eddings 1250397340 Raisa 0 to-read 3.86 2025 Well, Actually
author: Mazey Eddings
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Conjurer's Wife 221105244
In 1820s Venice, world-renowned magician Oscar Van Hoff confounds sold-out crowds with his astounding manifestations. Even his beautiful wife and assistant, Olivia, is mystified. Her job is to smile and recite her lines—onstage and in society. But the thankless routine is bringing out her rebellious side. Then, on the eve of what promises to be Oscar’s greatest performance yet, Olivia uncovers a secret with the power to shatter all her husband’s illusions. Now the finale belongs to her.]]> 40 Sarah Penner 1662526210 Raisa 5 digital, 2025 3.86 2025 The Conjurer's Wife
author: Sarah Penner
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
I have read and enjoyed Penners novels before, and this short story was good! Intriguing and unique - I will continue to purchase / read / recommend her novels (and snow, short stories).
]]> The Wishing Game 62926992
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind� Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.]]> 304 Meg Shaffer 0593598830 Raisa 5 2025, own 4.02 2023 The Wishing Game
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: 2025, own
review:
I loved this - what a unique and wholesome story!
]]> <![CDATA[Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)]]> 127616032 Discover the serial killer romance series everyone is talking about!From the no.1 New York Times bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark comes the final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy - a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It's a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she's not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

***


Friends with benefits
Small town romance
Fish out of water
Forced proximity
Hurt/care
Touch her and die]]> 416 Brynne Weaver Raisa 4 2025, own 4.11 2025 Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: 2025, own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Nantucket Restaurant (The Nantucket Restaurant, #1)]]> 220481303
Three sisters. An inherited Nantucket restaurant. One year before they can sell.

Mandy, Emma and Jill are as close as three sisters who live hundreds of miles apart can be. They grew up together on Nantucket, but Mandy is the only one that stayed.

Jill lives a glamorous life in Manhattan as a co-owner of a successful executive search firm. Never married, she is in her mid-thirties and lives in a stunning, corner condo with breathtaking views of the city and Hudson river. Everyone thinks there's something going on with her partner, Nick, because as a workaholic, she spends more time with him than anyone else. But there's never been anything but friendship between them and Nick loves being a bachelor in NYC.

Emma lives in Arizona and is an elementary school teacher and aspiring photographer. She met her college professor husband, Peter, in grad school and they've been married for over fifteen years. In recent years, she's noticed that Peter has grown distant. But when he shares a surprising secret, she doesn't see it coming and her world is turned upside down.

Mandy followed her high school boyfriend, Cory to Boston College, and after graduation, they married and Cory joined a successful hedge fund in Boston, while Mandy stayed home and had two children, Blake and Brooke. They moved home to Nantucket when Cory opened a competing hedge fund. Now that the children are older, Mandy is eager to do more than coordinate local charity events. But Cory doesn't want her to work. He thinks it doesn't reflect well on him and appearances are everything to Cory. Though when Mandy finds a second cell phone in his gym bag, she begins to question what is really going on.

When their beloved grandmother, Ethel Ferguson passes peacefully in her sleep a week before her ninety-ninth birthday, she leaves them quite a surprise. In addition to her Nantucket home, they learn that she was the silent owner of Mimi's Place, one of Nantucket's most popular year-round restaurants.

There is of course, a catch--she left the restaurant equally to Mandy, Emma, and Jill--and also to Paul, the restaurant chef for the past fifteen years.

And before they can sell, all three girls must work at the restaurant for one year--or their shares of the restaurant will go to Paul.

The same Paul that broke one of their hearts many years ago.]]> 352 Pamela M. Kelley 146424619X Raisa 0 to-read 4.67 2020 The Nantucket Restaurant (The Nantucket Restaurant, #1)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Husbands & Lovers 222725795 Two women—separated by decades and continents, and united by a mysterious family heirloom—discover second chances at love in this sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives.

New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads—her ten-year-old son, Sam, had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory’s forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother’s adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams� one of the world’s most beloved singer-songwriters—a fairy tale cut short by a devastating betrayal.

Cairo, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself—marriage to a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah’s longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men . . . and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.

Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands & Lovers takes readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England. Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues—of privilege, class, and the female experience—inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life.]]> 384 Beatriz Williams 0593724240 Raisa 0 to-read 4.00 2024 Husbands & Lovers
author: Beatriz Williams
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of Eve 176443755
“A triumph of historical fiction� ( The Washington Post ), an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese’s Book Club pick, set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197374 Raisa 0 to-read 4.25 2023 The House of Eve
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What Happened to the McCrays? 195391623 From New York Times bestselling author Tracey Lange, a poignant story about the resilience of family, the importance of community, and the magic of middle school hockey

When Kyle McCray gets word his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York, where he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. Kyle left suddenly two and a half years ago, abandoning people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends—not to mention Casey, his wife of sixteen years and a beloved teacher in town. He plans to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave again, especially after Casey makes it clear she wants him gone.

The longer he’s home, the more Kyle understands the impact his departure has had on the people he left behind. When he’s presented with an opportunity for redemption as the coach of the floundering middle school hockey team, he begins to find compassion in unexpected places. Kyle even considers staying in Potsdam, but that’s only possible if he and Casey can come to some kind of peace with each other.

Full of love and hope, What Happened to the McCrays? takes an intimate look at both sides of a failed marriage and two people who must finally confront the awful pain of their past or risk being consumed by it.]]> 352 Tracey Lange 1250328438 Raisa 4 own, digital, 2025 Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this copy in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.10 2025 What Happened to the McCrays?
author: Tracey Lange
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: own, digital, 2025
review:
I enjoyed this family drama and felt like it flowed nicely from start to finish! This book does deal with some trigger-worthy warnings including: child loss and suicide. The story highlights the importance of family, opens old wounds, and shows us what really happened behind closed doors. It was an enjoyable, albeit emotional read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health]]> 196848596 A bold new vision for optimizing our health now and in the future.

What if depression, anxiety, infertility, insomnia, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer and many other health conditions that torture and shorten our lives actually have the same root cause?

Our ability to prevent and reverse these conditions - and feel incredible today - is under our control and simpler than we think. The key is our metabolic function - the most important and least understood factor in our overall health. As Dr. Casey Means explains in this groundbreaking book, nearly every health problem we face can be explained by how well the cells in our body create and use energy. To live free from frustrating symptoms and life-threatening disease, we need our cells to be optimally powered so that they can create "good energy," the essential fuel that impacts every aspect of our physical and mental wellbeing.

If you are battling minor signals of "bad energy" inside your body, it is often a warning sign that more life-threatening illness may emerge later in life. But here's the good news: for the first time ever, we can monitor our metabolic health in great detail and learn how to improve it ourselves.

Weaving together cutting-edge research and personal stories, as well as groundbreaking data from the health technology company Dr. Means founded, Good Energy offers an essential four-week plan and explains:

� The five biomarkers that determine your risk for a deadly disease.
� How to use inexpensive tools and technology to "see inside your body" and take action.
� Why dietary philosophies are designed to confuse us, and six lifelong food principles you can implement whether you're carnivore or vegan.
� The crucial links between sleep, circadian rhythm, and metabolism.
� A new framework for exercise focused on building simple movement into everyday activities.
� How cold and heat exposure helps build our body's resilience.
� Steps to navigate the medical system to get what you need for optimal health.

Good Energy offers a new, cutting-edge understanding of the true cause of illness that until now has remained hidden. It will help you optimize your ability to live well and stay well at every age.]]> 400 Casey Means 0593712641 Raisa 0 to-read 4.15 2024 Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health
author: Casey Means
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Strange Case of Jane O. 213870076
In the first year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations, and an inexplicable sense of dread. As her psychiatrist struggles to solve the mystery of what is happening to Jane’s mind, she suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue; when she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her.

Are Jane’s strange experiences related to the overwhelm of single motherhood, or are they the manifestation of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago, who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever-deeper into the furthest reaches of her mind, and cause him to question everything he thought he knew about so-called reality—including events in his own life.

Karen Thompson Walker’s profound and beautifully written novel is a speculative mystery about memory, identity, and fate, a mesmerizing story about the bonds of love between a mother and child, a man and a woman, and those who we’ve lost but may still be alive among us.]]> 288 Karen Thompson Walker 1984853945 Raisa 0 to-read 3.92 2025 The Strange Case of Jane O.
author: Karen Thompson Walker
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In Five Years 54304141
Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.]]> 288 Rebecca Serle 1982137452 Raisa 0 to-read 3.83 2020 In Five Years
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Confess 22609310
For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is hiding a huge secret. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything Auburn loves most, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it—but can she do it?]]> 306 Colleen Hoover 1476791457 Raisa 5 2018 4.14 2015 Confess
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2018/12/06
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: 2018
review:

]]> Angela's Ashes 53631533 "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy-- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling-- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.
Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors--yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.
Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.]]> 385 Frank McCourt Raisa 0 to-read 4.40 1996 Angela's Ashes
author: Frank McCourt
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1) 153747889
Erika Fane’s boyfriend's older brother is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college's basketball team gone pro, he's more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than he is with her. But she saw him. She heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid...

For years, Erika bit her nails, unable to look away. Now, she’s in college, but she hasn’t stopped watching him. He’s bad and the things she’s seen aren’t content to stay in her head anymore.

Because he's finally noticed her.

But Michael Cristknows the hold he has on Rika, how much she fears him. She looks down when he enters the room and stills when he’s close. He knows she thinks only of him. When Michael’s brother leaves for the military, leaving Rika alone and unprotected, he knows the opportunity is too good to be true.

Three years ago she put Michael’s friends in prison, and now they’re free.

Every last one of her nightmares is about to come true.]]> 496 Penelope Douglas 0593642007 Raisa 0 to-read 3.84 2015 Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)
author: Penelope Douglas
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Warbler 213454093 From the author of The Lies Among Us comes a magical tale about mothers and daughters, choices and consequences, and the real meaning of home when every place feels like a cage.

Ten months. That’s the longest Elisa has stayed anyplace, constantly propelled by her fear that if she puts down roots, a family curse will turn her into a tree.

But she’s grown tired of flitting from town to town and in and out of relationships. When she discovers a small town in Massachusetts where mysterious forces make it impossible for the residents to leave, she hopes she can change her fate.

As Elisa learns about the town’s history, she understands more about the women in her family, who seem doomed to never get what they want. Now she believes she’s stuck, too—is that a patch of bark on her arm? But her neighbor’s collection of pet birds sings secrets that Elisa can almost understand—secrets she must unravel in order to be truly alive.]]> 335 Sarah Beth Durst 1662524102 Raisa 0 to-read 4.05 2025 The Warbler
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Our Infinite Fates 210395729 The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.

They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.]]> 352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Raisa 0 to-read, own 3.80 2025 Our Infinite Fates
author: Laura Steven
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read, own
review:

]]> Broken Country 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Raisa 0 to-read, own 4.44 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read, own
review:

]]> Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Raisa 0 to-read, own 4.32 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read, own
review:

]]> All Good People Here 198822632
You can’t ever know for sure what happens behind closed doors.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she’s walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers—genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, Natalie’s family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could January’s killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?

Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?]]> 336 Ashley Flowers 0593496493 Raisa 4 2025 3.79 2022 All Good People Here
author: Ashley Flowers
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: 2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Forever and Back (Life on the Ledge Duet #1)]]> 222520092 In motherhood and marriage, is anything ever really simple?June Cannon has spent the last seventeen years of her life as a devoted mom and wife, but when her husband, Camp, doesn’t come home for dinner—again—and her teenage daughter calls her simple, she’s had enough. Inspired by a podcast, her way forward becomes get a divorce, get a job, and show her kids she’s anything but simple.

As soon as she tells Camp she wants a divorce, he becomes the husband he hasn’t been for years, blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s pretend for the sake of their kids.

She quickly realizes that nothing—including her life, no matter what her kids think—is simple. As June catapults herself into the world at age forty to build a life outside of her family’s needs, a romantic interest from the past returns to town, giving her the attention she’s missed.

When the unhealed wounds of kept secrets and loss are reopened, June must decide between the wild and free life she thinks she wants and the seemingly simple one she already has.

This title contains explicit language and romance scenes.]]> 362 Ashley Manley Raisa 5 digital, 2025 4.60 Forever and Back (Life on the Ledge Duet #1)
author: Ashley Manley
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
Five hundred stars, seriously. I’ve never felt so seen, so understood, so…emotional. I don’t often cry reading books, but this was an exception. June is so many of us - and to have so many aspects of motherhood put into an incredibly written book, is so special. I cannot say enough about this, and this will easily be one of my top (if not THE top read) for 2025 for me. Ashley is now one of my automatic reads / purchases without a doubt. And thank you, for remembering the moms in the back, the lost ones, and everything in between.
]]> <![CDATA[Pucking Around (Jacksonville Rays Hockey, #1)]]> 222894045
My name is Rachel Price, and two months ago I walked away from The Perfect Man—sweet, funny, and so sexy he should be illegal. We shared one magical night. No names. No strings. I never thought I’d see him again. I was wrong.

As it turns out, Mr. Perfect is the playboy grinder for the Jacksonville Rays, the NHL’s hottest new hockey team . . . and thanks to the ten-month fellowship I just landed, I’m his new physical therapist. Imagine my anticipation as those familiar muscled legs walk towards me, the way my pulse races as he reaches out to . . . shake my hand. The jerk doesn’t even recognize me!

This is going to be the longest ten months of my life. Because now Mr. Perfect Mistake is determined to use his every seductive trick to win me back. Meanwhile, I also have to contend with his best friend the surly team equipment manager, and an exasperatingly stubborn, superstitious goalie who’s convinced I’m his good luck charm.

This is my chance to prove myself, and I’m not risking it for anything. But between one unexpected night, and one secret revealed, these men are ready to test all my limits. Still, I can’t fall for a player—let alone three. Or can I?]]> 640 Emily Rath 149675879X Raisa 0 to-read 4.01 2023 Pucking Around (Jacksonville Rays Hockey, #1)
author: Emily Rath
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1) 199368721 She's been driving him wild for years . . . the good kind of wild.

The kind of wild that comes with wanting your best friend's little sister and knowing you can't have her.

Forbes may have labeled Ford Grant the World's Hottest Billionaire, but all he cares about is escaping the press and opening a recording studio in gorgeous small town Rose Hill. Something that comes to a screeching halt when he ends up face-to-face with a young girl who claims he's her biological father. Now, he spends his days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old, all while trying desperately to keep his hands the hell off his best friend's sister, Rosie Belmont.

After living in the city, Rosie came blasting back into town like a storm. Beautiful, messy, and chaotic. And one wide-eyed, desperate plea for a job is all it takes for Ford to hire her. He vows to keep her at arm's length. Tries to stick to scowls and grumpy one-liners. But with her, verbal sparring is a type of foreplay―friction that soon turns to blistering heat.

Ford knows damn well he shouldn't cross this line. But shouldn't and can't are two very different things.

And the only thing he truly can't do is resist her.]]> 402 Elsie Silver 0349441626 Raisa 0 to-read 3.98 2024 Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Let Them Theory 220772795 New York Times Bestselling Author. Millions of books sold worldwide!

A Life-Changing Tool Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About

What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words?

If you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn't you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words�Let Them—will set you free. Free from the opinions, drama, and judgments of others. Free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you.The Let Them Theoryputs the power to create a life you love back in your hands—and this book will show you exactly how to do it.

In her latest groundbreaking book,The Let Them Theory,Mel Robbins�New York TimesBestselling Author and one of the world's most respected experts on motivation, confidence, and mindset—teaches you how to stop wasting energy on what you can't control and start focusing on what truly YOU. Your happiness. Your goals. Your life.

Using the same no-nonsense, science-backed approach that's madeThe Mel Robbins Podcasta global sensation, Robbins explains whyThe Let Them Theoryis already loved by millions and how you can apply it in eight key areas of your life to make the biggest impact. Within a few pages, you'll realize how much energy and time you've been wasting trying to control the wrong things—at work, in relationships, and in pursuing your goals—and how this is keeping you from the happiness and success you deserve.

Written as an easy-to-understand guide, Robbins shares relatable stories from her own life, highlights key takeaways, relevant research and introduces you to world-renowned experts in psychology, neuroscience, relationships, happiness, and ancient wisdom who championThe Let Them Theoryevery step of the way.

Learn how

Stop wasting energy on things you can't controlStop comparing yourself to other peopleBreak free from fear and self-doubtRelease the grip of people's expectationsBuild the best friendships of your lifeCreate the love you deservePursue what truly matters to you with confidenceBuild resilience against everyday stressors and distractionsDefine your own path to success, joy, and fulfillment...and so much more.

The Let Them Theorywill forever change the way you think about relationships, control, and personal power. Whether you want to advance your career, motivate others to change, take creative risks, find deeper connections, build better habits, start a new chapter, or simply create more happiness in your life and relationships, this book gives you the mindset and tools to unlock your full potential.

Order your copy ofThe Let Them Theorynow and discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words.]]> 311 Mel Robbins 1788176650 Raisa 4 2025, own 4.37 2024 The Let Them Theory
author: Mel Robbins
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: 2025, own
review:

]]> Dead Money 212252114 “A stone-cold banger of a novel—a twisty journey through Silicon Valley’s dark side, wrapped in a stunning mystery package with some wild surprises along the way.”—Blake Crouch, New York Timesbestselling author of Dark Matter

Don’t call me a fixer. This isn’t HBO.

In her job as unofficial “problem solver� for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets.

But this time, she’s in way over her head—or so it seems.

The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money� frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast.

Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league.

Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it.

Because the way she sees it, this isn’t an investigation. It’s an opportunity. And she’ll do anything it takes to seize it.

Anything at all.

Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley’s rich and famous—and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world’s cheery facade.]]> 416 Jakob Kerr 0593726715 Raisa 0 to-read 4.25 2025 Dead Money
author: Jakob Kerr
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea]]> 216052784 Leah O'Connor is torn between the life she's currently living and the allure of a phantom life that can no longer be hers.

Swept off her feet by the gentle charm of Lucas O'Connor, Leah's unexpected pregnancy changes the course of her carefree and nomadic existence. Over a decade and three children later, Leah is unraveling. She resents the world in which her artistic aspirations have been sidelined by the overwhelming demands of motherhood, and the ever-present rift between herself and her mother-in-law, Christine, is best dulled by increasingly fuller glasses of wine.

Christine represents a model of selfless motherhood that Leah can neither achieve nor accept. To heighten the strain, Lucas's business venture, a trendy restaurant that honors his mother, has taken all his attention, which places the domestic demands squarely on Leah's shoulders. Seeking an ally in her sweet sister-in-law Amy, Leah shares a secret that, if made known to the wider family, could disrupt the curated ecosystems that keep the O'Connors connected.

As Leah dances with the devil while descending further into darkness, her behavior becomes more erratic and further alienates her from both Lucas and the wider family. Leah's drinking threatens the welfare of her family, prompting Amy to turn to Christine for support. A duel for loyalty ensues. When the inevitable waves come crashing down, it's the O'Connor women who give Leah a the truth of what they've all endured. But Leah alone must uncover the villain of her own story, learn how to ask for help, and decide if the family she has rejected will be her salvation or ultimate undoing.

This masterful blend of book club and literary women's fiction offers a frank rebuttal to Wine Mom culture and is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty.]]> 304 Jessica Guerrieri 1400345952 Raisa 0 to-read, audiobooks, digital 4.39 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
author: Jessica Guerrieri
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read, audiobooks, digital
review:

]]> The Memory Library 182359374 For forty-two years, Sally Harrison has been building a library.

Each year, on her daughter’s birthday, she adds a new book to her shelves � with a note in the front dedicated to her own greatest work.

But Ella � Sally’s only child � fled to Australia twenty-two years ago after a heated exchange, and never looked back. And though Sally still dutifully adds a new paperback to the shelves every time the clock strikes midnight on July 11th, her hopes of her daughter ever thumbing through the pages are starting to dwindle.

Then disaster strikes and Ella is forced to return to the home she once knew.

She is soon to discover that when one chapter ends, another will soon follow�

All you have to do is turn the page�

Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second changes are written in the margins.]]> 335 Kate Storey Raisa 5 audiobooks, 2025 When Ella travels from Australia back home to England to help her mom, Sally, after a fall, she comes face to face with her past, and uncovers the power of love. It’s heartbreakingly good and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this copy in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.32 2024 The Memory Library
author: Kate Storey
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: audiobooks, 2025
review:
Sobbing. What a beautiful, memorable, story about the depth of a mother’s love and the rekindling of some of the most important relationships in life. Everyone should read this - it so powerful and charming and I loved it so incredibly much.
When Ella travels from Australia back home to England to help her mom, Sally, after a fall, she comes face to face with her past, and uncovers the power of love. It’s heartbreakingly good and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)]]> 35917072 Tomi Adeyemi conjures a stunning world of dark magic and danger in her West African-inspired fantasy debut, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir.

They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for an enemy.]]> 525 Tomi Adeyemi 1250170982 Raisa 0 to-read 4.27 2018 Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
author: Tomi Adeyemi
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years, #1)]]> 30241301 When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

]]> 406 Gregory Maguire Raisa 0 to-read 3.52 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years, #1)
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)]]> 50892212
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.]]> 449 Chloe Gong 1534457690 Raisa 0 to-read 3.82 2020 These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)
author: Chloe Gong
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sparrow and Vine (Sparrow and Vine #1)]]> 221735272 From USA Today bestselling author Sophie Lark comes the first in a brand new arranged marriage series about a woman who has to marry a man from a rival family in order for them to secure their portion of an inheritance.

The wedding that never was�

Sadie Sparrow loves the beautiful overgrown winery of Sparrow and Vine. It's her family home, and she's willing to do anything to inherit it: even marry her worst enemy. It's the only possible solution. Or at least, Monroe Beaumont makes it seem that way when he corners Sadie with his offer. Intimidation is what Monroe does best for the pack of pirates he calls brothers. And after all…somebody has to get married to unlock the family trust.

Sadie's sisters are furious. They're sure that everything they love is about to be stolen from them by Beaumonts. But Sadie's the one who actually has to live with one of them. The biggest one…who smells like cinnamon and insists on sharing a bed� Sadie's always known she'd have to fight for Sparrow and Vine. She just didn't know she'd be fighting her own husband...]]> 319 Sophie Lark 1464248958 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 3.70 Sparrow and Vine (Sparrow and Vine #1)
author: Sophie Lark
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> House of Glass 195790531
A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny - in the midst of her parent's bitter divorce - and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella's mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there's something eerie about the house itself: It's a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny's boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?]]> 341 Sarah Pekkanen 125028399X Raisa 4 digital, 2025 I really enjoyed this book - and will read another written by this author.
If you’re looking for an edge-of-your-seat, murder-mystery, then you should bump this one up on your TBR!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!]]> 3.84 2024 House of Glass
author: Sarah Pekkanen
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
This one surprised me. It is unpredictable, filled with a ton of terrible characters, and will cause you to sit on the edge of your seat to figure out what has happened. The middle was a little slow moving and redundant, however, the ending was filled with a fast-paced, shocking ending. It will have you questioning what you think you know!
I really enjoyed this book - and will read another written by this author.
If you’re looking for an edge-of-your-seat, murder-mystery, then you should bump this one up on your TBR!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
]]> <![CDATA[Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Raisa 0 to-read 4.55 2025 Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
author: John Green
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Story She Left Behind 214151359 Inspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

Told in Patti Callahan Henry’s lyrical, enchanting prose, The Story She Left Behind is a captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.]]> 352 Patti Callahan Henry 1668011875 Raisa 0 to-read 4.23 2025 The Story She Left Behind
author: Patti Callahan Henry
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Well, Actually 217387757
Forced to confront Rylie on a live episode of Sausage Talk, he offers Eva a deal: allow him to take her on a series of dates to make up for his toxic behavior, then debrief them on his channel to show he’s changed. Eva refuses to play nice, but agrees to the scheme to advance her own career and continue defaming Rylie’s good name. When these manufactured dates start to feel real, Eva has to wonder if the boy that broke her heart has become the man that might heal it.]]> 384 Mazey Eddings 1250333318 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.01 2025 Well, Actually
author: Mazey Eddings
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #1)]]> 55710822 In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar - and maybe snag him as a prom date - even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic-comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love - and rethink her own ideas of what happily ever after should look like.]]> 356 Lynn Painter 1534467629 Raisa 0 to-read, own 4.28 2021 Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #1)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read, own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Frequency of Living Things]]> 220160186 A heartbreaking American epic about three sisters who unearth lifetimes of family tensions as they are forced to rescue one of their own from peril, testing the limits of sacrifice, sisterhood, and forgiveness from the author of the “profound work of great wisdom� (Alice Elliott Dark) The Great Transition .

Josie may be the youngest sister, but she takes care of everyone. She is the left-brained scientist to her twin sisters� right-brained artistic chaos. She makes sure their rent gets paid on time, they make their therapy appointments, and has also been their de-facto band manager since she was a teenager. When Ara, her middle sister (by a few minutes), calls from jail, it isn’t exactly a surprise, and Josie knows exactly how to snap into action.

Emma is the quintessential frontwoman, complete with looks and attitude. But the success of The Twins� first (and only) album—gold records, Grammy nominations, and diehard fans—is two decades behind her. Hiding under the surface of her swagger is a long-held guilt that has turned her into her sister’s enabler. Emma knows she needs Ara’s creative genius and thinks a jailhouse record could be just the thing to get Ara her freedom and their band back on the main stage.

Ara is detoxing, not only from her opioid habit but also from her family. The truth is, as crazy as it sounds, she’s not in a hurry to get out of lock-up. In the most unlikely and dangerous of places, this could be her chance to face the demons of her past and disentangle herself from her family.

Bertie, who raised her three daughters as a single mother, has always taught them that family won’t always be around to take care of you. A former defense attorney and perennial do-gooder, she’s committed to taking care of everyone less fortunate even if that means putting her girls� needs second. But now Bertie must decide if she should reenter her daughters� lives in their greatest time of need—or watch to see if the resilience she’s taught them will help carry them through.

A story both intimate and sweeping, The Frequency of Living Things explores the timeless question of how our individual destinies are intertwined with our family, our siblings, and our history no matter how we try to untangle ourselves from them.]]> 336 Nick Fuller Googins 1668056062 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 3.96 2025 The Frequency of Living Things
author: Nick Fuller Googins
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> <![CDATA[His Face Is the Sun (Throne of Khetara, #1)]]> 216594951
Desire, War, Magic, Monsters...a forgotten oracle will unite them against an ancient enemy. But who will be on the throne when the red dust of Khetara settles?

The Kingdom of Khetara is gift of the River Iteru, the jewel of the desert. Yet a crisis looms on the horizon. The crowns of the north and south were joined through war a generation before, but Khetara remains a land divided. The pharaoh is wasting away from a mysterious illness—and forces in the south and within his own family are plotting against him. As rebellion grows and secrets flourish, an even more deadly threat emerges. An ancient evil awakes among the rolling dunes of the Red Land that threatens to destroy everything in its path.

Four strangers—a princess, a young priestess, a rebel, and a tomb robber—are ripped from their lives and thrown into the conflict. Amid murder and betrayal, magic and monsters, gods and visions, love and war, these four unlikely heroes find themselves connected by a forgotten oracle that whispers insistently across the land. Only together can they save the kingdom from destruction, but when the bloodshed is done, who of Khetara’s children will sit on the throne?]]> 528 Michelle Jabès Corpora 1464224587 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.28 2025 His Face Is the Sun (Throne of Khetara, #1)
author: Michelle Jabès Corpora
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> Everything's Coming Up Rosie 221132539 Sometimes what you think you want and what you actually want turn out to be different things . . .

Rosie Waterman has one to become a working actor. But lately, that hasn't been working out. When she loses her apartment and her job on the same day, she does what she always does--puts herself out there, ready to find the next big thing. But a trip home makes her realize that while she's been struggling to make this dream come true, all her friends have become real adults with careers and weddings and babies on the way. Rosie's been at this for years, and she has nothing to show for it. But how does she simply let go of her dream?

When she's offered a job as the director of a regional theatre's production of Cinderella, she jumps at the chance--even though she's only directed in college and the job is in Door County, Wisconsin, and not in New York. She has no other offers, and at least she'll be getting paid to do something theatrical. But when she arrives, she quickly realizes that the "regional theatre" is actually in a retirement community, and the "actors" are actually senior citizens with no acting experience whatsoever.

Working on the show presents new challenges, forcing Rosie to learn how to step up and be the leader this fledgling theatre troupe needs. The more time she spends with her new cast, the more she begins to rethink what it means to dream big, especially when that big dream hasn't turned out to be at all what she thought it would be. It's not at all what she expected, but could it be exactly what she needs?]]> 352 Courtney Walsh 0840713851 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.39 2025 Everything's Coming Up Rosie
author: Courtney Walsh
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]> The Paradise Problem 214152483
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West� Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.

Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.]]> 368 Christina Lauren 1668017733 Raisa 0 to-read 4.14 2024 The Paradise Problem
author: Christina Lauren
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Frozen River 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Raisa 5 own, 2025 4.38 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: own, 2025
review:
So good. Do yourself a favor and read the Authors Note at the end when you’ve finished. Incredible.
]]> <![CDATA[A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone #1)]]> 58750487
She remembered the words she had whispered to him in the back of the limo after La Rose. "You will worship me, and I won't even have to order you." His request felt sinful and devious, and she reveled in it.

She answered, "Yes."

---

Persephone is the Goddess of Spring in title only. Since she was a little girl, flowers have only shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hoped to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist. All of that changes when she sits down in a forbidden nightclub to play a hand of cards with a hypnotic and mysterious stranger.

Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible. But nothing has ever intrigued him as much as the goddess offering him a bargain he can't resist.

After her encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead, and his terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever. The bet does more than expose Persephone's failure as a goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows―a love that is both captivating and forbidden.]]> 379 Scarlett St. Clair 1728258456 Raisa 0 to-read 3.87 2019 A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone #1)
author: Scarlett St. Clair
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Listeners 56988057
January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats� secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.]]> 400 Maggie Stiefvater 0593655508 Raisa 0 to-read 4.04 2025 The Listeners
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Thunder and Daisy 222883418 “A tender, relatable set of works on experiencing and overcoming heartbreak.”� Kirkus Reviews

thunder and daisy is mercedes paradiso’s debut poetry collection, a journey through the storms of life toward the beauty that follows. From heartbreak and adversity to self-empowerment and resilience, this collection speaks to the transformative power of pain and love. With each poem, paradiso invites readers to explore the raw intensity of love, the strength found in vulnerability, and the growth that comes from overcoming life's challenges.

In thunder and daisy, paradiso blends the timeless themes of love, heartbreak, and self-discovery with the modern realities of our digital age. The verses celebrate the beauty of growth, urging readers to embrace their struggles, find inspiration in their pain, and reclaim their power. Drawing on the emotional depth of contemporary poetry, paradiso crafts a space where vulnerability meets empowerment and where pain turns into power.

Whether you're seeking comfort, inspiration, or a way to navigate your own storms, this collection offers a heartfelt guide to finding beauty in adversity. With its heartfelt verses, thunder and daisy is for those who believe that even in the darkest of times, love, passion, and resilience can bloom.]]> 162 Mercedes Paradiso Raisa 4 digital, 2025
Well done for a debut collection!

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.12 Thunder and Daisy
author: Mercedes Paradiso
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: digital, 2025
review:
This poetry collection was enjoyable to read through. I loved the tie in with the title throughout poems, and I enjoyed the black and white images that followed them as well.

Well done for a debut collection!

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[Assassins Anonymous (Assassins Anonymous #1)]]> 199463712 In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.]]> 308 Rob Hart 0593717392 Raisa 0 to-read 3.84 2024 Assassins Anonymous (Assassins Anonymous #1)
author: Rob Hart
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Medusa Protocol (Assassins Anonymous, #2)]]> 219520566 Welcome back to Assassins Anonymous, the only twelve-step group where joining can be deadly.

When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign, or rather, a pizza delivery.Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?

Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison, on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. Hmm. Turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone up.]]> 320 Rob Hart 0593717430 Raisa 0 to-read 4.48 2025 The Medusa Protocol (Assassins Anonymous, #2)
author: Rob Hart
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Christmas Fix 129355235 384 Lucy Score 1728295149 Raisa 0 to-read 3.77 2017 The Christmas Fix
author: Lucy Score
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Babylonia 200468411 From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history, as Casati reimagines the rise to power of the Assyrian empire's only female ruler, Semiramis.

When kings fall, queens rise.

Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy or the power she would come to wield. A female ruler, once an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire - certainly no one in Ancient Assyria would bend to her command willingly. Semiramis was a woman who knew if she wanted power, she would have to claim it.

There are whispers of her fame in Mesopotamian myth- Semiramis was a queen, an ambitious warrior, a commander whose reputation reaches the majestic proportions of Alexander the Great. Historical record, on the other hand, falls eerily quiet.

In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. The world Casati expertly builds is rich with dazzling detail and will transport her readers to the heat of the Assyrian Empire and a world long gone.]]> 400 Costanza Casati 0241609631 Raisa 5 audiobooks, 2025 This was better than Clytemnestra and followed Semiramis and her path from ruin to “riches.�

I thoroughly enjoyed it and Costanza Casati is an automatic buy / read from here on out. ]]> 4.27 2024 Babylonia
author: Costanza Casati
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: audiobooks, 2025
review:
After reading and enjoying Clytemnestra I knew I needed to read this one. If you enjoyed Circe, the Song of Achilles, and Clytemnestra then you will absolutely enjoy this novel.
This was better than Clytemnestra and followed Semiramis and her path from ruin to “riches.�

I thoroughly enjoyed it and Costanza Casati is an automatic buy / read from here on out.
]]> Nightwatching 150246179 The Fallon Spring Reads Book Club Pick

A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.

In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants.]]> 368 Tracy Sierra 0593654765 Raisa 4 2025 3.79 2024 Nightwatching
author: Tracy Sierra
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: 2025
review:
Face paced, edge of your seat, wild.
]]> Dead Money 212294441 “A stone-cold banger of a novel—a twisty journey through Silicon Valley’s dark side, wrapped in a stunning mystery package with some wild surprises along the way.”—Blake Crouch, New York Timesbestselling author of Dark Matter

Don’t call me a fixer. This isn’t HBO.

In her job as unofficial “problem solver� for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets.

But this time, she’s in way over her head—or so it seems.

The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money� frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast.

Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league.

Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it.

Because the way she sees it, this isn’t an investigation. It’s an opportunity. And she’ll do anything it takes to seize it.

Anything at all.

Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley’s rich and famous—and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world’s cheery facade.]]> 416 Jakob Kerr 0593726707 Raisa 0 to-read 4.01 2025 Dead Money
author: Jakob Kerr
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry]]> 25814222 A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.]]> 372 Fredrik Backman 1501115073 Raisa 0 to-read 4.07 2013 My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Stop Breaking Your Own Heart: Stop People-Pleasing, Set Boundaries, and Heal from Self-Sabotage]]> 179541874 ‘Meggan’s words have the power to make you feel seen, understood, and less alone. This book is the reminder you need that you are worthy of self-love and acceptance.�
Jay Shetty, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Think Like A Monk and host of the On Purpose podcast

Life can be a lot. How are you supposed to maintain healthy relationships, build a career, keep up with the constant life admin, and prioritize your well-being? It’s so easy to get distracted and lose sight of your path, until one day you realize you’re completely lost, trapped in a cycle of self-sabotage and people pleasing.

You are not alone.

Following her own personal experience of dealing with anxiety and depression, Meggan Roxanne has united a community of 30 million people by sharing ways to navigate everyday struggles. Now she’s using the lessons she’s learned along the way to help you

· overcome negative thought patterns
· move away from perfectionism and break free from expectations
· say ‘no� to toxic people and situations and set boundaries
· stop keeping yourself small and step into your power
· build a life where self-love is non-negotiable.

You’ll wish you’d read this book sooner.]]> 244 Meggan Roxanne 1837820864 Raisa 0 to-read 3.75 How to Stop Breaking Your Own Heart: Stop People-Pleasing, Set Boundaries, and Heal from Self-Sabotage
author: Meggan Roxanne
name: Raisa
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fall Risk 223199392 Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.]]> 82 Abby Jimenez 1662529082 Raisa 0 to-read, digital 4.12 2025 The Fall Risk
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Raisa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read, digital
review:

]]>