en-US Tue, 22 Apr 2025 19:50:57 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]> 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Cait 4 4.05 2022
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Cait
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 40748777 Can you keep a secret?

⁣I grew up sick.⁣⁣

Let me clarify.⁣⁣I grew up believing that real love stories include a martyr or demand great sacrifice to be worthy.⁣⁣ Because of that, I believed it, because I made myself believe it, and I bred the most masochistic of romantic hearts, which resulted in my illness.⁣⁣

When I lived this story, my own twisted fairy tale, it was unbeknownst to me at the time because I was young and naïve. I gave into temptation and fed the beating beast, which grew thirstier with every slash, every strike, every blow.⁣⁣ Triple Falls wasn’t at all what it seemed, nor were the men that swept me under their wing. But in order to keep them, I had to be in on their secrets.⁣⁣ Secrets that cost us everything to keep.

⁣⁣That’s the novelty of fiction versus reality. You can’t re-live your own love story, because by the time you’ve realized you’re living it, it’s over. At least that was the case for me and the men I trusted my foolish heart to.⁣⁣ Looking back, I’m convinced I willed my story into existence due to my illness.⁣⁣ And all were punished.]]> 354 Kate Stewart Cait 1
At the start, the writing was…not so great…but I was intrigued by the story and I liked the Twilight ✨vibes��. However by around 60% the constant “can you keep a secret�� and cryptic dialogue started to get old.

Something like this happens just about every chapter:

“Everything I ask is for a reason��
“Which you will give me��
“When the time is right…trust your instincts��
“You’re being cryptic again.��

Also, the characters were SO one dimensional. Cecilia, who should be the most well rounded character, seemed to exist only to lust after Sean and Dominic. Her days were spent either at their garage or lounging by her pool. Once every few chapters the author remembered she had to go to work and would have Cecilia at “the plant��(who calls any workplace a plant anymore? Is that a thing?) lamenting about how much she hates her dad.

Normally I DNF books but I felt like I was too far in and I wanted to see this interesting ending I had seen reviews refer to. Spoiler alert: it was not worth it. ]]> 4.05 2020
author: Kate Stewart
name: Cait
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
��.What did I just read?

At the start, the writing was…not so great…but I was intrigued by the story and I liked the Twilight ✨vibes��. However by around 60% the constant “can you keep a secret�� and cryptic dialogue started to get old.

Something like this happens just about every chapter:

“Everything I ask is for a reason��
“Which you will give me��
“When the time is right…trust your instincts��
“You’re being cryptic again.��

Also, the characters were SO one dimensional. Cecilia, who should be the most well rounded character, seemed to exist only to lust after Sean and Dominic. Her days were spent either at their garage or lounging by her pool. Once every few chapters the author remembered she had to go to work and would have Cecilia at “the plant��(who calls any workplace a plant anymore? Is that a thing?) lamenting about how much she hates her dad.

Normally I DNF books but I felt like I was too far in and I wanted to see this interesting ending I had seen reviews refer to. Spoiler alert: it was not worth it.
]]> 34275182
So when Talia meets doctoral student Sean Poole, she can't figure out why she wants him to control her. Why she wants him to boss her around. Why she wants him to hurt her.

Talia learns the hard way that not all control is created equal, and sometimes submitting is the most empowering thing in the world.]]> 376 Sara Taylor Woods 0998738808 Cait 0 to-read 4.02 2017
author: Sara Taylor Woods
name: Cait
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 181346634
There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it's basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.]]> 334 Hanif Abdurraqib 0593448790 Cait 0 to-read 4.32 2024
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: Cait
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 181344829 A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was��.

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.]]> 410 Ali Hazelwood Cait 3 3.5 3.98 2024
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Cait
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:
3.5
]]> 211025439
“In the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn’t seem strange at the time.��

Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep—along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach—he's teetering on the edge of collapse.

Then comes Naomi Shah, twenty-two years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink—whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren—Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.

Less a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era—with Jimmy Carter on his way out and a B-list celebrity named Ronald Reagan on his way in. Surrounded by adults who embody the age’s excesses—and who seem to care little about what their children are up to—Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.]]> 528 Adam Ross 0385351291 Cait 0 to-read 3.79 2025
author: Adam Ross
name: Cait
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57645345
Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention. Her latest story—a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal—is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.

Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name. Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.

But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life is just the beginning. And what Avery doesn't realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past—one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .

Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Twenty years ago, no one listened. Today, you will.]]> 357 Charlie Donlea 1496727169 Cait 0 to-read 4.07 2021
author: Charlie Donlea
name: Cait
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212808709 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]> 464 Ali Hazelwood Cait 4 4.5 3.94 2025
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Cait
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5
]]> 182486315 From bestselling author and award-winning journalist Jo Piazza, comes a��transporting��novel rooted in��the author's own��family history about a long-awaited trip to Sicily, a disputed inheritance, and a family secret that some will kill to protect . . .

Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage.��On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with��grief. But Aunt Rosie's death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret.��Rosie believes Sara's great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.

Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and prove her birthright. Flashing back to the past, we meet Serafina, a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly it isn’t long before a woman challenging the status quo finds herself in danger.

As Sara discovers more about Serafina she also realizes she is coming head-to-head with the same menacing forces that took down her great-grandmother. At once an immersive multigenerational mystery and an ode to the undaunted heroism of everyday women, The Sicilian Inheritance is an atmospheric, page-turning delight.]]> 384 Jo Piazza 0593474163 Cait 0 to-read 3.93 2024
author: Jo Piazza
name: Cait
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54304028
In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are world experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their techniques firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, Hunt, Gather, Parent helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.]]> 352 Michaeleen Doucleff 1982149671 Cait 0 to-read 4.11 2021
author: Michaeleen Doucleff
name: Cait
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211742041 The Cruel Prince meets The Selection in this captivating duology opener brimming with heart-pounding romance, vicious competition, and beautiful, cruel fae, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Haven, Sasha Peyton Smith.

Every citizen of England is granted one bargain from their immortal fae queen.

High society girls are expected to bargain for qualities that will win them suitors: a rare talent for piano in exchange for one’s happiest childhood memory. A perfect smile for one’s ability to taste.

But Ivy Benton’s debut season arrives with a shocking twist: a competition to secure the heart of the Queen’s fae son, Prince Bram. A prize that could save Ivy’s family from ruin�� and free her sister from the bargain that destroyed her.

Yet every glittering fae deal has a rotting heart—and at the center of this contest is a dark plot that could destroy everything Ivy knows.

Sweepingly romantic and deceptively enchanting, this alternate history romantasy will enthrall readers of Holly Black, Stephanie Garber, and Adalyn Grace.]]> 400 Sasha Peyton Smith 0063372525 Cait 0 to-read 3.97 2025
author: Sasha Peyton Smith
name: Cait
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195790586 She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.�� Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?]]> 336 Katherine Center 1250283809 Cait 4 4.06 2024
author: Katherine Center
name: Cait
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Cait 0 to-read 4.06 2025
author: B.K. Borison
name: Cait
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221508547 #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled�� to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.

Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.�� Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

Propulsive and atmospheric, Nightshade launches a brand new character into the Connelly universe, and proves without question that Michael Connelly is “the undisputed master of the modern crime novel�� (Real Book Spy).]]> 352 Michael Connelly 0316588482 Cait 0 to-read 4.15 2025
author: Michael Connelly
name: Cait
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59316367 448 David Ellis 0399170928 Cait 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: David Ellis
name: Cait
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Cait 0 to-read 4.42 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Cait
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 206673322 She thrives in chaos. He prefers routine. The only thing they have in common? How much they hate each other. From the author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the highly anticipated next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance featuring enemies to lovers and forced proximity.

Teddy Andersen doesn't have a plan. She's never needed one before. She's always been more of a go with the flow type of girl, but for some reason, the flow doesn't seem to be going her way this time. Her favorite vintage suede jacket has a hole in it, her sewing machine is broken, and her best friend just got engaged. Suddenly, everything feels like it's starting to change. Teddy's used to being a leader, but now she feels like she's getting left behind, wondering if the life she lives in the small town she loves is enough for her anymore.

Gus Ryder has a lot on his plate. He doesn't know what's taking care of his family's 8,000 acre ranch, or parenting his spunky six-year-old daughter, who is staying with him for the summer. Gus has always been the dependable one, but when his workload starts to overwhelm him, he slips up, and he has to admit that he can't manage everything on his own. He needs help. His little sister's best friend, the woman he can't stand, is not who he had in mind. But when no one else can step in, Teddy's the only option he's got. Teddy decides to use the summer to try and figure out what she wants out of life. Gus, on the other hand, starts to worry that he'll never find what he needs. Tempers flare, tension builds, and for the first time ever, Gus and Teddy start to see each other in a different light. As new feelings start to simmer below the surface, they must decide whether or not to act on them. Can they keep things cool? Or will both of them get burned?]]> 368 Lyla Sage 1529436729 Cait 3 4.19 2024
author: Lyla Sage
name: Cait
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 212806648 A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests�� coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?]]> 368 Erin Crosby Eckstine 0593725115 Cait 0 to-read 4.21 2025
author: Erin Crosby Eckstine
name: Cait
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 177185872
For Ruth, a college student who’s expelled after a campus sexual assault, the Home is a purgatory to endure before she can get her life back. For Belle, a queer sex worker who exchanged her bed at a brothel for one in the Home, it’s a safe place to rest her feet until she can track down her missing lover. And for Minnie, the daughter of the religious couple who founded the charity, the Home is her mother’s idea of a cautionary tale.

But as Minnie prepares for the Home’s silver anniversary party, she finds herself questioning the true cost of good intentions—and grappling with a terrible secret that has the power to unravel the Home entirely.]]> 288 Kelly Hill 0593685814 Cait 3 another three star book 3.84
author: Kelly Hill
name: Cait
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:
another three star book
]]> 216247502
Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents�� secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .

As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.]]> 384 Emma Knight 0593830458 Cait 0 to-read 3.40
author: Emma Knight
name: Cait
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59519684
'Funny and frank, a chance to spend time with a brave and big-hearted woman who's grown up to be not so mean, after all' JENNIFER LARUE, WASHINGTON POST

'Grabs you by the collar and says listen to all that I have to say: about love, pain, motherhood, illness, celebrity and the tidal ferocity that pours through all our lives. Read it and be caught in the voice of one of our luminous stars' ESMÉ WEIJUN WANG

The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, shocking memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is violence, love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood and, finally, the simultaneous devastation and surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

'A fascinating exploration about the power of prophecy, of labels, and of one woman's determination to defy them all. Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer' GLENNON DOYLE

'I laughed out loud more than I cried' FRANCES RYAN, GUARDIAN]]> 299 Selma Blair 0525659501 Cait 0 to-read 3.92 2022
author: Selma Blair
name: Cait
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209455843
Sure, Dom was Josh’s life-long best friend. He’s also the infuriating man who broke Maddie’s heart back when she was naïve enough to give it to him. But since Dom insists on following the rules and Josh didn’t leave much room for Maddie to argue the matter, they embark together on a farewell trip that spans thousands of miles, exploring new places and revisiting their complicated history along the way.

After a snowstorm leads to a shared bed, Maddie starts to wonder if her brother might be matchmaking from the grave. But when grief also reopens old wounds between them, Maddie will need more than Josh’s ghostly guidance to trust Dom again.]]> 432 Lauren Connolly Cait 3 4.06 2024
author: Lauren Connolly
name: Cait
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:
I so wanted to love this. First of all it’s a Book of the Month pick- which has yet lot me down. Second of all it sounded like something I’d love: a bit of a rom-com vibe mixed with some heavier topics. The book started out promising (I liked the main character’s snarky inner dialogue and the premise that she’d have to travel the country with her “ex��), but it started to lose stars for me about midway through. In my opinion everything felt a little rushed. Dom and Maddie would get to a destination, flirt/argue, spread ashes, repeat. Because of this I felt SOME chemistry between them, but not enough to make me feel giddy when they finally got together (spoiler alert…I guess?) Also, aside from the first one or two travel spots, the author didn’t spend much time describing what the characters were experiencing at each spot, which is something I look for in a novel centered around travel.
]]> 15835031 If he had been with me everything would have been different...

I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts. What they do not know—the cause of the argument—is crucial.

So let me tell you...]]> 336 Laura Nowlin 1402277822 Cait 3
High school me would’ve rated this 5 stars hands down. It has everything a moody, dramatic teenager could want: tumultuous friendships, the boy next door, a teen pregnancy (did anyone else watch Sex Life of the American Teenager as a teen?!), and of course death. Teenage me would definitely be posting about this book on her tumblr.

Before reading this everyone told me it would be so sad, but something happens when I read a book knowing it will be sad and I end up not being sad at all. Maybe it’s because I’m expecting it the entire time?

Overall I enjoyed this book but wasn’t blown away.]]> 3.76 2013
author: Laura Nowlin
name: Cait
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
3.5

High school me would’ve rated this 5 stars hands down. It has everything a moody, dramatic teenager could want: tumultuous friendships, the boy next door, a teen pregnancy (did anyone else watch Sex Life of the American Teenager as a teen?!), and of course death. Teenage me would definitely be posting about this book on her tumblr.

Before reading this everyone told me it would be so sad, but something happens when I read a book knowing it will be sad and I end up not being sad at all. Maybe it’s because I’m expecting it the entire time?

Overall I enjoyed this book but wasn’t blown away.
]]> 214490415 This searing YA debut follows two teen girls as they fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore, just weeks before another cataclysmic storm threatens to bring about the end of the world. Perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Last of Us!

The world is about to end. Again.

Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her.

Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.

Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs—the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes—and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them.]]> 320 Lily Braun-Arnold 0593899482 Cait 0 to-read 3.43 2025
author: Lily Braun-Arnold
name: Cait
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Theory��puts 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 Times��Bestselling 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 made��The Mel Robbins Podcast��a global sensation, Robbins explains why��The Let Them Theory��is 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 champion��The Let Them Theory��every 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 Theory��will 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 of��The Let Them Theory��now and discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words.]]> 311 Mel Robbins 1788176650 Cait 0 to-read 4.37 2024
author: Mel Robbins
name: Cait
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216351768
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 Theory puts 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 Times bestselling 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 made The Mel Robbins Podcast a global sensation, Robbins explains why The Let Them Theory is 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 champion The Let Them Theory every step of the way.

Learn how

Stop wasting energy on things you can't control Stop 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 Theory will 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 of The Let Them Theory now and discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words.]]> 311 Mel Robbins 1401971377 Cait 0 to-read 4.18 2024
author: Mel Robbins
name: Cait
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203608444 The unbreakable bonds of family and love are explored in this brilliant and tender story from the author of Guy's Girl.

On the day she arrives in Canada for her older brother's wedding, Eliot Beck hasn't seen her family in three years. Eliot adores her big, wacky, dysfunctional collection of siblings and in-laws, but there's a reason she fled to Manhattan and buried herself in her work—and she’s not ready to share it with anyone. Not when speaking it aloud could send her back into the never-ending cycle of the obsessive-compulsive disorder that consumed her for years.

Eliot thinks she's prepared to survive the four-day-long wedding extravaganza—until she sees her best friend, Manuel, waiting for her at the marina and looking as handsome as ever. He was the person who, when they met as children, felt like finding the missing half of her soul. The person she tried so hard not to fall in love with�� but did anyway.

Manuel's presence at the wedding threatens to undo the walls Eliot has built around herself. The fortress that keeps her okay. If she isn't careful, by the end of this wedding, the whole castle might come crumbling down.]]> 400 Emma Noyes 0593639022 Cait 0 to-read 3.83 2024
author: Emma Noyes
name: Cait
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60196684 One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.��

That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go��

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.]]> 314 Erica Bauermeister 1250284376 Cait 0 to-read 4.02 2023
author: Erica Bauermeister
name: Cait
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 27840537
This book will solve all of your problems. (Sheesh, that’s aiming a bit high.)

This book is a cup of hot coffee, a ginormous bar of chocolate, or the magical fairy that comes over and does your dishes while you lie in the fetal position clutching a fluffy pillow.

Sometimes when life falls apart the only acceptable response is hysterical laughter. When things get so far gone, so spectacularly a world away from any plans you made or dreams you dreamed, you feel it bubbling up inside of you and you scream, “It’s not fair!�� And it isn’t. Fair is an illusion, and life is weird.

This book will help you laugh at life’s absurd backhands. This book is an empathetic groan of our collective unfairnesses. You might want to throw it across the room, and you might want to hug it like your new best friend. This book is about us sitting down together in our shared mess, taking a deep breath, gripping hands, looking the hard stuff in its beady little eyeballs, and bahahahaaing at it.

Life’s not fair, but we can learn to love this life we didn’t choose.]]> 256 Melanie Dale 0310342147 Cait 0
That being said there was a lot of good I took away from this book and it definitely made me laugh a few times. I appreciated Melanie’s candor with her life story and her struggles. She didn’t pretend to always have it together, and she was clear that at times she gave up on her faith and herself (and how every day is a work in progress). This made the book relatable in a way that some self-help books sometimes lack.

I wouldn’t classify it under something “everyone needs to read�� but if you’re going through a tough time and need a quick pep-talk of sorts, this could be a great book for you - as long as you’re comfortable with religion. ]]> 3.78
author: Melanie Dale
name: Cait
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:
At the start of the book Melanie writes, “If you are kind of side-eyed about the whole thing [God], I get it. Feel free to lump the Bible verses in weird the movie lines.�� While I don’t mind religious references, I felt like this was incredibly misleading. This book is (in my opinion) very religion-based. It was not a bible verse here and there (as Melanie makes it seem) talk of God was woven into every chapter and nearly every paragraph. Again it’s not that the religion bothered me, but I guess I’m bothered by the way the book felt miss marketed. I would have liked to know what I was getting into.

That being said there was a lot of good I took away from this book and it definitely made me laugh a few times. I appreciated Melanie’s candor with her life story and her struggles. She didn’t pretend to always have it together, and she was clear that at times she gave up on her faith and herself (and how every day is a work in progress). This made the book relatable in a way that some self-help books sometimes lack.

I wouldn’t classify it under something “everyone needs to read�� but if you’re going through a tough time and need a quick pep-talk of sorts, this could be a great book for you - as long as you’re comfortable with religion.
]]> 60372440 Two exes wake up together with wedding bands on their fingers--and no idea how they got there. They have just one New Year's Eve at the end of 1999 to figure it out in this big-hearted and nostalgic rom-com from New York Times bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch.

When college sweethearts Frankie and Ezra broke up before graduation, they vowed to never speak to each other again. Ten years later, on the eve of the new millennium, they find themselves back on their snowy, picturesque New England campus together for the first time for the wedding of mutual friends. Frankie's on the rise as a music manager for the hottest bands of the late '90s, and Ezra's ready to propose to his girlfriend after the wedding. Everything is going to plan--they just have to avoid the chasm of emotions brought up when they inevitably come face to face.

But when they wake up in bed next to each other the following morning with Ezra's grandmother's diamond on Frankie's finger, they have zero memory of how they got there--or about any of the events that transpired the night before. Now Frankie and Ezra have to put aside old grievances in order to figure out what happened, what didn't happen...and to ask themselves the most troubling question of all: what if they both got it wrong the first time around?]]> 368 Allison Winn Scotch 0593546539 Cait 0 to-read 3.18 2022
author: Allison Winn Scotch
name: Cait
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56554626 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride�� scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.]]> 308 Erin Sterling 006302747X Cait 2 3.46 2021
author: Erin Sterling
name: Cait
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/15
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 50162215 From the widely renowned author Andrew O'Hagan, a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.

Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life.

In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.

Mayflies is a memorial to youth's euphorias and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.]]> 288 Andrew O'Hagan 0571273688 Cait 0 to-read 3.91 2020
author: Andrew O'Hagan
name: Cait
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211148021 A new holiday enemies-to-lovers romance from USA Today bestselling author Meghan Quinn.

Every Kringle in Kringletown celebrated Christmas a lot.

But Cole Black on Whistler Lane, unfortunately, did not.

As his fellow citizens decorate their quaint town, brimming with carols and glad tidings, Cole wants nothing more than to hibernate the winter away. But his dreary plans are thwarted when his Christmas nemesis, Storee Taylor, moves in next door to care for her Aunt Cindy. Immediately, the new neighbor turns his life into a real nightmare before Christmas, especially when she decides to enter the town Christmas Kringle contest in honor of Cindy. And better yet, Storee is determined to win.

Over Cole's dead body, she will. With help from his friend Max, Cole decides to enter the competition as well, to beat Storee at her own game by pretending that this hometown grump's heart has grown three sizes this season and he's fallen for the girl next door. And unfortunately for Storee, she has to follow his lead to have a chance at the Christmas Kringle title.

But the competition isn't the only thing that heats up. Cole and Storee's fake relationship becomes very real, and before they know it, they're attempting to hide it from Aunt Cindy. Things get complicated, the competition gets tough, and all it takes is one single night for someone to steal it all…]]> 480 Meghan Quinn 1464230153 Cait 3 3.64 2024
author: Meghan Quinn
name: Cait
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:
This was really cute but way too long. Loved the play on The Grinch and Max (Atlas??) was the best charades. However light romance books should not be close to 500 pages.
]]> 146925751
When the CEO of a movie studio is found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room, LAPD detective Johnny Coombes is called to investigate. At first sight, it looks like a routine overdose, but Coombes is not convinced. The death matches a recent pattern of high-profile Angelenos to have taken their own lives, including the father of a childhood friend.

Soon he uncovers evidence that proves a serial killer has been operating for months, posing kills as suicides. With the bodies piling up, Coombes races against time to identify the killer before he strikes again. As the investigation draws to an explosive conclusion. he discovers that the killer's darkness has changed his life forever.

The Dark Halo is a gripping, pulse-pounding thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page. Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, and Robert Crais.]]> 342 David Stanley 1916176364 Cait 3 4.29
author: David Stanley
name: Cait
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves:
review:
I loved the mystery/detective aspect of this but the romance felt out of place to me.
]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 Cait 3 I really really liked the first 70% of this (the writing, humor, and premise!) but the last bit dragged a little for me and the ending was just okay. ]]> 3.92 2024
author: Ally Carter
name: Cait
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves:
review:
3.5
I really really liked the first 70% of this (the writing, humor, and premise!) but the last bit dragged a little for me and the ending was just okay.
]]> 31450913
What begins as a series of clandestine trysts quickly evolves into a passionate and genuine relationship. It is a journey that spans continents as Solène and Hayes navigate each other’s worlds: from stadium tours to international art fairs to secluded hideaways in Paris and Miami. For Solène, it is a reclaiming of self, as well as a rediscovery of happiness and love. When Solène and Hayes�� romance becomes a viral sensation, and both she and her daughter become the target of rabid fans and an insatiable media, Solène must face how her romantic life has impacted the lives of those she cares about most.]]> 372 Robinne Lee 1250125901 Cait 4 3.67 2017
author: Robinne Lee
name: Cait
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 59029665 A talented Hollywood starlet and a reclusive A-lister enter into a fake relationship . . . and discover that their feelings might be more than a PR stunt in this sexy debut for fans of Beach Read and The Unhoneymooners.

Grey Brooks is on a mission to keep her career afloat now that the end of her long-running teen soap has her (unsuccessfully) pounding the pavement again. With a life-changing role on the line, she's finally desperate enough to agree to her publicist's scheme... faking a love affair with a disgraced Hollywood heartthrob who needs the publicity, but for very different reasons.

Ethan Atkins just wants to be left alone. Between his high-profile divorce, his struggles with drinking, and his grief over the death of his longtime creative partner and best friend, he's slowly let himself fade into the background. But if he ever wants to produce the last movie he and his partner wrote together, Ethan needs to clean up his reputation and step back into the spotlight. A gossip-inducing affair with a gorgeous actress might be just the ticket, even if it's the last thing he wants to do.

Though their juicy public relationship is less than perfect behind the scenes, it doesn't take long before Grey and Ethan's sizzling chemistry starts to feel like more than just an act. But after decades in a ruthless industry that requires bulletproof emotional armor to survive, are they too used to faking it to open themselves up to the real thing?]]> 368 Ava Wilder 0593358953 Cait 0 to-read 3.63 2022
author: Ava Wilder
name: Cait
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211494315
"Forman is a master at making her readers fall in love—with a girl whose life is over, with a community of people in a small town who are barely surviving her loss, and with the incredible, surprising way everyone's stories knit together into a heartbreaking and hopeful whole." —E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud

One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams.

Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she’s inexplicably riding now.

This return doesn’t only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber’s estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther Amber’s friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone’s turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?

This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.]]> 272 Gayle Forman 0063346141 Cait 0 to-read 3.61 2025
author: Gayle Forman
name: Cait
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59808246
Marlowe Banks’s life has come apart at the seams. Her engagement ended abruptly. Her latest costume design was shredded by critics. Her student loans are overdue. Her parents have never been more disappointed. Desperate to hide from her failures, Marlowe flees New York City to embrace invisibility in Los Angeles as a menial Production Assistant on a popular TV show. While sorting socks and taking care of her boss�� spoiled Weimaraner, no one can confront her poor artistic choices or the end of her engagement, the end her ex refuses to accept.

When a costume mix-up requires Marlowe to step into in a scene, the camera catches a heated look between her and Angus Gordon, the show's arrogant bad boy, thrusting Marlowe into the spotlight. As the pair is forced together on set, Marlowe learns she's not the only one hiding. Walls come down for both of them, revealing a life Marlowe isn't sure she's ready for, and when her past comes calling, she has to decide if she's going to stay invisible or if it's time for a redesign.]]> 352 Jacqueline Firkins 1250836506 Cait 0 to-read 3.78 2022
author: Jacqueline Firkins
name: Cait
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 757489
She’s old enough to be his mother.

Alice has always looked young for her age, even with her graying hair and her dowdy New Jersey housewife style. Make that ex- Now that her husband’s gone and her daughter is grown, Alice is in desperate need of a whole new life. So she lets her best friend Maggie, a hip New York City artist, transform her on New Year’s Eve. Soon, thanks to the wonders of hair dye and tight jeans, Alice looks really young, as one night in a Manhattan bar confirms. At midnight, she kisses a boy who was in diapers when she was in high school.

She’s having too much fun to care.

The white lie Alice tells Josh gets her thinking that if no one asks her age, she doesn’t have to tell. So she applies for a job she had briefly before becoming a full-time mom—and gets it. Meanwhile, Josh is falling head over heels for Alice, who’s just way cooler than girls his age. He figures she’s about twenty-nine—and for the first time since she was twenty-nine, or possibly ever, Alice feels that life is ripe with possibility. Unfortunately one possibility is that she’s gonna get caught.

Challenging the adage that the truth will set you free, Younger is a hilarious and insightful story that proves that you’re only as young as you feel.]]> 284 Pamela Redmond 141650558X Cait 0 to-read 3.40 2005
author: Pamela Redmond
name: Cait
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 139391940 A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes��

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

�� grumpy x sunshine
�� small town
�� found family
�� spicy]]> 373 Laurie Gilmore 0008610665 Cait 3 3.36 2023
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Cait
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 206119050 LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch’s daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls.]]> 407 Michael Connelly 031656379X Cait 4
Despite these small qualms, I thoroughly enjoyed the newest addition to the Bosch series and I’m sad that I have to wait a full year for the next one! ]]> 4.17 2024
author: Michael Connelly
name: Cait
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:
Like all Connelly books, I couldn’t put this down once I started reading. The action picks up in the first few chapters when Renee finds herself in trouble and it doesn’t stop from there on. I didn’t give this five stars because I would have liked to see Bosch a bit more. Reading these books always feels like visiting an old friend, so I can’t help but be disappointed that we only got a little bit of Harry. Harry’s daughter, Maddie, did play a big part in this and I enjoyed getting to know her. However, I can’t help but feel like Connelly could have given us a little more. Maybe a view into her personal life or a conversation between her and her dad. Instead her character seemed firmly fixed in “detective mode��. Maybe we’ll get to know her more in future books.

Despite these small qualms, I thoroughly enjoyed the newest addition to the Bosch series and I’m sad that I have to wait a full year for the next one!
]]> 36491465
For Leo, the prospect of traveling to Europa—Jupiter’s moon—to help resettle humankind is just the sense of purpose he’s been yearning for since losing his entire family in the flooding of Rome. Naomi, after learning of a similar space mission that mysteriously failed, suspects the ISTC isn’t being up front with them about what’s at risk.

As the race to the final six advances, the tests get more challenging—even deadly. With pressure mounting, Naomi finds an unexpected friend in Leo, and the two grow closer with each mind-boggling experience they encounter. But it’s only when the finalists become fewer and their destinies grow nearer that the two can fathom the full weight of everything at stake: the world, the stars, and their lives.]]> 338 Alexandra Monir 0062658948 Cait 0 to-read 3.85 2018
author: Alexandra Monir
name: Cait
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3798703
SUTTER KEELY. HE’S the guy you want at your party. He’ll get everyone dancing. He�� ll get everyone in your parents�� pool. Okay, so he’s not exactly a shining academic star. He has no plans for college and will probably end up folding men’s shirts for a living. But there are plenty of ladies in town, and with the help of Dean Martin and Seagram’s V.O., life’s pretty fabuloso, actually.

Until the morning he wakes up on a random front lawn, and he meets Aimee. Aimee’s clueless. Aimee is a social disaster. Aimee needs help, and it’s up to the Sutterman to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go forth and prosper. But Aimee’s not like other girls, and before long he’s in way over his head. For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference in someone else’s life—or ruin it forever.]]> 304 Tim Tharp 0375851798 Cait 0 to-read 3.52 2008
author: Tim Tharp
name: Cait
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61812308 The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River —an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.

In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,�� the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.

One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.]]> 303 Dennis Lehane 0062129481 Cait 0 to-read 4.22 2023
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Cait
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Cait 0 to-read 3.67 2024
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Cait
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62873378 One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.]]> 224 Michael Finkel 0525657320 Cait 0 to-read 3.92 2023
author: Michael Finkel
name: Cait
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58537243 An irresistible comedy of manners about three generations of a Chicago restaurant family and the deep-fried, beer-battered, cream cheese-frosted love that feeds them all--from the best-selling author of Girls in White Dresses

Here are the three things the Sullivan family knows to be true: the Chicago Cubs will always be the underdogs; historical progress is inevitable; and their grandfather, Bud, founder of JP Sullivan's, will always make the best burgers in Oak Park. But when, over the course of three strange months, the Cubs win the World Series, Trump is elected president, and Bud drops dead, suddenly everyone in the family finds themselves doubting all they hold dear.

Take Gretchen for example, lead singer for a '90s cover band who has been flirting with fame for a decade but is beginning to wonder if she's too old to be chasing a childish dream. Or Jane, Gretchen's older sister, who is starting to suspect that her fitness-obsessed husband who hides the screen of his phone isn't always "working late." And then there's Teddy, their steadfast, unfailingly good cousin, nursing heartbreak and confusion because the guy who dumped him keeps showing up for lunch at JP Sullivan's where Teddy is the manager. How can any of them be expected to make the right decisions when the world feels sideways--and the bartender at JP Sullivan's makes such strong cocktails?

Outrageously funny and wickedly astute, Marrying the Ketchups is a delicious confection by one of our most beloved authors.]]> 320 Jennifer Close 0525658874 Cait 0 to-read 3.56 2022
author: Jennifer Close
name: Cait
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23528142
Part Hawaiian, part Mainlander.��Perpetual new girl at school. Hanging in the shadow of her actress mother’s spotlight. And now: new resident of the prominent West family’s guest cottage.

Bracing herself for the embarrassment of being her classmates�� latest charity case, Lea is surprised when she starts becoming friends with Will and Whitney West instead—or in the case of gorgeous, unattainable Will, possibly even more than friends. And despite their differences, Whitney and Lea have a lot in common: both are navigating a tangled web of relationships, past disappointments and future hopes.��As things heat up with Will, and her friendship with Whitney deepens, Lea has to decide how much she’s willing to change in order to fit into their world.

Lea Lane has lived in between all her life. But it isn’t until her junior year that she learns how to do it on her own terms.]]> 320 Kaui Hart Hemmings 0399173609 Cait 0 to-read 3.45 2015
author: Kaui Hart Hemmings
name: Cait
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61467820
There’s a reason people call Miami Beach “a sunny place for shady people.��

Welcome to Sunset Academy, the most coveted elementary school in Miami Beach, where there are three categories of families: rich, wealthy, and ultra-wealthy.

Perfectly tanned and smiling Charlotte Giordani is Sunset Academy’s alpha mom. With a sleek blowout and relentless charm, Charlotte’s brashness serves her well. She’s up for election as the PTA president and is riding high, having just secured a massive donation from billionaire Don Walker and his socialite wife Patricia. Don and Patricia are philanthropists, media darlings, and the owners of Villa Rosé, a newly built modern glass house that everyone is talking about. (It’s either spectacular or a tacky eyesore, depending on how you feel about billionaires.)

Enter Melody Howard, a wide-eyed transplant from Wichita, Kansas. At first a skeptic about Miami Beach and its endlessly hashtaggable social scene, Melody finds herself sucked into the glossy, frenetic world of Sunset Academy moms. Melody’s easygoing manner and background in nonprofit management make her an asset to the PTA. But when she emerges as a rival for the PTA presidency, Charlotte begins to unravel. Even the most powerful players on the social scene prove to be vulnerable when an investigation into white-collar crime—triggered by another school mom, the formidable Jamaican-American Judge Carol Lawson—threatens to take down the whole institution. No amount of rosé can soothe tensions as the drama builds to a shocking crisis point.

Told in rotating first person voices, Pink Glass Houses is an irresistibly voyeuristic peek into the lives of the rich and infamous, where cocaine playdates, $100,000 kiddie birthday parties, and relentless social climbing are a way of life.]]> 272 Asha Elias 0063312794 Cait 4 3.41 2024
author: Asha Elias
name: Cait
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this. It felt like watching a juicy reality show! I need more books like this one.
]]> 122496282 Searching for a fresh start and a serene place to heal from both mental and physical wounds, Agent Spenser Song found herself answering the job posting for the quaint town of Sweetwater Falls...

After a series of tragedies turned her world upside down, FBI Agent Spenser Song felt like a woman adrift in a sea of chaos.
Her brush with death and the tragic murder of her husband left her questioning everything in her life.
And when it became clear that Bureau politics will trump justice, Spenser realized she needed a fresh start.

Looking for a slower pace and needing to heal, Spenser is hired on to be the sheriff in the idyllic town of Sweetwater Falls.
The town is everything her best friend said it would be and all in the Falls was seemingly perfect.
With the exception of her cantankerous landlord, Ryker Makawi, a former Navy SEAL with issues and a past of his own.
When a local woman is murdered, the case proves to be far from simple and Spenser finds herself forced to work with the ill-tempered Ryker.

With her past trying to reach into the present to pull Spenser into a cold dark grave.
Spenser soon realized that the chaos she fled from had found its way back into her life.
Spenser Song came west to find peace. But the new girl in the Falls soon finds herself in the fight of her life.]]> 244 Elle Gray Cait 0 to-read 4.42 2023
author: Elle Gray
name: Cait
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213075405 Elias and Laia are running for their lives.

After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars' survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus's will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape...and kill them both.]]> 460 Sabaa Tahir 110199889X Cait 0 to-read 4.18 2016
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Cait
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 27774758 Alternative Cover Edition #1

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
��
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
��
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
��
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
��
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

From the Hardcover edition.]]> 446 Sabaa Tahir Cait 3 4.23 2015
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Cait
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed the first 60% of this book, but after that I feel like the pacing got much too slow. It’s clear that the author wanted to set this up as a series (which it is) so it makes sense that she wanted to save a lot for the next few books…but unfortunately, that left this book lacking. It seems like nothing much happened.
]]> 53138071 All Girls captures one year at a prestigious New England prep school, as nine young women navigate their ambitions, friendships, and fears against the backdrop of a scandal the administration wants silenced.

But as the months unfold, and the school's efforts to control the ensuing crisis fall short, these extraordinary girls are forced to discover their voices, and their power. A tender and unflinching portrait of modern adolescence told through the shifting perspectives of an unforgettable cast of female students, All Girls explores what it means to grow up in a place that promises you the world––when the world still isn't yours for the taking.]]> 320 Emily Layden 1250270898 Cait 0 to-read 3.18 2021
author: Emily Layden
name: Cait
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60741808 An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman’s final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos—and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor.

It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder but now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place—until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling.

Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented: the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse. As the lives of the adults around her slowly come apart, Isabel discovers that the line between youth and adulthood is less defined than she thought.

A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Daisy Alpert Florin's My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from.]]> 304 Daisy Alpert Florin 1250857031 Cait 0 to-read 3.70 2023
author: Daisy Alpert Florin
name: Cait
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 154462768
Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy and close to her childhood best friend Willa, but far from her midwestern, traditional family who never really understood her. While her job is only dream- adjacent , she’s hoping her passion and hard work will soon help her land a more glamorous role. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect…until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve's loyal��friendship with Willa is feeling off , right when she needs her most. And it’s Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is�� suddenly kinda hot? Then there’s the baby's father, who is supportive but conflicted. Before long, Eve is rethinking everything she thought she knew about herself and her world.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.]]> 400 Cara Bastone 0593595718 Cait 4 This was so cute. 3.96 2024
author: Cara Bastone
name: Cait
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:
This was so cute.
]]> 252577
"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 Pulitzer Prize winning 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.]]> 452 Frank McCourt 0007205236 Cait 0 to-read 4.15 1996
author: Frank McCourt
name: Cait
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209752701 The much-anticipated new fantasy series from Ransom Riggs, his first since introducing the #1 global phenomenon Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series.

Seventeen-year-old Leopold Berry is seeing weird things around Los Angeles. A man who pops a tooth into a parking meter. A glowing trapdoor in a parking lot. A half-mechanical raccoon with its tail on fire that just won’t leave him alone. Every hallucinatory moment seems plucked from a cheesy 1990s fantasy TV show called Max's Adventures in Sunderworld—and that’s because they are.

Not a good sign.

In the blurry weeks after his mother’s death, a young Leopold discovered VHS tapes of its one and only season in a box headed for the trash—and soon became obsessed. Losing himself in Sunder was the best way to avoid two things: grieving his mother and being a chronic disappointment to his overbearing father. But when the strange visions return—at the worst possible time on the worst possible day—Leopold turns to his best friend Emmet for help. Together they discover that Sunder is much more than just an old TV show, and that Los Angeles is far stranger than they ever imagined. And soon, he’ll realize that not only is Sunderworld real, but it’s in grave danger.

Certain he’s finally been chosen for greatness, Leopold risks everything to claim his destiny, save the world of his childhood dreams, and prove once and for all that he’s not the disappointment his father believes him to be. But when everything goes terribly, horribly, excruciatingly wrong, Leopold’s disappointments prove to be more extraordinary than he ever could have imagined.

How do you battle darkness when no one believes in you—not even yourself?

Welcome to Sunderworld.]]> 336 Ransom Riggs 0593530934 Cait 0 to-read 3.94 2024
author: Ransom Riggs
name: Cait
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35018200 New York Times bestselling memoirs, Corrigan distilled our core relationships to their essences, showcasing a warm, easy storytelling style.��Now, in Tell Me More, she’s back with a deeply personal, unfailingly honest, and often hilarious examination of the essential phrases that turn the wheel of life.

In “I Don’t Know,�� Corrigan wrestles to make peace with uncertainty, whether it’s over invitations that never came or a friend’s agonizing infertility. In “No,�� she admires her mother’s ability to set boundaries and her liberating willingness to be unpopular. In “Tell Me More,�� a facialist named Tish teaches her something important about listening. And in “I Was Wrong,�� she comes clean about her disastrous role in a family fight—and explains why saying sorry may not be enough. With refreshing candor, a deep well of empathy, and her signature desire to understand “the thing behind the thing,�� Corrigan swings between meditations on life with a preoccupied husband and two mercurial teenage daughters to profound observations on love and loss.

With the streetwise, ever-relatable voice that defines Corrigan’s work, Tell Me More is a moving and meaningful take on the power of the right words at the right moment to change everything.]]> 240 Kelly Corrigan Cait 5 4.16 2018
author: Kelly Corrigan
name: Cait
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves:
review:
I listened to this on audio and loved it so much. It was wonderful hearing the lessons from the author herself and I got teary eyed when she got emotional at times. I bought a copy of the book so I can highlight and reread it over and over.
]]> 6596 The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best.]]> 152 Miguel Ruiz 1878424505 Cait 0 4.20 1997
author: Miguel Ruiz
name: Cait
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at: 2017/06/16
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 110212831 I’m saving you, six.

With his world unraveling around him, and pressure rising at home, Joey Lynch’s life has never been in more turmoil. Desperate to prove himself worthy of the only person he’s ever put his trust in, Joey fights to stay away from a world that threatens to destroy everything. But with the odds stacking against him by the day, can he keep his head above water?

Unwilling to give up on the boy she loves, Aoife Molloy fights to save her best friend from the edge of self-destruction. Drowning in a world she doesn’t understand, with only her heart to guide her, Aoife refuses to turn her back on Joey, no matter how badly the odds are stacked against them.

Through heartbreak and horror, Aoife and Joey have had each others backs, and this time is no different.

Come what may.

Irrevocable life changing circumstances, unexpected additions, new schools, and healing hearts all come together in Redeeming 6, the explosive finale for Ballylaggin’s hotheaded lovers.

This is your comeback, kid.

Based in Ireland, the Boys of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, hurling, love, and teenage heartbreak.

* Warning *

Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers. Due to its bad language, mature themes, and potentially triggering scenes, Redeeming 6 is recommended for mature readers.]]> 1066 Chloe Walsh Cait 3 4.63 2023
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Cait
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 17910544 ��
When Kelly Corrigan was in high school, her mother neatly summarized the family dynamic as “Your father’s the glitter but I’m the glue.�� This meant nothing to Kelly, who left childhood sure that her mom—with her inviolable commandments and proud stoicism—would be nothing more than background chatter for the rest of Kelly’s life, which she was carefully orienting toward adventure. After college, armed with a backpack, her personal mission statement, and a wad of traveler’s checks, she took off for Australia to see things and do things and Become Interesting.
��
But it didn’t turn out the way she pictured it. In a matter of months, her savings shot, she had a choice: get a job or go home. That’s how Kelly met John Tanner, a newly widowed father of two looking for a live-in nanny. They chatted for an hour, discussed timing and pay, and a week later, Kelly moved in. And there, in that house in a suburb north of Sydney, 10,000 miles from the house where she was raised, her mother’s voice was suddenly everywhere, nudging and advising, cautioning and directing, escorting her through a terrain as foreign as any she had ever trekked. Every day she spent with the Tanner kids was a day spent reconsidering her relationship with her mother, turning it over in her hands like a shell, straining to hear whatever messages might be trapped in its spiral.
��
This is a book about the difference between travel and life experience, stepping out and stepping up, fathers and mothers. But mostly it’s about who you admire and why, and how that changes over time.]]> 224 Kelly Corrigan 034553283X Cait 0 to-read 3.83 2014
author: Kelly Corrigan
name: Cait
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57933306 Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back.

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions--even abandoning his phone for three months--but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention--and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.

We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers' productivity.

Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus--as individuals, and as a society--if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.]]> 357 Johann Hari 0593138511 Cait 0 to-read 4.22 2022
author: Johann Hari
name: Cait
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58733639 464 Mark Rozzo 0062939971 Cait 0 to-read 3.78 2022
author: Mark Rozzo
name: Cait
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44153947
When teenagers from the same side of the tracks collide.

The second born son in a broken marriage, Joey Lynch has spent a lifetime picking up the pieces of a family unraveling. When his older brother Darren skips town on his first day of secondary school, twelve year old Joey finds himself thrown into the role of protector to his younger siblings and mother. Plagued by self-loathing, and furious with the world, he grapples with teenage life, his unwavering sense of duty to his family, while balancing precariously close to a life of addiction that threatens to swallow him whole. The only light in his sea of darkness is his boss’s firecracker of a daughter who refuses to back down. A girl who just so happens to be his classmate.

Aoife Molloy has never been backwards in coming forward. Her bubbly and self-assured nature has never led her astray. Until her first day of secondary school when she collides with a hotheaded boy who sparks a burning curiosity inside of her that only grows stronger by the day.

Falling into a complicated friendship with her father’s apprentice, Aoife works to unravels the secrets around Joey Lynch’s life, while he desperately fights to keep her out.

Friendship, devotion, and first love all come together in Saving 6, the first of two books for Aoife and Joey.

Based in Ireland, the Boys of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, hurling, love, and teenage heartbreak.

* Warning *

Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers. Due to its bad language, mature themes, and potentially triggering scenes, Saving 6 is recommended for mature readers.]]> 725 Chloe Walsh Cait 4 4.47 2023
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Cait
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 1268479
Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.]]> 688 Brandon Sanderson Cait 0 to-read 4.29 2009
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Cait
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 68428 What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale-spinner and author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins with the book in your hands. Fantasy will never be the same again.]]> 541 Brandon Sanderson Cait 0 to-read 4.48 2006
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Cait
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60755618 The rules were simple . . .
Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble.

But now I’m stuck with her . . . And there’s only one bed . . .
Oh well, rules are made -- to be broken . . . aren't they?

I’m the face of professional bull riding -- the golden boy.
Or at least I was, until it all blew up in my face.
Now my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I’m stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my “full-time supervision.��

But I don’t need a goddamn babysitter --
especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk,
and a mouth she can’t stop running.

A mouth I just can’t stop thinking about . . .

Because Summer isn’t just another conquest.
She sees the man behind the mask, and she doesn’t run --
she pulls me closer, even when she shouldn’t.

She says this means nothing -- but I say this means everything.

She says there are boundaries we shouldn’t cross.
That my reputation can’t take any more hits -- and neither can her damaged heart.

I say I’m going to steal it anyway.
]]> 424 Elsie Silver Cait 3 4.06 2022
author: Elsie Silver
name: Cait
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/23
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 61242426
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success �� not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 296 Travis Baldree Cait 0 to-read 4.04 2022
author: Travis Baldree
name: Cait
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38311338 From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Masters of Death, a story about vampires, ghosts, and death itself!

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the house has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on.

Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses—seeing as he’s actually the godson of Death.

When Viola seeks out Fox to help her with her ghost-infested mansion, he becomes inextricably involved in a quest that neither he nor Vi expects (or wants). But with the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few high-functioning creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as they thought.]]> 349 Olivie Blake Cait 0 to-read 3.64 2018
author: Olivie Blake
name: Cait
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Cait 5 4.11 2024
author: Alison Espach
name: Cait
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 58684524
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere�� ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

The New York Times bestselling author of Life's Too Short delivers a refreshingly modern fairy tale perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Emily Henry.]]> 389 Abby Jimenez 1538704374 Cait 4 4.26 2022
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Cait
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves:
review:
I couldn’t put this down! Predictable but still worth every second. I loved it!
]]> 38355098
The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.]]> 390 Neal Shusterman 1481481967 Cait 4 4.02 2018
author: Neal Shusterman
name: Cait
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 195820745 #1 New York Times bestselling author Adalyn Grace delivers a sensational conclusion to the deathly and decadent Belladonna trilogy, with dramatic twists and a seductive new romance that will set readers' hearts ablaze.

Blythe Hawthorne has never let anyone tell her what to do—not society, not her overprotective father, and certainly not the man she’s bound herself to, no matter how rude and insufferable he is. In fact, she’s determined to be a thorn in his side for the rest of her days, even as he ensures that her life in his palace is anything but a fairytale. But as Blythe discovers a new side of herself linked to his past, she’ll have to decide if she’s willing to let an unexpected spark ignite…and to discover the truth about who she really is.]]> 419 Adalyn Grace 0316569380 Cait 0 to-read 4.25 2024
author: Adalyn Grace
name: Cait
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13555073
For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .]]> 440 Jonathan Stroud 0857532014 Cait 0 to-read 4.24 2013
author: Jonathan Stroud
name: Cait
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42968173 Until now.

Following a devastating injury that has left him sidelined and stripped of his beloved number 13 jersey, Johnny is struggling to hold onto his dreams. Lost, insecure, and desperately seeking comfort, he sets his sights on unraveling the mystery of the girl with the midnight-blue eyes. With his best friend, Gibsie, by his side, Johnny embarks on his quest of exposing the secrets surrounding the girl who haunts his every waking hour.

Keeping secrets has never been a problem for Shannon. The life she was born into demands nothing less. She knows that demons and evil men don't just exist in fairytales. They exist in her world, too. Traumatized beyond repair after her return from Dublin, and desperate to protect her little brothers, Shannon finds herself falling into the same old cover-up, barely keeping her head above water, as her future unravels before her eyes. Beaten and broken, her walls are up and her trust is shaken. Only one boy has the ability to climb those walls. The boy who owns her heart.

Secrets are exposed and lives are changed forever in Keeping 13, the explosive sequel to the bestselling book, Binding 13. Follow Johnny and Shannon as they try to navigate their way through the aftermath of that fateful rugby match in Dublin.

Falling in love was the easy part, what comes next is the test...

Friendship, first love, rising fame, horrifying secrets, and pain all fuel together as two teenagers from the opposite side of the tracks collide in Keeping 13, the concluding story for Johnny and Shannon.

Based in Ireland, the Boys of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, love, and teenage heartbreak.


Warning
Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers. Due to its bad language and certain scenes, Keeping 13 is recommended for mature readers.
]]> 938 Chloe Walsh Cait 3 4.51 2018
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Cait
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 63051209 A sharp-witted, high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards and a garlic festival - all at once. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, K. J. Parker and Travis Baldree.

It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.
It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is�� you.
Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.
But as he realizes that nothing �� from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess �� is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he’ll have to answer the hardest question of all �� who does he want to be?
Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.]]> 344 Caitlin Rozakis 1803365471 Cait 0 to-read 3.66 2024
author: Caitlin Rozakis
name: Cait
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61354985 A brilliantly funny and razor-tongued debut which follows a writer lured to Los Angeles to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a big-budget action film, who believes her heroine has come to life to take revenge for Hollywood's violations

Penelope Schleeman, a consistently broke Connecticut high school teacher, is as surprised as anyone when her sensitive debut novel, "American Mermaid"—the story of a wheelchair-bound scientist named Sylvia who discovers that her withered legs are the vestiges of a powerful tail—becomes a bestseller. Penelope soon finds herself lured to LA by promises of easy money to co-write the "American Mermaid" screenplay for a major studio with a pair of male hacks.

As the studio pressures Penelope to change "American Mermaid" from the story of a fierce, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex object in a clam bra, strange things start to happen. Threats appear in the screenplay draft; siren calls lure people into danger. When Penelope’s screenwriting partners try to kill Sylvia off entirely in a bitterly false but cinematic end, matters off the page escalate. Is Penelope losing her mind, or is Sylvia among us?

American Mermaid follows a young woman braving a world of casual smiles and ruthless calculation, where she discovers a beating heart in her own fiction--a creature she’ll do anything to protect. By turns both a comic and fabulously insightful tale of two female characters in search of truth, love, and self-acceptance as they move between worlds without giving up their voices.]]> 336 Julia Langbein 0385549679 Cait 0 to-read 3.23 2023
author: Julia Langbein
name: Cait
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203147386
Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.

But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs―Kingsley’s included―point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies...including their nemesis, the king.

Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.

It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun.

But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?]]> 368 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649377177 Cait 0 to-read 4.07 2024
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Cait
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 21787
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything.]]> 429 William Goldman 0345418263 Cait 0 to-read 4.27 1973
author: William Goldman
name: Cait
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123257687
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.]]> 342 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649375808 Cait 3 3.88 2023
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Cait
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:
3.5! Listened on audio but I think reading it would have been better…narration was just okay. Overall this was a really cute and fun fantasy read :)!
]]> 198137999
Summer 1999: Twentysomething Sawyer is striving to make it in New York. Between her assistant job in publishing, her secret dreams of becoming a writer, and her upcoming wedding to her college boyfriend, her is plate full. Only one problem: She is facing an incredibly lonely summer as her fiancé has been spending longer and longer hours at work . . . with an all-too-close female colleague, Kendra.

When Kendra’s boyfriend, Nick, invites Sawyer to meet up and compare notes about their suspicions, the meeting goes awry. She finds Nick cocky and cynical, and he finds her stuck in her own head. But then Nick seeks out Sawyer online to apologize, and a friendship develops.

Soon, Sawyer’s lonely summer takes an unexpected turn. She and Nick begin an unofficial ritual—exploring New York City together every summer Friday. From hot dogs on the Staten Island Ferry and Sea Breezes in a muggy East Village bar to swimming at Coney Island, Sawyer feels seen by Nick in a way that surprises her. He pushes her to be braver. To ask for what she wants. Meanwhile, Sawyer draws Nick out of his hard shell, revealing a surprisingly vulnerable side. They both begin living for their Friday afternoons together.

But what happens when the summer is over?]]> 432 Suzanne Rindell 0593473914 Cait 0 to-read 3.94 2024
author: Suzanne Rindell
name: Cait
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 139400612
Alana Olson always felt connected to Pablo Picasso. As a recently graduated art historian and aspiring writer in 1950s New York, Alana was bound to encounter the most renowned artist of the era, but it was her late Spanish mother’s particular fascination with the man that inspired Alana’s doctoral thesis on his work.

An assignment for a profile on Picasso from her dream publication leads Alana to intimate interviews with Sara Murphy and Irene Legut—women from a once-vibrant social circle that included the artist. Through their conversations, the women paint a luxurious picture of their time along the French Riviera in 1923, revealing to Alana not only an intimate glimpse into the life and work of the genius, but also unseen works of art, memories of a whirlwind romance, and hidden details that bring Alana closer to Picasso then she ever imagined.

Desperate to know the man who influenced so many parts of her life, Alana dives into the glamorous lives of the past. But to do so she must contend with her own reality, including a strained engagement, the male-dominated world of art journalism, and the rising threat to communists in America.]]> 352 Jeanne Mackin 1101990562 Cait 0 to-read 3.65 2024
author: Jeanne Mackin
name: Cait
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40944965 His first, last, and only true love has always been rugby.
Until now.

He wants to save her.
She wants to hide.

She's damaged.
He's determined.

Fate brought them together.
Love binds them.

Johnny Kavanagh has everything going for him. On the rugby pitch, he's a force to be reckoned with. Primed for stardom, he's heading straight for the top. Nothing can possibly get in his way, right?
Not even the shy new girl at Tommen College. The one with the sad eyes and hidden bruises. The one that distracts him like no one ever has.
Plagued with a hidden injury and desperate to impress the scouts watching his every move, Johnny has been placed on a pedestal so high, he has no room to make mistakes.
Striving to maintain balance, and on the crest of the International Summer Campaign, Johnny needs to keep his head in the game. He needs to stay focused, and cannot afford to let distractions get in the way of the bigger picture.
But what happens when a lonely girl with sad eyes becomes the only picture?

Life has never been easy for Shannon Lynch. Bullied and tortured, she arrives at Tommen College mid-way through the school year praying for a fresh start and desperate to shake off the demons that plague her.
On her very first day at the prestigious private school, she comes into contact with the notorious Johnny Kavanagh.
Thrown through a hoop over her feelings for him, and desperate to keep a low-profile, Shannon finds herself once again the target of bullies as she forms a fragile alliance with rugby's rising star.

Falling into a complicated friendship and grappling with their undeniable chemistry, Johnny and Shannon must face obstacles that threaten their relationship.

Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks collide.

Friendship, first love, rising fame, horrifying secrets, and pain all fuel together in Binding 13.

Hearts are binding and lives are entwining in Binding 13.

Binding 13 is the explosive first installment of a brand-new series from Chloe Walsh. Based in Ireland, the Boys Of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, love, and teenage heartbreak.]]> 626 Chloe Walsh Cait 3 4.43 2018
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Cait
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:
I didn’t like this but also couldn’t stop reading it??
]]> 53174067 In a world broken by war, a team of young warriors is willing to sacrifice everything to save what they love.

The Karensa Federation has conquered a dozen countries, leaving Mara as one of the last free nations in the world. Refugees flee to its borders to escape a fate worse than death—transformation into mutant war beasts known as Ghosts, creatures the Federation then sends to attack Mara.

The legendary Strikers, Mara's elite fighting force, are trained to stop them. But as the number of Ghosts grows and Karensa closes in, defeat seems inevitable.

Still, one Striker refuses to give up hope.

Robbed of her voice and home, Talin Kanami knows firsthand the brutality of the Federation. Their cruelty forced her and her mother to seek asylum in a country that considers their people repugnant. She finds comfort only with a handful of fellow Strikers who have pledged their lives to one another and who are determined to push Karensa back at all costs.

When a mysterious prisoner is brought from the front, Talin senses there’s more to him than meets the eye. Is he a spy from the Federation? Or could he be the weapon that will save them all?]]> 371 Marie Lu 1250221684 Cait 0 to-read 4.03 2020
author: Marie Lu
name: Cait
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53375824 From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Darkest Minds comes a sweepingly ambitious, high-octane tale of power, destiny, love and redemption.

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family's sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man--now a god--responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore's decision to bind her fate to Athena's and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost--and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.]]> 480 Alexandra Bracken 1484778200 Cait 0 to-read 3.74 2021
author: Alexandra Bracken
name: Cait
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62583508
They’re opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother’s wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer—destined to be one another’s great love story.

Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered.

But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can’t help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.

What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can’t let go?]]> 400 Claire Daverley 0593653483 Cait 0 to-read 3.91 2023
author: Claire Daverley
name: Cait
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 24453082 Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.]]> 276 Elizabeth Gilbert 1594634718 Cait 0 to-read 3.95 2015
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Cait
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61273342 In a near-future northern settlement, a handful of climate change survivors find their fates intertwined in this mesmerizing and transportive novel in the vein of Station Eleven and The Power.

In the far north of Canada sits Camp Zero, an American building project hiding many secrets.

Desperate to help her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother, Rose agrees to travel to Camp Zero and spy on its architect in exchange for housing. She arrives at the same time as another newcomer, a college professor named Grant who is determined to flee his wealthy family’s dark legacy. Gradually, they realize that there is more to the architect than previously thought, and a disturbing mystery lurks beneath the surface of the camp. At the same time, rumors abound of an elite group of women soldiers living and working at a nearby Cold War-era climate research station. What are they doing there? And who is leading them?

An electrifying page-turner where nothing is as it seems, Camp Zero cleverly explores how the intersection of gender, class, and migration will impact who and what will survive in a warming world.]]> 304 Michelle Min Sterling 1668007568 Cait 0 to-read 3.18 2023
author: Michelle Min Sterling
name: Cait
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127279000 What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.]]> 352 Amy Tintera 1250880319 Cait 0 to-read 4.07 2024
author: Amy Tintera
name: Cait
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54981009
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.]]> 307 Laura Dave 1501171348 Cait 0 to-read 3.78 2021
author: Laura Dave
name: Cait
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Cait 5 4.15 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Cait
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 58340706
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.]]> 399 Rachel Gillig 0316312487 Cait 0 to-read 4.26 2022
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Cait
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198563727 ��
When��a Zoom disaster upends Addison Irwin’s decade-long career at a posh Manhattan advertising agency, things look bleak for the thirty-something mid-western transplant. But an unexpected inheritance from an aunt she barely remembers—a property on Fire Island, complete with guest house and artist’s studio—changes everything.
��
While debating whether to stay or sell, Addison learns that she’s also inherited her aunt’s list of eclectic guests, tying her to the island for seven summer weekends. Eager to convince Addison to keep the house rather than let a new buyer build a monstrosity in its place, the neighbors welcome her to their laid-back community. Well, all except the moody guy next door, who seems intent on glowering his way through life.
��
Steadfast in her path since college, Addison is determined not to let this detour on Fire Island throw her off track. But soon, between the revolving door of weekend visitors and the up-and-down relationship with her neighbor (and his adorable dog), she finds herself in unfamiliar territory. Should she try��to pick up where she left off—or embrace entirely new possibilities?]]> 320 Jane L. Rosen 0593640918 Cait 0 to-read 3.62 2024
author: Jane L. Rosen
name: Cait
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60041932 True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.

Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.

Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...

Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.]]> 341 Jenna Levine 0593548914 Cait 0 to-read 3.46 2023
author: Jenna Levine
name: Cait
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51583112
His male boss.

Why, hello, midlife crisis. I’m starting over, but this time I’m doing it right. Or at least I’m doing what I want.

Taking the day off from work to hang out poolside? Yup. Do I leave the swimsuit in my house? Sure.

Does my very hot, twenty-something pool boy happen to catch me naked? Oh, yeah, he does. And he likes what he sees�� a lot.

My best friend keeps telling me to have a fling and get back out there. But I’m not so sure she meant for me to do it with her son.]]> 326 Nikki Sloane Cait 0 to-read 3.71 2020
author: Nikki Sloane
name: Cait
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 20706316
Kelley Quinn is the owner of Nantucket's Winter Street Inn and the proud father of four, all of them grown and living in varying states of disarray. Patrick, the eldest, is a hedge fund manager with a guilty conscience. Kevin, a bartender, is secretly sleeping with a French housekeeper named Isabelle. Ava, a school teacher, is finally dating the perfect guy but can't get him to commit. And Bart, the youngest and only child of Kelley's second marriage to Mitzi, has recently shocked everyone by joining the Marines.

As Christmas approaches, Kelley is looking forward to getting the family together for some quality time at the inn. But when he walks in on Mitzi kissing Santa Claus (or the guy who's playing Santa at the inn's annual party), utter chaos descends. With the three older children each reeling in their own dramas and Bart unreachable in Afghanistan, it might be up to Kelley's ex-wife, nightly news anchor Margaret Quinn, to save Christmas at the Winter Street Inn.

Before the mulled cider is gone, the delightfully dysfunctional Quinn family will survive a love triangle, an unplanned pregnancy, a federal crime, a small house fire, many shots of whiskey, and endless rounds of Christmas caroling, in this heart-warming novel about coming home for the holidays.]]> 246 Elin Hilderbrand 0316376116 Cait 0 to-read 3.74 2014
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Cait
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Cait 4 4.21 2024
author: Emily Henry
name: Cait
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars! The banter in this was SO good!
]]> 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds�� notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Cait 0 to-read 4.37 2024
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Cait
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199928276 A recently deceased woman meets “the one�� in the afterlife waiting room, scoring a second chance at life (and love!) if she can find him on Earth before ten days are up��.

If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. Not only did she just die by choking on a microwaveable burger, she’s also now standing in her "sparkle and shine" nightie in front of the hottest man she’s ever seen. And he’s smiling at her.

As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise. That is, until someone comes running through a door yelling something about a huge mistake and sends the dreamy stranger back down to Earth. And here Delphie was thinking her luck might be different in the afterlife.

When Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to Earth and reconnect with the mysterious man, she jumps at the opportunity to find her possible soulmate and a fresh start. But to find him in a city of millions, Delphie is going to have to listen to her heart, learn to ask for help, and perhaps even see the magic in the life she’s leaving behind. . . .]]> 369 Kirsty Greenwood 0593816137 Cait 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Kirsty Greenwood
name: Cait
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>