en-US Mon, 21 Apr 2025 14:10:50 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 56180769
Or so the world keeps telling me.

Every so often, gods walk the earth. This time they came as musicians. When Bound loses its lead guitarist, yours truly is chosen to fill his shoes. From dive bars to the big stage, my instant claim to fame is nothing short of a fairytale. The only problem?

My new bandmates.

Jaded, gorgeous, and ridiculously talented--they're determined to turn my dream into a nightmare. It's no secret I wasn't their first choice. I wasn't even their last. The label wants a new image, Bound wants me gone, but I've got my own agenda.
To succeed I have to survive a world tour, public scrutiny, and idols turned enemies. But the biggest threat of all isn't a meticulous front man, a narcissistic bassist, and a drummer with too many secrets.

It's me.

Somehow, I must resist the temptation of Houston Morrow, Loren James, and Jericho Noble.

It seemed easy enough when I boarded their tour bus, but it only took one city for the lines we'd drawn to blur.

Only ninety-nine more to go.

Lilac is a reverse harem and standalone suitable for ages 18+.]]> 556 B.B. Reid Darby 4 3.72 2020
author: B.B. Reid
name: Darby
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: 2025, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, neurodivergent, spicy
review:

]]> 202594184 From the International Bestselling Jacksonville Rays Hockey Series comes a second Happily Ever After novella!

PUCKING EVER VOL 2 provides readers with SEVEN new chapters of happily ever after content. This volume spans five years and includes swoony and spicy HEA stories for both the Price Family (PUCKING AROUND) and Tess & Ryan (PUCKING WILD).

"Come on daddy...don't make me beg."

"I can't breathe for wanting you. I have no pride left."

"Mars...do you love me?"

PUCKING EVER VOL 2 is a special collection of bonus scenes meant to be read after PUCKING WILD (book #2 in the Jax Rays hockey romance series). A list of tropes and tags can be found at the author's website. ]]> 262 Emily Rath 1962350002 Darby 5 4.28
author: Emily Rath
name: Darby
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: 2025, audiobook, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, library, series, short-stories, spicy
review:

]]> 40017945
Two sex addicts meet and fall in love. A woman catches her husband cheating on her with their dog and escapes to her sister's horse farm. Four friends—fellow pervs—grow up and drift apart, pining for each other in silence until one of them is murdered.

In Jess Taylor's sophomore story collection, contemporary views of female sexuality are subverted, and women are given agency over their desires and bodies. Through these characters, sex is revealed to be many things at gross, shameful, exhilarating, hidden or open—and always complicated. Reminiscent of the works of Maggie Nelson, Mary Gaitskill and Chris Kraus, the stories in Just Pervs explore the strange oppression and illumination created by desire, the bewilderment of adolescence, and the barriers to intimacy both discovered within and imposed upon ourselves.

Praise for Jess

"It's an exciting thing to behold; one gets the sense of discovering in her authentic, compelling voice a master-in-waiting, like a young Alice Munro." —National Post

"Taylor exhibits remarkable insights into matters of the fickle heart." —Toronto Star

"Taylor is adept at capturing the anxiety-ridden tenor of the current zeitgeist." —The Globe and Mail]]> Jess Taylor Darby 2 3.52 2019
author: Jess Taylor
name: Darby
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: 2025, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, short-stories, spicy
review:

]]> 62056935
The beautiful redhead has been a thorn in his side since they met, but she also consumes his thoughts in a way no woman ever has.

When their animosity explodes into one unforgettable night, he proposes a solution that’ll get her out of his system once and for all: an enemies with benefits arrangement with simple rules.

No jealousy.

No strings attached.

And absolutely no falling in love.

**

Outgoing and ambitious, Jules Ambrose is a former party girl who’s focused on one thing: passing the attorney’s bar exam.

The last thing she needs is to get involved with a doctor who puts the SUFFER in insufferable� no matter how good-looking he is.

But the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes there’s more than meets the eye to the man she’s hated for so long.

Her best friend’s brother.

Her nemesis.

And her only salvation.


Theirs is a match made in hell, and when the demons from their past catch up with them, they’re faced with truths that could either save them� or destroy everything they’ve worked for.

Twisted Hate is a steamy enemies with benefits/enemies to lovers romance. It's book three in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.

Warning: It contains explicit content and profanity. Recommended for 18+.]]> 500 Ana Huang 1728274885 Darby 4 3.88 2022
author: Ana Huang
name: Darby
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, contemporary, dark, drama-romance, library, series, spicy
review:

]]> 201017011 “I don’t need another kink.�

That thought pops into my head whenever I pull up my favorite social media app, but alas, every time I scroll, I learn something new about myself, and another one is born. And yes, I know I’m responsible for what the algorithm shows me, but I’m trying to ignore that fact.

Lately, my feed has been dominated by masked men. I’ve favorited videos with them dressed in full cosplay, decked out in futuristic military apparel, and wrapped up like ghouls.

But more than anything else, my FYP is filled with shirtless men wearing ghost masks. Bonus points if they’re heavily tattooed, wielding a knife, or covered in fake blood. At night, I dream about being chased by them, of them catching me and doing deliciously dark things to my more than willing body.

I never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become my new reality.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally grey male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to readers. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book. ]]> 338 Navessa Allen Darby 4 4.16 2024
author: Navessa Allen
name: Darby
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, dark, drama-romance, library, neurodivergent, series, spicy, suspense-thriller
review:

]]> 75434345 A naive activist is hired by a corporate villain but doesn’t realize it. Cue one awkward farce, a twisty puzzle, and the slowest of slow burns in this opposites-attract, ice queen romance.

Nine years ago, aloof, icy Michelle Hastings chose career over love. She’s now living with that choice as she rules a secret corporation catering to the rich and powerful.

Enter Eden Lawless. The guileless activist finds it a bit weird being employed by a mystery organization to bring down a corrupt mayor. But, hey, she’s up for a challenge. Much harder is getting her beautiful new boss out of her head. The pull between them is electric.

Book one in The Villains Series is a lesbian romance filled with intrigue, humor, and heart. It’s set in The Red Files universe but can be read as a standalone series.]]> 284 Lee Winter 3963247479 Darby 5 4.32 2023
author: Lee Winter
name: Darby
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, neurodivergent, series
review:

]]> 54860443
But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.]]> 418 Casey McQuiston 1250244498 Darby 5 3.90 2021
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Darby
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/05
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, comfort-rereads, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, neurodivergent, spicy
review:

]]> 43263029 Quiet does not equal weak�

Leaving a dependable job to apprentice as a tattoo artist was a drastic step after surviving breast cancer, but Cassie Whiteaker is nearly five years cancer-free. Nearly. She’s not ready to go out on her own until she clears that all-important hurdle. Also off-limits are relationships and sex—something Cassie is sure she’ll never want again.

Struggling tattoo shop owner MJ Flores doesn’t give a damn what people think, but losing Thorn & Thistle would mean losing everything. When her former mentor’s protégé arrives at her door, MJ hires her out of obligation…at first. Cross-stitching goody-goodies are not her type, but Cassie’s business background might just get the shop back on solid footing. They strike a bargain: Cassie will enact new marketing plans and MJ will teach her to find her inner bitch.

Only when clients request to see Cassie—having learned of the beautiful, compassionate tattoos she creates for survivors and their families—does MJ realize all Cassie has endured. And as Cassie’s fears fade, she finds it harder to keep her admiration for her bad-girl boss from reawakening all she’d feared was lost.

This book is approximately 82,000 words

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise : all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!
]]> 315 Jennie Davids 1488053812 Darby 4 3.81 2019
author: Jennie Davids
name: Darby
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/04
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chirpbooks, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, own, series, spicy
review:

]]> 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Darby 4 4.17 2019
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Darby
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/28
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2020, contemporary, crime-mystery, kindle, library, suspense-thriller, neurodivergent
review:
Good thriller. It was a page turner. I enjoyed seeing the story unfold with the twist and turns.
]]> 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Darby 3 3.81 2018
author: Sally Rooney
name: Darby
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/16
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2019, contemporary, drama-romance, spicy, kindle, library, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 60784549
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,� he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.]]> 432 T.J. Klune 125021744X Darby 5 3.90 2023
author: T.J. Klune
name: Darby
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/03
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2023, adventure, contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors, favorites, inspirational, lgbtq, library, scifi-fantasy, audiobook, wishlist, comfort-rereads, paranormal-magic, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Darby 5
My overall take away: It is okay to not have life figured out. Still live it. ]]> 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Darby
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/28
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2021, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, neurodivergent
review:
I don’t know if this was a good time for me to read this book or the perfect time.

My overall take away: It is okay to not have life figured out. Still live it.
]]> 36117813 What if you had a second chance at first love?

Annika Rose likes being alone.

She feels lost in social situations, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way. She just can't read people. She prefers the quiet solitude of books or playing chess to being around others. Apart from Jonathan. She liked being around him, but she hasn't seen him for ten years. Until now that is. And she's not sure he'll want to see her again after what happened all those years ago.

Annika Rose likes being alone.

Except that, actually, she doesn't like being alone at all.]]> 291 Tracey Garvis Graves 1250200350 Darby 4 3.89 2019
author: Tracey Garvis Graves
name: Darby
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/31
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2020, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 52380340 Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune's YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick's best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl meets Marissa Meyer's Renegades in TJ Klune's YA debut.]]> 405 T.J. Klune 1250203651 Darby 5 4.04 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: Darby
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/24
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2023, adventure, contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors, favorites, lgbtq, library, scifi-fantasy, series, ya, audiobook, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 22628 offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see
what it looks like from the dance floor.

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being A WALLFLOWER

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

(back cover)]]> 213 Stephen Chbosky Darby 4 4.24 1999
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: Darby
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2013/03/18
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2013, ya, contemporary, movie-tv, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 36199084 A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...]]> 323 Helen Hoang 0451490819 Darby 4 3.88 2018
author: Helen Hoang
name: Darby
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, library, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 199259115
Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he's determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. He knows she has a past, one that has made her skittish about getting into a relationship, so he proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached.

But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, Braden decides he won't be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her...down to the very soul.]]> 415 Samantha Young Darby 3 3.89 2012
author: Samantha Young
name: Darby
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chirpbooks, contemporary, drama-romance, own, series, spicy
review:

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

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

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

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love - and rethink her own ideas of what happily ever after should look like.]]> 356 Lynn Painter 1534467629 Darby 5 4.28 2021
author: Lynn Painter
name: Darby
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, comfort-rereads, contemporary, drama-romance, library, series, ya
review:

]]> 194803857 A raucous and wickedly smart satire of Hollywood, toxic fandom, and our chronically online culture, following a washed-up actor on his quest to revive the cult TV show that catapulted him to teenage fame

David Crader is a has-been. A former child actor from the hit teen drama Rev Beach, he now rotates between his new roles as deadbeat dad, recovering alcoholic, and occasional videogame voice actor. But when David is summoned to Los Angeles by Grace, his ex-wife and former co-star, he suddenly sees an opportunity for a reboot—not just of the show that made him famous, but also of his listless existence.

Hollywood, the Internet, and a fractured nation have other plans, however, and David soon drinks himself to a realization: This seemingly innocuous revival of an old Buffy rip-off could be the spark that sets ablaze a nation gripped by far-right conspiracy, climate catastrophe, and mass violence.

Reboot is a madcap speculative comedy for our era of glass-eyed doom-scrolling and Millennial nostalgia—and yet it’s still full of heart. It’s a tale of former teen heartthrobs, striving parents, internet edgelords, and fish-faced cryptids, for anyone who has looked back on their life and wanted—even if but for a moment—to hit “reset.”]]> 304 Justin Taylor 0553387626 Darby 3 2.94 2024
author: Justin Taylor
name: Darby
average rating: 2.94
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/09
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, library
review:

]]> 34848965 New enemies rise from the shadows in the next novel of the New York Times bestselling paranormal romance series the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Having allied themselves with the Band of Bastards, the Brotherhood is committed now more than ever to eradicating the Lessening Society. Recovering from their most recent battle against the last of the lessers, the Brotherhood comes to realize that the fight against their enemies is far from over.

Throe, Xcor’s former second in command, is using an ancient tome to summon a new army engineered by a force more dangerous and evil than the Omega.

And now the brothers of the Black Dagger Brotherhood will be tested both at home and on the battlefield.]]> 454 J.R. Ward 0349409218 Darby 4 4.15 2018
author: J.R. Ward
name: Darby
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: 2020, drama-romance, spicy, kindle, library, scifi-fantasy, series, paranormal-magic, lgbtq, 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, contemporary
review:

]]> 27833861 Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life returns with a literary experience that is unprecedented, unforgettable, and explosively human.

In the ten years since the publication of her beloved, groundbreaking Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, #1 New York Times bestselling author Amy Krouse Rosenthal has been quietly tinkering away. Using her distinct blend of nonlinear narrative, wistful reflections, and insightful wit, she has created a modest but mighty new work.

Why the title T​extbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal?�

� Because the book is organized into chapters with classic subject headings such as Social Studies, Music, Language Arts, Math, etc.

� Because textbook ​is an expression meaning “quintessential,� as in, Oh, that wordplay and unconventional format is so typical of her, so textbook Amy.

� Because for the first time ever, readers can further engage with a book via text messaging.

� Because if an author’s previous book has E​ncyclopedia i​n the title, following it up with a ​Textbook would be rather nice.

Not exactly a memoir, not just a collection of observations, Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal is an exploration into the many ways we are connected on this planet and speaks to the awe, bewilderment, and poignancy of being alive.]]> 336 Amy Krouse Rosenthal 1101984546 Darby 4 4.18 2016
author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
name: Darby
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, home-life, humor, library, non-fiction, short-stories
review:

]]> 59808037
Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz’s most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.]]> 195 Angie Cruz 1250208459 Darby 3 3.87 2022
author: Angie Cruz
name: Darby
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/04/27
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, library
review:

]]> 75340633 He just won control of his legacy. Loving her could cost him everything.

Billionaire Hayes Rivers came into my life like a hurricane...

Heir to an oil empire, he was sexy and seductive, controlling and scorching hot. I craved every touch, every filthy promise that fell from his beautiful mouth, knowing he could break me. My past had left me battered and bruised, with scars he was determined to heal.

Loving him was like drowning—he consumed me, body and soul.

But Hayes has secrets of his own. And nothing could prepare me for the shocking pieces of our pasts that threaten to rip us apart.

When the truth is revealed will our love be enough to shelter the storm?]]> 380 Dylan Allen Darby 4 3.64 2018
author: Dylan Allen
name: Darby
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/20
date added: 2024/04/20
shelves: 2024, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, series, spicy
review:

]]> 75665887 Can they stop hating each other long enough to fall in love?

A commitment-phobe and a hopeless romantic clash over and over again--until heartbreak and unexpected chemistry bring them together in this clever enemies-to-friends-to-lovers debut romance.

When Ari and Josh first meet, the wrong kind of sparks fly. They hate each other. Instantly.

A free-spirited, struggling comedian who likes to keep things casual, Ari sublets, takes gigs, and she never sleeps over after hooking up. Born-and-bred Manhattanite Josh has ambitious plans: Take the culinary world by storm, find The One, and make her breakfast in his spotless kitchen. They have absolutely nothing in common . . . except that they happen to be sleeping with the same woman.

Ari and Josh never expect their paths to cross again. But years later, as they're both reeling from ego-bruising breakups, a chance encounter leads to a surprising connection: friendship. Turns out, spending time with your former nemesis is fun when you're too sad to hate each other--and too sad for hate sex.

As friends-without-benefits, they find comfort in late-night Netflix binges, swiping through each other's online dating profiles, and bickering across boroughs. It's better than romance. Until one night, the unspoken boundaries of their platonic relationship begin to blur. . . .

With sharp observations and sizzling chemistry, You, Again explores the dynamics of co-ed friendship in this sparkling romantic comedy of modern love in all its forms.]]> 448 Kate Goldbeck 059344812X Darby 5 3.55 2023
author: Kate Goldbeck
name: Darby
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library
review:

]]> 60685887
That didn’t happen. Now, I’m in a living nightmare as I work alongside this monster of a man with mesmerizing emerald eyes that look at me inappropriately every time I see him. To add insult to injury, he has a tan I just want to lick, and a butt worth drooling over every time he purposefully walks by me. But, he's an asshat, and looks are everything. I mean, aren't. LOOKS. ARE. NOT. EVERYTHING. Why do I have to keep reminding myself of this?

His job is to clean, cook, and tend to the house we work in. That's why I call him the manservant. Oh, and because it drives him nuts. That's what he gets for torturing me.

This is a story of little restraint, too much desire, questionable actions, no strength whatsoever, and the best sex I've ever had.

The question is: Do I fall for this crude manservant whose idea of a fun time is to tie people up and do obscene things, or do I give him a taste of his own medicine?

All I'm going to say is . . . Things get weird, then hot, then weird again, and—you get my drift.

Go ahead and laugh. It might not be so funny if it happened to you.]]> Shari J. Ryan Darby 4 This book is spicy 3.70 2017
author: Shari J. Ryan
name: Darby
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, chirpbooks, contemporary, drama-romance, own, series, spicy
review:
This book is spicy
]]> 28587609 Welcome to Panic, a sultry Miami nightclub where bodies and hearts move to a beat that doesn’t stop at sunrise—the setting for “a magnificent story full of deep emotion� (Sawyer Bennett).

I thought I could enjoy a night out like a normal person. I thought I could handle the flashing lights, the pulsing music, the crowded dance floor. I couldn’t have been more wrong. After having an anxiety attack and passing out during my sister’s engagement party at Panic, I wake up in the arms of the hottest guy I’ve ever seen. Nick Moreno’s no gentleman. But he might just be the man I need to help me take control of my life.

When I hear there’s some random girl passed out in the back room of my family’s South Beach nightclub, I’m pissed. My dad’s already behind bars and we can’t afford any more bad press. But after giving her a lift—literally—back to her apartment, I stop seeing Katherine Wilson as some random girl. She’s gorgeous, vulnerable, and braver than she knows. And when we kiss, all I want to do is pull her close and promise that she’ll always be safe in my arms.
]]> 247 Sidney Halston 0399593896 Darby 4 3.94 2016
author: Sidney Halston
name: Darby
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/13
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chirpbooks, contemporary, drama-romance, own, series, spicy
review:

]]> 42849258
But nothing prepared me for losing my wife. I promised her that I’d love again. Find someone to mend my broken heart. And that seems impossible, until the day that I walk into Tilly Carter’s cupcake shop.

I’ve never met a woman like her—sassy, dirty-mouthed, and smells like vanilla and sin. Someone that makes me want to sweep her off her feet.

But there’s pain in her emerald eyes that mirrors my own.
A past that neither of us can truly escape.

Now that I have her, I’ll do anything to keep her.

Hook is the third book in the STANDALONE USA Today bestselling Men of Inked: Southside series.

Book 1 - Maneuver
Book 2 - Flow
Book 3 - Hook
Book 4 - Hustle]]> 368 Chelle Bliss Darby 4 4.43 2018
author: Chelle Bliss
name: Darby
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves: 2024, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, own, series, spicy
review:

]]> 61054804 On the wheel of fortune, who will emerge on top... and who will die?

When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she hopes to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.

There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, including Patrick Roland, the museum's mercurial curator who specializes in the history of tarot; Rachel Mondray, Patrick's beautiful curatorial associate and sometime muse; and Leo Bitburg, the gardener who nurtures the museum's precious collection of medicinal and poison plants.

Relieved to have left her troubled past in rural Washington behind her, Ann longs for the approbation of her colleagues and peers and is happy to indulge their more outlandish theories, only to find that their fascination with fortune-telling runs deeper than academic obsession. Patrick is determined to prove that ancient divination holds the key to the foretelling of the future. And when Ann stumbles across a breakthrough in the form of a mysterious and previously-believed lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards, she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.

Then there is an unexpected and devastating death, and suddenly everyone becomes a suspect. As the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide if the tarot cards can not only teach her about the past, but also about her future.]]> 312 Katy Hays 1668004402 Darby 4 3.35 2022
author: Katy Hays
name: Darby
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, library, suspense-thriller
review:

]]> 61190770
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.]]> 367 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 0593317335 Darby 5
(This book might have meant more to me because I have been support staff for those that defend and advocate for prisoners and so by second hand contact heard important stories.)]]> 4.13 2023
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: Darby
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, scifi-fantasy
review:
Brilliant and brutal book. It pretty much engaged me from first chapter and I couldn’t put it down. This is what I would call a dystopian book that feels like it could be reality at some point. It has actual facts in the book about prisons and those convicted of crimes. The plot weaves through to support and depict the facts. Sometimes books with over 5 to 7 significant characters can be confusing, but this one seemed to differentiate them well enough that I could follow each story and how they developed throughout the book. I didn’t like how it ended, but understand why it ended that way. This book will probably end up in my top 10 for 2024.

(This book might have meant more to me because I have been support staff for those that defend and advocate for prisoners and so by second hand contact heard important stories.)
]]> 39280444
"Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say."

From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.

In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.

Speak was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.]]> 224 Laurie Halse Anderson 0374311250 Darby 4 4.13 1999
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: Darby
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: 2024, audiobook, classics, drama-romance, library, ya, contemporary
review:

]]> 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 Darby 4 4.25 2021
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Darby
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/21
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: 2024, audiobook, contemporary, library, memoir-truestories, non-fiction
review:

]]> 43680369 From a writer who worked at the Metropolitan Museum for more than twenty-five years, an enchanting novel that shows us the Met that the public doesn't see.

Hidden behind the Picassos and Vermeers, the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing, exists another world: the hallways and offices, conservation studios, storerooms, and cafeteria that are home to the museum's devoted and peculiar staff of 2,200 people--along with a few ghosts.

A surreal love letter to this private side of the Met, Metropolitan Stories unfolds in a series of amusing and poignant vignettes in which we discover larger-than-life characters, the downside of survival, and the powerful voices of the art itself. The result is a novel bursting with magic, humor, and energetic detail, but also a beautiful book about introspection, an ode to lives lived for art, ultimately building a powerful collage of human experience and the world of the imagination.]]> 249 Christine Coulson 1590510585 Darby 4 3.67 2019
author: Christine Coulson
name: Darby
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chirpbooks, contemporary, drama-romance, own, art-crafts, scifi-fantasy, short-stories
review:

]]> 40864790 In Pumpkinheads author Rainbow Rowell and artist Faith Erin Hicks have teamed up to create this tender and hilarious story about two irresistible teens discovering what it means to leave behind a place―and a person―with no regrets.

Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends.

Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1.

But this Halloween is different—Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye.

Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if—instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut—they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . .

What if their last shift was an adventure?]]> 209 Rainbow Rowell 125031285X Darby 5 4.01 2019
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Darby
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves: 2024, adventure, comfort-rereads, contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors, graphic-novel, library, picture-books
review:

]]> 23492661
From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.]]> 342 Taylor Jenkins Reid Darby 4 3.77 2015
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Darby
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chirpbooks, comfort-rereads, contemporary, drama-romance, own, chick-lit
review:

]]> 51179990 With nods to Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice, a charming #ownvoices queer rom-com debut about a free-spirited social media astrologer who agrees to fake a relationship with an uptight actuary until New Year’s Eve—with results not even the stars could predict!

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy’s brother—and Elle's new business partner—expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because... awkward.

When Darcy begs Elle to play along, she agrees to pretend they’re dating to save face. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family over the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a fake relationship.

But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?]]> 370 Alexandria Bellefleur 0063000806 Darby 4 3.85 2020
author: Alexandria Bellefleur
name: Darby
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, series
review:
Lovely story with relatable characters that are well developed characters. This is a LGBTQ story and it is always good to have representation especially in a romance book as the MAIN characters. Loved Elle’s personality and all her pop culture references.
]]> 33413128
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.]]> 432 Fredrik Backman Darby 4 4.27 2016
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Darby
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/29
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves: 2024, audiobook, drama-romance, library, movie-tv, series, contemporary
review:

]]> 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Darby 4 4.14 2023
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Darby
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/25
shelves: 2024, audiobook, drama-romance, historical-fiction, library, contemporary
review:

]]> 24501369 Ěý
Life isn’t easy for single mother Ally Hughes. Teaching at Brown, her class load is huge and her boss is a menace. At home, she contends with a critical mother, a falling-down house, and a daughter who never misses a beat. Between taking care of the people she loves, teaching full time, and making ends meet, Ally doesn't have time for a man. She doesn’t date. She’s not into flings. But then she meets Jake, an eager student, young in years but old in soul, who challenges his favorite professor to open up her life, and her heart, to love. It doesn't work. In fact, his urging backfires.

Ten years later, Ally's still single. Jake reappears and surprises her in a brand-new He's dating Ally's now-grown daughter. In this hilarious, heartrending tale, Ally is finally forced to concede (not only to herself) that an independent, "liberated" woman can still make room in her life for love.]]> 278 Jules Moulin 0525955216 Darby 4 3.28 2015
author: Jules Moulin
name: Darby
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/26
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: 2020, contemporary, drama-romance, spicy, kindle, library, chick-lit
review:
Enjoyable romance novel. Fun chick lit.
]]> 90590131 A fake relationship after a horrible one-night stand is anything but an act in this witty and heartfelt new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake.

Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are all coupled up, her siblings have partners that are perfect for them, and her parents are still blissfully married. And she's happy for all of them, truly. Iris doesn't want any of that--dating, love, romance. She'll stick to her commitment-free hookups, thanks very much, except no one in her life will just let her be. Everyone wants to see her settled down, but she holds firmly to her no dating rule. There's only one problem--Iris is a romance author facing an imminent deadline for her second book, and she's completely out of ideas.

Perfectly happy to ignore her problems as per usual, Iris goes to a bar in Portland and meets a sexy stranger, Stefania, and a night of dancing and making out turns into the worst one-night stand Iris has had in her life. To get her mind off everything, Iris tries out for the lead role in a local play, a queer retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, but comes face-to-face with Stefania, whose real name turns out to be Stevie. Desperate to save face in front of her friends, Stevie asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend. Iris is shocked, but when she realizes the arrangement might provide her with some much-needed romantic content for her book, she agrees. As the two women play the part of a happy couple, lines start to blur, and they're left wondering who will make the real first move....]]> 402 Ashley Herring Blake 0593550579 Darby 4 4.15 2023
author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Darby
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: 2024, audiobook, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, spicy
review:

]]> 58724889
Like we said, the new day can take a hike.]]> 352 Darynda Jones 1250233143 Darby 5 4.17 2022
author: Darynda Jones
name: Darby
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/15
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: 2023, audiobook, chick-lit, comfort-rereads, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, humor, library, series, suspense-thriller
review:

]]> 53137959
All Sunshine really wants is one easy-going day. You know, the kind that starts with coffee and a donut (or three) and ends with take-out pizza and a glass of chardonnay (or seven). Turns out, that's about as easy as switching to decaf. (What kind of people do that? And who hurt them?)

Before she can say iced mocha latte, Sunny's got a bar fight gone bad, a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer and, oh yes, the still unresolved mystery of her own abduction years prior. All evidence points to a local distiller, a dangerous bad boy named Levi Ravinder, but Sun knows he's not the villain of her story. Still, perhaps beneath it all, he possesses the keys to her disappearance. At the very least, beneath it all, he possesses a serious set of abs. She's seen it. Once. Accidentally.

Between policing a town her hunky chief deputy calls four cents short of a nickel, that pesky crush she has on Levi which seems to grow exponentially every day, and an irascible raccoon that just doesn't know when to quit, Sunny's life is about to rocket to a whole new level of crazy.

Yep, definitely a good day for chardonnay.]]> 416 Darynda Jones 1250233119 Darby 5 4.19 2021
author: Darynda Jones
name: Darby
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: 2023, audiobook, chick-lit, comfort-rereads, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, humor, library, spicy, suspense-thriller
review:

]]> 45046796 396 Darynda Jones 1250149444 Darby 5 4.02 2020
author: Darynda Jones
name: Darby
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/13
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: 2023, audiobook, chick-lit, comfort-rereads, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, humor, library, series, suspense-thriller
review:
Enjoy Stephanie Plum, but want a little more depth? Enjoyed the characters and their range of emotions and background. Made me laugh out loud and tear up. Good plot and want to see where these characters go and how the on going plot plays out.
]]> 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Darby 4 3.77 2023
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Darby
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/29
date added: 2023/12/29
shelves: 2023, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, library, paranormal-magic, suspense-thriller
review:
I am going between 4 and 5 stars for this one. I couldn’t put it down, but at the same time the plot gave me anxiety as I read it because I felt it building and the nightmare they were all battling becoming more and more real. So to me that means really good book to make me feel it so much. I didn’t like feeling that way though so that is why it is a 4 star for me at this moment. Maybe a few days away from reading it - it will move to a 5.
]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Darby 4 3.66 2015
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Darby
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
shelves: 2023, audiobook, contemporary, drama-romance, library, scifi-fantasy
review:

]]> 35605493 A personal and culture-driven exploration of the most pressing questions facing the transgender community today, from a leading activist, musician, and academic
In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues, to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done.
Trans Like Me explores the ways that we are all defined by ideas of gender--whether we live as he, she, or they--and how we can strive for authenticity in a world that forces limiting labels.]]> 240 C.N. Lester 1580057853 Darby 4 4.36 2017
author: C.N. Lester
name: Darby
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/13
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves: 2023, contemporary, home-life, inspirational, lgbtq, non-fiction, own
review:

]]> 33860854 318 Sawyer Bennett Darby 4 4.04 2017
author: Sawyer Bennett
name: Darby
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: 2023, audiobook, chirpbooks, contemporary, drama-romance, own, spicy
review:

]]> 56922701
Sofia har ærlig talt heller ikke lyst til at byde Carmen velkommen. Hendes søster har altid været sarkastisk og umedgørlig. Men Sofia venter sig igen, boghandlen mangler hænder, og deres mors største ønske er, at de to søstre kommer bedre ud af det med hinanden. Måske skulle hun give Carmen en chance?

På Sofias foranledning hvirvles Carmen snart ind i den gamle boghandels daglige trummerum. Det viser sig dog, at det vil kræve et sandt julemirakel at få den på rette kurs igen. Kan Carmen mon overraske dem alle denne jul? Og kan hun klinke skårene med de vigtigste mennesker i hendes liv: sin familie?]]> 310 Jenny Colgan 0063141671 Darby 5 3.61 2021
author: Jenny Colgan
name: Darby
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/28
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves: 2022, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, favorites, own, read-again, booksaboutbooks, audiobook, chirpbooks, comfort-rereads
review:
Just a feel good novel. Loved the main character and all those in her story.
]]> 53205888 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 376 T.J. Klune 1250217342 Darby 5 4.11 2021
author: T.J. Klune
name: Darby
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/08
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors, favorites, humor, inspirational, lgbtq, library, paranormal-magic, read-again, scifi-fantasy, spirituality, wishlist, audiobook
review:

]]> 53830712
Good-girl Erica Teague is out on bail, charged with a crime her ex-lover committed. A lifetime of sticking to the rules has left her broke, burned, and facing a trial and certain conviction, thanks to the evidence planted by her trust-funder ex. Desperate to experience one wild night of sizzling sex before her freedom is torn away from her, Erica heads to a notorious night club in search of a one-night stand -- where a case of mistaken identity lands her in the arms of a hot Scot with a secret past.

The passion igniting between them is explosive, but Lachlan MacTaggart wants nothing to do with relationships or commitment. When he offers Erica one month of sex and companionship with no strings, she can't resist succumbing to her electric lust for the Scotsman. Soon, though, Erica's ex begins harassing her and Lachlan's haunted past catches up with him. When their hot fling gets personal, the last thing either of them wanted may become the one thing that frees their imprisoned hearts.]]> Anna Durand 1934631779 Darby 4 3.74 2016
author: Anna Durand
name: Darby
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/02
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, own, series, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 24611840
Over the course of a thirty-year career, Eddie Izzard has proven herself to be a creative chameleon, inhabiting the stage and film and television screen with an unbelievable fervor. Born in Yemen, and raised in Ireland, Wales and post-war England, she lost her mother at the age of six. In her teens, she dropped out of university and took to the streets of London as part of a two-person escape act; when her partner went on vacation, Izzard kept busy by inventing a one-person act, and thus a career was ignited. As a stand-up comedian, Izzard has captivated audiences with her surreal, stream-of-consciousness comedy--lines such as "Cake or Death?" "Death Star Canteen," and "Do You Have a Flag?" have the status of great rock lyrics. As a self-proclaimed "Executive Transvestite," Izzard broke the mold performing in full make-up and heels, and has become as famous for her advocacy for LGBT rights as she has for her art. In Believe Me, she recounts the dizzying rise she made from street busking to London's West End, to Wembley Stadium and New York's Madison Square Garden.

Still performing more than 100 shows a year--thus far in a record-breaking twenty-eight countries worldwide--Izzard is arguably one of today's top Kings of Comedy. With her brand of keenly intelligent humor, that ranges from world history to pop culture, politics and philosophy, she has built an extraordinary fan base that transcends age, gender, and race. Writing with the same candor and razor-sharp insight evident in her comedy, she reflects on a childhood marked by unutterable loss, sexuality and coming out, as well as a life in show business, politics, and philanthropy. Honest and generous, Izzard's Believe Me is an inspired account of a very singular life thus far.]]> 15 Eddie Izzard 1611764696 Darby 4 3.86 2017
author: Eddie Izzard
name: Darby
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/14
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: 2023, humor, inspirational, kindle, memoir-truestories, non-fiction, own, audiobook, chirpbooks, contemporary, lgbtq
review:

]]> 28372019
Ěý

Nina is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion� and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.

Ěý

Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile â€� a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.Ěý

From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home� a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.]]> 348 Jenny Colgan 0062467263 Darby 5 3.80 2016
author: Jenny Colgan
name: Darby
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: 2020, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, chick-lit, 2023, series, audiobook, booksaboutbooks, chirpbooks, comfort-rereads, favorites, own
review:
Quick, fun romance novel. Enjoyed the story and characters so much. I was delighted to see where they ended up, but also didn’t want to leave them when the book ended.
]]> 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Darby 5
As I read, I would make exclamations out loud and my partner would often wonder what was wrong with me. I would have to explain it was the book I was reading making me react.

My partner replied, “Must be a good book.�

Definitely was more than good. Excellent! ]]> 4.13 2016
author: Blake Crouch
name: Darby
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/15
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: 2020, crime-mystery, drama-romance, favorites, kindle, library, scifi-fantasy, suspense-thriller, favorite-authors, 2023, adventure, audiobook, comfort-rereads, contemporary
review:
I have read 2 of Blake Crouch books and each time I am on the edge of my seat needing to find out what happens. Love this sci-fi thriller.

As I read, I would make exclamations out loud and my partner would often wonder what was wrong with me. I would have to explain it was the book I was reading making me react.

My partner replied, “Must be a good book.�

Definitely was more than good. Excellent!
]]> 23513349 Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.

It is split into four chapters, with each chapter dealing with a different pain. Healing a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them -- because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.]]> 204 Rupi Kaur 1502784270 Darby 3 3.96 2014
author: Rupi Kaur
name: Darby
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/04
date added: 2023/11/04
shelves: 2023, contemporary, kindle, library, poetry
review:

]]> 36036244 Her first love confessed to five murders. But the truth was so much worse.

Dublin's notorious Canal Killer, Will Hurley, is ten years into his life sentence when the body of a young woman is fished out of the Grand Canal. Though detectives suspect they are dealing with a copycat, they turn to Will for help. He claims he has the information the police need, but will only give it to one person - the girl he was dating when he committed his horrific crimes.

Alison Smith has spent the last decade abroad, putting her shattered life in Ireland far behind her. But when she gets a request from Dublin imploring her to help prevent another senseless murder, she is pulled back to face the past - and the man - she's worked so hard to forget.]]> 330 Catherine Ryan Howard 1504782542 Darby 4 3.83 2018
author: Catherine Ryan Howard
name: Darby
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/29
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2022, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, own, suspense-thriller, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 59314715 The acclaimed, bestselling author of This Could Hurt returns with her biggest, boldest novel yet--an electrifying, twisty, and deeply emotional family drama, set on Manhattan's glittering Upper East Side, that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty, and the high cost of truth.

You can have everything, and still not have enough.

Cassie Quinn may only be twenty-three, but she knows a few things. One: money can't buy happiness, but it's certainly better to have it. Two: family matters most. Three: her younger brother Billy is not a rapist.

When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her big brother Nate and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the best legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the all-too-familiar sex-offender profile--white, athletic, and privileged--that makes headlines and sways juries.

Meanwhile, Cassie struggles to understand why Billy's ex Diana would go this far, even if the breakup was painful. And she knows how the end of first love can destroy someone: Her own years-long affair with a powerful, charismatic man left her shattered, and she's only recently regained her footing.

As reporters converge outside their Upper East Side landmark building, the Quinns gird themselves for a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows she'll do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means exposing her own darkest secrets to the world?]]> 336 Jillian Medoff 0063142023 Darby 4 3.37 2022
author: Jillian Medoff
name: Darby
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, own, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 42772059 Rachel Linden’s newest contemporary women’s fiction story speaks to the universal struggle of what it means to live a meaningful life where the passions we have meet the needs of the world.

At 26, idealistic baker Mia West has her entire life planned out: a Craftsman cottage in Seattle, baking at The Butter Emporium, and the love of her life, her boyfriend Ethan, by her side.Ěý But when Ethan breaks up with her instead of proposing on their sixthĚýdating anniversary (with the Tiffany blue box in his pocket), Mia’s carefully planned future crumbles.

Adrift and devastated, she determines to find new meaning in her life by helping those in need. Guided by recurring dreams about honeybees that seem to be leading her toward this new path in life, Mia joins her vivacious housemate Rosie on an around-the-world humanitarian trip funded by the reclusive billionaire, Lars Lindstrom. Along with a famous grunge rock star, an Ethiopian immigrant, and an unsettlingly attractive Hawaiian urban farmer named Kai, Mia and Rosie embark on the trip of a lifetime. From the slums of Mumbai to a Hungarian border camp during the refugee crisis, Mia’s eyes are opened and her idealistic vision is challenged as she experiences the euphoria, disillusionment, and heartbreaking reality of humanitarian work abroad.

As Mia grapples with how to make a difference in an overwhelmingly difficult world, circumstances force her to choose between the life she thought she wanted and the unexpected life she has built.]]> 336 Rachel Linden 0785221409 Darby 4 3.63 2019
author: Rachel Linden
name: Darby
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/05
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2022, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, inspirational, own, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 58916147 A newer cover edition can be found here.

In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 418 Gabrielle Zevin Darby 5 4.26 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Darby
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/05
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, favorites, library, audiobook
review:

]]> 55301696 224 Ruby Rare 1526628376 Darby 4 4.55 2020
author: Ruby Rare
name: Darby
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2022, contemporary, home-life, non-fiction, own, self-help, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:
Good modern take on Sex Education.
]]> 51131239 Beth Duke, Author of #1 Best Seller It All Comes Back to You, delivers an emotional and inspiring novel about family, from the roots that ground us to the branches that allow us to take flight."Beth Duke is a poet disguised as a Southern novelist. Tapestry made me laugh, made me think and in the end, made me cry. Tapestry delivers on ALL counts.�-Dan Brown, Author of ReunionTwenty-one-year-old Skye Willis lives in Eufaula, Alabama, a tourist mecca of stately homes and world-class bass fishing. Her childhood friends are either stuck at dead ends or have moved on to accomplish Big Things.Skye’s grandmother, Verna, insists on being called “Sparrow� because she suspects her ancestors were Muscogee Creek. She dresses in faux deerskin and experiments with ancient Native American recipes, offering a myth or legend to anyone who will listen.Skye has no idea what to do with her life. She’s smart as hell, but she has no faith or knowledge there’s something out there she was “born to do.� Nor does she know much of anything about her father, who died in Afghanistan when she was a toddler. He and his family are a mystery her mother won’t discuss.But when Sparrow sets out to confirm her Creek ancestry through genetic testing, Skye joins in.The results hit like a DNA bomb, launching them both on a path filled with surprises and life-changing events.Skye learns a harder truth than she ever expected.Alternating chapters between Skye’s Alabama life and an intertwining tale of greed, deceit, and control in Texas, this story offers proof that all life is a woven tapestry of past, present, and future.In Beth Duke’s uplifting and soul-singing voice, TAPESTRY is Southern Fiction at its best; you will cry, you will laugh out loud, and you will wish you were a member of the beautiful, matriarchal family Duke has created for her readers. This book is a must-read for fans of Fannie Flagg, Rebecca Wells and Anne Rivers Siddons.]]> 348 Beth Duke Darby 4 4.06
author: Beth Duke
name: Darby
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2022, contemporary, drama-romance, own, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 22603585 Private Relations won the 1989 RITA Award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel from the Romance Writers of America.]]> 352 Diane Chamberlain 0988205769 Darby 4 3.75 1989
author: Diane Chamberlain
name: Darby
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/04
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors, own, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 54789700
Will Orpheus be able to find it? Will she ever be allowed to love again? Panpocalypse—first published as an online serial in spring of 2020—follows a lonely, disabled, poly hero in this novel about disease, decay, love, and revolution.]]> 189 Carley Moore Darby 4 3.51 2022
author: Carley Moore
name: Darby
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/23
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, humor, lgbtq, memoir-truestories, own, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 56487953 Sometimes you have to play dirty.

I’m Paige Harper and I clean up supernatural messes. But my personal life is something I can’t seem to straighten out.

I accidentally married a fae, and even though we've been divorced for years, Jax still manages to land me in hot water. Like, putting my house on the table at a high stakes poker game type of hot.

Now, he's been arrested for murder and the cops want to pin a series of vampire killings on him. I don't know if he did it or not. But I do know he needs to be at that poker game or else my house is gone.

In order to get Jax out, I turn to Nico, a one-eyed werewolf private detective, for help. Nico is a handsome, dangerous, ladies man and I have no intention of falling prey to his charms.

Although, that's easier said than done as the two of us begin crawling through the dirty underbelly of the supernatural world�

It’s a good thing I brought my broom.

Grave New World is the first book in an all new paranormal mystery series filled with laughs and romance!]]> 212 Demitria Lunetta Darby 4 3.97 2020
author: Demitria Lunetta
name: Darby
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/13
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, chick-lit, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, humor, own, paranormal-magic, scifi-fantasy, series, suspense-thriller, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 55276648 An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading listâ€� hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.Ěý]]> 368 Sara Nisha Adams 0063025280 Darby 4 4.02 2021
author: Sara Nisha Adams
name: Darby
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/29
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, favorites, own, booksaboutbooks, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 60701439
One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…]]> 336 Jen Beagin 1982153083 Darby 3 3.69 2023
author: Jen Beagin
name: Darby
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/01
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, audiobook
review:

]]> 60305888 I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books.

If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules.

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything.

Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.]]> 336 Shauna Robinson Darby 4 3.74 2022
author: Shauna Robinson
name: Darby
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/27
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, own, booksaboutbooks, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 38619703
Those were the rules.

It took one heartbeat to fall in love with my best friend’s little sister.
One more to know I could never, ever let it show.
So I broke her heart and left her behind to go to war.

She wasn’t supposed to walk back into the wreckage of my life.

Now my Sunny is all grown up. All woman.
She has eyes like liquid heat, curves that beg for my hands, and a mouth that’s hungry for mine.

I shouldn’t look. I shouldn’t touch.

But the rules are no match for one hot, reckless kiss.
And this time, I’m not walking away.
]]> 296 Amelia Wilde Darby 4 3.82 2018
author: Amelia Wilde
name: Darby
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/03
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, chick-lit, drama-romance, own, series, contemporary, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 56179360
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline. As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 372 Ryka Aoki 1250789060 Darby 5 4.03 2021
author: Ryka Aoki
name: Darby
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, favorites, lgbtq, library, scifi-fantasy, audiobook
review:

]]> 32077959
As the connection between the two women is rekindled, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And after a decade’s worth of lying, can Lucky break free of her own circumstances and build a new life? Is she willing to walk away from all that she values about her parents and community to live in a new truth? As Lucky—an outsider no matter what choices she makes—is pushed to the breaking point, Marriage of a Thousand Lies offers a vivid exploration of a life lived at a complex intersection of race, sexuality, and nationality. The result is a profoundly American debut novel shot through with humor and loss, a story of love, family, and the truths that define us all.]]> 288 S.J. Sindu 1616957905 Darby 3 3.71 2017
author: S.J. Sindu
name: Darby
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, own, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 48829708 move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope...]]> 880 Christopher Paolini 1250762847 Darby 5 3.77 2020
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Darby
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, favorites, lgbtq, library, scifi-fantasy, series, audiobook
review:

]]> 60784605 Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Debut and Fiction Book of the Year, 2023.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts�: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her life on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.]]> 320 Jessica George Darby 4 4.03 2023
author: Jessica George
name: Darby
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/09
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, library, audiobook
review:
I am giving this book 4 stars because I enjoyed the story as it had a deeply feeling person. The emotions were expressed on the page beautifully even in the rawness of experiences. I will say I feel the description of the book does it a disservice- it says it is a “deeply funny� and I didn’t laugh with this book, I felt the emotions that come with heartbreak, anxiety, depression, grief, and relationships. It is a heart tugging story that is worth reading and remembering.
]]> 1426
Paulo Coelho is one of the most beloved storytellers of our time. Now, in the long-awaited companion to his first novel, Coelho presents a collection of philosophical stories that will delight and guide seekers everywhere.]]> 142 Paulo Coelho 0060527986 Darby 2 3.74 1997
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Darby
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/06
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, favorite-authors, inspirational, own, self-help, spirituality, audiobook, chirpbooks
review:

]]> 55297669 The first openly nonbinary contestant on America’s favorite cooking show falls for their clumsy competitor in this delicious romantic comedy debut that USA Today hailed as “an essential read.â€� Recently divorced and on the verge of bankruptcy, Dahlia Woodson is ready to reinvent herself on the popular reality competition show Chef’s Special. Too bad the first memorable move she makes is falling flat on her face, sending fish tacos flying—not quite the fresh start she was hoping for. Still, she's focused on winning, until she meets someone she might want a future with more than she needs the prize money.Ěý After announcing their pronouns on national television, London Parker has enough on their mind without worrying about the klutzy competitor stationed in front of them. They’re there to prove the trolls—including a fellow contestant and their dad—wrong, and falling in love was never part of the plan. As London and Dahlia get closer, reality starts to fall away. Goodbye, guilt about divorce, anxiety about uncertain futures, and stress from transphobia. Hello, hilarious shenanigans on set, wedding crashing, and spontaneous dips into the Pacific. But as the finale draws near, Dahlia and London’s steamy relationship starts to feel the heat both in and outside the kitchen—and they must figure out if they have the right ingredients for a happily ever after. Ěý Booklist'sĚýBestĚýRomance Debuts of the YearWomen's Health's Best Romance Novels of the YearBookpage's Best Romance Novels of the Year]]> 384 Anita Kelly 1538754851 Darby 4 1) extra love for for it being a LGBTQIA book
2) adorable characters and plot
3) London’s relationship with their father made me think of how many people go through this type of bs. On a personal level I could relate so it brought up so many emotions.
4) just an awesome quick romcom read! ]]> 3.81 2022
author: Anita Kelly
name: Darby
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/13
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, chick-lit, contemporary, drama-romance, lgbtq, library, audiobook
review:
This book was such a great read. Some things I liked:
1) extra love for for it being a LGBTQIA book
2) adorable characters and plot
3) London’s relationship with their father made me think of how many people go through this type of bs. On a personal level I could relate so it brought up so many emotions.
4) just an awesome quick romcom read!
]]> 40725154 Guardian US columnist Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in a darkly funny and bracing memoir, Valenti explores the toll that sexism takes from the every day to the existential.

Sex Object explores the painful, funny, embarrassing, and sometimes illegal moments that shaped Valenti’s adolescence and young adulthood in New York City, revealing a much shakier inner life than the confident persona she has cultivated as one of the most recognizable feminists of her generation.

In the tradition of writers like Joan Didion and Mary Karr, this literary memoir is sure to shock those already familiar with Valenti’s work and enthrall those who are just finding it.]]> 172 Jessica Valenti 0062435108 Darby 4 3.71 2016
author: Jessica Valenti
name: Darby
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/31
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: 2023, contemporary, library, memoir-truestories, non-fiction, audiobook
review:

]]> 42077222 Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her.

In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo’s bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Alfred de Dreux visits Géricault's workshop; Gustave Courbet's devilish seascapes incite viewers “to have sex, or to eat an apple�; Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseau’s honor. . . . All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires—her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.

Seductive and capricious, Optic Nerve is a book that captures, like no other, the mysterious connections between a work of art and the person who perceives it.]]> 208 MarĂ­a Gainza Darby 2 3.76 2014
author: MarĂ­a Gainza
name: Darby
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/11
date added: 2023/10/12
shelves: 2023, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library
review:
I liked some of the stories about the pieces of art, but over all I am still not sure I know the plot of this book. I can’t tell you anything significant about anyone in this book or what this book was about. I finished it and maybe didn’t need to, but did only for the stories about the pieces of art.
]]> 41941223 A thriller about time, identity, and memory...

Reality is broken.

At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.

In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth—and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery... and the tools for fighting back.

Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy—before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.]]> 324 Blake Crouch 1524759805 Darby 5 4.26 2019
author: Blake Crouch
name: Darby
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/30
date added: 2023/09/30
shelves: 2019, contemporary, kindle, library, scifi-fantasy, favorite-authors, 2023, favorites
review:
I read this book the first time in 2019, and now again in 2023 and my love of it didn’t diminish at all. Fascinating read that kept me eager to see the if the puzzle created would be solved. The puzzle unfolds and twists and turns and through it all it tells a story of memories, time, and relationships within.
]]> 22635858 The Bookseller follows a woman in the 1960s who must reconcile her reality with the tantalizing alternate world of her dreams

Nothing is as permanent as it appears . . .

Denver, 1962: Kitty Miller has come to terms with her unconventional single life. She loves the bookshop she runs with her best friend, Frieda, and enjoys complete control over her day-to-day existence. She can come and go as she pleases, answering to no one. There was a man once, a doctor named Kevin, but it didn’t quite work out the way Kitty had hoped.

Then the dreams begin.

Denver, 1963: Katharyn Andersson is married to Lars, the love of her life. They have beautiful children, an elegant home, and good friends. It's everything Kitty Miller once believed she wanted—but it only exists when she sleeps.

Convinced that these dreams are simply due to her overactive imagination, Kitty enjoys her nighttime forays into this alternate world. But with each visit, the more irresistibly real Katharyn’s life becomes. Can she choose which life she wants? If so, what is the cost of staying Kitty, or becoming Katharyn?

As the lines between her worlds begin to blur, Kitty must figure out what is real and what is imagined. And how do we know where that boundary lies in our own lives?]]> 339 Cynthia Swanson 0062333003 Darby 4 3.62 2015
author: Cynthia Swanson
name: Darby
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/08
date added: 2023/09/18
shelves: 2020, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, booksaboutbooks
review:
I became immersed in this book. I enjoyed reading about the real world and the fantasy world, meeting the characters, and seeing the story unfold.
]]> 35068755
People are drawn to libraries for all kinds of reasons. Most come for the books themselves, of course; some come to borrow companionship. For head librarian Kit, the public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to forget her problems.

But that changes when fifteen-year-old, home-schooled Sunny gets arrested for shoplifting a dictionary. The judge throws the book at Sunny—literally—assigning her to do community service at the library for the summer. Bright, curious, and eager to connect with someone other than her off-the-grid hippie parents, Sunny coaxes Kit out of her self-imposed isolation. They’re joined by Rusty, a Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to earth.Ěý Ěý

In this little library that has become the heart of this small town, Kit, Sunny, and Rusty are drawn to each other, and to a cast of other offbeat regulars. As they come to terms with how their lives have unraveled, they also discover how they might knit them together again and finally reclaim their stories.]]> 384 Sue Halpern 0062678973 Darby 4 3.54 2018
author: Sue Halpern
name: Darby
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/09
date added: 2023/09/18
shelves: 2022, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, own, booksaboutbooks
review:

]]> 6101718
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.]]> 402 Lev Grossman 0670020559 Darby 4 3.53 2009
author: Lev Grossman
name: Darby
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/28
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: 2023, adventure, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, scifi-fantasy, series, ya
review:

]]> 32768522
That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.

Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here � it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.

Carry On - The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story - but far, far more monsters.]]> 522 Rainbow Rowell 1250135028 Darby 5 4.17 2015
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Darby
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/15
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves: 2019, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, scifi-fantasy, series, paranormal-magic, ya, lgbtq, 2022, favorite-authors, favorites, 2023
review:

]]> 114242
This contemporary world is set against a series of Russian folktales told by an old woman who lives at the edge of Manhattan, in a place so well hidden it can only be found once in a life-time.]]> 320 Alice Hoffman 0425168700 Darby 3 3.57 1985
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Darby
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/29
date added: 2022/12/29
shelves: 2022, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, own, scifi-fantasy
review:

]]> 20613619
She showed me ways of using these simple things � our hands, a pen, and some paper � as both a navigation and expedition device, one that could reliably carry me into my past, deeper into my present, or farther into a place I have come to call "the image world" � a place we all know, even if we don't notice this knowing until someone reminds us of its ever-present existence.

I wasn't quite 20 years old when I started my first notebook. I had no idea that nearly 40 years later, I would not only still be using it as the most reliable route to the thing I've come to call my work, but I'd also be showing others how to use it too, as a place to practice a physical activity � in this case writing and drawing by hand � with a certain state of mind.

This practice can result in what I've come to consider a wonderful side effect: a visual or written image we can call 'a work of art,' although a work of art is not what I'm after when I'm practicing this activity.

What am I after? I'm after what Marilyn Frasca called "being present and seeing what's there."

This book is a collection of bits and pieces from the many notebooks I kept during my first three years of trying to figure out how to teach this practice to my students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."]]> 200 Lynda Barry 1770461612 Darby 5 4.39 2014
author: Lynda Barry
name: Darby
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/29
date added: 2022/09/29
shelves: 2022, art-crafts, contemporary, humor, inspirational, memoir-truestories, own, picture-books
review:

]]> 45046808
North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.

What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?]]> 391 Diane Chamberlain 1250087333 Darby 5 4.09 2020
author: Diane Chamberlain
name: Darby
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/04
date added: 2022/08/05
shelves: contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors, favorites, historical-fiction, kindle, own, 2022
review:
I always enjoy books by Diane Chamberlain. This book was one I couldn’t put down. Every time I had to I rushed to get back to it and see the story unfold. It was definitely a page turner. I enjoyed the plot, the characters, and the switching from Anna’s story to Morgan’s story. Know it is one I will read again. Glad I bought this one and didn’t just check it out from the library.
]]> 56179356
Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.]]> 119 Alix E. Harrow 1250765358 Darby 4 3.58 2021
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Darby
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/28
date added: 2022/07/28
shelves: 2022, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, lgbtq, library, scifi-fantasy, series, ya
review:

]]> 44017627
Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after�

So why can’t Simon Snow get off the couch?

What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light�

That’s how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West.

They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost. They get so lost, they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were headed in the first place�

With Wayward Son, Rainbow Rowell has written a book for everyone who ever wondered what happened to the Chosen One after he saved the day. And a book for everyone who was ever more curious about the second kiss than the first. It’s another helping of sour cherry scones with an absolutely decadent amount of butter.

Come on, Simon Snow. Your hero’s journey might be over � but your life has just begun.]]> 356 Rainbow Rowell 1250146070 Darby 4 3.89 2019
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Darby
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/17
date added: 2022/07/17
shelves: 2020, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, scifi-fantasy, series, paranormal-magic, ya, lgbtq, 2022
review:

]]> 58108412
Eight years ago, Sahar pursued her happily ever after when she married Khaled and followed him to Jordan, leaving behind her family, her friends and a thriving cake business. But married life didn't go as planned and, haunted by secrets, Sahar has returned home to Sydney without telling her husband.

With the help of her childhood friends, Sahar hits the reset button on her life. She takes a job at a local patisserie run by Maggie, a strong but kind manager who guides Sahar in sweets and life.

But as she tentatively gets to know her colleagues, Sahar faces a whole new set of challenges. There's Kat and Inez, who are determined that Sahar try new experiences. Then there's Luke, a talented chocolatier and a bundle of contradictions.

As Sahar embraces the new, she reinvents herself, trying things once forbidden to her. But just when she is finally starting to find her feet, her past finds its way back to her.

'A woman's journey of self-discovery, the power of enduring female friendships and an unexpected love story. The Things We See in the Light ticked all my boxes. I loved everything about this story." Tess Woods]]> 364 Amal Awad 064867696X Darby 5 3.64
author: Amal Awad
name: Darby
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/10
date added: 2022/07/10
shelves: 2022, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, own
review:

]]> 41745741 2019 National Book Award Longlist

A poetic exploration of trauma, healing, and survival from award-winning poet Camonghne Felix.

This is about what grows through the wreckage. This is an anthem of survival and a look at what might come after. A view of what floats and what, ultimately, sustains.

Build Yourself a Boat, an innovative debut by award-winning poet Camonghne Felix, interrogates generational trauma, the possibility of healing, and the messiness of survival.

Build Yourself a Boat redefines the language of collective and individual trauma through lyric and memory.]]> 64 Camonghne Felix 1608466116 Darby 5 4.07 2019
author: Camonghne Felix
name: Darby
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/18
date added: 2022/05/18
shelves: 2022, contemporary, inspirational, kindle, library, memoir-truestories, poetry, self-help, spirituality, lgbtq
review:

]]> 17347634 A newer edition of ISBN 978-0143124542 can be found here.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation and perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?]]> 369 Jojo Moyes 0670026603 Darby 4 4.26 2012
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Darby
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/19
date added: 2022/03/02
shelves: 2019, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, favorite-authors, chick-lit, movie-tv, series
review:

]]> 7159515
Still Missing interweaves the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfold through sessions with her psychiatrist, with a second narrative following the events after her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

Still Missing is a shocking, visceral, brutal and beautifully crafted novel.]]> 342 Chevy Stevens 0312595670 Darby 4 3.98 2010
author: Chevy Stevens
name: Darby
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/03
date added: 2022/02/03
shelves: 2022, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, kindle, own, suspense-thriller
review:

]]> 99561 Before. Miles “Pudge� Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps� even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.]]> 221 John Green 1435249151 Darby 3 3.97 2005
author: John Green
name: Darby
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2020/02/14
date added: 2022/02/03
shelves: 2020, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, ya
review:

]]> 25814204 The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s Secret, New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison will make you question every twist in her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters you should trust.

The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back. It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness, solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly haunting her new life?

In No One Knows, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.]]> 368 J.T. Ellison 1501118471 Darby 3 3.62 2016
author: J.T. Ellison
name: Darby
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/23
date added: 2022/01/23
shelves: 2022, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, kindle, own, suspense-thriller
review:

]]> 25574782
Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one.

Claire is convinced Julia's disappearance is linked.

But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same...]]> 432 Karin Slaughter 0062430874 Darby 5 3.99 2015
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Darby
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/12
date added: 2022/01/12
shelves: 2019, contemporary, crime-mystery, spicy, kindle, library, suspense-thriller, 2022, own
review:

]]> 41839602 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-0399562464 can be found here.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, a new book featuring her iconic heroine of Me Before You and After You, Louisa Clark.

Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.

As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you find the courage to follow your heart—wherever that may lead?

Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she navigates how to stay true to herself, while pushing to live boldly in her brave new world.]]> 469 Jojo Moyes Darby 5 4.03 2018
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Darby
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/29
date added: 2022/01/11
shelves: 2019, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, series, favorite-authors
review:
I truly enjoyed the series. It was engaging, delightful, and a good mix of laughter and tears. Seeing Louisa’s journey was a lovely read.
]]> 27774596 A newer edition of ISBN 978-0143108863 can be found here.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.�

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.]]> 352 Jojo Moyes Darby 4 3.75 2015
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Darby
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/27
date added: 2022/01/11
shelves: 2019, contemporary, drama-romance, kindle, library, series, favorite-authors
review:

]]> 816720
That is the central question of international bestselling author Paulo Coelho's profound new work, The Witch of Portobello. It is the story of a mysterious woman named Athena, told by the many who knew her well—or hardly at all.]]> 320 Paulo Coelho 0007251866 Darby 4 3.55 2006
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Darby
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/01
date added: 2022/01/11
shelves: 2012, contemporary, memoir-truestories, spirituality, inspirational, favorite-authors
review:

]]> 33230889
InstantĚýNew York TimesĚýBestseller

theSkimm Book Club Pick!

The stunning new novel from the international #1 bestselling authorĚý—Ěýa searing, spellbinding blend of cold-case thriller and psychological suspense.

Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind�

Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father � Pikeville's notorious defense attorney � devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.

Twenty-eight years later, and Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself â€� the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again â€� and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized â€� Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it's a caseĚýthat unleashesĚýthe terrible memories she's spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won't stay buried foreverâ€�

Packed with twists and turns, brimming with emotion and heart,ĚýThe Good DaughterĚýis fiction at its most thrilling.]]> 519 Karin Slaughter 0062430262 Darby 4 4.10 2017
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Darby
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/06
date added: 2022/01/11
shelves: 2020, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, kindle, library, series, suspense-thriller, favorite-authors
review:
I enjoy Karin Slaughter’s books. The suspense create such a good thriller. Enjoyed the storyline, the characters, and writing.
]]> 33160963
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the `80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501161938 Darby 5 4.48 2017
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Darby
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/19
date added: 2022/01/11
shelves: 2019, contemporary, drama-romance, historical-fiction, kindle, library, favorite-authors
review:

]]> 1430 Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that “love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . .� A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune.

Maria’s despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness—sexual pleasure for its own sake—or risking everything to find her own “inner light� and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.]]> 273 Paulo Coelho 0060589280 Darby 5 3.74 2003
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Darby
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2007/05/01
date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: 2007, own, 2012, contemporary, drama-romance, favorite-authors
review:
The novel begins in Brazil, where young Maria suffers her first unrequited love but determines that she will never bare her heart again. An accidental meeting on a Rio beach offers Maria an Swiss adventure so she then leaves her Brazilian life behind. In Geneva though she ends up a prostitute by night and goes to the library to read by day. Maria learn to explore both the darkest and the most mundane recesses of desire and love. She meets two very different gentlemen who take her to unexpected places within herself, the truth of the eleven minutes is challenged.
]]> 1427 The ZahirĚý is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.

Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn’t have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.]]> 336 Paulo Coelho 0060832819 Darby 4 big fan of Paulo Coelho's work. I can say that he is my favorite author.

I remember reading The Valkyries being so touched by it that I bought it for friends to share. Many of his titles are a part of my permanent library.

Okay so all that say I was a little disappointed by The Zahir. I read somewhere that Coelho puts himself into many of his books....where he tells tales from his life just retold in a magical story that transforms the way we look at the world. So with that in mind I read The Zahir...it actually disappointed me. When I read it just as a book to enjoy and maybe get a life lesson from...then it was a better book but still not one that really got to me like his other books. Because I don't believe there is that moment of transformation for any of the main characters which we've come to expect from Coelho's books.

Buy the rest of Coelho's books. Loan them to friends. Keep them in your library so you can read them again and again. But if you really want to read this one, maybe check it out from the public library first. I want all his books in my personal library so I still bought it.

EDIT 9/3/12:
I changed it from 3 stars to 4 stars. I have changed my mind completely about this book. I have found that with Coelho's books I need to read them when the time is right for me. I don't usually understand why I am picking his book up in the moment other than I like his books. But usually what happens it is the book I needed to read that book in that moment. The same happened with The Zahir - I actually was going to reread Eleven Minutes but thought of all the books I have of his I really should give The Zahir another chance and so glad I did. As usual with his books I came away with messages I was needing to hear/read. It touched me just as his other books have and thankful to have this book on my shelves. ]]> 3.61 2005
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Darby
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2005/12/01
date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: own, contemporary, drama-romance, spirituality, favorites, 2012, inspirational, favorite-authors
review:
As I have said in other reviews of Coelho's books...I am a big fan of Paulo Coelho's work. I can say that he is my favorite author.

I remember reading The Valkyries being so touched by it that I bought it for friends to share. Many of his titles are a part of my permanent library.

Okay so all that say I was a little disappointed by The Zahir. I read somewhere that Coelho puts himself into many of his books....where he tells tales from his life just retold in a magical story that transforms the way we look at the world. So with that in mind I read The Zahir...it actually disappointed me. When I read it just as a book to enjoy and maybe get a life lesson from...then it was a better book but still not one that really got to me like his other books. Because I don't believe there is that moment of transformation for any of the main characters which we've come to expect from Coelho's books.

Buy the rest of Coelho's books. Loan them to friends. Keep them in your library so you can read them again and again. But if you really want to read this one, maybe check it out from the public library first. I want all his books in my personal library so I still bought it.

EDIT 9/3/12:
I changed it from 3 stars to 4 stars. I have changed my mind completely about this book. I have found that with Coelho's books I need to read them when the time is right for me. I don't usually understand why I am picking his book up in the moment other than I like his books. But usually what happens it is the book I needed to read that book in that moment. The same happened with The Zahir - I actually was going to reread Eleven Minutes but thought of all the books I have of his I really should give The Zahir another chance and so glad I did. As usual with his books I came away with messages I was needing to hear/read. It touched me just as his other books have and thankful to have this book on my shelves.
]]> 55809780
Leigh Coulton has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defence attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilised - her life is just as unremarkable as she'd always hoped it would be.

HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST

But Leigh's ordinary life masks a childhood which was far from average... a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn apart by a devastating act of violence.

BUT NOW THE PAST IS CATCHING UP

Then a case lands on her desk - defending a wealthy man accused of rape. It's the highest profile case she's ever been given - a case which could transform her career, if she wins. But when she meets the accused, she realises that it's no coincidence that he's chosen her as his attorney. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he knows what happened twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades running.

AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT

If she can't get him acquitted, she'll lose much more than the case. The only person who can help her is her younger, estranged sister Calli, the last person Leigh would ever want to ask for help. But suddenly she has no choice...]]> 440 Karin Slaughter 0062858092 Darby 5 4.05 2021
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Darby
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/10
date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: 2022, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, kindle, own, suspense-thriller, favorite-authors
review:
I always enjoy Karin Slaughter’s books. This one didn’t disappoint. I couldn’t put it down. I love how she weaves the story.
]]> 30026709 Brooklyn's toughest female detective takes on Dallas-and neither is ready for the fight.

Dallas, Texas is not for the faint of heart. Good thing for Betty Rhyzyk she's from a family of take-no-prisoners Brooklyn police detectives. But her Big Apple wisdom will only get her so far when she relocates to The Big D, where Mexican drug cartels and cult leaders, deadbeat skells and society wives all battle for sunbaked turf.

Betty is as tough as the best of them, but she's deeply shaken when her first investigation goes sideways. Battling a group of unruly subordinates, a persistent stalker, a formidable criminal organization, and an unsupportive girlfriend, the unbreakable Detective Betty Rhyzyk may be reaching her limit.]]> 352 Kathleen Kent 0316311030 Darby 3 3.70 2017
author: Kathleen Kent
name: Darby
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/03
date added: 2022/01/06
shelves: 2022, contemporary, crime-mystery, drama-romance, kindle, lgbtq, series, suspense-thriller
review:
I liked this book and I had issues with it at the same time. It took me longer to get through it as I thought some areas seemed inconsequential and others I wish I knew how things developed to that point as it seemed like I missed something and maybe I did. What I liked is the main character and would like to see where she goes so will probably read the next one.
]]>