Jenna's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 11 Apr 2025 10:15:11 -0700 60 Jenna's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Sirens 210411871 A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine

2019: Lucy awakens in her ex-lover’s room in the middle of the night with her hands around his throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister’s house on the coast of New South Wales hoping Jess can help explain the vivid dreams that preceded the attack—but her sister is missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she starts to unearth strange rumours about Jess’s town—tales of numerous missing men, spread over decades. A baby abandoned in a sea-swept cave. Whispers of women’s voices on the waves. All the while, her dreams start to feel closer than ever.

1800: Mary and Eliza are torn from their loving home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship heading for Australia. As the boat takes them farther and farther away from all they know, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies.

A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.]]>
352 Emilia Hart 1250280826 Jenna 5 3.84 2025 The Sirens
author: Emilia Hart
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves:
review:
The Sirens is the kind of novel that thrives on the enchanting setting and character building. The way Emilia Hart reimagines classic mermaids is unique but it still awoke my childhood love of swimming and the familiar desire to swim in the depths with schools of beautiful fish. Hart skillfully weaves together historical fiction with mythology and mystery in a way that explores bonds between women without sacrificing the plot.
]]>
<![CDATA[One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)]]> 63121123 For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom--but the monster in her head isn't the only threat lurking.



Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home--she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King's own nephew, Captain of the Destriers...and guilty of high treason.

He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards--the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him]]>
394 Rachel Gillig 035652017X Jenna 0 currently-reading 4.27 2022 One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
Educated 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]>
352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Jenna 0 to-read 4.46 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
What Happens in Amsterdam 217245608 Falling in love with your husband is anything but convenient in this steamy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Business or Pleasure.

Dani Dorfman has somehow made it to her thirties without knowing what she wants to do with her life. So when an office romance ends poorly and gets her fired, she applies for a job in Amsterdam, idly dreaming of escaping the mess she’s created, but never imagining she'll actually get it.

Except she does. By the end of her first week in Amsterdam, she’s never felt more adrift or alone. Then she crashes her bike into her high school ex-boyfriend—and suddenly life is blooming with new opportunities.

Wouter van Leeuwen was a Dutch exchange student Dani’s family hosted, a forbidden love that ended in a painful breakup. Years later, there’s still sizzling chemistry between them, and okay, maybe a little animosity. More importantly, Wouter needs to be married to inherit a gorgeous family home on a canal—and when Dani's job falls apart, she needs a visa.ĚýAs the marriage of convenience pushes them together in unexpected ways, Dani must decide whether her new life is yet another mistake—or if it's worth taking a risk on a second chance.]]>
384 Rachel Lynn Solomon 0593548558 Jenna 0 to-read 4.10 2025 What Happens in Amsterdam
author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[We'll Always Have Summer (Summer #3)]]> 8680278 291 Jenny Han 1416995587 Jenna 4 3.79 2011 We'll Always Have Summer (Summer #3)
author: Jenny Han
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
This Book Will Bury Me 213570821 From the bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches.

It's the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story.

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory...

So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don't add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something's not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap...

Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans...


]]>
480 Ashley Winstead 1728270006 Jenna 0 currently-reading 3.75 2025 This Book Will Bury Me
author: Ashley Winstead
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
Saltwater 215362444 336 Katy Hays 0593875559 Jenna 4 3.66 2025 Saltwater
author: Katy Hays
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
Say You'll Remember Me 216437557 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer comes a new playful yet deeply emotional contemporary romance.

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

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

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]>
416 Abby Jimenez 0349442827 Jenna 0 currently-reading 4.23 2025 Say You'll Remember Me
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
Tress of the Emerald Sea 63068384 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us deeper into the Cosmere universe with a rollicking, riveting tale that will appeal to fans of The Princess Bride.

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?]]>
369 Brandon Sanderson 1250899656 Jenna 0 to-read 4.28 2023 Tress of the Emerald Sea
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Tour to Die For (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mysteries, #2)]]> 222376713 In Michelle Chouinard’s A Tour to Die For, Capri Sanzio is back, giving a true crime tour her guests won’t soon forget. After all, a tour guide who specializes in serial killers knows better than most that San Francisco is a city with killer charm.

Capri Sanzio knows that when you give serial killer walking tours for a living, unexpected situations are more common than San Francisco's famous fog. So, when one of her guests claims to see a woman being attacked during a tour, Capri remains unphased. The police search the apartment in question and find no evidence of anything amiss, so they chalk it up to a false report from a true crime fanatic looking to be a part of a case. And Capri thinks they might be right, since lately her tours have been attracting even more obsessives than usual--as it turns out, finding the actual serial killer who committed the "Overkill Bill" murders didn't stop the constant questions about her grandfather's supposed crimes, it only intensified them.

But Capri would never forgive herself if someone is in trouble and she walks away. Plus, something about the whole situation has every one of Capri's investigative journalist instincts going haywire--why would someone lie about seeing an attack? So Capri starts to dig, and when her questions lead to a body, she finds herself at the center of another murder investigation.]]>
336 Michelle Chouinard 1250910013 Jenna 0 to-read 5.00 A Tour to Die For (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mysteries, #2)
author: Michelle Chouinard
name: Jenna
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Asylum Hotel 220999067 When a mysterious figure shows up in the photograph an architect takes of the derelict Seabrink Hotel, ghostly encounters and murder are unleashed.

Aubrey Spencer loves photographing classic old buildingsĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýabandoned places that hold old secrets. The Hotel Seabrink, perched overlooking the sea, is one such place. Currently abandoned but scheduled for a major renovation, it has a torrid history. Back in the 1920s it hosted A-list celebrity clientele, and now the locals insist it is haunted by the ghosts of two young women who died there. When Aubrey goes to photograph the siteĚýbefore the renovationĚýbegins, she bumps into a man named Dimitri Petroff, a minor online celebrity who shares her fascination with old buildings, the Hotel Seabrink in particular.

When he is found dead the next day at the base of a cliff, the police are quick toĚýclose the investigation.ĚýBut AubreyĚýfeels unsettledĚýby locals who claim he was murdered and that it’s not the first time someone interested in the hotel was killed.ĚýAs she digs deeper intoĚýthe property’sĚýdark history (and its origins as an asylum)Ěýas well asĚýDimitri’s professional rivalries, she becomes mired in an unsolved murder case from several decades earlier, one with eerie parallels to the contemporary case. ĚýBut someone is determined to keep her from discovering the truth—at any cost.]]>
384 Juliet Blackwell 0593638247 Jenna 0 to-read 0.0 2025 Asylum Hotel
author: Juliet Blackwell
name: Jenna
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Dear Future Me 220481291 368 Deborah O'Connor 146423468X Jenna 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Dear Future Me
author: Deborah O'Connor
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Death on Corfu 216971954 Living in Greece at the turn of the twentieth century, widow Minnie Harper struggles to find her place in a swiftly changing world. But when a local woman is murdered, her resolve is put to the test in a race to shed light on the truth . . .

Minnie Harper isn’t used to putting herself first. Not after she moved away from England only to be left raising two children alone on the Greek Island of Corfu following her husband’s unexpected death. But with her daughter begging to be sent to school abroad and her son grasping at his own independence, Minnie realizes she must prepare for the next stage of her life.

When famous mystery author Stephen Dorian settles into a neighboring villa to escape writer’s block and hidden scandals, she is intrigued at first by the handsome Londoner—until he proves to be nothing more than a boorish grump. Determined to avoid the man as much as possible, Minnie is shocked when he offers her a well-paid job as his typist. She isn’t in a position to turn down work, even from a man she has sworn to hate.

But before Minnie can fully regret her decision to take the job, she makes a horrifying discovery that changes everything. A young maid has been murdered, and local authorities aren’t moving fast enough to bring justice to the terrible crime. Unwilling to allow the death to fade into obscurity like the stories of so many other women deemed unworthy by society, Minnie launches an investigation of her own—and reluctantly accepts Stephen’s help. As she embarks on a dangerous search for answers that reveals another side of Corfu, unsettling questions take shape about her employer-turned-confidant and the culprit who just might do whatever it takes to strike again . . .]]>
288 Emily Sullivan 1496751418 Jenna 0 to-read 4.12 2025 A Death on Corfu
author: Emily Sullivan
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files, #2)]]> 216970887
Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune teller Peony Lane crosses her path and shares a cryptic message. When Peony Lane is found dead only hours later inside the locked Gravesdown Estate, Annie quickly realizes that someone is out to make her look guilty while silencing Peony at the same time. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of Castle Knoll in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before the new life she’s just begun to build comes crashing down around her.

1967: A year has passed since her friend Emily disappeared, and teenage Frances Adams finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a family known for its wealth and dubious uses of power. Archie Foyle is a local who can’t hold down a job and lives above the village pub. But when Frances teams up with Archie to investigate the car crash that claimed the lives of Ford’s family, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident—hints of cover-ups, lies, and betrayals abound. The question is, just how far does the blackness creep through the heart of Castle Knoll? When Frances uncovers secrets kept by both Ford and Archie, she starts to wonder: What exactly has she gotten herself into?]]>
320 Kristen Perrin 059347404X Jenna 0 to-read 3.96 2025 How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files, #2)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Frozen People 220239095 Cold cases are a lot easier to solve when you can travel back in time to find new evidence—unless, that is, you get stuck in the nineteenth century.

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old they’re frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: They can travel back in time to look for evidence.

So far Ali has made trips only to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder that took place in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, a member of a sinister group called "The Collectors." She arrives in the Victorian era during a mini ice age to find another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. But when her son is arrested, Ali attempts to return home only to find herself trapped in 1850.]]>
304 Elly Griffiths 0593834372 Jenna 0 to-read 3.88 2025 The Frozen People
author: Elly Griffiths
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Clinic 123416743 From the critically acclaimed author of Black Widows comes a thriller set in a remote rehab clinic on the Pacific Northwest coast, in which the death of a woman inside prompts her sister to enter the clinic as a patient in order to find the truth. Perfect for fans of Stacy Willingham and Tarryn Fisher!

Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control.

There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can't believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in herself � to investigate what really happened from the inside.

Battling her own addictions and figuring out the truth will be much more difficult than she imagined, far away from friends, family � and anyone who could help her.]]>
444 Cate Quinn Jenna 0 to-read 3.62 2024 The Clinic
author: Cate Quinn
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Whispers of the Lake 219521987 A marriage on the rocks, a missing friend, an investigative journalist, a tangle of shocking lies, and a peaceful North Carolina lakefront cottage converge in this irresistibly twisty new psychological thriller fromĚýNew York TimesĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýUSA TodayĚýbestselling author—perfect for readers of Liv Constantine, Tarryn Fisher, Kellye Garrett, and Caroline Kepnes.

At the peak of her career, investigative reporter Rose Howard is exhausted from trying to manage her seemingly perfect life. With her marriage to her one true love collapsing, she desperately needs to rest, regroup, and decide which way to go next. The direction becomes clear when she discovers that her former best friend, Eve Castillo, isn't responding to attempts to contact her at the North Carolina cottage where she's vacationing. Rose knows Eve can be flaky and irresponsible—that’s why they fell out. Still, Rose heads to the tranquil small town of Sage Hill . . .

Rose soon discovers that Eve has vanished without her purse and passport—even after booking a trip abroad. The personable cabin owners� accounts of Eve's stay just don’t to add up . . . and most of the town's initially hospitable inhabitants becoming increasingly less helpful . . .

Rose's instincts tell her the solution lies somewhere in Eve's—and Sage Hill's—past. To get answers, she’ll have to ask inconvenient questions, rattle long-buried skeletons . . . and face vicious attempts on her life. But some truths are best left alone. And secrets Rose never saw coming could easily sink her and her future without a trace . . .]]>
272 Shanora Williams 1496745841 Jenna 0 to-read 4.02 Whispers of the Lake
author: Shanora Williams
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
6:40 to Montreal 221490981 No WiFi, no distractions. No way out�

ĚýAgatha's husband has bought her a first-class ticket on the scenic six-hour train from Toronto to Montreal as a gift—a one-day writing retreat so she can get some serious work done on her new book, a highly-anticipated follow-up to Agatha's runaway bestseller debut novel. The first-class car is the perfect place to be productive, with only a handful of other passengers, plenty of snacks and drinks, and beautiful views flying by outside the window.

ĚýBut Agatha has other plans for her day outâ€� plans that are unexpectedly derailed when the train breaks down in the middle of the frigid Canadian woods and one of Agatha's fellow passengers dies quietly in his seat. Soon, a pleasant morning in transit turns into a fight for survival against an unknown and unseen enemy. Will Agatha—or any of the passengers—make it out alive?

From international bestselling author Eva Jurczyk, 6:40 to Montreal is a claustrophobic, deceivingly bloody thriller that twists and turns until the very last page.Ěý]]>
352 Eva Jurczyk 1728295726 Jenna 0 to-read 3.06 6:40 to Montreal
author: Eva Jurczyk
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.06
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
She Didn't See It Coming 220999092 “No one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena.”—Ruth Ware

The new gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

When a beloved wife and mother disappears, a luxurious condo building transforms into a potential crime scene, and the investigation begins: can the detectives find her before it's too late?

Bryden and Sam have it all: thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condominium, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.

Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden–working from home that day–has failed to collect their daughter from daycare. Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.

Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.]]>
352 Shari Lapena 0593832442 Jenna 0 to-read 4.00 2025 She Didn't See It Coming
author: Shari Lapena
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Fate Inked in Blood (Saga of the Unfated, #1)]]> 220642729
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.

Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.

Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.t.]]>
464 Danielle L. Jensen 0593599853 Jenna 0 to-read 4.10 2024 A Fate Inked in Blood (Saga of the Unfated, #1)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Gone Tonight 61884937
Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother's past or background. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.]]>
338 Sarah Pekkanen 1250283973 Jenna 0 to-read 3.78 2023 Gone Tonight
author: Sarah Pekkanen
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny's boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?]]>
341 Sarah Pekkanen 125028399X Jenna 5
But I loved it! It felt like a mystery with a twist since the main character wasn't a police officer or someone personally involved in the situation. Her role as the child's best interest lawyer was new and interesting and Pekkanen's writing effectively created a sense of foreboding around Rose and what transpired in the family home.

I won't include spoilers but I was very satisfied with the ending and will definitely be reading her next release. ]]>
3.84 2024 House of Glass
author: Sarah Pekkanen
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:
House of Glass is the first novel I've read from Sarah Pekkanen as a solo author instead of a duo and I was a little hesitant. Her most recent novel with Greer Hendricks, The Golden Couple, was a flop for me so I wasn't sure how I'd like this one.

But I loved it! It felt like a mystery with a twist since the main character wasn't a police officer or someone personally involved in the situation. Her role as the child's best interest lawyer was new and interesting and Pekkanen's writing effectively created a sense of foreboding around Rose and what transpired in the family home.

I won't include spoilers but I was very satisfied with the ending and will definitely be reading her next release.
]]>
I Would Die for You 195790577 From the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese's Book Club Pick The Other Woman and The Guilt Trip comes an electrifying new novel.

Now: Nicole Forbes lives a quiet life in a small seaside Californian town with her husband and daughter. She is not expecting a writer to knock on her door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s—unveiling the threads of a life she put behind her years ago. The same day, her daughter goes missing and the school claims her aunt picked her up . . . but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear.

1986: Sixteen-year-old Cassie is obsessed with the hottest band in London, Secret Oktober. Harboring an intense crush on the leading man, Ben Edwards, she will do anything she can to capture his attention among the throngs of groupies at the band’s scandalous backstage parties. But when Ben discovers her older sister Nicole singing at a local bar one night, he can’t help but feel drawn to her, setting in motion a collision course that could tear their family apart.

Infused with the sounds of the 80s, this thrilling new novel from the inimitable Sandie Jones will captivate her readers, as she explores what the frenzy of fandom can lead to in this shocking blockbuster.]]>
320 Sandie Jones 125091003X Jenna 3
The first half of "I Would Die for You" was compelling and fast paced. I pictured Ben as Harry Styles and understood the teenage obsession Jones describes since I saw it growing up in the 1D era. However, there are two main things I would change in how the plot develops in the second and third acts.

1. I would have wanted Cassie to be more of an unreliable narrator. It was too obvious too early on that it was all in her head. It would have been more effective if the reader saw Cassie have a few sweet moments with Ben behind stage after the concert, maybe a party before the one that was raided, and then genuinely believed that Cassie and Nicole were both being strung along and Ben was the bad guy. Then we would be shocked when we see Cassie's involvement in destroying Ben's reputation.

2. I would have wanted Cassie's obsession and "snap" to be more motivated by her mother's death. I felt the depth of emotion in the first few Cassie chapters but somewhere along the way it got lost. Including a few scenes where she tells her mother about being backstage at the concert and then meeting Ben, her mother's excitement for her, followed by her mother's decline and perhaps her death happening on the same day she finds out about Ben and Nicole would have been a more believable motivation for Cassie going crazy. Ben was her tie to her mother and perhaps she even would have thought she had her mother's blessing in her delusion. Instead, I found it hard to believe that she was so obsessed and willing to take such drastic steps without much explanation beyond "I love his music and stare at his poster".

All in all 3 stars for good writing quality, good ideas, but unfulfilled potential. ]]>
3.34 2024 I Would Die for You
author: Sandie Jones
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:
Sandie Jones' newest novel has a lot of potential but, in the end, it was too tangled up in the threads of its subplots.

The first half of "I Would Die for You" was compelling and fast paced. I pictured Ben as Harry Styles and understood the teenage obsession Jones describes since I saw it growing up in the 1D era. However, there are two main things I would change in how the plot develops in the second and third acts.

1. I would have wanted Cassie to be more of an unreliable narrator. It was too obvious too early on that it was all in her head. It would have been more effective if the reader saw Cassie have a few sweet moments with Ben behind stage after the concert, maybe a party before the one that was raided, and then genuinely believed that Cassie and Nicole were both being strung along and Ben was the bad guy. Then we would be shocked when we see Cassie's involvement in destroying Ben's reputation.

2. I would have wanted Cassie's obsession and "snap" to be more motivated by her mother's death. I felt the depth of emotion in the first few Cassie chapters but somewhere along the way it got lost. Including a few scenes where she tells her mother about being backstage at the concert and then meeting Ben, her mother's excitement for her, followed by her mother's decline and perhaps her death happening on the same day she finds out about Ben and Nicole would have been a more believable motivation for Cassie going crazy. Ben was her tie to her mother and perhaps she even would have thought she had her mother's blessing in her delusion. Instead, I found it hard to believe that she was so obsessed and willing to take such drastic steps without much explanation beyond "I love his music and stare at his poster".

All in all 3 stars for good writing quality, good ideas, but unfulfilled potential.
]]>
<![CDATA[Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)]]> 76715522 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Aelin Galathynius has vowed to save her people � but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. The knowledge that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, but her resolve is unraveling with each passing day�

With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an explosive conclusion as Aelin fights to save herself―and the promise of a better world.]]>
984 Sarah J. Maas 1639731067 Jenna 0 to-read 4.74 2018 Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Homecoming 61650237
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.

Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora's housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small.

At loose ends in Nora's house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find�

An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.]]>
560 Kate Morton Jenna 0 to-read 4.17 2023 Homecoming
author: Kate Morton
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]>
303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Jenna 0 to-read 4.32 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Betting on You 60197314
Now, Bailey and Charlie are still polar opposites, but instead of everything about him rubbing Bailey the wrong way, she starts to look forward to hanging out and gossiping about the waterpark guests and their coworkers—particularly two who keep flirting with each other. Bailey and Charlie make a bet on whether or not the cozy pair will actually get together. Charlie insists that members of the opposite sex can’t just be friends, and Bailey is determined to prove him wrong.

Bailey and Charlie keep close track of the romantic progress of others while Charlie works to deflect the growing feelings he’s developed for Bailey. Terrified to lose her if his crush becomes known, what doesn’t help his agenda is Bailey and Charlie “fake dating� in order to disrupt the annoying pleasantries between Bailey’s mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Soon, what Charlie was hoping to avoid becomes a reality as Bailey starts to see him as not only a friend she can rely on in the midst of family drama—but someone who makes her hands shake and heart race. But Charlie has a secret—a secret that involves Bailey and another bet Charlie may have made. Can the two make a real go of things…or has Charlie’s secret doomed them before they could start?]]>
432 Lynn Painter 1665921234 Jenna 4 4.12 2023 Betting on You
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
Witness 8 (Eddie Flynn, #8) 214152415 This riveting psychological thriller from master of twists Steve Cavanagh, author of the �unguessable and unputdownable� (Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Kill For Me, Kill for You, What if the witness was more twisted than the killer?

Something is wrong with Ruby Johnson.

A former resident of the ultra-elite Manhattan upper class, Ruby now works as a maid in the type of houses she used to live in. Unassuming, she sees everyone’s dirty secrets from the inside of their beautiful, renovated brownstones. But when Ruby witnesses a murder, she has wicked plans in mind that don’t involve telling the authorities the truth.

Eddie Flynn, streetwise ex con-artist-turned-defense attorney, is the only lawyer in New York City willing to take on hopeless cases. And none is more hopeless than John Jackson’s—the gun that killed his neighbor found, with Jackson’s DNA, in his own home. Flynn and his unconventional team will need to use every trick they know to keep an innocent man from being locked up. But to save his client’s life, Eddie must first protect his own, as the scariest organized criminals in the city are out for his head.

Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Megan Miranda, Witness 8 is a fresh knockout page-turner from an author who is “the real deal� (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author).]]>
416 Steve Cavanagh 1668049376 Jenna 0 to-read 4.15 2024 Witness 8 (Eddie Flynn, #8)
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]>
382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Jenna 5
Five Stars again in The Hunger Games saga ]]>
4.66 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves:
review:
Haymitch is sweet as gumdrops, tenacious as all-fire, gentle as a dove, and clever as a mockingjay

Five Stars again in The Hunger Games saga
]]>
<![CDATA[Wes Bennett's Vivid Dream (Better than the Movies, #1.4)]]> 199078687 6 Lynn Painter Jenna 0 to-read 4.20 2023 Wes Bennett's Vivid Dream (Better than the Movies, #1.4)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Liz’s Proposal (Better than the Movies, #1.1)]]> 204145410 15 Lynn Painter Jenna 0 to-read 4.37 Liz’s Proposal (Better than the Movies, #1.1)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Basketball Night (Better than the Movies, #1.3)]]> 199046275 23 Lynn Painter Jenna 0 to-read 4.46 Basketball Night (Better than the Movies, #1.3)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Party (Better than the Movies, #1.2)]]> 133126470 21 Lynn Painter Jenna 0 to-read 4.50 The Party (Better than the Movies, #1.2)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Nothing Better Than You (Better than the Movies, #1.6)]]> 218371653 27 Lynn Painter 1665965193 Jenna 0 to-read 4.49 2024 Nothing Better Than You (Better than the Movies, #1.6)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Wes & Liz’s College Road Trip (Better than the Movies, #1.7)]]> 156715283 57 Lynn Painter Jenna 0 to-read 4.43 2022 Wes & Liz’s College Road Trip (Better than the Movies, #1.7)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Better Than Before (Betting on You, #0.5; Better than the Movies, #0.5)]]> 200674043 42 Lynn Painter 1665945699 Jenna 0 to-read 4.15 2023 Better Than Before (Betting on You, #0.5; Better than the Movies, #0.5)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Better than the Prom (Better than the Movies, #1.5)]]> 62053108
Not only is he not going with Liz, the girl he’s loved his entire life, but Liz is going with Michael, the guy she’s loved her entire life. Talk about a nightmare.

They manage to avoid each other at the event, but every glance he steals of her in that gown, smiling up at her date, feels like a punch to his solar plexus.

But when she’s waiting for him after he ditches the dance, he realizes that nothing about the prom even matters.

Because Liz Buxbaum, in Chuck Taylors and a sweatshirt under the streetlight that shines above their spot, is actually far better than the prom.]]>
30 Lynn Painter Jenna 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Better than the Prom (Better than the Movies, #1.5)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Nothing Like the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #2)]]> 207293948
Flash forward months later, and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him.

Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with rom-com-worthy grand gestures she loves. Only . . . Liz will have none of it! Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend . . . a guy friend.

Still, Wes won’t give up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.]]>
442 Lynn Painter 1665947136 Jenna 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Nothing Like the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #2)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]>
527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Jenna 1 4.18 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]>
We Met Like This: A Novel 222376740 Beloved author Kasie West's sparkling adult rom-com debut about a hopeless romantic falling for the one man she never expected

Can a swipe right turn into swept away?

Margot Hart is a hopeless romantic. That’s why she wants to be a literary agent—to help bring romance books to the world. It’s also why she hates dating apps with all her romance loving soul. She wants her own love story to be just as much fun as the books she reads—a mixed up coffee order, a mistaken identity. She’s not going to tell the story that she swiped right on future husband’s shirtless pic for the rest of her life.

The problem is that her most consistent relationship over the last several years is with Oliver, a guy she keeps rematching with on the apps. They’ve only been on one date and it was a disaster…well, until the make out session in the car before parting ways. But, she keeps reminding herself, a make out session does not a relationship make. And so there will not be a date two regardless of how witty their app banter is.

When Margot gets fired from her job on the same day she meets Oliver again, her life becomes a veritable shit show. Her dream career is dying right before her eyes, and Oliver thinks she’s interested in only one a repeat of the hot make out session they had three years ago so she can get him out of her system. And maybe that is all she wants from him, because she and Oliver are definitely not compatible—he doesn’t hit the snooze button, he runs five miles every morning, he reads nonfiction, and worst of all, she didn’t meet him in cute way! But in her scramble to keep her dream career alive, by opening her own agency, Oliver is there with his golden retriever energy, more steady and helpful than any man she’s ever dated. Just when she thinks she’s overcome her app bias, she realizes that maybe it’s not her who’s holding back, but him. And his reasons are more than she bargained for.

Kasie West's romantic adult debut is full of witty banter, meet cutes gone awry and, ultimately, true love.]]>
368 Kasie West 1250349141 Jenna 0 to-read 4.32 2025 We Met Like This: A Novel
author: Kasie West
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
One Perfect Couple 214151372 Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.]]>
432 Ruth Ware 1668025604 Jenna 0 to-read 3.68 2024 One Perfect Couple
author: Ruth Ware
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]>
368 Abby Jimenez 1538759195 Jenna 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Say You'll Remember Me
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]>
304 John Green 0525555218 Jenna 0 currently-reading 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)]]> 60217777 The stakes are even higher in this epic, romantic conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crimson Moth duology.

A WITCH...
Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.

A WITCH HUNTER...
Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE...
When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.

In Kristen Ciccarelli's Rebel Witch, the exciting conclusion to The Crimson Moth duology, love has never been so deadly.]]>
464 Kristen Ciccarelli Jenna 5 4.25 2025 Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Crash 216223604 The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.

But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
]]>
384 Freida McFadden 1464232989 Jenna 1 3.58 2025 The Crash
author: Freida McFadden
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Trials of Lila Dalton 217476773
Lila Dalton has no memory of how she came to be in this courtroom; no memory of how she got to the courthouse at all, or why she's facing a jury who seems to be waiting for her. The man on trial is accused of mass murder, and she's his lawyer, but she can't remember any details of the case. She can't remember anything� Stranded on an island in the Atlantic Ocean where the most serious crimes are tried, Lila has to prove her client's innocence if she wants to go home. But how can she solve this case when she's not sure she can trust anything around her, including her own memory?

The Trials of Lila Dalton is a twisty, unexpected locked-room mystery that follows one woman's race against time to find a killer, clear her own name, and escape the island that threatens to keep her trapped forever.]]>
480 L.J. Shepherd 1728298458 Jenna 0 to-read 3.00 2024 The Trials of Lila Dalton
author: L.J. Shepherd
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Graceview Patient: A Novel]]> 222376946 Misery meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this genre-bending, claustrophobic hospital gothic from the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence.

Margaret lives with a rare autoimmune condition that has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial.

The conditions are simple, if grueling; she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital.

Unsure of what's real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls.]]>
304 Caitlin Starling 1250340756 Jenna 0 to-read 4.03 2025 The Graceview Patient: A Novel
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Writers and Liars 220435885 In the latest thrilling suspense novel from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, a group of mystery authors gathers on a secluded Greek island for a writers retreat, only to discover that their enigmatic host has been murdered and everyone present is a suspect.

They’ll kill for inspiration�

Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious—andĚýveryĚýexclusive—writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island of Eris. It’s where she wrote her first book, the one that should have launched a brilliant career. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over Maia ever since.

Now, Maia finds a familiar envelope in the mail. It’s an invitation to return to Eris, and according to social media, she’s not the only one from that first retreat who’s been invited back. This could be the second chance Maia needs to jump-start her dreams. A chance for reconciliation� or revenge.

Almost all of the writers from fifteen years before have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. Soon, the guests learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But this is no harmless game—when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander, dead.Ěý

Tensions simmer as the guests try to determine who’s behind the murder, and why they’ve really been invited to the retreat. On an island full of mystery writers, anyone could be the killer—and anyone could be the next victim. Trapped together until the next boat arrives from the mainland, they must sort out old grievances and figure out how to trust one another... or die one by one.]]>
272 Carol Goodman 0063398737 Jenna 0 to-read 3.38 2025 Writers and Liars
author: Carol Goodman
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Long Bright River 55835660 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

[Moore's] careful balance of the hard-bitten with the heartfelt is what elevates Long Bright River from entertaining page-turner to a book that makes you want to call someone you love." - The New York Times Book Review

This is police procedural and a thriller par excellence, one in which the city of Philadelphia itself is a character (think Boston and Mystic River). But it's also a literary tale narrated by a strong woman with a richly drawn personal life - powerful and genre-defying." - People

A thoughtful, powerful novel by a writer who displays enormous compassion for her characters. Long Bright River is an outstanding crime novel... I absolutely loved it.
--Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl on the Train


Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.]]>
497 Liz Moore 0525540687 Jenna 0 to-read 4.16 2020 Long Bright River
author: Liz Moore
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Someone Knows 220161384 An English professor’s deadly past comes back to haunt her in this chilling and sexy thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland.

As a college English professor, Elizabeth looks forward to the start of each new semester teaching her creative writing seminar. At least until she reads chapter one of The Reckoning, a tale about a high school senior who has an affair with her teacher. To anyone else it would be the beginning of a great page-turner, but to Elizabeth it is the beginning of the end.

She knows this story. It’s all familiar because she lived it. The girl in the story was her best friend Jocelyn, and Elizabeth knows exactly how the story will end—with the professor dead. Because she was the one who killed him.

Someone knows what Elizabeth did twenty years ago and her secret is about to be exposed, but who is the mystery student submitting the chapters? In an effort to find out, Elizabeth returns to her Louisiana hometown where it soon becomes clear that no matter how many years have gone by, she can’t escape her past.]]>
288 Vi Keeland 1668047497 Jenna 0 to-read 4.24 2025 Someone Knows
author: Vi Keeland
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Influencers 216522650 A social media influencer's empire is burned to the ground—literally. The top suspects? The five daughters who made her famous.

"Mother May I" Iverson has spent the past twenty years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?

April is a businesswoman feuding with her mother over IP; twins June and July are influencers themselves, threatening to overtake May’s spotlight; January is a theater tech who steers clear of her mother and the limelight; and the youngest…well, March has somehow completely disappeared. As the days pass post-murder, everyone has an opinion—the sisters, May, a mysterious "friend of the family," and the collective voice of the online audience watching the family’s every move—with suspicion flying every direction.

A campy and escapist exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and class, The Influencers is an evisceration of influencer culture and how alienating traditional expectations can be, ripe for the current moment when the first generation of children made famous by their parents are, now, all grown up—and looking for retribution.]]>
448 Anna-Marie McLemore 059372917X Jenna 0 to-read 3.47 The Influencers
author: Anna-Marie McLemore
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.47
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]>
326 John Scalzi 0765389096 Jenna 0 to-read 3.92 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?]]>
368 Erin Crosby Eckstine 0593725115 Jenna 0 to-read 4.22 2025 Junie
author: Erin Crosby Eckstine
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands & Lovers takes readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England. Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues—of privilege, class, and the female experience—inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life.]]>
384 Beatriz Williams 0593724240 Jenna 0 to-read 3.98 2024 Husbands & Lovers
author: Beatriz Williams
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Third Gilmore Girl 207298106 “Come for the Gilmore Girls anecdotes, stay for the revealing truths about what it takes to build a lifelong career in and out of Hollywood� (The A.V. Club) in this candid and captivating memoir from award-winning and beloved actress Kelly Bishop, spanning her six decades in show business from A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, and much more.

Kelly Bishop’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy.

Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.

Full of witty insights, The Third Gilmore Girl is a warm, unapologetic, and spirited memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades and has no plans on slowing down.]]>
256 Kelly Bishop 1668023776 Jenna 0 to-read 4.35 2024 The Third Gilmore Girl
author: Kelly Bishop
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)]]> 222419283
It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.
Ěý
In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?
Ěý
As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]>
384 Kristen Perrin 0593474023 Jenna 0 to-read 3.83 2024 How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Other People's Houses 221490975 From the author who brought you the jaw-dropping twist of I Let You Go, the gasp-out-loud ending of Let Me Lie, and the loveable, unpredictable Ffion Morgan in The Last Party and A Game of Lies.]]> 368 Clare Mackintosh 1728296544 Jenna 0 to-read 4.37 2025 Other People's Houses
author: Clare Mackintosh
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Maid for Each Other 220458655
Declan is a busy man, working his way up at Hathaway Holdings. Which is why he’s never met the woman who cleans his penthouse every week.

Abi needs a place to stay, and Declan is out of town, so the solution seems simple and, crucially, free.

When Declan’s parents tell him they met his girlfriend at his apartment, he's surprised to say the least. But it is nice to have them off his back about being single for a change. . .

Declan finds out who Abi really is, and decides to makes her a pretend to date him, and he’ll provide everything she needs.

What could go wrong? It’s business, not pleasure. Right?

Fake DatingForced Proximity]]>
368 Lynn Painter 0593638034 Jenna 0 to-read 3.89 2025 Maid for Each Other
author: Lynn Painter
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
How to Survive a Horror Story 219542927 Seven authors enter the manor

Can they survive the story within?

When legendary horror author Mortimer Queen passes, a group of writers find themselves invited to his last will and testament reading expecting a piece of his massive fortune. Each have their own unique connection to the literary icon, some known, some soon to be discovered, and they've been waiting for their chance to step into the author's shoes for some time.

Instead, they arrive at his grand manor and are invited to play a game. The rules are simple, solve the riddle and progress to the next room. If they don't, the manor will take one of them for itself.

You see, the Queen estate was built on the bones of Mortimer's family, and like any true horror story, the house is still very, very hungry.

With the clever, locked-room thrills of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone with the ghostly horror of The Fall of the House of Usher, How to Survive a Horror Story is a bright, biting, thrill-ride that begs us to contemplate how the best horror stories come to be.]]>
368 Mallory Arnold 1464227403 Jenna 0 to-read 3.74 2025 How to Survive a Horror Story
author: Mallory Arnold
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Gathering 186872450 A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caughtĚýup in the dark secrets andĚýsuperstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man

Deadhart, Alaska. 873. Living.

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart haven’t seen a killing like this in twenty-five years. But they know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods.

Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing—and authorize a cull. Old suspicions die hard in a town like Deadhart, but Barbara isn’t so sure. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone.

As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found. While the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, a killer stalks Deadhart, and two disparate communities circle each other for blood. Time is running out for Atkins and Tucker to find the truth: Are they hunting a bloodthirsty monster . . . or a twisted psychopath? And which is more dangerous?]]>
336 C.J. Tudor 0593356594 Jenna 0 to-read 3.86 2024 The Gathering
author: C.J. Tudor
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Conform 223239535
Centuries after a catastrophic world war nearly decimated the human population, a city arose from the ashes, ruled by an elusive and technologically advanced group called the Illum.

At twenty-seven, Emeline lives in limbo, wasting away her days in a job sorting ancient human art for destruction and waiting to be selected as a Mate for a procreation contract. Where others look forward to being chosen, Emeline has never felt like she fit into a society where a person’s worth is determined by constantly monitored genes, health, and the ability to procreate. She’s struggled to keep her discomfort secret, but when she is finally chosen, her Mate is revealed to be a member of the Illum named Collin, a man who seems to be harboring secrets of his own.

It is the first time an Illum has taken a Mate in decades, leaving Emeline—and others—baffled as to why she was chosen. Soon, she is swept into the dangerous game of Courting, filled with ballgowns, lavish dinners, and watchful eyes, where one wrong move can mean elimination. While parts of this elite lifestyle are unexpectedly appealing, the more embroiled she becomes, the more she sees its dark underbelly—and a rebellion rising in secret. Collin is confusing, both cold and protective, and worse, she finds herself drawn to the very last person she should be falling for: Hal, one of the resistance leaders.

As she draws closer to both Collin and Hal, the Illum exercise their power in increasingly brutal ways, forcing Emeline to question everything—most of all whether she’ll have to give up her heart and even her life to stop them.]]>
416 Ariel Sullivan Jenna 0 to-read 4.20 2025 Conform
author: Ariel Sullivan
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Family Matter 220161203 An exquisite and revelatory debut novel about the devastating consequences of one woman’s affair.

1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter.

2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child—the person around whom his life has revolved—seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can’t reveal all the other secrets he’s been keeping from her for so many years.

A Family Matter is a heartbreaking and hopeful exploration of love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care, and whether it is possible to heal from the wounds of the past in the changed world of today.]]>
240 Claire Lynch 1668078899 Jenna 0 to-read 4.26 A Family Matter
author: Claire Lynch
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Party of Liars 217388119 A lavish, Texas-sized Sweet Sixteen turns deadly in this twisty, pulse-pounding new novel � serving up a fresh take on a classic locked-room whodunnit. Let the festivities begin�

Today is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party, an exclusive black-tie bash in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where secrets are as deep-rooted as the sprawling live oaks. Sophie’s dad has spared no expense, and his renovated cliffside mansion—once thought haunted—is now hosting the event of the season. Then, just before the candles on the three-tiered red velvet cake are blown out, a body falls from the balcony onto the starlit dance floor below.

It’s a killer guest list . . .

DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since the birth of her own baby girl

ÍѸ鳢´ˇ±ő°Ő±á: the superstitious Irish nanny who senses a looming danger in this cavernous house

MIKAYLA: the birthday girl’s best friend who is not nearly as meek as the popular kids assume

KIM: the cunning ex-wife who has a grudge she can’t let go of . . .

Everyone is invited in. Not everyone will get out alive. ]]>
336 Kelsey Cox 1250378818 Jenna 0 to-read 4.07 2025 Party of Liars
author: Kelsey Cox
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Austen Affair 222376792 Two feuding co-stars in a Jane Austen film adaptation accidentally travel back in time to the Regency Era in this delightfully clever and riotously funny debut

Tess Bright just scored her dream role starring in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It's not just the role of a lifetime, but it’s also her last chance to prove herself as a serious actress (no easy feat after being fired from her last TV gig) and more importantly, it’s her opportunity to honor her mom, who was the biggest fan of Jane Austen ever. But one thing is standing in Tess’s way—well, one very tall, annoyingly handsome person, actually: Hugh Balfour.

A serious British method actor, Hugh wants nothing to do with Tess (whose Teen Choice Awards somehow don’t quite compare to his BAFTA nominations). Hugh is a type-A, no-nonsense, Royal Academy prodigy, whereas Tess is big-hearted, a little reckless, and admittedly, kind of a mess. But the film needs chemistry—and Tess’s career depends on it.

Sparks fly, but not in the way Tess hoped, when an electrical accident sends the two feuding co-stars back in time to Jane Austen’s era. 200 years in the past with only each other to rely on, Tess and Hugh need to ad-lib their way through the Regency period in order to make it back home, and hopefully not screw up history along the way. But if a certain someone looks particularly dashing in those 19th century breeches…well, Tess won’t be complaining.

A wickedly funny, delightfully charming story, The Austen Affair is a tribute to Jane Austen, second chances, and love across the space-time continuum.]]>
336 Madeline Bell 1250373514 Jenna 0 to-read 4.35 The Austen Affair
author: Madeline Bell
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Not Quite Dead Yet 220223963 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder—now a hit Netflix series—returns with her first novel for adults: a twisty thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.

She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.

Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder.]]>
400 Holly Jackson 059397705X Jenna 0 to-read 4.42 2025 Not Quite Dead Yet
author: Holly Jackson
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The House We Grew Up In 39095097
Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they've never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in -- and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family's desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.]]>
416 Lisa Jewell 1476776865 Jenna 0 to-read 3.84 2013 The House We Grew Up In
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Long Time Gone 216972034 When DNA results reveal a disturbing connection to the mysterious disappearance of a famous baby nearly three decades ago, a forensic scientist is plunged into a dangerous search for answers in this engrossing, propulsive new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later.

Thirty years ago, Baby Charlotte vanished. Today, she’s still in danger.

When Dr. Sloan Hastings submits her DNA to an online genealogy site for a research assignment, her goal is to better understand the treasure-trove of genetic information contained on ancestry websites. Brilliant and driven, Sloan is embarking on a fellowship in forensic pathology, training under the renowned Dr. Livia Cutty.

Sloan has one reservation about involving herself in the she’s adopted. Grateful for a loving home, she’s never considered tracking down her biological parents. The results of her search are shocking. Sloan’s DNA profile suggests her true identity is that of Charlotte Margolis, aka “Baby Charlotte�, who captured the nation’s attention when she mysteriously disappeared, along with her parents, in July 1995. Despite an exhaustive search, the family was never seen again, and no suspects were named in the case.

Sloan’s discovery leads her to the small town of Cedar Creek, Nevada, the site of her disappearance. It also leads her to Sheriff Eric Stamos. The Margolis family’s influence and power permeate every corner of Harrison County, and Eric is convinced that in learning the truth about her past, Sloan can also help discover what happened to Eric’s father, who died under suspicious circumstances soon after he started investigating the case her disappearance.

Slowly, over the course of a stifling summer, Sloan begins getting to know her relatives. Though initially welcoming, the Margolis family is also mysterious and tight-lipped. Not everyone seems happy about Sloan’s return, or the questions she’s asking. And the more she and Eric learn, the more apparent it becomes that the answers they both seek are buried in a graveyard of Margolis family secrets that some will do anything to keep hidden—no matter who else has to die…]]>
416 Charlie Donlea 1496751140 Jenna 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Long Time Gone
author: Charlie Donlea
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Daughter of Mine 194577491 The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.]]>
368 Megan Miranda 1668055716 Jenna 0 to-read 4.03 2024 Daughter of Mine
author: Megan Miranda
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.]]>
544 Rebecca Ross 1250373352 Jenna 0 to-read 4.70 2025 Wild Reverence
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Famous Last Words 212421066
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.

Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband—doting father, eternal optimist—is the gunman.

What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says...

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]>
336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Jenna 4 3.73 2025 Famous Last Words
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays]]> 213816151 “Greene is the best kind of guide: funny, probing, generous of mind and heart.�
―Ben Fountain, bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Exploding sharks, trees riding bicycles, a Hollywood-esque balloon dress, a giant sloth in costume, a stolen woodpecker, and a sentient bag of wasps―and remember: this is nonfiction.

Celebrated author and artist A. Kendra Greene’s No Less Strange or Wonderful is a brilliant and generous meditation―on the complex wonder of being alive, on how to pay attention to even the tiniest (sometimes strangest) details that glitter with insight, whimsy, and deep humanity, if only we’d really look.

In twenty-six sparkling essays, illuminated through both text and image, Greene is trying to make sense―of anything, really―but especially the things that matter most in life: love, connection, death, grief, the universe, meaning, nothingness, and everythingness. Through a series of encounters with strangers, children, and animals, the wild merges with the domestic; the everyday meets the sublime. Each essay returns readers to our smallest moments and our largest ones in a book that makes us realize―through its exuberant language, its playful curation, and its delightful associative leapfrogging―that they are, in fact, one in the same.]]>
304 A. Kendra Greene 1963108086 Jenna 0 to-read 3.72 No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays
author: A. Kendra Greene
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

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

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.]]>
352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Jenna 0 to-read 3.79 2025 Our Infinite Fates
author: Laura Steven
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom]]> 214151420 From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing.

Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.

As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.

Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.�

For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.� No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.]]>
320 Shari Franke 1668065398 Jenna 5 4.44 2025 The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom
author: Shari Franke
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Unraveling of Julia 221179145
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.

Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard - but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.

There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse with delusions of grandeur, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Julia is stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi and even to Caterina, then she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.

Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her disturbed mind. When events turn deadly, she breaks with reality.

Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.]]>
400 Lisa Scottoline 1538769999 Jenna 0 to-read 3.68 The Unraveling of Julia
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Katabasis 210191773 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]>
560 R.F. Kuang 0063021471 Jenna 0 to-read 4.31 2025 Katabasis
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Sleep Tight 204294824
Dark and twisting at every turn, fans of Catriona Ward will love this chilling new tale from the deviously inventive horror author that Peter Farris calls the “clear heir to Stephen King.�

Beware the one who got away . . .

Father Silence once terrorized the rural town of Twisted Tree, disguising himself as a priest to prey on the most vulnerable members of society. When the police finally found his “House of Horrors,� they uncovered nineteen bodies and one survivor–a boy now locked away in a hospital for the criminally insane.

Nearly two decades later, Father Silence is finally put to death, but by the next morning, the detective who made the original arrest is found dead. A new serial killer is taking credit for the murder and calling himself the Outcast.

The detective’s daughter, Tess Claibourne, is a detective herself, haunted by childhood trauma and horrified by the death of her father and the resurgence of Father Silence’s legacy.

When Tess’s daughter is kidnapped by the Outcast, Tess is forced to face her worst fears and long-buried memories. With no leads to follow, she travels back to Twisted Tree to visit the boy who survived and see what secrets might be buried in the tangled web of his broken mind.

With captivating prose and an old-school horror flair, Sleep Tight is a must-read, haunting tale from a true master of the genre.]]>
336 J.H. Markert 1639108734 Jenna 3 3.64 2024 Sleep Tight
author: J.H. Markert
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
Jar of Hearts 45046654 An explosive, edge-of-your-seat read about three friends, one murder, and a whole world of secrets...

Angela was one of the most popular girls in her high school before she disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever knew what became of her―not Georgina, her best friend, nor Kaiser, who was close with both girls. Then, fourteen years later, Angela’s remains were discovered in the woods near Geo’s childhood home and Kaiser―who became a detective with the Seattle police department―finally learned the truth: Angela was a victim of Calvin James.

To the authorities, Calvin was a notorious serial killer. But back in the day, Calvin was Geo’s first love. Their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met, right up until the night Angela was killed. Geo carried the secret of Calvin’s dark deeds until the evidence landed her in prison. But now, just as Geo is about to be released, new bodies start turning up―killed in the exact same manner as Angela... and soon Geo, Kaiser, and local law enforcement officials realize that what happened that fateful night is more complex and chilling than anyone could have imagined.]]>
384 Jennifer Hillier 1250154200 Jenna 0 to-read 4.19 2018 Jar of Hearts
author: Jennifer Hillier
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Darling Girls 211004884 SISTERS, SECRETS, LOVE, AND MURDER... Sally Hepworth’s new novel has it all.

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

A thrilling page-turner of sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth.]]>
368 Sally Hepworth 1250371708 Jenna 0 to-read 3.96 2024 Darling Girls
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Tenant 221733722 There’s no place like home�

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he's desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake's looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets...

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour�]]>
368 Freida McFadden 1464227314 Jenna 0 to-read 4.45 2025 The Tenant
author: Freida McFadden
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, 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.]]>
401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Jenna 2
The book is laid out in several parts that are each broken into chapters. While there is an overarching narrative, some of the sections diverge into a different subplot and even writing style for much longer than necessary. Some of the writing styles, such as the one used in the section "NPC", were highly effective and emotional and interesting while others, particularly "Pioneers" for me, were too disconnected from the central narrative.

Throughout the novel, I was particularly excited by the descriptions of Sadie and Sam's game concepts and how they translated to the page. They provided new perspectives and challenged my thoughts. But this was not enough to counteract the tedium of other parts. Many chapters fell into the trap of over-description of even the most irrelevant details and it became a slog to get through to get back to the central plot.

Overall, I liked several of the themes and respect what Gabrielle Zevin was trying to do here artistically but it didn't work for me.]]>
4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Unfortunately, I did not like "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" and the primary reason was that it felt unfinished and disjointed.

The book is laid out in several parts that are each broken into chapters. While there is an overarching narrative, some of the sections diverge into a different subplot and even writing style for much longer than necessary. Some of the writing styles, such as the one used in the section "NPC", were highly effective and emotional and interesting while others, particularly "Pioneers" for me, were too disconnected from the central narrative.

Throughout the novel, I was particularly excited by the descriptions of Sadie and Sam's game concepts and how they translated to the page. They provided new perspectives and challenged my thoughts. But this was not enough to counteract the tedium of other parts. Many chapters fell into the trap of over-description of even the most irrelevant details and it became a slog to get through to get back to the central plot.

Overall, I liked several of the themes and respect what Gabrielle Zevin was trying to do here artistically but it didn't work for me.
]]>
<![CDATA[Beg, Borrow, or Steal (When in Rome, #3)]]> 211164792 Two feuding second-grade teachers (and neighbors) find themselves teaming up in this rivals-to-lovers romance.

Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He's the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year, with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.

Jackson Bennett is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he’s even more excited for—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.

With their chemistry-fueled animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school’s principal that could reveal her secret literary side hustle. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—she hates to admit—is just the man to help her. Surprisingly, Jack agrees. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?]]>
384 Sarah Adams 0593723694 Jenna 5 4.07 2025 Beg, Borrow, or Steal (When in Rome, #3)
author: Sarah Adams
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Memory Ward 215003803 From critically acclaimed author Jon Bassoff, The Memory Ward is a haunting Russian doll of a novel about one man’s attempt to discover what’s real and what isn’t �

They say it’s always beautiful in Bethlam, Nevada. No place you’d rather live. The people are friendly, if a little nosy, and there’s no crime to speak of. Life is pretty perfect.

But postal worker Hank Davies has started to suspect something is off in this idyllic little town. And he’s certain of that when he realizes the letters he’s been delivering are just blank pages.

Hank isn’t the only one who’s noticed the oddities in Bethlam. One such person knocks on his window in the middle of the night, urging him to investigate his bedroom wall. When Hank pulls back the wallpaper, he discovers dozens of sheets of paper, full of a story that is either complete madness or unbelievable truth. As he begins looking beyond the veneer of his smiling neighbors and their white picket fences, Hank is drawn further and further into a disturbing new reality �

Told in Bassoff’s lyrical and evocative style, The Memory Ward is a disquieting page-turner that examines the nature of identity, trauma, and what it means to be human.]]>
256 Jon Bassoff Jenna 0 to-read 3.73 The Memory Ward
author: Jon Bassoff
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Farmhouse 217476770 Every woman who has lived on this farm has died. Emily just moved in.

When Emily Hauk's mother dies, it's time for her and her husband, Josh, to finally leave San Francisco. A farm in rural Nebraska is everything they want for a fresh start: clear skies, low costs, and distance from the grief back home.Ěý

They should have asked why the farm was for sale.Ěý

Three years ago a teenage girl went missing from the farm. Soon afterward, the girl's mother mysteriously died. The deeper Emily digs the more stories she uncovers of women connected to her new home who've met their own dark ends.

With each passing day Emily's sanctuary slips further away. The barn seems to move throughout her property as though chasing her. Her mother's favorite music drifts across the cornfield. She swears she saw blood in one of the farmhand's trucks. And the screams that wake her are not fox howls, no matter how many times her husband says they are. If she wants to claim this place as her own she'll have to find out the truth before whatever watches from the cornfield takes her, too.]]>
432 Chelsea Conradt 1464229163 Jenna 0 to-read 3.59 The Farmhouse
author: Chelsea Conradt
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.59
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
First Wife's Shadow 204169194 The Family Remains, on Two Dead Wives

An exhilarating psychological crime thriller that will have you racing to the finish!

HIS FIRST WIFE DIED. NOW THERE'S A VACANCY�

When Emma meets Matthew, a kind, handsome widower, he seems to be just what she needs.

Yet as their relationship moves fast, Emma’s friends worry she might be exploited. She’s a rich woman after all.

Emma doesn’t care Matthew has no money. But as the memory of his perfect first wife hangs over them, Emma does have one tiny doubt.

If Matthew’s wife hadn’t died, he wouldn’t be with her. And Emma wonders if she’s second best. Can she ever fill the dead woman’s shoes?

As jealousy and suspicion blossom between Emma and Matthew, events take a darker, dangerous turn.

Suddenly Emma doesn’t know who she can trust. Her friends? Her husband? Or even herself�?]]>
368 Adele Parks 0778368130 Jenna 0 to-read 3.92 2024 First Wife's Shadow
author: Adele Parks
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Queen's Resistance (The Queen's Rising, #2)]]> 214466891
Aodhan Morgane, formerly known as Cartier Évariste, is adjusting to the stark contrast between his pre-rebellion life in Valenia and his current one as lord of a fallen House. During his castle’s restoration, he discovers Tomas, a young boy whose past is a mystery. So when Brienna is as taken with Tomas as he is, Cartier lets his mind wander—what if he doesn’t have to raise him or his House alone?

However, Brienna and Cartier must put their love aside and stay focused on the most vital tasks at hand—the Lannons' trial, forging alliances, executing justice, and ensuring that no one halts the queen’s coronation. But resistance is rumbling among the old regime’s supporters, who are desperate to find a weakness in the rebels� forces. And what makes one more vulnerable than love?

In this epic follow-up to The Queen's Rising, Rebecca Ross weaves political intrigue, complicated relationships, and undying love to create a story that readers won't be able to put down.]]>
496 Rebecca Ross 0063428415 Jenna 0 to-read 4.43 2019 The Queen's Resistance (The Queen's Rising, #2)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Lost Passenger 213870086 An immersive historical drama about a young mother who starts a new life with her son in New York after faking their deaths on the °Őľ±łŮ˛ą˛Ôľ±ł¦â€”the U.S. debut of an acclaimed British novelist.

Sometimes it takes a disaster to change your life.

Marrying above your social class can come with unexpected consequences, as Elinor Coombes discovers when she is swept into a fairy-tale marriage with the son of an aristocratic English family. She soon realizes that it was the appeal of her father’s hard-earned wealth rather than her pretty face that attracted her new husband and his family. Curtailed by rigid social rules that include being allowed to see her nanny-raised infant son for only moments each day, Elinor resigns herself to a lonely future. So a present from her father—tickets for the maiden voyage of a luxurious new ship called the °Őľ±łŮ˛ą˛Ôľ±ł¦â€�offers a welcome escape from the cold, controlling atmosphere of her husband’s ancestral home, and some precious time with her little son, Teddy.

When the ship goes down, Elinor grasps the opportunity to take Teddy and start a new life—but only if they can disappear completely, listed among the dead. Penniless and using another woman’s name, she must learn to survive in New York City, a brash new world that couldn’t be more different from her own, and to keep their secret safe. But alas, it's not safe—she's been spotted by another survivor who's eager to profit from his discovery.

An absorbing historical drama set between the old world of the oppressive English aristocracy and the new world of opportunity and freedom, The Lost Passenger is a grippingly dramatic story about starting over in a brand-new world, triumphing over adversity, and finding hope in the face of great loss.]]>
384 Frances Quinn 0593973038 Jenna 0 to-read 4.21 2025 The Lost Passenger
author: Frances Quinn
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Battle of the Bookstores 218460257 Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites in every way find themselves competing for the same promotion.

Despite managing bookstores on the same Boston street, Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson have never interacted much—Josie’s store focuses on serious literature, and Ryan’s sells romance only. But when the new owner of both stores decides to combine them, the two are thrust into direct competition. Only one manager will be left standing, decided by who turns the most profit over the summer.Ěý

Efficient and detail-oriented Josie instantly clashes with easygoing and disorganized Ryan. Their competing events and contrasting styles lead to more than just frustration—the sparks between them might just set the whole store on fire. Their only solace during this chaos is the friendship they’ve each struck up with an anonymous friend in an online book forum. Little do they know they’re actually chatting with each other.ĚýĚý

As their rivalry heats up in real life, their online relationship grows, and when the walls between their stores come tumbling down, Josie and Ryan realize not all’s fair in love and war. And maybe, if they’re lucky, happily ever afters aren’t just for the books.]]>
432 Ali Brady 0593640845 Jenna 0 to-read 4.50 2025 Battle of the Bookstores
author: Ali Brady
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Park Avenue 217388273 #1 NYT-bestselling YA author Renee Ahdieh's adult debut novel, about a young lawyer who gets pulled in to manage a crisis with her firm's biggest client, a family whose Korean beauty brand is worth a billion dollars, pitched as CRAZY RICH ASIANS meets SUCCESSION

Jia Song was always destined for greatness. As the daughter of Korean bodega owners, she promised herself that she would have every Fifth Avenue luxury when she grew up, and it is all within reach. She has just made junior partner at her prestigious Manhattan law firm, she has two best friends who are always there for her, and she is even about to score the ultra-luxe Birkin bag of her dreams. Sure, maybe her love life is in shambles and she’s spending too much time at the office. But she is set up to become the firm’s next star. So when her boss asks her for a Friday morning favor, sitting in on the hush-hush family implosion of a high-level client, she accepts without hesitation—only to find out that the client in question is one of the most famous Korean families in the world.

The Park family’s net worth is estimated at a billion dollars, and their mega-successful Korean beauty brand has shaped the culture for the past two decades. But the patriarch is filing for divorce while his wife is dying, and their three children can’t stop snapping at each other. With both the family fortune and legacy under threat from the worst kind of scandal, it’s up to Jia to set things right—and she only has a month to do it. Suddenly, Jia is thrust into the three Park siblings� back-stabbing family politics and embroiled in a drama that feels straight out of a Korean soap opera. As Jia sorts through the lies and subterfuge, chasing the truth across the globe on private jets, she finds herself falling for this broken, badly-behaving family in ways she can’t quite explain. But it is also becoming all too clear that the Parks are hiding dark secrets, from themselves and from Jia. Can she separate the truth from the lies in time to protect the Parks� fortune and secure her success at the firm? And can she hold on to what’s most important, even if it means admitting that what she always wanted isn’t what she actually needs?]]>
320 Renée Ahdieh 1250897955 Jenna 0 to-read 4.09 2025 Park Avenue
author: Renée Ahdieh
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Stay Away from Him 219542921 "Had me hooked from the first line. The characters are complex in a way that makes it impossible to tell who to trust.."—Tasha Coryell, author of Love Letters to a Serial Killer

On the evening she met exonerated murderer Thomas Danver, Melissa Burke let him help put her five-year-old son to bed before coming back upstairs to enjoy the dinner party. Thomas was so nice, and a pediatrician. She didn't know anything then about his wife's suspicious death...

Relocating with her 5-year-old son to a new city after an ugly divorce, Melissa Burke isn't looking for a new relationship right away—only distance from her ex, and space to rest and heal from the emotional scars of a broken marriage. But an unexpected relationship is exactly what she finds at a friend's dinner party when she meets Thomas Danver, a charming widower who asks for her number at the end of the night. Intrigued, Melissa learns from her neighbors that Thomas is a dedicated father of two girls, one of the most respected pediatricians in the city—and an exonerated murderer.

Thomas's first wife went missing three years ago, presumed dead, and Thomas was eventually cleared of her murder in an investigation that became a local media sensation. But while some still believe he killed his wife, Melissa's friends insist that he was unfairly targeted by the police and couldn't hurt a fly. Attracted to Thomas and also fascinated by the case, Melissa agrees to one date—and finds herself quickly swept into an obsessive, whirlwind romance.

But when Melissa receives a chilling, anonymous threat—or perhaps it's a warning—she begins to question how much she truly knows about the man she's falling in love with. Is he really innocent?




]]>
336 Andrew DeYoung 172829813X Jenna 0 to-read 3.85 Stay Away from Him
author: Andrew DeYoung
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Fable for the End of the World]]> 214466890 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]>
448 Ava Reid 0063430010 Jenna 0 to-read 3.93 2025 Fable for the End of the World
author: Ava Reid
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]>
320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Jenna 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
So Happy Together 217388155 Jane and Colin are soulmates. He just doesn’t know it yet.

For twenty-four-year-old Jane, finding love in New York City is even harder than making it as a playwright—especially when all her swiping through the apps leads to one meaningless connection after another.

So when Jane meets Colin, a sweet software engineer, she can’t believe her luck: they’re perfect for each other. Even when Colin breaks off their blooming relationship after six dates, Jane is certain this is just a stumbling block. She’ll get him back. She knows she will.

That is, until Colin starts dating Zoe—perfect, luminous, up-and-coming Brooklyn artist Zoe. Even worse, she’s actually kind of nice. But Zoe doesn’t have what it takes to love Colin. She’d never stay with him through thick and thin. All Jane has to do is prove it, and they’ll be so happy together.

But when Jane sneaks into Colin’s apartment, she makes a shocking discovery—one that will ensnare them all in a dark and complicated web of lies, secrets, and murder.

Unrelentingly twisty and utterly compelling, So Happy Together is an unputdownable, shattering read for fans of You, Riley Sager, and Promising Young Woman.]]>
304 Olivia Worley 1250372305 Jenna 0 to-read 3.82 2025 So Happy Together
author: Olivia Worley
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
You Belong Here 220160921 A decades-old secret that drove a mother from her hometown now threatens her college-bound daughter in this twisty new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda.

Beckett Bowery never thought she’d return to Wyatt Valley, a picturesque college town in the Virginia mountains steeped in tradition. Her roots there were strong: Beckett’s parents taught at the college, and she never even imagined studying anywhere else—until a tragedy her senior year ended with two local men dead, and her roommate on the run, never to be seen again�

For the last two decades, Beckett has done her best to keep her distance. Then her daughter, Delilah, secretly applies to Wyatt College and earns a full scholarship, and Beckett can only hope that her lingering fears are unfounded. But deep down she knows that Wyatt Valley has a long memory, and that the past isn’t the only dangerous thing in town…]]>
352 Megan Miranda 1668080974 Jenna 0 to-read 3.80 2025 You Belong Here
author: Megan Miranda
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time, #1)]]> 60784333 "A great read." —Charlaine Harris

In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland—in an unfamiliar body—with a killer on the loose.

May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.

May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot.

When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late.

Outlander meets The Alienist in Kelley Armstrong's A Rip Through Time, the first book in this utterly compelling series, mixing romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results.]]>
368 Kelley Armstrong 1250820022 Jenna 0 to-read 4.03 2022 A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time, #1)
author: Kelley Armstrong
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Dreams Lie Beneath 214466894 A story about magic and the captivating power of dreams.

A curse plagues the realm of Azenor—during each new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians, who serve as territory wardens, stand between people and their worst dreams.

Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians challenge her, she is unwittingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she secretly gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets begin to rise. Clementine must unite with her rival to fight the realm’s curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn.]]>
496 Rebecca Ross 0063428431 Jenna 0 to-read 4.50 2021 Dreams Lie Beneath
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Knife River 198137715 368 Justine Champine 0593447204 Jenna 0 to-read 3.44 2024 Knife River
author: Justine Champine
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Tilt 214151301 Set over the course of one day, a heart-racing story about a woman facing the unimaginable, determined to find safety

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, she realizes there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. She’s determined to change her life if she can just make it home.]]>
229 Emma Pattee 1668055473 Jenna 0 to-read 3.84 2025 Tilt
author: Emma Pattee
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Sisters of Sword and Song 214466920 From the author of The Queen’s Rising comes a thrilling YA stand-alone fantasy about the unbreakable bond between sisters. Perfect for fans of Ember in the Ashes, Sky in the Deep, and Court of Fives.

After eight long years, Evadne will finally be reunited with her older sister, Halcyon, who has been proudly serving in the queen’s army. But when Halcyon appears earlier than expected, Eva knows something has gone terribly wrong. Halcyon is on the run, hunted by her commander and charged with murder.

Though Halcyon’s life is spared during her trial, the punishment is heavy. And when Eva volunteers to serve part of Halcyon’s sentence, she’s determined to find out exactly what happened. But as Eva begins her sentence, she quickly learns that there are fates much worse than death.]]>
480 Rebecca Ross 0063428423 Jenna 0 to-read 4.25 2020 Sisters of Sword and Song
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Jenna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Queen's Rising (The Queen's Rising, #1)]]> 214466903
Growing up in the southern kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true: she is left without a patron.

Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, she reluctantly accepts. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana—the rival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the northern throne. And others are involved, some closer to Brienna than she realizes.

With war brewing, Brienna must choose whose side she will remain loyal to—passion or blood. Because a queen is destined to rise and lead the battle to reclaim the crown. Who will be that queen?

With gorgeous description and detailed rendering of a world where not everything is what it seems, debut author Rebecca Ross weaves an intricate tale of revenge, loyalty, and, ultimately, self-discovery.]]>
480 Rebecca Ross 0063428407 Jenna 0 to-read 3.83 2018 The Queen's Rising (The Queen's Rising, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Scot and Bothered: A Spicy and Emotional Romance Novel of Love and Healing on the Rugged Skye Trail in Scotland]]> 212431593 SCOT ON THE TRAIL!

Brooke Sinclair’s dream of being a published author derailed when she was expelled from the University of Edinburgh seven years ago. Now a ghostwriter, she sticks to other people’s stories. But when her college mentor Mhairi McCallister needs a co-writer for her memoir about Scotland’s most challenging trek, Brooke would do anything for the opportunity—including agreeing to hike the rugged Skye Trail for authenticity’s sake... not knowing the nature photographer who’ll join her is Jack Sutherland, the man who shattered Brooke’s writing career—and her heart.

Between getting sacked from the University and walking away from his family’s tour-guiding business to follow his photography dreams, Jack is desperate to prove he didn’t disappoint his family for nothing. And he can’t ignore his Aunt Mhairi’s final wishes for her memoir. Even if it means acting as guide and storyteller for the one who got away. Even if it means keeping secrets about Mhairi’s health.

As Jack and Brooke head into the solitude of the sweeping Scottish landscape, they’re forced to confront old feelings that haven’t disappeared with time. But can two weeks and eighty miles heal years of unspoken hurt and offer a second chance at the end of the trail?]]>
336 Alexandra Kiley 1335580085 Jenna 0 to-read 3.70 2025 Scot and Bothered: A Spicy and Emotional Romance Novel of Love and Healing on the Rugged Skye Trail in Scotland
author: Alexandra Kiley
name: Jenna
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>