en-US Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:09:06 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 203578851 Fresh off his career-changing standalone co-written with Icelandic PM, Reykjavík, #1 Icelandic bestseller Jonasson presents a riveting new thriller spinoff from The Darkness, soon to be a TV series. 1983 At a former sanatorium in the north of Iceland, now a hospital ward, an old nurse, Yrsa, is found murdered. Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir and her boss, Sverrir, are sent to investigate her death. There, they discover five the chief physician, two junior nurses, a young doctor, and the caretaker, who is arrested following false testimony from one of the nurses, but subsequently released. Less than a week after the murder, the chief physician, is also found dead, having apparently fallen from a balcony. Sverrir, rules his death as suicide and assumes that he was guilty of the murder as well. The case is closed. 2012 Almost thirty years later, Helgi Reykdal, a young police officer, has been studying criminology in the UK, but decides to return to Iceland when he is offered a job at the Reykjavik police department—the job which detective Hulda Hermannsdottir is about to retire from. He is also a collector of golden age detective stories, and is writing his thesis on the 1983 murders in the north. As Helgi delves deeper into the past, and starts his new job, he decides to try to meet with the original suspects. But soon he finds silence and suspicion at every turn, as he tries to finally solve the mystery from years before.]]> 320 Ragnar Jónasson 1250770769 Chris 5 A new Ragnar Jonasson book is always a treat.
The books are short, the text large, and they read quick also because of the page-turner story!
Present day Helgi is looking into deaths at a Sanatorium 30 years prior. He works with the police, and is about to join, but is writing a dissertation on the case. Meanwhile, he uncovers new leads. In true classic mystery fashion, everyone is a suspect in the who-dunnit, even the relationships of Helgi and the officers lead to additional story lines not fully explored in this book, which make for a wonderful series potential.]]> 3.57 2019
author: Ragnar Jónasson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
Perfect!
A new Ragnar Jonasson book is always a treat.
The books are short, the text large, and they read quick also because of the page-turner story!
Present day Helgi is looking into deaths at a Sanatorium 30 years prior. He works with the police, and is about to join, but is writing a dissertation on the case. Meanwhile, he uncovers new leads. In true classic mystery fashion, everyone is a suspect in the who-dunnit, even the relationships of Helgi and the officers lead to additional story lines not fully explored in this book, which make for a wonderful series potential.
]]> 213618270 An eerie, hypnotic, darkly beautiful novel about two elderly sisters living alone at the edge of the world and how their lives unravel when their sanctum is breached, for fans of Piranesi and The Testaments.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.

So when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they’ve known it.]]> 320 Nick Newman 0593717732 Chris 0 to-read 3.64 2025
author: Nick Newman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213243955 An unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks, Can love save us from ourselves?

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic, but soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.]]> 306 Eowyn Ivey 0593231023 Chris 0 to-read 3.69 2025
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Chris
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 202914347
So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story . . . living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.��

“You and I might even solve an old mystery or two.��

Twenty years earlier—on New Year’s Eve 1999—Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?

“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.��

As Nicky attempts to weave together the strands of Sebastian’s life, she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth . . . while Madeleine begins to question what her beloved father might actually know about that long-ago night. And when a corpse appears in the family’s koi pond, both women are shocked to find that the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting.]]> 408 A.J. Finn 0062678450 Chris 0 to-read 3.03 2024
author: A.J. Finn
name: Chris
average rating: 3.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42867787
But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town of Pale Harbor. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople know that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a widow who lives with a spinster maid in the decaying Castle Carver on the edge of town. Sophronia is a recluse, rumored to be a witch who killed her husband.

When Gabriel meets her, he knows the charming, beautiful woman cannot be guilty of anything. Together, Gabriel and Sophronia realize that the mysterious events have one thing in common: they all contain an element from the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And when the events escalate to murder, Gabriel and Sophronia must find the real killer, before it's too late for them both.]]> 352 Hester Fox 1525834266 Chris 3 But this was a romance story.
It was interesting, yet, did not take me to the next level. It was not what I had hoped.
It was about a widow who had been wronged by her husband, and protected by a good helper who used done binding protection spells. And a man on a mission to follow through on a promise to his dead wife, and he goes to a small town as a minister, and gets caught up in a romance while some darkness us a foot. While someone is threatening her with real life token Ms out of Poe stories.
But it’s not as delicious as it sounds.]]> 3.47 2019
author: Hester Fox
name: Chris
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves:
review:
I was lured in my the house, by the lady, by the mystery.
But this was a romance story.
It was interesting, yet, did not take me to the next level. It was not what I had hoped.
It was about a widow who had been wronged by her husband, and protected by a good helper who used done binding protection spells. And a man on a mission to follow through on a promise to his dead wife, and he goes to a small town as a minister, and gets caught up in a romance while some darkness us a foot. While someone is threatening her with real life token Ms out of Poe stories.
But it’s not as delicious as it sounds.
]]> 57992234
A company run by men with deadly secrets, powerful influence and very dark intentions. They want her to work for them, and they won't take no for an answer.

As veiled threats become terrifying methods of persuasion, Claire soon finds herself accepting a dangerous job she doesn't want with a mysterious organization no one has ever heard of.

Unable to say no, unable to run away, she is sucked into a world of danger and deceit, where death is a daily threat and nothing is what it seems.

As the clock ticks on her chances, a desperate but resourceful woman must escape a deadly rabbit hole before they force her to do the unimaginable.]]> R.J. Law Chris 3 The binding g was nice and easy to handle.

Clare is a genius, and is recruited to a secret project, but it’s more like she is forced. It’s a mix of thriller and sci-fi or futuristic dystopia. On the surface, Clare is to work on a project eliminating disease and extending life. But those in charge of the project and not what they seem. Thus us just book one in a series I probably won’t finish. Clare rebels against those in authority, tries to find out more, and as the most gifted researcher ever known, she takes things to another level when she fights back.

I’m not sure how this came in my radar.
It’s was a bit different from my usual, and I enjoyed that about this. I didn’t get fully engaged, but I did enjoy.

I’ll probably remember this and wonder why only 3 stars.]]> 3.62 2021
author: R.J. Law
name: Chris
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:
This was a print on demand book, not a kindle.
The binding g was nice and easy to handle.

Clare is a genius, and is recruited to a secret project, but it’s more like she is forced. It’s a mix of thriller and sci-fi or futuristic dystopia. On the surface, Clare is to work on a project eliminating disease and extending life. But those in charge of the project and not what they seem. Thus us just book one in a series I probably won’t finish. Clare rebels against those in authority, tries to find out more, and as the most gifted researcher ever known, she takes things to another level when she fights back.

I’m not sure how this came in my radar.
It’s was a bit different from my usual, and I enjoyed that about this. I didn’t get fully engaged, but I did enjoy.

I’ll probably remember this and wonder why only 3 stars.
]]> 62312230 A Secret History of Witches.

Beatrice Bird is plagued by ghosts. It’s a gift she’s had since she was a small child. Unfortunately, it’s a gift that has grown more intense, shifting from flashes and feelings to physical manifestations she can’t escape. 

In a desperate attempt for relief, Beatrice flees her home, her partner, and a psychology practice in San Francisco for a remote island with only nuns and a few cows for company. She sees as few people as she possibly can. She doesn’t call home. Then she meets Anne Iredale, a timid woman who has lost everything that matters to her.

For the first time in a long time, Beatrice's gift will be called on to help someone in need. The path to healing awaits both of them—if Beatrice can find the courage to take the first step.]]> Louisa Morgan Chris 0 to-read 3.90 2023
author: Louisa Morgan
name: Chris
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61332368 Icelandic detective Elma faces mortal danger as she investigates the death of a young man in a mysterious Akranes house fire, and a Dutch au pair’s perfect placement turns deadly �� The breathtaking third instalment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series.

***WINNER of the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger***

‘Fans of Nordic Noir will love this�� Ann Cleeves

‘Elma is a fantastic heroine�� Sunday Times

‘Chilling and addictive, with a twist you won't see coming. I loved it!' Shari Lapena

‘Complex, gripping and moving�� The Times

_________________________

The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies in a mysterious house fire, and when Detective Elma and her colleagues from West Iceland CID discover the fire was arson, they become embroiled in an increasingly perplexing case involving multiple suspects. What’s more, the dead man’s final online search raises fears that they could be investigating not one murder, but two.

A few months before the fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland, desperate to make a new life for herself after the death of her father. But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have problems of its own and she soon discovers she is running out of people to turn to.

As the police begin to home in on the truth, Elma, already struggling to come to terms with a life-changing event, finds herself in mortal danger as it becomes clear that someone has secrets they’ll do anything to hide…]]> 369 Eva Björg Ægisdóttir Chris 5 Totally into the works if Elma and the small Iceland town where she is a detective. Her story develops (3rd book) along side the deaths she is investigating. A young boy found dead in a fire, with a “hope to dispose of a body�� search on his computer. Meanwhile, the boys twin sister and their friends all have something to hide, but why and what are unclear. Meanwhile the au pair has gone missing, and is wrapped up in the drama.
Who hoo. Love when you get into a detective you live and there are their personal stories along side the crimes and the relation between.]]> 4.01 2020
author: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
Loved this one!
Totally into the works if Elma and the small Iceland town where she is a detective. Her story develops (3rd book) along side the deaths she is investigating. A young boy found dead in a fire, with a “hope to dispose of a body�� search on his computer. Meanwhile, the boys twin sister and their friends all have something to hide, but why and what are unclear. Meanwhile the au pair has gone missing, and is wrapped up in the drama.
Who hoo. Love when you get into a detective you live and there are their personal stories along side the crimes and the relation between.
]]> 213243951 384 Jo Nesbø 0593803612 Chris 4 Two brothers in a remote town in Norway, are about to lose business when a tunnel is built by-passing the town. So they bribe the geologists for a false report, preventing the tunnel and keeping the town on the main road. With plans to expand the spa and tourism.
The brothers are have a sordid past, and there is suspicion from the sheriff for misdeeds in the past
And so it goes in circles and circles of who has what over who, and what deception and lows family can do to each other.
Eventually as it goes, with Nesbo, I caught on.
Not everyone is so bad.]]> 3.84 2024
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Chris
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
It was a surprise to see this at the library, and i snatched it up. Took me a bit to get into it. Didn’t really like the characters that much.
Two brothers in a remote town in Norway, are about to lose business when a tunnel is built by-passing the town. So they bribe the geologists for a false report, preventing the tunnel and keeping the town on the main road. With plans to expand the spa and tourism.
The brothers are have a sordid past, and there is suspicion from the sheriff for misdeeds in the past
And so it goes in circles and circles of who has what over who, and what deception and lows family can do to each other.
Eventually as it goes, with Nesbo, I caught on.
Not everyone is so bad.
]]> 57137102 When a depressed, alcoholic single mother disappears, everything suggests suicide, but when her body is found, Icelandic Detective Elma and her team are thrust into a perplexing, chilling investigation.

PAPERBACK STAR PICK in THE TIMES CRIME CLUB


When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life �� until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy.

Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past �� and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others��

]]> 276 Eva Björg Ægisdóttir 191319373X Chris 5 3.99 2019
author: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
name: Chris
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
review:
Awesome engrossing thriller with detective Elma, looking into the disappearance / suicide or murder if a young troubled mother and the ties to the past.
]]> 209594872 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.]]> 384 Ava Reid 0063211556 Chris 0 to-read 3.83 2025
author: Ava Reid
name: Chris
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62039193 From the author of Girl One comes a spellbinding adventure about a strange power lurking in the Arkansas Ozarks, and the group of friends obsessed with finding it.

Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, Arkansas, the small town they all fled after high school graduation. Each is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter that reads, You promised.

It has been fifteen years since the summer that changed their lives, and they’re anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return.

But Brandi is missing. She’d been acting erratically for months, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can’t see. And about strange houses that appear only when you need them . . .

Told in two enthralling timelines, The Wonder State is a gorgeous, immersive, speculative Gothic tale about searching for home. Sara Flannery Murphy has created another brilliant, genre-blurring novel―an adventure story laced with nostalgia, exploring belonging and the lasting power of community.]]> 375 Sara Flannery Murphy 0374601771 Chris 5 Hilda read about Theodora’s houses that she built with magic�� luck house, air house, mirror house, oath house, forever house, truth house, and the final portal house to another world.
They all search for the houses, they all know the magic, they make promises to each other, and break the promises. But 15 years later when Brandi calls them all for help as they promised.., they return to eternal springs.
I loved the search, the mystery, the magic, the thrills, the houses!]]> 4.02 2023
author: Sara Flannery Murphy
name: Chris
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:
When I saw this was about houses.. and house magic.. houses appearing in the forest when you need them�� well I was all in! In a small town in the Arkansas Ozarks an odd group of high school kids cone together around a strange house. Max and Hilda are new to town, with their artist parents for an art retreat sabbatical. jay and brandy are best friends, poor, misfits who have been teased in the past.
Hilda read about Theodora’s houses that she built with magic�� luck house, air house, mirror house, oath house, forever house, truth house, and the final portal house to another world.
They all search for the houses, they all know the magic, they make promises to each other, and break the promises. But 15 years later when Brandi calls them all for help as they promised.., they return to eternal springs.
I loved the search, the mystery, the magic, the thrills, the houses!
]]> 54785541 Orphan Black meets Margaret Atwood in this twisty supernatural thriller about female power and the bonds of sisterhood

Josephine Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine “Miracle Babies�� conceived without male DNA, raised on an experimental commune known as the Homestead. When a suspicious fire destroys the commune and claims the lives of two of the Homesteaders, the remaining Girls and their Mothers scatter across the United States and lose touch.

Years later, Margaret Morrow goes missing, and Josie sets off on a desperate road trip, tracking down her estranged sisters who seem to hold the keys to her mother’s disappearance. Tracing the clues Margaret left behind, Josie joins forces with the other Girls, facing down those who seek to eradicate their very existence while uncovering secrets about their origins and unlocking devastating abilities they never knew they had.]]> 368 Sara Flannery Murphy 0374601747 Chris 0 to-read 3.68 2021
author: Sara Flannery Murphy
name: Chris
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Chris 5 shows up and breathes life in the house, and yes the house does live!
All the women are unique and lonely, and brought together by Grace’s Thursday night dinners while the miserable landlady is out.
A touch of Trigiani’s characters, but worldly not mountainy. Each character is developed and then the plot grows a thickens as they become more interconnected- with young Lina’s bake-off contest, Bea’s baseball career, Nora’s gangster boyfriend, Claire’s pickpocketing and secret affair, Reka the Hungarian and her NY art, Fliss with the young child and a husband at war, and Arlene who just wants to be liked.
Grace is magnificent and has a secret, but keeps everyone enthralled. Heartwarming and radical and empowering!]]> 4.26 2024
author: Kate Quinn
name: Chris
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Just what i needed! A completely engrossing story about a group of very diverse women living in a boarding house in McCarty era DC. Grace Marsh
shows up and breathes life in the house, and yes the house does live!
All the women are unique and lonely, and brought together by Grace’s Thursday night dinners while the miserable landlady is out.
A touch of Trigiani’s characters, but worldly not mountainy. Each character is developed and then the plot grows a thickens as they become more interconnected- with young Lina’s bake-off contest, Bea’s baseball career, Nora’s gangster boyfriend, Claire’s pickpocketing and secret affair, Reka the Hungarian and her NY art, Fliss with the young child and a husband at war, and Arlene who just wants to be liked.
Grace is magnificent and has a secret, but keeps everyone enthralled. Heartwarming and radical and empowering!
]]> 156796058
Esme Gray runs the guest house and tends to the ethereal wards that protect the island. She’s sheltering from a terrible past and will do anything to stay safely hidden.

Luke Taylor has been searching for his missing twin for months, but has begun to believe that his brother might be dead. With his hope in tatters, a tip off leads him to a remote tidal island in the North Sea. It’s further out than the famous Holy Island, and far stranger.

Visitors shouldn’t be able to stay for more than two nights, so when Luke breaks this rule, the close-knit community is sent into turmoil. The residents of Unholy Island have secrets and they intend to keep them.

When Luke stumbles across one of the islanders dead on the shore, he finds himself under suspicion, made worse by his own troubles washing up on the tide.

Esme is drawn to Luke, but she doesn’t trust her own instincts. That’s not ideal for a witch �� especially when there is a killer on the loose and a storm is rolling in��

The Ward Witch is the first book in a brand new contemporary fantasy series from the bestselling author of magical fiction, Sarah Painter.

*The Ward Witch is set in the same world as the urban fantasy mystery books, Crow Investigations, but it is the start of a separate series and can be enjoyed independently.


Praise for the Crow Investigations

'I'm a huge fan!' Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels

'My favourite new urban fantasy series, clever and twisty and deliciously magical, with a shivery sense of wonder that feels utterly grounded in its London setting. Perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Genevieve Cogman or Robert Galbraith!'
Stephanie Burgis, author of Snowspelled

'The Lydia Crow books are a firm favourite of mine, combining intriguing crime fiction with a hint of other-worldly mysticism. The characters are brilliantly drawn, and Sarah Painter cleverly makes them believable despite them having magical powers - or even being dead. With just enough comedy to make the dark bits even darker, and the perfect amount of mystery, these books are a wonderful read.' Kerry Barrett]]> 292 Sarah Painter 1913676323 Chris 0 to-read 4.03 2023
author: Sarah Painter
name: Chris
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211004179 For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.]]> 352 Neena Viel 1250906326 Chris 0 to-read 3.26 2025
author: Neena Viel
name: Chris
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 101145039 CIA agent Amanda Cole is thrust into an international conspiracy involving high-profile assassinations and Russian blackmail. It �� s the case of her lifetime, but solving it might require her to betray another spy—who just so happens to be her father.

Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA agent, following in the footsteps of her father Charlie. But Amanda’s posting in Rome is a sleepy one. She’s listless and looking for action when, on a hot summer day, it walks right through her door. A lowly Russian operative is desperate, telling her that a US Senator is about to be assassinated on an overseas trip to Cairo. Amanda believes he’s telling the truth, but her superiors do not, and they determine that the best course of action is no action at all.

But when the assassination occurs, Amanda is suddenly thrust into an international conspiracy as she tries to find out why the senator was killed. What did he know that made him a target of the KGB and the Kremlin? Amanda pairs up with fast-talking, take-no-bullshit Kath, a brash older woman, and legendary spy, to get to the bottom of the case. The investigation takes them from Rome to London to Moscow to Helsinki.

As Amanda and Kath get closer to solving a case that involves double agents, blackmailed CEOs, illegal arms transfers, yachting oligarchs, and more, one question keeps coming back to haunt Amanda: why was her father’s name written down in the senator’s notes, notes that he seemed to be putting together right before he died? In order to get to the bottom of this international plot of blackmail, murder, and lies, Amanda must decide where her loyalty lies: with her country or with her family.

The Helsinki Affair is Pitoniak’s entrée into the genre of full-fledged spy fiction. This explosive novel is for fans of the masters of the genre—John Le Carre and Alan Furst—but will also introduce Pitoniak as a singular new talent in the world of female-centric spy fiction.]]> 355 Anna Pitoniak 1668014742 Chris 0 to-read 3.36 2023
author: Anna Pitoniak
name: Chris
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65213227 An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.

After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.

A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.

To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.]]> 326 Jess Armstrong 1250886015 Chris 0 to-read 3.50 2023
author: Jess Armstrong
name: Chris
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 174156145
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

A nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.]]> 467 Tana French 0593493435 Chris 3 Cal is an American who has settled in, taken young Trey under his carpentry wings. When her deadbeat dad comes back to town with an idea to swindle everyone for some money he owes, he says they’re looking for gold. Meanwhile Trey just wants her dad gone, and goes to elaborate means.

I actually did not connect this story to the Searcher where Trey and Cals friendship started.]]> 3.95 2024
author: Tana French
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:
The dialog was intense, full of slang which gave the whole story the tune of the mountain and timelessness.
Cal is an American who has settled in, taken young Trey under his carpentry wings. When her deadbeat dad comes back to town with an idea to swindle everyone for some money he owes, he says they’re looking for gold. Meanwhile Trey just wants her dad gone, and goes to elaborate means.

I actually did not connect this story to the Searcher where Trey and Cals friendship started.
]]> 49015634
Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a failed relationship, and her collegues Sævar and Hörður, commence an uneasy investigation, which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman's past that continues to reverberate in the present day ��

But as Elma and her team make a series of discoveries, they bring to light a host of long-hidden crimes that shake the entire community. Sifting through the rubble of the townspeople's shattered memories, they have to dodge increasingly serious threats, and find justice �� before it's too late.

For fans of Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Ruth Rendell, P D James, Sarah Hilary and Camilla Lackberg]]> 315 Eva Björg Ægisdóttir Chris 4 A woman is found dead on the beach in’s small town north of Reykjavik. Between the past and the present we learn this woman was a troubled young girl, living with her mother, and subjected to abuse by regular visitors to the house. But this small town has secrets and those with connections look the other way or try to to climb the ladder regardless. Eventually the secrets are revealed, but it’s too late for Elisabet.
Detective Elma is very likeable, and I expect the series will continue around her and the secret cliffhanger at the end that left me a little confused.]]> 3.89 2018
author: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
name: Chris
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:
Took me a bit to fully orient myself into this Icelandic mystery.
A woman is found dead on the beach in’s small town north of Reykjavik. Between the past and the present we learn this woman was a troubled young girl, living with her mother, and subjected to abuse by regular visitors to the house. But this small town has secrets and those with connections look the other way or try to to climb the ladder regardless. Eventually the secrets are revealed, but it’s too late for Elisabet.
Detective Elma is very likeable, and I expect the series will continue around her and the secret cliffhanger at the end that left me a little confused.
]]> 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]> 561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 Chris 5 ]]> 4.15 2014
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Chris
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2014/09/22
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:
Book 3 in the vampire-witch trilogy delivers!

]]> 204640265 From Vulture's "master of horror" Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and When Evil Lurks

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening�� is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn��-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.]]> 384 Clay McLeod Chapman Chris 0 to-read 3.38 2025
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55671294
Richard doesn’t have a past. For him, there is only the present: a new marriage to Tamara, a first chance at fatherhood to her son Elijah, and a quiet but pleasant life as an art teacher at Elijah’s elementary school in Danvers, Virginia. Then the body of a rabbit, ritualistically murdered, appears on the school grounds with a birthday card for Richard tucked beneath it. Richard doesn’t have a birthday—but Sean does . . .

Sean is a five-year-old boy who has just moved to Greenfield, Virginia, with his mother. Like most mothers of the 1980s, she’s worried about bills, childcare, putting food on the table . . . and an encroaching threat to American life that can take the face of anyone: a politician, a friendly neighbor, or even a teacher. When Sean’s school sends a letter to the parents revealing that Sean’s favorite teacher is under investigation, a white lie from Sean lights a fire that engulfs the entire nation—and Sean and his mother are left holding the match.

Now, thirty years later, someone is here to remind Richard that they remember what Sean did. And though Sean doesn’t exist anymore, someone needs to pay the price for his lies.]]> 304 Clay McLeod Chapman 1683692152 Chris 0 to-read 3.57 2021
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123984304
Kolbeinn has been called to his old home. The new owners uncovered some photos, and a muddied child's shoe bearing the name 'Salvor'. A name Kolbeinn doesn't recognise. Soon after, he hears news of his mother's deteriorating health. Her carers say she has been asking for her daughter, his Salvor.

THE SECOND TRACKS TWO MISSING COUPLES.

Jóhanna is working with the search and rescue team in Höfn to find two couples from Reykjavik. Their phones' last location has been pinpointed to the road leading up into the highlands. In a harsh winter, the journey is treacherous, and they soon find the first body. More troubling, Johanna senses her team is being tracked through the snow.

A THIRD FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE?

Hjörvar works at the Stokksnes Radar Station in the highlands. He's alone when the phone connected to the gate the first time it's done so since he began working there five months ago. When he answeres, he can only hear interference, and what sounds like a child's voice asking for her mother.

How are these events connected?

And what may be searching for its prey out on the ice?]]> 354 Yrsa Sigurdardottir 1529377455 Chris 4 The search party finds them in different locations with hardly any clothes on. What madness did they succumb to that left them unclothed exposed and frozen dead?
Then there’s a ranger station that seems to be haunted. Why did the last employee fall into a blowhole to his death? His replacement sees and hears things�� a girl at the window�� but the boss isn’t having it and makes him paranoid. Meanwhile the couples out on the ice are also seeing and hearing things. So is one of the search party. Her house is unlocked and she sees and hears a young girl, but this young girl isn’t real. Several stories overlap, seemingly unconnected, yet obviously connected. ]]> 3.88 2020
author: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
name: Chris
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:
Two adventurous couples join a geologist on a winter trek to an isolated glacier. No one cones out alive.
The search party finds them in different locations with hardly any clothes on. What madness did they succumb to that left them unclothed exposed and frozen dead?
Then there’s a ranger station that seems to be haunted. Why did the last employee fall into a blowhole to his death? His replacement sees and hears things�� a girl at the window�� but the boss isn’t having it and makes him paranoid. Meanwhile the couples out on the ice are also seeing and hearing things. So is one of the search party. Her house is unlocked and she sees and hears a young girl, but this young girl isn’t real. Several stories overlap, seemingly unconnected, yet obviously connected.
]]> 60932 Parable of the Sower continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren's followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order.]]> 448 Octavia E. Butler 0446610380 Chris 0 to-read 4.31 1998
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Chris
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Chris 0 to-read 4.14 2012
author: Hugh Howey
name: Chris
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199215100
Ferns grow knee-deep along the shoulder, laced with briars and unripe raspberries, so thick they could hide a bear. Could hide anything, really.

In 1980s Appalachia, life isn’t easy for Sheila. She endures relentless taunting and bullying at the hands of her classmates; she takes care of her great-aunt, the garden and home, and the rabbits; and forages for mushrooms in the forest, all while her mother works long, back-breaking shifts at the nearby state asylum. But it’s her peculiar little sister, Angie, who worries her the most. Angie is obsessed with nuclear war, Rambo, zombies, a Russian invasion of their community, and the ominous, tarot-like cards that she creates that somehow speak to her. As if all that weren’t enough, Sheila feels an unexplainable weight around her neck. Is it the ancient and strange mountain that they live on that casts its shadow on her, or something or someone else unknown? Unseen?

When a pair of female hikers are brutally murdered on the nearby Appalachian trail, Sheila and Angie find themselves inexorably drawn into the hunt for the killer. As the ever-present threat of violence looms larger, the mountain might be the only thing that can save them from the darkness consuming their home and their community.

Unsettling, propulsive, and chillingly atmospheric, Alisa Alering’s Smothermoss opens a hidden door into a world caught between rural gothic and fairytale, inviting the reader to renegotiate what is seen and unseen, what is real and what is haunted]]> 256 Alisa Alering 1959030582 Chris 4 3.47 2024
author: Alisa Alering
name: Chris
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:
80s Appalachia two sisters are wild in their natural environment trying find a murderer. Very strange and unique story. I enjoyed the connection to the woods and plants, and the girls spirit.
]]> 62854842 In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .]]> 416 Emma Törzs 0063253461 Chris 5 Really enjoyed this book about magic books. Just what I needed. A unique journey into magical libraries with ward’s that guard and hide them. Scribes write the books in their blood but can not hear the books or the magic. Guardians can hear the hum of the books. Two sisters each have their burden and dedication to the books and their family. One stays with the books, the other keeps moving so as to not be caught.
Because an older wiser collector is looking for scribes and the power that comes from book magic.]]> 3.98 2023
author: Emma Törzs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:

Really enjoyed this book about magic books. Just what I needed. A unique journey into magical libraries with ward’s that guard and hide them. Scribes write the books in their blood but can not hear the books or the magic. Guardians can hear the hum of the books. Two sisters each have their burden and dedication to the books and their family. One stays with the books, the other keeps moving so as to not be caught.
Because an older wiser collector is looking for scribes and the power that comes from book magic.
]]> 211025454 From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.

New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.�� Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.]]> 352 Fiona Davis 0593474279 Chris 0 to-read 3.92 2025
author: Fiona Davis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204174589
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny's #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

Including Three Pines.]]> 432 Louise Penny 1250328144 Chris 0 to-read 4.42 2024
author: Louise Penny
name: Chris
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 165518 The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Buzbee, a former bookseller and sales representative, celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore--the smell and touch of books, getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through The Weekly Reader in grade school. Interwoven throughout is an historical account of the bookseller's trade--from the great Alexandria library with an estimated one million papyrus scrolls to Sylvia Beach's famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, which led to the effort to publish and sell James Joyce's Ulysses during the 1920s.]]> 216 Lewis Buzbee 1555974503 Chris 0 to-read 3.81 2002
author: Lewis Buzbee
name: Chris
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198563695
The American department a palace of consumption that epitomized modern consumerism. Every wish could be met under one roof �� afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled.

In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller, Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, and Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel's took risks, innovated and competed as very different kinds of career women, forging new paths for the women who followed in their footsteps. In the 1930s, Hortense came to her husband's department store as a housewife tasked with attracting more shoppers like herself, and wound up running the company. Dorothy championed American designers during World War II--before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies--and beyond, becoming the first businesswoman to earn a salary of more than $1.5 million. And Geraldine re-invented the look of the modern department store in the 1960s, and had a preternatural sense for trends, inspiring a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers as well as decades of copycats.

In When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three American women who made twentieth-century department stores a mecca for women of every age, social class, and ambition. This stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.]]> 295 Julie Satow 0385548753 Chris 0 to-read 3.89 2024
author: Julie Satow
name: Chris
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195458052
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job to provide for herself and her beloved daughter, Olivia. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots�� Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her.

When the threat of war becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In her daughter’s absence, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, as well as the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and her work forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.]]> 432 Madeline Martin 1335000399 Chris 0 to-read 3.96 2024
author: Madeline Martin
name: Chris
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199797799
Everyone knows Judy Blume.

Her books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so drawn to them? And why are we still talking about them now in the 21st century?

In The Genius of Judy , her remarkable story is revealed as never before, beginning with her as a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey. The books she wrote starred regular children with genuine thoughts and problems. But behind those deceptively simple tales, Blume explored the pillars of the growing women’s rights movement, in which girls and women were entitled to careers, bodily autonomy, fulfilling relationships, and even sexual pleasure. Blume wasn’t trying to be a revolutionary—she just wanted to tell honest stories—but in doing so, she created a cohesive, culture-altering vision of modern adolescence.

Blume’s bravery provoked backlash, making her the country’s most-banned author in the mid-1980s. Thankfully, her works withstood those culture wars and it’s no coincidence that Blume has resurfaced as a cultural touchstone now. Young girls are still cat-called, sex education curricula are getting dismissed as pornography, and entire shelves of libraries are being banned. As we face these challenges, it’s only natural we look to Blume, the grand dame of so-called dirty books. This is the story of how a housewife became a groundbreaking artist, and how generations of empowered fans are her legacy, today more than ever.]]> 288 Rachelle Bergstein 1668010909 Chris 0 to-read 3.78 2024
author: Rachelle Bergstein
name: Chris
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 199793672
At the start of WWII, the US found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.

In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, diaries, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned unlikely spies. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to secretly acquire documents for the OSS. These unforgettable characters would ultimately help lay the foundations of modern intelligence and transform American higher education when they returned after the war.

Thrillingly paced and rigorously researched, Book and Dagger is an inspiring and gripping true story about a group of academics who helped beat the Nazis—a tale that reveals the indelible power of humanities to change the world.]]> 400 Elyse Graham 0063280841 Chris 0 to-read 3.82 2024
author: Elyse Graham
name: Chris
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201751300 An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, we see those stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including The Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who appeared to sign books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.]]> 416 Evan Friss 0593299922 Chris 0 to-read 3.92 2024
author: Evan Friss
name: Chris
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62703226 At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer��I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,�� Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.]]> 383 Riley Sager 0593183223 Chris 0 to-read 4.12 2023
author: Riley Sager
name: Chris
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58909880 The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]> 369 Riley Sager Chris 0 to-read 3.57 2022
author: Riley Sager
name: Chris
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58724927 First in a captivating Jazz age mystery series from author Katharine Schellman, Last Call at the Nightingale beckons readers into a darkly glamorous speakeasy where music, liquor, and secrets flow.

New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly's days are filled with drudgery, from the tenement lodging she shares with her sister to the dress shop where she sews for hours every day.

But at night, she escapes to The Nightingale, an underground dance hall where illegal liquor flows and the band plays the Charleston with reckless excitement. With a bartender willing to slip her a free glass of champagne and friends who know the owner, Vivian can lose herself in the music. No one asks where she came from or how much money she has. No one bats an eye if she flirts with men or women as long as she can keep up on the dance floor. At The Nightingale, Vivian forgets the dangers of Prohibition-era New York and finds a place that feels like home.

But then she discovers a body behind the club, and those dangers come knocking.

Caught in a police raid at the Nightingale, Vivian discovers that the dead man wasn't the nameless bootlegger he first appeared. With too many people assuming she knows more about the crime than she does, Vivian finds herself caught between the dangers of the New York's underground and the world of the city's wealthy and careless, where money can hide any sin and the lives of the poor are considered disposable...including Vivian's own.]]> 320 Katharine Schellman 1250831822 Chris 0 to-read 3.54 2022
author: Katharine Schellman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54820062 Inspired by a true story, this supernatural thriller for fans of horror and true crime follows a tale as it evolves every twenty years—with terrifying results.

Ella Louise has lived in the woods surrounding Pilot’s Creek, Virginia, for nearly a decade. Publicly, she and her daughter Jessica are shunned by their upper-crust family and the Pilot’s Creek residents. Privately, desperate townspeople visit her apothecary for a cure to what ails them—until Ella Louise is blamed for the death of a prominent customer. Accused of witchcraft, both mother and daughter are burned at the stake in the middle of the night. Ella Louise’s burial site is never found, but the little girl has the most famous grave in the South: a steel-reinforced coffin surrounded by a fence of interconnected white crosses.

Their story will take the shape of an urban legend as it’s told around a campfire by a man forever marked by his boyhood encounters with Jessica. Decades later, a boy at that campfire will cast Amber Pendleton as Jessica in a ��70s horror movie inspired by the Witch Girl of Pilot’s Creek. Amber’s experiences on that set and its meta-remake in the ��90s will ripple through pop culture, ruining her life and career after she becomes the target of a witch hunt. Amber’s best chance to break the cycle of horror comes when a true-crime investigator tracks her down to interview her for his popular podcast. But will this final act of storytelling redeem her—or will it bring the story full circle, ready to be told once again? And again. And again…]]> 305 Clay McLeod Chapman 168369211X Chris 0 to-read 3.25 2019
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 75568069
It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth—and it’s coming for everyone she holds dear.]]> 304 Clay McLeod Chapman 1683693809 Chris 3 And then they find a boy, in the river. But is it really Skyler? This is where we pivot and the speculative other worldly horror takes over. It was hard for me to get and keep my bearings. What is real and what is imagined?]]> 3.07 2023
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
Mixed thoughts��. I feel like there are two parts to this book. The first half I was pretty into - Madi is reading palms trying to make ends meet, and crosses paths with an old flame who is desperate to find his lost son. Thing is, it seems like his wife and son are both dead. But Madi is having dreams and trying g to help Henry.
And then they find a boy, in the river. But is it really Skyler? This is where we pivot and the speculative other worldly horror takes over. It was hard for me to get and keep my bearings. What is real and what is imagined?
]]> 59776315
With new friends at his side, he soon learns the precious gift which gave him life is both a blessing and a burden, desired by those who hold treasure above innocent lives. The world is a much darker place than he expected, yet more wonderful in ways
he never could’ve imagined.

But there is a price to pay for being a wandering tree and his journey will teach him that the true difference between being alive and living is worth its weight in gold. It’s a life he never knew he wanted, filled with moments that will root themselves deep in his soul and wander in his heart forever.]]> 328 M.J. Carstarphen Chris 0 to-read 4.59
author: M.J. Carstarphen
name: Chris
average rating: 4.59
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 179781715
It’s been labelled a doomsday cult, but the Bastion might be humanity’s last hope. Amidst all the lies and chaos, come hear their true story, in their own words.

On the rural coast of Puglia, Italy, Becca and Ric run the Bastion, offering solace and a home for lost souls. Each year they welcome new members to join the Open Feast, where they teach them to release their burdens and create a better world, in a journey of self-discovery and spiritual teachings.

But the Bastion has secrets. The Bastion has a destiny. Deep in the Inner Pinewood, a place of real magic and beauty, they are all that stands against the dark forces that would tear the sky wide open

And what of those who call Becca and Ric liars? Cult leaders and con artists? What of those who tried to leave the Bastion? As it becomes increasingly difficult to tell truth from fiction, who can you trust to save us all?]]> 355 Francesco Dimitri Chris 4 3.78
author: Francesco Dimitri
name: Chris
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 123011938 "A universe where the real and fantastical merge effortlessly." ~ BookLife Prize

Award-winning Indie author Julie Mathison brings to life the primordial forest of a Russia marooned in legend, cradled in song...

Vasilisa has listened to the Old Tales all her life, like every, good Russian child - even one born in Edenfall, Pennsylvania, far from the rugged steppes of her ancestors. The tales keep her mind off her troubles, what with Papka presumed dead on the fields of Flanders and Mama being courted by an absolute ogre. Even her grandmother, dear Babka, is acting strange.

Then come the dreams, and Vasilisa is drawn inexorably into a world she once thought fabled - a snow-laden forest, rife with wolves and bears and creatures meant only for child's tales. Leshy the sprite, green-limbed and acid-tongued. Old Koschei, butcher of hearts. And the witch, Baba Yaga, ruling the border to the thrice-tenth kingdom where souls wander, caught between life and death.

Only Ivan seems to understand. Orphaned, riding the rails in search of revenge, he shows up on Vasilisa's doorstep with nothing to offer but a burgeoning love he is desperate to deny. What can he give her but a heart broken by treachery, blackened by hate?

Together, they are destined to cross the threshold between the worlds, retracing the steps of their forebears, back to Old Rus where the secret to Babka's cure, and Ivan's revenge, lies hidden in the mists of the thrice-tenth kingdom. Baba Yaga and her sisters hold the key, but it will take more than courage, luck, and a head for riddles if Vasilisa and Ivan are to survive the trials set for them, let alone secure their hearts' desires.

Only love can show the way, but that may prove to be the greatest test of all.

2022 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2021 BookLife Prize Semifinalist
2021 Wishing Shelf Award Finalist Best Books for Teenagers

"I loved every second of this book. I'd compare it to The Girl who Drank the Moon in its world-building and writing style, with the deep magic of The Bear and the Nightingale and a touch of The Story That Cannot Be Told."

~ CeliaMcMahonReads]]> 322 Julie Mathison Chris 4 Much for me to take from this and latch into. ❤️]]> 4.45
author: Julie Mathison
name: Chris
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves:
review:
Vasilisa the brave and Baba Yaga�� classic traditional Russian folklore expanded to a story in novel book form. Imagined and interpreted while weaving the riddles and lore that kindness wins.
Much for me to take from this and latch into. ❤️
]]> 58510725
1938: She was one of the six sparkling Mitford sisters, known for her stinging quips, stylish dress, and bright green eyes. But Nancy Mitford’s seemingly dazzling life was really one of turmoil: with a perpetually unfaithful and broke husband, two Nazi sympathizer sisters, and her hopes of motherhood dashed forever. With war imminent, Nancy finds respite by taking a job at the Heywood Hill Bookshop in Mayfair, hoping to make ends meet, and discovers a new life.

Present Day: When book curator Lucy St. Clair lands a gig working at Heywood Hill she can’t get on the plane fast enough. Not only can she start the healing process from the loss of her mother, it’s a dream come true to set foot in the legendary store. Doubly exciting: she brings with her a first edition of Nancy’s work, one with a somewhat mysterious inscription from the author. Soon, she discovers her life and Nancy’s are intertwined, and it all comes back to the little London bookshop—a place that changes the lives of two women from different eras in the most surprising ways.]]> 432 Eliza Knight 0063070588 Chris 3 I know little About Nancy Mitford, her life or her books. This is a dual story of the present day in London visiting the Heyward bookshop where Mitford worked and trying to figure out who the Iris is whom Lucy has a signed nook dedicated to from Nancy.

In the past, we get to know Nancy and her family, her unhappy marriage and her joy at the bookstore, the friends she mingled with and the horrors of war and her family’s relationship with fascism.

I enjoyed this, but it didn’t change me. It had its fluff moments, but I also enjoyed the forey into familiar and new territory.]]> 3.62 2022
author: Eliza Knight
name: Chris
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:
Enjoyed this, even if a bit sappy.
I know little About Nancy Mitford, her life or her books. This is a dual story of the present day in London visiting the Heyward bookshop where Mitford worked and trying to figure out who the Iris is whom Lucy has a signed nook dedicated to from Nancy.

In the past, we get to know Nancy and her family, her unhappy marriage and her joy at the bookstore, the friends she mingled with and the horrors of war and her family’s relationship with fascism.

I enjoyed this, but it didn’t change me. It had its fluff moments, but I also enjoyed the forey into familiar and new territory.
]]> 36569910
A visit to his house increases the friends' worry; Art is farming marijuana. In Southern Italy doing that kind of thing can be very dangerous. They can't go to the Carabinieri so must make enquiries of their own. This is how they come across the rumours about Art; bizarre and unbelievable rumours that he miraculously cured the local mafia boss's daughter of terminal leukaemia. And among the chaos of his house, they find a document written by Art, The Book of Hidden Things, that promises to reveal dark secrets and wonders beyond anything previously known.]]> 385 Francesco Dimitri 1785657070 Chris 0 to-read 3.38 2018
author: Francesco Dimitri
name: Chris
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 33151805 The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train returns with Into the Water, her addictive new novel of psychological suspense.

A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.

Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return.

With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.]]> 386 Paula Hawkins 0735211205 Chris 3
I almost wish there had been something mystical about the drowning pool or the suicide pond that Nel was documenting g and researching when she was found drowned. She was neat. The misunderstood family relationships were frustrating��. People talk to each other! I liked this story and book read, I just did not like the bad people in the story ]]> 3.59 2017
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Chris
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:
I tore through this, and enjoyed the read�� but bad people doing bad things at the end of the day is a bummer.

I almost wish there had been something mystical about the drowning pool or the suicide pond that Nel was documenting g and researching when she was found drowned. She was neat. The misunderstood family relationships were frustrating��. People talk to each other! I liked this story and book read, I just did not like the bad people in the story
]]> 12160859 360 Yrsa Sigurdardottir 0312641745 Chris 3 Bodies are found in the basement of a house that was excavated after being buried under volcanic ash in iceland. Investigation into what happened, additional sub plots with island relationships, rape, murder and lies.
In the end.. blah.]]> 3.70 2007
author: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
review:
This took me way too long to read�� and I fell asleep more times than not while reading��. All of which has left me not liking this book.
Bodies are found in the basement of a house that was excavated after being buried under volcanic ash in iceland. Investigation into what happened, additional sub plots with island relationships, rape, murder and lies.
In the end.. blah.
]]> 199798953 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.]]> 385 Ruth Ware 1668025590 Chris 4 3.60 2024
author: Ruth Ware
name: Chris
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves:
review:
Reality show with couples on a remote island�� but there’s a terrible storm, they are left without resources, the crew is gone, it becomes about survival. But then there’s bad people doing bad things�� that’s really a bad dude getting away either way it. It tears them up and the society crumbles. Didn’t like the bad guy, but was not supposed to.
]]> 34844722 A Simon & Schuster eBook Lisa Jewell Chris 4 All fathered by a doerm donor. All of their lives are in flux, finding out the reality is different for each, and what they find brings them together and makes sense. I enjoyed getting g pulled into this.]]> 3.64 2011
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Chris
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:
I loved being pulled in and emersed in a story�� an assortment of strangers with a dna in common.
All fathered by a doerm donor. All of their lives are in flux, finding out the reality is different for each, and what they find brings them together and makes sense. I enjoyed getting g pulled into this.
]]> 57504 In this “impressive debut�� from award-winning speculative fiction author Nalo Hopkinson, a young woman must solve the tragic mystery surrounding her family and bargain with the gods to save her city and herself. (The Washington Post)

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.]]> 256 Nalo Hopkinson 0446674338 Chris 0 to-read 3.83 1998
author: Nalo Hopkinson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44034500 Catastrophic spring flooding, blistering attacks in the media, and a mysterious disappearance greet Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he returns to the Sûreté du Québec in the latest novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.

It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Floodwaters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil, a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.

As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.

Increasingly hounded by the question, how would you feel..., he resumes the search.

As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.

In the next novel in this "constantly surprising series that deepens and darkens as it evolves" (The New York Times Book Review), Gamache must face a horrific possibility, and a burning question.

What would you do if your child's killer walked free?]]> 437 Louise Penny 1250066212 Chris 4 4.20 2019
author: Louise Penny
name: Chris
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves:
review:
Life got in the way and this took me ages to read, but it was an excellent companion as all Louise Penny books are. A flood, a murder, a shake up in the sutre�� this is very much about family and loyalty and relationships.
]]> 56213354
Look what you started.]]> 307 Paula Hawkins 073521123X Chris 3 After a man is found murdered in a houseboat by a nosey neighbor, a troubled girl gets caught up in the investigation. Complicating things are the tragedies in the dead man’s family�� recently deceased mother, separated aunt and uncle who is also a writer accused of stealing the houseboat neighbors memoir for his novel. A whole bunch of troubled people all wrapped up in each others business�� interesting potential. But it lacked the zing to bring it together,]]> 3.45 2021
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Chris
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:
Had some trouble either this through the layers, I got confused and lost, and sad to say as thu gs wrapped up I did not get all the answers which leaves feeling like I missed something and I hate that.
After a man is found murdered in a houseboat by a nosey neighbor, a troubled girl gets caught up in the investigation. Complicating things are the tragedies in the dead man’s family�� recently deceased mother, separated aunt and uncle who is also a writer accused of stealing the houseboat neighbors memoir for his novel. A whole bunch of troubled people all wrapped up in each others business�� interesting potential. But it lacked the zing to bring it together,
]]> 37946414
Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.]]> 343 Kate Atkinson 031617663X Chris 0 to-read 3.44 2018
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30971617
In a parallel storyline, masterfully fused, Fossum tells the story of Mass Malthe and her troubled son Eddie as they navigate a relationship that some would call too close. Eddie constantly thinks about his unknown father �� someone his mother would rather forget. When long-held secrets are revealed, it turns out that Mass and Bonnie share more in common than Eddie could have ever guessed.]]> 272 Karin Fossum 0544944399 Chris 3 Through the book we follow the stories of two single mothers and their sons who could not be more different. We get to know those that were killled and wonder why the other have to do with the story,
I was very troubled by the other boys treatment of his dog��. And it made the whole story turn for me.]]> 3.65
author: Karin Fossum
name: Chris
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
A single mother and her young son are murdered after downing the night in an abandoned trailer on the neighbors farm.
Through the book we follow the stories of two single mothers and their sons who could not be more different. We get to know those that were killled and wonder why the other have to do with the story,
I was very troubled by the other boys treatment of his dog��. And it made the whole story turn for me.
]]> 27248849
Dark, chilling and complex, Nightblind is an extraordinary thriller from an undeniable new talent.]]> 283 Ragnar Jónasson Chris 4
This series follows Ari Thor who's got the flu and has been out on paternity leave and partner Kristen is estranged and distant. Ari Thor has a new boss and he is shot at the beginning of the book in front of a derelict house where there are rumors of drug business. The mayor is the last person Herjolfur spoke too. Along with his colleague, they seem guilty of something, but what exactly is unclear. Domestic unrest lingers along the surface of all the parties involved, some more violent than others.]]> 3.74 2014
author: Ragnar Jónasson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/19
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
These Iceland crime stories take a different pace than some of the other Scandi-crime novels I've been reading. The story builds slowly, and then is solved rather quickly, and wrapped up tidy. (Unlike Nesbo where you think it's solved, but then you go deeper and solve the case 3 more times).

This series follows Ari Thor who's got the flu and has been out on paternity leave and partner Kristen is estranged and distant. Ari Thor has a new boss and he is shot at the beginning of the book in front of a derelict house where there are rumors of drug business. The mayor is the last person Herjolfur spoke too. Along with his colleague, they seem guilty of something, but what exactly is unclear. Domestic unrest lingers along the surface of all the parties involved, some more violent than others.
]]> 56886917
Ian MacKaye: Nancy napisała książkę o swoich punkowych latach w Filadelfii w pierwszej połowie lat 80., kiedy scena hardcore punk znajdowała się na etapie budowania tożsamości plemiennej. To właśnie wtedy po raz pierwszy młodzi ludzie zaczęli zakładać własne kapele, organizować koncerty, wydawać fanziny, tworzyć wytwórnie płytowe i wydawać płyty poza głównym obiegiem branży muzycznej. Punk, zarówno dla mnie, jak i zapewne dla większości z nas, był przede wszystkim metodą nawiązywania kontaktów, ponieważ z wielu różnych powodów wszyscy czuliśmy się zepchnięci na margines społeczny. Wykorzystywaliśmy muzykę jako przestrzeń spotkań albo rodzaj sekretnego języka, dzięki któremu mogliśmy rozpoznać swoich współtowarzyszy. Bywało, że wypatrzyłeś kogoś na ulicy i wiedziałeś, że łączy was wspólna, tajemna wiedza.]]> 192 Nancy Barile 1935950207 Chris 5 Outside philly Nancy was a catholic school girl- smart, together, any yet a total rebel that fell for the music of hardcore punk. She saw just about every show there was to see (and has a list). Moved to center city Philadelphia and was in the thick of it. Got involved in booking shows and managing bands and being a do-er. The stories of some of the shows and the rough neighborhoods and the turf wars with locals, snd then the city feuds... wow! It was a different time than what I knew in PA, NYC and Boston a few years later. I enjoy that this is a humble story of her experience. She had fun, got inspired, and participated actively in a cool scene at a revolutionary time. She is tough and strong and a total badass and is just the sort of woman of punk that I looked to for inspiration once upon a time. I appreciate her perspective and
I really enjoyed ready her tales.]]> 4.14
author: Nancy Barile
name: Chris
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/22
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
Enjoyed this stroll down the memory lane of a true original philly punk. I don’t know Nancy, but I feel I could. Almost. Sorta. A few years off.
Outside philly Nancy was a catholic school girl- smart, together, any yet a total rebel that fell for the music of hardcore punk. She saw just about every show there was to see (and has a list). Moved to center city Philadelphia and was in the thick of it. Got involved in booking shows and managing bands and being a do-er. The stories of some of the shows and the rough neighborhoods and the turf wars with locals, snd then the city feuds... wow! It was a different time than what I knew in PA, NYC and Boston a few years later. I enjoy that this is a humble story of her experience. She had fun, got inspired, and participated actively in a cool scene at a revolutionary time. She is tough and strong and a total badass and is just the sort of woman of punk that I looked to for inspiration once upon a time. I appreciate her perspective and
I really enjoyed ready her tales.
]]> 147295
Nina is an adult and free on her own terms, but what do you do after you break free? Freedom to...what? She doesn't feel too much, doesn't trust anyone, and she certainly knows better than to look for love. That? She saves for music, whether she's playing guitar or DJing...and everyone dances to her tune.

But when the dreams Nina works so hard for start to fall into place, the past she thinks she's left behind returns. As she opens herself--to everything--Nina learns that being punk alone is not enough. She needs to love and be loved, to let go--without losing herself.

Angst. Sex. Love. Rock. 'Nuff said.]]> 240 J.D. Glass 193311066X Chris 0 to-read 4.01 2006
author: J.D. Glass
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61885140
Still looking for his own father's murderer, Konrád agrees to investigate the case.

But digging into the past reveals more than he set out to discover, and a strange connection to a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavík city pond decades ago recaptures everyone's attention.

A brilliant, chilling tale of broken dreams and children who have nowhere to turn.]]> 352 Arnaldur Indriðason 1250892600 Chris 4 Just what I needed�� a procedural with detective Konrad back in Reykjavik. This is #2�� he’s pulled into a looking for a young girl when her grandparents ask him for help. Retired, but good, he finds the girl dead with the needle still in her arm.
Meanwhile, a friend with a connection through their fathers (both deceased, both hustlers, both involved with seances in the past) reaches out to Konrad about a young girl who’s spirit she has seen before��. Suddenly showing up again, almost like she’s asking for help to find peace. The girl drown in a pond, presumably after dropping her doll. Konrad looks into the girls case, finds it was not investigated at all, and uncovers secrets, unknown details, connects people to the girl and the doll, all while looking into drug smugglers. Konrad is retired of course, but can’t help but figure things out. A page Turner to the end!]]> 3.75 2018
author: Arnaldur Indriðason
name: Chris
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:
Perfect!
Just what I needed�� a procedural with detective Konrad back in Reykjavik. This is #2�� he’s pulled into a looking for a young girl when her grandparents ask him for help. Retired, but good, he finds the girl dead with the needle still in her arm.
Meanwhile, a friend with a connection through their fathers (both deceased, both hustlers, both involved with seances in the past) reaches out to Konrad about a young girl who’s spirit she has seen before��. Suddenly showing up again, almost like she’s asking for help to find peace. The girl drown in a pond, presumably after dropping her doll. Konrad looks into the girls case, finds it was not investigated at all, and uncovers secrets, unknown details, connects people to the girl and the doll, all while looking into drug smugglers. Konrad is retired of course, but can’t help but figure things out. A page Turner to the end!
]]> 60726092
The Incredible Events in Women’s Cell Number 3 is the debut novel by Kira Yarmysh that follows a young woman, Anya, who is arrested at a Moscow anti-corruption rally, and, under false charges, sentenced to a ten-day stretch at a special detention center.

In a large barren room furnished only by communal bunkbeds, Anya meets her cellmates: five ordinary Russian women arrested on petty charges. They come from all strata and experiences of Russian society, and as they pass the long hours waiting to be released, they slowly build trust and companionship while sipping lukewarm tea in plastic cups and playing games. Above all, they talk: about politics, feminism, their families, their sexualities, and how to make the most of prison life. Yet as the waking days stretch listlessly before Anya, soon she is plagued by strange nightmarish visions and begins to wonder if her cellmates might not actually be as ordinary as they seem. Will the façade of everyday life ultimately crack for good?

A brilliant exploration of what it means to be marginalized both as an independent woman and in an increasingly intolerant Russia in particular, and a powerful prison story that renews a grand Russian tradition, The Incredible Events in Women’s Cell Number 3 introduces one of the most urgent and gripping new voices in international literature.]]> 368 Kira Yarmysh 0802160735 Chris 3 Not what I expected, and I didn’t get pulled in deep, but I mostly enjoyed it, though I’m sorta unresolved�� even if that is the point.]]> 3.05 2023
author: Kira Yarmysh
name: Chris
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves:
review:
Strange story about a Russian detention center that seems rather well appointed, and not at all what I would expect. Anya is there for 10 days for attending an anti corruption rally. All the women are quite different, and share there stories, interspersed with Anya’s life. But Anya keeps having weird hallucinations�� and there is a bit of a surreal quality which leaves you wondering what exactly IS real.
Not what I expected, and I didn’t get pulled in deep, but I mostly enjoyed it, though I’m sorta unresolved�� even if that is the point.
]]> 57169934 Cross Genre Award-Winner and Finalist in the Mystery/Suspense, Historical Fiction, and General Fiction categories of the 2021 International Book AwardsCross Genre Winner and Medical Thriller Winner of the 2021 National Indie Excellence AwardsEric Hoffer Award 2021 FinalistIn the shadows of New York City lies forbidden North Brother Island, where the remains of a shuttered hospital hide the haunting memories of century-old quarantines and human experiments. The ruins conceal the scarred and beautiful Cora, imprisoned by contagions and the doctors who torment her. When Finn, a young urban explorer, arrives on the island and glimpses an enigmatic beauty through the foliage, intrigue turns to obsession as he seeks to uncover her past--and his own family's dark secrets. By unraveling these mysteries, will he be able to save Cora? Will Cora meet the same tragic ending as the thousands who've already perished on the island?  The Vines intertwines North Brother Island's horrific and elusive history with a captivating tale of love, betrayal, survival, and loss. ]]> 446 Shelley Nolden 1950948412 Chris 0 to-read 3.81 2021
author: Shelley Nolden
name: Chris
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 41717484
In Russia, in the summer of 1914, as war with Germany looms and the Czar's army tightens its grip on the local Jewish community, Miri Abramov and her brilliant physicist brother, Vanya, are facing an impossible decision. Since their parents drowned fleeing to America, Miri and Vanya have been raised by their babushka, a famous matchmaker who has taught them to protect themselves at all costs: to fight, to kill if necessary, and always to have an escape plan. Can they bear to leave the homeland that has given them so much?

Before they have time to make their choice, war is declared and Vanya goes missing, along with Miri's fiancé. Miri braves the firing squad to go looking for them both. As the eclipse that will change history darkens skies across Russia, not only the safety of Miri's own family but the future of science itself hangs in the balance.]]> 464 Rachel Barenbaum 1538746263 Chris 5 Epic story about a brilliant Jewish scientist in line with Einstein on relativity trying to prove the math during an eclipse over Russian. His sister is a female surgeon and they are running for their lives in 1914, trying desperately to escape to America.
Epic.
Wonderful!]]> 3.86 2019
author: Rachel Barenbaum
name: Chris
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:
Fantastic!
Epic story about a brilliant Jewish scientist in line with Einstein on relativity trying to prove the math during an eclipse over Russian. His sister is a female surgeon and they are running for their lives in 1914, trying desperately to escape to America.
Epic.
Wonderful!
]]> 62060274
With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers�� tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story—and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.]]> 431 Barbara Davis 1542038154 Chris 5 Of course I was instantly lured to a bookseller who can feel the echos of books�� the feelings of people who have owned or written the books��.
And as we get to know Ashlyn this delves into a long lost love story as told between two author less companion books that show up in her shop. She is overwhelmed by the echo, and seeks out more.
I felt misled�� as I ended up reading a missed opportunity, a love that got cut off through misunderstanding. I was expecting echos from books, and then BAM��. This turned in a dime into an “I can’t put it down�� story in the present and the past simultaneously as they are looking for the long lost relative and trying to figure out what happened. And then I was so hooked, it didn’t matter that I got sucked into a romance because there was a mystery and family secrets, and orphans, and bookstores, and more family secrets. And regret, and heartbreak. And what if you can do it all over again. Wow!

So like when the message you sent doesn’t get answered�� don’t assume anything�� try again. Fix the misunderstanding rather than letting anger build into regret. Just saying. Nothing worse than seeing the result of missed communication that leads to a misunderstanding which leads to the wrong path.]]> 4.27 2023
author: Barbara Davis
name: Chris
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves:
review:
Well then.
Of course I was instantly lured to a bookseller who can feel the echos of books�� the feelings of people who have owned or written the books��.
And as we get to know Ashlyn this delves into a long lost love story as told between two author less companion books that show up in her shop. She is overwhelmed by the echo, and seeks out more.
I felt misled�� as I ended up reading a missed opportunity, a love that got cut off through misunderstanding. I was expecting echos from books, and then BAM��. This turned in a dime into an “I can’t put it down�� story in the present and the past simultaneously as they are looking for the long lost relative and trying to figure out what happened. And then I was so hooked, it didn’t matter that I got sucked into a romance because there was a mystery and family secrets, and orphans, and bookstores, and more family secrets. And regret, and heartbreak. And what if you can do it all over again. Wow!

So like when the message you sent doesn’t get answered�� don’t assume anything�� try again. Fix the misunderstanding rather than letting anger build into regret. Just saying. Nothing worse than seeing the result of missed communication that leads to a misunderstanding which leads to the wrong path.
]]> 195083746 332 Ali Smith Chris 5 3.81
author: Ali Smith
name: Chris
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
review:
Ah! So good! Such an intense rollicking read. I knew Ali back in NYC and the story she tells us relatable, touchable, and real. Even thought it’s a totally different perspective from a native NYer growing up and into punk, and the basis for this is her band I never knew. I can’t help but fall in love Ali and her humble bad-ass-ness. Yes! I want to join your revolution! Ali’s got a gift with words. Those sentences that are pure magic. Yet, in memoir form it flows, fast and gritty, yet beautiful, She’s telling us a story, linking her roots, the streets, the van, the tour, the journey, the adventure and the celebration of love, art and survival. ❤️❤️❤️
]]> 65214066
When her older, carefree sister, Eustace—a cannabis grower in Boulder, calls to inform her the great aunt they never met has died and they must travel to a small town in Connecticut to deal with the estate, she sees an opportunity to unload the house and save herself.

But once there, the sisters learn they are getting much more than they bargained for. The Victorian mansion they stand to inherit is bound in a dynasty trust controlled by their late aunt's aging attorney who insists they inhabit the house and retain it but keeps them in the dark about the peculiar rituals of their ancestors. Not to mention a sexy, tattooed groundskeeper with a shrouded past who refuses to leave the carriage house and a crypt full of dead relatives looming at the property line.

As both women grapple with their current predicament, they come face to face with a haunting family secret, the truth of what happened to their mother, and the enemy that's been stalking them from the shadows for generations. In a twisting torrent of terror and blood, the sisters must uncover the power within them to heal their fractured relationship, reverse their mysteriously declining health, and claim the lineage they wanted to escape but now must embrace if they are to survive at Bone Hill.]]> 416 Ava Morgyn 1250835437 Chris 5 “Supernatural mystery that conjures a brew of legacy, sisterhood, and Scandinavian witchcraft within a magnificent and malevolent house”��. Yes please! I’m all in. And it lived up to that expectation!

An inheritance, an old mansion, secrets, unknown family legacy, ghosts, spirits, revenge, and the women who hold it all together with their magic!]]> 3.66 2023
author: Ava Morgyn
name: Chris
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:
Absolutely loved this!
“Supernatural mystery that conjures a brew of legacy, sisterhood, and Scandinavian witchcraft within a magnificent and malevolent house”��. Yes please! I’m all in. And it lived up to that expectation!

An inheritance, an old mansion, secrets, unknown family legacy, ghosts, spirits, revenge, and the women who hold it all together with their magic!
]]> 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

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

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

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

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Chris 0 to-read 3.77 2023
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Chris
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54405152 336 Ava Morgyn 0807572276 Chris 0 to-read 3.49 2021
author: Ava Morgyn
name: Chris
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60568249 From the author of Wildwood Whispers comes a spellbinding novel of magic and self-discovery when a woman escapes her abusive husband and finds shelter in a magical orchard.

Virginia, 1959.

Raised in a children's home run by religious zealots, Rachel never forgot the wildwood orchard she turned to for refuge as a young girl. When she discovers her reverend husband is more violent than she ever imagined, she flees to protect her unborn child. In a society aiming for the moon, yet still held back by men and women constrained by their fear of change, she discovers a forward-thinking community of wise folk with ancient roots hidden within the greater community of Morgan's Gap.

But when Rachel's husband appears as a self-proclaimed prophet with a repurposed circus tent and a fanatical coterie to wage war against the secluded town that's sheltered her, she will have to tap into her true power to protect everyone.

For more from Willa Reece, check out Wildwood Whispers. ]]> 384 Willa Reece 0316591823 Chris 4 A history and legacy in an apple orchard with a magic tree, honey bees, and the power to mend with stitches. On the nose and a bit overdone at times, I still enjoyed these women, their legacy, the stories passed on in dreams and their community.
They have to band together and protect themselves and community against a preacher who is bent on their destruction it’s a bit hard to deal with. But the magi of the wild wood is wonderful.]]> 4.05
author: Willa Reece
name: Chris
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:
Blue ridge wise women.
A history and legacy in an apple orchard with a magic tree, honey bees, and the power to mend with stitches. On the nose and a bit overdone at times, I still enjoyed these women, their legacy, the stories passed on in dreams and their community.
They have to band together and protect themselves and community against a preacher who is bent on their destruction it’s a bit hard to deal with. But the magi of the wild wood is wonderful.
]]> 177478086
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.]]> 281 Rachel Hawkins 1250280044 Chris 0 to-read 4.02 2024
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Chris
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60657589
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.]]> 336 Heather Fawcett 059350013X Chris 3 3.99 2023
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Chris
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves:
review:
Not at all what I expected. It’s taken me forever to read this book and I did not much enjoy it. I wanted to. At times I did. But every night as I started to read I would fall asleep. Was it me or the story? Both perhaps. I liked the concept of researching faerie folk, and then getting involved with a side quest and the folk themselves. But this dragged on and on and I wanted to skip through parts and I almost stopped reading, but too much time was invested. But I knew I’d be unsatisfied. In the end it was nothing better and a big shrug of “huh?�� I know there’s a series but I don’t think I will be continuing. Love the covert artwork, but��
]]> 10816301
Krimjournalisten Henning Juul mistet sin sønn i en brann to år tidligere. Nå vender han tilbake igjen på jobb, sterkt plaget både av fysiske og psykiske arr, og det blir et vanskelig møte med kollegene, ekskona og politiet.

Juul blir satt til å dekke det brutale drapet, og det tar ikke lang tid før han kommer over et spor som stadig blir farligere. Og til tross for en rask arrestasjon, er Juul overbevist om at historien er adskillig mer sammensatt enn politiet tror. Særlig når det dukker opp enda et lik ...]]> 357 Thomas Enger 1451616457 Chris 4 Juul is of course brilliant, figured it all out while putting himself in grave danger. Case is solved, but not complete, but in true Nordic crime radios, Juul keeps at it and really does solve the full case.
And bus I’m hooked on another journalist crime writer.]]> 3.70 2010
author: Thomas Enger
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/23
date added: 2024/05/19
shelves:
review:
Norwegian crime from a reporters angle. Henning Juul is back after a fire that scared him and killed his son and estranged his wife. He’s back at work just when a girl had been found buried and stoned to death... a brutal killing the looks like sharia law. The girl had been a screenwriter student, and it seems that a story she write us being played out in real life and Henrietta is only the first to die.
Juul is of course brilliant, figured it all out while putting himself in grave danger. Case is solved, but not complete, but in true Nordic crime radios, Juul keeps at it and really does solve the full case.
And bus I’m hooked on another journalist crime writer.
]]> 65214641
What happened to Lára?

Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there?

Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lára's case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, and with the eyes of Reykjavík upon him, it soon becomes clear that Lára's disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved . . .]]> 355 Ragnar Jónasson 1250907349 Chris 3 There is a missing girl story from 30 years ago, and a young journalist is doing an anniversary piece and digging up the past.
Then the journalist is killed. His sister takes over digging into the past and finds a tight group of men in prominent positions with secrets to keep.]]> 3.64 2022
author: Ragnar Jónasson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/09
date added: 2024/05/09
shelves:
review:
Took me a little bit to get in, and the overall style was a bit different from jonasson’s other books, probably due to the partnership.
There is a missing girl story from 30 years ago, and a young journalist is doing an anniversary piece and digging up the past.
Then the journalist is killed. His sister takes over digging into the past and finds a tight group of men in prominent positions with secrets to keep.
]]> 35879387 From the author of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender comes a haunting maelstrom of magic and murder in the lush, moody Pacific Northwest.

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch�� out of her home. So Rona cursed them. Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. She has reason to hope: First, her supernatural powers, if they can be called that, are unexceptional. Second, her love life is nonexistent, which means she might escape the other perverse side effect of the matriarch’s backfiring curse, too. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. Nor senses a storm coming and is pretty sure she’ll be smack in the eye of it.

In her second novel, Leslye Walton spins a dark, mesmerizing tale of a girl stumbling along the path toward self-acceptance and first love, even as the Price Guide’s malevolent author �� Nor’s own mother �� looms and threatens to strangle any hope for happiness.]]> 272 Leslye Walton 0763691100 Chris 3 Nor is a teenager, she doesn’t know her father, and her mother is a narcissist who is using her magic outside of her burden, which means it’s black magic, which means there is a sacrifice. Nor doesn’t want you to be anything like her mother, but she’s a bit scared of her powers until she has to confront her mother.]]> 3.35 2018
author: Leslye Walton
name: Chris
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/02
shelves:
review:
Nice looking book, it sorta fell into my hands, and well.. why not? YA witches, an island, the 8th daughter, a curse, a family connected��.
Nor is a teenager, she doesn’t know her father, and her mother is a narcissist who is using her magic outside of her burden, which means it’s black magic, which means there is a sacrifice. Nor doesn’t want you to be anything like her mother, but she’s a bit scared of her powers until she has to confront her mother.
]]> 140111148
Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom to a teenage daughter and working as a full time nurse. While on duty at the hospital one day, a patient named Caitlin arrives in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, having jumped from a bridge and plunging over twenty feet to the train tracks below. 

But when a witness comes forward with shocking details about the fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was Caitlin  pushed  and if so, by whom and why? 

Meghan has always tried to stay emotionally detached from her patients, but this time, she mistakenly lets herself get too close until she’s deeply entangled in Caitlin’s and her family’s lives. Only when it’s too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims.]]> 330 Mary Kubica 0778308065 Chris 0 to-read 3.77 2024
author: Mary Kubica
name: Chris
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61273814 The author of Florence Adler Swims Forever returns with a masterful work of historical fiction about an incendiary tragedy that shocked a young nation and tore apart a community in a single night—told from the perspectives of four people whose actions during the inferno changed the course of history.

Richmond, Virginia 1811. It’s the height of the winter social season. The General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia’s gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city’s only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that’s done looking for enlightenment in a church.

On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn’t give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater’s managers, he’ll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he’ll have to buy her freedom first.

When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.

Based on the true story of Richmond’s theater fire, The House Is on Fire offers proof that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy, we are offered our most precious—and fleeting—chances at redemption.]]> 376 Rachel Beanland 1982186143 Chris 5 4.07 2023
author: Rachel Beanland
name: Chris
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves:
review:
An historical novel by local friend and author�� about a tragic event in Richmond history when the theater burned in 1811. Tons in a fast personably style from multiple perspectives and the diverse effects this catastrophe had on well to do white society families, enslaved help, the theater trope and the citizens st large. Turning history to a female perspective and that of those who stand to escape to freedom if they are thought to be dead. I enjoyed this!
]]> 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Chris 5 A good story about good people making connections. Heartfelt and sincere. To a befriends the octopus at the aquarium where she cleans. The octopus is brilliant, and my perspective is changed. Loved this.]]> 4.35 2022
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Chris
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/10
date added: 2024/04/10
shelves:
review:
Just what I needed to read leaving the beach!
A good story about good people making connections. Heartfelt and sincere. To a befriends the octopus at the aquarium where she cleans. The octopus is brilliant, and my perspective is changed. Loved this.
]]> 150353015 "Betrayal, loss, love, redemption, and justice collide in this masterpiece of a novel. You won’t want to miss The Book of Thorns." —Paulette Kennedy, author of The Devil and Mrs. Davenport

A spellbinding tale of secrets, betrayal, and magic from the author of The Heir to Blackwood Library!

Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and out of options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon’s Grande Armée. As a naturalist, her mysterious ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers…and suspicion. For behind Cornelia’s vast knowledge of the natural world is a secret she keeps hidden—the flowers speak to her through a mystical connection she has felt since childhood. One that her mother taught her to heed, before she disappeared.

As Napoleon’s army descends on Waterloo, the flowers sing to her of a startling revelation: a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Cornelia. A girl she almost remembers—her sister, lost long ago, who seems to share the same gifts. Determined to reunite with Lijsbeth despite being on opposite sides of the war, Cornelia is drawn into a whirlwind of betrayal, secrets, and lies. Brought together by fate and magic at the peak of the war, the sisters must uncover the key to the source of the power that connects them as accusations of witchcraft swirl and threaten to destroy their very lives.]]> 320 Hester Fox 1525812017 Chris 0 to-read 3.59 2024
author: Hester Fox
name: Chris
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61155405
With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.

The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own.  

Rumors swirl in the village about the abbey’s previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library’s mysteries in order to reclaim her own story—before it vanishes forever.

Lush, atmospheric and transporting, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library is a skillful reflection on memory and female agency, and a love letter to books from a writer at the height of her power.]]> 336 Hester Fox 1525804782 Chris 0 to-read 3.30 2023
author: Hester Fox
name: Chris
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3093685
Raven Black received crime fiction’s highest monetary honor, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. Now Detective Jimmy Perez is back in an electrifying sequel.

It’s midsummer in the Shetland Islands, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws an elaborate party to launch an exhibition of her work at The Herring House, a gallery on the beach.

The party ends in farce when one the guests, a mysterious Englishman, bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter, and Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that the man has been murdered. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella’s musician nephew, is murdered, too.

But the detective’s relationship with Fran Hunter may have clouded his judgment, for this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.

A stunning second installment in the acclaimed Shetland Island Quartet, White Nights is sure to garner American raves for international sensation Ann Cleeves.]]> 392 Ann Cleeves 0312384335 Chris 4 Eventually the pieces are pulled apart and it all comes together. Enjoyed both, but didn’t love or feel transformed.]]> 3.94 2008
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Chris
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves:
review:
Decided u shoukd follow up Raven Black with this directly, since the story continues. Shetland Islands-north if Scotland during the season of long daylight. Artists Bella and Fran have an opening, attendance is low and a stranger shows up, freaks out with amnesia and then is found dead. Murder inquiry commences and no connections can be found.
Eventually the pieces are pulled apart and it all comes together. Enjoyed both, but didn’t love or feel transformed.
]]> 644655 Winner of Britain’s coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to mystery readers.

Raven Black begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.

]]> 384 Ann Cleeves 0312359667 Chris 4 3.88 2006
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Chris
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/27
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Chris 0 to-read 4.08 2023
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Chris
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

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

"Are you happy with your life?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Chris 3 I enjoyed this.
It’s pretty sci-fi and a thriller as well.
Alternate realities, different paths from different choices. And what is real? And what circumstances cause reactions? Who is the original and who is the clone. Very interesting, and creepy too]]> 4.13 2016
author: Blake Crouch
name: Chris
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/18
date added: 2024/03/18
shelves:
review:
Between 3-4.
I enjoyed this.
It’s pretty sci-fi and a thriller as well.
Alternate realities, different paths from different choices. And what is real? And what circumstances cause reactions? Who is the original and who is the clone. Very interesting, and creepy too
]]> 56200360 A young woman agrees to star in a filmmaker's latest project, but soon realizes the movie is not what she expected in this chilling debut novel.

In the wake of her father's death, Betty Roux doesn't allow herself to mourn. Instead, she pushes away her mother, breaks up with her boyfriend, and leaves everything behind to move to New York City. She doesn't know what she wants, except to run.

When she's offered the chance to play the leading role in mysterious indie filmmaker Anthony Marino's new project, she jumps at the opportunity. For a month Betty will live in a cabin on a private island off the coast of Maine, with a five-person cast and crew. Her mother warns against it, but Betty is too drawn to the charismatic Anthony to say no.

Anthony gives her a new identity--Lola--and Betty tells herself that this is exactly what she's been looking for. The chance to reinvent herself. That is, until they begin filming and she meets Sammy, the island's caretaker, and Betty realizes just how little she knows about the movie and its director.]]> 362 Melissa Larsen 0593101405 Chris 3 A film makers wants to do a reality film�� called Fear. He chooses a girl for the lead role, tells her nothing, it’s dark and manipulative of all involved. In the end.. sure I wanted to know what would happen and I finished it�� but it just left me saying “now I want to hang out with cool people doing cool things”��.]]> 2.77 2021
author: Melissa Larsen
name: Chris
average rating: 2.77
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
shelves:
review:
Well, I got into reading this and held to the story, but did I like it? Not really . Shitty people being shitty.
A film makers wants to do a reality film�� called Fear. He chooses a girl for the lead role, tells her nothing, it’s dark and manipulative of all involved. In the end.. sure I wanted to know what would happen and I finished it�� but it just left me saying “now I want to hang out with cool people doing cool things”��.
]]> 58684535 Three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.

Three brilliant women.
Two life-changing mistakes.
One chance to reset the future.

In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist, Anna Berkova, is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

In ��60s Philadelphia, Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik. Her family is full of secrets and a past they won’t share. She finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna, and she’s determined to make it as an artist. When she meets the volatile, charismatic Viktor, their romance sets her life on a very different course.

In the ��80s, Raisa, is a lonely teen and math prodigy, until a quiet, handsome boy moves in across the street and an odd old woman shows up claiming to be her biological grandmother. As Raisa finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places, she notices each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to one impossible conclusion: time travel. And she finally understands what she has to do.

As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should?]]> 433 Rachel Barenbaum 1538734869 Chris 5 I got this at bookmarks in Winston Salem.
It’s a perfect book.

Anna is a scientist at Chernobyl. When it melts down, Anna tine travels to the past trying to fix the mistake. Starting a loop of her daughter and granddaughter - trying to fix the mistake but also fix and save her family.

Atomic Anna is also a comic book that Molly draws about her mother. It’s also a tool of communication thru tine as they try to fix things.

Absolutely loved this!]]> 3.76 2022
author: Rachel Barenbaum
name: Chris
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves:
review:
Perfection.
I got this at bookmarks in Winston Salem.
It’s a perfect book.

Anna is a scientist at Chernobyl. When it melts down, Anna tine travels to the past trying to fix the mistake. Starting a loop of her daughter and granddaughter - trying to fix the mistake but also fix and save her family.

Atomic Anna is also a comic book that Molly draws about her mother. It’s also a tool of communication thru tine as they try to fix things.

Absolutely loved this!
]]> 172979818 From the International Booker Prize–winning translator and Women's Prize finalist, a propulsive, beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a primeval Polish forest.

Eight translators arrive at a house in a forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.

The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens, and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets �� and deceptions �� of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for. Forced to face their differences as they grow increasingly paranoid in this fever dream of isolation and obsession, soon the translators are tangled up in a web of rivalries and desire, threatening not only their work but the fate of their beloved author herself.

This hilarious, thought-provoking second outing by award-winning translator and author Jennifer Croft is a brilliant examination of art, celebrity, the natural world, and the power of language. It is an unforgettable, unputdownable adventure with a small but global cast of characters shaken by the shocks of love, destruction, and creation in one of Europe’s last great wildernesses.]]> 320 Jennifer Croft 1639731709 Chris 0 to-read 3.18 2024
author: Jennifer Croft
name: Chris
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 196614815 A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to be a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchhiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.]]> 341 Simone St. James 0593200381 Chris 0 to-read 3.67 2024
author: Simone St. James
name: Chris
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 36723246 Warlight is a vivid, thrilling novel of violence and love, intrigue and desire. It is 1945, and London is still reeling from the Blitz and years of war. 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, are apparently abandoned by their parents, left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and grow both more convinced and less concerned as they get to know his eccentric crew of friends- men and women with a shared history, all of whom seem determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all he didn't know or understand in that time, and it is this journey - through reality, recollection, and imagination - that is told in this magnificent novel.]]> 285 Michael Ondaatje 0525521194 Chris 0 to-read 3.50 2018
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Chris
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60142750 In the propulsive debut novel from the host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie, a journalist uncovers her hometown’s dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor—and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.

You can’t ever know for sure what happens behind closed doors.

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

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

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

Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?]]> 312 Ashley Flowers 0593496477 Chris 5 The title is a great play��. Cause bad people are everywhere.]]> 3.81 2022
author: Ashley Flowers
name: Chris
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/01
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves:
review:
I’ve been a dedicated fan of Crime Junkie, so I could not rest this novel. She knows what she’s doing crafting a tale that spirals and circles and you figured out who did it, then doubt it, then figure it out, then don’t. The layers, and the problems of a small town and the murder of a young girl ��. Years later another missing girl found murdered and Margot, returned home to take care of family thinks there’s a connection to the original case if her childhood neighbor and best friend.
The title is a great play��. Cause bad people are everywhere.
]]> 56969667
Liesl Weiss has been (mostly) happy working in the rare books department of a large university, managing details and working behind the scenes to make the head of the department look good. But when her boss has a stroke and she's left to run things, she discovers that the library's most prized manuscript is missing.

Liesl tries to sound the alarm and inform the police about the missing priceless book but is told repeatedly to keep quiet to keep the doors open and the donors happy. But then a librarian goes missing as well. Liesl must investigate both disappearances, unspooling her colleagues' pasts like the threads of a rare book binding as it becomes clear that someone in the department must be responsible for the theft. What Liesl discovers about the dusty manuscripts she has worked among for so long—and about the people who preserve and revere them—shakes the very foundation on which she has built her life.]]> 336 Eva Jurczyk 1728238595 Chris 4 It’s about a library and the librarians that work with the rare books. Just as a very special rare book is aquired, the dept head has a stroke. Liesel is called back from leave to fill in. And maybe this is what didn’t click, I never got the full setting or vibe. I didn’t quite understand the characters. They were older than I thought, and they were all harboring secrets. And the secrets were some of the problem, but I hated how Liesel was blamed for the disappearance of the valuable book. And then when another librarian goes missing, she seems the scapegoat. But it wasn’t just the not very nice people that were the problem, but there are implied issues that were not resolved for me. Part of what was endearing was the wacky quality�� yet I’m not satisfied with the answers.
All my feelings aside, I still liked reading about old books, and collectors, and donors, and sone of what makes this scene go round. But I’m left with mixed feelings after finishing this.]]> 3.16 2022
author: Eva Jurczyk
name: Chris
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves:
review:
I liked this, but something didn’t fully click for me.
It’s about a library and the librarians that work with the rare books. Just as a very special rare book is aquired, the dept head has a stroke. Liesel is called back from leave to fill in. And maybe this is what didn’t click, I never got the full setting or vibe. I didn’t quite understand the characters. They were older than I thought, and they were all harboring secrets. And the secrets were some of the problem, but I hated how Liesel was blamed for the disappearance of the valuable book. And then when another librarian goes missing, she seems the scapegoat. But it wasn’t just the not very nice people that were the problem, but there are implied issues that were not resolved for me. Part of what was endearing was the wacky quality�� yet I’m not satisfied with the answers.
All my feelings aside, I still liked reading about old books, and collectors, and donors, and sone of what makes this scene go round. But I’m left with mixed feelings after finishing this.
]]> 57183703
Queen Anne's commissioners, seeking to calm the situation, have begun paying out money sent up from London to settle the losses and wages owed to those Scots who took part in the disastrous Darien expedition eight years earlier--an ill-fated venture that left Scotland all but bankrupt.

When the young widow of a Darien sailor comes forward to collect her husband's wages, her claim is challenged. One of the men assigned to investigate has only days to decide if she's honest, or if his own feelings are blinding him to the truth.

The Vanished Days is a prequel and companion novel to The Winter Sea, with action that overlaps some of the action in that book. The Vanished Days goes back in time to the 1680s and introduces the reader to the Moray and Graeme families.

I've loved every one of Susanna's books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters--sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!--DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander

From international bestselling author Susanna Kearsley comes a historical tale of intrigue and revolution in Scotland, where the exile of King James brought plots, machinations, suspicion and untold bravery to light. An investigation of a young widow's secrets by a man who's far from objective, leads to a multi-layered tale of adventure, endurance, romance...and the courage to hope.]]> 480 Susanna Kearsley 1492650161 Chris 0 to-read 3.80 2021
author: Susanna Kearsley
name: Chris
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43263680
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs�� are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.]]> 461 Leigh Bardugo 1250313074 Chris 0 to-read 4.00 2019
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Chris
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29540307
Willow loves the woods near her house. They’re calm and quiet, so different from her own turbulent emotions, which she keeps locked away. When her emotions get the better of her one day, she decides to run away into the woods.

There, she meets Pilu, a lost tree spirit who can’t find her way back home—which turns out to be the magnolia grove Willow’s mom used to take her to. Willow offers to help Pilu, and the two quickly become friends.

But the journey is long, and Pilu isn’t sure she’s ready to return home yet—which infuriates Willow, who’s determined to make up for her own mistakes by getting Pilu back safely. As a storm rages and Willow’s emotions bubble to the surface, they suddenly take on a physical form, putting both girls in danger�� and forcing Willow to confront her inner feelings once and for all.]]> 151 Mai K. Nguyen 1620105632 Chris 5 It’s a little heartwarming story about bring lonely and confronting the monsters inside her.
Willow takes off to the woods where she meets a forest fairy�� they are both sad and angry and together work thru the feelings and return to their families able to appreciate them.
Written for young readers, great little morals and I love the narrative identifying plants in the forest.
I love the drawings!]]> 4.22 2019
author: Mai K. Nguyen
name: Chris
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/22
shelves:
review:
I always looks for art that I like in a graphic novel��. This was a perfect combo of all the things��. The forest, trees and leaves, a girl and her dog in an inky wash style.
It’s a little heartwarming story about bring lonely and confronting the monsters inside her.
Willow takes off to the woods where she meets a forest fairy�� they are both sad and angry and together work thru the feelings and return to their families able to appreciate them.
Written for young readers, great little morals and I love the narrative identifying plants in the forest.
I love the drawings!
]]> 31624471
Foxlowe is a crumbling old house in the moors—a wild, secluded, and magical place. For Green, it is not just home, but everything she knows.

Outside, people live in little square houses, with unhappy families and tedious jobs. At Foxlowe, Green runs free through the hallways and orchards, in the fields and among the Standing Stones. Outside, people are corrupted by money. At Foxlowe, the Family shares everything. Outside, the Bad is everywhere. At Foxlowe, everyone in the Family is safe—as long as they follow Freya’s rules and perform her rituals. But as Green’s little sister, Blue, grows up, she shows more and more interest in the Outside. Before long she starts to talk about becoming a Leaver. . . .

Building inexorably to its terrifying climax, Foxlowe tells a chilling, irresistible story of superstition and survival, betrayal and redemption, and a utopia gone badly wrong.]]> 309 Eleanor Wasserberg 014311185X Chris 0 currently-reading 3.07 2016
author: Eleanor Wasserberg
name: Chris
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 56269064 Think you know the person you married? Think again��

Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.

Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts �� paper, cotton, pottery, tin �� and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.]]> 294 Alice Feeney 1250266106 Chris 3 I was into this, until it up and ended.
Even though both people were crappy and lying to the other.
This weekend getaway was supposed to fix it all.
But they are unhappy and distrustful and it’s not good.
He’s a screen writer with face blindness.
She’s devoted to him. But things have changed.
Don’t mess with the dogs! I don’t want anything to happen to the dog!
So crappy people are unhappy and crappy either way other in this abandoned remote cathedral turned b-n-b that is haunted or something.
And well, I was into it, and then the rug was pulled.]]> 3.88 2021
author: Alice Feeney
name: Chris
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:
I keep losing my reviews.
I was into this, until it up and ended.
Even though both people were crappy and lying to the other.
This weekend getaway was supposed to fix it all.
But they are unhappy and distrustful and it’s not good.
He’s a screen writer with face blindness.
She’s devoted to him. But things have changed.
Don’t mess with the dogs! I don’t want anything to happen to the dog!
So crappy people are unhappy and crappy either way other in this abandoned remote cathedral turned b-n-b that is haunted or something.
And well, I was into it, and then the rug was pulled.
]]> 63264519 From bestselling author Darcy Coates comes Dead of Winter, a remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will teach you to trust no one. There are eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing...only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport...and they're far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.]]> 352 Darcy Coates 1728270251 Chris 0 to-read 3.79 2023
author: Darcy Coates
name: Chris
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12009871
Is it a Litvinenko-style KGB assassination? The spooks muscling in certainly think so. Are the murders linked? Or is Nancy's death just the result of mistaken identity? Kathy is determined to dig deeper, but comes up against walls of silence. If she persists, does she risk her career - and possibly more? DCI Brock, meanwhile, faces the fight of his life as his past comes back to haunt him.

A crime long buried, a deadly African virus, and some of the most resourceful criminals Brock and Kolla have ever faced, conspire to make this Maitland's best mystery yet.]]> 434 Barry Maitland 174237638X Chris 4 3.79 2011
author: Barry Maitland
name: Chris
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves:
review:
Complex story about a murder if an American woman in London followed by the murder of a powerful rich Russian. The case is about figuring out the connection between the two as well as insider relationships with the detectives. All based around a hotel and interconnected buildings and the obsession with the location.
]]> 58966216 From highly acclaimed, bestselling author Ava Reid comes a gothic horror retelling of The Juniper Tree, set in another time and place within the world of The Wolf and the Woodsman, where a young witch seeks to discover her identity and escape the domination of her abusive wizard father, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Catherynne M. Valente.

A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites.

Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world. But at night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out to enjoy the city’s amenities and revel in its thrills, particularly the recently established ballet theater, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who quickly captures her heart.

As Marlinchen’s late-night trysts grow more fervent and frequent, so does the threat of her father’s rage and magic. And while Oblya flourishes with culture and bustles with enterprise, a monster lurks in its midst, borne of intolerance and resentment and suffused with old-world power. Caught between history and progress and blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.]]> 368 Ava Reid 0062973169 Chris 0 to-read 3.63 2022
author: Ava Reid
name: Chris
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 171309536 190 Mamin Siberiak Chris 0 to-read 0.0
author: Mamin Siberiak
name: Chris
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57693172
Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?

In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter.]]> 357 Stacy Willingham 1250803829 Chris 4 3.96 2022
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Chris
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/09
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves:
review:
Chloe’s dad is a convicted serial killer, and she’s lived in that shadow for the past twenty years. Suddenly, girls are going missing again, it seems there’s a copy cat, yet Chloe does just what is annoying to the reader and involves herself in the Investigation. It’s too close. It’s personal. She feels watched. Her fiancé Daniel suddenly seems suspicious in his travels, and the reporter who is writing a story about her father seems trustworthy. That’s really at the heart of this. Who do you trust? Who do you believe? In z book like this, the story would end if it was obvious. The twists are worthwhile.
]]> 60784636
Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust... including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.]]> 326 Stacy Willingham 1250803853 Chris 0 to-read 4.04 2023
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Chris
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>