Sarah's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:12:57 -0700 60 Sarah's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Book of Doors 156009464
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.

But this is no ordinary book�

It is the Book of Doors.

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there.

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.]]> 404 Gareth Brown 0063323982 Sarah 0 currently-reading, audiobooks 4.01 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: currently-reading, audiobooks
review:

]]> Andromeda 61487462
En ung kvinna kommer till förlaget som praktikant men blir kvar under många år och får ett allt större ansvar för författarna och förlagets utgivning. Allt under överinseende Gunnar, den litteräre chefen som står bakom förlagets finaste utgivning, den som publiceras under namnet Andromeda.

Med åren växer deras arbetsrelation till något som de båda har svårt att definiera. Kanske handlar det om ömsesidigt förtroende? Eller handlar det i själva verket om något annat?

Therese Bohmans roman utspelas i Stockholm och vecklar ut sig till en berättelse om tradition och modernitet, förhoppningar och besvikelser, idealism och krass verklighet.]]> 196 Therese Bohman 9113121758 Sarah 0 currently-reading, library 3.55 2022 Andromeda
author: Therese Bohman
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: currently-reading, library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Immortal Dark (Immortal Dark Trilogy, #1)]]> 204593711
It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.]]> 432 Tigest Girma Sarah 3 book-shelf 3.67 2024 Immortal Dark (Immortal Dark Trilogy, #1)
author: Tigest Girma
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: book-shelf
review:

]]> The River Has Roots 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.�

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]> 133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 Sarah 3 library 4.20 2025 The River Has Roots
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: library
review:

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

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

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

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Sarah 5 book-shelf 4.43 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: book-shelf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Happy Ever After Playlist (The Friend Zone, #2)]]> 50208350 The Friend Zone.

Two years after losing her fiancé, Sloan Monroe still can't seem to get her life back on track. But one trouble-making pup with a "take me home" look in his eyes is about to change everything. With her new pet by her side, Sloan finally starts to feel more like herself. Then, after weeks of unanswered texts, Tucker's owner reaches out. He's a musician on tour in Australia. And bottom line: He wants Tucker back.

Well, Sloan's not about to give up her dog without a fight. As their flirty texts turn into long calls, Sloan can't deny a connection. There's no telling what could happen when they meet in person. The question is: With his music career on the rise, how long will Jason really stick around? And is it possible for Sloan to survive another heartbreak?]]> 401 Abby Jimenez Sarah 0 to-read 4.14 2020 The Happy Ever After Playlist (The Friend Zone, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone, #3)]]> 54377375
When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted.

But after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her infant daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua.

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.]]> 384 Abby Jimenez 1538715686 Sarah 0 to-read 4.13 2021 Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Friend Zone (The Friend Zone, #1)]]> 41945163
Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen—especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he'd be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it's harder and harder to keep him at arm's length.

The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.]]> 372 Abby Jimenez Sarah 0 to-read, book-shelf 3.85 2019 The Friend Zone (The Friend Zone, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read, book-shelf
review:

]]> The Bright Sword 201750794
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.]]> 673 Lev Grossman 0735224048 Sarah 3 book-shelf 3.94 2024 The Bright Sword
author: Lev Grossman
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: book-shelf
review:

]]> No Rest for the Wicked 222376738 With an expert hand, Rachel Louise Adams’s debut No Rest for the Wicked reads like an edge of your seat, heart-pounding scary movie.

In one Halloween obsessed Midwestern town, everyone’s on red alert after a local politician goes missing. Little do they know it’s only the beginning.

It’s been close to twenty years since forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne left her hometown of Little Horton, Wisconsin. The town is famous for its Halloween celebrations, but also its history of violent deaths linked to the holiday. To Dolores, it’s the place she fled, family, bad memories, and all. Until the FBI calls to tell her that her father--the former mayor turned US Senator--is missing under mysterious circumstances.

Some people count to ten to wake up from a nightmare. Dolores always counts the bones of her head sphenoid, frontal, lacrimal. But no matter how many times she counts them, it doesn’t change the fact that her father is missing, that his final words of warning to her were to trust no one, and that now, the rest of her family is giving Dolores a chilling welcome. With Halloween fast approaching, Dolores must face the past she left behind before it’s too late.]]> 336 Rachel Louise Adams 1250362113 Sarah 0 to-read 3.33 2025 No Rest for the Wicked
author: Rachel Louise Adams
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> She Didn't See It Coming 230933437 “No one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena.”—Ruth Ware

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

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

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

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

Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.]]> 352 Shari Lapena 0385699522 Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 2025 She Didn't See It Coming
author: Shari Lapena
name: Sarah
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Enchanted Greenhouse 217388100
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.

This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.

But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.

This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.]]> 384 Sarah Beth Durst 1250333989 Sarah 0 to-read 4.44 2025 The Enchanted Greenhouse
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Big Fat Beach Wedding (PARADISE BAY SERIES)]]> 231216981 The plan was fake the wedding, save her career. Then she met the best man.

Vivian Whitlock’s social media empire is about to crumble. She’s closing in on thirty, and her fans are moving on to their ‘weddings and babies� era. About to be dropped by her management team, she pretends she and her secret boyfriend are ready to take the plunge.

There’s just one he doesn’t exist.

Enter Dominic James, a charismatic actor working at the idyllic Paradise Bay Resort. He’s got Broadway dreams and the perfect cover story. The two strike a deal—he’ll play her doting fiancé, and she’ll launch him into New York stardom.

But Vivian’s picture-perfect plan takes an unexpected turn when she moves into the beachside bungalow Dominic shares with his brother, Ben—an intense, fiercely-devoted single dad with no time for romance.

Surrounded by swaying palms, ocean breezes, and a precocious five-year-old who steals her heart, Vivian starts to wonder if she’s been chasing the wrong dream all along.

Is she about to lose everything she built—or finally find something that lasts?

My Big Fat Beach Wedding is a STAND-ALONE laugh-out-loud, banter-filled tale of two people who can’t fall in love but do anyway. It’s the perfect heartwarming, feel-good escape from the real world.

WHAT TO Single Dad who would do anything for his young sonOpposites attractLiving in the same house (force proximity)World’s most adorable 5-year-old (with cute red glasses)Loads of witty banterA slow burn, plenty of steam, and a hint of spice
]]> 348 Melanie Summers 1988891930 Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 My Big Fat Beach Wedding (PARADISE BAY SERIES)
author: Melanie Summers
name: Sarah
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Book of Cin 228857567
At Asrai’s Academy for Orphans, Hyacinth stands at a crossroads. Torn between the safety of the only home she has ever known and leaving it all behind for a chance at a new life—for freedom. But when a mysterious messenger appears, whispering rumors of a God among Fae, everything Hyacinth thought she knew about the Realms comes crashing down.

Thrust into a deadly game of power and greed, Hyacinth discovers dormant magic within her that may hold the key to survival—or mark her for death. With her friends beside her, Hyacinth must navigate through murderous realms of vicious creatures, lethal betrayals and prophecies of old.

Secrets unravel, bonds are tested, and romance decays and blossoms amidst the looming promise of war. As alliances shift and enemies close in, her only hope lies in reaching the fabled safe haven of Locdragoon—but reaching it may cost her everything she loves.

“The Book of Cin� is a high fantasy tale of love, loss, and the enduring power of friendship. Embark on an epic adventure where courage meets destiny—and magic, sacrifice, and hope are the threads that bind us.]]> 475 H.M. Wolfe Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 The Book of Cin
author: H.M. Wolfe
name: Sarah
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Woman in Suite 11 (Lo Blacklock, #2)]]> 220161029 In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Women in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?]]> 400 Ruth Ware 1668032325 Sarah 0 to-read 4.00 2025 The Woman in Suite 11 (Lo Blacklock, #2)
author: Ruth Ware
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> Not Quite Dead Yet 230933216 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder—now a hit Netflix series—returns with her first novel for adults: a twisty thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

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

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

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

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

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

Jet is going to solve her own murder.]]> 384 Holly Jackson 0385701438 Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 2025 Not Quite Dead Yet
author: Holly Jackson
name: Sarah
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Eternal Forest: A Memoir of the Cuban Diaspora]]> 222377027 In the tradition of The Yellow House and Half Broke Horses, a memoir of the Cuban diaspora that follows one family’s exile from the island, through a lyrical exploration of memory, cultural mythology, and the history of Cuban-American relations.

History is undeniably dominated by its men, but the stories Elena Sheppard was brought up on were almost always about Cuba’s women—everyday women, whose names would be forgotten and buried along with their bones unless someone took the effort to remember them.

Cifuentes, Cuba, in the 1950s was nearly idyllic—at least that’s how Elena’s grandparents, Rosita and Gustavo Delgado, remember the Eden they left. When Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, Gustavo was placed on a list of political undesirables, and by the end of 1960, the couple and their two daughters had fled to Florida, with nothing more than five dollars, and a suitcase each. The Delgados were certain they would return to Cifuentes within a few months, after Castro’s reign had run its course. But they never went back, and a piece of each of their identities became frozen in that moment.

In 1987, Elena was the first in Gustavo and Rosita’s family to be born in the United States, but through the memories that lived on in her grandmother’s mind, Cuba became the foundation of her childhood. Elena takes us inside these stories, and as we travel back and forth across the narrow Florida Straits that separate Miami and Havana, we also weave between past and present, to discover family secrets that are on the brink of being lost to time.

In lyrical yet unflinching prose, The Eternal Forest follows one family’s exile from their homeland and in so doing, it tells the larger political story of the Cuban Revolution and its diaspora. Through a spellbinding blend of cultural myth, historical texts, and personal narrative, The Eternal Forest seeks to understand the nature of inheritance, how trauma and memory are passed down through generations, and what it means to yearn for an island you can never fully know.]]> 288 Elena Sheppard 1250287685 Sarah 0 to-read 5.00 The Eternal Forest: A Memoir of the Cuban Diaspora
author: Elena Sheppard
name: Sarah
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Inadequate Heir (The Bridge Kingdom, #3)]]> 211081102 Return to the world of The Bridge Kingdom in this sensuous fantasy full of romance and intrigue that is perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Silver Flames.

A soldier raised as heir to an empire, Zarrah is motivated by two truths. The first is that the Veliant family murdered her mother. And the second is that her pursuit of vengeance will put every last one of them in their graves.

The Endless War between Maridrina and Valcotta has raged for generations, leaving thousands of Zarrah’s people dead and countless more orphaned. So when she’s given command of the contested city of Nerastis, Zarrah is prepared to do whatever it takes to destroy the Maridrinian forces who oppose her. And to kill the Veliant prince who leads them.

Yet a chance encounter with an anonymous, and handsome, Maridrinian causes Zarrah to question whether the violence she’s perpetrated is justice or a crime. And as she continues to meet the nameless man each night, she finds common ground - and fiery passion - in his arms.

But when identities are revealed, Zarrah must decide whether to embrace a chance at peace…or march to the drums of war.]]> 673 Danielle L. Jensen 0593975243 Sarah 0 to-read 4.06 2022 The Inadequate Heir (The Bridge Kingdom, #3)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Persephone's Curse 222376889 The Hazel Wood meets Laini Taylor in this gorgeous speculative tale of sisterhood, ghosts and old family curses.

Are the four Farthing sisters really descended from Persephone? This is what their aunt has always told that the women in their family can trace their lineage right back to the Goddess of the Dead. And maybe she's right, because the Farthing girls do have a ghost in the attic of their Manhattan brownstone —a kind and gentle ghost named Henry, who only they can see.

When one of the sisters falls in love with the ghost, and another banishes him to the Underworld, the sisters are faced with even bigger questions about who they are. If they really are related to Persephone, and they really are a bit magic, then perhaps it’s up to them to save Henry, to save the world, and to save each other.]]> 336 Katrina Leno 1250342902 Sarah 0 to-read 4.75 2025 Persephone's Curse
author: Katrina Leno
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The King's Messenger 214152485
1613: King James � sixth of Scotland, first of England, son of Mary, Queen of Scots - has unified both countries under one crown. But the death of his eldest son, Henry, has plunged the nation into mourning, as the rumours rise the prince was poisoned.

Andrew Logan’s heard the rumours, but he’s paid them little heed. As one of the King’s Messengers he has enough secrets to guard, including his own. In these perilous times, when the merest suggestion of witchcraft can see someone tortured and hanged, men like Andrew must hide well the fact they were born with the Sight.

He’ll need all his gifts, though, when the king sends Andrew north to find and arrest Sir David Murray, once Prince Henry’s trusted courtier, and bring him a prisoner to London to stand trial before the dreaded Star Chamber.

A story of treachery, betrayal and love�


Praise for The Vanished

‘Fascinating and immersive� I love a novel that deals with the many ways in which people keep their secrets’� DIANA GABALDON

‘A hugely engrossing book and a complete world created’� IAN RANKIN

‘The Vanished Days is an absolute tour de force of historical storytelling, tender and dramatic, gripping and authentic. Kearsley manages effortlessly to balance the epic sweep of the drama with telling moments of gentle characterization, all delivered in pitch-perfect style. I thoroughly enjoyed a perfect escape in these dark days’� JANE JOHNSON , author of The Salt Road and The Tenth Gift

‘An engrossing and deeply romantic novel of Scotland’s Jacobite rebellion’� RACHEL HORE

‘This novel tells of a tender love story set amid the Jacobite rebellion. For readers unfamiliar with the twists and turns of this period of Scottish history, author Kearsley provides a helpful map, along with rich details of the protagonists. Courage in this era lies not in acts of heroic daring, but in steadfast pursuit of truth and justice. Perfect for fans of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlande r� WOMAN & HOME

]]> 384 Susanna Kearsley 1668025132 Sarah 0 4.12 2024 The King's Messenger
author: Susanna Kearsley
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: annotation-circle, currently-reading
review:

]]> I'll Be Waiting 203578924 From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood...

Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future� together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.�

That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.

Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.

The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.

That’s when she finds the first body....

In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong's full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life--if she can.]]> 325 Kelley Armstrong 125028421X Sarah 0 to-read, annotation-circle 3.69 2024 I'll Be Waiting
author: Kelley Armstrong
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read, annotation-circle
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]]> A Magic Deep and Drowning 216616836
When her attempts at overseeing the household at the family’s estate lead to her chance encounter with a young man with russet hair and sparkling eyes the color of the sea, she finds herself strangely drawn to him. As Clara grows closer to Maurits, she must choose between the steady, gentle life she has been raised for and the man who makes her blood sing.

But Maurits isn’t who he seems to be, and his secrets, once hidden beneath the waves, threaten to rise up and drown them both. And when an ancient bargain, forged in blood between the mythical people of the sea and the rulers of the land, begins to unravel, Clara finds herself at the heart of a deadly struggle for power.

]]> 352 Hester Fox 1525809911 Sarah 0 to-read 4.23 2025 A Magic Deep and Drowning
author: Hester Fox
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Secrets of Maiden's Cove 218372240 Once upon a time, a girl called out to the sea, and the sea answered back... Welcome to a magical seaside village in Chesapeake Bay, where the ocean glitters and glows as it calls friends and family home.

Grace Clearyis finally home. When Grace inherits her late father's restaurant in her enchanting childhood hometown of Maiden's Cove - a magical Cove where rumours of mermaids abound - it seems like the perfect escape for her and her daughter from her controlling husband.

Islawas said to be a mermaid. But to Grace, Isla was her best friend, until one summer by the sea fifteen years ago tore them apart. When Grace finally calls out to the sea once more, Isla is drawn back to Maiden's Cove, where forgiveness and peace might just be found.

The Secrets of Maiden's Coveasks us what it means to have ahome, as midnight swims, reunited friends, and a reawakened love await Grace as she fights to revive her family restaurant and forge a new life for herself and her daughter.]]> 352 Erin Palmisano 1538757516 Sarah 0 to-read 4.10 The Secrets of Maiden's Cove
author: Erin Palmisano
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective]]> 217387637
Mrs. B, the landlady of The Marigold Cottages is a stubborn idealist who only rents to people she cares about: Sophie, an anxious young playwright with a dark past; Hamilton, an agoraphobe who likes to overshare; Ocean, a queer sculptor raising two kids alone; the perfectionist Lily-Ann; and Nicholas, a finance bro who’s hiding secrets.

The tenants live contentedly in their doll-house bungalows in Santa Barbara, just minutes from the beach, until their peace is shattered when Anthony, a quiet, hulking, but potentially violent ex-con moves in. Three weeks later, a dead body is discovered on the streets of the peaceful neighborhood. Anthony is arrested, and the tenants heave sighs of relief. Until Mrs. B, convinced that he's innocent, marches down to the police station and confesses to the crime herself. The tenants band together and form “The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective� to save their beloved landlady. As clues are unearthed and secrets are revealed, the community of misfits only grows more tight-knit...until a second body is found. Full of eccentricity, humor, community, The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective will keep you hooked until the last page.]]> 352 Jo Nichols 1250356547 Sarah 0 to-read 4.30 The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective
author: Jo Nichols
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
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]]> He's to Die For 217388298 Brooklyn 99 meets The Charm Offensive in this sparkling romantic murder it's murder cute in the first degree when a detective finds himself falling for the lead suspect in a career-making case.

At 29, Detective Rav Trivedi is the youngest member of the NYPD’s homicide squad, and his future looks bright. He may be a bit of an outsider in the department � an ivy-league educated gay Brit with a weakness for designer suits � but his meteoric rise and solve rate prove he belongs.

So when his CO assigns him lead on the high-profile murder of a record executive, Rav is ready for action. He won’t be distracted by TV crews, tabloids, or what’s trending on social media, nor by the ridiculously hot rock star with a clear motive and no alibi.

This is it, his shot, and he is not going to screw it up—certainly not by falling in love with his number one suspect…]]> 320 Erin Dunn 1250360625 Sarah 0 to-read 4.26 2025 He's to Die For
author: Erin Dunn
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cheddar Luck Next Time 216189353 A cozy cheese-scented mystery with delightful characters, a dash of murder and tons ofintrigue, perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club and The Maid.

Cheese-obsessed Bird Eakles has just inherited her grandmother’s estate in a quiet, quirky Californian town. But when a body is found on her property,her life begins to get rather loud�
Bird Nichols is ready to make a fresh start in a familiar place. Last year, her parents died together in a car crash and her beloved grandmother is presumed dead from an ocean drowning. Bird is now moving onto her grandmother's California coastal property, and finally living out her dream. Bird loves cheese like nothing else. It's her autistic special interest, and she designs her boards along her sensory needs, and other people love them, too.

But just when everything seems to be going right, the local troublemaker ends up dead on her rural road. Grizz, the closest thing Bird has to family, is the sheriff department's favourite suspect, but sheis determined to prove Grizz’s innocence.So now, Bird needs to unpack her possessions, assemble her pretty cheese boards, and find the true murderer before they strike again.]]> 272 Beth Cato 1915523478 Sarah 0 to-read 4.14 Cheddar Luck Next Time
author: Beth Cato
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
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]]> Our Last Wild Days 230933030 For readers of Jane Harper, Paula Hawkins, and Megan Miranda comes a stunning and intricately woven story about a sleepy town, a mysterious death, and the family at the centre of it all.

There is nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator's nearby. The way no toad or bird or blade of grass in the landscape dares to move. And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil. . . . The way the crack of the rifle seems to come from deep inside Cutter, from someplace under her ribs. The way she feels it in her throat; she knows she's a good killer—and yet. She is stalling . . .

The Labasques aren't like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are troublemakers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn't want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter's childhood friend, Loyal Duval, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution . . .]]> 320 Anna Bailey 0385695942 Sarah 0 to-read 3.00 2025 Our Last Wild Days
author: Anna Bailey
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
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]]> All That Life Can Afford 216970859 A taut and lyrical coming-of-age debut about a young American woman navigating class, lies, and love amid London’s jet-set elite.

I would arrive, blank like a sheet of notebook paper, and write myself new.

Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library—its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs. But when she finally arrives after college, the real London is a moldy flat and the same paycheck-to-paycheck grind—that fairy-tale life still out of reach.

Then Anna meets the Wilders, who fly her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter. Swept up by the sphinxlike elder sister, Anna soon finds herself plunged into a heady whirlpool of parties and excess, a place where confidence is a birthright. There she meets two handsome young men—one who wants to whisk her into his world in a chauffeured car, the other who sees through Anna’s struggle to outrun her past. It’s like she’s stepped into the pages of a glittering new novel, but what will it cost her to play the part?

Sparkling with intelligence and insight, All That Life Can Afford peels back the glossy layers of class and privilege, exploring what it means to create a new life for yourself that still honors the one you’ve left behind.]]> 384 Emily Everett 0593545141 Sarah 0 to-read 3.71 2025 All That Life Can Afford
author: Emily Everett
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> Alias Grace 72579
An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?

Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.]]> 468 Margaret Atwood 0385475713 Sarah 0 to-read, annotation-circle 4.08 1996 Alias Grace
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)]]> 211081101
The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara's homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.

Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save� and which kingdom she’ll destroy.

Passionate and violent, The Bridge Kingdom is a seductive fantasy perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]> 448 Danielle L. Jensen 0593975189 Sarah 0 to-read 4.01 2018 The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trial of the Sun Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos, #1)]]> 191755077 Ten women. A deadly contest. Only one can win the Sun King's heart.

Lor has endured twelve long years of torment under the Aurora King’s rule. Her only desire is to escape and pay him back for every moment of misery she's endured.

When a surprise release finds her in the hands of the rival Sun King, Lor is thrust into the spotlight as she competes against nine other Tributes for the role of queen. If she wins his heart, she'll earn her freedom and finally get her revenge.

But Lor doesn't belong in the Sun Queen Trials. Not only does she not understand why she was freed, she isn’t a citizen of the Sun King’s court. The other Tributes resent her presence and will stop at nothing to ensure Lor is removed from the competition, permanently.

Now Lor must win, because if she loses, she dies. Or worse, she'll be returned to the evil—and now vengeful—Aurora King.]]> 400 Nisha J. Tuli 1538767481 Sarah 0 to-read, annotation-circle 3.81 2023 Trial of the Sun Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos, #1)
author: Nisha J. Tuli
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Just Friends With a Prince (Just Love)]]> 159244260
In the span of a few hours, Harper is suddenly jobless, single, homeless and has no idea what she's doing with her life.
Hoping to escape what her life has become, and her stupid cheating ex, Harper packs up her life and hops on a plane from Toronto to Sova to spend some quality time with her sister in Europe.

The last thing Harper needs right now is to meet a beautiful man with striking eyes, down to earth personality and an unbelievable body.

Tate just wants to relax, enjoy life and have the chance to be loved for who he is, not for what his title is. When Tate meets the gorgeous Harper whose magnetic pull is too much to resist, he can't help but let his guard down and her in.

But, Harper isn't staying in Sova. And Tate's a prince. They're from two different worlds. They can be friends. Being friends is totally possible.

Will she be able to hold onto this new life she's found, or will she leave more broken than when she arrived? Just Friends With a Prince is a swoony, sexy contemporary romance set in the fictional European country of Sova. A secret prince, with a ridiculously close and hilarious family, meets a sunshiny and witty woman looking to find herself after a string of bad luck.]]> 422 Becky Tzag Sarah 0 to-read, annotation-circle 3.92 Just Friends With a Prince (Just Love)
author: Becky Tzag
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.92
book published:
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]]> Want 207006355 What do you want, when no one is watching?
What do you want, when the lights are off?
What do you want, when you are anonymous?

When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet for many reasons � some complicated, some not � so many of us don't talk about it. Our deepest, most intimate fears and fantasies remain locked away inside of us, until someone comes along with the key. Here's the key. In this generation-defining book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous letters of hundreds of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous letter). Want reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous.]]> 372 Gillian Anderson 1419777297 Sarah 1 audiobooks 3.44 2024 Want
author: Gillian Anderson
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: audiobooks
review:
I was so close to DNFing this book. I ended up finishing it only because I was listening to it on audio. I like the concept and idea of it but it was very repetitive.
]]> <![CDATA[Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping [On a Dead Man] (Vera Wong, #2)]]> 215805924 Vera Wong is back and as meddling as ever in this follow-up to the hit Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.�

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

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

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

Vera is determined to solve Xander's murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, andthere is nothing she wouldn't do for her future daughter-in-law.]]> 325 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546253 Sarah 0 to-read 4.31 2025 Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping [On a Dead Man] (Vera Wong, #2)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> A Dark Forgetting 222376989 New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ciccarelli weaves the epic love story of a magical girl, the boy she left behind, and a deadly curse, now in paperback!

No matter how far she runs, the forest always comes for Emeline Lark. She is haunted by its mysterious disappearances and the tales of fae magic lurking in its depths.

But when her grandfather goes missing, the stories Emeline has always scoffed at suddenly seem less foolish. She enters the forest she has spent years trying to escape, only to have Hawthorne Fell, a handsome and brooding tithe collector, brutally try to dissuade her from searching, even as a magnetic spark ignites between them.

Refusing to be deterred, Emeline finds herself in the court of the fabled Wood King. She makes a deal―her voice for her grandfather’s freedom. Little does she know, she’s stumbled into a curse that threatens the existence of this eerie world she’s now trapped in. To survive, she'll need the help of the fiery Hawthorne, who she's so helplessly drawn to. If she fails, she'll lose everything she holds dear.

Devastating and romantic, in Kristen Ciccarelli’s A Dark Forgetting, everything has a cost.]]> 432 Kristen Ciccarelli 125040794X Sarah 0 to-read 4.50 2025 A Dark Forgetting
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Cure for Drowning 200241504 Evocative, magical and luminously written, The Cure for Drowning isnot only a brilliant, boundary-pushing love story but a Canadian historical novel that boldly centres queer and non-binary characters in unprecedented ways.

Born Kathleen to an immigrant Irish farming family in southern Ontario, Kit McNair has been a troublesome changeling since, at ten, they fell through the river ice and drowned—only to be nursed back to life by their mother's Celtic magic. A daredevil in boy's clothes, Kit chafes at every aspect of a farmgirl's life, driving that same mother to distraction with worry about where Kit will ever fit in. When Rebekah Kromer, an elegant German-Canadian doctor's daughter, moves to town with her parents in April 1939, Rebekah has no doubt as to who 19-year-old Kit is. Soon she and Kit, and Kit's older brother, Landon, are drawn tight in a love triangle that will tear them and their families apart, and send each of them off on a separate path to war.

Landon signs up for the Navy.]]> 400 Loghan Paylor 1039006450 Sarah 0 to-read, annotation-circle 4.24 2024 The Cure for Drowning
author: Loghan Paylor
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
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]]> Canadian Boyfriend 200300820
The fake Canadian boyfriend. It's a thing. The get out of jail free card for all kinds of sticky social situations. “I can't go to prom; I'm going to be out of town visiting my boyfriend in Canada.� It's all over pop culture. But Aurora Evans did it first. Once upon a time she met a teenage hockey player at the Mall of America. He was from Canada. He was a boy. She may have fudged the “friend� part a little, but it wasn't like she was ever going to see him again. It wasn't like she hurt anyone. Until she did—years later—on both counts.

When pro hockey player and recent widower Mike Martin walks into the dance studio where Aurora Evans teaches, he's feeling overwhelmed with the fact that his wife may not have been exactly who he thought she was and the logistics of going back to work. As one of the few people his angry, heartbroken daughter connects with, Aurora agrees to be a pseudo nanny to help him navigate the upcoming school year and hockey season. To his surprise, she turns out to be the perfect balm for him as well. Aurora gets him. The real him underneath his pro jersey. And yet, he still finds himself holding back, unable to fully trust again—especially when he finds out the secret Aurora’s been hiding from him.]]> 384 Jenny Holiday 1538724928 Sarah 3 annotation-circle 3.59 2024 Canadian Boyfriend
author: Jenny Holiday
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: annotation-circle
review:

]]> Much Ado About Hating You 215534076 Enemies by day. Spicy fanfic author and devoted reader by night.

Things are about to get downright Shakespearean.

All’s fair in love. And war. And fandom.

Financial auditor Micah Mila is used to being the bearer of bad news. But her latest assignment in the local university’s English department has been especially taxing, no thanks to a literature professor who clashes with her at every turn. Thankfully, she has an after-hours reading spicy Shakespearean fanfic.

Professor Aidan Scott is damn good at his job. But Micah has been a thorn in his side since the moment he laid eyes on her—eyes that reallylike what they see. But with his job on the line, there’s no room for distractions. At least, not beyond the sexy fanfic he secretly writes.

When Micah discovers the man getting under her skin is the writer heating her up, their enemy vibe turns steamy. But with Micah’s audit due and Aidan’s career at risk, separating fantasy from reality becomes more than a little complicated…�

From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don’t miss any of these other fun titles�

Church Girl by Naima Simone

Break Point by Yahrah St. John

Ms. V's Hot Girl Summer by A.H. Cunningham]]> 288 Sarah Echavarre Smith 1335574999 Sarah 0 to-read 3.11 2025 Much Ado About Hating You
author: Sarah Echavarre Smith
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bog Queen 222376503 “An absolute astonishment.� -Vauhini Vara, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of The Immortal King Rao

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Outlawed, the gripping story of an anthropologist's monumental discovery and the clash of civilizations it sets off over the fate of the land that holds us.

When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved.

The mystery of the Iron Age body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing the archaeologists who want to study the surrounding bog, the peat-cutters who want to profit from the land's resources, and a group of environmental activists and neo-pagans who demand the body be returned to its resting place and that the moss-layered bog-a marvel of carbon capture on a warming planet-be left undisturbed. Then there's the moss a complex repository of artifacts and remains, with its own dark stories to tell.

As Agnes is drawn into the controversy stirred by the body and its habitat, she must face not only the deep history of what she has unearthed, but also the relationships she has forsworn in her bid for independence. Flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with climate urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects across time two gifted, farsighted young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a landscape more mysterious and complex than either can imagine.]]> 288 Anna North 163557966X Sarah 0 to-read 4.67 Bog Queen
author: Anna North
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
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review:

]]> Other People’s Summers 218267244 A famous actress whose life is unraveling flees to an idyllic English lakeside resort and the best friend she ghosted in this poignant and witty story from the USA TODAYbestselling author of The Book Club Hotel.

In school, Milly Beckett and Nicole Raven were as close as sisters. Now, years later, a gulf separates them, and not just because of the different spheresthey inhabit. Nicole is a global superstar with the world at her fingertips, but when scandal breaks, she turns to the only person she trusts.

Fresh from a painful divorce and struggling to balance her work and raising her daughter alone, Milly is tempted to refuse her friend’s plea for help. Nicole wasn’t there for her when she needed her most, and that’s hard to forgive. But Nicole is desperate and Milly agrees to give her the sanctuary she needs.

Against a stunning Lake District backdrop, stilted small talk gradually gives way to soul-deep revelations as the two women slowly find their way back to one another. Living with Milly gives Nicole a glimpse of a different pathfor herself, and Milly starts to see a life beyond her divorce, including the possibility of a new romance. But Nicole can’t stay hidden forever—and neither can the secret she’s been keeping from Milly, a secret that threatens both her future happiness and the fragile bond between them.

Heartwarming and hopeful,Other People’s Summersexplores the beauty of friendship, the power of forgiveness, the impact of the choices we make and the many ways in which life can surprise us.

]]> 320 Sarah Morgan 1335147012 Sarah 0 to-read 4.45 Other People’s Summers
author: Sarah Morgan
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
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review:

]]> The True Love Experiment 62361081 Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy� Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.]]> 409 Christina Lauren 1982173432 Sarah 3 botm 4.06 2023 The True Love Experiment
author: Christina Lauren
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: botm
review:

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

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

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

]]> The Shadow Girls 217182610 Set in the ruthlessly competitive world of elite ballet schools, this psychological thriller is for fans of Black Swan and Megan Abbott’s The Turnout.

Georgina Prescott’s world collapses when her daughter, star dancer at a prestigious ballet academy, is grounded by a metatarsal fracture—the same injury that ended Georgina’s own career two decades prior. And one person knows what happened: Naomi Thompson, Anna’s best friend who takes over the principal role.

Dawn Thompson is proud of her daughter. But suddenly, ugly rumors course through the close-knit ballet community saying that Naomi somehow caused Anna to fall and hurt herself. But Naomi would never do such a thing� Would she?

While Georgina grows obsessed with Naomi, Dawn wonders just how far a mother should go to protect her daughter. Then Anna receives an anonymous letter telling her to keep her mouth shut—and vanishes without a trace…]]> 336 Nina Laurin 1538707276 Sarah 0 to-read 3.85 2025 The Shadow Girls
author: Nina Laurin
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club (A Hu Done It Mystery, #1)]]> 218171621 In this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they'll need to solve his murder before they go down for it.

The body in the closet was going to be a problem. Kathryn Hu knew it. Yes, Tucker Jones was a cheating scumbag, and yes, she’d agreed to meet Olivia and Elle—Tucker’s other girlfriends—to exact revenge for all he’d put them through� But then they found him. Dead.

Do they look guilty? Yes.

Do they feel guilty for having wished him dead just hours before? Maybe a little.

But—solid motive and a crime scene covered in their DNA aside—they’re innocent. They swear.

To clear their names, Kat, Olivia and Elle team up to find the real killer. But as they go undercover and lie to everyone, including the hot detective working the case, they realize that every person in their ex's life had a reason to want him dead. Will they uncover the truth before they go down for a murder they didn't commit?

Filled with humor and shenanigans,The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Clubis a romp of an adventure by award-winning author Gloria Chao, perfect for fans ofDial A for Aunties,Finlay Donovan Is Killing ItandJohn Tucker Must Die.

]]> 320 Gloria Chao 0778387216 Sarah 0 to-read 4.40 2025 The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club (A Hu Done It Mystery, #1)
author: Gloria Chao
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Beasts of Carnaval 218171624 When night descends, el Carnaval de Bestias rises.

They come chasing paradise�

Within the shores of Isla Bestia, guests from around the world discover a utopia of ever-changing performances, sumptuous feasts and beautiful monsters. Many enter, but few ever leave—the wine is simply too sweet, the music too fine and the revelry endless.

Sofía, a freedwoman from a nearby colonized island, cares little for this revelry. Born an enslaved mestiza on a tobacco plantation, she has neither wealth nor title, only a scholarly pragmatism and a hunger for answers. She travels to el Carnaval de Bestias in search of her twin brother, who disappeared five years ago.

There’s a world of wonder waiting for her on the shores of this legendary island, one wherein conquerors profit from Sofía’s ancestral lands and her people’s labor. But surrounded by her former enslavers, she finds something familiar in the performances—whispers of the island’s native tongue, music and stories from her Taike’ri ancestors…a culture long hidden in the shadows, thrust into the light.

As the nights pass, her mind begins unraveling, drowning in the unnatural, almost sentient thrall of Carnaval. And the sense that someone is watching her grows.To find her brother and break free, Sofía must peel back the glamorous curtain and face those behind Carnaval, before she too loses herself to the island�

]]> 400 Rosália Rodrigo 0778387232 Sarah 0 to-read 4.44 Beasts of Carnaval
author: Rosália Rodrigo
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> If Two Are Dead 212431587 Three girls go into the woods, but only one comes out�

Driving alone at night in a wild rainstorm, Luke Conway strikes something—or someone. He and his wife, Carrie, recently moved back to Clear River to help take care of her ailing father, and after a tragedy at his previous job, this move is their last chance at a new life. Now, standing in the downpour on this Texas road, Luke, an off-duty cop, has a decision to make—and he has to make it fast.

No one else is around. No witnesses. And he can’t find a body.

Wanting to believe he’s being paranoid, that he’s just seeing things, Luke panics and leaves, deciding not to report the incident but rather to secretly investigate it. He can’t put more stress on Carrie, who’s already haunted by the unsolved attack and murder of two teenage girls that happened years ago in Clear River, a horrific crime in which she was the sole survivor. The killer has not been found, but Carrie and Luke’s anguished search for answers will slowly reveal the horrific truth.]]> 416 Rick Mofina 0778368599 Sarah 0 to-read 4.18 If Two Are Dead
author: Rick Mofina
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> The Book of Lost Hours 220161572 For fans of The Ministry of Time and The Midnight Library, a sweeping, unforgettable novel moving from pre-WWII Germany to Cold War-era America to the mysterious time space, a library filled with books containing the memories of those who bore witness to history.

Nuremberg, 1938: On the night of Kristallnacht, eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy is hidden by her father from approaching forces in a mysterious place called the time space, a library where all the memories of the past are stored inside of books. When her father doesn’t return for her, she becomes trapped, spending her adolescence walking through the memories of those who lived before. When she discovers that living timekeepers are entering the time space to destroy memories and maintain their preferred version of history, Lisavet sets about trying to salvage the past, creating her own book of lost memories. Until one day in 1949, when she meets an American timekeeper named Ernest Duquesne, who is intent on keeping her from her task. What ensues sets her on a course to change history and the time space itself forever.

Boston, 1965: Amelia Duquesne is mourning the death of her uncle and guardian, Ernest, when she’s approached by Moira, the enigmatic head of the CIA’s highly secretive Temporal Reconnaissance Program. Moira tells her about the existence of the time space—accessed only by specially designed watches whose intricate mechanisms have been lost to time—and enlists her help in recovering a strange book her uncle had once sought. But Amelia quickly realizes that the past—and the truth—are not as straightforward as Moira would like her to believe.

A sweeping, cinematic love story, this feat of imagination explores memory, time, and the lengths we will go to in order to protect the existence of those we love.]]> 416 Hayley Gelfuso 1668076349 Sarah 0 to-read 4.18 2025 The Book of Lost Hours
author: Hayley Gelfuso
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> One Dark Night 220160216 When a body is found the day after Halloween, a small British community must reckon with its past and the dangers lurking in its present in this spine-tingling novel from “not to be missed� (Hayley Scrivener, author of Dirt Creek) author Hannah Richell.

On Halloween, a group of teenage students meet in the woods near Sally in the Wood, a road steeped in local lore and rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl. By the end of the night, one student will be dead.

Rachel, the school guidance counselor, is trying to keep a handle on her increasingly distant teenaged daughter, Ellie, while students and parents panic and mourn. Her ex-husband and detective Ben, dealing with a personal crisis of his own, has concerns about his daughter’s safety as he investigates the death of one of her classmates. Meanwhile, Ellie is keeping secrets from both her parents, including one about where she was that night.

Told from multiple perspectives and with Hannah Richell’s distinct “atmospheric and ever-twisting� (Emylia Hall, author of the Shell House Detective Mysteries) prose, One Dark Night is a white-knuckled and suspenseful thriller about urban legends, privilege, and how the past continues to haunt us.]]> 384 Hannah Richell 1668081334 Sarah 0 to-read 3.99 One Dark Night
author: Hannah Richell
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Sarah 0 to-read 4.30 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> Lock Every Door 41837243
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building's hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.]]> 381 Riley Sager 1524745154 Sarah 3 botm 3.88 2019 Lock Every Door
author: Riley Sager
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: botm
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]]> Before I Forget 222376558 A funny, heartfelt, late coming-of-age story that examines the role of memory in holding us back—and in moving us forward

Call it inertia. Call it a quarter-life crisis. Whatever you call it, Cricket Campbell is stuck. Despite working at a zeitgeist-y wellness company, the twenty-six-year-old feels anything but well. Still adrift after a tragedy that upended her world a decade ago, she has entered early adulthood under the weight of a new burden: her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

When Cricket’s older sister Nina announces it is time to move Arthur from his beloved Adirondack lake house into a memory-care facility, Cricket has a better idea. In returning home to become her father’s caretaker, she hopes to repair their strained relationship and shake herself out of her perma-funk. But even deeply familiar places can hold surprises.

As Cricket settles back into the family house at Catwood Pond―a place she once loved, but hasn’t visited since she was a teenager―she discovers that her father possesses a rare gift: as he loses his grasp of the past, he is increasingly able to predict the future. Before long, Arthur cements his reputation as an unlikely oracle, but for Cricket, believing in her father’s prophecies might also mean facing the most painful parts of her history. As she begins to remember who she once was, she uncovers a vital truth: the path forward often starts by going back.]]> 288 Tory Henwood Hoen 1250276799 Sarah 0 to-read 4.50 Before I Forget
author: Tory Henwood Hoen
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> Six Days in Bombay 212378278
When renouned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity, even if that's where their similarities end. Sona is enraptured by Mira's stories of her travels, and shocked by accounts of the many lovers she's left scattered through Europe. Over the course of a week, Mira befriends Sona, seeing in her something bigger than the small life she's living with her mother. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party where all of Bombay society. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion.

Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn't know she was going to die? The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings—the first to Petra, Mira's childhood friend and first love in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira's history, she learns that the charming facade she'd come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself?

Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history and the English father who deserted her and her mother in India so many years ago. In the end, she'll discover that we are all made up of pieces, and only by seeing the world do we learn to see ourselves.]]> 352 Alka Joshi 077836853X Sarah 0 to-read 3.90 2025 Six Days in Bombay
author: Alka Joshi
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television—and America—Forever]]> 220175452 This comprehensive account of the meteoric rise of The Simpsons combines incisive pop culture criticism and interviews with the show’s creative team that take readers inside the making of an American phenomenon during its most influential decade, the 1990s.

The Simpsons is an American institution, but its status as an occasionally sharp yet ultimately safe sitcom undercuts its revolutionary origins. Its early years didn't just impact Hollywood, they changed popular culture. The Simpsons altered the way we talked around the water cooler, in school hallways, and on the campaign trail by bridging generations with its comedic sensibility and prescient cultural commentary.

In Stupid TV Alan Siegel reveals how the show's first decade laid the groundwork for the series' true influence. He explores how the show's rise from 1990 to 1998 intertwined with the supposedly ascendent post–Cold War America, turning Fox into the juggernaut we know today, simultaneously shaking its head at America's culture wars while finding itself in the middle of them. By packing the book with anecdotes from icons like Conan O’Brien and Yeardley Smith, Siegel also provides readers with an unparalleled look inside the show's making.]]> 304 Alan Siegel 1538742845 Sarah 0 to-read 4.67 Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television—and America—Forever
author: Alan Siegel
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)]]> 213243908 A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.

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

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

Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.]]> 448 B.K. Borison 0593641191 Sarah 4 book-shelf 4.08 2025 First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)
author: B.K. Borison
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: book-shelf
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]]> Famous Last Words 212421066
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

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

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

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

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Sarah 3 botm 3.72 2025 Famous Last Words
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: botm
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]]> A Curious Kind of Magic 222376563 Howl's Moving Castle meets Little Thieves in this cozy fantasy about the teenage owner of a (mostly fake) magical curiosity shop and a girl cursed to turn everything she touches into magic.

Everyone in Ardmuir knows that Willow Stokes is a charlatan, including Willow herself. Her father's shoppe hasn't sold anything magical in decades, and it's only hanging on by the skin of the fake dragon's teeth Willow sells as charms, along with “enchanted� ostrich eggs, taxidermied chimeras, and talismans made of fools' gold.

Until outlander Brianna Hargrave appears and turns Willow's fakes into exactly what they're purported to be. But try as Willow might to enlist Bri's help, she wants nothing to do with Willow and her curiosities.

Because Brianna is harboring a secret of her own: everything she touches turns to magic, and the consequences have chased her all the way to Ardmuir. All she wants to do is find a particular missing grimoire, which contains a spell that can finally put an end to her curse.

Desperate to keep her father's shoppe, Willow proposes a bargain that could save them both. Together with the frustratingly handsome printer's assistant, the girls will uncover a plot that goes far deeper than either could have imagined. But when Willow is forced to participate in an ambitious collector's quest for the rarest magical object in the world-a quest that risks almost-certain death-she learns that not all treasure is for sale, and that true magic is closer than she ever could have imagined.]]> 368 Mara Rutherford 1250359880 Sarah 0 to-read 4.67 2025 A Curious Kind of Magic
author: Mara Rutherford
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> You Make My Heart Stop 217182433 A young woman must decide between her life on earth and her soulmate—who she can only meet in the afterlife—in this heart-wrenching, page-turning read about loss, love, and fate that is perfectfor fans of Rebecca Serle and Josie Silver.]]> 384 Becky Hunter 1538741814 Sarah 0 to-read 4.50 You Make My Heart Stop
author: Becky Hunter
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Only Between Us (Oakwood Bay, #2)]]> 220161497 The highly anticipated sequel to the “achingly tender and deliciously sexy� (Jillian Meadows, author of Give Me Butterflies) Only in Your Dreams is a steamy, whip-smart sports romance about a former pro football star who agrees to fake date the fan-favorite ex of another high-profile NFL player so they can both save what’s most dear to them while fighting their growing feelings for each other.

After a death-defying injury sidelined him for two seasons, Brooks Attwood’s pro football comeback has hit a major snag. Naughty photos from a post-break-up bender have leaked, and they’re killing his chances with the Rebels—his old team, and the only one he wants to play on.

As he trains with the hope of being signed before the first kickoff of the season, Brooks’s plans to keep a low profile are suddenly upended when his selfie with a fiery fan goes viral, and tabloids mistake them as the football world’s newest It couple.

Turns out, Siena Pippen is the ex-girlfriend of the “face� of the League. And she wants nothing more to do with that world after being with her nightmare ex. While she and Brooks are busy blaming each other for the media circus surrounding them, NFL teams are suddenly scrambling to sign a housebroken Brooks. Meanwhile, Siena realizes that all this buzz could be the Hail Mary her family’s struggling business needs.

Together, Brooks and Siena hatch a ignore the will to kill each other and pretend to be madly in love—at least, until Brooks signs with a team. But the longer they pretend, the less fake their fauxmance begins to feel…and Brooks becomes as determined to convince Siena they’re truly meant to be as he is to land a spot on the Rebels� roster.]]> 416 Ellie K. Wilde 1668093839 Sarah 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Only Between Us (Oakwood Bay, #2)
author: Ellie K. Wilde
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> Wild Reverence 222376906
Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.]]> 544 Rebecca Ross 1250373352 Sarah 0 to-read 4.71 2025 Wild Reverence
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Greatest Pub in the Multiverse]]> 221831117 A heartwarming tale of friendship, acceptance, and the magic of second chances.

James O'Sullivan never wanted to return to his hometown of Cuanmore, but when his estranged father passes away, he finds himself drawn back to the family pub he left behind. Little does he know, O'Sullivan's Pub holds a secret that will change his life forever: a hidden portal to a magical pub that serves as a sanctuary for patrons from across the multiverse.



As James navigates his new role as the caretaker of The Pint & Portal, he must confront his past, forge unexpected friendships, and unravel the mysteries surrounding the pub's enchanted history. With the help of Emma, a former witch hunter seeking redemption, and a colorful cast of regulars from various worlds, James discovers that the true magic of The Pint & Portal lies not in its mystical brews or otherworldly visitors, but in the bonds of community and the power of empathy.



But when outside forces threaten to expose the pub's secrets and tear apart the fragile harmony James has built, he must rally his newfound family to protect their haven and prove that love and understanding can conquer even the deepest divisions.



The Greatest Pub in the Multiverse is a heartfelt and uplifting cozy fantasy that celebrates the beauty of found family, the strength of compassion, and the extraordinary magic that can be found in the most ordinary of places. Perfect for fans of Travis Baldree, TJ Klune, and anyone who believes in the power of a warm hearth, a cold pint, and an open heart.

]]> 394 Herman Steuernagel 1990505228 Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 The Greatest Pub in the Multiverse
author: Herman Steuernagel
name: Sarah
average rating: 0.0
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> Lightlark (Lightlark, #1) 60310757 Welcome to the Centennial.

Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons—a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm’s curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die.

Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling—a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial.

To survive, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray…even as love complicates everything.]]> 416 Alex Aster 1419760866 Sarah 0 currently-reading 3.84 2022 Lightlark (Lightlark, #1)
author: Alex Aster
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> An Academy for Liars 203956639 A student will find that the hardest lessons sometimes come outside the classroom in this stunning dark academia novel from the acclaimed author of The Year of the Witching and House of Hunger.

Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart.

Then she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because—like everyone else at the school—she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself.

After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power. But despite persuasion’s heavy toll on her body and mind, she is wholly captivated by her studies, by Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, and by her brilliant classmates. But even more captivating is her charismatic adviser, Dante, who both intimidates and enthralls her.

As Lennon continues in her studies her control grows, and she starts to uncover more about the secret world she has entered into, including the disquieting history of Drayton College, and the way her mentor’s tragic and violent past intertwines with it. She is increasingly disturbed by what she learns. For it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption . . . and it's a test she's terrified she is going to fail.]]> 464 Alexis Henderson 0593638301 Sarah 3 audiobooks 3.45 2024 An Academy for Liars
author: Alexis Henderson
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: audiobooks
review:

]]> The Midnight Estate 212378269 New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin

In the aftermath of a tumultuous year, Fiona Winslow finds solace in the decaying grandeur of Wurimbirra, the rambling family estate on the east coast of Australia she once called home. Intent on restoring it, she discovers the keys to more than just the dilapidated mansion—beneath the crumbling plaster and dust are secrets that have been buried for a generation.

When a misshelved book, The Midnight Estate, catches her attention in her late uncle's library, Fiona is plunged into a tale that mirrors her own—a story of love, loss and betrayal. But as the lines between fiction and reality blur, Fiona must ask herself: Is the true mystery the one hidden within the walls of her ancestral home, or is it within the pages of a book that chose her as much as she chose it?

Told across three timelines and set against the Gothic backdrop of Wurimbirra, The Midnight Estate weaves a tale as intricate and haunting as Kate Morton's Homecoming, inviting readers into the heart of a family's darkest secrets with an absorbing book-within-a-book mystery.]]> 352 Kelly Rimmer 1525805118 Sarah 0 to-read 4.40 The Midnight Estate
author: Kelly Rimmer
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Sarah 5 annotation-circle 4.01 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: annotation-circle
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland]]> 222139808 Most visitors to Skerry Island see only its lush greenery, picturesque cemetery, and quaint downtown. Yet generations of local women know that on Skerry, their benevolent witchcraft is at its most powerful.

Beatrice Barnard doesn't believe in magic. She definitely doesn't believe the predictions of the celebrity psychic who claims that she will experience seven miracles and soon after she will die. When she discovers her husband is cheating on her, Bea flees to Skerry Island, off the Pacific Northwest coast, in desperate need of solitude—taking her husband's birthday vacation by herself. Immediately upon arrival, she finds her life on the line as a rogue woodchopper blade almost kills her. Her survival feels like a miracle.

And then things get more miraculous when she discovers her twin sister, Cordelia, whom she never knew about, and her mother Astrid, who supposedly died when Beatrice was two years old. Astrid and Cordelia reveal that Beatrice (given name Beatrix) is an immensely powerful witch who can commune with the dead, like all the local Holland family witches. When their twin magic is joined, it shines like a beacon to the Velamen family, whose malevolent spirits are locked in an age-old struggle for magical dominance over the Hollands.

Beatrice doesn't know what to believe, but she begins to fear that the seven predicted miracles may occur, and that her imminent death will rip her away from her rediscovered family. Beatrice resolves to learn everything she can about her own power, in the hope of saving herself. But when her niece, Minna, goes missing, Bea's own life suddenly seems much less important. Beatrice must join her mother and her sister to save Minna even if she dies in the process.]]> 400 Rachael Herron 1538767325 Sarah 0 to-read 4.25 2025 The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland
author: Rachael Herron
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Forget-Me-Not Library 222377159 A detour. A chance encounter. Two women who alter the pages of each other’s story.

Juliet Nightingale is lucky to be alive. Months after a freak accident involving lightning, she’s fully recovered but is left feeling that something is missing from her life. Something big. Impulsively, she decides to take a solo summer road trip, hoping that the journey will lead her down a path that will help her discover exactly what it is that she’s searching for.

Newly-single mom Tallulah Byrd Mayfield is hanging by a thread after her neat, tidy world was completely undone when her husband decided that their marriage was over. In the aftermath of the breakup, she and her two daughters move in with her eighty-year-old grandfather. Tallulah starts a new job at the Forget-Me-Not Library, where old, treasured memories can be found within the books—and where Lu must learn to adapt to the many changes thrown her way.

When a road detour leads Juliet to Forget-Me-Not, Alabama, and straight into Tallulah’s life, the two women soon discover there’s magic in between the pages of where you’ve been and where you still need to go. And that happiness, even when lost, can always be found again.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 352 Heather Webber 1250369274 Sarah 0 to-read 4.61 2025 The Forget-Me-Not Library
author: Heather Webber
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Minor Fall 230148545 Bryn Stornoway is line 1273.
This is their story.

After the sudden death of her twin, Roe is desperate for a fresh start in Ireland. But when she begins work at a hotel in the foothills of County Kerry, a centuries-old ledger reveals she’s one of the few who can relive the memories of Ruhaven—a forgotten world with a deadly history.

As the first twin ever born in the Ledger, what killed Roe’s sister is now hunting her too—and her only hope is the one man who’s survived Ruhaven’s curse.

Exiled from Ruhaven and determined to conceal his past, Bryn Stornoway’s redemption depends on ensuring Roe’s survival—even if the brewing attraction between them violates Ruhaven’s laws.

As danger closes in, Roe and Bryn must confront the secrets of their intertwined pasts to uncover the truth behind her sister’s death.

Before it finds them.]]> Kayla M. Martell Sarah 0 to-read 5.00 The Minor Fall
author: Kayla M. Martell
name: Sarah
average rating: 5.00
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]]> First Time, Long Time 221179141 For readers of Emma Cline and Melissa Broder, the story of an adrift, sardonic young woman falling for an older radio host� and then for his daughter.

When aspiring writer Allison moved to L.A., she expected her life to finally take shape. After years of dwelling in grief over her brother's unexpected and untimely death, and allowing her mercurial parents' feelings and desires to infect her own, she almost feels ready become the main character in her own story again. Yet Allison continues to feel inextricably tied to both her parents, particularly her unpredictable father, and weighed down by her the loss of her brother. In L.A., as with anywhere else, she feels uninspired and lonely, unable to write and barely scraping by as an English teacher, while struggling to connect with her students and fellow instructors.

After a serendipitous run in with famed radio DJ Reid Steinman, an idol of her father’s, Allison is rapidly drawn under his spell, while also developing an unanticipated, tangled relationship with his adult daughter, Maddie. She’s forced to balance her romance with Reid with her gnawing desire for the intoxicatingly charming Maddie, as it becomes increasingly evident that she and Allison's late brother share more than a few qualities. As Allison's relationships with the equally self-possessed father and daughter deepens, she struggles to establish the boundaries of her own identity.

Through candid self-awareness, keen observations, and deliciously wry humor, FIRST TIME, LONG TIME asks, what happens to a young woman’s goals when she becomes involved with a famous man? And how might she move forward when so much in her past remains unresolved?]]> 304 Amy Silverberg 1538726475 Sarah 0 to-read 3.00 First Time, Long Time
author: Amy Silverberg
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.00
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]]> <![CDATA[Tough Broad: From Bird-Watching to BASE Jumping―How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age]]> 217387996 New York Times–bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl, a funny, inspiring, deeply researched exploration into the science and psychology of the outdoors and our place in it as we age.

Caroline Paul has always filled her life with adventure: From mountain biking in the Bolivian Andes to pitching a tent, mid-blizzard, on Denali, she has never been a stranger to the exhilaration the outdoors can hold. Yet through it all, she has long wondered, Why aren't women, like men, encouraged to keep adventuring into old age?

Tough Broad is her quest to understand not just how to live a dynamic life in a changing body, but why we must. She dives deep into the current research on aging, and highlights the results with the stories of women like 93-year-old hiker Dot Fisher-Smith, 80-year-old SCUBA diver Louise Wholey, 52-year-old BASE jumper Drew Brooks, 64-year-old birdwatcher Virginia Rose, and the many septuagenarian Wave Catchers who boogie board together in the San Diego surf. These women aren't experts. But their experiences and the scientific studies that back them up offer important insight into our own physical and emotional health as we age, showing that growing older is no reason for women to sell themselves short. Tough Broad is a high-spirited call for women to embrace the outdoors, not back away from it, in our fifties, sixties, seventies, and beyond, casting our own futures in a new and dazzling light.]]> 288 Caroline Paul 1639736360 Sarah 0 to-read 4.00 Tough Broad: From Bird-Watching to BASE Jumping―How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age
author: Caroline Paul
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Six Inches of Soil: How to Heal Our Soils, Ourselves and Our Communities Through Regenerative Farming]]> 210845594
Industrial farming has transformed Britain’s rural landscapes, increasing crop yields and reducing hunger. Yet this has all come at a terrible ecological cost. It is ‘both a miracle and a disaster�.

Six Inches of Soil, the film and this companion book, is the inspiring story of three British farmers standing up to the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food � to heal the soil, benefit our health and provide for local communities.

Six Inches of Soil is a story of courage, vision and hope. This book is not just for farmers. Reconnecting with our food, and regenerating our soils, ourselves and our communities benefits everyone and needs everyone to be involved. We want to inspire farmers with the confidence and practical know-how to adopt regenerative farming approaches. We want to give consumers the impetus and information to rethink their food choices.

This book and the film are closely related but stand on their own. In these pages you will find detailed chapters on each of the three farmers that provide replicable case studies and inspiration. Additionally, there are chapters examining the problems with the current agri-food system and proposing solutions and a vision for the future. Recognised experts: explain agroecological farming systems and soil science; consider the issues of land use, greenwashing, subsidies, food security; and provide examples of agroforestry applications, and farm enterprise stacking and diversification.

Their three stories are inspiring, guiding and frustrating. Allow yourself to be inspired, to be guided and to turn your frustration in to action.]]> 360 Jeremy Toynbee 1917159005 Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 Six Inches of Soil: How to Heal Our Soils, Ourselves and Our Communities Through Regenerative Farming
author: Jeremy Toynbee
name: Sarah
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]]> The Pretender 229733549 One of Literary Hub and The Today Show's Most Anticipated Release of 2025.

A sweeping historical novel in the vein of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell set during the time of the Tudors� ascent, The Pretender is a rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court.

In 1480 John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on the way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan, but the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown, and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews. Removed from his humble origins, sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, John is put into play by his masters, learning the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available her—marry, or become a nun. John’s choices are similarly he will either become King, or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.

Inspired by a footnote to history—the true story of the little known Lambert Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII�The Pretender is historical fiction at its finest, a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from fifteenth century England. A masterful new work from a major new author.]]> 496 Jo Harkin 1039056695 Sarah 0 to-read 0.0 2025 The Pretender
author: Jo Harkin
name: Sarah
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
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]]> Up Close & Personal 217182470
Jo De La Cruz should be on top of the world. As one of spin’s hottest instructors, her workouts stream into thousands of living rooms, her waiting list is harder to access than Area 51, and even her hair has its own social media page. But Jo’s struggling from a decade in the spotlight—which is when she meets the annoyingly handsome journalist who claims her job is just yelling at people from a bike.

Converting a hater is a challenge Jo can’t resist.

Only nothing about Silas Anders matches her expectations. He throws himself into her classes, he’s genuinely interested in Jo’s hobbies, and—most surprising of all—he knows what it’s like to struggle with mental health. Between all-you-can-eat-diner lunches, thrifting adventures, and sizzling summer nights, Jo might even be catching feelings. But as buzz for the article skyrockets, Jo discovers that the man she’s been falling for may, in fact, be the one scamming her.

Will trusting him break her heart—or lead to a love worth riding for?]]> 384 Ana Holguin 1538756889 Sarah 0 to-read 4.06 2025 Up Close & Personal
author: Ana Holguin
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> Known But Unknown 218579614 It is winter in D.C. and Covid has shuttered the city. When a friend offers Leyla James her an apartment in sunny Florida, she packs her belongings and law files in her car and escapes to a happier and warmer place for a six month respite.

But she’s barely unpacked in paradise when she discovers the body of a young woman on a nature trail.

Although Leyla has vowed to curb her instinct to investigate and right wrongs, she’s shocked to realize that this young woman has faked her identity and her family may never learn of her fate. When the local police chief, who’s without adequate staff, learns of her background as an investigator, Leyla is coerced into getting involved in the mystery of the Jane Doe’s murder and ultimately risking her own life.

Known But Unknown is the thrilling fourth book in the Leyla James Mystery series. If you like bold detectives, tropical settings, and dangerous twists, you’ll love A. Eveline’s new adventure.]]> 222 A. Eveline 1633378608 Sarah 0 to-read 4.50 2024 Known But Unknown
author: A. Eveline
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Count My Lies 217163871 A read-in-one-night suspense thriller narrated by a compulsive liar whose little white lies allow her to enter into the life and comfort of a wealthy married couple who are harboring much darker secrets themselves. For the millions of us still chasing those gone girls, this is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, and Laura Dave.

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.

So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl's foot.

With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

But maybe Sloane isn't the only one lying, and all that's picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.

The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.

Careful what you lie for.]]> 336 Sophie Stava 1668092824 Sarah 4 botm 3.97 2025 Count My Lies
author: Sophie Stava
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: botm
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]]> Gutter Child 41256453 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award

Cityline Book Club Pick

“A deep, unflinching yet loving look at injustice and power.� �Chatelaine

“A powerful and unforgettable novel� (Quill and Quire, starred review) about a young woman who must find the courage to secure her freedom and determine her own future.

Set in an imagined world in which the most vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society, Gutter Child uncovers a nation divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. As part of a social experiment led by the Mainland government, Elimina Dubois is one of just one hundred babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity.

But when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina finds herself alone, a teenager forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs. Sent to an academy with new rules and expectations, Elimina befriends children who are making their own way through the Gutter System in whatever way they know how. But when her life takes yet another unexpected turn, Elimina will discover that what she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she longed for after all.

Gutter Child reveals one young woman’s journey through a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking injustices. As a modern heroine in an altered but all-too-recognizable reality, Elimina must find the strength within herself to forge her future in defiance of a system that tries to shape her destiny.]]> 370 Jael Richardson 1443457825 Sarah 0 3.85 2021 Gutter Child
author: Jael Richardson
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades, #2)]]> 213664803 The lies are bigger and the plots more treacherous when your favourite backstabbers return in the mind-blowing sequel to instant Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Mai Corland's epic adventure fantasy Five Broken Blades

The King of Yusan may be the greatest liar of them all.

His sister's ring is in his sights, and he will do anything to get what he wants. Even manipulating the five blades to steal it...

Bonded by deceit, the blades must rely on their skills to pull off King Joon's pursuit or risk his legendary wrath.

A foreign rule of law stands between them and Quilimar, the Queen of Khitan. Now they have one month to steal the powerful Golden Ring of the Dragon Lord. But that impossible task might be easier than trusting one another, even though their lives, their families, and the realms depend on it.

They can all agree on one thing: the king can't win. But can they beat him at his own game?

Because for the blades, this time it's not just personal, it's revenge. Lies may have torn them apart, but now vengeance will bring them together.

The lies have only just begun...]]> 432 Mai Corland 1649377509 Sarah 0 to-read 4.04 2025 Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades, #2)
author: Mai Corland
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Sarah 5 audiobooks 4.64 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: audiobooks
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]]> Don't Let Him In 221598438 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

Restauranteur Paddy Swann was the life of the party until the day a man pushed him in the path of an oncoming train, leaving his twenty-something daughter Ash and wife Nina devastated. Shortly after Paddy’s funeral, the two women receive a surprise in the mail: a note and package from Nick Ratcliffe, an old friend of Paddy’s, and a nondescript lighter that once belonged to him decades ago. This unexpected gift draws Nick and Nina closer together—much to Ash’s dismay.

Martha is a small-town florist with dreams of expansion. She lives with her second husband Al, her baby, and two sons from her prior marriage. But they never seem to have any money, and with his constant traveling for work, she feels like a single parent—especially when an emergency makes her realize something needs to change.

But Nick and Al may not be who they say they are, leading these three women on a shocking collision course, wishing they had heeded a warning: Don’t let him in.]]> 368 Lisa Jewell 1668202190 Sarah 0 to-read 3.00 2025 Don't Let Him In
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> Shadowed Moonlight 213583948 Loving Kane nearly destroyed me once; now that he's Alpha he could be my end.

My life collapsed the day my Were lover Kane abandoned me four years ago, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Now I need his help.

I've got one shot to save my brother, as long as I solve the murders plaguing our city, Cambria. It'll mean diving headfirst into the political minefield of our supernatural elite. But a new alpha has joined the fray. He's dangerous, he's devastating, and he's the same man who obliterated my world all those years ago.

The deal: fake being his mate to solve the case. The cost: everything.

As catastrophe looms and old passions ignite, I'm faced with the impossible choice between loyalty and love. But the killer is watching and waiting to strike. . .]]> 352 K.C. Harper 1399726684 Sarah 0 to-read 4.00 Shadowed Moonlight
author: K.C. Harper
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Strawberry Patch Pancake House (Dream Harbor, #4)]]> 213186396 Fall in love with the brand new spring romance set in Dream Harbor, from the bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Café.

As a renowned chef, single-dad Archer never planned on moving to a small town, let alone running a pancake restaurant. But Dream Harbor needs a new chef, and Archer needs a community to help raise his daughter, Olive.

Iris has never managed to hold down a job for more than a few months. So when Mayor Kelly suggests Archer is looking for a nanny, and Iris might be available, she shudders at the thought. But in need of money she reluctantly agrees.

As Archer and Iris get used to their new roles, is it possible that they might have more in common than they first thought, or is Olive just determined to play match-maker�

Tropes:

� single dad
� forced proximity
� slow burn
� found family
� one bed]]> 361 Laurie Gilmore 0008713340 Sarah 4 book-shelf 3.94 2025 The Strawberry Patch Pancake House (Dream Harbor, #4)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: book-shelf
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]]> The After Hours 215197797
She’s not the only time traveler out there, though. A community of other travelers exists, with one main rule guiding them: don’t alter the past. This doesn’t stop Sloane from wishing she could fix that one night. Nor does it stop the mysterious woman who seems to be stalking her through time, trying to kill her.

As Sloane struggles to master her newfound abilities, as well as her complex relationship with her mysterious coworker Eric, something keeps pulling her back, over and over again, to that night everything went wrong. Sloane knows she shouldn’t do anything to change the past—but what if her future self has already made those choices for her?]]> 400 Aspen Andersen 0744311527 Sarah 0 to-read 4.22 The After Hours
author: Aspen Andersen
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Blood of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #1)]]> 218515947 The gorgeous collector’s hardcover edition of Blood of Hercules contains full color customized artwork, exclusive bonus content, and gold foil sprayed edges, foil casing, and metallic cover treatment.

I’m just a girl. And it turns out, I’m Hercules.

I’m struggling to survive in a Titan infested world where Spartans, immortals from twelve royal families who have god-like powers and obscene wealth, rule over all. A shy-stammering foster child with nothing, I keep my head down, cover my scars, and focus on excelling in school. At least, I try to. Then it happens.

My blood test reveals I’m part of the powerful elite. I’m one of them. A Spartan.

Forced to attend the Spartan War Academy, I undergo the most harrowing test of all time to see if I have what it takes to be an immortal. There’s just a few problems. Achilles and Patro are my scary mentors. Kharon, the ferryman of death, and Augustus, the son of war, are my terrifying professors. Also, I’m pretty sure either someone’s stalking me everywhere I go, or my sanity’s slipping––I have a bad feeling both are true.

I’m surrounded by Villains and they’re smothering me with their hate, obsession, and dark possessiveness. Too bad for them, they have no clue just who they’re messing with.

Perfect for readers who love:
� "Who did this to you?"
� Extreme Enemies to Lovers
� Morally Gray Alpha Heros
� Stories where the Villains get the girl
� Greek Myths and War Academies]]> 512 Jasmine Mas 1335474730 Sarah 0 to-read 4.09 2024 Blood of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #1)
author: Jasmine Mas
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1)]]> 63132313 Welcome to Scion. No safer place.

The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe.

In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing.

When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal � and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy.]]> 560 Samantha Shannon 1639732233 Sarah 0 to-read 4.25 2013 The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Among the Burning Flowers (The Roots of Chaos, #0.5)]]> 222376983 With the awakening of fire-breathing dragons, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Take your first steps into the epic.
Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.

A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .

A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers leads readers through the gripping and tragic circumstances that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.

Richly illustrated with magical artwork by Rovina Cai (@rovinacai).]]> 288 Samantha Shannon 1639736018 Sarah 0 to-read 4.36 2025 Among the Burning Flowers (The Roots of Chaos, #0.5)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Hungry Girl Sheet Pan Cookbook: One-Pan Wonders Under 400 Calories]]> 211004886 160 Lisa Lillien 1250881021 Sarah 0 to-read 4.20 Hungry Girl Sheet Pan Cookbook: One-Pan Wonders Under 400 Calories
author: Lisa Lillien
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.20
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]]> <![CDATA[Bless Your Heart (Bless Your Heart, #1)]]> 211004085
But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi―the original vampire―are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.

As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.

A crackling mystery-horror novel with big-hearted characters and blood-soaked Southern charm, Bless Your Heart is a gasp-worthy delight from start to finish.]]> 320 Lindy Ryan 1250888905 Sarah 0 to-read 3.84 2024 Bless Your Heart (Bless Your Heart, #1)
author: Lindy Ryan
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[What Hunts Inside the Shadows (Of Flesh & Bone, #2)]]> 219446168 not even the secrets waiting at the gates of Alfheimr.

Estrella's story continues.

Author’s This book is intended for readers who are 18 and older. It contains mature language, graphic violence, and explicit content with darker elements. This is book two in a series and ends in a cliffhanger.]]> 464 Harper L. Woods 125040116X Sarah 0 to-read 4.00 2022 What Hunts Inside the Shadows (Of Flesh & Bone, #2)
author: Harper L. Woods
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> The Keeper of Lonely Spirits 212228449 In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.

Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o� them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.

Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.

But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.]]> 400 E.M. Anderson 0778368521 Sarah 0 to-read 4.36 2025 The Keeper of Lonely Spirits
author: E.M. Anderson
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love (Love's Academic, #1)]]> 200555182
Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals.

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning.Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.]]> 384 India Holton Sarah 2 botm 3.90 2024 The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love (Love's Academic, #1)
author: India Holton
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> Hazel Says No 216865343
Hazel Blum, please report to the principal’s office. Hazel Blum.

When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.

Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine. Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, Hazel Says No is a debut novel not to be missed.]]> 352 Jessica Berger Gross 1335015124 Sarah 0 to-read 4.18 2025 Hazel Says No
author: Jessica Berger Gross
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Mannequin for Christmas: A Novel]]> 222376953 A Christmas romance for Barbie fans who wished Ken and Allan got their own love story.

Henry Aster swears he is unlucky when it comes to love. He thought he’d finally found The One, but a sudden break-up has left him hopeless right before the holiday season.

Facing another family Christmas alone, Henry makes a wish for “The Perfect Man.� The next morning, when he arrives at the Jersey Shore vintage shop he manages, he finds one of the male display mannequins has sprung to life and entirely wrecked the place.

The magicked man is gorgeous, of course, but he comes with a Cinderella-style If he doesn’t experience true, human love before the midnight chime on New Year’s Eve, he will turn back into a mannequin for good.

Now Henry doesn’t have to show up to family Christmas alone. The catch? This new man—self-named Aidan Smith—knows nothing about being a human. Henry has one month to teach Aidan how to be a functioning person in the modern world and the swoony boyfriend that will win over his family. It’s an arduous task that draws them close together... but can human love ever really be true?]]> 352 Timothy Janovsky 1250338956 Sarah 0 to-read 3.83 A Mannequin for Christmas: A Novel
author: Timothy Janovsky
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.83
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]]> <![CDATA[Look Before You Leap (Miss Prentice's Protegees, #2)]]> 217387682 The second hilarious and heartwarming novel in the Miss Pretence’s Protégées Regency romp of a series

Nine years ago, Lord Guy Harrowby, Viscount of Wennington, was publicly humiliated when a reckless romantic gesture went very wrong. Despite that, his mother held tight to the promise he made her then: that she would have a house full of grandchildren by his thirtieth birthday. Still single, embittered, and swiftly approaching that milestone birthday, there’s not a grandchild in sight. His heart now lies with his land and work is his life. In desperation, his mother decides that if he refuses to venture back into society to find her future daughter-in-law, the only solution is to bring society to him via a weeklong houseparty so that she can find one for him. The first Guy knows about her plan is when her hand-picked gaggle of debutantes arrive at his estate, all competing to be his wife.

After failing miserably as a governess, Lottie Travers isn’t proving to be any better at being a lady’s companion. As the only girl in an all-male household growing up, she’s developed several bad habits she can’t shake and keep getting her dismissed. Even after years of Miss Prentice’s teachings, Lottie still climbs a tree better than she embroiders, and still cannot seem to curb the desire to gallop astride a horse in breeches whenever an opportunity arises. But with the family farm in trouble, and her father now in dire need of her wages to keep it afloat, she’s determined to conquer her wildness once and for all and concentrate on her career.

Even with his home full of eligible women, there is only one that catches Guy’s eye, as much as he tries to deny it. And succeeding in her new role is easier said than done for Lottie when the Wennington Estate is filled with horses and she can’t help but feel a spark around the grumpy Lord. By the end of the week, will the two of them remain stuck in their ways, or will they learn that they may just be the perfect match?]]> 320 Virginia Heath 1250896096 Sarah 0 to-read 4.18 Look Before You Leap (Miss Prentice's Protegees, #2)
author: Virginia Heath
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.18
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]]> Well, Actually 217387831 384 Mazey Eddings 1250397340 Sarah 0 to-read 3.86 2025 Well, Actually
author: Mazey Eddings
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.86
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]]> Takes One to Know One 217182537 You Had Me at Hola meets andDirty Dancing inthisenemies-to-lovers rom-comset in Puerto Rico'smusic industry.

Daniela is risk-averse, blazer-obsessed, and likes to be taken seriously. So when she lands an interview for a publicist positionat a record label, she’s prepared for anything. Except for working with the genre of music she hates reggaeton. It's supposed to inspire sensual hip-swinging dance moves and Dani’s hips do not swing—not like that anyway. Out of desperation, Dani lies and says she loves reggaeton. But not only does Dani get the job, she gets a ticket to Puerto Rico . . . on a mission to clean up the scandalous image of international reggaeton singer Rene ‘El Rico� Rodriguez.

Despite her best act, Dani’s dislike of his music and Rene'sprickly disposition is palpable, resulting inthembuttingheads at every turn. Yet as the two spend more time together under the island’s sizzling sun, Dani realizes there’s more to Rene than hisrough edges and good looks. The man that many only see as a sex iconactually cares about his music, community, and culture. Against her will, she slowly begins finding him harder to hate. And before she knows it, Rene is teaching Dani how to find the rhythm of the music and learn to let go. But will she ever be ready to acknowledgethe heat growing between them and put her heart on the line?]]> 400 Lissette Decos 1538706776 Sarah 0 to-read 3.87 Takes One to Know One
author: Lissette Decos
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.87
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]]> Midnight in Soap Lake 210827823
When Abigail agreed to move to Soap Lake, Washington, for her husband’s research, she expected old-growth forests and craft beer, folksy neighbors and the world’s largest lava lamp. Instead, after her husband jets off to Poland for a research trip, she finds herself alone, in a town surrounded by sand and haunted by its own urban legends.

But when a young boy runs through the desert into Abigail’s arms, her life becomes entwined with his and the questions surrounding the death of his mother, Esme. In Abigail’s search for answers, she enlists the help of a recovering addict turned librarian, a grieving brother, a broken motel owner and a mentally shattered conspiracy theorist to unearth Esme’s tragic past, the town’s violent history and the secret magic locked in the lake her husband was sent there to study.

As she gets closer to the answers, past and present crimes begin to collide, and Abigail finds herself gaining the unwelcome attention of the town’s unofficial mascot, the rubber-suited orchard stalker known as TreeTop, a specter who seems to be lurking in every dark shadow and around every shady corner.

A sweeping, decade-spanning mystery brimming with quirky characters and puzzle-hunt scenarios, Midnight in Soap Lake is a modern-day Twin Peaks—a rich, expansive universe that readers will enter and never forget.]]> 416 Matthew J. Sullivan 1335041796 Sarah 0 to-read 4.06 2025 Midnight in Soap Lake
author: Matthew J. Sullivan
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> Love, The Duke (Say I Do, #3) 211003725
Adhering to society’s strict propriety for ladies, Ophelia Stowe has no choice but to present herself as a man to seek the Duke of Hurstbourne’s favor. If not for the dire situation she finds herself in, she wouldn’t have asked for help from the handsome man who had rebuffed her. When the alluring duke’s response is a plan of his own, Ophelia never dreams it would be a proposal of a marriage of convenience.

But the stakes are high, and the good name of the Stowe family will be damaged if a missing antiquity isn’t found. When she accepts his offer, she quickly finds she isn’t immune to the passion building between her and her new husband―or how real the marriage begins to feel.]]> 312 Amelia Grey 1250850452 Sarah 0 to-read 4.15 2025 Love, The Duke (Say I Do, #3)
author: Amelia Grey
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Odds of Getting Even 217388169 In this witty rom-com follow-up to Hate to Fake it to You, Jean’s fling with a resort guest turns into a case of mistaken identities in the rugged wilds of South Dakota.

The last thing reluctant resort employee Jean Harrington expected to find on a middle-of-the-night towel run was a bashful scientist in desperate need of company . . . and clothes. Charmed by his awkwardness and endearing tangents about reptiles, she returns the next day to give the handsome mystery guest she knows only as “Charlie� lessons in poker.

He’s reserved and she’s chaotic, but together, the two of them just click. Their connection might almost scare the commitment-shy Jean if it was more than fun and games. Or so Jean chooses to believe, until she discovers there’s a lot more to Charlie’s story than shyness and snakes—and she isn’t the only person with a pressing interest in his whereabouts, not to mention his secretly scandalous dating history.

When Charlie has the audacity to abandon her without a word, Jean responds like any self-respecting spurned woman with a score to settle. Assuming a false identity, she pursues him across an ocean to stage a confrontation at the centennial celebration for the famous family business he neglected to mention. With their exes around to raise the stakes, Jean is gambling she can get the upper hand before Charlie calls her bluff.

The real trick will be remembering what they’re playing for, when the biggest risk is putting all their cards on the table.]]> 320 Amanda Sellet 125090627X Sarah 0 to-read 3.74 The Odds of Getting Even
author: Amanda Sellet
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.74
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]]> With Stars in Her Eyes 222376885 WITH STARS IN HER EYES is break out author Andie Burke's (Fly with Me) next novel, a swoon-worthy sapphic romance about fresh starts and finding that one person who feels like home.

After a catastrophic career debut, cellist Courtney Starling escapes to her happy place—her best friend’s bookshop in Kansas. Shelving books and hosting book clubs in a place where nobody knows her stage name is the perfect respite.

Thea Quinn has just started her new piercing job at the tattoo shop next door. She moved to this quirky corner of Kansas for a fresh start, but despite the benefits of escaping family pressures, Thea's homesick. Maybe Thea needs to connect with potential friends over a new interest…like perhaps a historical romance book club run by a particular mysterious and sexy bookseller with a pixie cut?

Friendly meetings become stolen moments between the bookshelves, and suddenly Courtney and Thea's old problems feel eons away. But just as the chemistry between them heats to a combustion point, consequences from Courtney’s past arrive on her doorstep at exactly the wrong moment. New revelations and surprising connections take the pair from feeling joyfully lovestruck to star-crossed as both women must question what they’re willing to give up for happily ever after.]]> 368 Andie Burke 1250372526 Sarah 0 to-read 3.63 2025 With Stars in Her Eyes
author: Andie Burke
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Flight of the Sparrow: An Intergalactic Adventure]]> 216601374 When a notorious space pirate is accused of intergalactic terrorism, her longtime cronies go after an unlikely her ambitious cadet granddaughter.

Nimah may have been born a RIM-rat, a hardscrabble kid from the far reaches of the galaxy, but now that she’s a well-respected cadet at the prestigious STARS military academy, she’s put her past behind her. Or so she thinks, until her future is obliterated by the return of her infamous space pirate grandmother, who abandoned her at a barren outpost fifteen years ago, and is accused of setting off a bomb at the millennial summit for United Planetary Nation leaders.

When her connection to Capt. Indira “La Voz� Roscoe is exposed by an anonymous source, Nimah is expelled from STARS. Devastated by the loss of all that she’s worked for, she still doesn’t quite believe that the woman who has always been the voice of refugees across the galaxy, bestowing the fruits of her heists upon the poor, is actually a killer. But when a member of her grandmother's old crew tracks Nimah down and delivers thee news that Ro was set up, Nimah must make a choice.

The only way to regain what she’s lost is to prove Ro’s innocence, and they can’t do that if she’s dead. The plan is simple—and Nimah has three days to band together a motley crew of geriatric women plus a notorious thief, steal her grandmother’s ship back,, elude the powerful SIGA, and cross the void to save Ro before she’s executed for intergalactic terrorism. Otherwise, her dreams and the last surviving member of her family will be lost forever.

Should be easy work for a former RIM-rat. Or would be if Nimah wasn’t terrified to the bone of the void . . .]]> 336 Fallon DeMornay 1039482821 Sarah 0 to-read 4.40 Flight of the Sparrow: An Intergalactic Adventure
author: Fallon DeMornay
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.40
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]]> The Story She Left Behind 214152487 The New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with a novel spanning three generations of women about a famous lost book, a famous lost mother, and an artist searching for both.

In 1927, in Bluffton, South Carolina, a famous American—former child prodigy author Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham—disappears, abandoning her eight-year-old daughter and husband. She leaves behind a sequel to her children’s fantasy blockbuster about a young girl named Emjie who is caught between worlds. But the sequel is written in the author’s secret and untranslatable created language.

Now in 1952, Bronwyn’s lost words have been discovered in a private library in England by a man called Charlie Jameson. Bronwyn’s daughter, Clara Harrington, a children’s book illustrator and divorced mother of one, goes on a quest to England to retrieve the lost words of her mother, words she believes will translate the sequel and help her discover what happened and why her mother abandoned her. Clara takes along her own eight-year-old daughter, Winnie, who is precocious, funny, and wise, and who has an imaginary friend, also called Emjie, after her lost grandmother’s novel.

But when Clara and Wynnie sail to England, they arrive during one of London’s greatest natural disasters—the Great Smog. Wynnie is a fragile child with asthma and the air is deadly. Charlie Jameson helps them escape London and make their way to his family’s country home in the Lake District, where the tale unfolds in the wild and glorious landscape of Esthwaite Water and the land of Beatrix Potter. It is there that the tangled roots that tie Charlie and Clara together will be revealed, and the fate—not only of Emjie, but of Bronwyn herself—will come to light.]]> 352 Patti Callahan Henry 1668023156 Sarah 0 to-read 4.38 2025 The Story She Left Behind
author: Patti Callahan Henry
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]>