en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2025 15:36:40 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 61273858 From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par­ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197366 Maureen 5 4.23 2023
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> 33160963
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the `80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501161938 Maureen 5 4.47 2017
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> 32051912
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the "queen of spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.]]> 503 Kate Quinn 0062654195 Maureen 0 to-read 4.30 2017
author: Kate Quinn
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> 216223604 The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

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

She never arrives at her destination.

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

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

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

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
]]> 384 Freida McFadden 1464232989 Maureen 0 to-read 3.58 2025
author: Freida McFadden
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> 32148570 Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.]]> 342 Lisa Wingate 0425284689 Maureen 0 to-read 4.38 2017
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> 223199392 Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.]]> 82 Abby Jimenez 1662529082 Maureen 0 to-read 4.11 2025
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> 59892263 ��
With fires devastating much of America, Lark and his family first leave their home in Maryland for Maine. But as the country increasingly falls under the grip of religious nationalism, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe, not just from physical disasters but also persecution. The family secures a place on a crowded boat headed to Ireland, the last place on earth rumored to be accepting American refugees.
��
Upon arrival, it turns out that the safe harbor of Ireland no longer exists either—and Lark, the sole survivor of the trans-Atlantic voyage, must disappear into the countryside. As he runs for his life, Lark finds two equally lost and desperate souls: one of the last remaining dogs, who becomes his closest companion, and a fierce, mysterious woman in search of her lost son. Together they form a makeshift family and attempt to reach Glendalough, a place they believe will offer protection. But can any community provide the safety that they seek?
��
Lark Ascending is a moving and unforgettable story of friendship and bravery, and even more, a story of the ongoing fight to protect our per­sonal freedoms and find our shared humanity, from a writer at the peak of his powers.]]> 288 Silas House 164375159X Maureen 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Silas House
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 217163697 #1��New York Times��bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Maureen 0 to-read 4.58 2025
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 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 Maureen 0 to-read 4.41 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 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 Maureen 0 to-read 4.26 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 211399784 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER �� An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P������ Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story�� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 Maureen 0 to-read 4.16 2025
author: Layne Fargo
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 214537772 In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger, from the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical fiction as Hour of the Witch and The Sandcastle Girls.

��������Virginia, 1864—Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand, and his wife, all the grain they can produce requisitioned by the Confederate Army. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield.��
��������And then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house, the bones of his hand and leg shattered. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy �� but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? And if she succeeds, does she try to secretly bring him across Union lines, where she might negotiate a trade for news of her own husband?��
��������A vivid and sweeping story of two people navigating the boundaries of love and humanity in a landscape of brutal violence, The Jackal’s Mistress is a heart-stopping new novel, based on a largely unknown piece of American history, from one of our greatest storytellers.]]> 336 Chris Bohjalian 0385547641 Maureen 0 to-read 4.11 2025
author: Chris Bohjalian
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 213542248 Berlin, 1944. ‘It is a great honour to have you here, Herr Hitler.�� Lili doesn’t stumble over the lie, her hand steady as she pours champagne. Everything must be perfect, no one can suspect a thing��

Lili Rodenberg and her husband Marius run the Edel, Berlin’s most glamorous hotel. For its wealthy guests, it is an escape from the destruction outside, with its elegant piano bar and fine amber brandy. But Lili is Jewish, a secret she is terrified will end in tragedy for her and their beloved little girl.

Lili’s only choice is to hide in plain sight, her heart racing each time uniformed officers step through the Edel’s grand entrance. As Berlin becomes a more frightening place, Lili pleads with her husband to help shelter those in danger but Marius is he will not risk the lives of his wife and daughter. Until the day he is called to the front �� and goes missing in action.

Left in sole charge of the Edel, a heartbroken Lily fixes her smile as she serves men who would have her killed in an instant if they knew the truth. She decides she must fight back, hiding Jews in the hotel’s wine cellar before moving them to safety. Though she is seized with terror, it gives her the strength to carry on.

But her courage catches the attention of the Resistance. What they ask of her is impossible.

Lili has protected her daughter by living a life full of secrets. Can she risk it all now and put her child in danger for the sake of her country?

An absolutely unforgettable and heartbreaking story of bravery, love and sacrifice that will keep you turning the pages and reaching for the tissues. Fans of The Nightingale and The Book of Lost Names will be swept away by this stunning novel.

Readers love Catherine

��Phenomenal�� Literally broke my heart�� Unputdownable�� I was drawn into the story at the flip of the first page and I went through an entire box of Kleenex by the time I arrived at the last page. This masterpiece of a story is one that I highly recommend.�� Page Turners, ⭐⭐⭐⭐��

��Simply extraordinary!�� I was hooked before reaching the bottom of the first page until I finished the last with a satisfied sigh�� It was a privilege to read it�� One of the best books I’ve read.�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐��

��So gripping�� so shockingly absorbing I couldn’t put it down�� Omg what a rollercoaster of a ride... Fantastic.�� Netgalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐��

��Heartbreaking�� An eye-opener�� This page-turner World War 2 novel pulls you in and won’t let you go�� Such a gripping and unputdownable ���Ǵǰ��� One of the best WW2 historical fiction books I have read.�� Short Book Thyme, ⭐⭐⭐⭐��

��Amazing�� I was totally absorbed in the story�� 10 stars. One of my best reads this year.]]> 324 Catherine Hokin 1837900043 Maureen 0 to-read 4.38
author: Catherine Hokin
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.38
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]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Maureen 0 to-read 4.51 2025
author: John Green
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 27873910 441 Sandra Brown Maureen 3 4.35 1985
author: Sandra Brown
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1985
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Maureen 3 3.69 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> 21853621 Der Weltbestseller �� die Nr. 1 aus den USA.
Zwei Schwestern im von den Deutschen besetzten Während Vianne ums Überleben ihrer Familie kämpft, schließt sich die jüngere Isabelle der Résistance an und sucht die Freiheit auf dem Pfad der Nachtigall, einem geheimen Fluchtweg über die Pyrenäen. Doch wie weit darf man gehen, um zu überleben? Und wie kann man die schützen, die man liebt?
In diesem epischen, kraftvollen und zutiefst berührenden Roman erzählt Kristin Hannah die Geschichte zweier Frauen, die ihr Schicksal auf ganz eigene Weise meistern.]]> 564 Kristin Hannah 0312577222 Maureen 0 to-read 4.63 2015
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 36341204
Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.

But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?

Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.

Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.

But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?

What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?

What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?

But what if it is?]]> 437 Becky Albertalli 0062795252 Maureen 1 3.81 2018
author: Becky Albertalli
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 210162783 A dead man’s riddles—and secrets—thrust an FBI codebreaker into a deadly cross-country race for justice in a propulsive thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Cipher.

During a recent undercover sting gone bad, hit man Gustavo Toro died in the arms of FBI Special Agent Daniela “Dani�� Vega. But Toro had secrets he refused to take to the grave.

In the event of his death, Toro left behind a video that promises to expose a mysterious mastermind who has been operating with impunity for decades. But there’s a catch. Dani’s team must follow Toro’s cryptic clues on a cross-country hunt for justice, and piecing together his past is more twisted than Dani could have imagined.

But as Dani and her team race to gather the evidence, it’s clear this powerful adversary will stop at nothing to keep their secrets—including eliminating those who threaten to reveal them.]]> 348 Isabella Maldonado 1662515839 Maureen 3 4.24
author: Isabella Maldonado
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 54981009
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.]]> 307 Laura Dave 1501171348 Maureen 5 3.78 2021
author: Laura Dave
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 53479790 The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third: Aunt Lydia. Her complex past and uncertain future unfold in surprising and pivotal ways.

With The Testaments, Margaret Atwood opens up the innermost workings of Gilead, as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

The Testaments is a modern masterpiece, a powerful novel that can be read on its own or as a companion to Margaret Atwood's classic, The Handmaid's Tale.
]]> 419 Margaret Atwood 0525562621 Maureen 5 4.22 2019
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 45046520 A twisty, compelling new novel about one woman's complicated relationship with her mother-in-law that ends in death...

From the moment Lucy met her husband’s mother, she knew she wasn’t the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Exquisitely polite, friendly, and always generous, Diana nonetheless kept Lucy at arm’s length despite her desperate attempts to win her over. And as a pillar in the community, an advocate for female refugees, and a woman happily married for decades, no one had a bad word to say about Diana…except Lucy.

That was five years ago.

Now, Diana is dead, a suicide note found near her body claiming that she longer wanted to live because of the cancer wreaking havoc inside her body.

But the autopsy finds no cancer.

It does find traces of poison, and evidence of suffocation.

Who could possibly want Diana dead? Why was her will changed at the eleventh hour to disinherit both of her children, and their spouses? And what does it mean that Lucy isn’t exactly sad she’s gone?

Fractured relationships and deep family secrets grow more compelling with every page in this twisty, captivating new novel from Sally Hepworth.]]> 368 Sally Hepworth 1250120934 Maureen 5 3.99 2019
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 6687008
Years ago, Meghann Dontess made a terrible choice that cost her everything, including the love of her sister, Claire. Now, Meghann is a highly successful attorney who doesn’t believe in intimacy—until she meets the one man who can change her mind. Claire Cavenaugh has fallen in love for the first time in her life. As her wedding day approaches, she prepares to face her strong-willed older sister. Reunited after more than two decades apart, these two women who believe they have nothing in common will try to become what they never were: a family. Tender, funny, bittersweet, and moving, Between Sisters skillfully explores the profound joys and sorrows shared by sisters, the mistakes made in the name of love, and the promise of redemption—all beautifully told by acclaimed author Kristin Hannah.

“Enormously entertaining . . . Hannah has a nice ear for dialogue and a knack for getting the reader inside the characters�� heads.”�� The Seattle Times

“Hannah writes of love with compassion and conviction.”—Luanne Rice]]> 480 Kristin Hannah 0345519469 Maureen 4 4.04 2003
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 18170299
Alexandra Gaither is a beautiful lawyer who finally has the power to get what she's always justice. Armed with new evidence that could lead to an arrest and a conviction, Alex revisits the remote Texas town where her mother died twenty-five years ago.

There she confronts the three powerful men who were with her mother the night she her former lover, his best friend, and the father figure to them both. Each is charming, each is a suspect, and each has secrets to hide. But none of them can stop Alex's determined search for the truth.

Alex's relentless investigation creates controversy and excitement in this small community. And as she uncovers decades-old intrigues, someone capable of clever lies and remorseless acts decides she must be stopped. Now, with a one-month deadline from the attorney general to either wrap up the case or drop it for good, Alex must work diligently to catch her mother's killer . . . and find a way to stay alive.]]> 448 Sandra Brown 1455550744 Maureen 3 3.78 1989
author: Sandra Brown
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1989
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 34185891
But, as Milka Kahn and Anne Véron reveal in this absorbing book, women have always been at the heart of Italy's criminal organizations, as the guarantors of mafia culture. While the men are behind bars or on the run, it is left to their wives and mothers to uphold and pass on the 'family values'. Once widowed, they push their sons to vendetta; they are increasingly becoming others become mafia chiefs in their own right. Yet many also decide to risk their lives and break with 'the Family', collaborating with the authorities and renouncing mafia society in search of a normal life.

So who are these women? Are they pure Madonnas, or dangerous Godmothers? Women of Honor paints a complex and fascinating portrait through extremely rare interviews with the women themselves, who have overcome a culture of silence to share their extraordinary lives.]]> 213 Milka Kahn 1849048061 Maureen 0 to-read 3.55 2015
author: Milka Kahn
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200987258
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic�� books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome�� dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.]]> 298 Kirsten Miller 0063348691 Maureen 5 4.06 2024
author: Kirsten Miller
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> 214151301 Set over the course of one day, a heart-racing story about a woman facing the unimaginable, determined to find safety

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

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. She’s determined to change her life if she can just make it home.]]> 229 Emma Pattee 1668055473 Maureen 0 to-read 3.70 2025
author: Emma Pattee
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 25814222 A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.]]> 372 Fredrik Backman 1501115073 Maureen 3 4.07 2013
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 194477864
In the lush rolling hills of Lone Oaks, KY, the good life is measured in sips of aged bourbon and the thrill of the world’s most famous horse the Kentucky Derby . . .


When news of her grandfather’s stroke sends Jo Beth Ellis back to the family farm, she finds it in danger of foreclosure. Lone Oaks Crossing is in rough shape, but Jo has big plans—she’ll use her expertise as a
Derby-winning horse trainer to reinvent the property as a healing retreat. But renovating while trying to keep her independent grandfather in check is a huge job for one woman—and even more challenging when she receives her first client, the unruly fourteen-year-old Cheyenne, who is determined to do anything but cooperate. Jo is at the end of her rope when neighbor Brooks Moore offers her a deal she can’t possibly refuse . . .

Jo may have sworn to leave the gambling and vicious competition of horse racing behind her, but training Brooks’s gorgeous thoroughbred is a challenge she can’t resist, especially when sulky Cheyenne takes a shine to him—and when Brooks is sinking an outrageous amount of money into rehabbing the farm, and even rolling up his sleeves to help. With a troubled teen’s spirit and her grandfather’s faith in her on the line, Jo steps into a tentative partnership with the undeniably attractive Brooks. Against all odds, she dreams of winning a trifecta—a champion horse, a happy family, and a forever love.]]> 288 Janet Dailey 1420156160 Maureen 0 3.89
author: Janet Dailey
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> 505537 Right as I'm about to die, I realize all the myths are fake. There's no white light at the end of a tunnel. My life isn't flashing before my eyes.

All I can think about is how much I want to live.

I moved to New York City a month ago to become the best journalist the world had ever seen. To find the greatest stories never told. And now here I am Henry Parker, twenty-four years old and weary beyond rational thought, a bullet one trigger pull from ending my life.

I can't run. Running is all Amanda and I have done for the past seventy-two hours. And I'm tired. Tired of knowing the truth and not being able to tell it.

Five minutes ago I thought I had the story all figured out.

I knew that both of these men one an FBI agent, the other an assassin wanted me dead, but for very different reasons.

If I die tonight more people will die tomorrow.]]> 384 Jason Pinter 0778324893 Maureen 3 3.74 2007
author: Jason Pinter
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 1071141 416 Patrick A. Davis 074349976X Maureen 3 3.73 2006
author: Patrick A. Davis
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 33574207 He was once called Orphan X.

As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from a children's home, raised and trained as part of a secret government initiative buried so deep that virtually no one knows it exists. But he broke with the programme, choosing instead to vanish off grid and use his formidable skill set to help those unable to protect themselves.

One day, though, Evan's luck ran out . . .

Ambushed, drugged, and spirited away, Evan wakes up in a locked room with no idea where he is or who has captured him. As he tries to piece together what's happened, testing his gilded prison and its highly trained guards for weaknesses, he receives a desperate call for help.

With time running out, he will need to out-think, out-manoeuvre, and out-fight an opponent the likes of whom he's never encountered to have any chance of escape. He's got to save himself to protect those whose lives depend on him. Or die trying . . .]]> 404 Gregg Hurwitz 1250136474 Maureen 3 4.12 2017
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 45722641
Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it’s like to be in service to them. “I’d become a nameless ghost,�� Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients�� lives-their sadness and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path.

Her writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie’s story, but it’s not her alone..]]> 288 Stephanie Land 0316505099 Maureen 5 3.97 2019
author: Stephanie Land
name: Maureen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 215631
Pay It Forward is a wondrous and moving novel about Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts the challenge that his teacher gives his class, a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better -- and to put that plan into action.

The idea that Trevor comes up with is so simple and so naïve that when others learn of it they are dismissive. Even Trevor himself begins to doubt when his "pay it forward" plan seems to founder on a combination of bad luck and the worst of human nature.

In the end, Pay It Forward is the story of seemingly ordinary people made extraordinary by the simple faith of a child. In the tradition of the successful and inspirational television show Touched by an Angel, and the phenomenally successful novel and film Forrest Gump, Pay It Forward is a work of charm, wit, and remarkable inspiration, a story of hope for today and for many tomorrows to come.]]> 311 Catherine Ryan Hyde 0743412028 Maureen 5 4.17 1999
author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 41797635 178 Jayne Ann Krentz Maureen 1 4.01 1990
author: Jayne Ann Krentz
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1990
rating: 1
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 58755967
This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
--back cover]]> 274 Thanhhà Lại 0061962791 Maureen 5 4.23 2011
author: Thanhhà Lại
name: Maureen
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
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]]>