en-US Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:09:29 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 9636099 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

From the author of Where the River Ends, comes this page-turning story of love and survival.

On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport.Ěý Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding.Ěý Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to get back East for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day.ĚýĚý When the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection.ĚýĚý And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently.ĚýĚý And then the unthinkable happens.Ěý The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness-- one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States.Ěý
Ěý
Ben, who has broken ribs and Ashley, who suffers a terrible leg fracture, along with the pilot's dog, are faced with an incredibly harrowing battle to survive.ĚýĚý Fortunately, Ben is a medical professional and avid climber (and in a lucky break, has his gear from a climb earlier in the week).Ěý With little hope for rescue, he must nurse Ashley back to health and figure out how they are going to get off the mountain, where the temperature hovers in the teens.ĚýĚý Meanwhile, Ashley soon realizes that the very private Ben has some serious emotional wounds to heal as well.Ěý He explains to Ashley that he is separated from his beloved wife, but in a long standing tradition, he faithfully records messages for her on his voice recorder reflecting on their love affair.Ěý As Ashley eavesdrops on Ben's tender words to his estranged wife she comes to fear that when it comes to her own love story, she's just settling.Ěý And what's more: she begins to realize that the man she is really attracted to, the man she may love, is Ben.
Ěý
As the days on the mountains become weeks, their survival become increasingly perilous.Ěý How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do, how will this experience change them forever?
Ěý
Both a tender and page-turning read, The Mountain Between Us will reaffirm your belief in the power of love to sustain us.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 336 Charles Martin 0767927028 Nicole 4 fiction-read 4.13 2010
author: Charles Martin
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: fiction-read
review:

]]> 32822135
Archer's Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love.]]> 377 Mia Sheridan 1538727374 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.14 2014
author: Mia Sheridan
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 35715509
X is determined to break the lords' hold on him once and for all, but being stripped of his power pushes him toward a darkness he's never experienced and a past he's never known. The secrets that surface could be the key to reuniting X and Zoe... or they could mean the destruction of everything they have been fighting for.

Gripping and full of heart, this epic continuation of Jeff Giles' series - which already has rave reviews from New York Times bestselling authors Kami Garcia, Melissa de la Cruz, and Cassandra Clare, among others - will bring readers right to the edge of everything.]]> 341 Jeff Giles 1619637553 Nicole 0 currently-reading 3.98 2018
author: Jeff Giles
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 29566060 For the perfect love, what would you be willing to lose?

It’s been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who’s still reeling from her father's shockingly sudden death in a caving accident and her neighbors� mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying sub-zero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in a cabin in the woods—only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X.

X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe’s evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands� rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds, they begin to question the past, their fate, and their future.]]> 368 Jeff Giles 1619637537 Nicole 4 3.42 2017
author: Jeff Giles
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: april, fiction-read, march, ya-very-good, young-adult, montana
review:
This is some good YA storytelling! Why is this series not more popular? It’s got suspense, an interesting supernatural element, AND romance! What’s not to like? I already have the second book and I’m ready to start it! Highly recommended to all YA fans.
]]> 278012 155 Albert M. Wolters 0802829694 Nicole 0 4.06 1985
author: Albert M. Wolters
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read, christian-nonfiction-to-read
review:

]]> 12024430 A gritty, romantic modern fairy tale from the author of Break and Gone, Gone, Gone.

Be careful what you believe in.

Rudy’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves to a remote island in a last attempt to save his sick younger brother. With nothing to do but worry, Rudy sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and lies awake at night listening to the screams of the ocean beneath his family’s rickety house.

Then he meets Diana, who makes him wonder what he even knows about love, and Teeth, who makes him question what he knows about anything. Rudy can’t remember the last time he felt so connected to someone, but being friends with Teeth is more than a little bit complicated. He soon learns that Teeth has terrible secrets. Violent secrets. Secrets that will force Rudy to choose between his own happiness and his brother’s life.]]> 288 Hannah Moskowitz 1442465328 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.80 2013
author: Hannah Moskowitz
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 109253821 Two high school seniors with family trauma keeping them up at night fall in love over a series of secret late-night driving lessons.

“An achingly beautiful coming-of-age story�Midnights With You is everything I’ve ever wanted in a book.� —Ann Liang, New York Times best-selling author of I Hope This Doesn’t Find You

***

“Where were you thinking of going?�
“N´Ç·Éłó±đ°ů±đ.â€�
“Great,� he says lightly, putting the car in gear. “Then we’ll go there.�

Seventeen-year-old Deedee’s life is full of family ghosts and questions she can’t ask. She longs for an escape, but guilt holds her back—that, and the fact that her strict Filipino single mom won’t let her learn to drive. But one sleepless night leads Deedee down a road she never thought possible: secret driving lessons with the new boy next door, Jay, whose turbulent family life also keeps him up until sunrise.

As midnights stretch into days, Jay helps Deedee begin to unravel her past, and as shared secrets blossom into love, Deedee starts to imagine a life where happiness is possible. But the deeper she digs into the trauma that has shaped her, the more that trauma threatens to tear Deedee and Jay apart. Together, these two must decide if the pain they’ve both inherited has the power to choose their fate, or if they have the power to choose for themselves.]]> 368 Clare Osongco 1368101933 Nicole 0 to-read, dnf 4.19 2024
author: Clare Osongco
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, dnf
review:
DNF at 29%. Beautiful cover but nothing special happens within its pages. At least from what I saw.
]]> 18599748
It is Labor Day weekend in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and boy and girl collide on a dark street at two thirty in the morning: Lesh, who wears black, listens to metal, and plays MMOs; Svetlana, who embroiders her skirts, listens to Björk and Berlioz, and dungeon masters her own RPG. They should pick themselves up, continue on their way, and never talk to each other again.

But they don't.

This is a story of two people who do not belong in each other's lives, who find each other at a time when they desperately need someone who doesn't belong in their lives. A story of those moments when we act like people we aren't in order to figure out who we are. A story of the roles we all play-at school, at home, with our friends, and without our friends-and the one person who might show us what lies underneath it all.]]> 405 Steve Brezenoff 0062266853 Nicole 0 to-read, dnf 3.40 2014
author: Steve Brezenoff
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, dnf
review:
DNF at 41%. This got way too weird when male protagonist chose to play as a female in the game and modeled her after the girl he likes in real life. Like what?
]]> 60784552 A rom com about trying to have the summer of your life before everything changes - only to realize change might be exactly what you need...

When Juniper Nash Abreheart kissed Graham Isham for the first time, she had no idea it would nearly be the end of their friendship.

More specifically, she had no idea that the terrible, unforgivable thing she did to keep their summer fling a secret wouldn’t just ruin their friendship, but also Graham’s entire life. Now, months since the fallout, Junie and Graham spend most of their time sidestepping conversational landmines on the journey back to normalcy.

Junie is sure the strangeness between her and Graham is her biggest problem - until her mom hires Tallulah, her boyfriend’s surly teenage daughter, to work at their family café, and then announces they’ll all be moving in together at the end of the summer. The only bright spot ahead is Junie’s dad’s upcoming visit, just in time for her community theater production. And then poor turnout soon threatens that.

But when Junie starts to realize the feelings she swore to take care of last summer have lingered, saving her production and managing her hostile relationship with Tallulah might be the least of her problems. Graham isn’t just off limits - their friendship has been mended to barely withstand a breeze, and the gale force of Junie’s feelings could be just what breaks them.

Samantha Markum’s You Wouldn’t Dare is about the risks and triumphs that come with being brave enough to take a chance at what you really want, including love.]]> 368 Samantha Markum 1250846781 Nicole 0 to-read, young-adult-to-read 3.71 2023
author: Samantha Markum
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, young-adult-to-read
review:

]]> 60039565 Opposites become allies to fool their matchmaking friends in this swoony reimagining of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.

Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.

Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash everyone’s hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.

To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder: What if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?]]> 326 Chloe Liese 0593441508 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.78 2022
author: Chloe Liese
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 58510253
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend�. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.

If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most � Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares � each other?]]> 449 Megan Bannen 0356518655 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.04 2022
author: Megan Bannen
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 122753311
A pasture of dead trees. A hostile takeover of the Santa barn by a family of raccoons. And shipments that have mysteriously gone missing. Lovelight Farms is not the magical winter wonderland of Stella Bloom’s dreams.

In an effort to save the Christmas tree farm she’s loved since she was a kid, Stella enters a contest with Instagram-famous influencer Evelyn St. James. With the added publicity and the $100,000 cash prize, Stella might just be able to save the farm from its financial woes. There’s just one problem. To make the farm seem like a romantic destination for the holidays, she lied on her application and said she owns Lovelight Farms with her boyfriend. Only…there is no boyfriend.

Enter best friend Luka Peters. He just stopped by for some hot chocolate and somehow got a farm and a serious girlfriend in the process. But fake dating his best friend might be the best Christmas present he’s ever received.]]> 332 B.K. Borison 0593641124 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.74 2021
author: B.K. Borison
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 24431358 A twist of fate.

Devon Ravenel, London's most wickedly charming rake, has just inherited an earldom. But his powerful new rank in society comes with unwanted responsibilities . . . and more than a few surprises. His estate is saddled with debt, and the late earl's three innocent sisters are still occupying the house—along with Kathleen, Lady Trenear, a beautiful young widow whose sharp wit and determination are a match for Devon's own.

A clash of wills.

Kathleen knows better than to trust a ruthless scoundrel like Devon. But the fiery attraction between them is impossible to deny—and from the first moment Devon holds her in his arms, he vows to do whatever it takes to possess her. As Kathleen finds herself yielding to his skillfully erotic seduction, only one question remains: can she keep from surrendering her heart to the most dangerous man she's ever known?]]> 419 Lisa Kleypas Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.82 2015
author: Lisa Kleypas
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 86176366 480 Kennedy Ryan 1728284961 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.13 2018
author: Kennedy Ryan
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 36065344
She's a single mother, assistant manager at a grocery store, existing in monotony with her five-year-old daughter. Every day when she goes to work, lurid tabloids surround her, the face of a notorious bad boy haunting her from their covers.

A man and a woman, living vastly different lives, but that wasn't always the case. Once, they were just a boy and a girl who bonded over comic books and fell in love unexpectedly.

When Kennedy Garfield met Jonathan Cunningham back in high school, she knew he had all the makings of a tragic hero. With stars in his eyes, and her heart on her sleeve, the pair ran away together to follow their dreams.

But dreams, sometimes, turn into nightmares.

Now, years later, the only thing they share is a daughter—one who has no idea her father plays her favorite superhero. But Jonathan is desperate to make amends, and at the top of his list is the woman who gave up everything for him and the little girl he hasn't yet met.]]> 452 J.M. Darhower 1942206232 Nicole 0 currently-reading 3.95 2017
author: J.M. Darhower
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 32620360
Then Charlotte collides with Adam, a gorgeous and soulful painter who seems just as lost as she feels. Their instant connection turns into a midnight drink� and a whirlwind night of champagne, Chinese food, and the kind of conversation that only happens in romantic comedies. But the next morning, Adam gives Charlotte the cold shoulder, leaving her confused and hurt—and wondering if the few odd moments between them the night before were red flags in disguise.

Months later, Charlotte hasn’t been able to shake Adam, so she decides to find out what happened the morning after their magical night together. This fateful decision rewrites their wild love story, but what Charlotte doesn’t know yet is that the ending has already been written.]]> 320 Renee Carlino 1501105825 Nicole 4
I wasn’t totally sold on this at first. I’m not a believer in love at first sight. But I decided to just go with it as I considered the fact that nearly every romance is usually far-fetched. Once I did that I could just enjoy this for what it was.

This is my third by Carlino and I just like her writing. She creates really good side characters which is rare. Chucky and Helen, and even Roddy (although he didn’t have much of a role) were just classic. It was unsurprising then, to discover that Carlino is a screen writer. I would love to see her books turned into movies.]]> 3.97 2017
author: Renee Carlino
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: april, california, fiction-read, march, romance
review:
One thing I have to say right off the bat about this one: You gotta stretch your imagination.

I wasn’t totally sold on this at first. I’m not a believer in love at first sight. But I decided to just go with it as I considered the fact that nearly every romance is usually far-fetched. Once I did that I could just enjoy this for what it was.

This is my third by Carlino and I just like her writing. She creates really good side characters which is rare. Chucky and Helen, and even Roddy (although he didn’t have much of a role) were just classic. It was unsurprising then, to discover that Carlino is a screen writer. I would love to see her books turned into movies.
]]> 55809214 127 John L. Cooper 1636843360 Nicole 5
I think I first saw Skillet perform when I was a teen with my youth group. I followed them some through my college years at a Christian university. I came across John’s podcast a few years ago and have watched several episodes. And now l have read his first book in my early 40’s.

Great to see John, his family, and Skillet still standing strong for Jesus! ]]> 4.44 2020
author: John L. Cooper
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: christian-nonfiction, march, april
review:
Great disciplining tool! Read it for book club, youth group, or adult small group. John Cooper’s theology is spot on.

I think I first saw Skillet perform when I was a teen with my youth group. I followed them some through my college years at a Christian university. I came across John’s podcast a few years ago and have watched several episodes. And now l have read his first book in my early 40’s.

Great to see John, his family, and Skillet still standing strong for Jesus!
]]> 40045986
Beckett,

If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.

I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.

My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.

And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.

So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.

Please don’t make her go through it alone.

Ryan]]> 426 Rebecca Yarros 1640635335 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.43 2019
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 158649467
Years before Audrey St. Vrain was born, her mother, Camilla, shot to fame with Letters to My Someday Daughter, a self-help book encouraging women to treat themselves with the same love and care they’d treat their own daughters. While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family.

Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world. But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives—not as the someday daughter and someday mother, but as themselves, just as they are.

What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff—including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas—will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life.]]> 336 Ellen O'Clover 0063255081 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.86 2024
author: Ellen O'Clover
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 181696373
Wyn is going to beat Three even if it kills her—or, preferably, him. Being freshmen staffers on the university newspaper puts them at the bottom of the pecking order—until a rare reporter spot opens up. Wyn and Three are both determined to get the position, starting a game of sabotage that pushes them to do their worst, from stealing each other’s ideas to playing twisted mind games. No road is too low when it comes to winning.

As Wyn’s search for the perfect story leads her to an anonymous, campus-wide dating app, she hits it off with a mystery man she thinks might be the cute RA from her dorm. But Wyn is all too familiar with being rejected because of her weight, and she’s hesitant to reveal her identity, even as she grows closer with someone who might be the guy of her dreams.

When Three breaks a story that’s closer to home than he or Wyn expects, the two must put aside their differences to expose the truth—and face their real feelings for each other, which threaten everything Wyn has built with her anonymous match.]]> Samantha Markum Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.03 2024
author: Samantha Markum
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 212343430 For fans of Emily Henry, a debut about a rom-com screenwriter who doesn't believe in love and a divorce attorney who does, forced together at their high school reunion fifteen years after their breakup

Molly Marks writes Hollywood rom-coms for a living—which is how she knows “romance� is a racket. The one and only time she was naive enough to fall in love was with her high school boyfriend, Seth—who she ghosted on the eve of graduation and hasn’t seen in fifteen years.

Seth Rubinstein believes in love, the grand, fated kind, despite his job as, well…one of Chicago’s most successful divorce attorneys. Over the last decade, he’s sought “the one� in countless bad dates and rushed relationships. He knows his soulmate is out there. But so far, no one can compare to Molly Marks, the first girl who broke his heart.

When Molly’s friends drag her to Florida for their fifteenth high school reunion, it is poetic justice that she’s forced to sit with Seth. Too many martinis and a drunken hookup later, they decide to make a whoever can predict the fate of five couples before the next reunion must declare that the other is right about true love. The catch? The fifth couple is the two of them.

Molly assures Seth they are a tale of timeless heartbreak. Seth promises she’ll end up hopelessly in love with him. She thinks he’s delusional. He has five years to prove her wrong.

Wickedly funny, sexy, and brimming with laughs and heart like the best romantic comedies, Just Some Stupid Love Story is for everyone who believes in soulmates—even if they would never admit it.]]> 336 Katelyn Doyle 0349440239 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.63 2024
author: Katelyn Doyle
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 8755785
Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.

The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?

When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...

Love will be sacrificed and lives lost in the terrible battle for the fate of the word in the thrilling final installment of the classic urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments!]]> 725 Cassandra Clare 1481426303 Nicole 4 Still great but one complaint: I feel the Blackthorns introduction slowed this one down. I love Emma and Jules, but I didn’t need the characters of TDA taking up space here when they have would have a whole series for themselves.


Re-read 2020:
Great conclusion. It has become my favorite series.


First Review 2018:
I am seriously bummed to see the end of the Mortal Instruments. I just have to rave about these books. I would say this is my favorite series alongside Harry Potter. What a fascinating, addicting world Clare created! I grew to love these characters so much: Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Jocelyn, and Luke. The only characters I didn’t really care about were Maia and the newly introduced Blackthorn children and Emma Carstairs. I hated to be torn away from the storylines of the former characters with these other people. I am honestly reluctant to start any other book for fear of it not being near as captivating and enjoyable as these books were.]]> 4.38 2014
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: fiction-read, fantasy, young-adult, may, ya-best-of-the-best, ya-2022, favorite-all-time, 4-star, read-four-times
review:
Re-read 2022:
Still great but one complaint: I feel the Blackthorns introduction slowed this one down. I love Emma and Jules, but I didn’t need the characters of TDA taking up space here when they have would have a whole series for themselves.


Re-read 2020:
Great conclusion. It has become my favorite series.


First Review 2018:
I am seriously bummed to see the end of the Mortal Instruments. I just have to rave about these books. I would say this is my favorite series alongside Harry Potter. What a fascinating, addicting world Clare created! I grew to love these characters so much: Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Jocelyn, and Luke. The only characters I didn’t really care about were Maia and the newly introduced Blackthorn children and Emma Carstairs. I hated to be torn away from the storylines of the former characters with these other people. I am honestly reluctant to start any other book for fear of it not being near as captivating and enjoyable as these books were.
]]> 5187 328 Jane Hamilton 0385265700 Nicole 3 3.86 1988
author: Jane Hamilton
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/28
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: fiction-read, march, may, illinois, literary-fiction, april
review:
Well, I didn’t see that coming. This a tragedy and that’s all I will say. It’s a book worth reading if you can deal with its sadness.
]]> 15711341 cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut—a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg’s Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard—a business district operated by the Others.

Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she’s keeping a secret, and second, she doesn’t smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she’s wanted by the government, he’ll have to decide if she’s worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.]]> 433 Anne Bishop 0451464966 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.22 2013
author: Anne Bishop
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 38619 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780441014897.

Ilona Andrews invites you to experience the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series featuring the intriguing fantasy world of mercenary Kate Daniels�

When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way…]]> 260 Ilona Andrews Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.06 2007
author: Ilona Andrews
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 26853635 160 Robert Seethaler 1447283902 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.99 2014
author: Robert Seethaler
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 39897323 It's easier--
It's safer--
It's better--
--for the other person.
She's got issues. She's got secrets. She's got rheumatoid arthritis.
But then she meets another sick kid.
He's got a chronic illness Isabel's never heard of, something she can't even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who's a doctor.
He's gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her.
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It's complicated--
It's dangerous--
It's never felt better--
--to consider breaking that rule for him.]]> 300 Hannah Moskowitz Nicole 0 currently-reading 4.09 2019
author: Hannah Moskowitz
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 1133398 Only the King can save them�

While the Knights of the Prince train in the Kingdom Across the Sea, the Dark Knight, Lucius, reigns in Arrethtrae with complete authority. But when a small group of loyalists swears allegiance to the King, the Prince returns, and in a mighty battle, Lucius and the Shadow Warriors are vanquished and imprisoned in the Wasteland.

Peace and prosperity renew the land, and the Prince rules from the royal city of Chessington. While the heroic Cedric travels as ambassador, he sees that every corner of Arrethtrae reaps the benefits of prosperity brought to the land by the Prince’s reign.

But not everyone will swear allegiance to the King, and it seems this paradise may be lost yet again because of the pride and greed of evil men who plot to free the Dark Knight and his minions. Cedric rides desperately to bring the news before it’s too late�

Journey to Arrethtrae, where the King and His Son implement a bold plan to save their kingdom; where courage, faith, and loyalty stand tall in the face of opposition; where good will not bow to evil–where the King reigns…along with His Son!]]> 176 Chuck Black 1590526821 Nicole 0 4.30 2003
author: Chuck Black
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, christian-fiction-to-read
review:

]]> 1953964 A quest to bring hope to the kingdom�

Having narrowly escaped death at the hands of the evil Shadow Warriors, Sir Gavin is given a new name by the Prince to signify his new allegiance–to the cause of the one he once swore to kill. Called to share this message to everyone in the land of Arrethtrae, Sir Gavinaugh takes up his sword and embarks on an epic journey.

Winning hearts and minds with the power of his words and his skill with a sword, Gavinaugh travels from one end of the kingdom to the other, telling Outdwellers about the Prince, convincing them to join him. And though Gavinaugh is at times beaten, thrown in prison, or stranded far from home, the Prince himself guides his words, his sword, and his pilgrimage.

Journey to Arrethtrae, where the King and His Son implement a bold plan to save their kingdom; where courage, faith, and loyalty stand tall in the face of opposition; where good will not bow to evil–and the Prince’s chosen messenger speaks boldly of his quest.]]> 176 Chuck Black 1590527496 Nicole 0 4.32 2007
author: Chuck Black
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, christian-fiction-to-read
review:

]]> 620750 A sworn enemy of the Prince vows to eliminate his Followers.
Until the Prince saves his life�

For generations the Noble Knights have been in service to the King. Following a strict code of conduct, they preserve the peace in Chessington, the King’s chosen city, and rule its citizenry. Sir Gavin is a young and promising Noble Knight, devoted to King and Code.

Then a peasant disrupts the tranquility of Chessington, brazenly challenging the Code while claiming to be the son of the King–a Prince. When it is learned that he is actively training a force of men in defiance of the law, the stranger is arrested and executed.

But his Followers continue to defy the Code, and Sir Gavin swears to destroy this threat to Chessington–until he himself is grievously wounded in battle. As he faces his own death, Gavin is saved by someone who will transform his heart and change his life�

Journey to Arrethtrae, where the King and His Son implement a bold plan to save their kingdom; where courage, faith, and loyalty stand tall in the face of opposition; where good will not bow to evil–and one brave man stands against the Dark Knight.]]> 160 Chuck Black 159052750X Nicole 0 4.28 2007
author: Chuck Black
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, christian-fiction-to-read
review:

]]> 1265593
Good and evil clash. Leinad and Cedric are determined to not only survive, but claim hope and victory! In Kingdom’s Dawn , Leinad and Tess, along with all the king’s people, must escape slavery by the powerful Lord Fairos. Kingdom’s Hope finds them free and arriving in the Chessington Valley . But when they forget the king, will Kergon and the Kessons capture them for good? After many years, Kingdom’s Edge finds Cedric living a hopeless life until a stranger appears with powerful words of a new kingdom and a grand army. Finally, Kingdom’s Reign marches you through the danger of earth’s last days as the evil dark knight threatens to defeat the prince once and for all. Swords, knights, and battles define these captivating tales that parallel biblical events from Genesis to Revelation!

He was doomed to a life of hopelessness and despair.

Then the stranger arrived�

For Cedric of Chessington, every day is the full of poverty and despair. And he knows that will never change.

Or so he thinks.

Then a stranger comes to the city. Drawn to the man’s mysterious ways, Cedric discovers the stranger’s humility belies great strength and wisdom. That’s when an astounding truth becomes clear—the stranger is a Master of the Sword, and He is there to train Cedric.

Suddenly propelled into a desperate battle against evil, Cedric must rely on the Master’s training if he is going to survive. But the ultimate battle is yet to come, for the Dark Knight is at work, implementing his plan to take over the kingdom. Will Cedric be ready to stand in the face of pure evil?

Journey to Arrethtrae, where the King and His Son implement a bold plan to save their kingdom; where courage, faith, and loyalty stand tall in the face of opposition; where good will not bow to evil; and where hope and compassion are as powerful weapons as the sword.



DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDED

Story Behind the Book

“When my six kids� eyes glossed over during a reading from the Bible, I paused to explain the significance of redemption to a sin-sick soul. I was rewarded with patronizing elephant nods and more blank stares. Shortly thereafter, I awoke in the middle of the night with a medieval story enveloping my mind. I wrote it down and later read it to my children. Their waning attention transformed into complete anticipation. I was amazed and disappointed. Why did it take a fictional story, not a Bible passage, to get that response? Then I realized—that is how Jesus taught! Parables are powerful! I penned the Kingdom series to help young people get excited about the supremely significant story of Jesus Christ and His mission to save mankind.�

� Chuck Black]]> 144 Chuck Black 1590526813 Nicole 0 4.19 1999
author: Chuck Black
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, christian-fiction-to-read
review:

]]> 1953965
Good and evil clash. Leinad and Cedric are determined to not only survive, but claim hope and victory! In Kingdom’s Dawn , Leinad and Tess, along with all the king’s people, must escape slavery by the powerful Lord Fairos. Kingdom’s Hope finds them free and arriving in the Chessington Valley . But when they forget the king, will Kergon and the Kessons capture them for good? After many years, Kingdom’s Edge finds Cedric living a hopeless life until a stranger appears with powerful words of a new kingdom and a grand army. Finally, Kingdom’s Reign marches you through the danger of earth’s last days as the evil dark knight threatens to defeat the prince once and for all. Swords, knights, and battles define these captivating tales that parallel biblical events from Genesis to Revelation!

Fierce castle lords hold the kingdom hostage.

But a champion is coming�

Fairos thought he had sentenced Leinad to death in the Banteen desert. But he was wrong. Leinad survived. Now, trained by the King himself, Leinad returns—a true Knight of the King. His skill with the sword is unmatched this side of the Great Sea ; his resolve is unshakeable. He is determined to fulfill the mission given him by the King and to free the people from their bondage to Lord Fairos.

Leinad’s quest takes him from the chains of slavery, near the jaws of dragons, and close to the arms of love. And when the rest of the kingdom turns away from the King and the Code, Leinad turns to his most faithful ally, Tess. With her help, Leinad struggles to conquer his own doubt. But he must do so soon, for the King’s archenemy, the Dark Knight, is about to unleash his entire evil force, and only Leinad can stop them�

Journey to Arrethtrae, where the King and His Son implement a bold plan to save their kingdom; where courage, faith, and loyalty stand tall in the face of opposition; where good will not bow to evil; where the future of the kingdom is at the threshold of either victory or defeat—and one man holds the key.



DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDED

Story Behind the Book

“When my six kids� eyes glossed over during a reading from the Bible, I paused to explain the significance of redemption to a sin-sick soul. I was rewarded with patronizing elephant nods and more blank stares. Shortly thereafter, I awoke in the middle of the night with a medieval story enveloping my mind. I wrote it down and later read it to my children. Their waning attention transformed into complete anticipation. I was amazed and disappointed. Why did it take a fictional story, not a Bible passage, to get that response? Then I realized—that is how Jesus taught! Parables are powerful! I penned the Kingdom series to help young people get excited about the supremely significant story of Jesus Christ and His mission to save mankind.�
—Chuck Black]]> 160 Chuck Black 1590526805 Nicole 0 currently-reading 4.19 2002
author: Chuck Black
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 15994590 Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

It's not what you know - or when you see - that matters. It's about a journey.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it. When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

Flat-Out Love comes complete with emails, Facebook status updates, and instant messages.]]> 355 Jessica Park 1477860258 Nicole 0 to-read 3.98 2011
author: Jessica Park
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:
DNF 25%. This seemed more about the mystery behind Celeste’s quirkiness rather than the budding relationship between the MC and Celeste’s older brother Finn.
]]> 107525389
Enter Warren, a surly mechanic’s apprentice attempting to get custody of his deaf fifteen-year-old brother after failing CPS� housing evaluation. The two strangers immediately clash but agree to live together until Warren can find housing elsewhere and Chloe can further grow her freelance career.

As their lives intertwine, Chloe and Warren both realise that they’re far more similar than they could have imagined. What started as forced begins to feel natural—and far less lonely. Chemistry soon intensifies beyond what either of them can stand, but they must each decide if what burns between them is worth risking their arrangement and, ultimately, the well-being of their siblings.

With banter, heart, and steam that will have the reader blushing, Next of Kin is a true underdog story of two young adults redefining what family can look like.]]> 295 Hannah Bonam-Young Nicole 2 fiction-read, march, romance

Original review:
Several aspects of this plot held a lot of promise. There were some moments in the beginning and the end that demonstrated that. But honestly the entire middle had nothing to offer.]]> 3.71 2022
author: Hannah Bonam-Young
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: fiction-read, march, romance
review:
Update: After further thought, I’m bringing this down to 2 stars. It really wasn’t very good. (Original review I gave it 3).


Original review:
Several aspects of this plot held a lot of promise. There were some moments in the beginning and the end that demonstrated that. But honestly the entire middle had nothing to offer.
]]> 61827543 Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy �detective� work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could � because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands � Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.]]> 339 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593549228 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.01 2023
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 46019039 Alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here

The sport she loves is out of reach. The boy she loves has someone else. What now?
Ěý
She expected to start Harkness College as a varsity ice hockey player. But a serious accident means that Corey Callahan will start school in a wheelchair instead.
Ěý
Across the hall, in the other handicapped-accessible dorm room, lives the too-delicious-to-be real Adam Hartley, another would-be hockey star with his leg broken in two places. He's way out of Corey's league.
Ěý
Also, he's taken.
Ěý
Nevertheless, an unlikely alliance blooms between Corey and Hartley in McHerrin Hall. Over tequila, perilously balanced dining hall trays, and video games, the two cope with disappointments that nobody else understands.
Ěý
They're just friends, of course, until one night when things fall apart. Or fall together. All Corey knows is that she's falling. Hard.
Ěý
But will Hartley set aside his trophy girl to love someone as broken as Corey? If he won't, she will need to find the courage to make a life for herself at Harkness -- one which does not revolve around the sport she can no longer play, or the brown-eyed boy who's afraid to love her back.]]> 274 Sarina Bowen Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.85 2014
author: Sarina Bowen
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 13541056
Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the disease that is destroying the race of warlocks. Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of theĚýparabataiĚýcurse destroys them and everyone they love.]]> 893 Cassandra Clare 1442468459 Nicole 4
First read: After completing a second series of Clare, I look forward to reading another. The Infernal Devices will be next. I have officially become an urban fantasy fan.]]> 4.32 2018
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/14
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: fiction-read, young-adult, ya-2019, re-reads, ya-2022, honorable-mentions-ya, ya-very-good, 4-star, march
review:
Re-read: This was a lot slower the second time around. I feel like there are too many characters in this series. I adore Emma and Julian. I wished I could have had more of them rather than the storyline of Gywn and Diana.

First read: After completing a second series of Clare, I look forward to reading another. The Infernal Devices will be next. I have officially become an urban fantasy fan.
]]> 220999078
Gracie Harris never intended to become the queen of grief. But when an essay she writes the night of her husband Ben’s memorial goes viral, she lands a popular column on love and loss and an impressive book deal.

Now, the biggest tragedy of her life is the center of her world. With a looming book deadline and her kids at summer camp, Gracie escapes for a summer of solitude to the ramshackle mountain house she and Ben bought for their family before his death. When charming contractor Josh arrives on her doorstep to help renovate the home, Gracie discovers an unexpected connection that is energizing . . . and surprisingly flirtatious.

As her feelings and resilience grow, Gracie must decide whether she’s ready to embrace a new version of her life. Gracie’s first Happily Ever After didn’t last as long as she’d expected. Now she has to wonder: Could Josh be her chance for a second great love story?]]> 368 Kate Hash Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.27
author: Kate Hash
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 43204703 here.

Fall in love, break the curse.

Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she's pulled into a magical world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. A prince? A curse? A monster? As she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.]]> 484 Brigid Kemmerer 1681195089 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.94 2019
author: Brigid Kemmerer
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 54613751
Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.

As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.

The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous � and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.]]> 292 Krystal Sutherland 059311034X Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.03 2021
author: Krystal Sutherland
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 30653843 You probably think that Aled Last and I are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and I am a girl.

I just wanted to say—we don’t.

Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying. When she’s not studying, she’s up in her room making fan art for her favorite podcast, Universe City.

Everyone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As. But no one knows he’s the creator of Universe City, who goes by the name Radio Silence.

When Frances gets a message from Radio Silence asking if she’ll collaborate with him, everything changes. Frances and Aled spend an entire summer working together and becoming best friends. They get each other when no one else does.

But when Aled’s identity as Radio Silence is revealed, Frances fears that the future of Universe City—and their friendship—is at risk. Aled helped her find her voice. Without him, will she have the courage to show the world who she really is? Or will she be met with radio silence?]]> 476 Alice Oseman 0062335715 Nicole 3 4.12 2016
author: Alice Oseman
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2020/02/01
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: fiction-read, ya-2020, young-adult, february, january
review:
I see why this is a big hit with readers, particularly those who are into fandom. I’m not really so I wasn’t overexcited about it. I was charmed by Aled and Francis� friendship. I think most people have had that deep non-romantic connection with someone at some point in their lives...where you feel like one person in two bodies. So that aspect of the story was really endearing. Other than that, I thought it was just a slightly above average read.
]]> 352828 In Kingdom's Dawn , Leinad and Tess, along with all the king's people, must escape slavery by the powerful Lord Fairos. Kingdom's Hope finds them free and arriving in the Chessington Valley.
But when they forget the king, will Kergon and the Kessons capture them for good? After many years, Kingdom's Edge finds Cedric living a hopeless life until a stranger appears with powerful words of a new kingdom and a grand army.
Finally, Kingdom's Reign marches you through the danger of earth's last days as the evil dark knight threatens to defeat the prince once and for all.
Swords, knights, and battles define these captivating tales that parallel biblical events from Genesis to Revelation!]]> 160 Chuck Black 1590526791 Nicole 4 3.92 2001
author: Chuck Black
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: fiction-read, march, christian-fiction
review:
A quick and enjoyable tale of young Leinad and his journey of being called by the King. Great Christian material for young adults and adults alike. I’m ordering the next book in the series.
]]> 207611500 A revolutionary new offering from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, renowned psychologist and author of the global bestseller 12 Rules for Life.In We Who Wrestle with God, Dr. Peterson guides us through the ancient, foundational stories of the Western world. In riveting detail, he analyzes the Biblical accounts of rebellion, sacrifice, suffering, and triumph that stabilize, inspire, and unite us culturally and psychologically. Adam and Eve and the eternal fall of mankind; the resentful and ultimately murderous war of Cain and Abel; the cataclysmic flood of Noah; the spectacular collapse of the Tower of Babel; Abraham’s terrible adventure; and the epic of Moses and the Israelites.Ěý What could such stories possibly mean? What force wrote and assembled them over the long centuries? How did they bring our spirits and the world together, and point us in the same direction?ĚýĚýIt is time for us to understand such things, scientifically and spiritually; to become conscious of the structure of our souls and our societies; and to see ourselves and others as if for the first time.ĚýĚýĚýJoin Elijah as he discovers the Voice of God in the dictates of his own conscience and Jonah confronting hell itself in the belly of the whale because he failed to listen and act. Set yourself straight in intent, aim, and purpose as you begin to more deeply understand the structure of your society and your soul. Journey with Dr. Peterson through the greatest stories ever told.ĚýĚýDare to wrestle with God.]]> 576 Jordan B. Peterson 0593542533 Nicole 0 to-read, nonfiction-to-read 3.91 2024
author: Jordan B. Peterson
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read, nonfiction-to-read
review:

]]> 17378527
All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.]]> 439 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424984 Nicole 3 Upped it to 3 stars. Henry was a great addition to the cast. I wish he would have appeared sooner. Still don’t love this book though.

Third read:
Still only 2 stars. The ending was satisfying but the rest of it was still disappointing.


Re-read 2021:
I could only bump this one up to 2 stars after a re-read. I wasn’t as frustrated with it this time around, but it was an unsatisfactory conclusion to the series. Raven King still felt really random with everything jumbled together. Steifvater is a good writer but didn’t seem to know where this series was going.


First read 2017:
What a mess of a book! The Raven Cycle started out quite good with the first book but went downhill from there. Stiefvater was all over the place in this one. I continued to like the characters but the storyline was chaotic and uninteresting. I am really disappointed with this series.]]> 4.26 2016
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: fiction-read, young-adult, ya-2017, january, december, november, read-three-times, virginia, 2-star
review:
Fourth read:
Upped it to 3 stars. Henry was a great addition to the cast. I wish he would have appeared sooner. Still don’t love this book though.

Third read:
Still only 2 stars. The ending was satisfying but the rest of it was still disappointing.


Re-read 2021:
I could only bump this one up to 2 stars after a re-read. I wasn’t as frustrated with it this time around, but it was an unsatisfactory conclusion to the series. Raven King still felt really random with everything jumbled together. Steifvater is a good writer but didn’t seem to know where this series was going.


First read 2017:
What a mess of a book! The Raven Cycle started out quite good with the first book but went downhill from there. Stiefvater was all over the place in this one. I continued to like the characters but the storyline was chaotic and uninteresting. I am really disappointed with this series.
]]> 123160766
If there’s no place like home, that’s more than okay for Mara Makinen. In fact, she prefers it that way. Going back to the place where she made the worst mistake of her life? Not ideal.

So when a family emergency forces Mara to return home to her small lake town in Maine after seven years, she knows there’s only one way she’ll get through it unscathed: Avoid Ambrose King at all costs.

But that might prove difficult considering he lives right across the street.]]> 349 Taylor Torres Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.03
author: Taylor Torres
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 29325285
Then Emilie’s mom enrolls her in public school, and Emilie goes from studying at home in her pj’s to halls full of strangers. To make matters worse, Emilie is paired with starting point guard Chatham York for a major research project on Emily Dickinson. She should be ecstatic when Chatham shows interest, but she has a problem. She hasn’t told anyone about her epilepsy.

Emilie lives in fear her recently adjusted meds will fail and she’ll seize at school. Eventually, the worst happens, and she must decide whether to withdraw to safety or follow a dead poet’s advice and “dwell in possibility.”]]> 304 McCall Hoyle 0310758513 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.86 2017
author: McCall Hoyle
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 35098416 Obviously I’m not what most people would describe as happy. But that has nothing to do with anything. Happiness is not a priority. Survival is.

Alvie Fitz doesn’t fit in, and she doesn’t care. She’s spent years swallowing meds and bad advice from doctors and social workers. Adjust, adapt. Pretend to be normal. It sounds so easy.

If she can make it to her eighteenth birthday without any major mishaps, she’ll be legally emancipated. Free. But if she fails, she’ll become a ward of the state and be sent back to the group home.

All she wants is to be left alone to spend time with her friend, Chance, the one-winged hawk at the zoo where she works. She can bide her time with him until her emancipation. Humans are overrated anyway. Then she meets Stanley, a boy who might be even stranger than she is—a boy who walks with a cane, who turns up every day with a new injury, whose body seems as fragile as glass. Without even meaning to, she finds herself getting close to him. But Alvie remembers what happened to the last person she truly cared about.

Her past stalks her with every step, and it has sharp teeth. But if she can find the strength to face the enemy inside her, maybe she’ll have a chance at happiness after all.]]> 352 A.J. Steiger 0062656473 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.04 2018
author: A.J. Steiger
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 17450338 326 Becca Ann 1481924060 Nicole 0 to-read, dnf
Nice idea but reads as if it was written by a high schooler ]]> 3.58 2013
author: Becca Ann
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read, dnf
review:
DNF 30%

Nice idea but reads as if it was written by a high schooler
]]> 59089883 After a decade of silence, Dee and Ben reunite for a road trip they once promised to take. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Dee Matthews is the cohost of the smash-hit podcast Did I Forget To Tell You?, where she interviews family, friends, and past lovers. Nothing is off limits, except for one man (known on the show only as Name Redacted) who happens to be her high school best friend Ben. During their senior year spring break, Dee and Ben took a road trip to visit Ben's grandma. They buried a time capsule in her backyard, pledging to return in ten years to open it. Then their friendship fell apart in spectacular fashion. They haven't spoken to each other since.

Ben Porter's life since that moment has been unexciting but comfortable, until his grandma reveals a family secret that flips his whole world upside down. Her dying wish is for him to stop doing what is safest and go after what he really wants. He starts by showing up on Dee's doorstep with every intention of fulfilling their long-ago promise. Despite her reservations, Dee can't say no. This trip could be her chance to give her listeners the Name Redacted interview they've been begging for--and finally put her unresolved feelings for Ben to rest.

As the miles fly by, Dee and Ben's friendship reignites. But the closer they get to reaching their destination, the more apparent it becomes that their attraction to each other cannot be ignored. Their last adventure ended in disaster, and they're about to find out if any hope of a future together is in the rear view mirror.]]> 368 Bridget Morrissey 0593201175 Nicole 2 3.52 2022
author: Bridget Morrissey
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: february, fiction-read, january, march, romance
review:
This is only getting a 2 because there was nothing I explicitly hated about it. But this was so very boring that I started to get actually annoyed about it. There is no chemistry and no funny moments. Yet it tried to present itself as a rom com. And the sad thing is that it had every opportunity to be the kind of story I loved. But it failed in every way.
]]> 18285437
So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty... no matter how much she wants him.

As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active� and determined to force her out.
At any cost.

Now time's running short. Sam must decide who she can trust... and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.]]> 416 Joy N. Hensley 0062295195 Nicole 0 dnf, to-read 3.96 2014
author: Joy N. Hensley
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: dnf, to-read
review:
DNF at 48%. Time to give up when you finally accept that the book failed to evoke any of your interest after 200 pages.
]]> 179031684 In this drama-filled romance novel, the senior class's private confessions are scattered on the beach during a school overnight and explosive secrets threaten to tear everyone apart, including best friends ( . . . or maybe more?) Natalia and Ethan.

It’s Senior Sunrise, the epic overnight at the beach that kicks off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan, it’s the first time seeing each other after what happened at junior prom—when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. After ghosting each other all summer, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn’t care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake.

When the senior class carries out their tradition of writing private letters to themselves—what they wish they would do this year if they were braver—Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan. So does everyone in their entire class. But in Natalia’s panicked attempt to retrieve her heartfelt confession, the wind scatters seven of the notes across the beach. Now, Ethan and Natalia are forced to work together to find the lost letters before any secrets are revealed—especially their own.

Seven private confessions. Seven time bombs loose for anyone to find. And one last chance before the sun rises for these two to fall in love.]]> 280 Eva Des Lauriers 1250910544 Nicole 0 currently-reading 3.71 2024
author: Eva Des Lauriers
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.11 2024
author: Alison Espach
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 21945590 “Forgiving you will allow me to forgive myself.�

Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then herself.

But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school.

When it seems Morgan can’t hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside.]]> 288 Marisa Reichardt 0374368864 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.04 2016
author: Marisa Reichardt
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 63047122
Award-winning investigative journalist Liz Collin sets the record straight. She uncovers what really happened on a street in Minneapolis that set off the riots, the demands to defund the police, and the skyrocketing crime across the country. Based on conversations with those who were there—including Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, and other Minneapolis police officers who’ve never spoken out before—Liz exposes how the media and the Left manipulated the facts to dupe and divide America.

In between, she explains how her life was turned upside down. Liz was a familiar face on the news in the Twin Cities. Her husband, Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis police union, was personally blamed for the rioting by Mayor Jacob Frey, the ACLU, and so many others. Liz and Bob were attacked by social media mobs and cancel-culture vultures. Amid all the chaos, she watched so-called civil-rights leaders, politicians, and activists protest on her front lawn.

This book also reveals some of the cover-ups, collusion, and hidden political connections in Minneapolis. It points out those who turned Minnesota nice into Minnesota naïve—and the “leaders� who could have stopped the insanity and given civility a chance. But most of all, it tells the truth about how the media and the Left have been lying to us all...]]> 275 Liz Collin Nicole 0 to-read, non-fiction-read 4.48 2022
author: Liz Collin
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, non-fiction-read
review:

]]> 201794248
August and Valentine, seventeen-year-old best friends, run a business called Summer Love, Inc. They hire themselves out to unhappy parents whose kids are in bad relationships, adopting fake identities and going undercover to break up these relationships by any means necessary.

Valentine, the brains of the operation, believes that they're making the world a better place by steering people away from a relationship precipice so they can someday find true love. But for August, every case is personal--another chance to prove that true love doesn't exist. He blames his sister's manipulative boyfriend for her death, and--unlike Valentine--he doesn't believe in soul mates. No, he thinks the idea of falling head over heels is ridiculous at any age.

But then August meets Ella, who suddenly turns everything he thought he believed about love upside down. The problem is that she's their new case, which means that everything he's told her about himself is a lie--including his name.]]> 368 Adriana Mather Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.09 2024
author: Adriana Mather
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 127305939
Sam Jordan has a plan for his accept his college football scholarship, date his girlfriend Abigail, and―most importantly―hide how much he wants to do something, anything other than The Plan� his parents and coaches have set before him. It doesn't matter if sometimes he finds himself thinking about the new girl he met in the cafeteria, a girl who reminds him of a past that hurts to remember.

When a school-wide personality test reveals Nova and Sam to be each others' top matches―not only that, but a match of 99%, the highest in the school―they begin to remember why they were such close friends, all those years ago. As well as the myriad of reasons this new-yet-familiar, magnetic, sparkling thing between them will never, ever work out.

In the Orbit of You is a story about the enduring and changing nature of friendship, of the strange struggle between who you are and who you want to be, and finding your voice after trauma.]]> 320 Ashley Schumacher 125088604X Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.67 2024
author: Ashley Schumacher
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 195886398 A calculus nerd enlists her surly classmate’s help to win back her ex-boyfriend, but when sparks start to fly, she realizes there’s no algorithm for falling in love.

Marlowe Thompson understands a lot of things. She understands that calculus isn’t overwhelmingly beautiful to everyone, and that it typically kills the mood when you try to talk Python coding over beer pong. She understands people were surprised when golden boy Josh asked her out and she went from weird, math-obsessed Marlowe to half of their school’s couple goals. Unfortunately, Marlowe was surprised when Josh dumped her because he’d prefer a girlfriend who was more romantic. One with emotional depth.

But Marlowe has never failed anything in her life, and she isn’t about to start now. When she’s paired with Ashton Hayes for an English project, his black clothing and moody eyeliner cause a bit of a systems overload, and the dissonant sounds of his rock band make her brain itch. But when she discovers Ash's hidden stash of love songs, Marlowe makes a desperate deal to unleash her inner romantic heroine: if Ash will agree to help her write some love letters, she’ll calculate the perfect data analytics formula to make Ash's band go viral.

As the semester heats up with yearning love notes and late nights spent with a boy who escapes any box her brain tries to put him in, Marlowe starts to question if there’s really a set solution to love. Could a girl who has never met a problem she couldn’t solve have gotten the math so massively wrong?]]> 304 Serena Kaylor 1250908701 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.89 2024
author: Serena Kaylor
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 55643284
After bouncing around in foster homes for most of her childhood, seventeen-year-old Tessa Jacobs doesn’t believe she deserves love—not from her adoptive parents, and certainly not from anyone at school.

But everything changes when she has a chance encounter with Skylar, a senior from a neighboring town who’s a true romantic. Their budding relationship quickly leads to the kind of passion you only see in the movies. As her heart begins to open, Tessa starts to believe she might be deserving of love after all.

When tragedy strikes, Tessa wakes up alone in a hospital room with no memory of how she got there. And then she learns the horrifying news: Skylar is dead. As Tessa searches for answers, Skylar’s spirit reaches out to her from the other side. Desperate to see him one last time, Tessa must race against the clock to uncover the shocking truth of their relationship—a truth that might just lead to the afterlife itself.]]> 304 Marc Klein 031645771X Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.68 2021
author: Marc Klein
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 37095 The Shell Seekers, is now worth a small fortune, it is Penelope who must make the decisions that will determine whether her family can continue to survive as a family, or be split apart.]]> 544 Rosamunde Pilcher 051722285X Nicole 0 4.16 1987
author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, literary-fiction-to-read
review:

]]> 479669 442 Simon Mawer 0349116520 Nicole 0 4.00 2003
author: Simon Mawer
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read, literary-fiction-to-read
review:

]]> 14554 501 Sidney Sheldon 0006479677 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.07 1985
author: Sidney Sheldon
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 53338683
On her first night there, Moira hears distant music. On her second, she discovers the lock on her window is broken. On her third, she and her roommate venture outside...and learn that they're not so isolated after all. There's another, very different, Castle School nearby―this one filled with boys whose parents sent them away, too.

Moira is convinced that the Castle Schools and the doctors who run them are hiding something. But exploring the schools will force Moira to confront her overwhelming grief―and the real reasons her parents sent her away.]]> 400 Alyssa B. Sheinmel 172822098X Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.88 2021
author: Alyssa B. Sheinmel
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 198902268
Golden boy Caplan and bookish Mina have been unlikely soulmates since third grade. Bound by growing up in single-mother households on the same cul-de-sac in Two Docks, Michigan, their friendship exists miraculously outside their high school’s social order. Mina is class valedictorian, expected by her late father’s parents to attend his Ivy alma mater; Caplan is laughing off prom-king predictions and the fear that he’s peaking too soon.

When Cap’s skateboard-toting, detention-dodging best friend confesses his feelings for Mina, she is whisked into a social life she never imagined, bumping shoulders with the likes of Caplan’s queen-bee girlfriend. Caplan is determined that things stay just as they’ve always been, while Mina faces the perils and privileges of opening her heart just in time to say goodbye.

As the sun sets on senior year, everything glows. What will Cap and Mina discover in the last-chance light?]]> 304 Daisy Garrison 1250348676 Nicole 4 3.73 2024
author: Daisy Garrison
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: favorite-all-time, fiction-read, march, michigan, ya-best-of-the-best, young-adult
review:
I finished this in one day. That’s how good this was. I can’t remember the last time I did that. It’s early to say, but this very well could be my favorite book of the year.
]]> 18520658 A gritty but hopeful love story about two struggling teens�
great for fans ofĚýThe Spectacular Now, Willow, and Eleanor and Park

Tyler has a football scholarship to Stanford, a hot girlfriend, and a reliable army of friends to party with. Then his mom kills herself. And Tyler lets it all go. Now he needs to dodge what his dad is offering (verbal tirades and abuse) and earn what his dad isn’t (money). Tyler finds a job that crashes him into Jordyn, his former childhood friend turned angry-loner goth-girl. She brings Tyler an unexpected reprieve from the never-ending pity party his life has become. How could he not fall for her? But with his dad more brutally unpredictable than ever, Tyler knows he can’t risk bringing Jordyn too deeply into the chaos. So when violence rocks his world again, will it be Jordyn who shows him the way to a hopeful future? Or after everything, will Tyler have to find it in himself?]]> 245 Michelle Levy 0698162811 Nicole 4 3.94 2015
author: Michelle Levy
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: 4-star, colorado, fiction-read, march, young-adult, favorite-all-time, ya-best-of-the-best
review:
Fantastic! This is the exactly the type of YA book I search high and low for. Definitely will be among my top favorites for sure. I’m so bummed this is her only book. I look forward to re-reading this again someday. Probably sooner rather than later.
]]> 5167 A New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club Pick-the unique and deeply moving saga of four generations of African-American women whose journey from slavery to freedom begins on a Creole plantation in Louisiana.

Beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother, a slave owned by a Creole family, Lalita Tademy chronicles four generations of strong, determined black women as they battle injustice to unite their family and forge success on their own terms. They are women whose lives begin in slavery, who weather the Civil War, and who grapple with contradictions of emancipation, Jim Crow, and the pre-Civil Rights South. As she peels back layers of racial and cultural attitudes, Tademy paints a remarkable picture of rural Louisiana and the resilient spirit of one unforgettable family.

There is Elisabeth, who bears both a proud legacy and the yoke of bondage... her youngest daughter, Suzette, who is the first to discover the promise-and heartbreak-of freedom... Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene, who uses a determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard-of economic independence... and Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, who fights to secure her children's just due and preserve their dignity and future.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Cane River presents a slice of American history never before seen in such piercing and personal detail.

]]> 522 Lalita Tademy 0446678457 Nicole 0 currently-reading 4.08 2001
author: Lalita Tademy
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Nicole 1 4.23 2022
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: california, february, fiction-read, march
review:
This book has quite the superiority complex. The story wasn’t half bad but I was too put off by the attitude behind the writing. The author’s political ideology is relentlessly shoved down the reader’s throat. It was a real struggle for me from start to finish.
]]> 214269328 Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of... a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart.

Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again� list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.]]> 416 Cara Bastone 0593595734 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.27 2025
author: Cara Bastone
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 18588767 You never know where we'll end up. There's so much possibility in life, you know? Hallie said. Sean Norwhalt can read between the lines. He knows Hallie's just dumped him. He was a perfectly good summer boyfriend, but now she's off to college, and he's still got another year to go. Her pep talk about futures and possibilities isn't exactly comforting. Sean's pretty sure he's seen his future and its possibilities, and they all look DISPOSABLE. Like the crappy rental his family moved into when his dad left. Like all the unwanted filthy old clothes he stuffs into the rag baler at his thrift-store job. Like everything good he's ever known. The only hopeful possibilities in Sean's life are the Marine Corps, where no one expected he'd go, and Neecie Albertson, whom he never expected to care about. Carrie Mesrobian follows her critically acclaimed debut, Sex & Violence, with another powerful and wrenching portrait of a teenage boy on the precipice of the new American future.

-- "Journal"]]> 304 Carrie Mesrobian 1467765988 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.65 2014
author: Carrie Mesrobian
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 15818151 There is an alternate cover edition for this ISBN13 here.

The second book in Lauren Oliver’s remarkable New York Times bestselling trilogy about forbidden love, revolution, and the power to choose.

In this electrifying follow-up to Delirium, Lena is on a dangerous course that takes her through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.]]> 375 Lauren Oliver 0061978078 Nicole 0 currently-reading 4.05 2012
author: Lauren Oliver
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 8609085
Over four decades ago, a diving accident left Joni a quadriplegic. Today, she faces a new battle: unrelenting pain. The ongoing urgency of this season in her life has caused Joni to return to foundational questions about suffering and God’s will.

A Place of Healing is not an ivory-tower treatise on suffering. It’s an intimate look into the life of a mature woman of God. Whether readers are enduring physical pain, financial loss, or relational grief, Joni invites them to process their suffering with her. Together, they will navigate the distance between God’s magnificent yes and heartbreaking no's and find new hope for thriving in-between.]]> 224 Joni Eareckson Tada 1434765326 Nicole 5 4.35 2010
author: Joni Eareckson Tada
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/29
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: non-fiction-read, christian-nonfiction-healing, made-me-cry, christian-memoir, christian-nonfiction, january, december, author-read-2-books-or-more
review:

]]> 45045129 Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming � mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

All’s fair in love and cheese � that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life � on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate � people on the internet are shipping them?? � their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.]]> 368 Emma Lord 1250237327 Nicole 3
But then the Twitter War and the story itself went on and on. And I began to lose interest. Everything was so drawn out and there were too many conflicts going on. I really lost patience towards the end.

I still give it three stars because it really had a lot going for it. I just hope the author learns to write a tighter story and recognizes when it’s time to wrap it up. ]]> 3.87 2020
author: Emma Lord
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: fiction-read, new-york-city, november, october, ya-2023, young-adult, author-read-2-books-or-more
review:
This could and should have been 4 stars. The leads were refreshingly likable and interesting. I thought the idea of a Twitter war between them was pretty cute. The author had me until about halfway through the book.

But then the Twitter War and the story itself went on and on. And I began to lose interest. Everything was so drawn out and there were too many conflicts going on. I really lost patience towards the end.

I still give it three stars because it really had a lot going for it. I just hope the author learns to write a tighter story and recognizes when it’s time to wrap it up.
]]> 63907972 320 Mia Sheridan 172828502X Nicole 4
I’ve read dozens of romances to find one like this. The last time I was this wrapped up in one was Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren and that was in 2018!

It checked all my boxes. Friends to lovers. Excellent dialogue. Deep characters. All the emotions of the heart. And a knock-you-off-your-feet kind of love.

Additional note: this is New Adult Romance so it does contain graphic content. ]]> 4.13 2015
author: Mia Sheridan
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: favorite-adult-contemporary, favorite-all-time, february, fiction-read, kentucky, romance, author-read-2-books-or-more
review:
Already on my all-time favorite list!

I’ve read dozens of romances to find one like this. The last time I was this wrapped up in one was Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren and that was in 2018!

It checked all my boxes. Friends to lovers. Excellent dialogue. Deep characters. All the emotions of the heart. And a knock-you-off-your-feet kind of love.

Additional note: this is New Adult Romance so it does contain graphic content.
]]> 23492533
Yet from the very first page, Emiline is entranced by the story of Emerson and Jackson, two childhood best friends who fall in love and dream of a better life beyond the long dirt road that winds through their impoverished town in rural Ohio.

That’s because the novel is patterned on Emiline’s own dark and desperate childhood, which means that “J. Colby� must be Jase: the best friend and first love she hasn’t seen in over a decade. Far from being flattered that he wrote the novel from her perspective, Emiline is furious that he co-opted her painful past and took some dramatic creative liberties with the ending.

The only way she can put her mind at ease is to find and confront “J. Colby,� but is she prepared to learn the truth behind the fiction?]]> 303 Renee Carlino 1501105795 Nicole 4
This COULD have been great. It had me thinking a lot of two of my favorite books: Eleanor and Park and Love and Other Words. In fact, it was eerily similar to the latter. So much so, that I had to check the published date of each to see who may have copied who. Surprising this one was published before.

But why wasn’t it great? It had every reason to be. This plot was so amazing. At least the part of when Em and Jase were young. But then, they became adults and seemed like totally different people, especially Jase. And then the plot became stale. And the magic never really returned.

As I said, I still gave it a 4 simply because it’s my favorite kind of story. And I would definitely recommend it. But it didn’t turn out to be a new and exciting favorite that I was hoping for. ]]> 4.09 2016
author: Renee Carlino
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/27
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: ohio, april, favorite-adult-contemporary, fiction-read, romance, author-read-2-books-or-more
review:
This was good AND is probably my absolute favorite trope: childhood friendship turned true love. So I had to give it four stars but�

This COULD have been great. It had me thinking a lot of two of my favorite books: Eleanor and Park and Love and Other Words. In fact, it was eerily similar to the latter. So much so, that I had to check the published date of each to see who may have copied who. Surprising this one was published before.

But why wasn’t it great? It had every reason to be. This plot was so amazing. At least the part of when Em and Jase were young. But then, they became adults and seemed like totally different people, especially Jase. And then the plot became stale. And the magic never really returned.

As I said, I still gave it a 4 simply because it’s my favorite kind of story. And I would definitely recommend it. But it didn’t turn out to be a new and exciting favorite that I was hoping for.
]]> 17332564
Three years later there's a new love in Reena's life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena's gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she's finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as suddenly as he disappeared Sawyer returns. Reena doesn't want anything to do with him, though she'd be lying if she said his being back wasn't stirring something in her. After everything that's happened, can Reena let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?]]> 389 Katie Cotugno 006221635X Nicole 4 Reena and Sawyer are a great combo and I loved reading their story. Theirs is a relationship full of ups and downs with plenty of drama, secrets, and tragedy that made this book a real page turner. This is the type of ya book I love and I am really glad I found it! A new favorite. ]]> 3.68 2013
author: Katie Cotugno
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/05
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: fiction-read, ya-2021, young-adult, august, september, honorable-mentions-ya, ya-very-good, author-read-2-books-or-more
review:
Finally one that got me out of a ya book slump! Thank you, Katie Cotugno.
Reena and Sawyer are a great combo and I loved reading their story. Theirs is a relationship full of ups and downs with plenty of drama, secrets, and tragedy that made this book a real page turner. This is the type of ya book I love and I am really glad I found it! A new favorite.
]]> 49613896 A troubled codebreaker faces an epic plot reaching back through centuries of America's secret history

Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world's top security agencies ever since making a breakthrough discovery in her field of quantum computing. She's also an agoraphobe, shackled to a narrow routine by her fear of public places. When her mother's disappearance is linked to a plot to assassinate the country's first viable female presidential candidate, Salem finds herself both target and detective in a modern-day witch hunt. Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and centuries-old codes tucked inside the Beale Cipher, Salem begins to uncover the truth: an ancient and ruthless group is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of women stands in its way.]]> 418 Jess Lourey 1948584921 Nicole 3 3.17
author: Jess Lourey
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.17
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: 4-star, fiction-read, minnesota, february, thriller
review:
I read this for book club. Definitely not something I would ever pick up. I rarely read thrillers. But I quite liked it. It was a satisfying story with short, quick chapters. It kept me engaged and had likeable characters. I will pick up the sequel soon.
]]> 223509626 “He will kill you, Glory…�

That’s what the voice inside 22-year-old student Glory Dawson’s head told her. But she had to get out of Tennessee. She had to. This last act of domestic violence at the hands of her boyfriend was the last straw. But where could she go, where Nick wouldn’t find her?

Following a tip from her eerily helpful college advisor, the witty and compassionate undergrad finds unexpected sanctuary in the Florida Keys—and an inexplicable pull towards one of the most incredible scuba diving resorts in the world.

But not everyone welcomes her arrival - especially Ellis, a haunted and ruggedly handsome diving instructor whose bitter grief keeps everyone at arm's length. As Glory struggles to rebuild her life among the resort's healing waters and lush gardens, she discovers that her path to paradise might have been guided by more than chance.

Just as Glory and Ellis begin to lower their guards and recognize in each other a chance for emotional healing and a revived passion that neither of them thought was possible, Glory’s violent past rears its ugly head and threatens to catch up with her again. Now, Glory must fight for her newfound happiness with the help of her new supportive family at Dave's Outdoor Water Sports resort� and prevent her old life from taking control again.

Glory’s Key is the first volume of the immersive tropical Florida Keys Romance series, which offers readers breathtaking plot twists, surprising paranormal undertones, and an enticing slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance story that you won’t be able to put down!

In a beautiful place where divine intervention meets earthly love, sometimes the greatest act of courage is allowing yourself to be saved�

“Enemies to lovers romance built through trauma. Be prepared this book ends in a major cliff hanger and book 2 is not out yet! â€� Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Review

“Page Turner!!! Haven't read anything this good since Nicholas Sparks! Can't wait to read more!� � Amazon Review

Page Up and Order Now.]]> 257 Christopher Kent Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.31
author: Christopher Kent
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 216615585 Carian Cole brings you a unique angsty love story that will grab you from the first page and keep you in a chokehold.

They say you never forget your first love, and that’s true. But some loves wrap themselves around your heart and never let go. They’re not just your first love but your forever love.

That’s what Blue is to me. My first, only, and forever love.

I'll never forget the day I first saw him. He was playing the guitar in a park with his adorable dog at his side. His smile made my heart race, and his eyes stilled my soul. I was completely captivated by his alluring melancholy. We fell hard and fast, and I dreamed of a forever with him.

Then he disappeared without a trace.

Five years later, I found him. Famous. Charming. Still just as in love with me as I was with him.

But behind the fame and the sexy smile, the quiet, tortured soul I met in the park years ago still lived. I was naive. I didn’t realize that Blue, my love, was fighting a battle no one could see.

Not even me.

He called me the keeper of his heart, and I guarded it fiercely. He promised me all his tomorrows, and I cherished every single one.

I never wanted or needed a perfect love. I only wanted his love. Our love.

This is our story. It’s raw and sexy and beautiful and sad and filled with endless ups and downs.

They say love conquers all, and I hope—I believe—that’s true.



* Authors Note: No Tomorrow will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions but has a guaranteed happily ever after.]]> 627 Carian Cole Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.06 2018
author: Carian Cole
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 4570768
Now seventeen, Willow is living with her older brother, who can barely speak to her. She has left behind her old home, friends, and school. But Willow has found a way to survive, to numb the new reality of her life: She is secretly cutting herself.

And then she meets Guy, a boy as sensitive and complicated as she is. When Guy discovers Willow's secret, he pulls her out of the solitary world she's created for herself, and into a difficult, intense, and potentially life-changing relationship.

Julia Hoban has created an unflinching story about cutting, grieving, and starting anew. But above all, she has written an unforgettable tale of first love.]]> 329 Julia Hoban 0803733569 Nicole 0 to-read, young-adult-to-read 3.91 2009
author: Julia Hoban
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, young-adult-to-read
review:

]]> 216376960
. Despite the perks of having a dragon, Princess Samantha laments not having a true love, so she sets off alone on a magical quest to find her Prince Charming. Of course, there is an assortment of giants, ogres, dark knights, enchantresses, and the usual hullabaloo in her way. I did mention this is a fairytale, didn’t I?

. Fully aware of the perils of such a journey, a dishonored knight and the aforementioned not-to-be-crossed dragon set off to protect the spirited princess. Prepare to laugh, cry, and� I don't know� cough through the best romance / adventure / comedy / fairytale for whatever side of happily-ever-after you are on right now.]]> 360 Lee Watts Th.D. Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.83
author: Lee Watts Th.D.
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 40748777 Can you keep a secret?

�I grew up sick.��

Let me clarify.��I grew up believing that real love stories include a martyr or demand great sacrifice to be worthy.�� Because of that, I believed it, because I made myself believe it, and I bred the most masochistic of romantic hearts, which resulted in my illness.��

When I lived this story, my own twisted fairy tale, it was unbeknownst to me at the time because I was young and naïve. I gave into temptation and fed the beating beast, which grew thirstier with every slash, every strike, every blow.�� Triple Falls wasn’t at all what it seemed, nor were the men that swept me under their wing. But in order to keep them, I had to be in on their secrets.�� Secrets that cost us everything to keep.

��That’s the novelty of fiction versus reality. You can’t re-live your own love story, because by the time you’ve realized you’re living it, it’s over. At least that was the case for me and the men I trusted my foolish heart to.�� Looking back, I’m convinced I willed my story into existence due to my illness.�� And all were punished.]]> 354 Kate Stewart Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read, dnf DNF on page 7. Gross. 4.05 2020
author: Kate Stewart
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read, dnf
review:
DNF on page 7. Gross.
]]> 205514910
Nick and Fiona were meant to be friends―best friends―and they wouldn’t change that for the world. At least, that’s what they tell themselves. Because they can’t be an us. Nick doesn’t believe in happy endings ever since they both lost their moms unexpectedly senior year. And Fiona often wonders if all they have in common is their numb hearts. Still, they’re content to share everything else with each other. Honestly. Everything but sparks. But when Fiona accidentally lets her guard down more than she intended to with Nick, it threatens to ruin their fragile balancing act. Luckily, Nick isn’t about to let a little misunderstanding get in the way of the weekend trip they’ve been planning for months. Fiona is just hoping for some closure on the first anniversary of her mom’s death―except grief isn’t that simple, and choosing to love again isn’t, either. Now the only thing standing between Fiona and Nick is the truth. They just need the courage to reach for it.]]> 304 Jennifer E. Archer Nicole 0 to-read, young-adult-to-read 4.81
author: Jennifer E. Archer
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.81
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, young-adult-to-read
review:

]]> 36344014
Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow―especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.

With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.� But that might be the biggest lie of all.

Debut author Tiffany Pitcock delivers a spot-on depiction of first love and the high school rumor mill in Just Friends, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads.]]> 321 Tiffany Pitcock 1250084024 Nicole 0 to-read, young-adult-to-read 3.64 2017
author: Tiffany Pitcock
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, young-adult-to-read
review:

]]> 52940514 A timely and hilarious millennial women’s fiction novel about two friends who decide to give up their search for a perfect man and devote their lives to each other—but their careful plan soon begins to unravel with unexpected consequences.Ěý


For many women, finding the man of their dreams can be something of a nightmare. Luckily, they can often rely on their friends for the support they so desperately need. Friends for over a decade, Amanda and Sophie decide to flip the script. Why can’t they spend their lives with each other and just keep men on the side for fun, sex, and occasionally fixing things around the house?

Amanda is a lawyer who excels in her professional life but crumbles at the slightest sign of a common cold. Sophie is an aspiring artist who has lived all over the world and doesn’t crumble, period. Together since freshman year of college, they’ve been through it all. But when their romantic lives explode at the same time, they decide that enough is enough.ĚýEnoughĚýpretending that traditional relationships work for everyone.ĚýEnoughĚýfantasizing about an old-fashioned ideal.Ěý

They enter into a mutual arrangement: They will rely on each other and give men the secondary role that they deserve. And much to their surprise, it actually works. Amanda and Sophie fix up a dilapidated brownstone and create the home they’ve always wanted. Soon, they have love and emotional support as well as a wide variety of male “crushes� on the side. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, Amanda and Sophie must reconsider the life they’ve begun to build and how far they’re willing to go to keep it.]]> 336 Leslie Cohen 0062966782 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.00 2021
author: Leslie Cohen
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 44432616 For some, first love is a fleeting spark heralding the greater loves to come. For others, first love is the greatest love. The only love.

When a music audition at the world-renowned LaGuardia Arts high school brings together two thirteen-year-olds, unassuming Aurelia Ramirez Preston and confident Chadwick David, the serendipitous encounter becomes an unbreakable friendship.

A friendship develops into an unyielding love.
A love spanning decades and continents.

With New York City as their playground, best friends Chad and Aurelia navigate the turbulence of adolescence. They blossom, and so does their love. An awkward first date turns into a night of intoxicating kisses and together, they lose their innocence.

Years later, Chad is “Maestro,� the tattooed virtuoso, the James Dean of classical music.

And Aurelia is an accomplished cellist. His muse. The enduring love behind his greatness.

But when the maestro falters, even for a moment, the most beautiful symphony can spiral into unrelenting chaos. And the greatest of loves can become the most tragic heartbreak.

Maestro is a symphony of words, four movements filled with longing, secrets, betrayal, and the grace of forgiveness.]]> 604 Auden Dar Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.27
author: Auden Dar
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 44024465
Was it when we were little kids, practically brought up together, after Reeve’s mom died during childbirth and his dad subsequently fell apart? Or when I doodled his name in my school journal at age ten? Maybe it was when we became boyfriend and girlfriend at fourteen or when we shed our virginity at sixteen, pledging our forever?

I was there as his star ascended—like I’d always known it would—and there wasn’t a prouder person on the planet. As the only child of Hollywood’s golden couple, I’ve lived my life in the spotlight enough to know it wasn’t what I wanted for my future. But I sacrificed my own desires, because Reeve’s happiness meant everything to me.

Until he crushed my heart into itty-bitty pieces, forcing me to fly halfway around the world just to escape the gut-wrenching pain.

The opportunity to study at Trinity College Dublin came at the perfect moment, and I jumped at the chance without hesitation. If I’d known fate was meddling in my life, perhaps I would have chosen differently, but my future was cemented the instant I laid eyes on him.

Dillon O’Donoghue was Reeve’s polar opposite in every way, and perhaps, that’s why I felt drawn to him. He was the dark to my light. The thorn in my side, irritating me with his cold disdain, wild recklessness, and a burning rage hidden deep inside him that spoke to a silent part within me. Yet Dillon showed me what it was like to truly live, opening my eyes to endless possibilities.

What happened next was inevitable, and I only have myself to blame. He warned me, and I knew my reprieve was temporary, because there is only so far I can run.

Especially when fate hasn’t finished messing with me yet.

This is a full-length 168K-word second-chance romance novel that is book one of two. It cannot be read as a stand-alone, and it ends on a cliff-hanger. Recommended to readers aged eighteen and older.]]> 580 Siobhan Davis Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.15 2021
author: Siobhan Davis
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 198189780 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Today Show Pick

Unforgettable and utterly romantic, The Days I Loved You Most is an emotional, life-affirming novel that asks, What if you could write the final chapter of your own love story?

In the summer of 1941, on the New England shores where they were raised, Evelyn and Joseph fell in love. Now, more than sixty years later, with a lifetime between them, they have gathered their three grown children to share the staggering news: she has received a heartbreaking diagnosis, and he can't live without her. So in one year's time they will end their love story on their own terms.

Over the next year, the couple retraces their past—all the joys and regrets that brought them to this moment. They embark on a journey to live out their greatest dreams and to connect with each of their children. But as their final days draw closer, they must confront the stark reality of what's to come, and make peace with the legacy they will leave behind for their family.

Spanning the twentieth century from World War II to 9/11 and beyond, The Days I Loved You Most is a timeless tale of unwavering devotion -- a moving tribute to the enduring power of love and a reminder that even in the darkest moments, there is always hope and beauty to be found.]]> 336 Amy Neff Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 3.96 2024
author: Amy Neff
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 220239075 New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean’s first foray into contemporary fiction, with a sharp, sexy novel about a wealthy New England family's long-overdue reckoning with hidden desires, destructive secrets…and one week that threatens to tear them apart

Alice isn't like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents' approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.

Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge--an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, receive the inheritance.

One week on Storm Island is an impossible task for Alice. Every corner of the sprawling old house is bursting dysfunctional chaos: Her older sister’s secret love affair. Her brother’s incessant mansplaining. Her sister-in-law’s unapologetic greed. Her younger sister’s obsession with "vibes". Her mother’s penchant for stirring up competition between her children. And all under the stern, watchful gaze of Jack Dean, her father’s enigmatic, unfairly good-looking, second-in-command. It will be a miracle if Alice manages to escape the week unscathed.

A story about the transformative power of grief, love, and family, this luscious novel is at once deliciously clever and surprisingly tender, exploring past secrets, present truths, and futures forged in the wake of wild summer storms.]]> 400 Sarah MacLean 0593972252 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.34 2025
author: Sarah MacLean
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 221473209 The first book in Maggie Stiefvater'sĚý#1 NYT bestselling series The Raven Cycle, now gorgeously illustrated as a graphic novel!

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics. Only, she has never had the same clairvoyant abilities they had and has always felt too ordinary within the magic that surrounded her. Enter Gansey, a rich student from Aglionby, the town’s all-boys private school teeming with wealth, privilege, and trouble. Blue's always made it a point to stay away from its students, the Raven Boys.

But when Gansey asks her to join him and three other Raven Boys on his quest to find a long-forgotten Welsh king rumored to be sleeping beneath the mountains of their quiet Virginia town, Blue doesn’t hesitate. She jumps at the chance to finally be a part of something real and full of magic, a world she was born into yet one that always stood just out of reach. Soon enough, she’s swept into a strange and shifting world woven into theirs, one far more dangerous than anything they could have dreamt up.

Now reimagined as a stunning full-color graphic novel adapted by Stephanie Williams and illustrated by Sas Milledge, The Raven Boys unravels a thrilling plot around a cast of characters impossible to forget.]]> 256 Stephanie Williams 0593621182 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.41 2025
author: Stephanie Williams
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 20759393 #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces The Arcana Chronicles, post-apocalyptic tales filled with riveting action, the dark mysticism of Tarot cards, and breathtaking romance.

She could save the world--or destroy it.
Sixteen year old Evangeline"Evie" Greene leads a charmed life--until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, killing everyone she loves, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future--and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can't do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can't totally trust Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it's not always clear who is on which side...

In Poison Princess, New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces a dark and intriguing world, full of unspeakable danger and irresistible romance.]]> 369 Kresley Cole 1481426664 Nicole 0 to-read, fun-to-read 4.07 2012
author: Kresley Cole
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read, fun-to-read
review:

]]> 954301 Lettie B. Cowman 031023011X Nicole 0 4.37 1904
author: Lettie B. Cowman
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1904
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: christian-nonfiction-to-read, currently-reading
review:

]]> 215359230 250 Jason D. Hill 1592115101 Nicole 0 0.0
author: Jason D. Hill
name: Nicole
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read, christian-nonfiction-to-read
review:

]]> 3206011 187 Francis Chan 1434768511 Nicole 4 4.16
author: Francis Chan
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2012/08/08
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: non-fiction-read, christian-nf-spiritual-growth, christian-nonfiction, july, august, author-read-2-books-or-more
review:

]]> 204982725 “This may just be the single most important book on modern Evangelicalism in recent years. It is bold, clear, and very well-researched.”—John MacArthur

How deeply have leftist billionaires infiltrated America’s churches?

Liberal theology isn’t new. Pastors and theologians have drifted, slipped, or even plunged into doctrinal error for centuries. But in recent decades, Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham reveals, well-funded forces from outside the church have been sowing seeds of discord from behind the scenes.

In Shepherds for Sale, Basham documents how progressive powerbrokers —from George Soros, to the founder of eBay, to former members of the Obama administrationâ€� set out to change the American church. Secular foundations and think tanks have deliberately targeted Christian media, universities, megachurches, nonprofits, and even entire denominations, not to mention many high-profile pastors and influencers, with infiltration and astroturf campaigns. Their to co-opt the church for political purposes. In exchange for toeing a left-wing line, many of those church leaders and institutions have received cash, career jumps, prestige, and praise.Ěý

Now, many evangelical leaders are pushing their members to “whisper� about sexual sins, reconsider the importance of abortion, lament the effects of climate change, and repent of “perpetuating systemic racism.� Meanwhile, America’s largest evangelical denominations are fraught with division over issues like critical race theory, and many ministries once known for publishing sound doctrine are now promoting social justice.

Through years of investigation, Basham uncovered compromise at the highest levels of evangelical leadership —from the revered Presbyterian theologian who furtively backed a rogue congregation rebelling against his own denomination, to the celebrity megachurch pastor who secretly encouraged a group of pastors to change their views on sexuality.

A rigorously reportedĚýexposĂ©, Shepherds for SaleĚýserves as a warning of what can happen when a church forgetsĚýthat true power lies not in the world’s wisdom, but in Scripture.Ěý]]> 352 Megan Basham Nicole 0 4.35
author: Megan Basham
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read, christian-nonfiction-to-read
review:

]]> 478388 In Willing to Believe, Sproul traces the free-will controversy from its formal beginning in the fifth century, with the writings of Augustine and Pelagius, to the present. Readers will gain understanding into the nuances separating the views of Protestants and Catholics, Calvinists and Arminians, and Reformed and Dispensationalists. This book, like Sproul's Faith Alone, is a major work on an essential evangelical tenet.]]> 224 R.C. Sproul 0801064120 Nicole 0 currently-reading 4.25 1997
author: R.C. Sproul
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 11614718 There is an alternate cover edition for this ISBN13 here.

In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistake.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the "Wilds" who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?]]> 441 Lauren Oliver 0061726834 Nicole 3 3.94 2011
author: Lauren Oliver
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: february, fiction-read, january, young-adult, maine
review:
Better than most dystopian ya books I’ve read. But nothing extraordinary. Good enough to continue the series at least.
]]> 17934779 Ěý
Evangelical poster child Addie Zierman wore three bracelets asking what Jesus would do. She also led two Bible studies and listened exclusively to Christian music. She was on fire for God and unaware that the flame was dwindling—until it burned out.
Ěý
Addie chronicles her journey through church culture and first love, and her entrance—unprepared and angry—into marriage. When she drops out of church and very nearly her marriage as well, it is on a sea of tequila and depression. She isn’t sure if she’ll ever go back.
Ěý
When We Were on FireĚýis a funny, heartbreaking story of untangling oneself from what is expected to arrive at faith that is not bound by tradition or current church fashion. Addie looks for what lasts when nothing else seems worth keeping. It’s a story for doubters, cynics, and anyone who has felt alone in church.]]> 256 Addie Zierman 1601425457 Nicole 3
Addie and I seemed to grow up around the same time (90’s), in the same area (the Midwest) and in the same circles (evangelicalism). Needless to say there is a lot of common ground. I went to several Acquire the Fires and knew people in college who attended Teen Mania. I recognized all the Christian bands and the “Christianese� she refers to often in the book. I participated in “See You At the Pole� in high school and went to weekly youth group.

But where our journeys differed is that, while I see a lot of the flaws that she points out, it didn’t push me to look on evangelicalism with a suspicious eye. I’m grateful for the Christian upbringing I had, as imperfect as it sometimes was. I also recognize that Addie comes full circle by the end and is still holding on to the faith that she had as a young person. And I commend her for sharing her story.]]> 3.98 2013
author: Addie Zierman
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: non-fiction-read, december, january, november, october, september
review:
I found this memoir to be cynical, relatable, thought-provoking, and frustrating. That’s why I had to go right down the middle with my stars.

Addie and I seemed to grow up around the same time (90’s), in the same area (the Midwest) and in the same circles (evangelicalism). Needless to say there is a lot of common ground. I went to several Acquire the Fires and knew people in college who attended Teen Mania. I recognized all the Christian bands and the “Christianese� she refers to often in the book. I participated in “See You At the Pole� in high school and went to weekly youth group.

But where our journeys differed is that, while I see a lot of the flaws that she points out, it didn’t push me to look on evangelicalism with a suspicious eye. I’m grateful for the Christian upbringing I had, as imperfect as it sometimes was. I also recognize that Addie comes full circle by the end and is still holding on to the faith that she had as a young person. And I commend her for sharing her story.
]]> 32854499
Then Gabriel Dalton walks into her life. Despite the terrible darkness of his past, there's an undeniable goodness in him. And even though she knows the cost, Crystal finds herself drawn to Gabriel. His quiet strength is wearing down her defenses and his gentle patience is causing her to question everything she thought she knew.

Crystal and Gabriel never imagined that the world, which had stolen everything from them, would bring them a deep love like this. Except fate will only take them so far, and now the choice is Harden their hearts once again or find the courage to shed their painful pasts.]]> 352 Mia Sheridan 1538727323 Nicole 3 3.90 2017
author: Mia Sheridan
name: Nicole
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: vermont, december, february, fiction-read, january, romance
review:
After reading Kyland last year I was excited to read more by Mia Sheridan. Unfortunately, this wasn’t near as good. It was just ok. I liked the characters, especially Gabriel. But the writing and the story didn’t have the same magic. I will keep reading her stuff though because Kyland was that good.
]]> 56468652 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here

Can there be any greater challenge to London's Ambitious Mamas than an unmarried duke?—Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1813

By all accounts, Simon Basset is on the verge of proposing to his best friend's sister—the lovely and almost-on-the-shelf—Daphne Bridgerton. But the two of them know the truth—it's all an elaborate ruse to keep Simon free from marriage-minded society mothers. And as for Daphne, surely she will attract some worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable.

But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, it's hard to remember that their courtship is a sham. Maybe it's his devilish smile, certainly it's the way his eyes seem to burn every time he looks at her . . . but somehow Daphne is falling for the dashing duke . . . for real! And now she must do the impossible and convince the handsome rogue that their clever little scheme deserves a slight alteration, and that nothing makes quite as much sense as falling in love.]]> 433 Julia Quinn Nicole 4 4.00 2000
author: Julia Quinn
name: Nicole
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: february, fiction-read, january, london, romance
review:
Closer to a 3.5. Enjoyable regency romance. My first one, in fact. I’m glad I tried this genre and will read more Julia Quinn in the future. Now the question is: should I watch the show?
]]>