Gwen's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 09:35:48 -0700 60 Gwen's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Circle of Days 219856609 A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family live in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community.

A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE
Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.

A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION
Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders � and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare�

Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.]]> 704 Ken Follett 1538772779 Gwen 0 currently-reading 4.60 Circle of Days
author: Ken Follett
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Circle of Strangers (Dangerous Strangers Thrillers Book 2)]]> 215344729 The lengths neighbors will go to protect their secrets become downright frightening in a gripping novel of suspense by Minka Kent, the Edgar-nominated author of Unmissing.

Camille and Will Prescott have relocated from San Diego to Phoenix for a fresh start in a quiet gated community. After the traumas Camille’s marriage survived, it’s just the sanctuary she needs. As for her new neighbors, there’s Sozi, seemingly well intentioned if not for her invasive meddling and her desperate overtures to make a friend. And Mara and Oscar, an unstable couple around whom troubling rumors swirl.

Patiently listening to Sozi’s gossip and watching Mara and Oscar ever so closely has become something of a hobby for Camille. But while she obsesses about the cracks in everyone else’s lives, she begins to see the cracks in her own. And when a monster from her past reaches out to reconnect, it’s all Camille can do not to snap. Then one day she finds a dead body in her garage lying in a pool of blood.

Camille is about to discover what’s really going on behind the closed doors of this cozy cul-de-sac. And the worst is yet to come.]]> 0 Minka Kent 1662527020 Gwen 5
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.33 Circle of Strangers (Dangerous Strangers Thrillers Book 2)
author: Minka Kent
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:
I’m going to give this book 5 stars just because it was really fun, quick psych thriller to read! I’d definitely recommend reading the prequel first, and I cannot wait to read book 3 in this series whenever it comes out! 9/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> The Wasp Trap 213713209 “So clever and fresh with a wild and incredibly satisfying twist at the end.� —Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A dinner party in a beautiful Notting Hill townhouse turns into a sinister game, as six old friends are forced to spill their darkest secrets…or else.

Six friends reunite in London to celebrate the life of their recently deceased ex-employer, a professor that brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing.

But what is meant to be a night of bittersweet nostalgia soon becomes a twisted and deadly game when the old friends find themselves held at gunpoint. They are given an ultimatum: reveal their darkest secrets to the group or pick each other off one-by-one.

It soon becomes clear that their current predicament is related to their shared past. The love questionnaire they helped develop in 1999 for the dating site was also turned into a tool for weeding out The Wasp Trap. This and the other tragic events of that summer long ago may help reveal the truth behind a killer hiding in plain sight.

Alternating between the past and present with a colorful ensemble of characters, The Wasp Trap is a fast-paced and twisty thrill ride that is perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Alice Feeney.]]> 0 Mark Edwards 1405971495 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.43 2025 The Wasp Trap
author: Mark Edwards
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:
This was a fun to read psych thriller with lots of twists! 7.5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Heartwood 220259184 Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.

Heartwood is a “gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending,� (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.]]> 320 Amity Gaige 1668063603 Gwen 0 to-read 4.07 2025 Heartwood
author: Amity Gaige
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Sublet 224277538 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Greer Hendricks comes a chilling story about the hidden cost of perfection.

Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells.

Melody paints a picture of serenity and empowerment in the lavender haze of her visualization workshops—however, the one thing she can’t manifest are the pages her publisher is demanding for her new motivational book. Enter Anne.

As Melody invites Anne deeper into her magical world, Anne finds herself working impossibly long days and traveling far beyond her comfort zone.

When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne can’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.]]> 61 Greer Hendricks 1662528515 Gwen 3
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.23 2025 The Sublet
author: Greer Hendricks
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves:
review:
Suspenseful, but something was missing from the story to make it compelling. 5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> More or Less Maddy 214208381 A breathless, riveting novel about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally “normal� life for a career in stand-up comedy.

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it’s normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that she’s always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy’s latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

With her signature “deep empathy and insight� (Booklist), Harvard-trained neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova has crafted another profoundly moving novel that makes complicated mental health issues accessible and human. More or Less Maddy is destined to become another classic like Still Alice.]]> 367 Lisa Genova Gwen 4 4.32 2025 More or Less Maddy
author: Lisa Genova
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves:
review:
I am so glad to see over 11K people have already read this book that seemed to me like an accurate account of a young adult struggling with bipolar disorder. Read in one travel day, kept my attention and made the day “fly� by! 8/10.
]]> <![CDATA[To Sicily with Love (Meet Me in Italy, #4)]]> 213618285 When she learns she has a big Italian family she never knew about, a lonely woman travels to Sicily for a life-changing summer in the new romance from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Probst

Aurora York had it all loving parents, a steady relationship, and a promising career. But after she loses both parents unexpectedly, she can’t seem to stay on track any longer. Lonely and lost after a public meltdown that threatens her professional credibility, she’s shocked when DNA test results show a blood relative in Sicily. When her cousin reaches out online and begs her to come to Italy to meet everyone in person, Aurora makes the leap.

Aurora arrives in Sicily for a month, and there she meets a colorful, dynamic family steeped in tradition. The younger generation is fascinated by her social media fame in America, and even though her grandparents have more traditional viewpoints, Aurora begins to heal from her grief…and enjoys the attention of a kind and handsome Italian man.

But when the summer ends, a new opportunity calls her back to the States and her old habits threaten to reemerge. Will Aurora leave everything in Sicily she loves behind, or take the chance on a whole new future?]]> 384 Jennifer Probst 0593546067 Gwen 3 4.02 2025 To Sicily with Love (Meet Me in Italy, #4)
author: Jennifer Probst
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
Enjoyable vacation read! 6/10.
]]> Unmissing 57360704
Merritt Coletto and her husband, Luca, have the life they dreamed of: a coastal home, a promising future, and a growing family. That dream ends with a late-night knock on the door.

Weak, broken, and emaciated, it’s Luca’s first wife, Lydia. Missing for ten years, presumed dead, and very much alive, she has quite a story. Her kidnapping. A torturous confinement that should’ve ended with her dead. And finally, escape. Racked with guilt over the beautiful life they’ve built, Merritt and Luca agree to help get Lydia back on her feet—it’s the least they can do.

But the more enmeshed Lydia becomes in Merritt’s family, the more questions Merritt has. What is it about Lydia that’s especially unnerving? Why hasn’t she gone to the police with her harrowing tale? What does she really want of them? The answers, when they come, are terrifying.

Because Lydia isn’t the only one with secrets.]]> 252 Minka Kent Gwen 0 to-read 3.99 2022 Unmissing
author: Minka Kent
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What Happened to the McCrays? 195391623 From New York Times bestselling author Tracey Lange, a poignant story about the resilience of family, the importance of community, and the magic of middle school hockey

When Kyle McCray gets word his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York, where he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. Kyle left suddenly two and a half years ago, abandoning people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends—not to mention Casey, his wife of sixteen years and a beloved teacher in town. He plans to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave again, especially after Casey makes it clear she wants him gone.

The longer he’s home, the more Kyle understands the impact his departure has had on the people he left behind. When he’s presented with an opportunity for redemption as the coach of the floundering middle school hockey team, he begins to find compassion in unexpected places. Kyle even considers staying in Potsdam, but that’s only possible if he and Casey can come to some kind of peace with each other.

Full of love and hope, What Happened to the McCrays? takes an intimate look at both sides of a failed marriage and two people who must finally confront the awful pain of their past or risk being consumed by it.]]> 352 Tracey Lange 1250328438 Gwen 0 currently-reading 4.10 2025 What Happened to the McCrays?
author: Tracey Lange
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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

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

For the last two decades, Beckett has done her best to keep her distance. Then her daughter, Delilah, secretly applies to Wyatt College and earns a full scholarship, and Beckett can only hope that her lingering fears are unfounded. But deep down she knows that Wyatt Valley has a long memory, and that the past isn’t the only dangerous thing in town…]]> 352 Megan Miranda 1668080974 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Simon Element for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.80 2025 You Belong Here
author: Megan Miranda
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves:
review:
Another enjoyable and easy to read psych thriller by Megan Miranda with some fun twists. Made a long flight go quickly! 7/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Simon Element for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[The Academy: the new page-turning novel from the author of The Perfect Couple]]> 220829145 #1 bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand teams up with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, to deliver a dishy, page-turning novel following an intertwined cast of characters over the course of one drama-filled year at a New England boarding school.

It's move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding school in the country. It's a seventeen-spot jump - was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let's just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York chef. And they do have fun - lots of parties and school dances, and a piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night.

But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn - and then they fall off the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones across Tiffin's campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody is safe. From Davi Banerjee, international influencer and resident queen bee, to Simone Bergeron, the new and surprisingly young history teacher, to Charley Hicks, a transfer student who seems determined not to fit in, to Cordelia Spooner, Admissions Director with a somewhat idiosyncratic methodology - everyone has something to hide.

As if high school wasn't dramatic enough ... As the year unfolds, bonds are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of Tiffin's students and staff are changed forever.

The Academy is Elin Hilderbrand's fresh, buzzy take on boarding school life, and a thrilling new direction from one of America's most satisfying and popular storytellers.]]> Elin Hilderbrand 1529445248 Gwen 0 to-read 4.25 The Academy: the new page-turning novel from the author of The Perfect Couple
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Broken Country 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

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

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

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Gwen 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dream Count 219521090 A publishing event ten years in the making�a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists�the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until � betrayed and brokenhearted � she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America � but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 059380273X Gwen 0 to-read 3.98 2025 Dream Count
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atmosphere 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Gwen 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Love We Found 214269008 The long-awaited follow-up to the Reese’s Book ClubĚýpick and New York Times bestselling global phenomenon The Light We Lost: a thrilling love story about the roles fate and choice play in shaping a life

It’s been ten years. In case you’re out there somewhere—in case you’re listening, I’m here. And I have so much to tell you.

It’s been nearly ten years since Gabe’s been gone when Lucy finds a tiny piece of paper in a box of his old photos. An address in Rome. Why did Gabe keep it, and what was he doing in Italy? Lucy buys a last-minute ticket. Impulsive, but Gabe always brought that out in her.

Lucy’s journey to uncover Gabe’s secret leads her to Dr. Dax Amstrong, a New Yorker in Italy working with an NGO. His broad shoulders and sad, intense eyes draw Lucy in. His touch reaches her in a forgotten place—one that no one has neared since Gabe.

But her old life awaits, along with an earth-shattering decision—whether she and Darren should tell their son Samuel the truth about his real father. How can Lucy move forward while she’s rooted in regret? Fate broke her heart in the past. Can finding new love set her free?]]> 352 Jill Santopolo 0593419200 Gwen 4 3.97 The Love We Found
author: Jill Santopolo
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this quick, sweet read, a sequel to The Light We Lost. I wish I had remembered more about the prequel, but I read it 7 years ago. 7.5/10.
]]> Fifty-Fifty (Eddie Flynn, #5) 50805422 Alexandra Avellino has just found her father's mutilated body, and needs the police right away. She believes her sister killed him, and that she is still in the house with a knife.

Sofia Avellino has just found her father's mutilated body and needs the police right away. She believes her sister, Alexandra did it, and that she is still in the house, locked in the bathroom.

Both women are to go on trial at the same time. A joint trial in front of one jury.

But one of these women is lying. One of them is a murderer. Sitting in a jail cell, about to go on trial with her sister for murder, you might think that this is the last place she expected to be.

You'd be wrong.

]]> 349 Steve Cavanagh Gwen 1
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.31 2020 Fifty-Fifty (Eddie Flynn, #5)
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
I couldn’t get into this one. I tried twice! The ratings and reviews are positive, so I’m an outlier. DNF at 33%.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> The Cardinal 224888816 Step into the thrill and intrigue of Tudor England in the rich, compelling new novel from Sunday Times bestseller Alison Weir.

'Alison Weir makes history come alive as no one else' BARBARA ERSKINE

AN EXTRAORDINARY RISE TO POWER. A TRAGIC FALL FROM GRACE.

It begins with young Tom Wolsey, the bright and brilliant son of a Suffolk tradesman, sent to study at Oxford at just eleven years old.

It ends with a disgraced cardinal, cast from the King's side and estranged from the woman he loves.

The years in between tell the story of a scholar and a lover, a father and a priest. From the court of Henry VIII, Tom builds a powerful empire of church and state. At home in London, away from prying eyes, he finds joy in a secret second life.

But when King Henry, his cherished friend, demands the ultimate sacrifice, what will Wolsey choose?

Alison Weir's riveting new Tudor novel reveals the two lives of Cardinal Wolsey, a tale of power, passion and ambition.

]]> Alison Weir Gwen 0 currently-reading 4.50 2025 The Cardinal
author: Alison Weir
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Gwen 5 4.33 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:
I am worried that one day I will have to give a Charlotte McConaghy book less than 5 stars, luckily, today is not that day! In true Charlotte McConaghy style, this book tackles a unique plot with beautiful writing, intriguing twists, and an atmospheric setting. I absolutely loved it! 9.75/10.
]]> Under the Stars 228177777 When a daughter and her famous mother return to Winthrop Island to confront their complicated past, they discover a secret trove of paintings that connect them to a mysterious woman who vanished on a luxury steamship two centuries earlier.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers comes an epic tale of family legacy, love, and truths that echo down generations.

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher’s glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop’s past and its many secrets…attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America’s greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law�.or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity—the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape…before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations.]]> 368 Beatriz Williams 0593724259 Gwen 0 to-read 0.0 2025 Under the Stars
author: Beatriz Williams
name: Gwen
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stolen Queen 211025454 From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

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

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

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

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

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.]]> 352 Fiona Davis 0593474279 Gwen 2 3.93 2025 The Stolen Queen
author: Fiona Davis
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:
Fiona Davis is one of my favorite authors, but I could not get into this book. I made my way through it since I actually bought it, but did not find it particularly good. I also did not enjoy The Magnolia Palace or The Masterpiece, her other book about art. All of her other books have been huge winners for me though, so I just can’t understand these discrepancies, frustrating. 3/10.
]]> Forget Me Not 217387937 A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.

Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.

With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents� as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.]]> 368 Stacy Willingham 1250887976 Gwen 0 to-read 4.36 2025 Forget Me Not
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last One at the Wedding 203590129 From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures comes a breathtaking work of suspense about a father trying to save his daughter from a life-altering decision that will put everything he loves on the line.

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.]]> 352 Jason Rekulak 1250895790 Gwen 4 3.76 2024 The Last One at the Wedding
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:
I liked it, good twists! But I was disappointed by the ending. 8.25/10.
]]> What Kind of Paradise 218695909 A teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation in this exhilarating novel of family, identity, and the power we have to shape our own destinies—from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear

The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.

Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence existence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school.ĚýHer father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Thoreau-like utopia.

As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin.ĚýBut when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother's San Francisco.ĚýIt is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledglingĚýInternet, and whereĚýshe will come to question everything she values.]]> 368 Janelle Brown 0593449789 Gwen 3
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.35 2025 What Kind of Paradise
author: Janelle Brown
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
I’ve become a big fan of Janelle Brown! This latest book of hers was, unfortunately, not my favorite. It had an interesting premise, but the story felt drawn out to me, and the characters irritated me with their poor decisions. I wish I had liked it more! 5.5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Deep Cuts 214269394
Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.]]> 277 Holly Brickley 0593799089 Gwen 0 to-read 3.81 2025 Deep Cuts
author: Holly Brickley
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Homemade God 219520756 Family is everything, even when it falls apart.

After the sudden death of a renowned artist, his four adult children travel to Italy to sort out his affairs with his much-younger wife, in this moving novel from the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

World-famous artist Vic Kemp has relied on his four children ever since their mother died when they were young. Netta, the oldest, is a litigator who often serves as co-parent to her siblings; Susan, a housewife who cooks and cleans for both her husband and her father; Goose's own thwarted artistic ambitions have left him resigned to a job in Vic's studio; and Iris, the baby, drops everything the moment her father calls.Ěý

When Vic summons the siblings with the promise of big news, they hope their father is about to tell them he has finished the mysterious masterpiece he claims will be the capstone to his career. Instead, he announces he’s getting remarried.ĚýBella-Mae, his wife to be,Ěýis apparently beautiful, a fellow artist—and twenty-seven to his seventy-six years. When his children dare to express concern, Vic decamps with Bella-Mae to his summer home in Italy. Six weeks later, he is found dead. There is no sign of his will, or his promised final painting.Ěý

Netta, Susan, Goose, and Iris gather at the house on Lake Orta to piece together what happened and prepare to bring their father’s body home. They spend the summer in a waiting game, living under the same roof as Bella-Mae, and forced to confront Vic's legacy and the buried wounds they have incurred as his children. So who is Bella-Mae? Is she the woman their father believed her to be? Or is she the force that will destroy the family for good? How long can their old bonds hold?Ěý

With sparkling wit, compassion and tender insight, The Homemade God explores memory, identity, grief, healing, and the bonds of siblinghood—what happens when they splinter, and what it might take to find a new way forward.]]> 336 Rachel Joyce 0593448294 Gwen 5
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.90 The Homemade God
author: Rachel Joyce
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves:
review:
I just became an even bigger fan of Rachel Joyce! This book was such a gift. Four adult siblings learn a lot about themselves as they uncover the mystery of their father. It was equally plot and character driven, humorous at times, powerful, and atmospheric. Most likely one of my favorite books of the year already! 9.75/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> The Tenant 221733722 There’s no place like home�

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

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

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

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

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour�]]> 368 Freida McFadden 1464227314 Gwen 0 to-read 4.44 2025 The Tenant
author: Freida McFadden
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Three Days in June 213243949 A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life,ĚýThree Days in JuneĚýis a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers

]]> 165 Anne Tyler 0593803485 Gwen 5 3.64 2025 Three Days in June
author: Anne Tyler
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves:
review:
Exactly what you’d expect from an Anne Tyler book! 9/10.
]]> <![CDATA[Jane and Dan at the End of the World]]> 214282655 USA Today Bestseller

"±áľ±±ô˛ą°ůľ±´ÇłÜ˛ő."â€�People

Date night goes off the rails in this hilariously insightful take on midlife and marriage when one unhappy couple find themselves at the heart of a crime in progress, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise.

A ZIBBY OWENS MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025!
A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BOOK CLUB PICK!

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room.ĚýJane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everythingĚýthe disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part� all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.]]> 368 Colleen Oakley 0593200837 Gwen 0 to-read 3.95 2025 Jane and Dan at the End of the World
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We Play Ourselves 54899574 After a humiliating scandal, a young writer flees to the West Coast to start over, where she is drawn into the morally-ambiguous orbit of a charismatic filmmaker and the teenage girls who are her next subjects.

Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as "a fierce new voice" and "queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea." But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape--and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline's next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls' clandestine after-school activity: a Fight Club inspired by the violent classic.

As Cass is drawn into the film's orbit, she is awed by Caroline's drive and confidence. But over time, she becomes troubled by how deeply Caroline is manipulating the teens in the name of art--especially as the consequences become increasingly disturbing. With her past proving hard to shake and her future one she's no longer sure she wants, Cass is forced to reckon with her own ambitions and confront what she has come to believe about the steep price of success.]]> 336 Jen Silverman Gwen 1 3.81 2021 We Play Ourselves
author: Jen Silverman
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:
Ugh, I can’t. I tried. DNF at 33%.
]]> Don't Open Your Eyes 219301723 In this twisted psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, a woman is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future—and then they start to come true.

Annabelle has everything she’s ever wanted. A devoted husband, two wonderful daughters, and a career she loves. She couldn’t be happier. So why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing dreams of a future where she hates her husband and her daughters� lives are at risk? At first, she chalks the dreams up to an overactive imagination. But when details from her dreams, details she couldn’t possibly have predicted, begin to materialize, she realizes these aren’t just dreams but rather premonitions of a terrifying future. They all point to a singular choice, an unknown moment that holds Annabelle’s life in the balance.

Then Annabelle has a dream that her daughter, Scarlett, is in immediate danger.ĚýSomeone wants Scarlett dead and Annabelle has no idea who or why. Suddenly, every choice she makes is fraught with peril, with no inkling of which move could bring this terrifying vision to life. As her present life starts to collide with the future in her dreams, she wrestles with how much control she really has over her destiny and whether or not she can change what is meant to be.]]> 352 Liv Constantine 0593875206 Gwen 3
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.10 2025 Don't Open Your Eyes
author: Liv Constantine
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this psych thriller! It was a little far-fetched at times. I’m a fan of this author! 6.5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Dream State 215362651 “The story of relationships built and broken, mistakes inherited and repeated, and the beauty of trying again�.already one of the year’s best.”�People

Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws� lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task—an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie’s shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett’s friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined.

The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents� story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past—both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.

Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.]]> 448 Eric Puchner 0385550669 Gwen 0 to-read 3.66 2025 Dream State
author: Eric Puchner
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beautiful Ugly 211004123 The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible � a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 125033778X Gwen 4 3.65 2025 Beautiful Ugly
author: Alice Feeney
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:
This was a fun psych thriller to read on a snow day! 8.25/10.
]]> Crow Mary 74891539
In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in a Métis named Jeannie; makes a lifelong enemy in a wolfer named Stiller; and despite learning a dark secret of Farwell’s past, falls in love with her husband.

The winter trading season passes peacefully. Then, on the eve of their return to Montana, a group of drunken whiskey traders slaughters forty Nakota—despite Farwell’s efforts to stop them. Mary, hiding from the hail of bullets, sees the murderers, including Stiller, take five Nakota women back to their fort. She begs Farwell to save them, and when he refuses, Mary takes two guns, creeps into the fort, and saves the women from certain death. Thus, she sets off a whirlwind of colliding cultures that brings out the worst and best in the cast of unforgettable characters and pushes the love between Farwell and Crow Mary to the breaking point.

Crow Mary sweeps across decades and the landscape of the upper West and Canada, showcasing the beauty of the natural world, while at the same time probing the intimacies of a marriage and one woman’s heart.]]> 364 Kathleen Grissom Gwen 5 4.49 2023 Crow Mary
author: Kathleen Grissom
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:
Excellent piece of historical fiction! 9/10.
]]> Summer Light on Nantucket 216751041 A touching novel about parenthood, first love, family bonds, and rekindled relationships from the New York Times bestselling author and beloved Nantucket storyteller Nancy Thayer.

Blythe Benedict is content. Her life didn’t end when her marriage did. In fact, she’s more than happy living in her comfortable house in Boston, working as a middle school teacher, and raising four wonderful children. With three of her kids in the throes of teenagerhood and one not too far behind them, Blythe has plenty of drama to keep her busy every single day.

But no amount of that drama could change the family’s beloved annual summer trip to Nantucket. Blythe has always treasured the months spent at her island home-away-from-home, and has fond memories of her children growing up there. But this summer’s getaway proves to be much more than she bargained for.

Yes, there are sunny days enjoyed at the beach. But Blythe must contend with teenage angst, her ex-mother-in-law’s declining health, and a troubling secret involving her ex-husband. Meanwhile, Blythe reconnects with her first love, her former high school sweetheart Aaden. But their second-time-around romance becomes complicated when another intriguing man enters the picture.

It’s all a bit out of Blythe’s comfort zone. This particular island summer may not be as relaxing as Blythe had hoped, but she’s never felt that life has given her more than she can handle—especially when she has the love and support of her family around her.]]> 288 Nancy Thayer 0593724046 Gwen 1
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.01 Summer Light on Nantucket
author: Nancy Thayer
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Unfortunately, I was not able to get into this book. I read the first 30% and decided to set it down. I was hoping to find a new Nantucket author to follow. I hope others enjoy it!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> The Ghostwriter 217506549 368 Julie Clark 1464221286 Gwen 1
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 4.26 2025 The Ghostwriter
author: Julie Clark
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Unfortunately, I was not able to get into this book. I read the first 18% and decided to set it down. I hope others enjoy it!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[Fog and Fury (Haven Thriller #1)]]> 216773737 She’s a new PI in a beautiful seaside town. It’s dirtier than it looks—and more dangerous too—in a twisting novel of suspense by the Anthony Award–nominated author of These Toxic Things.

After ten years on the force, LAPD cop Sonny Rush relocates with her elderly mother to peaceful Haven, California, to join her godfather’s burgeoning PI business. What crimes could possibly happen in a town nicknamed “Mayberry by the Sea�? Sonny’s first case: find Figgy, a missing goldendoodle last seen sporting a Versace collar. At least scouting out a dognapper gives Sonny a chance to get to know her new neighbors.

Forty-eight hours in town and Figgy’s disappearance entangles Sonny in an unwelcome reunion with her ex, one of Haven’s wealthiest citizens. And when the body of a teenage boy is found along a popular hiking trail, Sonny is drawn into a web of strange beyond anything she ever saw in LA.

Then comes a local’s warning: question everything. Haven hides secrets that could destroy its idyllic façade. Or destroy Sonny first.]]> 395 Rachel Howzell Hall 1662522835 Gwen 1
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ]]> 3.58 2025 Fog and Fury (Haven Thriller #1)
author: Rachel Howzell Hall
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Unfortunately, I was not able to get into this book. I read the first 25% and decided to set it down. I hope others enjoy it!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> You Me Everything 36077170 Set in the French countryside on an idyllic summer vacation, a delicious, tender novel about finding joy and love even in the most unexpected places.

Jess and her ten-year-old son William set off to spend the summer at Château de Roussignol, deep in the rich, sunlit hills of the Dordogne. There, Jess’s ex-boyfriend—and William’s father—Adam, runs a beautiful hotel in a restored castle. Lush gardens, a gorgeous pool, delectable French food, and a seemingly never-ending wine list—what’s not to like? Jess is bowled over by what Adam has accomplished, but she’s in France for a much more urgent reason: to make Adam fall in love with his own son.

But Adam has other ideas, and another girlfriend—and he doesn’t seem inclined to change the habits of a lifetime just because Jess and William have appeared on the scene. Jess isn’t surprised, but William—who has quickly come to idolize his father—wants nothing more than to spend time with him. But Jess can’t allow Adam to let their son down—because she is tormented by a secret of her own, one that nobody—especially William—must discover.

By turns heartwrenching and hopeful, You Me Everything is a novel about one woman's fierce determination to grab hold of the family she has and never let go, and a romantic story as heady as a crisp Sancerre on a summer day.]]> 353 Catherine Isaac 0735224536 Gwen 1 3.81 2018 You Me Everything
author: Catherine Isaac
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:
I’m really need books right now to work hard to keep my attention as I am more distractible than typical, and this one is just not cutting it. DNF at 44%.
]]> The Paris Agent 62197599
Determined to find answers, Noah's daughter Charlotte embarks on a quest from their cozy home in Liverpool, leading her to the incredible lives of two ordinary women—Chloe and Fleur—who transformed into fearless spies on foreign soil. But as Charlotte unravels the heroic exploits of these women and their connection to Noah, she inadvertently stumbles upon evidence of a double agent lurking disturbingly close to home, drawing her into a treacherous web of secrets and unearthing a shocking story from those final days of the war.

Once again, Kelly Rimmer takes readers on a gripping journey, one that threads the lives of two remarkable women into the fabric of history, unveiling the power of courage, family and the indelible mark left by the darkest era of human conflict.
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 368 Kelly Rimmer 1525826689 Gwen 3 4.08 2023 The Paris Agent
author: Kelly Rimmer
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:
I’m a fan of this author, and so I know this book could have been better. I found the characters and timelines hard to keep straight, and the story could have been much more powerful given the potential of the plot. 5/10.
]]> <![CDATA[This Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light]]> 204789541 In this candid and emotional memoir, Allison Holker opens up about her incredible dance career, her relationship with Stephen “tWitch� Boss, and the resilience that has carried her forward after his death.

Allison Holker was just eighteen when she found fame as a contestant on the reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance. Over the next several years, she had her first child, built a successful career as a professional dancer despite the industry being hostile to working moms, and fell in love with and married fellow dancer Stephen Boss, the former hype man and DJ of The Ellen DeGeneres Show known for his charisma and relentless positivity. Two more children and a wealth of professional opportunities for both Allison and Stephen followed, and the Bosses appeared to be one of the great Hollywood love stories.

Then, in December 2022, Stephen took his own life, leaving Allison to wrestle with unanswered questions, haunting what-ifs, and the heartbreaking realization that Stephen’s infectious joy was hiding pain, addictions, and self-doubt deeper than anyone knew.

For the first time, Allison reveals how she has navigated the emotional and financial aftermath of Stephen’s choice, guided their three children in their grief while managing the outpouring from a well-meaning public, and reopened herself to the next chapter in her professional and personal life. A beacon of hope and comfort for anyone experiencing grief—especially unexpected loss due to suicide—Allison’s story is an honest reflection on the pain of looking back on a complicated life and the resilience required to move into the future.]]> 240 Allison Holker 1400248949 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Harper Select for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.60 2025 This Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light
author: Allison Holker
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
review:
I’ve been a fan of Allison since her earliest SYTYCD days, and I was also a fan of tWitch when he was on the show as well. I have not followed their story closely since then other than seeing a headline or photo every once in a while. I was happy to hear they got married and floored to hear of Stephen’s death by suicide. I know this book has brought out a lot of feelings for people. After reading it, I am even more of an Allison fan. It’s written in a thoughtful way, and while there is some repetition at times, I believe it shares just enough information to tell her story and not reveal too much of his. Throughout it all, her priorities seem to remain her family, which is now her children and herself. Her strength as a person and mother continue to shine. 8/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Harper Select for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Floreana 209771513 On the Galápagos Islands, the lives of two women—a century apart—converge in the most startling ways in a historical novel of desperate love, secrets, and deception by the author of My Last Continent.

After ten years away to build a family, Mallory returns to Floreana Island in the Galápagos, and to Gavin, the mentor with whom she had a long-ago affair. Their project is to build nests to revive the vulnerable penguin population. But Mallory doesn’t dare tell Gavin why she’s really come back. Then she discovers old journals hidden in a lava cave—confessions of another woman who needed to disappear.

In 1929, Dore Strauch left the life she knew to create a new one with the man she loved. On remote Floreana they’re beholden to no one but each other. Until the arrival of strangers, settlers in their paradise. Suddenly, Dore realizes that it’s no longer the refuge she imagined. And that amid the island’s fragile beauty, people can do the most terrible things.

A gripping reimagining of a true story, Floreana intertwines the emotional journeys of two women bound by dark secrets, the want of escape, and the lengths to which they’ll go to find their place in the world.]]> 261 Midge Raymond 1662522827 Gwen 3 3.97 2024 Floreana
author: Midge Raymond
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:
I read this book in preparation for our family trip to the Galápagos Islands this year. I rounded up due to the history of the island the book was based on. The story itself was OK, some fun twists and some predictability. 6/10.
]]> Too Old for This 221115923 A retired serial killer’s quiet life is upended by an unexpected visitor. To protect her secret, there’s only one option left—what’s another murder? From bestselling author Samantha Downing.

Lottie Jones thought her crimes were behind her.

Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends.Ěý

When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past and specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that.

But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realizes this crime might just be the death of her…]]> 400 Samantha Downing 0593101030 Gwen 0 to-read 4.50 2025 Too Old for This
author: Samantha Downing
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Broken Places 61168459 The sequel to the phenomenal bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, this is John Boyne's latest novel for adults.

1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart, a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, shame, and fear at their heels, not knowing how hard it is to escape your past.

Nearly eighty years later, Gretel Fernsby lives a life that is a far cry from her traumatic childhood. When a couple moves into the flat below her in her London mansion block, it should be nothing more than a momentary inconvenience. However, the appearance of their nine-year-old son Henry brings back memories she would rather forget.

Faced with a choice between her own safety and his, Gretel is taken back to a similar crossroads she encountered long ago. Back then, her complicity dishonoured her life, but to interfere now could risk revealing the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting.]]> 400 John Boyne 0593653076 Gwen 4 4.61 2022 All the Broken Places
author: John Boyne
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
I didn’t read the first book in this series, but this one still read fairly well without it. It was tough to read at some points as I tend to not read books about the Holocaust and child abuse. There were some interesting twists, and it was a good length, not too long. 7/10.
]]> A Happy Marriage 221318549 What holds a strong and loving marriage together? Lies and secrets in a novel of twisting psychological suspense by a New York Times bestselling author.

Los Angeles homicide detective Dinah Marino may have a complicated relationship with her family, but her psychiatrist husband, Joe, makes her feel safe, secure, and happy. She couldn’t want for a more loving or trusting man. But throughout their ten-year marriage, she’s been keeping a secret from him—a secret she’d take to the grave.

Dr. Joe Marino loves his wife more than anything in this world, but there are things he’s learned to keep close to the chest. When a missing woman tied to his wife’s latest case is admitted to his hospital, doctor-patient confidentiality lands their marriage on some new and uneven ground.

As Dinah digs deeper into her case, tension works its way inside their picture-perfect home. Now the carefully constructed lies between them don’t just simply threaten the delicate balance of their marriage—they could kill.]]> A.R. Torre 1662519605 Gwen 0 to-read 3.94 A Happy Marriage
author: A.R. Torre
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Locked Ward 217388258 Was it...
Bitter, all-consuming jealousy?
Pathological sibling rivalry?
Pure insanity?

Whatever the cause—and everyone has a theory—it's the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family.

Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister Amanda visits are, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.�

Amanda doesn't trust Georgia, but she can't abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that's so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?

Nothing is as it seems in Sarah Pekkanen’s The Locked Ward, a shocking psychological thriller about the complex bonds of sisterhood—and what happens when they are stretched to the breaking point.

Some doors in the Locked Ward should never be opened.]]> 320 Sarah Pekkanen 1250349516 Gwen 2
Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.90 2025 The Locked Ward
author: Sarah Pekkanen
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:
I was excited to read this book as I loved this author’s House of Glass. Unfortunately, it didn’t measure up for me. I couldn’t get into it until mid-way through and even after that, it was slow paced and contrived. Wish I had liked it more! 3.5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> She Didn't See It Coming 221144907 “No one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena.”—Ruth Ware

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

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

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

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

Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.]]> Shari Lapena 0593832450 Gwen 0 to-read 4.16 2025 She Didn't See It Coming
author: Shari Lapena
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everyone Is Lying to You: A Thriller]]> 219848350 The #tradwife murder mystery we’ve all been waiting for. From the bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance and the creator of the Under the Influence podcast comes an explosive thriller about two estranged friends, a grisly murder, a sudden disappearance, and the truly shocking revelation that everyone is lying to you about something . . .

Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college. After graduation, Bex vanished, leaving Lizzie confused and devastated.

Fifteen years later, Bex is now Rebecca Sommers, a “traditional� Instagram influencer with millions of followers who salivate over her perfect life on her ranch with her five children and handsome husband, Gray. Lizzie is a struggling magazine writer, watching reels while her young children demand her attention.

One night out of the blue, Bex calls Lizzie with a career-making proposition—an exclusive interview with her about her multimillion-dollar business venture and an invitation to MomBomb, the high-profile influencing conference.

At the conference, Bex goes missing and Gray is found brutally murdered on their ranch. Lizzie finds herself plunged into the dark side of the cutthroat world of social media that includes jealousy, sordid affairs, swingers, and backstabbing. She must learn who her old friend has become and who she has double-crossed to try to find her, clear her name, and maybe even save her life.
Ěý
Piazza’s master storytelling and razor-sharp insight into the world of social media brings us a pulpy, juicy, and cleverly plotted read that will have you guessing all the way through and leave you gasping for more.]]> 336 Jo Piazza Gwen 0 to-read 4.13 Everyone Is Lying to You: A Thriller
author: Jo Piazza
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The View From Lake Como 220687867 From the beloved New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, a “dazzlingâ€� storyteller (Washington Post), and a “comedy writer with a heart of goldâ€� (NYT), comes a novel about one woman’s quest to build her own life before it’s too late.Ěý

Jess Capodimonte Baratta is not living the life of her dreams. Not even close.
Ěý
In blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, “the perfect husband," Jess moves into her parentsâ€� basement to hide and heal. Jess is the overlooked daughter, who dutifully takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. Despite her role as the family handmaiden, Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her confidant, her dapper uncle Louie, who believes she can do anything (once she invests in a better wardrobe). Ěý
Ěý
When the Capodimonte and Baratta families endure an unexpected loss, the shock unearths long-buried secrets that will force Jess to question her loyalty to those she trusted. Fueled by her lost dreams, Jess takes fate into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home, Carrara, Italy.
Ěý
From the shadows of the majestic marble-capped mountains of Tuscany, to the glittering streets of Milan, and on the shores of enchanting Lake Como (the other one), Jess begins to carve a place in this new/old world. When she meets Angelo Strazza, a passionate artist who works in gold, she discovers her own skills are priceless. But as Jess uncovers the truth about her family history, it will change the course of her life and those she loves the most forever. ĚýIn love and work, in art and soul, Jess will need every tool she has mastered to reinvent her life.

Fed by the author’s cherished Italian roots comes a bighearted, hilarious novel of the the story of one woman’s determination to live a creative life that matters, with enough room left over for love. With a one-way ticket to Italy, Jess is determined to write a new story on her own terms--this time, in stone.]]> 416 Adriana Trigiani 0593183355 Gwen 0 to-read 4.22 The View From Lake Como
author: Adriana Trigiani
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Summer of '79: A Summer of '69 Story]]> 51001395 Catch up with Blair, Jessie, and Kirby ten years after the summer everything changed, in this "Summer of '69 story" by Elin Hilderbrand -- Available for a limited time

"Summer of '79" will be published in print in Spring 2021 as part of a Dorothea Benton Frank tribute anthology. Get it now in digital form, for a limited time!]]> 61 Elin Hilderbrand 031654180X Gwen 4 3.87 2020 Summer of '79: A Summer of '69 Story
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:
Need more Elin and Nantucket! 8.5/10.
]]> The Last Ferry Out 219301720 On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident—and the killer’s still on the island—in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reese's Book Club pick We Were Never Here.

When Abby decided to come to Isla Colel, she wasn't sure what—if anything—she'd find. She only knew that she needed to see the place where her fiancĂ©e, Eszter, died, to try and make sense of everything that happened.Ěý

The island is nothing like Abby expected; though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane a few years earlier left it a shell of its former self, with only a few locals and expats remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now only runs every week or so.

There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter's last days.Ěý Before she can see him, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the other expats are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.

As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects one of them is Eszter's killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will she discover who it isĚýbefore she becomes the island’s next victim?]]> 320 Andrea Bartz 0593597974 Gwen 1
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.44 2025 The Last Ferry Out
author: Andrea Bartz
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:
I have read one of this author’s short stories, and enjoyed it, but I was not able to get into this book. The story felt repetitive and the plot was too slow for me. Unfortunately, I had to DNF at 23%.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[The Bookstore Keepers (Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, #3)]]> 214128353
Five years into their happily ever after, Isabel and Johnny are making the most of their second chance at love. Then one night, Johnny awakens from an extraordinary dream…and their world is irrevocably altered. Isabel does her best to give Johnny space as he struggles to accept the new chapter life has opened for them. But Johnny can’t do it alone—no one can. As the whole family is soon to discover, seasons change, but love never does.]]> 35 Alice Hoffman 1662522045 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.06 2025 The Bookstore Keepers (Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, #3)
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed the 3rd installment in this short story series by Alice Hoffman. It’s always fun to see familiar characters again, and get caught up on their lives. This author's writing always has a bit of a magical quality to it.. I hope she continues on with this series, I’m already excited to read #4! 8/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> I'll Come to You 208425024 A story of family, I'll Come to You chronicles intersecting lives over the course of 1995, anchored by the anticipation and arrival of a child.

With empathy, insight, and humor, Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them; a woman whose husband of forty years has left her for reasons he’s unwilling to share and the man who is now disastrously attempting to woo her; a couple in denial about a looming health crisis, and their son who is fumbling toward middle age and can’t stop lying. These storylines converge into a dramatic and harrowing turn of events.]]> 224 Rebecca Kauffman 164009671X Gwen 5
Thank you very much to Counterpoint Press and Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Givesways for the complimentary copy of this book.]]> 3.68 2025 I'll Come to You
author: Rebecca Kauffman
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:
I was so excited to get the email on Christmas Day that I had won a copy of this book on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Giveaways! The book came in the mail yesterday, and I finished it this morning! It was so good and difficult to put down. I love the way Rebecca Kauffman tells a story. Even though it’s a relatively short book, readers feel a deep connection with the characters and their relationships. Told over the span of one year in 1995, she tells a beautiful story of love and loss through every day moments. 9.5/10.

Thank you very much to Counterpoint Press and Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Givesways for the complimentary copy of this book.
]]> All Fours 197828937
"A giddy, bold, mind-blowing tour de force by one of our most important literary writers." � George Saunders, Booker-Prize winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo

"Profound and bawdy and deeply human, a brilliant work of art from a completely blown open and fearless mind."—Emma Cline, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 333 Miranda July 0593190289 Gwen 2 3.48 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:
I don’t even know what to say! 3/10.
]]> Before Dorothy 219301734 Long before Dorothy visits Oz, her aunt, Emily Gale, sets off on her own grand adventure, leaving gritty Chicago behind for Kansas and a life that will utterly change her, in this transporting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor.

Chicago, 1924: Emily Gale and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago behind for the promise of their own American dream. But leaving the city means leaving Emily’s beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world.

Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have made a life in the warmth of the community of Liberal, Kansas, and among the harsh beauty of the prairie. Their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep.

The wide-eyed child isn’t the only thing to disrupt Emily’s world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and their much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of Dorothy.

Bursting with courage and heart, Before Dorothy tells the story of the woman who raised a beloved heroine, and ponders the what is the true meaning of home?]]> 368 Hazel Gaynor 0593440331 Gwen 0 to-read 4.50 Before Dorothy
author: Hazel Gaynor
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> So Far Gone 218671850 A reclusive journalist is suddenly thrown into a wild, suspenseful journey to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

A few weeks after the 2016 election, at Thanksgiving with his daughter and her belligerent new husband, Rhys Kinnick finally snapped. After an escalating fight about politics, he hauled off and punched the jerk. Immediately horrified by what he'd done, by the state of the world around him, and by his own spiraling mental health, Rhys chucked his smartphone out the car window and fled for a remote cabin in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

Seven years later, when his grandchildren show up on his doorstep, Rhys barely recognizes them. Their mother has disappeared, and they need a safer place to stay than with their father, who has taken up with a Christian Nationalist militia. So what if Rhys’s cabin has no electricity or indoor plumbing, and the raccoons help themselves to the monthly grocery haul? He'll do whatever he needs to for these sweet kids.

But when the militia members show up and kidnap the children, Rhys realizes he'll have to re-enter the broken world. With the help of a bipolar retired detective and his caustic ex-girlfriend, Rhys reluctantly heads off on a madcap journey through the rubble of the life he left behind.]]> 272 Jess Walter 0062868144 Gwen 0 to-read 4.20 2025 So Far Gone
author: Jess Walter
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> How to End a Love Story 212432167 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show... Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang.

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers� room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except�

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet� the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.]]> 384 Yulin Kuang 0063310686 Gwen 1 3.50 2024 How to End a Love Story
author: Yulin Kuang
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
I will admit that I don’t have a lot of patience for chick lit. I was sufficiently bored at 40% in. DNF.
]]> Fox 219301718 A spellbinding novel of literary and psychological suspenseabout the dark secrets that surface after the shocking disappearance of a charismatic, mercurial teacher at an elite boarding school—by the legendary author 'who is surely on any shortlist of America’s greatest living writers' (New York Times Magazine)

'Eerie, shocking, provoking, and beautifully written, Fox is yet further proof Oates is one of the greatest writers among us today' Gillian Flynn

Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be.

A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands. A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can’t outfox. Written in Oates’s trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery.]]> 672 Joyce Carol Oates 0593978080 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.17 2025 Fox
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves:
review:
You know picking up a Joyce Carol Oates book, it’s going to be good, but also dark and disturbing, and this one fits the bill for sure! The story draws the reader right in, and then becomes very difficult to read up until the midway point when I think the drama slows and the mystery picks up. I almost put it down several times, but the psychological aspects compelled me to push through, and I did start to really enjoy it about halfway through, This is a long book, so be sure to expect a time commitment. It’s definitely worth it! 8.25/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> That Last Carolina Summer 218171641 Beloved New York Times bestselling author Karen White returns with a brand-new contemporary stand-alone novel about sisterhood, secrets and one woman’s reckoning with the past

As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she wasĚýstruck by lightning in the creeks near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, and always living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Addie, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast, as far from her family as possible. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina, to help Addie care for their ailing mother.

As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn toward Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection, woven through shared losses and hope, brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson Liam resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past.

But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify—bringing her closer to the shocking truth that will irrevocably change everything. Unfolding against the lush backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry,ĚýThat Last Carolina SummerĚýis an unforgettable family drama and mystery about the unbreakable bonds of family and the gift of second chances.]]> 384 Karen White 0778310698 Gwen 0 to-read 4.33 That Last Carolina Summer
author: Karen White
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

Told across three timelines and set against the Gothic backdrop of Wurimbirra, The Midnight Estate weaves a tale as intricate and haunting as Kate Morton's Homecoming, inviting readers into the heart of a family's darkest secrets with an absorbing book-within-a-book mystery.]]> 416 Kelly Rimmer 1525805118 Gwen 0 to-read 4.32 The Midnight Estate
author: Kelly Rimmer
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Kill Your Darlings 218671812 From theĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author ofĚýThe Kind Worth KillingĚýandĚýEight Perfect MurdersĚýcomes an inventive, utterly propulsive murder-mystery in reverse, tracing a marriage back in time to uncover the dark secret at its heart.

Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.

What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.

Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.]]> 288 Peter Swanson 0063433621 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.60 2025 Kill Your Darlings
author: Peter Swanson
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
I’m enjoyed this cleverly written book by Peter Swanson! It starts with a major event and then works its way backwards in time to tell the full story of what led up to the event. I thought the ending might disappoint as I could tell from the table of contents that the current year is not revisited, but it did not disappoint! 8.75/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Kill for Me, Kill for You 177058954 A razor-sharp and Hitchcock-inspired psychological thriller about two ordinary women who make a dangerous pact to take revenge for each other after being pushed to the brink.

One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, especially loneliness and an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect plan: if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you.

In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?]]> 351 Steve Cavanagh Gwen 3 4.24 2023 Kill for Me, Kill for You
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
There were a lot of twists in this book, but it felt like the author went for the twists over a realistic story. I didn’t find it particularly well written, and I disliked the confusing ending. 6/10.
]]> The Lies They Told 220999703
When Lena Conti—a young, unwed mother—sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are labeled burdens to society, denied entry, and deported back to Germany. Now, alone but determined to give her daughter a better life after years of living in poverty and near starvation, she finds herself facing a future unlike anything she had envisioned.

Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. Though the hills around Wolfe Hollow remind Lena of her homeland, she struggles to adjust. Worse, she is stunned to learn the children in her care have been taught to hide when the sheriff comes around. As Lena meets their neighbors, she realizes the community is vibrant and tight knit, but also senses growing unease. The State of Virginia is scheming to paint them as ignorant, immoral, and backwards so they can evict them from their land, seize children from parents, and deal with those possessing “inferior genes.�

After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena face impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter—and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.]]> 416 Ellen Marie Wiseman 1496741501 Gwen 0 to-read 4.55 The Lies They Told
author: Ellen Marie Wiseman
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.55
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Love Note 123087802 You may never stop loving the one you lost. But you can still find love again.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who's determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?

The Last Love Note will make listeners laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.]]> 384 Emma Grey 1958506281 Gwen 1 4.04 2023 The Last Love Note
author: Emma Grey
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
I couldn’t get into this one. I found the main character annoying, and didn’t find a lot of the attempts at humor to be funny. DNF at 20%.
]]> The Bad Friend 198712882 Secrets, betrayal, and jealousy are at the heart of a friendship in an unnerving short story about truth and self-deception by Caroline Kepnes, the New York Times bestselling author of You.

Ellen has a lot to be thankful for. Her fiancé, Troy, is perfectly sweet. Her childhood friend Tanya, despite her edgier taste in men, is like a sister to her closest friend—and rival. So familiar and yet, over the years, so many secrets between them. For Ellen, what lies ahead is a series of choices that will add up to a life she never could have imagined.

Caroline Kepnes’s The Bad Friend is part of Never Tell, a heart-pounding collection of stories about secrets, lies, and mind games. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Just keep the endings to yourself.]]> 44 Caroline Kepnes 1662518617 Gwen 3 3.21 2024 The Bad Friend
author: Caroline Kepnes
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Well, that one took a turn. 5.5/10.
]]> Jackrabbit Skin 198619803 Secrets and rage can get under the skin in an unsettling short story by Ivy Pochoda, award-winning author of Sing Her Down and These Women.

Swan is a tattoo artist new to a community in the California desert when a mourning desert dweller named Kurt requests a tribute tattoo to his dead wife. Swan agrees, but the locals warn don’t indulge Kurt in his tragic memories. No wonder. As Kurt returns for more tattoos, the truth about his wife’s death begins to emerge in the ink. And it isn’t pretty.

Ivy Pochoda’s Jackrabbit Skin is part of Never Tell, a heart-pounding collection of stories about secrets, lies, and mind games. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Just keep the endings to yourself.]]> 45 Ivy Pochoda 1662517084 Gwen 3 Engaging short story! 6.5/10. 3.37 2024 Jackrabbit Skin
author: Ivy Pochoda
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Engaging short story! 6.5/10.
]]> Finding Grace 215570667
Years later Tom makes a decision that ripples through their families' lives in ways he could not have foreseen. As the consequences of that fateful choice unfold, two women's paths become irrevocably intertwined. But when old love clashes with new, who will be left standing? And what happens when your secrets come back to haunt you?]]> 336 Loretta Rothschild 1250381827 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.13 2025 Finding Grace
author: Loretta Rothschild
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this story for overall! It kept my attention, and I was impressed it is the author’s debut book. 8/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Blue Sisters 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 342 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Gwen 0 to-read 3.94 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scorpions (Never Tell Collection, #4)]]> 198619792 A man’s lifetime of secrets and lies. A woman on the hunt for his hidden riches. But there’s a sting in the tale in this gripping short story by the New York Times bestselling author of We Lie Here.

Frankie is a caregiver facing a meager and thankless future. Until her elderly charge dies—but not before revealing his secret. It’s buried in Death Valley. Enough money to change Frankie’s life forever. All she has to do is follow his instructions and stay on the path, and her prayers will be answered. It’s everything Frankie hopes for. But nothing like she expects.

Rachel Howzell Hall’s Scorpions is part of Never Tell, a heart-pounding collection of stories about secrets, lies, and mind games. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Just keep the endings to yourself.]]> 49 Rachel Howzell Hall 166251736X Gwen 3 3.34 2024 Scorpions (Never Tell Collection, #4)
author: Rachel Howzell Hall
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:
Pretty good short story, kept my attention and perfect length for my treadmill jog! 6.5/10.
]]> <![CDATA[The Maid's Secret (Molly the Maid, #3)]]> 216351856 When a daring art heist takes place at the Regency Grand, Molly’s life is threatened. The question is who’s out to get her, and why? Long-buried secrets will be revealed in this intriguing and heartwarming novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest

A wedding. A heist. A secret.

Molly Gray’s life is about to change in ways she could never have imagined. As the esteemed Head Maid and recently promoted Special Events Manager of the Regency Grand Hotel, good things are just around the corner, including her marriage to her beloved fiancĂ©, Juan Manuel, only two months away.Ěý

But Molly’s entire existence is upended when a film crew descends upon the hotel to shoot the hit reality TV show Hidden Treasures, starring popular art appraisers Brown and Beagle. On a whim, Molly brings in a shoebox containing a few of her gran’s old things for appraisal, and much to everyone's surprise, one item turns out to be a rare and priceless treasure. Instantly, Molly is both a multi-millionaire and a media sensation—the world’s rags-to-riches darling—until the priceless piece vanishes from the hotel in the boldest, brashest antiquities heist in recent memory.

The key to the mystery lies in the past, in a long-forgotten diary written by Molly’s gran. For the first time ever, Molly learns about Gran’s true-to-life fairytale, a young girl to the manor born, the only child of a wealthy magnate. But when Gran falls head over heels in love with a young man her parents deem below her station, her life is thrown into turmoil. As fate would have it, the greatest love of Gran’s life is someone Molly knows quite well�.

Together with her friends, Molly combs the past and the present to catch the thief before looming threats against her become real.

A spirited heist caper and an epic love story, The Maid’s Secret is a spellbinding whodunnit that will capture and warm your heart.]]> 336 Nita Prose 0593875419 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.06 2025 The Maid's Secret (Molly the Maid, #3)
author: Nita Prose
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:
I always enjoy another story in this fun and entertaining series about Molly the Maid! Read this one to learn more about the background story on Molly’s ancestors, including her beloved Gran, Molly & Juan’s wedding plans, and a mystery about stolen art in The Regency Grand. A perfect light read with familiar characters! 8.5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> One in Four 216772846 When a reality show about former child stars overcoming addiction culminates in murder, their therapist must take a closer look into their lives—and her own, from USA Today bestselling author Lucinda Berry.

Dr. Laurel Hargrow can’t believe she’s agreed to do a reality TV show. But her years as a chemical dependency counselor and personal history with the show’s director make her the obvious choice. Treating a mansion full of former child stars on the road to recovery is the tallest order of her career—especially when one of them turns up dead while the cameras are still rolling.

In a house full of narcissists vying for the spotlight, everyone’s hiding something…including Laurel. An investigation could expose a past she’d rather keep buried. But among the attention-starved patients, only one of them is a predator. And Laurel is skilled at spotting a predator when she sees one.

As she hunts a killer in her present, the unsettling truths of Laurel’s past are forced into the light. But this time, she’ll face her demons head on. She’ll stop at nothing to expose a murderer, even if it means risking everything she holds dear.]]> 251 Lucinda Berry 1662526040 Gwen 1
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 3.68 2025 One in Four
author: Lucinda Berry
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
I wish I had enjoyed this book, but it did not seem well-written to me, the story was too violent and far-fetched for my liking. 2/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> My Friends 217163697 #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

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

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

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Gwen 5
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.59 2025 My Friends
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves:
review:
All the stars!! Fredrik Backman is my all time favorite author, and receiving an ARC of this book the day before Christmas felt like an amazing gift. I read as much as a could while still being present for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but had difficulty separating myself from this brilliant story about the power of friendship and art! I knew it was going to be another winner when I started laughing out loud and crying within the first 15% of the book. I immediately loved the characters and their relationships. Every word is so perfectly chosen and translated. I wanted to find out how the story ended, but also didn’t want it to end. A reminder of what a perfect book experience can be like as they don’t come around often enough for me. Highly recommend! 10/10

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> Don't Let Him In 220160814 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

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

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

But Nick and Al may not be who they say they are, leading these three women on a shocking collision course, wishing they had heeded a warning: Don’t let him in.]]> 368 Lisa Jewell 1668033879 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.00 2025 Don't Let Him In
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:
Another strong story from Lisa Jewell! It was suspenseful and difficult to put down. Although I thought the story has been done similarly before, it was well-written and well-paced. A quick, interesting read! 8.25/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
]]> The Other Side of the Road 200035593 A couple preparing for the future discovers that their dream house will cost them far more than the mortgage in a sinister short story by the New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here.

Lauren and Kelsey: married, a baby on the way, and now the new owners of the Hudson Valley house they’ve always admired. The timing couldn’t be better, and the leafy, secluded area couldn’t be more beautiful. Everything’s perfect—except for the older gentleman across the street, who seems to be keeping a very close watch on them. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Andrea Bartz’s The Other Side of the Road is part of Never Tell, a heart-pounding collection of stories about secrets, lies, and mind games. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Just keep the endings to yourself.]]> 31 Andrea Bartz 1662519974 Gwen 4 3.70 2024 The Other Side of the Road
author: Andrea Bartz
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:
Suspenseful short story that was perfect to listen to and read while in the treadmill! 8.25/10.
]]> <![CDATA[Hanukkah at the Great Greenwich Ice Creamery: A sweet grumpy/sunshine romance]]> 199298147 Hanukkah days, Christmas nights and strawberry ice cream �
Cohen Ford is a man who could do with a little bit of sweetening up. It’s no surprise that when he walks into The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery on a typically gloomy London day before Christmas, he insists on a black coffee rather than his childhood favourite â€� strawberry ice cream.Ěý
But then he meets River de Luca, the woman behind the flavours. After their first encounter, Cohen begins visiting the ice creamery every Tuesday, gradually learning more about the intriguing River. Could her influence encourage cynical Cohen to become the man who embraces Christmas, Hanukkah and even strawberry ice cream?Ěý±Ő±Ő> 201 Sharon Ibbotson 1781896313 Gwen 4 3.87 Hanukkah at the Great Greenwich Ice Creamery: A sweet grumpy/sunshine romance
author: Sharon Ibbotson
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:
A quick, sweet holiday story! 8/10.
]]> <![CDATA[Santa Cruise (Santa's Crew #1)]]> 56881191 Fans of Debbie Macomber and Danielle Steel won’t want to miss this enchanting, humorous, and heartwarming novel that takes you on a singles cruise with four lifelong friends who might just find the gift of love this Christmas�

At Ridgewood High, Amy, Frankie, Rachael, and Nina formed a deep bond. Now, fifteen years after leaving school behind, they’re back for a reunion, laughing, reminiscing, and chatting how much has changed—and how much hasn’t. Nina, once the star of every school play, moved to Hollywood and landed a recurring role on a sitcom. Amy, fondly known as “the brains of the operation,� is now a Silicon Valley bioengineer. Outgoing and compassionate, Frankie works for a New York publishing house. Rachael, always the most boy-crazy of the crew, married—mostly to please her parents—but is now divorced. All four are strong, successful, and somehow, still looking for the right partner. But Frankie has an idea to help solve that: a singles cruise for the holidays.

In late December, Amy, Rachael, Frankie, and Nina gather in Miami, ready to board their state-of-the-art cruise ship. The entertainment options are endless, the food is to die for, and the passenger list includes hundreds of eligible men. The highlight of the week will be a magnificent New Year’s Eve celebration with multiple theme parties, dancing, and fireworks. The ladies are happy to give Cupid a helping hand here and there—hanging mistletoe in elevators and cheering each other on through speed-dating events and shore excursions. Holidays—like the path of love itself—don’t always go exactly as planned, but over the course of one festive, unforgettable week, all four will set sail on surprising new adventures.]]> 338 Fern Michaels 1496731212 Gwen 1 3.92 2021 Santa Cruise (Santa's Crew #1)
author: Fern Michaels
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
Not particularly well written, and a bit slow. DNF at 18%.
]]> <![CDATA[And Then Came You: When Families Grow, Love Grows Too]]> 217182191 “A lyrical love letter, written to families of all shapes and sizes.”—Liz Garton Scanlon, author of Caldecott Honor winner All the World

A delightful rhyming picture book that’s just right for anyone facing the challenges that come with change. Bit by bit, and branch by branch, this “family tree� grows to make room for more and more (and more!) love.

Families grow and change, but what if you like things just the way they are? What if you aren’t ready to welcome in a new parent, a messy pet, or a baby sister who cries a lot and is leaking goo?! Change can be scary, but even a full heart has room to grow.



Both hilarious and heartwarming, this endearing children’s book is a powerful tool for helping little ones understand that there are often silver linings to the changes life brings. Even when things are initially uncomfortable, an open heart paves the way and teaches us that a family can be full of love at any size.

UNIVERSAL Families inevitably change over time, andĚýtransitions can beĚýchallenging for a child who is used to the ways things used to be. The honest feelings and sweet messages woven into the story will resonate with families of all sizes and kinds.



HUMOROUS FAMILY Tackling a challenging issue with humor and compassion, this lighthearted and unexpectedly quirky children’s book is heartwarming and healing all at once.



GUESSING GAME This isĚýan incredible read-aloud with polished rhyming text and an energetic plot. Young listeners will have fun guessing what word comes next, creating a guessing game that uses both rhyme and theĚýturn of the page.

Perfect


Families experiencing change, whether introducing a new step-parent, a pet, or a new baby


Gift-giving to big brother, big sister, or newly blended family


Anyone who loves a funny and heartwarming read-aloudĚý


Fans of classic books about families, like Todd Parr's The Family BookĚý

]]> 40 Christina Shawn 1797213601 Gwen 5 5.00 And Then Came You: When Families Grow, Love Grows Too
author: Christina Shawn
name: Gwen
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
This children’s book kept my attention as an adult…the words just flowed and I could not wait to hear what would happen next with a little girl’s growing family! Christina Shawn is a master at words, choosing the perfect ones to be concise, yet, emotionally powerful, and they even rhyme! The illustrations are beautiful and whimsical and fun! I’d highly recommend this book for any child who is feeling hesitant about a new person (step-parent, baby) or pet being added to the family.
]]> Meet Me Under the Mistletoe 61486279 A city bookshop owner heads to the English countryside for a holiday reunion—only to face her childhood enemy.

Elinor Noel—Nory for short—is quite content running her secondhand bookshop in London. Forever torn between her working-class upbringing and her classmates� extravagant lifestyles at the posh private school she attended on scholarship, Nory has finally figured out how to keep both at equal distance. So when two of her oldest friends invite their whole gang to spend the time leading up to their wedding together at the castle near their old school, Nory must prepare herself for an emotionally complicated few days.

The reunion brings back fond memories, but also requires Nory to dodge an ill-advised former fling. When she falls quite literally into the arms of Isaac, the castle’s head gardener, who has nothing but contempt for the "snobby prep school kids," the attraction between them is undeniable. And as Nory spends more time with Isaac during the wedding festivities, she finds herself falling hard for the boy she used to consider an enemy. Nory and Isaac explore their common ground, but pressures mount on all sides, and Nory must decide what kind of life she wants to live and what sort of love is worth the riskĚý.Ěý.Ěý.]]> 429 Jenny Bayliss 0593422236 Gwen 1 3.47 2022 Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
author: Jenny Bayliss
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
Ugh…I bought this one and another of the author’s because I enjoyed The Twelve Dates of Christmas, but it was so boring from the start, similar to my experience with A Season of Second Chances, I had to DNF about a third of the way through.
]]> If the Fates Allow 59222663 After a long, lonely year, two people stumble toward each other in this holiday short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl.

Social distancing came easily to Reagan. Maybe a little too easily. She’s always liked people better from afar. But Reagan doesn’t want her grandpa to be alone for Christmas this year—he’s already spent too much time on his own in 2020. So she heads back to her hometown with a dish of holiday Jell-O salad, hoping they can have a little normalcy. Hoping it will be safe�

She isn’t expecting to run into the boy next door. Mason is all grown up now. He’s considerate. He’s funny. He doesn’t mind how prickly Reagan is—he maybe even likes it. And it makes Reagan feel like her defenses are falling. She needs her defenses, doesn’t she? In a time when six feet is close enough, how long can they keep their distance?]]> 38 Rainbow Rowell 1542034493 Gwen 3 3.46 2021 If the Fates Allow
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
Cute holiday story that takes place during the pandemic available on audio. Perfect length for my treadmill jog. 6/10.
]]> The Christmas Dress 59127369 An enchanted Christmas dress brings two generations of women together for the magic of the season in this delightful holiday story from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole.

One Dress. Two Women. The Magic of the Holiday Season.

When hopeful fashionista Meg Julliard must return to her hometown of Chicago to manage her late father’s apartment building, she thinks her dreams of making it in the fashion business are over. Add in her father’s eclectic roster of tenants who all need Meg’s attention (ASAP!), a host of building related disasters, and a handsome handyman she keeps embarrassing herself in front of, and this has all the makings for the worst Christmas she’s ever had.

Ellie Wade, one of the building’s longtime residents, is also not feeling the Christmas Joy this year. She is preparing to move into a nursing home (reluctantly), and is in the process of sorting through her belongings to downsize. Every corner of her apartment holds memories, some good, some bad. But there’s one dress she hesitates to pack up as it represents both the best and worst night of her life.

Ellie and Meg strike up an unlikely friendship and the story of Ellie’s dress comes out. Ellie gifts the gorgeous dress to Meg, hoping that it will bring her more luck, on the condition that she wear it to the building’s Christmas party.

The dress magically fits, and while it eventually leads to the best night of Meg’s life, it also acts as inspiration for Meg to follow a life-long dream of her own, a dream that will help save the crumbling Parkview West, and restore it to its former glory, and keep it as a safe home for all of the current tenants.

The dress and the magic of the holiday season helps both Meg and Ellie find their own happy endings.Ěý±Ő±Ő> 347 Courtney Cole 0063099861 Gwen 2 4.21 2021 The Christmas Dress
author: Courtney Cole
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves:
review:
Cute story, but a bit far fetched. 4/10.
]]> To Die For 62920918 “I thoroughly enjoyed this most suspenseful, intriguing and entertaining story� It definitely had Big Little Lies vibes!� —Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond

From bestselling author Lisa Gray comes a thrilling tale of a cutthroat contest for the ultimate house-selling commission� one million dollars.

In the elite world of luxury real estate, it is often kill or be killed, something agent Andi Hart knows all too well—and after recent events, she’s ready to set her own rules. So when her boss challenges the team to find a buyer for a glitzy Malibu beach house, with a prize commission of a cool $1 million, she knows it’s her ticket to a new life.

But she’s not the only one who not only wants but needs the money. Each of her four colleagues has secrets they’re eager to hide—secrets $1 million would go a long way in concealing. And soon, it becomes clear all five would do just about anything to get their hands on it�

When a dead body is found at the open house, the dream home becomes a nightmarish crime scene. Has the contest reached a deadly new level, or is there something more sinister at work?]]> 329 Lisa Gray 1542035325 Gwen 0 to-read 3.96 2023 To Die For
author: Lisa Gray
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Christmas Book Hunt 220506847
A Christmas mission�

Mirren’s beloved great-aunt Violet is seriously ill. Her one Christmas wish is to be reunited with a long-lost hand-illustrated book from her childhood, a challenge Mirren gladly accepts to give Violet some much-needed festive cheer.

An enchanting journey�

With no sign of the cherished volume online, Mirren falls into the fascinating world of rare books. From London to snowy Hay-on-Wye and Edinburgh’s cobbled streets, she chases leads from bookshop to bookshop—and bumps into mysterious, charming Theo, who, unbeknownst to her, is searching for the same book for reasons of his own�

The start of a new chapter?

As the two join forces to track the book down before time runs out for Violet, will Mirren find her Christmas miracle—and maybe even a kiss under the mistletoe� ?

For fans of Josie Silver, Jill Mansell and the Queen of Christmas herself, a snow-swept love story to warm even the coldest winter’s day.]]> 127 Jenny Colgan 1662522576 Gwen 4 3.73 2024 The Christmas Book Hunt
author: Jenny Colgan
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves:
review:
Very cute Christmas short story that kept my attention! 8.5/10.
]]> Christmas by the Book 58587222 “A heartfelt and lovely Christmas tale for book lovers everywhere!”—Jenny Colgan, author ofĚýThe Bookshop on the Shore
Ěý
In small-town England, two booksellers facing tough times decide to spread some Christmas cheer through the magic of anonymous book deliveries in this uplifting holiday tale for book lovers everywhere.

Nora and her husband, Simon, have run the beautiful oak-beamed book shop in their small British village for thirty years. But times are tough and the shop is under threat of closure--this Christmas season will really decide their fate. When an elderly man visits the store and buys the one book they've never been able to sell, saying it's the perfect gift for his sick grandson, it gives Nora an idea. She and Simon will send out books to those feeling down this Christmas. Maybe they can't save their bookstore, but at least they'll have one final chance to lift people's spirits through the power of reading.

After gathering nominations online, Nora and Simon quietly deliver books to six residents of the village in need of some festive cheer, including a single dad of twins who is working hard to make ends meet, a teenage boy grieving for his big sister, a local Member of Parliament who is battling depression, and a teacher who's newly retired and living on her own. As the town prepares for a white Christmas, the books begin to give the recipients hope, one by one. But with the future of the bookshop still up in the air, Nora and Simon will need a Christmas miracle--or perhaps a little help from the people whose lives they've touched--to find a happy ending of their own....

]]> 320 Anne Marie Ryan 0593331257 Gwen 4 4.00 Christmas by the Book
author: Anne Marie Ryan
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves:
review:
Very cute Christmas book! It was a little slow at the beginning but once I got into it about a third of the way in, it as very good! 8.75/10.
]]> One Big Happy Family 204906189 Please don’t come home for Christmas�

Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s not exactly heartbroken when they ask to skip a big Christmas. Her son, Nick, is taking a belated honeymoon with his bride, Blair, while her daughter, Dana, will purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie feels practically giddy for one-on-one holiday time with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.

But her plans go from cozy to chaotic when Nick and Dana plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their late father, Julie’s ex. She can’t refuse, even though she dreads their reactions to her new man when they realize she’s been hiding him for months.

As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s precocious children, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this delightfully complicated and very funny Christmas, she’ll discover that more really is merrier, and that a big, happy family can become bigger and happier, if they let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.]]> 320 Susan Mallery 1335006303 Gwen 5 3.64 2024 One Big Happy Family
author: Susan Mallery
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves:
review:
I loved this Christmas book! Lots of festive fun and interesting characters and relationships! Heart-warming, and humorous at times…Chapter 15 had me in stitches! 9/10.
]]> Hold Tight 2177236
Meanwhile, browsing through an online memorial for Spencer put together by his classmates, Betsy Hill is struck by a photo that appears to have been taken on the night of her son's death and he wasn't alone. She thinks it is Adam Baye standing just outside the camera's range; but when Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community. For Tia and Mike Baye, the question they must answer is this: when it comes to your kids, is it possible to know too much?]]> 416 Harlan Coben Gwen 0 currently-reading 3.94 2008 Hold Tight
author: Harlan Coben
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Woods 43931
Paul Copeland's sister was one of the missing teenagers. Now raising a daughter alone after the death of his wife, he balances family life with a career as a prosecutor. But when a body is found, the well-buried secrets of the past threaten everything.

Could the victim be one of the missing teenagers? Could his sister be alive? Copeland has to confront so much he left behind that summer twenty years ago: his first love, Lucy; his mother, who abandoned the family; and the secrets that his parents have been hiding ...]]> 404 Harlan Coben 0525950125 Gwen 0 currently-reading 4.03 2007 The Woods
author: Harlan Coben
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Unsteady (The Undone, #1) 198853583
During last year’s Frozen Four, the Waterfell University hockey captain, and NHL legacy, took a brutal hit that left him with a concussion and a new discomfort on the ice. Plagued by nightmares and panic attacks every time he attempt to skate, Rhys wonders if he’ll ever play again � if he’ll ever want to.

Sadie Brown is staying focused this semester � no matter what.

Currently drowning in debt, custody hearings for her younger brothers and skating practices, she's just trying to make it to the next day. A spitfire figure skater known for her bad attitude and frequent disappearing acts, she has a reputation on campus. And it’s not a pretty one.

When she accidentally witnesses one of the golden boy hockey captain’s panic attacks and attempts to help him, a strange sort of understanding strikes up between them.

No questions asked. Just comfort.

But Rhys finds himself drawn to Sadie. Where he feels empty, a shell of the man and player he was before, Sadie is so full of everything it bursts from her; every emotion she feels seems like it’s blasted at max. Rhys is desperate to feel anything, Sadie wants to stop feeling so much.

But healing doesn’t mix with secrets, and they’re both skating a thin line, unsteady .]]> 384 Peyton Corinne Gwen 0 currently-reading 3.82 2023 Unsteady (The Undone, #1)
author: Peyton Corinne
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How My Neighbor Stole Christmas]]> 211148021 A new holiday enemies-to-lovers romance from USA Today bestselling author Meghan Quinn.

Every Kringle in Kringletown celebrated Christmas a lot.

But Cole Black on Whistler Lane, unfortunately, did not.

As his fellow citizens decorate their quaint town, brimming with carols and glad tidings, Cole wants nothing more than to hibernate the winter away. But his dreary plans are thwarted when his Christmas nemesis, Storee Taylor, moves in next door to care for her Aunt Cindy. Immediately, the new neighbor turns his life into a real nightmare before Christmas, especially when she decides to enter the town Christmas Kringle contest in honor of Cindy. And better yet, Storee is determined to win.

Over Cole's dead body, she will. With help from his friend Max, Cole decides to enter the competition as well, to beat Storee at her own game by pretending that this hometown grump's heart has grown three sizes this season and he's fallen for the girl next door. And unfortunately for Storee, she has to follow his lead to have a chance at the Christmas Kringle title.

But the competition isn't the only thing that heats up. Cole and Storee's fake relationship becomes very real, and before they know it, they're attempting to hide it from Aunt Cindy. Things get complicated, the competition gets tough, and all it takes is one single night for someone to steal it all…]]> 480 Meghan Quinn 1464230153 Gwen 1 3.64 2024 How My Neighbor Stole Christmas
author: Meghan Quinn
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
review:
I was looking forward to this book, but I’m going to have to DNF at 13%, so bored and the grinchy rhymes at the beginning of chapters look like they would be fun, but are so bad. I just can’t.
]]> The Matzah Ball 56383019 Oy! to the world

Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach.

But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg.

Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.]]> 416 Jean Meltzer 0778311589 Gwen 5 3.59 2021 The Matzah Ball
author: Jean Meltzer
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves:
review:
I loved this Hanukkah book, very cute! And as someone who grew up observing Jewish and Christian customs, and who holds Jewish religious beliefs, but enjoys celebrating all things Christmas, I can relate! 9.25/10.
]]> Magical Meet Cute 198264665 Is he the real deal…or did she truly summon a golem?

Faye Kaplan used to be engaged. She also used to have a successful legal practice. But she much prefers her new life as a potter in Woodstock, New York. The only thing missing is the perfect guy.

Not that she needs one. She’s definitely happy alone.

That is, until she finds her town papered with anti-Semitic flyers after yet another failed singles event at the synagogue. Desperate for comfort, Faye drunkenly turns to the only thing guaranteed to soothe her—pottery. A golem protector is just what her town needs…and adding all the little details to make him her ideal man can’t hurt, right?

When a seriously hot stranger mysteriously turns up the next day, Greg seems too good to be true—if you ignore the fact that Faye hit him with her bike. And that he subsequently lost his memory�

But otherwise, the man checks Every. Single. Box. Causing Faye to wonder if Greg’s sudden and spicy appearance might be anything but a coincidence.]]> 400 Jean Meltzer 0778334414 Gwen 0 to-read 3.49 2024 Magical Meet Cute
author: Jean Meltzer
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Kissing Kosher 62325757
Avital Cohen isn’t wearing underpants—woefully, for unsexy reasons. Chronic pelvic pain has forced her to sideline her photography dreams and her love life. It’s all she can do to manage her family’s kosher bakery, Best Babka in Brooklyn, without collapsing.

She needs hired help.

And distractingly handsome Ethan Lippmann seems the perfect fit.

Except Ethan isn’t there to work—he’s undercover, at the behest of his ironfisted grandfather. Though Lippmann’s is a household name when it comes to mass-produced kosher baked goods, they don’t have the charm of Avital’s bakery. Or her grandfather’s world-famous pumpkin spiceĚýbabka recipe.

As they bake side by side, Ethan soon finds himself more interested in Avital than in stealing family secrets, especially as he helps her find the chronic pain relief—and pleasure—she’s been missing.

But perfecting the recipe for romance calls for leaving out the lies…even if coming clean means risking everything.
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 432 Jean Meltzer 0778334406 Gwen 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Kissing Kosher
author: Jean Meltzer
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mr. Perfect on Paper 59411914 From the author of The Matzah Ball comes a pitch-perfect romcom following a third-generation Jewish matchmaker who unwittingly finds her own search for love thrust into the spotlight...

The perfect Jewish husband should be:
* A doctor or lawyer (preferably a doctor)
* Baggage-free (no previous marriages, no children)
* And of course—he must be Jewish


As the creator and CEO of the popular Jewish dating app J-Mate, matchmaker Dara Rabinowitz knows the formula for lasting love—at least, for everyone else. When it comes to her own love life, she’s been idling indefinitely. Until her beloved bubbe shares Dara’s checklist for “The Perfect Jewish Husband� on national television and charming news anchor Chris Steadfast proposes they turn Dara’s search into must-see TV.

As a non-Jewish single dad, Chris doesn’t check any of Dara’s boxes. But her hunt for Mr. Perfect is the ratings boost his show desperately needs. If only Chris could ignore his own pesky attraction to Dara—a task much easier said than done when Dara starts questioning if “perfect on paper� can compete with how hard she’s falling for Chris…]]> 387 Jean Meltzer 0778386872 Gwen 0 to-read 3.67 2022 Mr. Perfect on Paper
author: Jean Meltzer
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #5)]]> 220389090
All Evie Cruz wants for Christmas is a nap. And maybe some ornaments for her naked Christmas tree. And while she’s making a list, she wouldn’t mind unwrapping her sexy upstairs neighbor like a present. Luckily, the building’s Santa-themed party and a surprise sprig of mistletoe give her just the opening she needs to make all her wishes come true.

Alexis Daria’s Only Santas in the Building is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 65 Alexis Daria 1662529376 Gwen 2 3.36 2024 Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #5)
author: Alexis Daria
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves:
review:
This was not a good Amazon series for overall. 3.5/10.
]]> <![CDATA[Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4)]]> 220389457
When Everleigh Dangerfield’s baking disaster necessitates a call to 911, firefighter Griffin Brantley douses the flames in the kitchen, but the ones he stokes in Everleigh are an entirely different story. Unfortunately, Everleigh’s only visiting and doesn’t do casual hookups, no matter how smoldering the temptation. But Everleigh’s holiday mishaps have just begun. And Griffin is seemingly always on call. If Everleigh is game for a change of plans, he can give her the merriest Christmas of her life.

Alexandria Bellefleur’s Merriment and Mayhem is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 58 Alexandria Bellefleur 1662529341 Gwen 1 Not good. 2/10. 3.28 2024 Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4)
author: Alexandria Bellefleur
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves:
review:
Not good. 2/10.
]]> <![CDATA[All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #3)]]> 220389455
Nina and William are underpaid adjunct professors at the same university, where winter break is no break at all: ’tis the season to make extra money. When their holiday side hustle has them stranded by a blinding blizzard in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing to do but cuddle up for warmth and play a game of Never Have I Ever to pass the time. But in the game of love, secrets never stay secret for long�

Olivia Dade’s All by My Elf is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 55 Olivia Dade 166252823X Gwen 2 2.58 2024 All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #3)
author: Olivia Dade
name: Gwen
average rating: 2.58
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves:
review:
Not very good, but I liked that it was set in Virginia! 3/10.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mistletoe Inn (Mistletoe #2)]]> 25205404 The second holiday love story in New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans' Mistletoe Collection.

At thirty-two Kimberly Rossetti, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements, a divorce and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Burlington, VT. Deep inside Kimberly knows she's at a junction in her life and it's time to either fulfill her dream or let it go. The other reason she decides to attend the conference is because famed romance writer, H.T. Cowell, once the best selling romance writer in America, and the author whose books instilled in her the desire to be a writer, will be speaking in public for the first time in more than a decade.

In one of her breakout sessions Kimberly meets another aspiring writer, and one of the few men at the conference, Zeke, an intelligent man with a wry wit who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. As Zeke helps her to discover why her books fail to live up to their potential she begins to wonder if he's really talking more about her life than her literature. But as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he's unwilling to talk about.

The theme of The Mistletoe Inn is that like literature, relationships must be lived with passion and vulnerability to succeed.]]> 300 Richard Paul Evans 1501119796 Gwen 0 to-read 3.91 2015 The Mistletoe Inn (Mistletoe #2)
author: Richard Paul Evans
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mistletoe Secret (Mistletoe #3)]]> 29430782 _______________
New York Times bestselling author and master of the holiday novel Richard Paul Evans presents the moving story of two people who brave loneliness and loss to find love.

Dear Universe,
Is anyone out there?

Thinking no one is reading, a blogger who calls herself LBH writes about her most personal feelings, especially her overwhelming loneliness. She goes from day to day showing a brave face to the world while inside she longs to know how it would feel if one person cared about her.

Alex Bartlett cares. He’s reading her posts in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nursing his own broken heart and trust issues, he finds himself falling for this sensitive, vulnerable woman whose feelings mirror his own. Following a trail of clues LBH has inadvertently revealed, he discovers that she lives in the small town of Midway, Utah. He makes his way there just after Thanksgiving, determined to find LBH. Maybe she’s a Lisa, Lori, or a Luanne. Instead, he finds a woman named Aria, a waitress at the Mistletoe Diner, who encourages Alex in his search while serving his pie along with some much-needed sympathy and companionship.

Alex finally finds his LBH, a woman who is as beautiful and kind as he imagined she would be. How can he tell her that he knows her secret? What’s holding him back? Could it be his feelings for Aria?]]> 320 Richard Paul Evans 1501119818 Gwen 0 to-read 3.87 2016 The Mistletoe Secret (Mistletoe #3)
author: Richard Paul Evans
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mistletoe Promise (Mistletoe #1)]]> 23058989 A love story for Christmas from the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box and The Walk.

Elise Dutton dreads the arrival of another holiday season. Three years earlier, her husband cheated on her with her best friend, resulting in a bitter divorce that left her alone, broken, and distrustful.

Then, one November day, a stranger approaches Elise in the mall food court. Though she recognizes the man from her building, Elise has never formally met him. Tired of spending the holidays alone, the man offers her a proposition. For the next eight weeks—until the evening of December 24—he suggests that they pretend to be a couple. He draws up a contract with four rules:

1. No deep, probing personal questions
2. No drama
3. No telling anyone the truth about the relationship
4. The contract is void on Christmas Day

The lonely Elise surprises herself by agreeing to the idea. As the charade progresses, the safety of her fake relationship begins to mend her badly broken heart. But just as she begins to find joy again, her long-held secret threatens to unravel the emerging relationship. But she might not be the only one with secrets.]]> 219 Richard Paul Evans Gwen 4 4.18 2014 The Mistletoe Promise (Mistletoe #1)
author: Richard Paul Evans
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves:
review:
Enjoyable Christmas book with some sad themes that can be read in one sitting! I’m pretty sure I’ve read this in before. 8/10.
]]> Pictures of You 197156017 If you knew then what you know now, would you make the same choices? Imagine having a second chance with the one you never forgot.

From the author of the global breakout bestseller The Last Love Note comes the story of a young woman struggling to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragic accident, and the man who gives up everything to help her.

When Evie Hudson wakes in an unfamiliar hospital room, she thinks she’s fresh out of a teenage party with her best friend, Bree. Except, Bree isn’t around anymore and high school was years ago. Evie had just survived the crash that killed her husband, Oliver—whom she can't remember either. After suffering a traumatic loss of memory, she’s left to connect the dots. But how?

Drew, a promising photographer whose chance encounter with Evie unravels the elusive details of her marriage and her husband’s death. As Drew watches Evie stitch the story of her life together, secrets emerge that might shatter both of their worlds.

This tangled second-chance romance leads Evie to question every decision she ever made. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed–and the life she gets to choose...again.]]> 416 Emma Grey 195850646X Gwen 0 to-read 4.01 2024 Pictures of You
author: Emma Grey
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Twelve Dates of Christmas 50608051 'Tis the season for finding romance in this hilarious and uplifting holiday read

When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say "Bah, humbug." The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn't exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate's found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt's neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three days until Christmas. Twelve dates with twelve different men. The odds must finally be in her favor . . . right?

Yet with each new date more disastrous than the one before--and the whole town keeping tabs on her misadventures--Kate must remind herself that sometimes love, like mistletoe, shows up where it's least expected. And maybe, just maybe, it's been right under her nose all along. . . .]]> 320 Jenny Bayliss Gwen 5 3.54 2020 The Twelve Dates of Christmas
author: Jenny Bayliss
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves:
review:
I loved this Christmas book! Yes, the ending was predictable, but the journey from beginning to end was still fun and entertaining. Several laugh out loud moments, and lots and lots of Christmas atmosphere in a small England town. Read with a glass of mulled wine by the fire! 9.25/10 (as compared with other Christmas books),
]]> A December to Remember 75670216 Three bickering half sisters. One unique antiques shop. The coziest holiday season of their lives.

Wildly different half sisters Maggie, Simone, and Star have hardly seen one another since their sprightly summers at Rowan Thorp, their eccentric father Augustus’s home. Known for his bustling approach to the knick-knack shop he ran, Augustus was loved by all and known by none, not even his daughters.

Now, years later, the three estranged women are called upon for the reading of Augustus’s will and quickly realize he's orchestrated a series of hoops through which they must jump to unlock their inheritance—the last thing any of them want to do. But Maggie and Star desperately need the money. And who would Simone be to resist?Ěý

Through hilarious goose chases, small-town mishaps, and one heart-warming winter solstice celebration, love, hope, and reconcilation is in the air, if only the three sisters can let themselves grasp it.]]> 413 Jenny Bayliss 0593422244 Gwen 0 to-read 3.68 2023 A December to Remember
author: Jenny Bayliss
name: Gwen
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Christmas with the Queen 199531640
December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue in the tradition of her late father and grandfather’s beloved Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must move with the times, and the Queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.Ěý

As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, two old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—find themselves reunited for the festivities. A single mother, typist at the BBC, and aspiring reporter, Olive leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, despite self-doubts. When a chance encounter with the Queen presents an exciting opportunity, Olive begins to believe her luck might change.Ěý

Jack, a grief-stricken widowed chef originally from New Orleans, accepts a last-minute chance to cook in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. When he bumps into a long-lost friend, an old spark is reignited.

Despite personal and professional heartache, Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmas seasons and they find themselves growing ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret.Ěý

Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, Olive decides to reveal the shocking truth of her secret, which threatens to tear her and Jack apart forever.ĚýUnless Christmas has one last gift to deliver…Ěý±Ő±�> 384 Hazel Gaynor 0063276216 Gwen 4
Thank you very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.]]> 4.00 2024 Christmas with the Queen
author: Hazel Gaynor
name: Gwen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:
I loved the history in this book, so much so that I after reading it, I did further research and watched a compilation of snippets from Queen Elizabeth’s annual Christmas broadcast from 1957-2021, the first of which is highlighted in this story. I enjoyed the alternating narration between Olive, Jack, and the Queen. I was not quite as interested in the love story between Olive and Jack in this book. I would recommend it! 8.5/10.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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