Jory's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 07 Apr 2025 19:52:21 -0700 60 Jory's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[First Comes Love (Hot Water, California #1)]]> 11101 There's a saying around the town of Hot Water, California: "Wilder women don't wed." When the town was founded, the Wilders ran the local house of ill repute...nowadays they're still known for there naughty ways.

But Kitty Wilder has decided that it's time for all that to change!

Kitty Wilder longed for a little respectability, so eight years ago she finagled an "I do" out of local hero Dylan Matthews. The ceremony was only supposed tobe a tourist attraction sham, but a loophole made it legal ... a little fact she'd "conveniently" neglected to share until Dylan came storming back into her life.

How could he be married and not even know it? As an FBI agent, Dylan thought he'd seen it all, but this was outrageous. Kitty is still gorgeous, appealing, and even she deserves more than the toughened man he had become. But before Dylan can accept the powerful emotions he has for this unexpected wife he has to first face down the demons of his past...

]]> 384 Christie Ridgway 0380818957 Jory 0 to-read 3.82 2002 First Comes Love (Hot Water, California #1)
author: Christie Ridgway
name: Jory
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Homerun Proposal (Orleans University, #1)]]> 198794362 Except, my proposal went to the wrong brother.
It was supposed to go to my best friend, but as fate would have it, it fell into the hands of his infuriatingly hot, irritatingly charming older brother.
Lane Collins is Orleans University's All-Star baseball captain.
Cocky pitcher. Player on and off the field. The life of every party.
And the same guy I’ve crushed on in secret since we were kids.
He’s always been out of my league.
That is until he signs the dotted line on a proposal that wasn’t meant for him, and offers to teach me� everything.
The one and only condition?
We walk away once everything’s checked off.

Easier said than done when my heart is involved.
Now, it’s a whole new ballgame.]]> 364 Maren Moore Jory 0 currently-reading, audiobooks 3.79 2023 Homerun Proposal (Orleans University, #1)
author: Maren Moore
name: Jory
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: currently-reading, audiobooks
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)]]> 6853
She’s a product of the “burg,� a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Out of work and out of money, Stephanie blackmails her bail-bondsman cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, el-primo bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook. Her first nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli’s the inamorato who charmed Stephanie out of her virginity at age sixteen. There’s still powerful chemistry between them, so the chase should be interesting…and could also be extremely dangerous.]]> 320 Janet Evanovich 0312362080 Jory 4 audiobooks 4.05 1994 One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Jory
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: audiobooks
review:
On a whim I decided that I was going to reread the Stephanie Plum series. I've been going through a lot of shit lately, and I really need some fluff to brighten up my days. These books definitely do the trick. I know they get repetitive the later on you read, but I will definitely push my way through. Why, you ask? Two Words: Joseph Morelli. I loved Morelli when I first read this book in high school and I still love Morelli now.
]]> <![CDATA[Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories]]> 2282 162 Truman Capote 067960085X Jory 0 to-read 3.87 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories
author: Truman Capote
name: Jory
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1958
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hooked (Never After, #1) 58545703 From USA Today bestselling author Emily McIntire comes a dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining of Peter Pan.

He wants revenge, but he wants her more�

James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter’s twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James’s bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge. It’s the perfect plan, until things in James’s organization begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.

Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy can’t seem to shake her desire for him. But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she’s falling for the man known as James or the monster known as Hook.

Hooked is a dark contemporary romance and the first complete standalone in the Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales where the villains get the happy ever after. It is not a literal retelling and not fantasy. Hooked features mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised. For all content warnings, check the author's website. ]]> 312 Emily McIntire 173750832X Jory 0 on-the-kindle, to-read 3.78 2021 Hooked (Never After, #1)
author: Emily McIntire
name: Jory
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: on-the-kindle, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Up to No Gouda (Grilled Cheese Mysteries, #1)]]> 57599035 The first in a delicious new culinary cozy series featuring a grilled cheese eatery owner who must solve murders in her small town before she is put under lock and brie

Back in Balsam Dell to heal after the death of her husband, Carly Hale is finally pursuing her lifelong dream—opening Carly's Grilled Cheese Eatery. After only five months, business is booming as Vermont vacationers and townspeople alike flock to lunch on her Party Havartis and other grilled cheese concoctions. All but Lyle Bagley, Carly's one-time high school boyfriend and now town bully who just bought the building that houses her eatery and wants Carly out. After a muenster of a fight, Carly's forced to put her nose to the rind and find a solution to keep her business afloat.

That is...until Lyle is discovered dead behind the dumpster of Carly's shop, and one of her employees becomes the prime suspect. In order to save her eatery and prove her friend's innocence, Carly must sleuth out the killer before she's the one who gets grilled.

With a delightful cast of characters, an inventive amateur sleuth, and a whole host of cheesy hijinks, Up to No Gouda is the perfect cozy murder mystery to melt into.]]> 312 Linda Reilly 1728238323 Jory 0 physical, to-read 3.86 2022 Up to No Gouda (Grilled Cheese Mysteries, #1)
author: Linda Reilly
name: Jory
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: physical, to-read
review:

]]> Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1) 204593914 Welcome to Phantasma. There are only two rules to the game: Stay alive. And don’t fall in love.

When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize—a single wish.

Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.

Every day the house creates new monsters. But just as Ophelia’s fears threaten to overwhelm her, a mysterious stranger offers her a bargain.

Charming, arrogant and infuriatingly attractive, Blackwell claims he can guide her through the lethal trials ahead. All he asks in return is ten years of her life.

Ophelia knows she shouldn’t trust him. Blackwell doesn’t seem dangerous, but appearances can be deceptive. Worse still, she feels a dark and irresistible attraction drawing them closer and closer.

Her life is on the line. But in Phantasma, the only thing deadlier than losing the game is losing your heart . . .]]> 497 Kaylie Smith 1538769255 Jory 0 to-read 4.05 2024 Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1)
author: Kaylie Smith
name: Jory
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wicked Ride (Realm Enforcers, #1)]]> 23403599 If you love the Dark Protectors, these wicked hot Realm Enforcers are for you!

Alexandra Monzelle is a hard-fighting, heat-packing Seattle vice cop, and she’s not much interested in being protected. Her short skirt and sex-kitten heels are tools to lure her suspects into talking about the deadly new drug hitting the streets. She can take care of herself and then some. Unfortunately, she can’t seem to get that through to Kellach Dunne.

Kellach is a fresh import from Dublin, and he’s landed at the heart of a vicious motorcycle club that deals in guns, narcotics, and mayhem. He’s all male, all rough power—and all interference in her damn investigation. Maybe he’s one of the good guys. Maybe not. Lex knows an affair with an immortal like him would risk everything. No matter how delicious he looks…]]> 279 Rebecca Zanetti 1601834136 Jory 0 to-read 4.11 2015 Wicked Ride (Realm Enforcers, #1)
author: Rebecca Zanetti
name: Jory
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Good Game (The System, #1) 196240065 They said never fall for the bad boy.

Stevie Andwell would rather poke her eye out with her Louboutin heel than get back together with her cheating ex-boyfriend. In fact, she would much rather celebrate her newly single life by getting down and dirty with one of the most famous video game streamers of this generation. Sure, she has no idea who Blade is—his identity is hidden behind the mask he wears—but it’s just one night of fun. No harm, no foul. Right?

Wrong .

Because Blade is Aleksander Knight, the tattooed bad boy Stevie is currently falling for. Aleksander can’t risk his identity being discovered…but the closer he gets to Stevie, the harder it becomes to keep his secret. If he’s not careful, it’ll be Game Over.

**

GOOD GAME is the first novel in The System series, which follows three rich and famous video game streamers as they fall in love. Each book is a standalone romance and contains explicit spicy scenes. A happily ever after is always guaranteed, and there is no cheating! (Well, except for Stevie’s ex�)]]> 406 Madison Fox Jory 0 to-read 3.84 2023 Good Game (The System, #1)
author: Madison Fox
name: Jory
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Six Feet Deep Dish (Deep Dish Mysteries, #1)]]> 59808162
Delilah O’Leary can’t wait to open her new gourmet deep-dish pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin―a charming resort town with a long history as a mobsters� hideaway, millionaires� playground, and vacation mecca. Engaged to a hunk with a hefty trust fund, Delilah is poised to begin a life that’s just about as delicious as one of her cheesy creations.

Just before opening night, though, Delilah’s plans for pizza perfection hit the skids when her fiancé dumps her and leaves her with a very large memento from their relationship―Butterball, their spoiled, plus-sized tabby cat.

Delilah’s trouble deepens when she discovers a dead body and finds her elderly aunt holding the murder weapon. Handsome local police detective Calvin Capone, great grandson of the legendary gangster, opens an investigation, threatening to sink Delilah’s pie-in-the-sky ambitions before they can even get off the ground. To save her aunt and get her pizza place generating some dough, Delilah must deliver the real killer.]]> 320 Mindy Quigley 1250792436 Jory 0 to-read 3.79 2022 Six Feet Deep Dish (Deep Dish Mysteries, #1)
author: Mindy Quigley
name: Jory
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cherry Pie or Die (Baker Street Mysteries #1)]]> 37775961 A traumatic life event sends Georgie Tanner back to her hometown to start over at thirty-one-years-old and a certified hot mess. Gainesville, Pennsylvania is as American as apple pie, steeped in rich Revolutionary history, Amish settlements, ghost stories, and colonial manors, and Georgie’s new job as a historical tour guide gives her a safe, no pressure place to begin again. Nothing could go wrong in such a sleepy, picturesque little town, right?

Her first guided tour of the Three Maidens� Manor battle site and museum proves her deathly wrong. When the power goes out mid-commentary, she has enough to handle keeping everyone calm. Until the power returns and she discovers she now has not only six panicked guests, but a mysterious dead guy to deal with.

Which one of them committed murder? And, more importantly, why is she the next target?

This small town mystery series is also available in large print paperback.]]> 344 CeeCee James Jory 0 to-read 4.13 Cherry Pie or Die (Baker Street Mysteries #1)
author: CeeCee James
name: Jory
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Live and Let Chai (Seaside Café Mystery, #1)]]> 36348876 The first book in a delightful new beachside cozy mystery series!

Trouble is brewing in Everly's new café. Can she bag the culprit?

Life hasn't been so sweet for Everly Swan over the past couple of years, but now that she is back in her seaside hometown and the proud owner of a little iced tea shop and café right on the beach, things are finally starting to look up--until a curmudgeonly customer turns up dead on the boardwalk. With one of her hallmark glass tea jars lying right next to him and an autopsy that reports poison in his system, it doesn't look good for Everly or her brand new business.

As the townspeople of Charm, formerly so welcoming and homey, turn their back on Everly, she fights to dig up clues about who could have had it in for the former town councilman. With a maddeningly handsome detective discouraging her from uncovering leads and a series of anonymous attacks on Everly and her business, it will take everything she's got to keep this mystery from boiling over.]]> 346 Bree Baker 1492664758 Jory 0 to-read 3.85 2018 Live and Let Chai (Seaside Café Mystery, #1)
author: Bree Baker
name: Jory
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death on Tap (Sloan Krause #1)]]> 33602125
But just as Sloan is settling in to her new gig, she finds one of Nitro’s competitors dead in the fermenting tub, clutching the secret recipe for the IPA. When Mac, is arrested, Sloan knows that her ex might be a cheater, but a murderer? No way. Danger is brewing in Beervaria and suddenly Sloan is on the case.]]> 310 Ellie Alexander 1250108632 Jory 0 to-read 3.75 2018 Death on Tap (Sloan Krause #1)
author: Ellie Alexander
name: Jory
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples]]> 46188 336 Harville Hendrix 0743495926 Jory 0 to-read 4.04 2005 Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples
author: Harville Hendrix
name: Jory
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Does It Hurt? 60034351
I've forgotten the answer to that question long ago. Ever since I ran from that house, so desperate to escape, I left with only the clothes on my back and socks on my feet. After that day, I've only ever walked in stolen shoes.

Could I be a girl who is searching for the meaning of life in faceless men? They were all so forgettable. Until he came along. He took me under a waterfall and made me forget my name, and in return, I took his instead.

Enzo Vitale.

An enigmatic man that will only ever love the deep sea. Or rather the predators that inhabit it. Turns out, he's not so different than the monsters he feeds. He lured me onto his boat like a fish in the ocean, seeking vengeance for my crime. Had I realized his intentions, and that a massive storm would leave us shipwrecked, I would've ran.

Now, I'm a girl who's seeking refuge in a decrepit lighthouse with a man who loathes me almost as much as he craves me. He wants to hurt me, but the old caretaker of the abandoned island may have intentions far more sinister.

It's no longer a question of who I am, but rather, will I survive?]]> 432 H.D. Carlton Jory 0 to-read 3.90 2022 Does It Hurt?
author: H.D. Carlton
name: Jory
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Devil and Mrs. Davenport 162505604 The bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure—from the living and the dead.

The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices.

Missouri, 1955. Loretta Davenport has led an isolated life as a young mother and a wife to Pete, an ambitious assistant professor at a Bible college. They’re the picture of domestic tranquillity—until a local girl is murdered and Loretta begins receiving messages from beyond. Pete dismisses them as delusions of a fevered female imagination. Loretta knows they’re real—and frightening. Defying Pete’s demands, Loretta finds an encouraging supporter in parapsychologist Dr. Curtis Hansen. He sees a woman with a rare gift, more blessing than curse.

With Dr. Hansen’s help, Loretta’s life opens up to an empowering new purpose. But for Pete, the God-fearing image he’s worked so hard to cultivate is under threat. No longer in control of his dutiful wife, he sees the Devil at work. As Loretta’s powers grow stronger and the pleading spirits beckon, Pete is determined to deliver his wife from evil. To solve the mysteries of the dead, Loretta must first save herself.]]> 347 Paulette Kennedy 1662514875 Jory 0 to-read 4.21 2024 The Devil and Mrs. Davenport
author: Paulette Kennedy
name: Jory
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bog Wife 205673392 In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.� Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.]]> 336 Kay Chronister 1640096620 Jory 0 to-read 3.59 2024 The Bog Wife
author: Kay Chronister
name: Jory
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
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review:

]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Jory 0 to-read 3.50 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Jory
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
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review:

]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Jory 0 to-read 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Jory
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> Listen for the Lie 127279000 What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.]]> 352 Amy Tintera 1250880319 Jory 0 to-read 4.07 2024 Listen for the Lie
author: Amy Tintera
name: Jory
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> If We Were Villains 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X Jory 0 to-read 4.11 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: Jory
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Graveyard Shift 203578770 Author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.

Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.]]> 144 M.L. Rio 1250356792 Jory 0 to-read 3.18 2024 Graveyard Shift
author: M.L. Rio
name: Jory
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wrong Car, Wright Guy (Wrong, Wright #1)]]> 56960326 This grumpy boss will make her pay... In the sweetest way.

I was trying to be a good friend. My bestie was dumped unceremoniously, and when I spotted his car, I felt the need to write him a quick note on the hood. You know, just a word or two about what I thought of his actions. No big deal.

Only, it wasn't her ex's car.
And it was a big deal.
A really big deal.

Because the car I'd inadvertently vandalized was none other than Tanner Wright's.

Tanner Wright, the media mogul.
Tanner Wright, the internet voted 'hottest man on earth'.
Tanner Wright, the biggest talk radio host the country has ever known.
Tanner Wright... my new boss.

I think I might be in a bit of trouble.

As with all Megan Wade books, this full length grumpy boss romance comes with her Sugar Promise. High heat, low drama, guaranteed. ]]> 234 Megan Wade Jory 0 to-read 4.02 2021 Wrong Car, Wright Guy (Wrong, Wright #1)
author: Megan Wade
name: Jory
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Vampires at Sea 221211448

A smutty, super-queer horror-comedy featuring unbridled narcissism, Vampires at Sea is a hilarious and satisfying snack!]]> 168 Lindsay Merbaum 1951971221 Jory 0 to-read 3.48 2025 Vampires at Sea
author: Lindsay Merbaum
name: Jory
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Interstellar MegaChef (Flavour Hacker, #1)]]> 207299482 Looking for your one shot to rise to the "top of the pots" in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further--you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef!

Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili... and an invitation to compete in the galaxy's most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus's austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. No one from Earth--where they're so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire--has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams. Until now.

Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks' mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she's got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.

A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food--and both their lives--forever...]]> 453 Lavanya Lakshminarayan 1837862338 Jory 0 to-read 3.54 2024 Interstellar MegaChef (Flavour Hacker, #1)
author: Lavanya Lakshminarayan
name: Jory
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery]]> 216655567 The first novel in the all-new Golden Girls Cozy Mystery Series!

When Dorothy’s obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins a gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf–themed wedding Rose is hosting.

Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche’s hot flashes. Rose’s cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can't balance the groom’s family’s snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again!

Dorothy quickly realizes she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a newfangled VHS dating service, she believes she’s found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she’ll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup.

As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place. That is until Dorothy’s date is found dead—face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It’s up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!]]> 292 Rachel Ekstrom Courage 1368102972 Jory 0 to-read 3.67 2025 Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery
author: Rachel Ekstrom Courage
name: Jory
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Women's Hotel 199793688 From the New York Times bestselling author and advice columnist, a poignant and funny debut novel about the residents of a women’s hotel in 1960s New York City.

The Beidermeier might be several rungs lower on the ladder than the real-life Barbizon, but its residents manage to occupy one another nonetheless. There’s Katherine, the first-floor manager, lightly cynical and more than lightly suggestible. There’s Lucianne, a workshy party girl caught between the love of comfort and an instinctive bridling at convention, Kitty the sponger, Ruth the failed hairdresser, and Pauline the typesetter. And there’s Stephen, the daytime elevator operator and part-time Cooper Union student.

The residents give up breakfast, juggle competing jobs at rival presses, abandon their children, get laid off from the telephone company, attempt to retrain as stenographers, all with the shared awareness that their days as an institution are numbered, and they’d better make the most of it while it lasts.

As trenchant as the novels of Dawn Powell and Rona Jaffe and as immersive as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Lessons in Chemistry, Women’s Hotel is a modern classic—and it is very, very funny.]]> 272 Daniel M. Lavery 0063343533 Jory 0 to-read 2.85 2024 Women's Hotel
author: Daniel M. Lavery
name: Jory
average rating: 2.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Just Don't Fall (Sweater Weather, #1; Appies, #1)]]> 196602272 Before Logan Barnes was hockey’s hottest bad boy, he was my brother’s best friend � and my first crush. Oh, yeah—and the guy who ghosted me and broke my teenage heart.

Now Logan is back in Harvest Hollow, but not willingly. Recovering from an injury (and some bad press), he’s stuck playing for our minor league team.

Which means I’ll be working with him almost daily.

As the hockey team's social media manager, it’s my job to wrangle all the guys into filming TikTok trending videos. But Logan doesn’t want to be wrangled.

Turns out � neither does my heart.

Because my old crush never died.

And when Logan becomes my accidental fake boyfriend, those old feelings flare hot enough to melt the ice.

But this is all totally one-sided. Totally fake. Isn't it?

No matter what signals he seems to be giving me or how real things start to feel, I know Logan’s not home for good.

I survived Logan leaving me once. But this time, I’m not so sure my heart will recover…]]> 334 Emma St. Clair Jory 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Just Don't Fall (Sweater Weather, #1; Appies, #1)
author: Emma St. Clair
name: Jory
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Love and Other Conspiracies 202468206 The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.
Ěý
Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.
Ěý
Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.
Ěý
As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again.]]> 367 Mallory Marlowe 0593640098 Jory 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Love and Other Conspiracies
author: Mallory Marlowe
name: Jory
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Ripper: The Enigma Of America's Serial Killer Cop]]> 54283748 596 Patrick Kendrick 1604521643 Jory 0 to-read 3.63 American Ripper: The Enigma Of America's Serial Killer Cop
author: Patrick Kendrick
name: Jory
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Vantage Point 195790637 Succession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive Gothic suspense novel about the dramatic downfall of one of America’s most affluent families.

The old-money Wieland family has it all—wealth, status, power. They’re also famously cursed. Clara and her brother Teddy grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents� tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. Fourteen years later they’ve mostly put their turbulent past to rest. Teddy has married Clara’s best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling, remote family mansion known as Vantage Point. Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate—an unnerving prospect made much worse when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part is that she doesn't remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Or are they deepfakes? Is someone trying to take down the Wielands once and for all?

Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grip on reality, but she knows the videos are only the beginning. Years ago the curse destroyed her parents. Now it’s coming for her. Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point reveals a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition that raises questions about the blurred lines between public and private personas and the nature of truth in the digital age.]]> 400 Sara Sligar 0374282293 Jory 0 to-read 3.56 2025 Vantage Point
author: Sara Sligar
name: Jory
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Puddin' (Dumplin', #2) 28269171
Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream—and to kiss her crush. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she’s more frenemy than friend. When circumstances bring the girls together over the course of a semester, they will surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing they might have more in common than they ever imagined.]]> 437 Julie Murphy 0062418408 Jory 0 to-read 4.00 2018 Puddin' (Dumplin', #2)
author: Julie Murphy
name: Jory
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Clown in a Cornfield 49209117
On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.]]> 352 Adam Cesare 0062854615 Jory 0 to-read 3.83 2020 Clown in a Cornfield
author: Adam Cesare
name: Jory
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Secrets of a Marine's Wife: A True Story of Marriage, Obsession, and Murder]]> 40122089 In Secrets of a Marine's Wife, award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Shanna Hogan tells the true story of a young Marine wife whose illicit affair ended in tragedy.

In June 2014, 19-year-old Erin Corwin was living a quiet life in Twentynine Palms, California, expecting her first child with her husband, U.S. Marine Corporal Jon Corwin—until the day she drove off into the desert and never returned. As temperatures climbed into the hundreds, friends and family teamed up with local law enforcement in a grueling search of Joshua Tree National Park. Nearly two months after her disappearance, Corwin's body was found at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft, a homemade garrote wrapped around her throat.

Suspicions mounted within the tight-knit Marine community as residents questioned if the killer was one of their own. Fellow Marine Christopher Lee and his wife lived next door to the Corwins, and the two young couples had leaned on each other for support. But detectives soon discovered that Chris and Erin's relationship had developed into a whirlwind romance that consumed them both and called the paternity of Corwin's baby into question. Lee told investigators he'd been out hunting the day of Corwin's disappearance, but his claims of innocence soon began to crumble. And while Corwin was researching baby names, Lee was reportedly searching the internet for ways to dispose of a human body.

Through interviews, court records, and extensive research, bestselling true-crime author Shanna Hogan constructs a chilling story of betrayal, deception, and tragedy.]]> 314 Shanna Hogan 1250127327 Jory 0 to-read 4.14 2019 Secrets of a Marine's Wife: A True Story of Marriage, Obsession, and Murder
author: Shanna Hogan
name: Jory
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Secrets of a Serial Killer 53341123 There it is: fear. It’s crawling all over her face and in her eyes, like a swarm of insects, and it’s all because of him.

A serial killer has been terrorising Lancaster for decades, longer than should ever have been possible. The police are baffled, eluded at every turn by the killer whose victims span generations. Speculation is rife among the true crime forums; is someone passing on their gruesome trade?

Every local mother's worst nightmare has become Helen Summerton's reality; he’s taken her daughter, Zoe. As the clock runs down so do her chances of survival. Can Helen unearth the secrets of the killer before it’s too late?

A gripping serial killer thriller that you won’t be able to put down. Perfect for fans of The Whisper Man, What You Did and Don’t Even Breathe.]]> 286 Rosie Walker 0008399964 Jory 0 to-read 3.64 2020 Secrets of a Serial Killer
author: Rosie Walker
name: Jory
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shocking Story of Helmuth Schmidt: Michigan's Original Lonely Hearts Killer (True Crime)]]> 26179102 193 Tobin T. Buhk 1625840950 Jory 0 to-read 3.84 2013 The Shocking Story of Helmuth Schmidt: Michigan's Original Lonely Hearts Killer (True Crime)
author: Tobin T. Buhk
name: Jory
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Clique Bait 43883866
Chloe Whittaker is out for revenge.

Last year her best friend Monica’s life was unceremoniously ruined by the most popular students at their high school, so this year Chloe plans to take each and every one of them down. She’s traded in her jeans and T-shirts for the latest designer clothes, erased anything on social media that would tie her to Monica (and blow her cover), and carefully figured out how she will befriend the members of the clique, find out their deepest and darkest secrets, and reveal them to the world.

Chloe has the perfect plan . . . but there’s one thing she didn’t prepare for. And that’s falling for someone she’s determined to destroy. The closer she gets to uncovering the secrets the in-crowd is determined to cover up, the more she realizes that she is going to have to choose between betraying her oldest friend or the boy who’s captured her heart]]> 368 Ann Valett 0062918109 Jory 2 3.73 2020 Clique Bait
author: Ann Valett
name: Jory
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/03
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves:
review:
What and the hell was that ending???????????????????
]]> Come with Me 36628390
RecommendedĚýby Vogue, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Skimm, The BBC,ĚýSouthern Living, Pure Wow, Hey Alma, Esquire, EW, Refinery 29, Bust, and Read It or Weep

“Mind-blowingly brilliantâ€�. Provocative, profound and yes, a little unsettling,ĚýCome With MeĚýis about how technology breaks apart and then reconfigures a family, and though it has hints of sci-fi, it’s so beautifully grounded in reality that it seems to breathe. Although it takes place over just three days, what’s so fascinating is that so many lives, and many possibilities, are lived through it. Truly, it’s a novel like its own multiverse.”ĚýĚýĚý—ĚýSan Francisco Chronicle

From Helen Schulman, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller This Beautiful Life, comes another "gripping, potent, and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence" (Elizabeth Gilbert)—a mind-bending novel set in Silicon Valley that challenges our modern constructs of attachment and love, purpose and fate.

"What do you want to know?"

Amy Reed works part-time as a PR person for a tech start-up, run by her college roommate’s nineteen-year-old son, in Palo Alto, California. Donny is a baby genius, a junior at Stanford in his spare time. His play for fortune is an algorithm that may allow people access to their "multiverses"—all the planes on which their alternative life choices can be played out simultaneously—to see how the decisions they’ve made have shaped their lives.

Donny wants Amy to be his guinea pig. And even as she questions Donny’s theories and motives, Amy finds herself unable to resist the lure of the road(s) not taken. Who would she be if she had made different choices, loved different people? Where would she be now?

Amy’s husband, Dan—an unemployed, perhaps unemployable, print journalist—accepts a dare of his own, accompanying a seductive, award-winning photographer named Maryam on a trip to Fukushima, the Japanese city devastated by tsunami and meltdown. Collaborating with Maryam, Dan feels a renewed sense of excitement and possibility he hasn’t felt with his wife in a long time. But when crisis hits at home, the extent of Dan’s betrayal is exposed and, as Amy contemplates alternative lives, the couple must confront whether the distances between them in the here and now are irreconcilable.

Taking place over three non-consecutive but vitally important days for Amy, Dan, and their three sons, Come with Me is searing, entertaining, and unexpected—a dark comedy that is ultimately both a deeply romantic love story and a vivid tapestry of modern life.]]> 312 Helen Schulman Jory 0 to-read 2.93 2018 Come with Me
author: Helen Schulman
name: Jory
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Princess in Pink (The Princess Diaries, #5)]]> 6084396 Will the strike end in time? Can Mia talk Michael out of his anti-prom views? Most importantly, will Mia get to wear her pink prom dress?]]> 304 Meg Cabot 0061971995 Jory 4 3.88 2003 Princess in Pink (The Princess Diaries, #5)
author: Meg Cabot
name: Jory
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2016/02/18
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:
I liked this one, but Mia was kind of a pain in the ass. All she wanted was to go to the prom. I mean, not all teens are like that. I sure as hell wasn't. Michael was perfect, as per usual. He is honestly the ideal.
]]> <![CDATA[The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York]]> 11186725 Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie." â€�The New York Observer“The Poisoner’s HandbookĚýbreathes deadly life into the Roaring Twenties.”Ěý—Financial Times“Reads like science fiction, complete with suspense, mystery and foolhardy guys in lab coats tipping test tubes of mysterious chemicals into their own mouths.â€�Ěýâ€� What We're ReadingA fascinating Jazz Age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice. In 2014, PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE released a film based onĚýThe Poisoner's Handbook. ]]> 338 Deborah Blum 1101524898 Jory 0 to-read 4.20 2010 The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
author: Deborah Blum
name: Jory
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Praise (Salacious Players Club, #1)]]> 60416566 His flawless pet.
His good girl.

Broken down and wounded by my emotionally neglectful ex, I wanted someone to tell me I was good enough.

Then, I stumbled into a new job with a boss who brings me to my knees—literally. He has me do things a real secretary would never do.

Emerson Grant tells me I’m more than just good enough.
I’m worthy of his praise.

There are a million reasons why I should stay away. The owner of the Salacious Players� Club is not just my new boss, he’s twice my age.

And my ex-boyfriend’s father.

With him, I am treasured. I am adored. I am his.

I’m a good girl, but I’m falling for the wrong man.

Emerson Grant knows what he wants�
And he wants me.

So how far will I go to hear his approval?]]> 341 Sara Cate Jory 0 to-read 4.04 2022 Praise (Salacious Players Club, #1)
author: Sara Cate
name: Jory
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Halloween Hijinks (Zoe Donovan Mystery #1)]]> 18522816 175 Kathi Daley Jory 0 to-read 3.81 2013 Halloween Hijinks (Zoe Donovan Mystery #1)
author: Kathi Daley
name: Jory
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bun for Your Life (Bread and Batter Mystery #1)]]> 25381504 Two bakery owners get mixed up with murder in the first adventure in the all-new Bread and Batter Mystery series...

As the co-owners of Bread and Batter Bakery in Destiny, New York, Molly Tyler and Olivia Williams have plenty on their plates. Molly is recently divorced and looking for a place to live, but they’re also both preparing for Destiny’s annual Apple Harvest Fair. The bakery has a booth where they’ll be selling not only delicious cupcakes and cider doughnuts, but also tote bags and t-shirts emblazoned with the bakery’s logo.

Tensions rise at the fair when local orchard owner Calista Danforth discovers organizers have assigned her usual booth to Bread and Batter. Although a heated argument ensues between her and Molly, the bakery manages to rake in lots of dough. But when Calista is found strangled to death with one of their t-shirts, Molly is named the prime suspect. Now these two friends must whip up some answers quickly before the future of their business crumbles...]]> 245 Karoline Barrett 0698407962 Jory 0 to-read 4.10 2015 Bun for Your Life (Bread and Batter Mystery #1)
author: Karoline Barrett
name: Jory
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crime Chowder (Death Du Jour, #1)]]> 42616103
Aspiring chef Bethany Bradstreet dreams of opening her own restaurant, but she knows she has to work her way up from her current job as a fry cook. So when her real estate developer boyfriend offers her a sweet catering gig, she jumps at the chance to cook for his gala and rub elbows with the town’s elite.

The problem? That fancy gala is only happening because her best friend’s home was burned down by an arsonist. And the more Bethany learns about her boyfriend’s planned development, the more she suspects that he might have had something to do with it.

Determined to uncover the arsonist’s identity, Bethany cooks her way through the gala, listening to the secrets, lies, and gossip swirling around Hosanna Street.

But when someone close to her is killed during the party—and the murder weapon is found in her pot of clam chowder—Bethany finds herself in more than a little hot water.

---------------------------------------
If you like smart culinary mysteries with quirky characters and quaint seaside towns, you’ll love the Death du Jour series that follows Bethany Bradstreet as she builds her career and solves crimes with the help of her friends.

Crime Chowder is the first book in the Death du Jour series.

This book has clean language and mild suspense with no cliffhangers. It contains depictions of an LGBT relationship.

P.S. � There’s a dog in it.]]> 232 Hillary Avis Jory 0 to-read 3.96 Crime Chowder (Death Du Jour, #1)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Jory
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Night Guest 127306444
IĂ°unn is in yet another doctor's office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something's not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven't revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same � have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?]]> 197 Hildur Knútsdóttir 1250322049 Jory 0 to-read 3.30 2021 The Night Guest
author: Hildur KnĂştsdĂłttir
name: Jory
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Loop 53559223 Stranger Things meets World War Z in this heart-racing thriller as a group of teenagers attempt to survive the night in a town overcome by a science experiment gone wrong.

A small town nestled in the hills of western Oregon becomes the epicenter of an epidemic of violence when the teenaged children of several executives from the local biotech firm become ill and aggressively murderous. Suddenly the town is on edge, and everyone must do everything it takes just to survive…]]> 320 Jeremy Robert Johnson 1534454314 Jory 0 to-read 3.59 2020 The Loop
author: Jeremy Robert Johnson
name: Jory
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Graves 204693907 Zayden
I thought I had everything I could possibly desire. Until I set my eyes on her. My angel. Too pure for this world, too pure for me. She’s all mine. No matter the cost. No matter the lives that stand in my way. She has always been mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.

Dominic
My brother has lost it, more so than ever before. I couldn’t figure out what had changed at first. One look at her though, and it all made sense. He gave me one job, protect his girl, a girl he’s never even spoken to. I held true to my promise and then some. I didn’t mean to kiss her, to touch her. One thing is for sure, though. I’m not losing her, even if I have to go through my brother to have her.]]> 457 Katelyn Taylor Jory 0 to-read 3.94 Graves
author: Katelyn Taylor
name: Jory
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Girl (Vegas Billionaires, #1)]]> 38325591 I work hard, I follow the rules, and I always achieve my goals.

But sometimes good girls want things that aren’t good for them.
Or someone who isn’t good for them.
Like their new boss.

And sometimes they do very bad things to get his attention.
Like sell their virginity in an auction.

Who knew he’d be so very, very mad?
Maybe this was not my best laid plan…]]> 245 Jana Aston 0998244449 Jory 0 to-read 3.72 2018 Good Girl (Vegas Billionaires, #1)
author: Jana Aston
name: Jory
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bitter Texas Honey 216522700 The Royal Tenenbaums meets Fleabag in this hilarious and dizzyingly smart debut about an over-the-top evangelical Texan family—and the daughter at its center racing to finish her very important novel before her ex-boyfriend finishes his.

It’s 2011, and twenty-three-year-old Joan West is not like the rest of her liberal peers in Austin, nor is she quite like her Tea Party Republican, God-loving family. Sure, she listens to conservative talk radio on her way to and from her internship at the Capitol. But she was once an America-hating leftist who kissed girls at parties, refused to shave, and had plenty of emotionless sex with jazz school friends—that is until a drug-induced mania forced her to return to her senses.

But above all Joan is a writer, an artist, or at least she desperately wants to be. Always in search of inspiration for her novel, she catalogs every detail of her relationships with men—including with her former muse slash current arch nemesis Roberto—and mines her very dysfunctional family for material. But when her beloved, credit card debt–racked cousin Wyatt finds himself in crisis, Joan’s worldview is cracked open and everything comes crashing down.

Funny, whip-smart, and often tender, Bitter Texas Honey introduces us to the unforgettable and indefatigable Joan West: ambitious, full of contradictions, utterly herself. As she wades through it all—addiction, politics, loss, and, notably, her father’s string of increasingly bizarre girlfriends—we witness her confront what it means to be a person, and an artist, in the world.]]> 336 Ashley Whitaker 0593476158 Jory 0 to-read 3.54 2025 Bitter Texas Honey
author: Ashley Whitaker
name: Jory
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Guest List 55700922 Listening Length: 10 hours 22 minutes

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 10 Lucy Foley 0062985051 Jory 3 We love a revenge killing. 3.63 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Jory
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/02
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:
We love a revenge killing.
]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft]]> 21416536 The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft collects the author's novel, four novellas, and fifty-three short stories. Written between the years 1917 and 1935, this collection features Lovecraft's trademark fantastical creatures and supernatural thrills, as well as many horrific and cautionary science-fiction themes, that have influenced some of today's writers and filmmakers, including Stephen King, Alan Moore, F. Paul Wilson, Guillermo del Toro, and Neil Gaiman. Included in this volume are The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Color Out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," and many more hair-raising tales.]]> 1102 H.P. Lovecraft 1631060015 Jory 0 to-read 4.33 The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Jory
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Mistletoe Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #1)]]> 575010
Taking time out from her hectic holiday life to find out what really happened, her investigation leads to a backlog of secrets as long as Santa's Christmas Eve route. Lucy is convinced that someone murdered Sam Miller. But who and why? With each harrowing twist she uncovers in this bizarre case, another shocking revelation is exposed. Now, as Christmas draws near and Lucy gets dangerously closer to the truth, she's about to receive a present from Santa she didn't ask for--a killer who won't be satisfied until everyone on his shopping list is dead, including Lucy herself. . . "Lucy Stone is an endearing sleuth."

--Dorothy Cannell]]> 222 Leslie Meier 0758203373 Jory 0 to-read 3.59 1993 Mistletoe Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #1)
author: Leslie Meier
name: Jory
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)]]> 40916679
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.]]> 433 Holly Jackson 1405293187 Jory 0 to-read 4.30 2019 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)
author: Holly Jackson
name: Jory
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]> 369 Riley Sager Jory 0 to-read 3.57 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Jory
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Little Coffee Shop of Terrors]]> 210998092 Will True Love Brew in this Killer Coffee Shop?One new owner. One hot waiter. And one seriously weird coffee shop�

Adele is used to being down on her luck. She’s just been kicked out of her latest musical theatre gig, and it now looks like the bright lights of Broadway are behind her for good. So, when the opportunity comes up to take over a Brooklyn coffee shop, it feels like at last things are going her way.

The only issue is the coffee shop comes with strings attached in the form of one very grumpy (but roasting hot) waiter, Ben. He’s worked there for years and he’s not about to move on just because there’s a new owner in town.

But soon it’s not just Ben who’s smouldering, because strange things are happening with the old coffee roasting machine in the back of the shop, with roaring flames and weird noises that seem to come from nowhere. She’d ask Ben for help if she could, but he never seems to be around when there’s a problem to fix. And to add to it all, now some of the regular customers are nowhere to be seen�

Trouble is brewing for Adele and, before she knows it, she’s in a whole latte trouble�]]> 344 Hazel Graves 0008718946 Jory 0 to-read 2.89 The Little Coffee Shop of Terrors
author: Hazel Graves
name: Jory
average rating: 2.89
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/25
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]]> His Bloody Project 27468988
Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.]]> 266 Graeme Macrae Burnet 1910192155 Jory 0 to-read 4.09 2015 His Bloody Project
author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
name: Jory
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> House of Glass 195790531
A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny - in the midst of her parent's bitter divorce - and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella's mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there's something eerie about the house itself: It's a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny's boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?]]> 341 Sarah Pekkanen 125028399X Jory 0 to-read 3.84 2024 House of Glass
author: Sarah Pekkanen
name: Jory
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> Four Found Dead 61492433 At the movie theater where Jo works, the last show has ended. But the nightmare is just beginning.

Tonight, Tempest Theaters is closing forever, the last remaining business in a defunct shopping mall. The moviegoers have left, and Jo and her six coworkers have the final shift, cleaning up popcorn and mopping floors for the last time.

But after an unexpected altercation puts everyone on edge, the power goes out. Their manager disappears, along with the keys to the lobby doors and the theater safe, where the crew's phones are locked each shift. Then, the crew's tension turns to terror when Jo discovers the dead body of one of her co-workers.

Now their only chance to escape the murderer in their midst is through the dark, shuttered mall. With its boarded-up exits and disabled fire alarms, the complex is filled with hiding places for both pursuer and pursued. In order to survive this night, Jo and her friends must trust one another, navigate the sprawling ruins of the mall, and outwit a killer before he kills again.]]> 321 Natalie D. Richards 1728215811 Jory 0 to-read 3.46 2023 Four Found Dead
author: Natalie D. Richards
name: Jory
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Teach Me the Ropes (Bachelor Auction #1)]]> 195537886
I wasn't a cow. A bull, definitely. When the ladies started to bid, it was looking rough.
Until she placed the winning bid.

The one I wanted. The woman who'd kneed me in the balls the other day.

Yeah, I was hot for a woman who wanted nothing to do with me. I was a guy obsessed.

She might be the teacher, but she was going to learn she was all mine and I wasn't letting her go.

If being a cowboy isn't enough, Sawyer's the town's fire chief. This book might burn up your ereader, but don't worry, he'll be there to put out the flames!
]]> 210 Vanessa Vale Jory 0 to-read 3.60 Teach Me the Ropes (Bachelor Auction #1)
author: Vanessa Vale
name: Jory
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> Bananapants 216560661
Ava Archer misses her best childhood friend most especially during the month of April. Ask any tax attorney, it's a lonely, grueling time of year. Luckily, Ava has just received a surprising and delectably absurd offer from her posh doppelgänger at work. She must pretend to be the aforementioned posh co-worker for one night at an extremely fancy party; a party so fancy, there exists absolutely no chance anyone will recognize her or suspect her ruse...

Desmond (Des) Sullivan is a thief. And not the heart-of-gold kind. He’s the steal-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-also-rich-so-he-can-get-paid kind. He does, however, have one firm rule never steal what the target can’t afford to lose. After a brutal falling out with his father, Desmond hasn’t returned to Chicago in over ten years. But when a good friend is swindled and something priceless is stolen, Desmond must return home, both as himself and his thieving alter ego. Infiltrate a dangerous secret society of the world's most elite billionaires while leveraging his estranged father’s resources and not blowing his cover? Sure. No problem. Or it wouldn’t be a problem if Ava Archer hadn’t just walked into the room, wearing a ridiculous wig, speaking with a preposterous accent, and pretending (badly) to be someone she’s not.

Bananapants is a full-length, contemporary romantic comedy filled with hijinks and shenanigans. It can be read as a standalone, but the parents of the main characters will be familiar to anyone who has read the Knitting in the City series.]]> 390 Penny Reid 1960342428 Jory 0 to-read 3.89 2024 Bananapants
author: Penny Reid
name: Jory
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Insanity (Insanity #1) 36287479
His first corporate job doesn’t work out, and during this time his mentor, Dr. Siva, reveals a problem ignored by society: mental health. Jeremy grows obsessed with finding ways to shed light on mental illness. His idea is drastic and disturbing, so much that he decides his experiment is not feasible.

Yet once again, the corporate world reveals its ugly teeth. As he struggles to balance relationships, job responsibilities, and school work, he finally caves to the pressures of life. With everything spiraling out of control, Jeremy decides to carry out his experiment to save those that have long been shunned by society, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.]]> 252 Andre Gonzalez 0997754834 Jory 0 to-read 4.16 Insanity (Insanity #1)
author: Andre Gonzalez
name: Jory
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1)]]> 52439531
To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch -- and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.]]> 386 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1368052401 Jory 0 to-read 4.13 2020 The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Jory
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1) 54659771 He was supposed to be a myth.
But from the moment I crossed the River Styx and fell under his dark spell... he was, quite simply, mine.

Society darling Persephone Dimitriou plans to flee the ultra-modern city of Olympus and start over far from the backstabbing politics of the Thirteen Houses. But all that’s ripped away when her mother ambushes her with an engagement to Zeus, the dangerous power behind their glittering city’s dark facade.

With no options left, Persephone flees to the forbidden undercity and makes a devil’s bargain with a man she once believed a myth... a man who awakens her to a world she never knew existed.

Hades has spent his life in the shadows, and he has no intention of stepping into the light. But when he finds that Persephone can offer a little slice of the revenge he’s spent years craving, it’s all the excuse he needs to help her—for a price. Yet every breathless night spent tangled together has given Hades a taste for Persephone, and he’ll go to war with Olympus itself to keep her close�

A modern retelling of Hades and Persephone that’s as sinful as it is sweet.]]> 380 Katee Robert 1728231736 Jory 0 to-read 3.68 2021 Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1)
author: Katee Robert
name: Jory
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Six of Sorrow 63279458 Sixteen years ago, six girls were born on the same day—and now, on their birthday, one of them is missing. From the author of Starlings comes a story about small-towns, friendships, and the terrifying things your parents don't tell you, that's perfect for fans of Yellowjackets.

For most of her life, Isabeau and her five best friends were inseparable—amazingly enough, the six girls even shared a birthday. Then a rift caused their friendships to fracture, and Iz lost everyone except Reuel, the only one who didn’t abandon her.

Until now. The night of their sixteenth birthday, Isabeau leaves Reuel sitting on her front porch and heads home—and in the morning, Reuel is missing. She’s gone for three days, and when she reappears, there’s something wrong with her. She’s sick. Really sick. And she doesn’t remember anything that happened while she was gone.

If there’s any bright side to the situation, it’s that Reuel’s peculiar disappearance brings the six girls back together. Their sisterhood feels as strong as it was years ago, but when another one of them disappears, they all agree that they must have more in common than simply their birthday. They all feel it. Something’s been waiting for them, and that something has come to claim them one by one.

Deep in their bones, they know—it’s just a matter of time until they they’re all taken. And if they don’t save themselves, no one will.]]> 336 Amanda Linsmeier 0593707761 Jory 0 to-read 3.55 2024 Six of Sorrow
author: Amanda Linsmeier
name: Jory
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Jory 0 to-read 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Jory
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Eyes Are the Best Part 179780170 “Violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original, this novel pulls readers into a horrific world of murder and cannibalism while also critiquing misogyny, exploring Asian fetishization and stereotypes, sharing what it’s like to navigate two cultures and telling a touching story of a family in turmoil.� �New York Times Book Review

Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying� yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.]]> 284 Monika Kim 1645661253 Jory 0 to-read 3.91 2024 The Eyes Are the Best Part
author: Monika Kim
name: Jory
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All Hallows 60784620 Stranger Things, this horror drama from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden follows neighborhood families and a mysterious, lurking evil on one Halloween day.

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask...]]> 325 Christopher Golden 125028029X Jory 0 to-read 3.51 2023 All Hallows
author: Christopher Golden
name: Jory
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Killer of Mine (Of Mine #1) 213946974 She’s the daughter of a serial killer� they’re FBI agents�

No one knows Freya is actually the daughter of the Cross-Cut Killer, America’s most notorious serial killer. Living under a false identity as a detective is isolating but at least Freya’s safe. That is, until she falls onto the radar of Special Agent River Park and his team.

River, Oz, Elijah and Jude have been chasing the Cross-Cut Killer for years. They’re the best the FBI has to offer, not to mention unfairly attractive. They know exactly who the killer is but he’s always one step ahead of them. Freya is about to change that.

When Freya’s true identity is uncovered, she’s forced to work with River and his team. All Freya wants is to catch her father, getting involved with not one but four FBI agents would be a very bad idea.

But River and his team aren’t prepared for the spitfire young woman who’s too pretty for her own good. She’s hiding more than scars and a woman with secrets might just be kryptonite to a group of profilers.

Killer of Mine is a full length, mature, New Adult romance with elements of enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, darker moments and on the page spice. This is a why choose romance, meaning the main character has more than one love interest. This is book one of a planned trilogy but does not end on a big cliff-hanger. Please read the trigger warnings. ]]> 315 Alexis Grace Jory 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Killer of Mine (Of Mine #1)
author: Alexis Grace
name: Jory
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dead and Gondola (Christie Bookshop, #1)]]> 60372420 When a mysterious bookshop visitor dies under murderous circumstances, the Christie sisters and their cat Agatha call on all they’ve learned about solving mysteries from their favorite novelist in this new series debut.

Ellie Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She’s recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family’s historic bookshop with her elder sister, Meg, and their friendly bookshop cat, Agatha. Perched in a Swiss-style hamlet accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road, the Book Chalet is a famed bibliophile destination known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge with cozy fireside seats and panoramic views. At least, until trouble blows in with a wintery whiteout. A man is found dead on the gondola, and a rockslide throws the town into lockdown—no one in, no one out.

He was a mysterious stranger who visited the bookshop. At the time, his only blunders were disrupting a book club and leaving behind a first-edition Agatha Christie novel, written under a pseudonym. However, once revealed, the man’s identity shocks the town. Many residents knew of him. Quite a few had reason to want him dead. Others hide secrets. The police gather suspects, but when they narrow in on the sisters� close friends, the Christies have to act.

Although the only Agatha in their family tree is their cat, Ellie and Meg know a lot about mysteries, and they’re not about to let the situation snowball out of control. The Christie sisters must summon their inner Miss Marples and trek through a blizzard of clues before the killer turns the page to their final chapter.]]> 336 Ann Claire 0593496345 Jory 0 to-read 3.50 2022 Dead and Gondola (Christie Bookshop, #1)
author: Ann Claire
name: Jory
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Jory 0 to-read 4.26 2024 The Briar Club
author: Kate Quinn
name: Jory
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Satan's Affair 57748116
We travel the country, offering terrifying haunted houses, thrilling rides and the tastiest food. And with every passing town, I cleanse this world, one execution at a time.

I hide within the walls, casting my judgement for those that reek of evil, singing lullabies to their rotting souls.

Once you've been chosen, there's no escaping my henchmen—they cater to my every desire.

You can run and you can hide, but it only excites me.

Come.

Take a walk through my dollhouse, where your screams will blend and your cute little pleas will go unanswered.

But I can't promise it'll be over quickly...]]> 197 H.D. Carlton Jory 0 to-read 3.71 2021 Satan's Affair
author: H.D. Carlton
name: Jory
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

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

This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.]]> 384 Clay McLeod Chapman Jory 0 to-read 3.38 2025 Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Jory
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> Our Wives Under the Sea 58659343
Moving through something that only resembles normal life, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had before might be gone. Though Leah is still there, Miri can feel the woman she loves slipping from her grasp.

Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut novel from Julia Armfield, the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep deep sea.]]> 240 Julia Armfield 152901722X Jory 0 to-read 3.75 2022 Our Wives Under the Sea
author: Julia Armfield
name: Jory
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Sticker Jigsaw: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection]]> 197364591
Simply use the stickers like jigsaw Peel them, then place them in the right spots for each puzzle. Not sure if you placed a sticker correctly? No problem! Our removable stickers are easy to peel again and replace until you complete your masterpiece.

Great for traveling, and fun with friends or solo, STICKER JIGSAW finally makes puzzles transportable and effortless to save. Cherish your completed puzzles as an illustrated edition of your favorite Edgar Allan Poe tales, or frame the pages and display your gorgeous artwork.]]> 80 Edgar Allan Poe 1250908345 Jory 0 to-read 4.71 Sticker Jigsaw: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Jory
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1)]]> 60755618 The rules were simple . . .
Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble.

But now I’m stuck with her . . . And there’s only one bed . . .
Oh well, rules are made -- to be broken . . . aren't they?

I’m the face of professional bull riding -- the golden boy.
Or at least I was, until it all blew up in my face.
Now my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I’m stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my “full-time supervision.�

But I don’t need a goddamn babysitter --
especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk,
and a mouth she can’t stop running.

A mouth I just can’t stop thinking about . . .

Because Summer isn’t just another conquest.
She sees the man behind the mask, and she doesn’t run --
she pulls me closer, even when she shouldn’t.

She says this means nothing -- but I say this means everything.

She says there are boundaries we shouldn’t cross.
That my reputation can’t take any more hits -- and neither can her damaged heart.

I say I’m going to steal it anyway.
]]> 424 Elsie Silver Jory 0 to-read 4.06 2022 Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Jory
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/14
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]]> I Hope This Finds You Well 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]> 338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 Jory 0 to-read 3.74 2024 I Hope This Finds You Well
author: Natalie Sue
name: Jory
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/06
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]]> You Should Be So Lucky 196774347 We Could Be So Good.

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.

Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.]]> 400 Cat Sebastian 0063272806 Jory 0 to-read 4.26 2024 You Should Be So Lucky
author: Cat Sebastian
name: Jory
average rating: 4.26
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rating: 0
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]]> We Could Be So Good 62365905 Casey McQuiston meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in this mid-century romdram about a scrappy reporter and a newspaper mogul's son--perfect for Newsies shippers.

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city's biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can't let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming's newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He's barely able to run his life--he's never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he'll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.

Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can't deny. But what feels possible in secret--this fragile, tender thing between them--seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they're willing to fight.]]> 384 Cat Sebastian 0063272768 Jory 0 to-read 4.25 2023 We Could Be So Good
author: Cat Sebastian
name: Jory
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)]]> 110391 Librarian note: See alternate cover editions here and here.

The Duke and I is a romance set in the Regency era.

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable� but not too amiable.

Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.

Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.

The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...]]> 384 Julia Quinn 0380800829 Jory 0 to-read 3.80 2000 The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Jory
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Drive-In (A B-Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas)]]> 219714

When a group of friends decided to spend a day at the world's largest Drive-In theater horror fest, they expected to see tons of bloody murders, rampaging madmen, and mayhem—but only on the screen. As a mysterious force traps all the patrons inside the Drive-In, the worst in humanity comes out. Filled with Lansdale's razor whit and black humor, The Drive-In is a darkly humorous masterpiece!]]> 158 Joe R. Lansdale 0553274813 Jory 0 to-read 3.84 The Drive-In (A B-Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas)
author: Joe R. Lansdale
name: Jory
average rating: 3.84
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date added: 2024/06/02
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]]> The Firm (The Firm, #1) 452235 Ěý
For a young lawyer on the make, it was an offer Mitch McDeere couldn’t a position at a law firm where the bucks, billable hours, and benefits are over the top. It’s a dream job for an up-and-comer—if he can overlook the uneasy feeling he gets at the office. Then an FBI investigation into the firm’s connections to the Mafia plunges the straight and narrow attorney into a nightmare of terror and intrigue.ĚýWith no choice but to pit his wits, ethics, and legal skills against the firm’s deadly secrets—if he hopes to stay alive…]]> 501 John Grisham 044021145X Jory 0 to-read 4.26 1991 The Firm (The Firm, #1)
author: John Grisham
name: Jory
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> This Girl's a Killer 202204691 Ask Cordelia Black why she did it. The answer will always be: He had it coming.

Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: Her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip), and killing bad men.

By day she's an ambitious pharma rep with a flawless reputation and designer wardrobe. By night, she culls South Louisiana of unscrupulous men—monsters who think they've evaded justice, until they meet her. Sure, the evening news may have started throwing around phrases like "serial killer," but Cordelia knows that's absurd. She's not a killer, she is simply karma. And being karma requires complete and utter control.

But when Cordelia discovers a flaw in her perfectly designed system for eliminating monsters, pressure heightens. And it only intensifies when her best friend starts dating a man Cordelia isn't sure is a good person. Someone who might just unravel everything she has worked for.

Soon enough Cordelia has to come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad, and the murderous. Both her family, and her freedom, depend on it.]]> 432 Emma C. Wells 1464218625 Jory 0 to-read 3.65 2024 This Girl's a Killer
author: Emma C. Wells
name: Jory
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Shock Induction 207299641 From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a dark, satirical parable about a string of mysterious high school disappearances, the seedy underbellies of billionaires, and the tough choices we make in the face of an uncertain future. In Shock Induction, the best and brightest students at a seemingly reputable high school are disappearing. Every day it seems another overachiever is lost to an apparent suicide. But something far more sinister is lurking beneath the surface. These kids have been under surveillance since birth, monitored and measured by an online service called “Greener Pastures.� It’s here, in Greener Pastures, that billionaires observe and recruit the next generation of talent. The highest test scores, the best grades, and the most niche extracurriculars just might land these teenagers an enticing offer at auction. A couple billion dollars in exchange for the remainder of your life and intellectual labor sounds like a pretty fair deal—doesn’t it? In a high school only Chuck Palahniuk could imagine, students must choose between the risk of following their dreams or the security of money and a lifetime of servitude to the world’s wealthiest and most elite—but how much of a choice do they truly have?]]> 240 Chuck Palahniuk 1668021447 Jory 0 to-read 3.15 2024 Shock Induction
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Jory
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
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]]> Kittentits 196841905
It’s 1992, and ten-year-old Molly is tired of living in the fire-rotted, nun-haunted House of a Semi-Cooperative Living Community of Peace Faith(s) in Action with her formerly blind dad and grieving Evelyn. But when twenty-three-year-old Jeanie, a dirt bike–riding ex-con with a questionable past, moves in, she quickly becomes the object of Molly’s adoration. She might treat Molly terribly, but they both have dead moms and potty mouths, so naturally Molly can’t seem to leave Jeanie alone.

When Jeanie fakes her own death in a hot-air balloon accident, Molly runs away to Chicago with just a stolen credit card and a sweet pair of LA Gear Heatwaves to meet her pen pal Demarcus and hunt down Jeanie. What follows is a race to New Year’s Eve, as Molly and Demarcus plan a séance to reunite with their lost moms in front of a live audience at the World’s Fair.

A surrealist and bold take on the American coming-of-age novel, Holly Wilson’s debut is about the interstices of loss, grief, and friendship.]]> 368 Holly Wilson 1638931089 Jory 0 to-read 3.16 2024 Kittentits
author: Holly Wilson
name: Jory
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Italian/American: It's a QCP Cookbook, Betch!]]> 195430706
In It alian/American , QCP will take you on an cooking journey like you've never known before—one that explores the two distinct sides of his Italian heritage. Including 50 authentic Italian recipes and 50 Italian-American ones, plus deep-dives into topics like Italian bread-eating culture. Whether you want to recreate something your nonna taught you or fulfill your desire to modernize a classic Italian dish, Italian/American will provide all the inspiration you need.

You can’t spend too much time on TikTok without coming across QCP. He’s wild. He's vivacious. But he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to Italian food. His dishes will scream for your attention and make your dinner guests beg for the recipe.

From making fresh pasta from scratch to preparing the ultimate antipasti spread, Italian/American will get teach you everything you ever wanted to know about Italian cooking, and keep you entertained along the way.]]> 224 Gianluca Conte 0744088399 Jory 0 to-read 3.40 Italian/American: It's a QCP Cookbook, Betch!
author: Gianluca Conte
name: Jory
average rating: 3.40
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]]> <![CDATA[Gay Science: The Totally Scientific Examination of LGBTQ+ Culture, Myths, and Stereotypes]]> 182484365
Class is in session, babe! Discover the inner workings of the LGBTQ+ community with this humorous and informative book. Author and comedian Rob Anderson borrows the familiar science textbook format to skewer ridiculous queer stereotypes with his own version of science.

Using the principles of natural, social, and formal sciences, Rob answers extremely serious questions Why can’t gays sit in a chair properly? Why don’t lesbians have electricity in their movies? Are colleges turning people bisexual? How does gaydar work? Will bottoms survive the apocalypse?

You’ll read about the three subtypes of the gay uncle species, examine the Periodic Table of LGBTQ+ Elements, understand gay crime and punishment, and get educated on the types of bacteria and viruses that exclusively affect the LGBTQs, like the state of Florida.

Inspired by his viral “Gay Science� series, Rob recreates some of his most popular episodes in a literary format, and also tackles completely fresh subjects, presenting them with super empirical and totally evidence-based homosexual data.

Gay Science

Rob Anderson is course-correcting decades of educational shortcomings by explaining the scientific reasonings behind every aspect of LGBTQ+ life. If you’re looking for a fun book that will probably be banned (if it isn’t already), add Gay Science to your personal lesson plan.]]> 240 Rob Anderson 074408735X Jory 0 to-read 4.14 Gay Science: The Totally Scientific Examination of LGBTQ+ Culture, Myths, and Stereotypes
author: Rob Anderson
name: Jory
average rating: 4.14
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]]> <![CDATA[Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me]]> 202939207 From multi-award winner Whoopi Goldberg comes a new and unique memoir of her family and their influence on her early life.

If it weren’t for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma gave her children the loving care and wisdom they needed to succeed in life, always encouraging them to be true to themselves. When Whoopi lost her mother in 2010—and then her older brother, Clyde, five years later—she felt deeply alone; the only people who truly knew her were gone.

Emma raised her children not just to survive, but to thrive. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, Whoopi shares many of the deeply personal stories of their lives together for the first time. Growing up in the projects in New York City, there were trips to Coney Island, the Ice Capades, and museums, and every Christmas was a magical experience. To this day, she doesn’t know how her mother was able to give them such an enriching childhood, despite the struggles they faced—and it wasn’t until she was well into adulthood that Whoopi learned just how traumatic some of those struggles were.

Fans of personal memoirs such as Finding Me by Viola Davis and In Pieces by Sally Field will be touched by Bits and a moving tribute from a daughter to her mother, and beautiful portrait of three people who loved each other deeply. Whoopi writes, “Not everybody gets to walk this earth with folks who let you be exactly who you are and who give you the confidence to become exactly who you want to be. So, I thought I’d share mine with you.”]]> 256 Whoopi Goldberg Jory 0 to-read 4.24 2024 Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me
author: Whoopi Goldberg
name: Jory
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps]]> 196858917
If you’re looking to navigate the chaotic, dunce-infested waters of American politics,Ěý Democracy or Else Ěýis here to help you tackle whatĚýmight be theĚýgreatestĚýquestion of our How do you get involved in the political process and make a real difference without giving in to the sense of impending dread that hangs over our society like a nameless stench? Each chapter will take readers step-by-step through the perilous journeyĚýof:

- Getting informed when you won't know which influencer to trust (all of them!)

- Donating and volunteering where you can have the biggest impact

- Organizing, protesting, and even running for office yourself

- Staying engaged in politics without losing hope or your mind or all of your friends

Democracy or ElseĚýis a resource forĚýeveryone—from political junkies following every turn of the news cycle to young people getting ready to vote for the first time. And it'sĚýfilled with practical advice from some of the smartest experts and least annoying politicians around.ĚýThe stakes and average global temperatures have never been higher—but there have also never been so many opportunities to join the fight. It’s an age of contradictions!Ěý]]> 192 Jon Favreau 1638931437 Jory 0 to-read 4.10 2024 Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps
author: Jon Favreau
name: Jory
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Midnight Feast 199743738 Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests� healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule� cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.

THE FOUNDER * THE HUSBAND * THE MYSTERY GUEST * THE KITCHEN HELP

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at� The Midnight Feast.]]> 354 Lucy Foley 0063003104 Jory 0 to-read 3.55 2024 The Midnight Feast
author: Lucy Foley
name: Jory
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Bad Habit 181110022 Combining the raw realism and vulnerability of Shuggie Bain and Detransition, Baby with the poignant sensibility of Pedro AlmodĂłvar, a staggering coming-of-age novel deeply rooted in the class struggles of a trans woman growing up in Madrid in the last decades of the twentieth century.

"I saw a whole generation of boys fall like irredeemable angels."

Told in the heartrending voice of a girl trapped within the body of a boy, Bad Habit is a story of coming-of-age in working class Madrid–in a godforsaken neighborhood ironically named after a saint. Alana S. Portero's spunky protagonist struggles to make sense of herself and the world she inhabits, conveying her surroundings with mythic allusions and a poetic vitality absent from everyday life.

Set against the heroin epidemic that ravaged Madrid in the 1980s and the city’s vibrant party scene that dominated its nightlife in the 1990s, Bad Habit follows Portero’s unnamed protagonist as she grows up in a blue-collar suburb that has no place for her. Forging ahead, she discovers community and kinship in downtown Madrid, amid a lively party scene animated by junkies, pop divas, and fallen angels. But with each step she takes forward, she finds herself confronted by a violence she does not yet know how to counter; in this exciting, often terrifying, world each choice can truly be a matter of life and death.

Blistering and compassionate, Bad Habit illuminates the ties between gender and class, the search for identity, and the power of sisterhood. Shimmering in its lyrical beauty, vivid in its realism, autobiographical in its detail, it is a mesmerizing story of self-realization that speaks to the outsider in all of us.

Translated from the Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem]]> 240 Alana S. Portero 006333612X Jory 0 to-read 4.22 2023 Bad Habit
author: Alana S. Portero
name: Jory
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
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]]> All the World Beside 181350347 An electrifying, deeply moving novel about the love story between two men in Puritan New England

Cana, a utopian vision of 18th-century Puritan New England. To the outside world, Reverend Nathaniel Whitfield and his family stand as godly pillars of their small-town community, drawing Christians from across the New World into their fold. One such Christian, physician Arthur Lyman, discovers in the minister’s words a love so captivating it transcends language.

As the bond between these two men grows increasingly passionate, their families must contend with a tangled web of secrets, lies, and judgments that threaten to destroy them in this world and the next. And when the religious ecstasies of the Great Awakening begin to take hold, igniting a new era of zealotry, Nathaniel and Arthur search for a path out of an impossible situation, imagining a future for themselves that has no name. Their wives and children must do the same, looking beyond the known world for a new kind of wilderness, both physical and spiritual.

Set during the turbulent historical upheavals that shaped America’s destiny, and following in the tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter , All the World Beside reveals the very human lives beneath the surface of dogmatic belief.]]> 352 Garrard Conley 0525537333 Jory 0 to-read 3.69 2024 All the World Beside
author: Garrard Conley
name: Jory
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System]]> 176443958
For many kids, a mistake made at age thirteen or fourteen—often resulting from external factors coupled with a biologically immature brain—can resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle-class life a mere fantasy. In Children of the State , Jeff Hobbs challenges any preconceived perceptions about how the juvenile justice system works—and demonstrates in brilliant, piercing No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable.

Writing with great heart and sensitivity, Hobbs “offers finely wrought portraits of the teenagers in juvenile hall, as well as the educators and counselors trying to help them find safe passage back to—and through—the real world� ( Los Angeles Times ). While serving a year-long detention in Wilmington, Delaware, a bright young man considers both the benefits and the immense costs of striving for college acceptance while imprisoned. A career juvenile hall English Language Arts teacher struggles to align the small moments of wonder in her work alongside its statistical futility. A territorial fistfight in Paterson, New Jersey, is called a hate crime by the media and the boy held accountable seeks redemption and friendship in a demanding Life & Professional Skills class in lower Manhattan. Through these stories, Hobbs creates intimate portraits of these individuals as they struggle to make good decisions amidst the challenges of overcoming their pasts, and also What should society do with young people who have made terrible mistakes?

“At turns touching and intimate, enraging and honest� (Matthew Desmond), Children of the State masterfully blends personal stories with larger questions about race, class, prison reform, justice, and even about the concept of “fate.”]]> 384 Jeff Hobbs 1982116374 Jory 0 to-read 4.02 2023 Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System
author: Jeff Hobbs
name: Jory
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Thirsty 180725527
As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella’s pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she’s bold, funny, and unstoppable—and the Serenas love it. But as pledging intensifies, so does Blake’s drinking, until it’s seeping into every corner of her life. Ella assures Blake that she’s fine; partying hard is what it takes to make the cut.

But success has never felt so much like drowning. With her future hanging in the balance and her past dragging her down, Blake must decide how far she’s willing to go to achieve her glittering dreams of success—and how much of herself she’s willing to lose in the process.]]> 336 Jas Hammonds 1250816599 Jory 0 to-read 4.04 2024 Thirsty
author: Jas Hammonds
name: Jory
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder]]> 199344846
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.]]> 209 Salman Rushdie 0593730240 Jory 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Jory
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cure for Burnout: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life]]> 185034564
In The Cure for Burnout , burnout management coach and TikTok influencer Emily Ballesteros combines scientific and cultural research, her expertise in organizational psychology, and the tried-and-true strategies she’s successfully implemented with clients around the globe to demystify burnout for our post-pandemic world � and set you on a path toward a life of personal and professional balance. Ballesteros outlines five areas in which you can build healthy habits to combat burnout � mindset, personal care, time management, boundaries , and stress management . She offers clear, easy-to-implement tools to help you find greater balance, energy, and fulfillment, showing you how

� break burnout habits that keep you in a pattern of chronic overwhelm
� create sustainable work/life balance through predictable personal care
� get more done in less time while creating forward momentum toward a meaningful life
� identify and set your personal and professional limits , guilt-free
� master your stress and detach from your stressors

The Cure for Burnout provides a holistic method for burnout management to address the epidemic of our always-on, chronically overextended culture, empowering us to reclaim control of our own lives once and for all.]]> 272 Emily Ballesteros 0593596315 Jory 0 to-read 4.10 The Cure for Burnout: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life
author: Emily Ballesteros
name: Jory
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]]> <![CDATA[Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection]]> 157981748 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593243916.

Who and what are supercommunicators? They're the people who can steer a conversation to a successful conclusion. They are able to talk about difficult topics without giving offence. They know how to make others feel at ease and share what they think. They're brilliant facilitators and decision-guiders. How do they do it?

In this groundbreaking book, Charles Duhigg unravels the secrets of the supercommunicators to reveal the art - and the science - of successful communication. He unpicks the different types of everyday conversation and pinpoints why some go smoothly while others swiftly fall apart. He reveals the conversational questions and gambits that bring people together. And he shows how even the most tricky of encounters can be turned around. In the process, he shows why a CIA operative was able to win over a reluctant spy, how a member of a jury got his fellow jurors to view an open-and-shut case differently, and what a doctor found they needed to do to engage with a vaccine sceptic.

Above all, he reveals the techniques we can all master to successfully connect with others, however tricky the circumstances. Packed with fascinating case studies and drawing on cutting-edge research, this book will change the way you think about what you say, and how you say it.]]> 320 Charles Duhigg Jory 0 to-read 4.00 2024 Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
author: Charles Duhigg
name: Jory
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]]> <![CDATA[Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation]]> 75496481 Dr. Jen Gunter fights myths and fear-mongering with real science, inclusive facts, and shame-free advice on the topic that impacts more than 72 million Americans every month: menstruation.

Most women, transgender, and non-binary people who menstruate can expect to have hundreds of periods in a lifetime. So why is real information so hard to find? Despite the significance of menstruation, most education focuses on either increasing the chances of pregnancy or preventing it. Those who menstruate deserve to know more about their bodies than just what happens in service to reproduction. At a time when charlatans, politicians, and social media are succeeding in propagating damaging disinformation with real and devastating consequences, Dr. Gunter provides the antidote with science, myth busting, and no-nonsense facts.]]> 480 Jen Gunter 0806540680 Jory 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation
author: Jen Gunter
name: Jory
average rating: 4.21
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]]> <![CDATA[Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum]]> 145624993 The Immortal Life ofĚýHenriettaĚýLacks, a page-turning 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation’s last segregated asylums, thatĚý New York Times Ěýbestselling author Clint Smith describes as “a book that left me breathless.â€�

On a cold day in March ofĚý1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland.ĚýUnder the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state’s Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers behind the brick walls of a Jim Crow asylum.
Ěý
In Madness, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family’s experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations.
Ěý
As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, the institution became a microcosm of America’s evolving battles over slavery, racial integration, and civil rights. During its peak years, the hospital’s wards were overflowing with almost 2,700 patients. By the end of the 20th-century, the asylum faded from view as prisons and jails became America’s new focus.
Ěý
In Madness, Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people’s bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable.
Ěý]]> 368 Antonia Hylton 1538723697 Jory 0 to-read 4.25 2024 Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum
author: Antonia Hylton
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]]> <![CDATA[Like Love: Essays and Conversations]]> 127282370
Like Love is a momentous, raucous collection of essays drawn from twenty years of Maggie Nelson’s brilliant work. These profiles, reviews, remembrances, tributes, and critical essays, as well as several conversations with friends and idols, bring to life Nelson’s passion for dialogue and dissent. The range of subjects is wide―from Prince to Carolee Schneemann to Matthew Barney to Lhasa de Sela to Kara Walker―but certain themes intergenerational exchange; love and friendship; feminist and queer issues, especially as they shift over time; subversion, transgression, and perversity; the roles of the critic and of language in relation to visual and performance arts; forces that feed or impede certain bodies and creators; and the fruits and follies of a life spent devoted to making.

Arranged chronologically, Like Love shows the writing, thinking, feeling, reading, looking, and conversing that occupied Nelson while writing iconic books such as Bluets and The Argonauts. As such, it is a portrait of a time, an anarchic party rich with wild guests, a window into Nelson’s own development, and a testament to the profound sustenance offered by art and artists.]]> 336 Maggie Nelson 1644452812 Jory 0 to-read 3.70 2024 Like Love: Essays and Conversations
author: Maggie Nelson
name: Jory
average rating: 3.70
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]]> <![CDATA[Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm]]> 165940214 A personal and cultural look at the dark underbelly of Western beauty standards and the lethal culture of disordered eating they've wreaked

In Dead Weight, Emmeline Clein tells the story of her own disordered eating alongside, and through, other women from history, pop culture and the girls she's known and loved. Tracing the medical and cultural history of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and orthorexia, Clein investigates the economic conditions underpinning our eating disorder epidemic, and illuminates the ways racism and today's feminism have been complicit in propping up the thin ideal. While examining Goop, Simone Weil, pro-anorexia blogs, and the flawed logic of our current treatment methods, Clein grapples with the myriad ways disordered eating has affected her own friendships and romantic relationships.

Dead Weight makes the case that we are faced with a culture of suppression and denial that is insidious, pervasive, and dangerous, one that internalizes and promotes the fetish of self-shrinking as a core tenet of the American cult of femininity. This is replicated in our algorithms, our television shows, our novels, and our relationships with one another. Dead Weight is a sharp, perceptive, and revelatory polemic for readers fascinated by the external forces shaping their lives.]]> 288 Emmeline Clein 0593536908 Jory 0 to-read 3.86 2024 Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm
author: Emmeline Clein
name: Jory
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
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