Melanie's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 02 Apr 2025 21:23:41 -0700 60 Melanie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Nightmare of a Trip 203608514 A horror-tinged National Lampoon’s This is one family getaway they’ll never forget... Leigh Somerset wants to spend some quality time with her kids before they grow up, and her husband has always fancied himself sort of a Clark Griswold figure. So the Somersets will be spending their family vacation on the road, driving from suburban Milwaukee to Orlando, Florida. Already off to a rocky start, when they stumble upon an abandoned, half-burned farmhouse in Indiana, the Somersets inadvertently unleash an eerie past that will follow them the rest of their trip. From creepy indoor waterparks to paranormal-activity plagued Cracker Barrels, it’s one thing after another in the pursuit of the great American summer road trip. Will the Somersets be able to shake these bad vibes and get on with family bonding, or will the road less traveled become the highway to hell?]]> 320 Maureen Kilmer 0593718593 Melanie 0 3.39 2024 Nightmare of a Trip
author: Maureen Kilmer
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: currently-reading, family, horror, netgalley, travel
review:

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Just Haven't Met You Yet 57070660 From the New York Times bestselling author of This Time Next Year comes a heartwarming and hilarious tale that asks: What if you pick up the wrong suitcase in an airport, only to fall head over heels for its unseen owner?

Laura's business trip to the Channel Islands isn't exactly off to a great start. After unceremoniously dumping everything in her bag in front of the most attractive man she's ever seen in real life, she arrives at her hotel only to realize she's grabbed the wrong suitcase from the airport. Her only consolation? The irresistibly appealing contents of the case: a copy of her favorite book; piano music; and a rugged, heavy knit fisherman sweater only a Ryan Gosling lookalike could pull off. The owner of this suitcase is Laura's dream man--she's sure of it. Now, all she has to do is find him.

The mix-up seems written in the stars. After all, what are the odds that she'd find The One on the same remote island where her mom and dad had first fallen in love, especially as she sets out to write an article about their epic romance? Commissioning surly cab driver Ted to ferry her around seems like her best bet in both tracking down the mystery suitcase owner and retracing her parents' footsteps. And if beneath Ted's gruffness lies a wit that makes their cab rides strangely entertaining, so much the better. But as Laura's long-lost luggage soulmate proves difficult to find--and as she realizes that the love story she's held on a pedestal all her life might not have been that perfect--she'll have to rethink her whole outlook on love to discover what she really wants.]]>
371 Sophie Cousens 0593331524 Melanie 4 3.70 2021 Just Haven't Met You Yet
author: Sophie Cousens
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:

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Un Lun Dun 68496
It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up . . . and some of its lost and broken people, too–including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas; Obaday Fing, a tailor whose head is an enormous pin-cushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle. Un Lun Dun is a place where words are alive, a jungle lurks behind the door of an ordinary house, carnivorous giraffes stalk the streets, and a dark cloud dreams of burning the world. It is a city awaiting its hero, whose coming was prophesied long ago, set down for all time in the pages of a talking book.

When twelve-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance leading out of London and into this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy is coming true at last. But then things begin to go shockingly wrong.]]>
432 China Miéville 0345495160 Melanie 5 kids, british 3.84 2007 Un Lun Dun
author: China Miéville
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: kids, british
review:
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet - one of my very, very most favorite children's books. It was just amazing - the story, the characters, the insane imagination that went into... even the pictures are just perfect. One of those books I think everyone should read. My son and I read this aloud, and it was amazingly good. If you like fantasy novels, I'd suggest running out and getting a copy right now - Mieville has an imagination that puts most fantasy writers to shame, and the detail put into UnLondon in his book is intense. This is absolutely one of the best kids' books I've read in a long time, and I'm dying to try some of his adult books in hopes that they are half as good as this. I wish Mieville had more stuff for kids!!
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<![CDATA[Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies (The Vacation Mysteries, #1)]]> 195790849 Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies . . . one trip to die for.

All that bestselling author Eleanor Dash wants is to get through her book tour in Italy and kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next in her Vacation Mysteries series―is that too much to ask?

Clearly, because when an attempt is made on the real Connor’s life―the handsome but infuriating con man she got mixed up with ten years ago and now can't get out of her life―Eleanor’s enlisted to help solve the case.

Contending with literary rivals, rabid fans, a stalker―and even her ex, Oliver, who turns up unexpectedly―theories are bandied about, and rivalries, rifts, and broken hearts are revealed. But who’s really trying to get away with murder?

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is the irresistible and hilarious series debut from Catherine Mack, introducing bestselling fictional author Eleanor Dash on her Italian book tour that turns into a real-life murder mystery, as her life starts to imitate the world in her books.]]>
342 Catherine Mack 1250325854 Melanie 4 3.47 2024 Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies (The Vacation Mysteries, #1)
author: Catherine Mack
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: humor, mystery, netgalley, romance
review:

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When Javi Dumped Mari 219520699 The USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man is back with a fun and flirty rom-com about a pact between friends that goes awry when one of them unexpectedly announces they're getting married.

On the eve of their college graduation, best friends Javier Báez ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýMarisol Campos swore never to date someone the other doesn’t approve of. Now, ten years later, Javi has a problem. Mari, the woman he's secretly pined for since sophomore year, is planning to marry—and Javi didn’t even get the chance to vet the Pedro Pascal knockoff.

Mari, a successful entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, is no longer seeking Javi's dating advice or waiting for him to declare his love for her. Instead, she's made a different pact—with herself. And to succeed, she'll need to build a future with someone else.

With his life and theater career finally on track, Javi’s ready to confess his feelings. Except Mari’s changed the script and moved on without him. Which means he has eight weeks to convince her this marriage is a flop. And if Javi has to ruffle some feathers to help Mari avert a disaster, well, he’s up for the challenge. After all, isn't that what best friends are for?]]>
448 Mia Sosa Melanie 4 humor, netgalley, romance 4.00 2025 When Javi Dumped Mari
author: Mia Sosa
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: humor, netgalley, romance
review:

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Parents Weekend 217387739 From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.]]>
320 Alex Finlay 1250360722 Melanie 4 mystery, netgalley, thriller 3.66 2025 Parents Weekend
author: Alex Finlay
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: mystery, netgalley, thriller
review:

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<![CDATA[The Table of Less Valued Knights]]> 21532109 'Know that there were three tables there. The first was the Round Table, with King Arthur as companion and lord. The second, the Table of Errant Companions, were those who went seeking adventure and waited to become companions of the Round Table. Those of the third table never left court and did not go on quests or in search of adventures, either because of illness or because they lacked courage. These knights were called the Less Valued Knights.'

Sir Humphrey du Val of the Table of Less Valued Knights - Camelot's least prestigious table, boringly rectangular in shape and with one leg shorter than the other so that it always has to be propped up with a folded napkin to stop it from rocking - has been banned by King Arthur from going on quests, and hasn't left the castle in fifteen years. He's tempted out of his imposed retirement by Elaine, who is looking for her kidnapped fiancé. She appears to be the classic damsel in distress, but turns out to have a big secret to hide.

Across the border in Puddock, the new young queen, Martha, is appalled to be married off against her will to the odious Prince Edwin of Tuft. She disguises herself as a boy and runs away, but doesn't get very far before the Locum of the Lake - standing in for the full-time Lady - intercepts her with some startling news: Martha's brother, the true heir to the throne of Puddock, is not dead as she has always thought, and Martha must go on her own quest to find him.

The two quests collide, entangling Humphrey, Elaine and Martha's lives, and introducing a host of Arthurian misfits, including a twelve-year-old crone, a magic sword with a mind of her own, a freakishly short giant, and not one but three men in iron masks.

With Gods Behaving Badly Marie Phillips showed that she has a rare gift for comedy, taking familiar characters from legend and giving them an ingenious contemporary twist. In The Table of Less Valued Knights it's Thomas Malory's turn, and I'm afraid you'll never read him in quite the same way again.]]>
320 Marie Phillips 0307359948 Melanie 4 fantasy, humor, magic, sweet 3.74 2014 The Table of Less Valued Knights
author: Marie Phillips
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: fantasy, humor, magic, sweet
review:

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On Location 56749652 Nothing like a rocky start between enemy coworkers stuck together on location to prove that love isn't just a ploy for ratings--it's a force of nature.

Alia Dunn has finally gotten her big break. After years of working her way up at TV's top outdoor travel channel, she gets the green light from network executives to bring her dream project to life: produce a series about Utah's national parks. It's a touching tribute to her late apong, who sparked Alia's passion for travel and the outdoors as a kid.

Alia is thrilled--until she meets her newest crew member, Drew Irons. The same Drew she had the most amazing first date with two weeks ago--who then ghosted her. The same Drew who has the most deliciously thick forearms and who loves second-guessing her every move on set in front of the entire crew. It's not long before the tension between them turns hotter than the Utah desert in the dead of summer, and their steamy encounters lead to major feelings.

But when the series host goes rogue one too many times, jeopardizing the entire shoot, Alia realizes that she'll need to organize one hell of a coup to save her show--and she'll need Drew's help to do it. It's the riskiest move she's ever made. If she pulls it off, she'll end up with a hit series and her dream guy . . . but if it all goes wrong, she could lose both.]]>
337 Sarah Echavarre Smith 0593201655 Melanie 0 currently-reading, romance 3.40 2021 On Location
author: Sarah Echavarre Smith
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: currently-reading, romance
review:

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Hemlock & Silver 217388302 From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White� steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind.

Healer Anja knows little of politics but much of poisons. When she is summoned to treat the mysterious illness afflicting the king’s daughter, she finds herself against the clock, desperate to track down the source of the poison killing Princess Snow. But the chance discovery of a strange alternate world inside a magic mirror leads Anja to darker discoveries, including what really happened to Snow’s dead sister, Rose, and why their mother seemingly went mad and cut out her heart.

Aided by a taciturn bodyguard, a narcissistic cat, and a late Renaissance understanding of the scientific method, Anja must navigate the mysteries of the mirror world before the dark queen that dwells within rises to threaten them all.]]>
368 T. Kingfisher 1250342031 Melanie 0 to-read 4.35 2025 Hemlock & Silver
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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Pam Kowolski Is a Monster! 228175373 If Janet Chow hadn’t been such a jerk to everyone at Sewanhaka High, they might have voted her Most Likely to Succeed. Twenty-plus years later, life hasn’t turned out how Janet expected. She’s rudderless, her career in journalism crashed, burned, and buried. How did it come to this?



But then one day, Janet recognizes her mortal enemy from high school—Pam Kowolski! Somehow, Pam’s become America’s manic pixie sweetheart, an online psychic predicting the end of the world. Pam’s rich, hawt, and famous, meanwhile Janet looks...middle aged. How did this happen? How did Pam Kowolski steal Janet’s life?



Janet knows the truth: there’s no way a dumb ass like Pam earned her success. She’s lying about her powers. The world isn’t ending. Pam’s a FRAUD. It’s time for Janet to wake up and claim what’s hers by writing an article that TAKES PAM DOWN.


But to reveal Pam, she’s got to dig deep into their shared past. There’s bad stuff back there, scary stuff, and the more Janet learns, the more she worries: what if Pam Kowolski is right?

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120 Sarah Langan 194787991X Melanie 3 netgalley, weird, horror 4.26 Pam Kowolski Is a Monster!
author: Sarah Langan
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: netgalley, weird, horror
review:

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<![CDATA[The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1)]]> 63132313 Welcome to Scion. No safer place.

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

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

When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal � and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy.]]>
560 Samantha Shannon 1639732233 Melanie 0 to-read 4.25 2013 The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2)]]> 215806352 Vera Wong is back and as meddling as ever in this follow-up to the hit Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.�

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

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

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

Vera is determined to solve Xander's murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýthere is nothing she wouldn't do for her future daughter-in-law.]]>
Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546261 Melanie 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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All That Consumes Us 78816533 Ninth House meets The Dead and the Dark in this gothic dark academia novel that delves into the human capacity for great love, great art, and great evil.

Magni animi numquam moriuntur. Great minds never die.

The students in Corbin College's elite academic society, Magni Viri, have it all--free tuition, inspirational professors, and dream jobs once they graduate. When first-gen college student Tara is offered a chance to enroll, she doesn't hesitate.?

Except once she's settled into the gorgeous Victorian dormitory, something strange starts to happen. She's finally writing, but her stories are dark and twisted. Her dreams feel as if they could bury her alive. An unseen presence seems to stalk her through the halls.

And a chilling secret awaits Tara at the heart of Magni Viri--one that just might turn her nightmares into reality; one that might destroy her before she has a chance to escape.

All That Consumes Us will pull readers into a hypnotizing, dark reverie that blurs the lines of reality and shows that the addictive nature of ambition--and its inevitable price--always claims its due.]]>
413 Erica Waters 0063115972 Melanie 3 3.86 2023 All That Consumes Us
author: Erica Waters
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

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It's Elementary 202102044 A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.

Brilliantly written, It's Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.]]>
368 Elise Bryant 0593640780 Melanie 0 to-read 3.74 2024 It's Elementary
author: Elise Bryant
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Game Is Afoot 220238793 A clever and hilarious new mystery about a mother who thinks she has to do it all—even solve a murder—from the author of It's Elementary

After rage quitting her job, Mavis finally has time to get all the rest she’s been putting off. Or she should have the time. Hypothetically. Except she’s taken on a new  Supermom. Her hours are filled with chauffeuring her daughter, Pearl, around to her extracurricular activities, somehow ending up class mom, and…investigating another mystery?

When Coach Cole, the director of the kids’ soccer program, drops dead on a sunny Saturday morning, no one suspects foul play. However, the police soon discover something suspicious left on the field, making it clear that someone had it in for the coach. But who? Sure, parents got mad when he made their precious star athletes sit on the bench, but not that mad.

Mavis is determined to find out, even if it takes her into the dark, dangerous underbelly of gentle parents and MLM girlbosses. Plus, it’s an easy distraction from everything else going on. Like the panic attacks she keeps brushing off. Or the fact that she’s unemployed and totally lost as to what her purpose and path in life should be. And then there’s her ex-husband who’s back in town and doing everything she’s ever wanted, just as she’s beginning a new relationship. Mavis knows a murder investigation probably isn’t the self-care she needs right now. But how exactly are you supposed to take care of yourself when you don’t even know who you are anymore?]]>
Elise Bryant 0593640810 Melanie 4 4.70 2025 The Game Is Afoot
author: Elise Bryant
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: cozy, mystery, netgalley, parenting, humor
review:

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The Drowning House 199426853
Now they'll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place―and on the way they'll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he's bringing back to Marrowstone Island.

From award-winning author Cherie Priest comes a deeply haunting and atmospheric horror-thriller that explores the lengths we'll go to protect those we love.]]>
421 Cherie Priest 1728292824 Melanie 3 3.33 2024 The Drowning House
author: Cherie Priest
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: horror, magic, mystery, pacific-northwest
review:

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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

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

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

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

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]>
482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Melanie 4 4.02 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

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The House of Last Resort 126918644 The next high concept horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden.

Across Italy, there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives.

It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought.

There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside.

While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina…something stirs.]]>
292 Christopher Golden Melanie 3 3.17 2024 The House of Last Resort
author: Christopher Golden
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer (S.C.Y.T.H.E. Mystery, #1)]]> 205064752 Sometimes it takes working with the dead to start living.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex's baby. She's also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that's the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client's soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why.

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy's soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.]]>
352 Maxie Dara 0593815793 Melanie 3 humor, mystery 3.81 2024 A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer (S.C.Y.T.H.E. Mystery, #1)
author: Maxie Dara
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: humor, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Girl with the Louding Voice]]> 50214741 All you have are your words.

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education.

As the only daughter of a broke father, she is a valuable commodity. Removed from school and sold as a third wife to an old man, Adunni's life amounts to this: four goats, two bags of rice, some chickens and a new TV. When unspeakable tragedy swiftly strikes in her new home, she is secretly sold as a domestic servant to a household in the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where no one will talk about the strange disappearance of her predecessor, Rebecca. No one but Adunni...

As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless servant, fourteen-year-old Adunni is repeatedly told that she is nothing. But Adunni won't be silenced. She is determined to find her voice - in a whisper, in song, in broken English - until she can speak for herself, for the girls like Rebecca who came before, and for all the girls who will follow.

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371 Abi Daré 1524746029 Melanie 0 to-read 4.40 2020 The Girl with the Louding Voice
author: Abi Daré
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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Count My Lies 214151565 A read-in-one-night suspense thriller narrated by a compulsive liar whose little white lies allow her to enter into the life and comfort of a wealthy married couple who are harboring much darker secrets themselves. For the millions of us still chasing those gone girls, this is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, and Laura Dave.

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

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

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

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

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

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

Careful what you lie for.]]>
336 Sophie Stava 1668079348 Melanie 4 botm, mystery, thriller 3.75 2025 Count My Lies
author: Sophie Stava
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: botm, mystery, thriller
review:

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<![CDATA[The Pact (Rachel Benjamin, #1)]]> 56036 312 Jennifer Sturman 0373250797 Melanie 3 chick-lit, mystery
Reread 7/1/13 and thought about lowering my rating - I just wasn't a huge fan of the mystery this time around. I don't know if it's because I knew what was going to happen, though, so ultimately I've left it as 3 stars even though a second read was more 2 star.]]>
3.58 The Pact (Rachel Benjamin, #1)
author: Jennifer Sturman
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/01
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: chick-lit, mystery
review:
I've already read the second book in this series, so it was a little weird coming at this one from that viewpoint, but all in all I still liked it. Sturman went to Harvard, and I think her writing shows that, while still managing to be breezy and fun. She can get bogged down a little in details that aren't necessary (how many times can a group of people do the dishes in one book?), but the mystery was well-crafted and the story moved quickly and easily.

Reread 7/1/13 and thought about lowering my rating - I just wasn't a huge fan of the mystery this time around. I don't know if it's because I knew what was going to happen, though, so ultimately I've left it as 3 stars even though a second read was more 2 star.
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Swordheart 218624103 448 T. Kingfisher 1250400228 Melanie 0 to-read 4.11 2018 Swordheart
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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Knife River 198138535 368 Justine Champine 0593447212 Melanie 4 family, mystery, netgalley 3.41 2024 Knife River
author: Justine Champine
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: family, mystery, netgalley
review:

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Mother-Daughter Murder Night 65646968
A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls , but with murder.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy   coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does. 

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýBeth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always depend on each other.]]>
357 Nina Simon 0063315041 Melanie 4 family, humor, mystery 3.52 2023 Mother-Daughter Murder Night
author: Nina Simon
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: family, humor, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives]]> 735106 368 Sarah Strohmeyer 0451219104 Melanie 4 romance 3.40 The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives
author: Sarah Strohmeyer
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2007/06/01
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: romance
review:
Funny and entertaining - it's fun to see how the "other half" lives, even if it's fictional, and the exploits of these rich women were all just hilarious. A great read.
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Kind of a Big Deal 52246066 From Shannon Hale, bestselling author of Austenland, comes Kind of a Big Deal: a hilarious, madcap story that will suck you in―literally.

There's nothing worse than peaking in high school. Nobody knows that better than Josie Pie.

She was kind of a big deal―she dropped out of high school to be a star! But the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And Josie fell. Hard. Ouch. Broadway dream: dead.

Meanwhile, her life keeps imploding. Best friend: distant. Boyfriend: busy. Mom: not playing with a full deck? Desperate to escape, Josie gets into reading.

Literally. She reads a book and suddenly she's inside it. And with each book, she’s a different character: a post-apocalyptic heroine, the lead in a YA rom-com, a 17th century wench in a corset.

It’s alarming. But also . . . kind of amazing?

It’s the perfect way to live out her fantasies. Book after book, Josie the failed star finds a new way to shine. But the longer she stays in a story, the harder it becomes to escape.

Will Josie find a story so good that she just stays forever?]]>
304 Shannon Hale 1250206235 Melanie 3 2.83 2020 Kind of a Big Deal
author: Shannon Hale
name: Melanie
average rating: 2.83
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: books-on-books, magical-realism, ya
review:

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The Watermark 216190434 A quirky, literary love story like no other, one that veers wildly from contemporary Britain to Soviet Russia to a bizarre but recognizable future, from one of the UK’s hottest young novelists...

Rachel and Jaime: their story isn’t simple. It might not even be their story.

Augustus Fate, a once-lauded novelist and now renowned recluse, is struggling with his latest creation. But when Jaime and Rachel stumble into his remote cottage, he spies opportunity, imprisoning them inside his novel-in-progress. Now, the fledgling couple must try to find their way back home through a labyrinthine network of novels.

And as they move from Victorian Oxford to a utopian Manchester, a harsh Russian winter to an AI-dominated near-future, so too does the narrative of their relationship change time and again.

Together, they must figure out if this relationship of so many presents can have any future at all.

The Watermark is a heart-stopping exploration of the narratives we cling to in the course of a life, and the tendency of the world to unravel them. Kaleidoscopic and wildly imaginative, it how can we truly be ourselves, when Fate is pulling the strings?]]>
538 Sam Mills 1685891926 Melanie 0 to-read 3.53 2025 The Watermark
author: Sam Mills
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Thirteenth Child 205181098 This is the story of Hazel, a young healer navigating a ruthless court to save the life of the king, grappling with a pantheon of gods with questionable agendas as she fights for agency and true love in her own life as the goddaughter of none other than Death himself.

All gifts come with a price.

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.

When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.

But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for� what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love?]]>
512 Erin A. Craig 0593482581 Melanie 0 to-read 4.08 2024 The Thirteenth Child
author: Erin A. Craig
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Love and Ghosts (Crescent City Ghost Tours, #1) (Haunted Ever After, #4)]]> 221271754 He sees dead people.
She refuses to believe they exist.

Psychic medium Sean LeBlanc runs the most popular haunted tour company in the French Quarter. When the toughest skeptic he’s ever met turns out to be the woman of his dreams, he makes it his mission to win her heart and dispel her disbelief.

Communicating with the dead is easy. Convincing her his ability is real?

Not so much.

Emily Rollins is a rational woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts, so when a mysterious wooden box arrives on her doorstep, she brings it inside without a second thought.

But the box contains a sinister force that threatens her sanity and her life.

She’s starting to fall for the sexy psychic, but if he can’t convince her to exorcise her demons—from her apartment and her mind—both their lives will be in danger.

Love & Ghosts is a sensual paranormal romantic suspense intended for readers 18+.]]>
Carrie Pulkinen Melanie 3 3.80 2019 Love and Ghosts (Crescent City Ghost Tours, #1) (Haunted Ever After, #4)
author: Carrie Pulkinen
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Primer and Punishment (House-Flipper Mystery #5)]]> 60784460 Whitney Whitaker has a knack for nailing down murderers . . . but this time she might just come unmoored.

Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are looking once again to rehab and resell a house, only this particular house is made of fiberglass, floats, and has been dubbed the Skinny Dipper. The old houseboat sure could use some work, but the unusual project has Whitney bubbling with excitement.

The charming and handsome Grant Hardisty lives on the cabin cruiser in the adjacent slip, but the cousins soon learn he’s left a half dozen angry ex-wives in his wake and made enemies of all sorts of unsavory folks. The man is clearly caught in an increasingly dangerous current with no life preserver in sight.

Whitney and Buck are spraying primer on their houseboat when—KABOOM!—Grant’s boat blows sky high with the man himself inside. Detective Collin Flynn has no shortage of suspects, but the waters become muddied when several of them confess to the crime. Is one of those who confessed truly guilty, or are they taking a dive for someone else? When anonymous threats are made against the cousins, Whitney must quickly determine who killed their neighbor at the lake, or she and Buck might also be sunk.]]>
304 Diane Kelly 1250816068 Melanie 3 cozy, mystery 4.05 2023 Primer and Punishment (House-Flipper Mystery #5)
author: Diane Kelly
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: cozy, mystery
review:

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Havoc 209594864 In the vein of The Bad Seed comes a twisty, atmospheric psychological suspense about a meddlesome elderly guest at a decadent luxury hotel who believes she has left her problematic past behind, until she decides to interfere in the lives of a young mother and her eight-year-old son, and finally meets her wicked match.

The war between age and youth has never been so vicious.

Eighty-one-year-old widow Maggie Burkhardt came to the Royal Karnak to escape. But not in quite the same way as most other guests who are relaxing at this threadbare luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile. Maggie, a compulsive fixer of other people’s lives, may have found herself in hot water at her last hotel in Switzerland and just might have needed to get out of there fast... But here at the Royal Karnak, under the hot Saharan sun, she has a comfortable suite, a loyal confidante in the hotel manager, Ahmed, and a handful of sympathetic friends, similar “long-termers� who understand her still-vivid grief for her late husband, Peter. Here, she is merely the sweet old lady in Room 309.

One morning, however, Maggie notices a new arrival at a mournful-looking young mother named Tess and her impish eight-year-old, Otto. Eager to help, Maggie invites them into her world. But it isn’t long before Maggie realizes that in her longing to be a part of their family, she has let in an enemy much stronger than she bargained for. In scrawny, homely Otto, Maggie Burkhardt has finally met her match.]]>
256 Christopher Bollen 0063378892 Melanie 0 to-read 3.58 2024 Havoc
author: Christopher Bollen
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Leaf Reader 32302187 Maybe, occasionally, some of the pictures I saw in teacups were not for the tea drinkers. Maybe some of them were for me.

Marnie Wells knows that she creeps people out. It’s not really her fault; her brother is always in trouble, and her grandmother, who’s been their guardian since Mom took off is…eccentric. So no one even bats an eye when Marnie finds an old book about reading tea leaves and starts telling fortunes. The ceremony and symbols are weirdly soothing, but she knows—and hopes everyone else does too—that none of it’s real.

Then basketball star Matt Cotrell asks for a reading. He’s been getting emails from someone claiming to be his best friend, Andrea Quinley, who disappeared and is presumed dead. And while they’d always denied they were romantically involved, a cloud of suspicion now hangs over Matt. But Marnie sees a kindred spirit: someone who, like her, is damaged by association.

Suddenly the readings seem real. And, despite the fact that they’re telling Marnie things about Matt that make him seem increasingly dangerous, she can’t shake her initial attraction to him. In fact, it’s getting stronger. And that could turn out to be deadly.]]>
240 Emily Arsenault 1616957824 Melanie 3 mystery, ya 3.52 2017 The Leaf Reader
author: Emily Arsenault
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: mystery, ya
review:

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<![CDATA[Worth Fighting For (Meant to Be, #5)]]> 217064246
Mulan is reimagined as a contemporary romance about family expectations, mistaken identity, and high stakes mergers—of both business and the heart.

As the right hand of her father’s hedge fund company, Fa Mulan knows what it takes to succeed as a woman in a man’s work twice as hard, be twice as smart, and burp twice as loud as any of the other finance bros she works with. So when her father unexpectedly falls ill in the middle of a critical acquisition, she is determined to see it through. There’s just one the family company in question is known for its ultra masculine whiskey brand, and the brood of old-fashioned aunts, uncles, and cousins who run it—lead by the dedicated but overworked Shang—will only trust Mulan’s father, Fa Zhou, with the future of their business.

Rather than fail the deal and her father, Mulan pretends she’s Fa Zhou. Since they’ve only corresponded over email, how hard could it be to keep things moving in his absence?

But the email leads to a face-to-face meeting, which leads to an invitation to a week long retreat at Shang’s family ranch. One meeting she can handle, but a whole week of cattle wrangling, axe-throwing, and learning proper butchering techniques, all while trying to convince Shang’s dubious family that this young woman is the powerful hedge fund CEO they’ve been negotiating with? Not so much—especially as she finds it harder and harder to ignore the undeniable spark between her and Shang.

Can she keep her head in the game and make her father proud, all while trying not to fall into a trough, or in love with Shang?]]>
320 Jesse Q. Sutanto 1368112811 Melanie 0 to-read 3.85 2025 Worth Fighting For (Meant to Be, #5)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight]]> 216840844 “In these mysteries, the stakes are existential: knowing one’s self, knowing how to save the people you can save, and knowing that life is worth living even in the midst of pain. Gran is both blowing up the mystery genre and tying herself to its mast—what an incredible light show. Charming, gritty explorations of the greatest mysteries of all: Who are we, and what is this life?�
�Kirkus Reviews (Starred)


In her first collection of short stories, Sara Gran dives back into DeWitt’s mysterious universe and creates new worlds, drawing on memories of Choose Your Own Adventure novels, Encyclopedia Brown, Two-Minute Mysteries, and teen sleuths.

Who destroyed Professor Wolf’s prize-winning tomatoes? What’s behind the mysterious goings-on at Killington Manor? And why does life sometimes feel like we’re stuck in a mystery, with few clues and no solutions? In her first collection of short stories, Sara Gran explores what detective stories mean and why we need them. If you love mysteries, and wonder why, this book is for you.

Featuring both new characters and characters from the beloved Claire DeWitt series.

“This playful story collection from Gran (the Claire DeWitt series) takes readers on a gleefully irreverent tour of classic crime tropes. . . . Gran’s characters always feel authentic, and the author infuses even her bleakest premises with a sly wit. This is an equally good bet for Gran’s longtime fans and newcomers to her work.�
�Publishers Weekly

“Sara Gran writes a kind of pop noir that's always about ten years ahead of its time, full of wisdom and life and perfect sentences that make other writers tear their hair out in jealousy. The stories in this book pack more punch than a lot of novels do, and will have you laughing and crying and thinking about the years that’ve slipped away all at once.�
—Ed Brubaker, author of Criminal, Reckless, Pulp, and Night Fever

“Gran has an arresting, original imagination. These stories are by turns profound, amusing, and just plain fun.� —Sara Paretsky

“A truly fun book of stories packed with clever twists and wry humor—not to mention the return of one of my favorite detectives, Claire DeWitt. Little Mysteries is big on smarts, suspense and style. You won't want to miss it.�
—Alison Gaylin, Edgar-winning author of We Are Watching

“Irresistible . . . the perfect introduction to one of my favorite writers.� —Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams

“A darkly glittering cabinet of delights and curiosities by a master of the craft. Little Mysteries is a hell of a lot of fun.� —John Wray, author of Gone to the Wolves

“Sara Gran puts her detectives to work again on the deepest Mysteries. Thrillingly, without fear, they look beyond criminals and crimes, and into the motives of the Universe, of the Answer That Refuses to Appear, of love and of abandonment. Only Gran can take us this deep with this much pleasure in the reading, and so, Little Mysteries magnifies life itself.� —Conner Habib, author of Hawk Mountain]]>
280 Sara Gran Melanie 0 to-read 3.99 2025 Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight
author: Sara Gran
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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Famous Last Words 212421066
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

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

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

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

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]>
336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Melanie 4 3.73 2025 Famous Last Words
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: botm, british, marriage, mystery
review:

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Idle Grounds 214151881 On a New England morning in the late 1980s, a group of young cousins wander deep into the woods on their family’s property, drawn in by uncanny visions and the disappearance of one of their own—but the farther they go, the stranger their surroundings become.

Lingering at the edge of a family party, a troop of cousins loses track of the youngest child among them. With their parents preoccupied with bickering about decades-old crises, the children decide they must set out to investigate themselves—to the rickety chicken coop, the barn and its two troublesome horses, and into the woods that once comprised their late grandmother’s property. The more the children search, and the deeper they walk, the more threatening the woods become and the more lost they are, caught between their aunt’s home in the present day, their parents� childhood home just through the trees, and the memory of the house their grandmother grew up in. Soon, what began as a quest for answers gives way to a journey that undermines everything they’ve been told about who they are, where they came from, and what they deserve.

Disquieting and delightful, Idle Grounds is a rich exploration of the interior lives of children and a gripping meditation on birthright, decline, and weight of family history. A fable of the distortions of privilege and the impossibility of keeping secrets hidden, this is a novel about straying from home—only to come back unraveled, unsettled, and irrevocably changed.]]>
208 Krystelle Bamford 1668070456 Melanie 0 to-read 3.37 2025 Idle Grounds
author: Krystelle Bamford
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Listen to Your Sister 211004179 For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.]]>
352 Neena Viel 1250906326 Melanie 0 3.28 2025 Listen to Your Sister
author: Neena Viel
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: currently-reading, family, horror
review:

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<![CDATA[The Expectant Detectives (The Expectant Detectives, #1)]]> 195790725
“A darkly witty debut. Archly funny and highly recommended!”―Deanna Raybourn

Can she solve the mother of all murders?

For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their first child. He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam? But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local prenatal class, and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.

With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice and her new-found pregnant friends set out to solve the mystery and clear their names, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier, and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head.]]>
400 Kat Ailes 1250322723 Melanie 4 british, humor, mystery 3.67 2023 The Expectant Detectives (The Expectant Detectives, #1)
author: Kat Ailes
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: british, humor, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Dead Tired (The Expectant Detectives, #2)]]> 195790713
The second in a charming and hilarious mystery series by Kat Ailes, Dead Tired follows a group of new moms who didn’t think their maternity leave would involve so much murder.

"Full of charming characters, including Alice’s goofy dog, this fast-paced, original cozy is great fun."�Publishers Weekly


Being a new mom is murder.

Alice didn’t think her maternity leave would involve so much, well, murder. Before becoming proud new moms, she and her friends bonded more than members of a prenatal group usually would, as they became accidental amateur sleuths and solved a crime together. Now, with all this behind them and Alice’s son Jack somehow already a year old, Alice is keen to finally catch up on some sleep. So when an opportunity presents itself in the unlikely form of an eco-protest, Alice and her friends willingly chain themselves to trees and settle in as an excuse to get some overdue rest. Not the most comfortable arrangement ever, but at this point, they’ll take what they can get.

However, the next morning one of their fellow protesters is found strangled, and any hope of a peaceful interlude is suddenly swept away. Soon Alice and her friends become entangled in a plot involving rogue artists, an enigmatic local entrepreneur, and nude (optional) protesting, offering an unexpected—but not necessarily unwelcome—break from changing diapers and wrestling baby toys away from Helen the dog.

Alice, whose success rate in solving countryside murder is at an all-time high (one out of one), cannot resist the chance to demonstrate her detective skills once more, and assembles her gang of new moms to investigate this latest mystery in their not-so-sleepy English countryside village.]]>
320 Kat Ailes 1250322731 Melanie 0 to-read 3.79 2024 Dead Tired (The Expectant Detectives, #2)
author: Kat Ailes
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Enchanted to Meet You (Witches of West Harbor, #1)]]> 65962937 A witchy rom-com from New York Times  bestseller Meg Cabot about a plus size witch who must team up with a handsome stranger to help protect her village from an otherworldly force—but will she be able to protect her heart?

It’s Magic When You Meet Your Match In her teenage years, lovelorn Jessica Gold cast a spell that went disastrously wrong, and brought her all the wrong kind of attention—as well as a lifetime ban from the World Council of Witches.

So no one is more surprised than Jess when, fifteen years later, tall, handsome WCW member Derrick Winters shows up in her quaint little village of West Harbor and claims that Jess is the Chosen One.

She’s the Chosen One Not chosen by West Harbor’s snobby elite to style them for the town’s tricentennial ball—though Jess owns the chicest clothing boutique in town. And not chosen finally to be on the WCW, either—not that Jess would have said yes, anyway, since she’s done with any organization that tries to dictate what makes a “true� witch. No, Jess has been chosen to help save West Harbor itself...

As Summer Ends, Her Power Grows But just when Jess is beginning to think that she and Derrick might have a certain magic of their own—and not of the supernatural variety—Jess learns he may not be who she thought he was. And suddenly Jess finds herself having to trust Derrick and work with him to combat the sinister force battling to bring down West Harbor, or use her gift as she always to keep herself, and her heart, safe. Can she work her magic in time?]]>
368 Meg Cabot 006326837X Melanie 3 3.25 2023 Enchanted to Meet You (Witches of West Harbor, #1)
author: Meg Cabot
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: ghosts-vampires-and-witches, magic, romance
review:

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<![CDATA[Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher (Not a Detective Mysteries #2)]]> 200842218 The déjà vu is strong for 25-year-old former kid detective Charlotte Illes when she lands back in Frencham Middle School � this time as a substitute teacher with a sideline in sleuthing � in the second zany mystery based on the much-loved TikTok web series from @katiefliesaway. For fans of “Poker Face,� “Knives Out,� Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan Series, and anyone seeking to satisfy their Harriet the Spy, Encyclopedia Brown, or Nancy Drew nostalgia! Mention “returning to the scene of a crime,� and people don’t usually picture a middle school. But that’s where kid detective Lottie Illes enjoyed some of her greatest successes, solving mysteries and winning acclaim—before the world of adult responsibilities came crashing in . . . Twentysomething Charlotte is now back in the classroom, this time as a substitute teacher. However, as much as she’s tried to escape the shadow of her younger self, others haven’t forgotten about Lottie. In fact, a fellow teacher is hoping for help discovering the culprit behind anonymous threats being sent to her and her aunt, who’s running for reelection to the Board of Education.  At first, Charlotte assumes the messages are a harmless prank. But maybe it’s a good thing she left a detective kit hidden in the band room storage closet all those years ago—just in case. Because the threats are escalating, and it’s clear that untangling mysteries isn’t child’s play anymore . . .  ]]> 325 Katie Siegel 1496741013 Melanie 0 abandoned, mystery 3.88 2024 Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher (Not a Detective Mysteries #2)
author: Katie Siegel
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: abandoned, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2)]]> 215805853 Vera Wong is back and as meddling as ever in this follow-up to the hit Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.�

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

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

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

Vera is determined to solve Xander's murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýthere is nothing she wouldn't do for her future daughter-in-law.]]>
336 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546245 Melanie 0 to-read 4.36 2025 Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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The House on the Strand 50246
Alternate cover is available here.]]>
329 Daphne du Maurier Melanie 5 3.85 1969 The House on the Strand
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

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What Kind of Paradise 218695909 A teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation in this exhilarating novel of family, identity, and the power we have to shape our own destinies—from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear

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

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

As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother's San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling Internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.]]>
368 Janelle Brown 0593449789 Melanie 0 to-read 4.34 2025 What Kind of Paradise
author: Janelle Brown
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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Zomromcom 221251762 Teaming up with your neighbor during a zombie outbreak is a no-brainer, but if it turns out he’s a vampire . . . the stakes couldn’t be higher, in this infectious new paranormal romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Spoiler Alert.

When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her sweet, seemingly harmless human neighbor from the first major zombie breach in two decades, she’s stunned to be saved by him—and his ridiculously large sword—instead. As it turns out, he's actually a super-old, super-surly vampire. But for all her neighbor's newly revealed cynicism and lethality, Gaston "Max" Boucher (yes, Gaston) is unexpectedly protective. He wants her to stay in his safety bunker until the breach is resolved. Edie can’t risk more innocent people getting killed, though—and Max won’t let her save them alone.

As they unravel a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), the duo meet a host of lovable allies and discover they're not the only ones willing to fight for the future of humanity. Despite the awful timing, Edie finds herself falling for the vampire who’s helping her save the world . . . but all their dangerous plans could end their future before it even begins. As she and Max battle side by side, Edie must decide whether having a love worth living for also means having a love you'd die for—and, in a world that grows deadlier by the minute, whether that’s a risk she’s willing to take.]]>
416 Olivia Dade 0593818202 Melanie 0 to-read 4.25 2025 Zomromcom
author: Olivia Dade
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 213263148 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]>
544 Victoria E. Schwab 1250320526 Melanie 0 to-read 4.57 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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Ghostwalk 668608
A Cambridge historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang, is found drowned, clutching a glass prism in her hand. The book she was writing about Isaac Newton’s involvement with alchemy—the culmination of her lifelong obsession with the seventeenth century—remains unfinished. When her son, Cameron, asks his former lover, Lydia Brooke, to ghostwrite the missing final chapters of his mother’s book, Lydia agrees and moves into Elizabeth’s house—a studio in an orchard where the light moves restlessly across the walls. Soon Lydia discovers that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge, which escalates to a series of murders, may have its origins in the troubling evidence that Elizabeth’s research has unearthed. As Lydia becomes ensnared in a dangerous conspiracy that reawakens ghosts of the past, the seventeenth century slowly seeps into the twenty-first, with the city of Cambridge the bridge between them.

Filled with evocative descriptions of Cambridge, past and present, of seventeenth-century glassmaking, alchemy, the Great Plague, and Newton’s scientific innovations, Ghostwalk centers around a real historical mystery that Rebecca Stott has uncovered involving Newton’s alchemy. In it, time and relationships are entangled—the present with the seventeenth century, and figures from the past with the love-torn twenty-first century woman who is trying to discover their secrets. A stunningly original display of scholarship and imagination, and a gripping story of desire and obsession, Ghostwalk is a rare debut that will change the way most of us think about scientific innovation, the force of history, and time itself.]]>
304 Rebecca Stott 0385521065 Melanie 0 3.08 2007 Ghostwalk
author: Rebecca Stott
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: currently-reading, british, gothic, historical
review:

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The Love Haters 217387810 It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch� Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.]]>
320 Katherine Center 1250283825 Melanie 3 romance 4.03 2025 The Love Haters
author: Katherine Center
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: romance
review:

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She Doesn't Have a Clue 211003731 With a colorful cast of characters and a cellar full of wine, anything can happen―from murder to a second chance at love―in Jenny Elder Moke's half mystery, half romance adult debut set at a lavish destination wedding.

A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.

Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift. But when the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.

As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.]]>
336 Jenny Elder Moke 125035496X Melanie 0 to-read 3.49 2025 She Doesn't Have a Clue
author: Jenny Elder Moke
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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It's a Love Story 218153839 USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love.

Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie.

Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it.

Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she opened her mouth and a big fat fib fell out. She claimed that Jack Quinlan, hottest popstar of the moment, has promised to write an original song for the soundtrack. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years.

Now, Jane must turn to the last man she’d ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan’s hometown on Long Island, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan while facing down her past is Jane's idea of hell, but Dan just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?]]>
368 Annabel Monaghan 0593714105 Melanie 0 to-read 4.31 2025 It's a Love Story
author: Annabel Monaghan
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Strange Case of Jane O. 213870076
In the first year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations, and an inexplicable sense of dread. As her psychiatrist struggles to solve the mystery of what is happening to Jane’s mind, she suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue; when she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her.

Are Jane’s strange experiences related to the overwhelm of single motherhood, or are they the manifestation of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago, who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever-deeper into the furthest reaches of her mind, and cause him to question everything he thought he knew about so-called reality—including events in his own life.

Karen Thompson Walker’s profound and beautifully written novel is a speculative mystery about memory, identity, and fate, a mesmerizing story about the bonds of love between a mother and child, a man and a woman, and those who we’ve lost but may still be alive among us.]]>
288 Karen Thompson Walker 1984853945 Melanie 0 to-read 3.94 2025 The Strange Case of Jane O.
author: Karen Thompson Walker
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dream On, Ramona Riley (Clover Lake, #1)]]> 217453509 A small-town waitress and a Hollywood star’s worlds collide in this new romance by Ashley Herring Blake, USA Today bestselling author of Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date.

Once upon a time, Ramona Riley was a student at a prestigious art school, with dreams of landing in Hollywood as a costume designer to the stars. But after her father’s car accident, she had to quit and return to her small New Hampshire town, Clover Lake, to help take care of her younger sister. Twelve years later, Ramona is still working at the town’s café, all but given up on her dream. But when a big-budget romantic comedy comes to Clover Lake to film, she wonders if this could be her chance. There’s only one problem—Dylan Monroe, her first kiss and Hollywood’s favorite wild child—is the star.

Dylan Monroe has always lived an unconventional life, having famous rock icons for parents. But she wants to prove that she’s not some chaotic, talentless nepo baby, that she has actual skills, that she’s just a normal person. To do that, Dylan takes on a project at a charming lake town—she even works at the town’s café (very quaint), shadowing a local waitress there (very cute), and asks her to take Dylan around to do Normal People Things.

But Dylan soon realizes it’s not just some small-town waitress she’s getting to know—Ramona Riley is someone she’s met before, someone who remembers her even more vividly. Before long, however, reality hits them, and both women must decide if the spark between them can fan the flames of their individual dreams, or if it will extinguish their light.]]>
416 Ashley Herring Blake 0593815998 Melanie 0 to-read 4.40 2025 Dream On, Ramona Riley (Clover Lake, #1)
author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking]]> 54369251
But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…]]>
306 T. Kingfisher 1614505241 Melanie 0 4.03 2020 A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: fantasy, magic, ya, weird, currently-reading
review:

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Only If You're Lucky 211004903
And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered... and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.

A tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal—another gripping novel from an author quickly becoming the gold standard in psychological suspense.]]>
384 Stacy Willingham 125088795X Melanie 0 to-read 3.58 2024 Only If You're Lucky
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Written in the Stars (Written in the Stars, #1)]]> 51179990 With nods to Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice, a charming #ownvoices queer rom-com debut about a free-spirited social media astrologer who agrees to fake a relationship with an uptight actuary until New Year’s Eve—with results not even the stars could predict!

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy’s brother—and Elle's new business partner—expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because... awkward.

When Darcy begs Elle to play along, she agrees to pretend they’re dating to save face. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family over the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a fake relationship.

But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?]]>
370 Alexandria Bellefleur 0063000806 Melanie 3 romance 3.85 2020 Written in the Stars (Written in the Stars, #1)
author: Alexandria Bellefleur
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: romance
review:

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The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]>
384 Alison Espach Melanie 4 4.12 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

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The Three Lives of Cate Kay 214152244 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781668076217.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.

As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again.]]>
304 Kate Fagan Melanie 4 botm 3.77 2025 The Three Lives of Cate Kay
author: Kate Fagan
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: botm
review:

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The Last Ferry Out 219301720 On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident—and the killer’s still on the island—in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reese's Book Club pick We Were Never Here.

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

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

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

As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects one of them is Eszter's killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will she discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?]]>
320 Andrea Bartz 0593597974 Melanie 3 mystery, netgalley, thriller 3.46 2025 The Last Ferry Out
author: Andrea Bartz
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: mystery, netgalley, thriller
review:

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Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]>
384 Emily Henry 059344129X Melanie 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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Say You'll Remember Me 217182552 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer comes a new playful yet deeply emotional contemporary romance.

There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong�

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]>
368 Abby Jimenez 1538759195 Melanie 0 to-read 4.34 2025 Say You'll Remember Me
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 215020997 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]>
560 Victoria E. Schwab 1035064642 Melanie 0 to-read 4.38 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Woman in Suite 11 (Lo Blacklock, #2)]]> 220161593 In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Women in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

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

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

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?]]>
400 Ruth Ware 1668025620 Melanie 0 to-read 3.82 2025 The Woman in Suite 11  (Lo Blacklock, #2)
author: Ruth Ware
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
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Don't Let Him In 220160814 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

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

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

But Nick and Al may not be who they say they are, leading these three women on a shocking collision course, wishing they had heeded a warning: Don’t let him in.]]>
368 Lisa Jewell 1668033879 Melanie 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Don't Let Him In
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
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Bearer of Bad News 214151610 Where’d You Go, Bernadette meets The Maid in this sharply funny and moving debut in which a young woman accepts a mysterious job that takes her though the Italian Dolomites and into an international mystery far greater—and more personal—than she could have ever expected.

For someone who hates secrets, Las Vegas hairdresser Lucy Rey is about to be faced with a whole bunch of them. After discovering that her fiancé has been cheating on her with someone from his improv class, Lucy finds herself short on funds and desperate for a change of scenery. Enter a most unusual job a Bearer of Bad News.

Sure, it’s a little weird, but Lucy’s employer is wealthy beyond compare, so who can blame her for wanting to outsource? Even if the job description is short on details and the bad news sounds more like a vaguely worded threat, Lucy can’t say no to the an-all-expenses-paid trip to the Italian Dolomites plus a generous bonus if she proves she’s found her client’s sister and delivered the message. Then she learns that her mission is just the tip of the iceberg.

Launched into a world of betrayal and greed involving eighty-year-old secrets, stolen jewels, and a World War II-era mystery, Lucy is in way over her head. And she’s connected to this story in ways she never could have imagined.

For fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Kirstin Chen’s Counterfeit, Bearer of Bad News is an exhilarating romp that deftly explores the weight of secrets, the power of friendship, and how, by healing the wounds of the past, we can build a brighter tomorrow.]]>
352 Elisabeth Dini 1668063573 Melanie 0 to-read 4.19 2025 Bearer of Bad News
author: Elisabeth Dini
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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This Book Will Bury Me 213570821 From the bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches.

It's the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story.

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory...

So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don't add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something's not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap...

Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans...


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480 Ashley Winstead 1728270006 Melanie 0 to-read 3.79 2025 This Book Will Bury Me
author: Ashley Winstead
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Close Your Eyes and Count to 10]]> 211894916 An extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger

When the real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10?

Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.

Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.]]>
384 Lisa Unger 0778333361 Melanie 0 to-read 3.17 2025 Close Your Eyes and Count to 10
author: Lisa Unger
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey]]> 214152353 A propulsive page-turning thriller following the hit reality TV show Garden State Goddesses where secrets are uncovered, intense rivalries surface, and a startling murder propels a producer on a riveting quest for the truth.

One of Huzzah’s most popular shows, Garden State Goddesses, was in need of a refresh. Largely centering on the Sicilian American Fontana family of Shady Pond, New Jersey, showrunner Eden Bennett found a solution that helped her both personally and she introduced lovable bachelor Leo Fontana to her estranged cousin Hope—a blonde beauty and aspiring singer. After a whirlwind romance, they begin the new season with Leo and Hope’s wedding, but not everyone is happy, least of all Hope’s new sister-in-law Carmela, who finds Hope’s lack of family, friends, pop cultural knowledge, and social media presence deeply suspicious. Nevertheless, Hope is joining Carmela, and their other sister-in-law Valeria, a lovable ditz too dependent on cutting Carmela, and wealthy grand dame Birdie St. Clair as a new lead on Garden State Goddesses. Hope quickly bonds with castmate Renée, a down-to-earth single mom whose daughter Ruby aspires to be the next Ariana Grande.

When one of the goddesses collapses while filming at the Broke Not Broken gala at Birdie’s manor, there will be a reality reckoning. Eden will be forced to confront the ways she is emotional manipulation, coercion, and dropping her naïve cousin in this mess while also using her skills as a producer to seek out the truth—uncovering that many of the Fontanas have rivalries and grievances that go back decades, some with serious legal, financial, physical, and romantic consequences.]]>
288 Astrid Dahl 166806488X Melanie 0 to-read 3.21 2025 The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey
author: Astrid Dahl
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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A Killing Cold 211004079 A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.]]>
291 Kate Alice Marshall 1250343054 Melanie 4 3.80 2025 A Killing Cold
author: Kate Alice Marshall
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: botm, family, mystery, suspense, thriller
review:

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Water Moon 211479192 A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.]]>
384 Samantha Sotto Yambao 0593724992 Melanie 0 to-read 3.82 2025 Water Moon
author: Samantha Sotto Yambao
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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Old Soul 211178725 The woman never goes by the same name.
She never stays in the same place too long.
She never ages. She never dies.
But those around her do.

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.

Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared.

Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.

And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?]]>
352 Susan Barker 0593718291 Melanie 0 to-read 3.77 2025 Old Soul
author: Susan Barker
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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Darkly 208430757
As Dia and her fellow interns delve into the heart of Darkly, they discover hidden symbols, buried clues, and a web of intrigue. Who are these other teens, and what secrets do they keep? Why were any of them really chosen? The answers lie within the twisted labyrinth of Darkly.]]>
399 Marisha Pessl 0593706552 Melanie 4 3.71 2024 Darkly
author: Marisha Pessl
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves:
review:

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Anima Rising 217223362 ąó°ů´ÇłľĚýNew York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a hilariously deranged tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter, and an undead woman’s electrifying journey of self-discovery.

Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman’s nude body in the Danube canal. He knows he should summon a policeman, but he can’t resist stopping to make a sketch first. And as he draws, the woman coughs. She’s alive!

Back at his studio, Klimt and his model-turned-muse Wally tend to the erstwhile-drowned girl. She’s nearly feral and doesn’t remember who she is, or how she came to be floating in the canal. Klimt names her Judith, after one of his most famous paintings, and resolves to help her find her memory.

With a little help from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Judith recalls being stranded in the arctic one hundred years ago, locked in a crate by a man named Victor Frankenstein, and visiting the Underworld.

So how did she get here? And why are so many people chasing her, including Geoff, the giant croissant-eating devil dog of the North?

Poor Things meets Bride of Frankenstein in Anima Rising, Christopher Moore’s most ingenious (and probably most hilarious) novel yet.


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400 Christopher Moore 0062434152 Melanie 0 to-read 4.02 Anima Rising
author: Christopher Moore
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Hollywood Ending (Detective by Day #2)]]> 59663492
Dayna Anderson--an actress turned apprentice private investigator--uncovers the killer almost immediately. Unfortunately, what starts as an open-and-shut case turns out to be anything but. Lyla's murder was no robbery-gone-wrong. Someone hired the gunman to kill her. Diving back into the investigation, Dayna gets a backstage look at the worlds of gossip blogging, Hollywood royalty, and one of entertainment's most respected awards shows--all while trying to avoid her own Hollywood ending.]]>
321 Kellye Garrett Melanie 0 to-read 3.79 2018 Hollywood Ending (Detective by Day #2)
author: Kellye Garrett
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Hollywood Homicide (Detective by Day, #1)]]> 32785013
But what starts as simply trying to remember a speeding car soon blossoms into a full-on investigation. As Dayna digs deeper into the victim’s life, she wants more than just reward money. She’s determined to find the poor woman’s killer too. When she connects the accident to a notorious Hollywood crime spree, Dayna chases down leads at paparazzi hot spots, celeb homes and movie premieres. She loves every second—until someone tries to kill her.

And there are no second takes in real life.]]>
306 Kellye Garrett 0738752614 Melanie 3 3.67 2017 Hollywood Homicide (Detective by Day, #1)
author: Kellye Garrett
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:

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The Book of Love 157981682 The Book of Love showcases Kelly Link at the height of her powers, channeling potent magic and attuned to all varieties of love—from friendship to romance to abiding family ties—with her trademark compassion, wit, and literary derring-do. Readers will find joy (and a little terror) and an affirmation that love goes on, even when we cannot.

Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.

But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura’s sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster.]]>
628 Kelly Link 0812996585 Melanie 0 magic, weird, to-read 3.45 2024 The Book of Love
author: Kelly Link
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: magic, weird, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear. Get On the Mat. Love Your Body]]> 30754069
It’s a book of inspiration for beginners of all shapes and sizes: If Jessamyn could transcend these emotional and physical barriers, so can we.

It’s a book for readers already doing yoga, looking to refresh their practice or find new ways to stay motivated.

It’s a how-to book: Here are easy-to-follow directions to 50 basic yoga poses and 10 sequences to practice at home, all photographed in full color.

It’s a book that challenges the larger issues of body acceptance and the meaning of beauty.

Most of all, it’s a book that changes the paradigm, showing us that yoga isn’t about how one looks, but how one feels, with yoga sequences like “I Want to Energize My Spirit,� “I Need to Release Fear,� “I Want to Love Myself.�

Jessamyn Stanley, a yogi who breaks all the stereotypes, has built a life as an internationally recognized yoga teacher and award-winning Instagram star by combining a deep understanding for yoga with a willingness to share her personal struggles in a way that touches everyone who comes to know her. Now she brings her body-positive, emotionally uplifting approach to yoga in a book that will help every reader discover the power of yoga and how to weave it seamlessly into his or her life.]]>
222 Jessamyn Stanley 0761193111 Melanie 0 yoga, on-the-backburner 4.35 2017 Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear. Get On the Mat. Love Your Body
author: Jessamyn Stanley
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: yoga, on-the-backburner
review:

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<![CDATA[Give Me Butterflies (Oaks Sisters, #1)]]> 183904913
. . . Not that she’s spent much time noticing any of those things.

Finn Ashford doesn’t mean to glare at everyone, but he’s juggling his job at the museum, navigating the grief of losing his sister, attempting to make his nieces smile, and not ruin dinner for the fifth night in a row.

When Millie stumbles through the door of her interview, her eyes scan the committee and land on the one man that could derail her promotion, but it just so happens he’s also the one man that could make all her dreams come true.

Give Me Butterflies is a slow burn, single guardian romance. This steamy story features a handsome grump who seems to only smile for his nieces, an anxious curator finding the confidence to believe in herself, and a cast of endearing, meddling side characters. It’s full of swoony moments, nerdy banter, and enough fiery tension to light the museum ablaze.]]>
340 Jillian Meadows Melanie 0 4.02 2023 Give Me Butterflies (Oaks Sisters, #1)
author: Jillian Meadows
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: netgalley, romance, on-the-backburner
review:

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Not in Love 198971010 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.]]>
379 Ali Hazelwood 0593550420 Melanie 0 romance, on-the-backburner 3.69 2024 Not in Love
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: romance, on-the-backburner
review:

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<![CDATA[The Vampire Knitting Club (Vampire Knitting Club, #1)]]> 41882197 A troublemaking witch
Who killed Granny � and is she really dead?

At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do.

Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop to Lucy. And a lot of people going in and out who never use the door—including Gran, who is just as loving as ever, and prone to knitting sweaters at warp speed, late at night. What exactly is going on?

When Lucy discovers that Gran did not die peacefully in her sleep, but was murdered, she has to bring the killer to justice without tipping off the law that there's no body in the grave. Between a hot 600-year-old vampire and a dishy detective inspector, both of whom always seem to be there for her, Lucy finds her life getting more complicated than a triple cable cardigan.
The only one who seems to know what's going on is her cat ... or is it ... her familiar?]]>
262 Nancy Warren 1928145485 Melanie 0 abandoned 3.93 2018 The Vampire Knitting Club (Vampire Knitting Club, #1)
author: Nancy Warren
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: abandoned
review:

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<![CDATA[Midnight Showing (Malice Compendium #2)]]> 102386664 Book 2 in The Malice Compendium series by New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd, featuring dark magic and family secrets with a contemporary horror tone.

Immediately following the events of Malice House (Book 1), Haven and her newly found sister are on the road, trying to discover the contours of her family's curse. But while they hunt, they are also hunted by the most vile creature from the previous book: a vile, aging salesman who can compel people to do anything with but a whisper and who wants to rewrite the entire world in his image.]]>
368 Megan Shepherd 1368089291 Melanie 5 3.82 2023 Midnight Showing (Malice Compendium #2)
author: Megan Shepherd
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: horror, magic, pacific-northwest, weird
review:
Ohhhh I loved this, it was really close to 5 stars but there were some random adjective choices that threw me out of the story (yes, I’m a picky reader
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Dead Money 212294441 “A stone-cold banger of a novel—a twisty journey through Silicon Valley’s dark side, wrapped in a stunning mystery package with some wild surprises along the way.”—Blake Crouch, New York Timesbestselling author of Dark Matter

Don’t call me a fixer. This isn’t HBO.

In her job as unofficial “problem solver� for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets.

But this time, she’s in way over her head—or so it seems.

The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money� frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast.

Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league.

Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it.

Because the way she sees it, this isn’t an investigation. It’s an opportunity. And she’ll do anything it takes to seize it.

Anything at all.

Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley’s rich and famous—and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world’s cheery facade.]]>
416 Jakob Kerr 0593726707 Melanie 4 mystery, netgalley 4.02 2025 Dead Money
author: Jakob Kerr
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: mystery, netgalley
review:

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

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

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

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

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

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]>
352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Melanie 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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We Used to Live Here 199898250
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]>
320 Marcus Kliewer Melanie 4 3.78 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:

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The In-Between Bookstore 199532055 A poignant and enchanting novel about a magical bookstore that transports a trans man through time and brings him face-to-face with his teenage self, offering him the chance of a lifetime to examine his life and identity to find a new beginning.

When Darby finds himself unemployed and in need of a fresh start, he moves back to the small Illinois town he left behind. But Oak Falls has changed almost as much as he has since he left.

One thing is familiar: In Between Books, Darby’s refuge growing up and eventual high school job. When he walks into the bookstore now, Darby feels an eerie sense of déjà vu—everything is exactly the same. Even the newspapers are dated 2009. And behind the register is a teen who looks a lot like Darby did at sixteen. . . who just might give Darby the opportunity to change his own present for the better—if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever.

The In-Between Bookstore is a stunning novel of love, self-discovery, and the choices that come with both, for anyone who has ever wondered what their life might be like if they had the chance to go back and take a bigger, braver risk.]]>
272 Edward Underhill 0063357631 Melanie 3 magic, netgalley 3.53 2025 The In-Between Bookstore
author: Edward Underhill
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: magic, netgalley
review:

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Make the Season Bright 206180603
It's been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, and she’s doing more than okay. Sure, her single mother never checks in, but she has her strings ensemble, the Rosalind Quartet, and her life in New York is a dream come true. As the holidays draw near, her ensemble mate Sloane persuades Charlotte and the rest of the quartet to spend Christmas with her family in Colorado—it is much cozier and quieter than Manhattan, and it would guarantee more practice time for the quartet’s upcoming tour. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that Sloane’s sister Adele also brought a friend home—and that friend is none other than her ex, Brighton. All Brighton Fairbrook wanted was to have the holliest, jolliest Christmas—and try to forget that her band kicked her out. But instead, she’s stuck pretending like she and her ex are strangers—which proves to be difficult when Sloane and Adele’s mom signs them all up for a series of Christmas dating events. Charlotte and Brighton are soon entrenched in horseback riding and cookie decorating, but Charlotte still won’t talk to her. Brighton can hardly blame her after what she did. After a few days, however, things start to slip through. Memories. Music. The way they used to play together—Brighton on guitar, Charlotte on her violin—and it all feels painfully familiar. But it’s all in the past and nothing can melt the ice in their hearts...right?]]>
342 Ashley Herring Blake 0593550595 Melanie 3 holiday, romance 3.60 2024 Make the Season Bright
author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: holiday, romance
review:

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Fish Out of Water 136276887 Why date a mountain man? Because he knows how to pitch a tent.

When Dahlia Weathersby's sister disappears on what should have been a simple day hike, Dahlia immediately heads deep into the Colorado Rockies to find her. Knowing she'll never survive the mountains alone, she convinces the local hermit—adorably grouchy survival expert Winston Dane—to be her guide. All it takes is a good helping of Dahlia's charm…and just the teeniest bit of blackmail…before she's got all six-foot-something of him wrapped around her finger. But even with her very own mountain man in tow, things aren't going to be easy. There are:

Long hikes through gorgeous wilderness? Check.
Bears? Check.
A single shared sleeping bag? Check.
Enough sparks to set the Rockies ablaze? Check, check, check.

With everything the wilderness has to throw at them, it'll take more than charm and some city girl ingenuity to make this trek anything but a disaster waiting to happen…and an adventure she'll never forget.]]>
311 Katie Ruggle 1492667757 Melanie 4 romance 3.36 2024 Fish Out of Water
author: Katie Ruggle
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: romance
review:

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Leave Me 28110865
For every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, for every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention--meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who's so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn't even realize she's had a heart attack.

Afterward, surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: She packs a bag and leaves. But, as is so often the case, once we get to where we're going, we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is finally able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from those she loves and from herself.

With big-hearted characters who stumble and trip, grow and forgive, Leave Me is about facing our fears. Gayle Forman, a dazzling observer of human nature, has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head-on.]]>
343 Gayle Forman 1616206179 Melanie 4 family, marriage 3.61 2016 Leave Me
author: Gayle Forman
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: family, marriage
review:

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<![CDATA[Holiday Romance (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #1)]]> 61401417 She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings�

Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.

Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up.

Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.

The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.

What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own�

A totally gorgeous and escapist friends-to-lovers festive romance with a swoon-worthy hero. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi Macfarlane, and Christina Lauren.]]>
354 Catherine Walsh 1803145455 Melanie 4 4.01 2022 Holiday Romance (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #1)
author: Catherine Walsh
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

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A Piece of Heaven 1247741 No Place Like Home, readers enthusiastically welcomed Barbara Samuel into the ranks of bestselling women’s fiction, applauding her stirring novel of loss and redemption. In A Piece of Heaven, she shares another poignant tale rich in atmosphere and insight that explores the complexity of relationships, the importance of family, and the healing power of love.

In the sun-baked hills of New Mexico, Luna McGraw has lived a lifetime of regrets, struggling to conquer the demons that destroyed her marriage and caused her to lose custody of her beloved daughter. But as Luna fights to rebuild a relationship with the troubled teenager, she remains haunted by images of her own childhood and the father she barely knew.

Strong and resilient as the houses he builds, Thomas Coyote comes into Luna’s life one extraordinary night when his grandmother nearly dies while conjuring a fiery brew of spiritual enchantment. Luna does not need a man� especially one with a needy ex-wife—to complicate her fragile dreams of the future. Their attraction pushes them both beyond reason into a place where there is only possibility. Yet it will take more than passion to recover the tattered pieces of Luna’s soul, more than time to forgive the sins of an offending husband, and more than promises to mend the broken heart of a child.

A Piece of Heaven is an irresistible novel full of colorful characters and lush settings spiced with the magical flavors of the Southwest, a brilliant tapestry of romance and realism by a master storyteller.]]>
416 Barbara Samuel 0345445686 Melanie 4 romance 3.88 2002 A Piece of Heaven
author: Barbara Samuel
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2015/09/21
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: romance
review:

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The Staircase in the Woods 216971219 A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .]]>
400 Chuck Wendig 0593156560 Melanie 4 3.91 2025 The Staircase in the Woods
author: Chuck Wendig
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: horror, magic, mystery, netgalley, weird
review:

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Promise Me Sunshine 214269328 Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not

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

Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again� list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.]]>
416 Cara Bastone 0593595734 Melanie 4 4.29 2025 Promise Me Sunshine
author: Cara Bastone
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:
A really sweet romance about grief and coming back to life after a huge loss, and about friendship, which is always so lovely to have as a big part of the story in a romance. Lenny was a blast as a character, so quirky and fun even in her extreme grief, and I got such a good sense of her and Lou’s amazing friendship. I also love how much New York is a character in Bastone’s books. The story could happen somewhere else, I guess, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near the same with a different starring city.
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Horror Movie 200101541 A chilling twist on the “cursed filmâ€� genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid� is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions � demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost? 

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film� that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.]]>
277 Paul Tremblay 0063070014 Melanie 4 horror, mystery 3.31 2024 Horror Movie
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: horror, mystery
review:
Absolute bonkers weirdness. I loved the interspersed script and seeing how it played out in real life, and just how utterly disturbing and semi gross it was at times.
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<![CDATA[The Bookshop of Second Chances]]> 59514496
Almost instantly, Thea becomes enamored with the quaint cottage, comforted by its cozy rooms and lovely but neglected garden. The locals in nearby Baldochrie are just as warm, quirky, and inviting. The only person she can’t seem to win over is bookshop owner Edward Maltravers, to whom she hopes to sell her uncle’s book collection. His gruff attitude—fueled by an infamous, long-standing feud with his brother, a local lord—tests Thea’s patience. But bickering with Edward proves oddly refreshing and exciting, leading Thea to develop feelings she hasn’t experienced in a long time. As she follows a thrilling yet terrifying impulse to stay in Scotland indefinitely, Thea realizes that her new life may quickly become just as complicated as the one she was running from.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A woman desperate to turn a new page heads to the Scottish coast and finds herself locked in a battle of wills with an infuriatingly aloof bookseller in this utterly heartwarming debut, perfect for readers of Evvie Drake Starts Over .

“Humor and charm abound. . . . [This] love story hits the spot.”� Publishers Weekly]]>
464 Jackie Fraser 0593499468 Melanie 4 british, romance, sweet 3.48 2020 The Bookshop of Second Chances
author: Jackie Fraser
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: british, romance, sweet
review:
Classic romance, very quiet and very British, with a kind of adult coming if age theme and a village I’d be jealous of if I didn’t also live somewhere amazing.
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<![CDATA[Caught Dead Handed (Witch City Mystery, #1)]]> 19083257
Lee reluctantly takes the job, but when she starts seeing real events in the obsidian ball she's using as a prop, she wonders if she might really have psychic abilities. To make things even spookier, it's starting to look like Ariel may have been an actual practicing witch--especially when O'Ryan, the cat Lee and Aunt Ibby inherited from her, exhibits some strange powers of his own. With Halloween fast approaching, Lee must focus on unmasking a killer--or her career as a psychic may be very short lived. . .]]>
407 Carol J. Perry 1617733695 Melanie 3 3.70 2014 Caught Dead Handed (Witch City Mystery, #1)
author: Carol J. Perry
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: ghosts-vampires-and-witches, mystery
review:
Pretty dark for a cozy, and it felt very dated re: mental health stuff, but I enjoyed it. There was one part where I was really mad about how they treated the cat though
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<![CDATA[The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society]]> 204316914 A librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.

Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she's concerned by just how many killers she's had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count...but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town's new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the "Demon-Hunting Society," Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.

Never mess with a librarian.]]>
339 C.M. Waggoner 1984805886 Melanie 5 humor, magic, mystery 3.39 2024 The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society
author: C.M. Waggoner
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: humor, magic, mystery
review:
A quirky and funny and very tongue in cheek “cozy� mystery with a great twist. I loved the characters so much, and I loved the premise. Super excited to read more hy this author!
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The Bright Sword 201750794
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.]]>
673 Lev Grossman 0735224048 Melanie 5 3.94 2024 The Bright Sword
author: Lev Grossman
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:
I’m just a sucker for King Arthur books� but this was also lovely and compelling, with some gorgeous writing and lots of fun backstory on several of the knights of the round table. Plus so much good magical stuff - magic swords, flying ships, bewitched castles, weird monsters, cursed knights and kings. So good.
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<![CDATA[Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4)]]> 220389457
When Everleigh Dangerfield’s baking disaster necessitates a call to 911, firefighter Griffin Brantley douses the flames in the kitchen, but the ones he stokes in Everleigh are an entirely different story. Unfortunately, Everleigh’s only visiting and doesn’t do casual hookups, no matter how smoldering the temptation. But Everleigh’s holiday mishaps have just begun. And Griffin is seemingly always on call. If Everleigh is game for a change of plans, he can give her the merriest Christmas of her life.

Alexandria Bellefleur’s Merriment and Mayhem is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]>
58 Alexandria Bellefleur 1662529341 Melanie 3 3.28 2024 Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4)
author: Alexandria Bellefleur
name: Melanie
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:

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Call Your Daughter Home 38636043 A stunning tour de force following three fierce, unforgettable Southern women in the years leading up to the Great Depression

It's 1924 South Carolina and the region is still recovering from the infamous boll weevil infestation that devastated the land and the economy. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters from starvation or die at the hands of an abusive husband. Retta is navigating a harsh world as a first-generation freed slave, still employed by the Coles, influential plantation proprietors who once owned her family. Annie is the matriarch of the Coles family and must come to terms with the terrible truth that has ripped her family apart.These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to the terrible injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together. Told in the pitch-perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is an audacious, timeless story about the power of family, deep-buried secrets and the ferocity of motherhood.]]>
352 Deb Spera 0778307743 Melanie 0 to-read 4.17 2018 Call Your Daughter Home
author: Deb Spera
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)]]> 199347538 Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]>
416 T.J. Klune 125088120X Melanie 0 abandoned 4.18 2024 Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Melanie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: abandoned
review:

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