Vicki's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 09 Apr 2025 06:21:32 -0700 60 Vicki's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 41093489 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.]]>
198 Amal El-Mohtar 1534431004 Vicki 0 to-read 3.82 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Reappearance of Rachel Price]]> 182484360
Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And � could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.]]>
448 Holly Jackson 0593374207 Vicki 0 to-read 4.09 2024 The Reappearance of Rachel Price
author: Holly Jackson
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)]]> 50523477 Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters � but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.]]>
533 Tasha Suri 0356515648 Vicki 0 to-read 4.12 2021 The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)
author: Tasha Suri
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
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The Measure 58884736
"A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope—read with us." —Jenna Bush Hager
A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life?

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.]]>
353 Nikki Erlick 0063204207 Vicki 5 audible-book 3.96 2022 The Measure
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: audible-book
review:

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<![CDATA[Tamarack County (Cork O'Connor, #13)]]> 16130141 Violence and murder blow into Minnesota’s sleepy Tamarack County as ex-sheriff Cork O’Connor returns in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s New York Times bestselling series.As a blizzard swells just days before Christmas, the car belonging to the wife of a retired local judge is discovered abandoned on a rural road in Tamarack County. After days of fruitless effort, the search-and-rescue team has little hope that she’ll be found alive, if at all. Cork O’Connor, former sheriff and now private investigator, is part of that team.

Early on, Cork notices small things about the woman’s disappearance that disturb him. But when the beloved pet dog of a friend is brutally killed and beheaded, he begins to see a startling pattern in these and other recent dark occurrences in the area. After his own son comes close to peril, Cork understands that someone is spinning a deadly web in Tamarack County. At the center is a murder more than twenty years old, for which an innocent man may have been convicted. Cork remembers the case only too well. He was the deputy in charge of the investigation that sent the man to prison.

With the darkest days of the year at hand, the storms of winter continue to isolate Tamarack County. Somewhere behind the blind of all that darkness and drifting snow, a vengeful force is at work. And Cork has only hours to stop it before his family and his friends pay the ultimate price for the sins of others.

With complex plot twists, rich characters, and a vivid setting, Tamarack County is a relentlessly fast-paced novel that will chill, thrill, and shock you.]]>
320 William Kent Krueger 1451645783 Vicki 4 audible-book, crime 4.10 2013 Tamarack County (Cork O'Connor, #13)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: audible-book, crime
review:

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It Happened on the Lake 219522073 In an intense, twisty, Hitchcockian standalone spin on Rear Window from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson, a woman returns to the Oregon town where a nightmare unfolded 20 years ago—and is waiting to engulf her again. For fans of J.T. Ellison, Paula Hawkins, Karin Slaughter, and Riley Sager.

The huge Victorian house on Lake Twilight belongs to Harper Reed Prescott, as does the private island on which it sits. Harper wants little to do with either. Twenty years ago, Harper’s grandmother died suspiciously while in her care, on the same night that Harper’s boyfriend disappeared. His body was never found, and no charges were filed. But the rumors haven’t faded. There have been other deaths, other accidents. All revolving around Harper and her family.

Now Harper’s marriage is over, her college-age daughter is estranged, and Harper just wants to sell the property and make a fresh start. Except returning to the lake has stirred everything up again. Whispers. Memories. And the persistent feeling that, as she gazes out at the houses across the water, she’s being watched in turn.

The whole town has always thought Harper has something to hide, and they’re right. But she might have even more to fear . . .]]>
592 Lisa Jackson 1496737032 Vicki 0 to-read 3.89 It Happened on the Lake
author: Lisa Jackson
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
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<![CDATA[Thus with a Kiss I Die (Daughter of Montague, #2)]]> 219521980 The delightfully irreverent eldest daughter of the not-so-ill-fated Romeo and Juliet returns to sleuth another day in fair Verona, in this hugely entertaining historical mystery series with a refreshingly bold premise.

“Woe, for I am the bug that meets the windshield's might,
No longer the speeding glass, smooth, clean and bright . . .�

You’re right. I, Rosie Montague of Verona, am lousy at iambic pentameter and Shakespeare speak, but you get the Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug. I, who for my whole life, have cruised along, unruffled by life’s trials, am suddenly smashed flat and speeding recklessly up the WhattheHellHappened Highway.

Why? you ask . . .

I’m 20-years-old and by my own design, never been wed, free as no married woman ever is. I’m beautiful, but without conceit, for Juliet, my legendary Mamma is the most gorgeous creature to ever walk the earth. Just ask Romeo, my legendary Papà. (Rumors of their deaths were premature.) I was heartwhole until I fell (literally) in love with Lysander of the House of Beautiful. But our love was not to be, for I was thwarted by Escalus, the Prince of Verona . . . who had designs on me.

I’m trapped.

Then! I’m presented with a solution. Escalus’s father, Prince Escalus the Elder, appears to me. He tasks that I find his killer. Did I mention Elder is a ghost?

Given that I only recently dispatched Verona’s first serial killer, I’m less than pleased. Yet Elder promises to unite me with my One True Love, so I gather clues. Meanwhile, revolution threatens, for beneath Verona society’s glittering surface lurk dark shadows—and an enemy eager to make me a tragic heroine in my own right . . .]]>
352 Christina Dodd 1496750195 Vicki 0 to-read 4.30 2025 Thus with a Kiss I Die (Daughter of Montague, #2)
author: Christina Dodd
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
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<![CDATA[The Book Club for Troublesome Women]]> 216052751 Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives.

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson--the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan--and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.

Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren't alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them. But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?]]>
384 Marie Bostwick 1400344743 Vicki 0 to-read 4.12 2025 The Book Club for Troublesome Women
author: Marie Bostwick
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
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Whispers of the Lake 219521987 A marriage on the rocks, a missing friend, an investigative journalist, a tangle of shocking lies, and a peaceful North Carolina lakefront cottage converge in this irresistibly twisty new psychological thriller from New York TimesԻUSA Today bestselling author—perfect for readers of Liv Constantine, Tarryn Fisher, Kellye Garrett, and Caroline Kepnes.

At the peak of her career, investigative reporter Rose Howard is exhausted from trying to manage her seemingly perfect life. With her marriage to her one true love collapsing, she desperately needs to rest, regroup, and decide which way to go next. The direction becomes clear when she discovers that her former best friend, Eve Castillo, isn't responding to attempts to contact her at the North Carolina cottage where she's vacationing. Rose knows Eve can be flaky and irresponsible—that’s why they fell out. Still, Rose heads to the tranquil small town of Sage Hill . . .

Rose soon discovers that Eve has vanished without her purse and passport—even after booking a trip abroad. The personable cabin owners� accounts of Eve's stay just don’t to add up . . . and most of the town's initially hospitable inhabitants becoming increasingly less helpful . . .

Rose's instincts tell her the solution lies somewhere in Eve's—and Sage Hill's—past. To get answers, she’ll have to ask inconvenient questions, rattle long-buried skeletons . . . and face vicious attempts on her life. But some truths are best left alone. And secrets Rose never saw coming could easily sink her and her future without a trace . . .]]>
272 Shanora Williams 1496745841 Vicki 0 to-read 4.02 Whispers of the Lake
author: Shanora Williams
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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The Amalfi Curse 218674082 Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse�

Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?

As Haven searches for her father’s sunken treasure, she begins to unearth a centuries-old tale of ancient sorcery and one woman’s quest to save her lover and her village by using the legendary art of stregheria, a magical ability to harness the ocean. Could this magic be behind Positano’s latest calamities? Haven must unravel the Amalfi Curse before the region is destroyed forever�

Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea.]]>
336 Sarah Penner 0778308006 Vicki 0 to-read 4.32 2025 The Amalfi Curse
author: Sarah Penner
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey]]> 220999791 As spiritualism reaches its fevered pitch at the dawn of the 20th century, a Scottish girl crosses the veil to unlock a powerful connection within an infamous asylum in this thrillingly atmospheric, exquisitely evocative exploration of feminine rage and agency for readers of Sarah Penner, Alice Hoffman, and Hester Fox.

Leaving behind a quiet life of simple comforts, Nairna Liath traverses the Scottish countryside with her charlatan father, Tavish. From remote cottages to rural fairs, the duo scrapes by on paltry coins as Tavish orchestrates “encounters� with the departed, while Nairna interprets tarot cards for those willing to pay for what they wish to hear.

But beyond her father’s trickery, Nairna possesses a genuine gift for communicating with the spirit world, one that could get an impoverished country girl branded a witch. A talent inherited from her grandmother, Lottie Liath, widow of a Welsh coalminer, whose story of imprisonment and exploitation in a notorious asylum is calling out to Nairna from four decades past—a warning to break free from the manipulations, greed, and betrayals of others.

What do the cards hold for Nairna’s future?

Rescued from homelessness by a well-connected stranger, Nairna is whisked into a new life among Edinburgh’s elite Spiritualist circle, including visiting American star Dorothy Kellings. Researchers, doctors, psychics, and thrill-seekers clamor for the rising young medium.But after a séance with blood-chilling results, a shocking scandal ensues, and Nairna flees to a secluded community near Boston, where she assumes a new  Nora Grey.

But Nora can’t stay hidden when Dorothy Kellings offers her the chance to face all comers and silence skeptics at a spectacular séance at Boston’s Old South Meeting Hall, where Nora will come face to face at last with her spiritual the courageous Lottie Liath, whose heart-wrenching story and profound messages are indelibly tied to Nora’s destiny.]]>
448 Kathleen Kaufman 1496753909 Vicki 0 to-read 4.27 The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey
author: Kathleen Kaufman
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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When She Was Gone 217953376
The pulse-pounding new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of You Don't Know Me

Rose once walked away from her daughter. Now she may be the only one who can save her.

Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote beach in Western Australian--and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care--Rose is asked to help bring Lou home.

This is the final case in DSS Mal Blackwood's illustrious career--and there's a lot riding on it. The missing children are heirs to the Fisher property empire, and while their multimillionaire grandfather is breathing down Blackwood's neck, the media storm is intensifying. Faced with a deluge of evidence and accusations, Blackwood doesn't know who he can trust.

Rose arrives in Australia intent on proving her daughter's innocence, but how can she be sure of that when she's no longer part of Lou's life? Meanwhile, as Blackwood begins to expose the Fishers' secrets, the investigation takes a dark turn. Shadows of the past gather around the Fishers, and Rose, and soon it's clear that every hour is critical. What has happened to Lou and the children? And can Rose and Blackwood find them in time?]]>
320 Sara Foster 1094094056 Vicki 0 to-read 4.09 When She Was Gone
author: Sara Foster
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Stowaway in First Class: A True Story of an Unforgettable Quest to Come to America]]> 224061552 A family’s legacy is forever changed in this true story of ransom notes, stowaways, and mobsters.

Paris, 1929. Gaetano “Guy� DeSantis is an Italian emigrant with a good a stable construction job, a comfortable place to live, and a blossoming relationship with a young waitress, Marie. But Guy dreams of making a future in America, alongside his cousin Frank who immigrated a few years earlier.

So when a mysterious stranger shows up at Guy’s door saying that Frank has paid for a boat ride across the Atlantic, how could Guy refuse? But there’s a catch—he must leave immediately, with no bags and no goodbyes.

With a heart of gold—and the suspense of a classic crime novel—this true story memorializes one man’s split-second decision to chart a new course for generations to come, proving that courage and honor do have the power to make a better life.]]>
201 Anthony DeSantis Vicki 0 to-read 4.75 The Stowaway in First Class: A True Story of an Unforgettable Quest to Come to America
author: Anthony DeSantis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)]]> 216470402
On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her.Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

The Kiss of Deception 
is the first audiobook in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles]]>
512 Mary E. Pearson 1250377714 Vicki 0 to-read 4.36 2014 The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)
author: Mary E. Pearson
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Sketch Artist 217336825 The Sketch Artist, a historical novel by Randy Young (5-stars, Reedsy), is the spellbinding journey of a gifted American artist who puts her career and life on the line years after witnessing the atrocities of a Nazi concentration camp. Steeped in suspense, art culture and self-discovery, this propulsive story transitions to New York City and New Jersey as the artist turns iron-willed sleuth determined to bring to justice the death camp leader who, astonishingly, has become an admired and powerful public figure.

After World War II, the commandant of a notorious Nazi concentration camp worms his way into the United States to become the Mayor of Paterson, New Jersey. Just as incredulous is the story of the woman fiercely set on bringing him to justice: Sophia Van Houten, a sketch artist with the USO on the German front lines. In the closing days of the war, she witnesses firsthand the slaughter that occurred in the first concentration camp liberated by the Allies, at Ohrdruf. Years later, as an abstract artist in New York City, she relentlessly pursues the former commandant with the blood of thousands on his hands. When Sophia hits wall after wall, the cudgel is taken up by her son, who attempts to derail the campaign of the commandant’s son as he runs for governor of New Jersey on the coattails of his father.]]>
340 Randy Young Vicki 0 to-read 3.75 The Sketch Artist
author: Randy Young
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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The Forget-Me-Not Library 222377159 A detour. A chance encounter. Two women who alter the pages of each other’s story.

Juliet Nightingale is lucky to be alive. Months after a freak accident involving lightning, she’s fully recovered but is left feeling that something is missing from her life. Something big. Impulsively, she decides to take a solo summer road trip, hoping that the journey will lead her down a path that will help her discover exactly what it is that she’s searching for.

Newly-single mom Tallulah Byrd Mayfield is hanging by a thread after her neat, tidy world was completely undone when her husband decided that their marriage was over. In the aftermath of the breakup, she and her two daughters move in with her eighty-year-old grandfather. Tallulah starts a new job at the Forget-Me-Not Library, where old, treasured memories can be found within the books—and where Lu must learn to adapt to the many changes thrown her way.

When a road detour leads Juliet to Forget-Me-Not, Alabama, and straight into Tallulah’s life, the two women soon discover there’s magic in between the pages of where you’ve been and where you still need to go. And that happiness, even when lost, can always be found again.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
352 Heather Webber 1250369274 Vicki 0 to-read 4.75 2025 The Forget-Me-Not Library
author: Heather Webber
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Black Stallion's Filly (The Black Stallion, #8)]]> 123201
In 1952, Walter Farley crated Black Minx, the first daughter of the famous Black Stallion. At the time, only one filly had ever won the Kentucky Derby in its seventy-seven-year history. In this classic racing story, Black minx just might be up to the challenge.]]>
254 Walter Farley 0394839161 Vicki 5 young-adult, horses 4.12 1952 The Black Stallion's Filly (The Black Stallion, #8)
author: Walter Farley
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: young-adult, horses
review:

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<![CDATA[The Singular Life of Aria Patel]]> 228479248 For fans of You’ve Reached SamԻRachel Lynn Solomon’s See You Yesterday , this captivating and mind-bending second-chance romance explores the very nature of self� and what it means to love someone across the multiverse.

Aria Patel likes stability, certainty, predictability. It’s why she’s so into science. It's why she dumped her boyfriend before they went to different colleges because the odds were that something would go wrong, eventually. In a life that’s already so chaotic, why obsess over complicated relationships and shadowy unknowns when the scientific method gives you direction and a straight path to avoid all the drama. 

But there’s no avoiding anything when Aria finds herself suddenly falling through parallel universes and there’s no formula that can save her. She can’t explain why she’s been waking up in a new reality almost every day, or why Rohan, and a poem from her English class, seem to be following her through every new life.

As Aria desperately attempts to find a way home, she eventually ends up stuck in a parallel world very similar to her own.She cherishes this new version of her family, and she finds herself unable to deny the yearning she has for Rohan…but it’s not her life or her Rohan. It belongs to another Aria, another girl, and unless Aria can get back home, she’ll have taken this happiness away from someone else forever. And she may never find her own.]]>
368 Samira Ahmed 0316548685 Vicki 0 to-read 4.50 2025 The Singular Life of Aria Patel
author: Samira Ahmed
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Trickster's Point (Cork O'Connor, #12)]]> 13036575 The latest in the New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series—the action never stops when the private detective ends up in the crosshairs of a political assassin.

The dying don’t easily become the dead.

The next novel in William Kent Krueger’s New York Times bestselling series finds Cork O’Connor sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness. With him is Jubal Little, who is favored to become the first Native American elected governor of Minnesota, and who is slowly dying with an arrow through his heart. Although the men have been bowhunting, a long-standing tradition among these two friends, this is no hunting accident. The arrow turns out to be one of Cork’s, and he becomes the primary suspect in the murder. He understands full well that he’s been set up. As he works to clear his name and track the real killer, he remembers his long, complex relationship with the tough kid who would grow up to become a professional football player, a populist politician, and the lover of the first woman to whom Cork ever gave his heart. Jubal was known by many for his passion, his loyalty, and his ambition. Only Cork knows that he was capable of murder.

Full of nail-biting suspense, plus a fascinating look into Cork’s teenage years in Aurora, a town blessed with natural beauty yet plagued by small-town feuds and heated racial tension, Trickster’s Point is a thrilling exploration of the motives, both good and ill, that lead men and women into the difficult, sometimes deadly, political arena.]]>
329 William Kent Krueger 1451645678 Vicki 5 audible-book 4.11 2012 Trickster's Point (Cork O'Connor, #12)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: audible-book
review:

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<![CDATA[Northwest Angle (Cork O'Connor, #11)]]> 9998825 New York Times bestselling series.

During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm.

Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it’s impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.

“Part adventure, part mystery, and all knockout thriller� (Booklist ), Northwest Angle is a dynamic addition to William Kent Krueger’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series.

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357 William Kent Krueger 1439153957 Vicki 5 4.16 2011 Northwest Angle (Cork O'Connor, #11)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: audible-book, mystery, survival
review:

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Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]>
527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Vicki 2 fantasy 4.18 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: fantasy
review:

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The Quiet Librarian 214175092 After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this sweeping novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.

Thirty years before, Hana was someone Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head.

Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too.]]>
320 Allen Eskens 0316566314 Vicki 4 4.21 2025 The Quiet Librarian
author: Allen Eskens
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: historical-fiction, audible-book
review:

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I Hope This Finds You Well 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

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

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

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

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]>
338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 Vicki 5 grief, humor 3.75 2024 I Hope This Finds You Well
author: Natalie Sue
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: grief, humor
review:

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<![CDATA[Vermilion Drift (Cork O'Connor, #10)]]> 7770231
William Kent Krueger's gripping tale of suspense begins with a recurring nightmare, a gun, and a wound in the earth so deep and horrific that it has a name, Vermilion Drift.

When the Department of Energy puts an underground iron mine on its short list of potential sites for storage of nuclear waste, a barrage of protest erupts in Tamarack County, Minnesota, and Cork is hired as a security consultant.

Deep in the mine during his first day on the job, Cork stumbles across a secret room that contains the remains of six murder victims. Five appear to be nearly half a century old;connected to what the media once dubbed "The Vanishings," a series of unsolved disappearances in the summer of 1964, when Cork's father was sheriff in Tamarack County. But the sixth has been dead less than a week. What's worse, two of the bodies, including the most recent victim, were killed using Cork’s own gun, one handed down to him from his father.

As Cork searches for answers, he must dig into his own past and that of his father, a well-respected man who harbored a ghastly truth. Time is running out, however. New threats surface, and unless Cork can unravel the tangled thread of clues quickly, more death is sure to come.

Vermilion Drift is a powerful novel, filled with all the mystery and suspense for which Krueger has won so many awards. A poignant portrayal of the complexities of family life, it's also a sobering reminder that even those closest to our hearts can house the darkest, and deadliest, of secrets.]]>
305 William Kent Krueger 1439153841 Vicki 5 4.16 2010 Vermilion Drift (Cork O'Connor, #10)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:

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Park Avenue 217388273 #1 NYT-bestselling YA author Renee Ahdieh's adult debut novel, about a young lawyer who gets pulled in to manage a crisis with her firm's biggest client, a family whose Korean beauty brand is worth a billion dollars, pitched as CRAZY RICH ASIANS meets SUCCESSION

Jia Song was always destined for greatness. As the daughter of Korean bodega owners, she promised herself that she would have every Fifth Avenue luxury when she grew up, and it is all within reach. She has just made junior partner at her prestigious Manhattan law firm, she has two best friends who are always there for her, and she is even about to score the ultra-luxe Birkin bag of her dreams. Sure, maybe her love life is in shambles and she’s spending too much time at the office. But she is set up to become the firm’s next star. So when her boss asks her for a Friday morning favor, sitting in on the hush-hush family implosion of a high-level client, she accepts without hesitation—only to find out that the client in question is one of the most famous Korean families in the world.

The Park family’s net worth is estimated at a billion dollars, and their mega-successful Korean beauty brand has shaped the culture for the past two decades. But the patriarch is filing for divorce while his wife is dying, and their three children can’t stop snapping at each other. With both the family fortune and legacy under threat from the worst kind of scandal, it’s up to Jia to set things right—and she only has a month to do it. Suddenly, Jia is thrust into the three Park siblings� back-stabbing family politics and embroiled in a drama that feels straight out of a Korean soap opera. As Jia sorts through the lies and subterfuge, chasing the truth across the globe on private jets, she finds herself falling for this broken, badly-behaving family in ways she can’t quite explain. But it is also becoming all too clear that the Parks are hiding dark secrets, from themselves and from Jia. Can she separate the truth from the lies in time to protect the Parks� fortune and secure her success at the firm? And can she hold on to what’s most important, even if it means admitting that what she always wanted isn’t what she actually needs?]]>
320 Renée Ahdieh 1250897955 Vicki 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Park Avenue
author: Renée Ahdieh
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Time at the Top / All in Good Time]]> 12875483
Susan is not mad. Her story is true. She and her new best friend Victoria Walker just know that when their parents meet it will be love at first sight, and the two families will become one.

But nothing happens the way it should. Their parents meet and don't fall in love. Domineering cousin Jane forbids more meetings. The treasure disappears overnight. The vanquished scoundrel returns, with sinister plans. Everything is spinning out of control!

So why does an old photo show that Susan's and Victoria's dream comes true?]]>
379 Edward Ormondroyd 1930900554 Vicki 5 4.27 2011 Time at the Top / All in Good Time
author: Edward Ormondroyd
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: time-travel, young-adult, historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Heaven's Keep (Cork O'Connor, #9)]]> 6392323 You can’t keep Cork down, and in the next riveting novel in William Kent Krueger’s award-winning mystery series, Cork O’Connor again rises to the top as he investigates the disappearance of his beloved wife.

When a charter plane carrying Cork O’Connor’s wife, Jo, goes missing in a snowstorm over the Wyoming Rockies, Cork must accept the terrible truth that his wife is gone forever. But is she? In Heaven’s Keep, celebrated author William Kent Krueger puts his intrepid hero through the most harrowing mission of his life. After many days filled with grief, two women show up at Cork’s doorstep with evidence that the pilot of Jo’s plane was not the man he claimed to be. It may not be definitive proof, but it’s a ray of light in the darkness surrounding Cork’s loss. Agreeing to investigate, he travels to Wyoming where he battles the interference of forces determined to throw Cork off the trail—permanently. At the center of all the danger and deception lies the possibility that Jo is not really dead and that, somewhere along the labyrinthine path of his search, Cork will find her alive and waiting for him. With deft plotting and writing that satisfies as much as it thrills, Heaven’s Keep gives readers an adventure not soon forgotten.

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321 William Kent Krueger 1416556761 Vicki 3 4.17 2009 Heaven's Keep (Cork O'Connor, #9)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: audible-book, indigenous-people, survival, mystery
review:

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Pretty Things 52217478
Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in L.A. alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina learned from the best: Her mother was the original con artist, hustling to give her daughter a decent childhood despite their wayward life. But when her mom gets sick, Nina puts everything on the line to help her, even if it means running her most audacious, dangerous scam yet.

Vanessa is a privileged young heiress who wanted to make her mark in the world. Instead she becomes an Instagram influencer--traveling the globe, receiving free clothes and products, and posing for pictures in exotic locales. But behind the covetable façade is a life marked by tragedy. After a broken engagement, Vanessa retreats to her family's sprawling mountain estate, Stonehaven: A mansion of dark secrets not just from Vanessa's past, but from that of a lost and troubled girl named Nina.

Nina, Vanessa, and Lachlan's paths collide here, on the cold shores of Lake Tahoe, where their intertwined lives give way to a winter of aspiration and desire, duplicity and revenge.

This dazzling, twisty, mesmerizing novel showcases acclaimed author Janelle Brown at her best, as two brilliant, damaged women try to survive the greatest game of deceit and destruction they will ever play.]]>
496 Janelle Brown 0525479139 Vicki 5 fiction, thriller 3.85 2020 Pretty Things
author: Janelle Brown
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: fiction, thriller
review:

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<![CDATA[The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)]]> 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]>
561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 Vicki 4 4.15 2014 The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/08
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life]]> 15843166 The #1 New York Times Bestseller You Are A Badass is the self-help book for people who desperately want to improve their lives but don't want to get busted doing it.

In this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice, easy exercises, and the occasional swear word. If you're ready to make some serious changes around here, You Are a Badass will help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want, blast past your fears so you can take big exciting risks, figure out how to make some damn money already, learn to love yourself and others, set big goals and reach them - it will basically show you how to create a life you totally love, and how to create it now.

By the end of You Are a Badass, you'll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can't change, how to change what you don't love, and how to use The Force to kick some serious ass.]]>
254 Jen Sincero 0762447699 Vicki 3 audible-book 3.95 2013 You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
author: Jen Sincero
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: audible-book
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 Vicki 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

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Red Knife (Cork O'Connor, #8) 2198712
Both sides look to Cork O'Connor, a man of mixed heritage, to uncover the truth behind the murders. A former sheriff, Cork has lived, fought, and nearly died to keep the small-town streets and his family safe from harm. He knows that violence is never a virtue, but he believes that it's sometimes a necessary response to the evil that men do. Racing to find answers before the bloodshed spreads, Cork himself becomes involved in the darkest of deeds. As the unspeakable unfolds in the remote and beautiful place he calls home, Cork is forced to confront the horrific truth: Violence is a beast that cannot be contained.]]>
320 William Kent Krueger 1416556745 Vicki 4 4.04 2008 Red Knife (Cork O'Connor, #8)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: audible-book, indigenous-people, thriller
review:

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<![CDATA[Let's All Keep Chickens!: The Down-to-Earth Guide to Natural Practices for Healthier Birds and a Happier World]]> 60831879 192 Dalia Monterroso 1635864771 Vicki 5 chickens, non-fiction 4.37 2023 Let's All Keep Chickens!: The Down-to-Earth Guide to Natural Practices for Healthier Birds and a Happier World
author: Dalia Monterroso
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: chickens, non-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Storey's Guide to Training Horses (Storey’s Guide to Raising)]]> 1299416 512 Heather Smith Thomas 1580174671 Vicki 5 3.95 2003 Storey's Guide to Training Horses (Storey’s Guide to Raising)
author: Heather Smith Thomas
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Storey's Guide to Raising Horses: Breeding, Care, Facilities]]> 1153470 512 Heather Smith Thomas 1580171273 Vicki 5 4.08 2000 Storey's Guide to Raising Horses: Breeding, Care, Facilities
author: Heather Smith Thomas
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[OMFG, BEES!: Bees Are So Amazing and You're About to Find Out Why]]> 62058661
Delving into various bee topics, from distinguishing between bees and not  bees (very crucial), to exploring the absolute wonder that is bee behavior (they do a coded dance directing their bee friends to food, for crying out loud!), to divulging the mind-blowing bee-magic behind honey making (within some extremely intricate and precisely constructed hexagonal honeycomb, no big deal), and more, Kracht's ode to bees paints a charming and enthusiastic picture of our favorite pollinators.

Bee-autiful full-color illustrations fill these pages that playfully and earnestly examine different kinds of bees, from the honeybee to the teddy bear bee, providing unbelievably cool facts about bees and reasons why they deserve a lot more credit as well as our appreciation and advocacy. Because omfg, BEES!!]]>
128 Matt Kracht 1797219901 Vicki 3 non-fiction, humor 4.38 OMFG, BEES!: Bees Are So Amazing and You're About to Find Out Why
author: Matt Kracht
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: non-fiction, humor
review:

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No Spring Chicken 199280933
Truly O’Toole wakes up the morning after her 50th birthday party with a hangover, a dead woman in her tub, and a chicken in her purse. Inconveniently, she can’t remember the “why� or “how� of any of it. Can she and her gal pals retrace their wild night to catch a cold-blooded killer?

No Spring Chicken is a zany, fast-paced cozy mystery novella connected to the Clucks & Clues series, with a fresh cast of characters and a whole new attitude. Recipe included!

This book was previously published under the title “No Egg to Stand On� as part of the USA Today–bestselling cozy mystery anthology Mysteries, Midsummer Sun & Murders.]]>
90 Hillary Avis Vicki 4 chickens, crime, mystery 4.68 No Spring Chicken
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.68
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: chickens, crime, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Past Present Future (Rowan & Neil, #2)]]> 199310463
When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.

In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.

In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.

Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?]]>
384 Rachel Lynn Solomon 1665901950 Vicki 4 3.84 2024 Past Present Future (Rowan & Neil, #2)
author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]>
304 John Green 0525555218 Vicki 0 to-read 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Crucible 17250
Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing, "Political opposition... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

WIth an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.
(back cover)]]>
143 Arthur Miller 0142437336 Vicki 5 3.60 1953 The Crucible
author: Arthur Miller
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:

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By Any Other Name 203337138 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]>
528 Jodi Picoult 0593497228 Vicki 5 4.12 2024 By Any Other Name
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:

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Funny Story 196890737
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads —Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?]]>
11 Emily Henry Vicki 0 to-read 4.11 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Phoenix Crown 64417401
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.]]>
384 Kate Quinn 0063304732 Vicki 0 to-read 3.76 2024 The Phoenix Crown
author: Kate Quinn
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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Shelterwood 198563674 A sweeping novel inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the rugged Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them . . . or worse.

Oklahoma, 1990. Law Enforcement Ranger Valerie Boren O’dell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children deep in a cave. Val’s quest to uncover the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself.

In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the wild and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.]]>
368 Lisa Wingate 0593726502 Vicki 0 to-read 3.81 2024 Shelterwood
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
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The God of the Woods 199700434 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]>
478 Liz Moore 0593418913 Vicki 0 to-read 4.10 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]>
400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Vicki 0 to-read 4.36 2024 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Tale of the Heart Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos, #4)]]> 209456110
As the land continues to rebel, Lor must admit she is the key to saving the continent, whether she likes it or not. To fight for Nadir, she must lie, steal, and do whatever it takes to hunt down the remaining arks. Growing more and more desperate, she worries her actions are turning her into something she doesn't recognize, dooming her to repeat her grandmother's mistakes.

When the Aurora King finally comes for her, Lor ventures into the Underworld's shadowy depths, where, once again, she finds herself at the heart of another deadly test. Only this time, she’s competing for everyone's future, not just a crown.

The only thing Lor ever wanted was to be free, but she may soon find she was always destined for a cage.]]>
672 Nisha J. Tuli 1538767694 Vicki 4 fantasy 3.85 2024 Tale of the Heart Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos, #4)
author: Nisha J. Tuli
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: fantasy
review:

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<![CDATA[What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird]]> 208145504 A charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, “one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world� (The New York Times).

For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery—whose The Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award finalist—has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. Each chicken has an individual personality (outgoing or shy, loud or quiet, reckless or cautious) and connects with Sy in her own way.

In this short, delightful book, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable only hours after leaving the egg, they are able to walk, run, and peck; relationships are important to them and the average chicken can recognize more than one hundred other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information through at least twenty-four distinct calls. Visitors to her home are astonished by all this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there are about twenty percent more chickens on earth than people.

With a winning combination of personal narrative and science, What the Chicken Knows is exactly the kind of book that has made Sy Montgomery such a beloved and popular author.]]>
91 Sy Montgomery Vicki 5 3.84 2024 What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
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<![CDATA[Thunder Bay (Cork O'Connor, #7)]]> 1153501 288 William Kent Krueger 0743278410 Vicki 4 4.18 2007 Thunder Bay (Cork O'Connor, #7)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
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When Women Were Dragons 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]>
367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Vicki 5 3.79 2022 When Women Were Dragons
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/25
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<![CDATA[Copper River (Cork O'Connor, #6)]]> 1153502 416 William Kent Krueger 1416514465 Vicki 5 audible-book, thriller 4.12 2006 Copper River (Cork O'Connor, #6)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: audible-book, thriller
review:

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<![CDATA[Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King]]> 204640542
For Dan Jones, Henry V is one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down. He was a hardened, sometimes brutal warrior, yet he was also creative and artistic, with a bookish temperament. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family, but he always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions, and secured England’s borders; in foreign diplomacy, he made England a serious player once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

Henry V is a historical titan whose legacy has become a complicated one. To understand the man behind the legend, Jones first examines Henry’s years of apprenticeship, when he saw the downfall of one king and the turbulent reign of another. Upon his accession in 1413, he had already been politically and militarily active for years, and his extraordinary achievements as king would come shortly after, earning him an unparalleled historical reputation. Writing with his characteristic wit and style, Jones delivers a thrilling and unmissable life of England’s greatest king.]]>
432 Dan Jones 0593652738 Vicki 0 to-read 4.40 2024 Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
author: Dan Jones
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/01
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<![CDATA[Mercy Falls (Cork O'Connor, #5)]]> 785395 464 William Kent Krueger 0743445899 Vicki 4 4.05 2005 Mercy Falls (Cork O'Connor, #5)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves:
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The Frozen River 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]>
432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Vicki 0 to-read 4.38 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Fate of the Sun King (Artefacts of Ouranos, #3)]]> 195436605
With the Heart Crown now in her possession, Lor must navigate the dangers of being an heir on the run, knowing more than one power-hungry ruler is after her blood. When she returns to Aphelion to unlock her magic and recover her family's legacy, it becomes clearer than ever that all that’s gold doesn’t sparkle. No stranger to battles, she continues to fight her attraction to the Aurora Prince, understanding this might be the one she finally loses.
As the past mixes with the present, Lor uncovers the truth about the Artefacts and their role in shaping her destiny. Now, her future hangs in the balance, leaving her closer than ever to getting everything she's ever wanted... or losing it all forever.]]>
556 Nisha J. Tuli 1538767686 Vicki 5 fantasy 4.00 2024 Fate of the Sun King (Artefacts of Ouranos, #3)
author: Nisha J. Tuli
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: fantasy
review:

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<![CDATA[Blood Hollow (Cork O'Connor, #4)]]> 211161 512 William Kent Krueger 0743445872 Vicki 5 4.13 2004 Blood Hollow (Cork O'Connor, #4)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Rule of the Aurora King (Artefacts of Ouranos, #2)]]> 191754348
When Lor and Nadir team up to search for a lost item that holds the key to her past and her future, she isn’t sure she can trust him. All she knows is she won’t fall for another royal fae’s promises again.

With the Sun King determined to reclaim her, Lor must keep on the move, but nowhere is safe. Not until she destroys him and the Aurora King. But she soon learns that the future of Ouranos depends on much more than avenging her shattered legacy.  ]]>
512 Nisha J. Tuli 1538767651 Vicki 4 fantasy 3.89 2023 Rule of the Aurora King (Artefacts of Ouranos, #2)
author: Nisha J. Tuli
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: fantasy
review:

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The Lost Bookshop 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,� she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.�

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found�

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]>
432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Vicki 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Lost Bookshop
author: Evie Woods
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: to-read
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The Getaway List 126919196
Riley isn’t sure what to expect from Tom, who has been distant since his famous mom’s scriptwriting career pulled him away. But when Riley arrives in the city, their reconnection is as effortless as it was when they were young―except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley’s feelings in a direction she didn’t know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the delightfully chaotic items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.

Inescapably romantic and brimming with Emma Lord’s signature cheer, The Getaway List is an uplifting and romantic read that will settle into your heart and never leave.]]>
314 Emma Lord 1250904005 Vicki 0 to-read 3.56 2024 The Getaway List
author: Emma Lord
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Trial of the Sun Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos, #1)]]> 191755077 Ten women. A deadly contest. Only one can win the Sun King's heart.

Lor has endured twelve long years of torment under the Aurora King’s rule. Her only desire is to escape and pay him back for every moment of misery she's endured.

When a surprise release finds her in the hands of the rival Sun King, Lor is thrust into the spotlight as she competes against nine other Tributes for the role of queen. If she wins his heart, she'll earn her freedom and finally get her revenge.

But Lor doesn't belong in the Sun Queen Trials. Not only does she not understand why she was freed, she isn’t a citizen of the Sun King’s court. The other Tributes resent her presence and will stop at nothing to ensure Lor is removed from the competition, permanently.

Now Lor must win, because if she loses, she dies. Or worse, she'll be returned to the evil—and now vengeful—Aurora King.]]>
400 Nisha J. Tuli 1538767481 Vicki 5 fantasy 3.81 2023 Trial of the Sun Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos, #1)
author: Nisha J. Tuli
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: fantasy
review:

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

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

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]>
432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Vicki 5 4.26 2024 The Briar Club
author: Kate Quinn
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/05
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: audible-book, historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Pecks and Suspects (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #5)]]> 57153950 Wedding bells are ringing at Lucky Cluck Farm! Sheriff Eli Ramirez's beloved niece is marrying a hometown hero, but she’s a bride on a budget. Leona offers her chicken farm as the perfect (and free!) springtime venue. The homestead might need a little cleanup before it can host the ceremony and barn dance, but many hands make light work, and the sprawling Ramirez clan certainly has hands to spare.

But there’s a hitch in the wedding plans. A bridesmaid takes a nosedive off the roof at the bachelorette party. And it wasn’t an accident—she was pushed.

What’s worse? When Eli’s kicked off the case due to conflict of interest, the new sheriff in town zeroes in on the bride and groom as the prime suspects in the killing. He thinks they made a murder pact—‘til death do they part.

Now Leona and Eli must untangle the mystery so the happy couple can finally tie the knot under the apple blossoms. But the killer has a bouquet of other plans�

If you like homespun hilarity in your cozy mysteries, Pecks & Suspects will keep you giggling and guessing until you find out whodunnit. No gore, swears, or other yucky stuff. Just good, clean murder.]]>
278 Hillary Avis Vicki 4 4.68 Pecks and Suspects (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #5)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.68
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
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<![CDATA[Bane of Asgard (Runestone Saga, #2)]]> 139506533
Reunited in New Jotunheim, Reginn, Eiric and Liv discover that they are game pieces being played on a hidden board. Eiric’s slaughter of the old council has opened Tyra’s path to power—she now has the perfect excuse to launch a war against the Archipelago. Tyra is also using her dottir, Liv, as a vehicle to raise a dangerous goddess. And Reginn is tasked with crossing the boundary between the living and the dead to gain access to powerful magical secrets.

With Reginn’s help, Eiric escapes prison and returns home to find his brodir and warn the Archipelago of the impending attack. Meanwhile, she remains at the Grove to try to prevent the outbreak of war. Soon, though, Reginn learns her true role in this use her power to raise the dead to ensure victory for New Jotunheim. The demon Asger Eldr tells her that she alone can prevent another Ragnarok. But how?

Back in the Archipelago, Eiric agrees to join the king’s forces, though that means taking up arms against his systir, Liv, and Reginn, the spinner who has ensnared his heart. For perhaps the first time in his life, he dreads the coming fight.

As the two sides prepare for an apocalyptic battle, Eiric, Reginn, and Liv find allies and enemies in unexpected places and draw on new strengths as they seek to prevent the destruction of the last of the Nine Worlds.]]>
640 Cinda Williams Chima 006301873X Vicki 0 to-read 4.01 2024 Bane of Asgard (Runestone Saga, #2)
author: Cinda Williams Chima
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dear Medusa (A Novel in Verse)]]> 61389548 This searing and intimate novel in verse follows a sixteen-year-old girl coping with sexual abuse as she grapples with how to reclaim her story, her anger, and her body in a world that seems determined to punish her for the sin of surviving.

I'm starting to realize
that a woman doesn't get that mad
so mad that her hair turns to snakes
so mad that her rage turns blood to boulder
all on her own.

Sixteen-year-old Alicia Rivers has a reputation that precedes her. But there's more to her story than the whispers that follow her throughout the hallways at school--whispers that splinter into a million different insults that really mean: a girl who has had sex. But what her classmates don't know is that Alicia was sexually abused by a popular teacher, and that trauma has rewritten every cell in her body into someone she doesn't recognize. To the world around her, she's been cast, like the mythical Medusa, as not the victim but the monster of her own story: the slut who asked for it.

Alicia was abandoned by her best friend, quit the track team, and now spends her days in detention feeling isolated and invisible. When mysterious letters left in her locker hint at another victim, Alicia struggles to keep up the walls she's built around her trauma. At the same time, her growing attraction to a new girl in school makes her question what those walls are really keeping out.

[This] fierce and brightly burning feminist roar...paints a devastating and haunting portrait of a vulnerable young woman discovering the power of her voice, her courage, and her rage. --Samira Ahmed, New York Times bestselling author of Internment and Hollow Fires]]>
384 Olivia A. Cole 0593485734 Vicki 5 4.27 2023 Dear Medusa (A Novel in Verse)
author: Olivia A. Cole
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves:
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Lola Reyes Is So Not Worried 199531905
Lola Reyes doesn’t want to leave Guatemala, a place full of warmth and sun, laughter and music—where her abuela and prima and tíos and tías surround her with love. Back in Sunnyside, it’s cold. There’s schoolwork and chores. And her mama transforms into Lola’s super-serious school principal, Dr. Reyes.

Back at home... Lola can see, crystal clear, the empty place where Pop used to be. So Lola decides to bring a little bit of Guatemala—and Pop—back with her. She discovers his box of childhood worry dolls and sneaks them into her luggage, ignoring the warnings on the box not to use them. Later, when she tells them all her worries, from her friendship woes to the way Mama won’t talk about how sad she is, the worry dolls come to life! Worse—they escape!

Lola has to enlist her neighbor and nemesis, Chance Townsend, to recapture the dolls because she discovers they’re cursed! And as they absorb worries, they’ll grow bigger and bigger. If Lola can’t find a way to stop them, they’ll burst, releasing all the worries they’ve absorbed a thousandfold on everyone in town! But when breaking the curse might mean confronting her own anxieties and grief, will Lola be able face her emotions before it’s too late?]]>
288 Cindy L. Rodriguez 006327681X Vicki 0 to-read 4.50 Lola Reyes Is So Not Worried
author: Cindy L. Rodriguez
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Purgatory Ridge (Cork O'Connor, #3)]]> 325429
Not far from the small town of Aurora (population 3,752) lies an ancient two-hundred-acre expanse of great white pines, sacred to the Anishinaabe and known to them as Minishoomisag (Our Grandfathers).

Wealthy industrialist Karl Lindstrom does not have a reputation as a sensitive environmentalist, and some members of the Anishinaabe tribe are concerned about the proximity of the trees to his lumber mill. So when an explosion at the mill results in the death of a night watchman, it's obvious whom suspicion will fall upon.

Cork O'Connor, in the throes of straightening out his life and repairing his marriage, is asked by his successor as sheriff to help with the investigation. His sense of community obliges him to accept, but Cork has distinctly mixed feelings about the case. For one thing, he is part Anishinaabe himself. For another, his lawyer wife, Jo, represents the tribe.

Meanwhile, in a secluded house that overlooks the lakeside home of the Lindstrom family, a reclusive shipwreck survivor and his sidekick also seem to be harboring some resentment of their own against the industrialist. And it soon becomes clear to Cork that harmony, both at home and in the town, will be on the back burner for some time.

William Kent Krueger's precise and atmospheric prose, combined with his keen eye for the telling details of small-town life and his vivid sense of the land and seascapes of northern Minnesota, will impress and delight both his old fans and those discovering him for the first time.]]>
428 William Kent Krueger 067104754X Vicki 4 audible-book, crime, thriller 4.09 2001 Purgatory Ridge (Cork O'Connor, #3)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: audible-book, crime, thriller
review:

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Uglies (Uglies, #1) 24770
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever....]]>
425 Scott Westerfeld 0689865384 Vicki 3 3.85 2005 Uglies (Uglies, #1)
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:

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The Women 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]>
471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Vicki 5 4.59 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Boundary Waters (Cork O'Connor, #2)]]> 123604 Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O'Connor to find his daughter, and Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on her trail as well -- men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.
As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town's snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork's team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death -- violent and sudden -- stalks them.]]>
416 William Kent Krueger 0671016997 Vicki 4 4.02 1999 Boundary Waters (Cork O'Connor, #2)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: audible-book, indigenous-people, mystery
review:

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Iron Lake (Cork O'Connor, #1) 175828
Once a cop on Chicago’s South Side, there’s not much that can shock him. But when the town’s judge is brutally murdered, and a young Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on this complicated and perplexing case of conspiracy, corruption, and a small-town secret that hits painfully close to home.]]>
464 William Kent Krueger 0671016970 Vicki 4 3.89 1998 Iron Lake (Cork O'Connor, #1)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—TܰԱ
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]>
129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Vicki 5 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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<![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096
This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]>
416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 Vicki 0 to-read 4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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Ordinary Grace 15803059 “That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.�

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family—which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother—he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.]]>
307 William Kent Krueger 1451645821 Vicki 5 4.23 2013 Ordinary Grace
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: coming-of-age, crime, historical-fiction, grief, indigenous-people
review:

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<![CDATA[A Farm and Alarm (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #6)]]> 57851535 Harvest time in Honeytree is the sweetest season. Leona is up to her elbows in eggs and apples at Lucky Cluck Farm. Not only is her fresh cider business ripening, it’s a rare week that she doesn’t sell out of eggs at the farmer’s market, thanks to her long list of regulars.

But when a dead body crops up during a routine delivery at the pumpkin patch, Leona can’t help wondering why the murdered man has a carton of her Grade-As in his possession.

The new sheriff in town is wondering, too, which doesn’t squash local rumors that Leona herself had something to do with the killing.

To gourd her own innocence—and protect her loyal customers from undue suspicion—Leona must navigate a corn maze of clues to solve the crime. But can she carve out a solution before the killer reaps another victim?

If you like a taste of farm life in your cozy mysteries, you’ll love A Farm & Alarm, the sixth book in the Clucks and Clues series. It’s “chick� full of friendship, chicken humor, and murder. Of course, there is no gore, swears, or other yucky stuff. Just good, clean crime in idyllic, small-town Oregon.]]>
201 Hillary Avis Vicki 4 4.68 A Farm and Alarm (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #6)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.68
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves:
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Mad Honey 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]>
464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Vicki 4 4.05 2022 Mad Honey
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves:
review:

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The River We Remember 101160844 In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling standalone novel.

On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.

Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.

Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life, The River We Remember is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.]]>
432 William Kent Krueger 198217921X Vicki 5 4.19 2023 The River We Remember
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/21
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This Tender Land 25813942
After committing a terrible crime, Odie and Albert are forced to flee for their lives along with their best friend, Mose, a mute young man of Sioux heritage. Out of pity, they also take with them a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy. Together, they steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi in search for a place to call home.

Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphan vagabonds journey into the unknown, crossing paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, bighearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.]]>
450 William Kent Krueger 1476749299 Vicki 5 4.35 2019 This Tender Land
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/12
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Born in a Barn (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #4)]]> 55473209 It’s Christmas in Honeytree. Leona’s homestead is dusted with snow, her beloved grandchildren are visiting, and her connection with Sheriff Eli Ramirez is sweeter than a cup of hot cocoa.

But when her Grinchy ex-husband shows up on her front porch, all the holiday cheer flies the coop. He’s not just there to ruin her new life. Worse, he wants her back. And he’s counting on a little Christmas magic to help him do it.

Eager to put coal in his stocking, Leona arranges a visit with Santa. But when Old Saint Nick pegs her ex for the naughty list, it more than ruffles his feathers. And when Santa is found “sleighed� after their frosty fistfight, her ex becomes the prime suspect in the killing.

Now Eli’s not just competing against him for Leona’s heart. He’s also investigating him for murder. And Leona’s unwelcome guest is extending his stay—unless she can uncover the truth of what happened there under the mistletoe and send him packing to jail…or at the very least, back to LA.

Can Leona and Eli crack the case in time for Christmas? Or will their holiday goose be cooked?

Born in a Barn, the fourth book in the Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries, is a festive whodunnit full of chuckles and chickens. While designed to be read in order, all the books in this series can be enjoyed as standalone mysteries.

No gore or other explicit content, just good, clean murder.]]>
174 Hillary Avis Vicki 4 4.67 2020 Born in a Barn (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #4)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[A Roost and Arrest (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #3)]]> 51701490 Farmed and dangerous�

Leona’s spirits are flying as high as the flags over Honeytree’s Fourth of July Festival. Her fledgling egg business is booming, her new relationship is flourishing, and it’s finally warm enough to put the top down on her convertible. Everything is sunny-side up.

But her good mood disappears faster than a speeding pullet when the local beauty queen is shot during the fireworks finale—and the murder is pinned on one of her close friends.

Now Leona must work around the cluck to find the real killer before her friend is cooped up permanently in the state pen.

A Roost and Arrest, the third book in the Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries, is a cock-a-doodle who-dunnit that will keep you giggling and guessing until the end.

No gore or other explicit content, just good, clean murder.

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196 Hillary Avis Vicki 3 4.59 2023 A Roost and Arrest (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #3)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[A Flock and a Fluke (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #2)]]> 50279110 The plot chickens�

It’s springtime in Honeytree, and Leona’s pullets are finally laying. Customers are flocking to buy her farm-fresh eggs.

But during the town’s Easter Egg Scramble, Leona finds more than hidden treasure when she stumbles on the dead body of the pastor’s wife. And the death isn’t a fluke—it was poison.

After Leona’s eggs are blamed for delivering the fatal dose, her customers fly the coop along with her reputation. With her nest egg dwindling, she doesn’t have time to brood. Her only hope to rise back to the top of the pecking order? Figure out who held a grudge against Honeytree’s golden girl—and why.

But things get tricky. Her two leading suspects also happen to be running for mayor. And neither one of them is crowing when Leona fowls up their campaigns with her clucking around.

Can Leona take the heat of small-town politics? Or will she be forced out of the frying pan with egg on her face?

Flock and a Fluke is the second book in the clever, irreverent Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries series that will keep you chuckling and guessing until the end.


No gore, swears, or other yucky stuff. Just good, clean murder.]]>
181 Hillary Avis Vicki 4 4.57 2020 A Flock and a Fluke (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #2)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Lightning Strike (Cork O’Connor, #0)]]> 55711595 The author of the instant New York Times best seller This Tender Land returns with a powerful prequel to his acclaimed Cork O’Connor series - a book about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever.

Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to 12-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family, and himself.

Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff, and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own. Together, father and son face the ultimate test of choosing between what their heads tell them is true and what their hearts know is right.

In this masterful story of a young man and a town on the cusp of change, beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.]]>
385 William Kent Krueger 1982128682 Vicki 5 4.15 2021 Lightning Strike (Cork O’Connor, #0)
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[A Cop and a Coop (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #1)]]> 48749520 When Leona Davis hatches a plan to return to her beloved hometown of Honeytree, Oregon, she hopes to build the egg farm of her dreams and leave behind the marriage of her nightmares.

But the yolk’s on her when she breaks ground on her chicken palace and unearths a skeleton in her front yard. It’s clearly fowl play. The bones may be decades old, but there’s no statute of limitations on murder.

With a county forensics team roosting on her lawn and a flock of town gossips poking their beaks where they don’t belong, Leona’s well-laid farming plans may be nothing more than a wing and a prayer.

Her spicy high school ex, Sheriff Eli Ramirez, assures Leona he’ll crack the case, but he’s not exactly a hardboiled detective. Her best hope to get back to a life with more hens and less mens? Scramble to uncover her small town’s buried secrets before everything’s totally plucked.

A Cop and a Coop is the first book in the clever, irreverent Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries series that will keep you chuckling and guessing until the end.


No gore, swears, or other yucky stuff.]]>
227 Hillary Avis Vicki 4 4.40 2020 A Cop and a Coop (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #1)
author: Hillary Avis
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/18
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:

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Uncharted (Blake Brier #3) 56617905 When an old friend calls in a favor, Blake Brier has no choice but to accept.

A runaway in over her head proves not what she seems. Brier must navigate UNCHARTED waters if he's to bring her back alive.

The latest installment from USA Today bestselling author L.T. Ryan & former Detective Gregory Scott, Blake Brier returns in the thrilling sequel to Unleashed.

When Blake Brier gets a call from FBI Special Agent Andrew Harrison asking for help, he's obligated to assist. Looking out for a family member in need whose daughter has run away, Harrison asks Brier if he can use his unofficial channels and unorthodox approach to bring this to resolution.

Brier agrees, but after arriving quickly finds there's a lot more going on in the sleepy New England town. If he's not careful, he might end up among the missing.

Lives hang in the balance as Brier's investigation guides him into uncharted territory. And if he's not careful, he may never find his way back.

Uncharted pits Brier against a deadly adversary unlike any other he's faced.

An epic adventure awaits with all the non-stop action, suspense and thrills of an L.T. Ryan and Gregory Scott collaboration.

Fans of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne will be glued to the pages of the Blake Brier Thriller series.]]>
312 L.T. Ryan Vicki 4 4.41 2021 Uncharted (Blake Brier #3)
author: L.T. Ryan
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:

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The Red Notebook 23129712
The Red Notebook has already been sold in twelve different languages. French TV is making a film of The President's Hat and the movie rights of The Red Notebook have been sold to UGC.

Antoine Laurain was born in Paris. He is the author of five novels, including The President's Hat.
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159 Antoine Laurain 1908313862 Vicki 4 3.86 2014 The Red Notebook
author: Antoine Laurain
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:

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This is Where I Leave You 6224935 A riotously funny, emotionally raw New York Times bestselling novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind—whether we like it or not.

The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd's wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed and old passions are reawakened. Then Jen delivers the clincher: she's pregnant...

“Often sidesplitting, mostly heartbreaking...[Tropper is] a more sincere, insightful version of Nick Hornby, that other master of male psyche.”—USA Today

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JASON BATEMAN, TINA FEY, JANE FONDA, AND ADAM DRIVER
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339 Jonathan Tropper 052595127X Vicki 4 3.87 2003 This is Where I Leave You
author: Jonathan Tropper
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves:
review:

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Firekeeper’s Daughter 52346471
After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?]]>
496 Angeline Boulley Vicki 5 thriller, young-adult 4.32 2021 Firekeeper’s Daughter
author: Angeline Boulley
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/26
date added: 2024/05/20
shelves: thriller, young-adult
review:

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No Exit 35522836
Darby Thorne is a college student stranded by a blizzard at a highway rest stop in the middle of nowhere. She’s on the way home to see her sick mother. She’ll have to spend the night in the rest stop with four complete strangers. Then she stumbles across a little girl locked inside one of their parked cars.

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, no way out because of the snow, and she doesn’t know which one of the other travelers is the kidnapper.

Who is the little girl? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?]]>
287 Taylor Adams 1912106760 Vicki 5 thriller 3.98 2017 No Exit
author: Taylor Adams
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves: thriller
review:

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Aphrodite Made Me Do It 43819413 Aphrodite Made Me Do It. In this empowering retelling, she uses the mythology of the goddess to weave a common thread through the past and present. By the end of this book, Aphrodite make you believe in the possibility of your own healing.]]> 191 Trista Mateer Vicki 5 3.95 2019 Aphrodite Made Me Do It
author: Trista Mateer
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: verse, mythology, graphic-novel
review:

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<![CDATA[The King's Pleasure: A Novel of Henry VIII]]> 205064679 The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the private side of the legendary king Henry VIII and his dramatic and brutal reign in this extraordinary historical novel.

“A delightful yarn . . . an all-around fun read about a king and a cad.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Having completed her Six Tudor Queens series of novels on the wives of Henry VIII, extensively researched and written from each queen's point of view, Alison Weir now gives Henry himself a voice, telling the story of his remarkable thirty-six-year reign and his six marriages.

Young Henry began his rule as a magnificent and chivalrous Renaissance prince who embodied every virtue. He had all the qualities to make a triumph of his kingship, yet we remember only the violence. Henry famously broke with the pope, founding the Church of England and launching a religious revolution that divided his kingdom. He beheaded two of his wives and cast aside two others. He died a suspicious, obese, disease-riddled tyrant, old before his time. His reign is remembered as one of dangerous intrigue and bloodshed—and yet the truth is far more complex.

The King's Pleasure brings to life the idealistic monarch who expanded Parliament, founded the Royal Navy, modernized medical training, composed music and poetry, and patronized the arts. A passionate man in search of true love, he was stymied by the imperative to produce a male heir, as much a victim of circumstance as his unhappy wives. Had fate been kinder to him, the history of England would have been very different.

Here is the story of the private man. To his contemporaries, he was a great king, a legend in his own lifetime. And he left an extraordinary legacy—a modern Britain.]]>
608 Alison Weir 0593355083 Vicki 0 to-read 4.05 2023 The King's Pleasure: A Novel of Henry VIII
author: Alison Weir
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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Unleashed (Blake Brier #2) 55618597 A secret project
Has run its course
And its primary subject
Must now be terminated

New from USA Today bestselling author L.T. Ryan & Former Detective Gregory Scott, Blake Brier returns in the thrilling sequel to Unmasked.

When Blake Brier crosses paths with Haeli Becher while on a relaxing weekend in Las Vegas, he finds himself in the middle of a life-and-death struggle as the mysterious woman confronts the secret organization who built her up...and now plans on tearing her down. Her attackers will stop at nothing to terminate her. Brier and his team will risk everything to save her. Even if it costs them their lives.

Unleashed is an epic struggle of good vs evil with all the non-stop action, suspense and thrills of an L.T. Ryan and Gregory Scott collaboration. Fans of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Robert Ludlum, David Baldacci, and Lee Child will love the Blake Brier Thriller series.]]>
287 L.T. Ryan Vicki 4 audible-book, thriller 4.45 Unleashed (Blake Brier #2)
author: L.T. Ryan
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves: audible-book, thriller
review:

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More Than Just a Pretty Face 42655335 For fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han, a sweetly funny YA rom-com debut about falling in love, familial expectations, and being a Renaissance Man.

Danyal Jilani doesn't lack confidence. He may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he's funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn't approve of his career choice, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the opinion of Danyal's longtime crush, the perfect-in-all-ways Kaval, and her family, who consider him a less than ideal arranged marriage prospect.

When Danyal gets selected for Renaissance Man--a school-wide academic championship--it's the perfect opportunity to show everyone he's smarter than they think. He recruits the brilliant, totally-uninterested-in-him Bisma to help with the competition, but the more time Danyal spends with her...the more he learns from her...the more he cooks for her...the more he realizes that happiness may be staring him right in his pretty face.]]>
352 Syed M. Masood 0316492353 Vicki 5 romance, young-adult 4.04 2020 More Than Just a Pretty Face
author: Syed M. Masood
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/24
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves: romance, young-adult
review:

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<![CDATA[The Passionate Tudor: A Novel of Queen Mary I (Tudor Rose #3)]]> 195888499
Born from young King Henry’s first marriage, his elder daughter, Princess Mary, is raised to be queen once it becomes clear that her mother, Katherine of Aragon, will bear no more surviving children. However, Henry’s restless eye has a devastating influence on the young princess’s future when he declares her a bastard and his marriage to her mother unlawful. In hopes of a male heir, he marries Anne Boleyn and banishes Katherine and Mary from the royal court. But when Anne too fails to produce a son, she is beheaded and Mary is allowed to return to court as the default heir. At age twenty, she hopes in vain for her own marriage and children, but who will marry her, bastard that she is?

Yet Mary eventually triumphs and becomes queen, after first putting down a seventeen-year-old usurper, Lady Jane Grey, and ordering her beheading. Any hopes that as the first female queen to rule Britain Mary will show more compassion are dashed when she embarks on a ruthless campaign to force Catholicism on the English by burning hundreds of Protestants at the stake. But while her brutality will forever earn her the name Bloody Mary, at heart she is an insecure and vulnerable woman, her character forged by the unhappiness of her early years.

In Alison Weir’s masterful novel, the drama of Mary I’s life and five-year reign—from her abusive childhood, marriage, and mysterious pregnancies to the cruelty that marks her legacy—comes to vivid life.]]>
528 Alison Weir 0593355105 Vicki 0 to-read 3.85 2024 The Passionate Tudor: A Novel of Queen Mary I (Tudor Rose #3)
author: Alison Weir
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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Warrior Girl Unearthed 61675933
Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.

But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl�, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors� remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.

Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right � for the ancestors and for their community.]]>
396 Angeline Boulley 1250766583 Vicki 5 4.31 2023 Warrior Girl Unearthed
author: Angeline Boulley
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves: coming-of-age, mystery, indigenous-people
review:

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Unmasked (Blake Brier #1) 55511117 Blake Brier finds himself sucked back into the life he left behind.
Blake grows more entangled in the plot of a hacktivist group turned terrorist organization.
And when it becomes personal, Blake will stop at nothing to find the truth.]]>
222 L.T. Ryan Vicki 4 audible-book, thriller 4.16 2019 Unmasked (Blake Brier #1)
author: L.T. Ryan
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves: audible-book, thriller
review:

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Stranger in the Woods 57939312
It sounded so perfect - a month‘s assignment at the misty, sprawling Scottish Highlands property of brilliant architect Alban McGregor, and his wife, Jessica.

But deep in the woods, there is a chilling playhouse.
Two years ago, the McGregors� daughter, Elodie, died after being abducted and taken there. Alban refuses to knock the playhouse down, and he keeps a picture of it on his wall.

Isla senses that both Alban and Jessica are keeping terrible secrets.
The closer Isla comes to getting answers about Elodie, the more the danger mounts. And with a dense cover of snow now blanketing the town, all chance of escape might already be gone.
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406 Anni Taylor Vicki 4 audible-book, thriller 3.93 2018 Stranger in the Woods
author: Anni Taylor
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves: audible-book, thriller
review:

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<![CDATA[Time at the Top (Time at the Top, #1)]]> 602014
Who, in fact, could believe such a tale? Even the author, who takes part in the story, has his doubts. But just as those doubts are all laid to rest, the mystery thickens once more. This time it's a double disappearance...]]>
191 Edward Ormondroyd 1930900198 Vicki 5 4.05 1963 Time at the Top (Time at the Top, #1)
author: Edward Ormondroyd
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The 6:20 Man (The 6:20 Man, #1)]]> 59586621
Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the Army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm.

This treacherous role will take Travis from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power…where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bullseye.]]>
593 David Baldacci 1538719878 Vicki 4 4.17 2022 The 6:20 Man (The 6:20 Man, #1)
author: David Baldacci
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/23
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves:
review:

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Love & Chickens 204911654 Ali Hazelwood meets Best in Show and the Chicken People documentary, with a dash of Pride and Prejudice.

Three years ago, Madeline Bennett was at the peak of her chicken showing career. Then, everything changed for the worse.

George Cooper, an arrogant English poultry judge, discounts Madeline's prize rooster at The National, the biggest and most important bird show in the United States. That same night, an accident simultaneously cripples her leg and kills almost the entirety of her prized flock.

Now, Madeline is back on the show circuit, trying to start over. What she isn't prepared for is seeing George again--the man whom she's come to consider her most 'fowl' enemy.

Feathers fly, and, despite a frustrating attraction that develops against their mutual better judgment, Madeline decides she's done with George for good--until an investigation into a corrupt poultry judge on the show circuit forces the pair back together.

Content warnings are viewable on the author's website under Books, near the bottom of the page.]]>
331 Kasey Morris Vicki 4 chickens, romance 4.05 Love & Chickens
author: Kasey Morris
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: chickens, romance
review:

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This Book Won't Burn 198493806
After her dad abruptly abandons her family and her mom moves them a million miles from their Chicago home, Noor Khan is forced to start the last quarter of her senior year at a new school, away from everything and everyone she knows and loves. Reeling from being uprooted and deserted, Noor is certain the key to survival is to keep her head down and make it to graduation. But things aren’t so simple. At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene� or “pornographic� and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy. Even worse, virtually all the banned books are by queer and BIPOC authors. Noor can’t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics—and small-town love—be her downfall? ]]>
384 Samira Ahmed 0316547840 Vicki 0 to-read 4.22 2024 This Book Won't Burn
author: Samira Ahmed
name: Vicki
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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Stay Dead 198493790
Sometimes, the only way to live is to make sure the world thinks you’re dead . . .

In the aftermath of a car accident that claimed the life of her senator father, sixteen-year-old Milan finds herself adrift, expelled from her third boarding school. Milan’s mother, who has assumed the senate seat, diverts her private plane to pick up her daughter. But on their way home, a bomb rips off a wing and the plane crashes in the mountains. In her final moments, Milan’s mother entrusts her with a key. She reveals it will unlock the evidence that so many people have already died for—including Milan’s father. The only way Milan can survive, her mom tells her, is to let everyone believe she died with the other passengers.

​Milan is forced to navigate a perilous descent in freezing conditions while outwitting everything from a drone to wild animals. With relentless assassins on her trail, she must untangle the web of deceit and save herself and countless others. Will she piece together the truth in time?]]>
313 April Henry 0316480290 Vicki 0 to-read 3.74 2024 Stay Dead
author: April Henry
name: Vicki
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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