Raquel's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 19:19:45 -0700 60 Raquel's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Beast's Heart 40409247 A sumptuously magical, brand new take on a tale as old as time—read the Beast's side of the story at long last.

I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

The day I was cursed to this wretched existence was the day I was saved—although it did not feel so at the time.

My redemption sprung from contemptible roots; I am not proud of what I did the day her father happened upon my crumbling, isolated chateau. But if loneliness breeds desperation then I was desperate indeed, and I did what I felt I must. My shameful behaviour was unjustly rewarded.

My Isabeau. She opened my eyes, my mind and my heart; she taught me how to be human again.

And now I might lose her forever.

Lose yourself in this gorgeously rich and magical retelling of The Beauty and the Beast that finally lays bare the beast's heart.]]>
416 Leife Shallcross 0440001773 Raquel 4 3.66 2018 The Beast's Heart
author: Leife Shallcross
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
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<![CDATA[A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)]]> 8667848
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.]]>
592 Deborah Harkness 0670022411 Raquel 4 4.01 2011 A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
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The Lantern of Lost Memories 204593511 From acclaimed Japanese author Sanaka Hiigari comes a heartwarming, life-affirming novel about a magical photo studio, where people go after they die to view key moments from their life—and relive one precious memory before they pass into the afterlife.

The hands and pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was almost deafening. His leather shoes sank softly into the aging red carpet as he strode over to the arrangement of flowers on the counter and carefully adjusted the angle of the petals...

This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaki, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard.

Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance—one last time—to see their entire life flash before their eyes via Mr. Hirasaki's "spinning lantern of memories."

We meet Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who worked as a nursery teacher, the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically young at the hands of abusive parents. 

Sorting through the many photos of their lives, Mr. Hirasaki also offers guests one guests a second a chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way.

Full of charm and whimsy, The Lantern of Lost Memories will sweep you away to a world of nostalgia, laughter, and love.]]>
208 Sanaka Hiiragi 1538757435 Raquel 0 currently-reading 4.12 2019 The Lantern of Lost Memories
author: Sanaka Hiiragi
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: currently-reading
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Beach Read 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]>
371 Emily Henry 1984806734 Raquel 4 3.99 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
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Lazarus Is Dead 13586724 Lazarus Is Dead transcends genres as it recounts the story of a great friendship lost and re-found.
In the gospels Jesus is described as having only one friend, and when this friend dies, Jesus does something that he does nowhere else in the Bible. He weeps. Novelist Richard Beard begins here. Mixing Biblical sources, historical detail, fascinating references to music, art, and writers as diverse as Kahlil Gibran and Norman Mailor, and abundant reserves of creative invention, Beard gives us his astonishing and amusing take on the greatest story ever told about second chances.
As children, Lazarus and Jesus were thick as thieves. But following a mysterious event, their friendship dwindled in early adulthood. One man struck out and became a flamboyant and successful businessman, the other stayed behind to learn a trade, and ultimately to find his calling in an unprecedented mix of spirituality and revolutionary zeal. Lazarus Is Dead is set during the final period in each man’s life—or, to be more precise, each man’s first life. Both know the end is near and, though they’re loath to admit it, they long for reconciliation. For that to happen they will need to find reasons to believe in each other before time runs out.]]>
228 Richard Beard 1609450809 Raquel 0 to-read 3.70 2011 Lazarus Is Dead
author: Richard Beard
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
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The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) 55196813
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]>
304 Nita Prose 0593356152 Raquel 0 to-read 3.71 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1)
author: Nita Prose
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/03
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Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]>
128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Raquel 0 to-read 4.13 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/03
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<![CDATA[The Games Gods Play (The Crucible, #1)]]> 197363933
I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.

Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus� patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.

The worst god. Hades.

For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.

So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?

I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?

Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.]]>
509 Abigail Owen 1649376561 Raquel 4 4.10 2024 The Games Gods Play (The Crucible, #1)
author: Abigail Owen
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
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Magic Has No Borders 62119776 A pair of star-crossed lovers search for a way back to one another against all odds�

A girl fights for her life against a malignant, generations-old evil�

A peri seeks to reclaim her lost powers�

A warrior rebels against her foretold destiny�

From chudails and peris to jinn and goddesses, this lush collection of South Asian folklore, legends, and epics reimagines stories of old for a modern audience. This fantasy and science fiction teen anthology edited by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra contains a wide range of stories from fourteen bestselling, award-winning, and emerging writers from the South Asian diaspora that will surprise, delight, and move you. So read on, for after all, magic has no borders.

With stories by:
â–ŞSabaa Tahir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Ember in the Ashes series, and winner of the National Book Award and Printz Award for All My Rage
â–ŞSayantani DasGupta, New York Times bestselling author of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series
▪Preeti Chhibber, author of Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma
â–ŞSona Charaipotra, author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak and How Maya Got Fierce, and coauthor of The Rumor Game and Tiny Pretty Things, now a Netflix original series.
â–ŞTanaz Bhathena, award-winning author of Hunted by the Sky and Of Light and Shadow
â–ŞSangu Mandanna, bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and the Celestial Trilogy
â–ŞOlivia Chadha, author of Rise of the Red Hand
â–ŞNafiza Azad, author of William C. Morris Award nominee, The Candle and the Flame
â–ŞTracey Baptiste, New York Times bestselling author of The Jumbies series and Minecraft: The Crash
â–ŞNaz Kutub, author of The Loophole
â–ŞNikita Gill, bestselling author of Wild Embers and Fierce Fairytales
â–ŞSwati Teerdhala, author of the Tiger at Midnight trilogy
â–ŞShreya Ila Anasuya, New Voices selection
â–ŞTahir Abrar, New Voices selection
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352 Sona Charaipotra 0063208261 Raquel 0 currently-reading 3.79 2023 Magic Has No Borders
author: Sona Charaipotra
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: currently-reading
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The Night Circus 9361589
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.]]>
506 Erin Morgenstern Raquel 0 currently-reading 4.00 2011 The Night Circus
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #3)]]> 62816044 Two villains, one girl, and a deadly battle for happily ever after.

Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.

Blood will be shed, hearts will be stolen, and true love will be put to the test in A Curse for True Love, the breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy.]]>
386 Stephanie Garber 1250851203 Raquel 3 4.14 2023 A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #3)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
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<![CDATA[The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #2)]]> 59808071 Not every love is meant to be.

After Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, betrays her, Evangeline Fox swears she'll never trust him again. Now that she’s discovered her own magic, Evangeline believes she can use it to restore the chance at happily ever after that Jacks stole away.

But when a new terrifying curse is revealed, Evangeline finds herself entering into a tenuous partnership with the Prince of Hearts again. Only this time, the rules have changed. Jacks isn’t the only force Evangeline needs to be wary of. In fact, he might be the only one she can trust, despite her desire to despise him.

Instead of a love spell wreaking havoc on Evangeline’s life, a murderous spell has been cast. To break it, Evangeline and Jacks will have to do battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. Evangeline has always trusted her heart, but this time she’s not sure she can...]]>
416 Stephanie Garber 1250268427 Raquel 3 4.49 2022 The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #2)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
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<![CDATA[Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #1)]]> 55987278 How far would you go for happily ever after?

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings... until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy...]]>
408 Stephanie Garber 1250268397 Raquel 3 4.06 2021 Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #1)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
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<![CDATA[The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5)]]> 4556058
While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it's up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.]]>
381 Rick Riordan 1423101472 Raquel 2 4.59 2009 The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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<![CDATA[The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)]]> 8130423 In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]> 361 Rick Riordan Raquel 3 4.44 2008 The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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<![CDATA[The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3)]]> 561456
But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive...]]>
352 Rick Riordan Raquel 3 4.37 2007 The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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<![CDATA[The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)]]> 40727118
But things don't stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: The magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters--the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millenia--only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name...the Bermuda Triangle.

Now Percy and his friends--Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson--must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family--one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.]]>
279 Rick Riordan 0120000318 Raquel 4 4.24 2006 The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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<![CDATA[The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]>
377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 Raquel 4 4.31 2005 The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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<![CDATA[The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches]]> 60018635 A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....
]]>
318 Sangu Mandanna 059343935X Raquel 4 4.04 2022 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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Big Boned (Heather Wells, #3) 207687
With fame beckoning her back into show business (as the star of a new kids' show!) it's a really bad time to get wrapped up in another homicide. Plus Tad's been working himself up to ask her a Big Question, which Heather's not sure she has an answer for . . .]]>
280 Meg Cabot 0060525134 Raquel 3 3.84 2007 Big Boned (Heather Wells, #3)
author: Meg Cabot
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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I Owe You One 40702156
Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first.� But since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will? It’s simply not in her nature to say no to people.

So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, Fixie not only agrees—she ends up saving it from certain disaster. Turns out the computer’s owner is an investment manager. To thank Fixie for her quick thinking, Sebastian scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. But Fixie laughs it off—she’d never actually claim an IOU from a stranger. Would she?

Then Fixie’s childhood crush, Ryan, comes back into her life and his lack of a profession pushes all of Fixie’s buttons. She wants nothing for herself—but she’d love Seb to give Ryan a job. And Seb agrees, until the tables are turned once more and a new series of IOUs between Seb and Fixie—from small favors to life-changing moments—ensues. Soon Fixie, Ms. Fixit for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants. Does she have the courage to take a stand? Will she finally grab the life, and love, she really wants?]]>
448 Sophie Kinsella Raquel 0 currently-reading 3.48 2019 I Owe You One
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The Wizards of Once (The Wizards of Once, #1)]]> 34455798
Perfect for boys and girls who love fantasy adventure ...

Once there was Magic, and the Magic lived in the dark forests.

Wizard boy, Xar, should have come in to his magic by now, but he hasn't, so he wants to find a witch and steal its magic for himself. But if he's got any chance of finding one, he will have to travel into the forbidden Badwoods.

Xar doesn't realise he is about to capture an entirely different kind of enemy. A Warrior girl called Wish.

And inside this book, at this very moment, two worlds collide and the fate of the land is changed forever.

Xar and Wish must visit the dungeons at Warrior fort, and face the evil Queen.

But something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring ...]]>
393 Cressida Cowell 1444936700 Raquel 4 3.91 2017 The Wizards of Once (The Wizards of Once, #1)
author: Cressida Cowell
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
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The Burnout 131120162
Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it’s the off season, the hotel is in a dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout ( manifesting, wild swimming; drinking whisky, getting pizza delivered to the beach).

When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk—about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? (Answer: surfing!) And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them—flaring even in the face of their bone-deep exhaustion—signify?]]>
416 Sophie Kinsella 0593730399 Raquel 4 3.61 2023 The Burnout
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
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<![CDATA[Witch King (The Rising World, #1)]]> 61885085 "You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' Witch King...

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.]]>
415 Martha Wells 1250826799 Raquel 0 to-read 3.60 2023 Witch King (The Rising World, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]>
626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 Raquel 3 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2024/01/09
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The Party Crasher 57996835 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Your Life comes a humorous and heartwarming novel about family, set against the backdrop of the most fabulous party you've ever snuck into.

It's been over two years since Effie's beloved parents got divorced, destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had. Since then, she's become estranged from her father and embarked on a feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more earth-shattering news: Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house Effie called home her whole life, has been sold.

When Krista decides to throw a grand "house cooling" party, Effie is originally left off the guest list--and then receives a last-minute "anti-invitation" (maybe it's because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house. Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks holds aren't just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs into Joe--the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who's still as handsome and funny as ever--and even more truths emerge.

But will Effie act on these revelations? Will she stay hidden or step out into the party and take her place with her family? And truthfully, what did she really come back to Greenoaks for? Over the course of one blowout party, Effie realizes that she must be honest with herself and confront her past before she'll ever be able to face her future.]]>
349 Sophie Kinsella 0593449177 Raquel 3 3.69 2021 The Party Crasher
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2024/01/09
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<![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 50659472 The epic third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything-and everyone-she holds dear.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers-both magical and political-and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the fate of Feyre's world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.]]>
699 Sarah J. Maas 1635575605 Raquel 0 currently-reading 4.47 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Inheritance (The Lost Bride Trilogy, #1)]]> 65213377 Inheritance is the first in The Lost Bride Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts―a tale of tragedies, loves found and lost, and a family haunted for generations.

1806: Astrid Poole sits in her bridal clothes, overwhelmed with happiness. But before her marriage can be consummated, she is murdered, and the circle of gold torn from her finger. Her last words are a promise to Collin never to leave him�

Graphic designer Sonya MacTavish is stunned to learn that her late father had a twin he never knew about―and that her newly discovered uncle, Collin Poole, has left her almost everything he owned, including a majestic Victorian house on the Maine coast, which the will stipulates she must live in it for at least three years. Her engagement recently broken, she sets off to find out why the boys were separated at birth―and why it was all kept secret until a genealogy website brought it to light.

Trey, the young lawyer who greets her at the sprawling clifftop manor, notes Sonya’s unease―and acknowledges that yes, the place is haunted…but just a little. Sure enough, Sonya finds objects moved and music playing out of nowhere. She sees a painting by her father inexplicably hanging in her deceased uncle’s office, and a portrait of a woman named Astrid, whom the lawyer refers to as “the first lost bride.� It’s becoming clear that Sonya has inherited far more than a house. She has inherited a centuries-old curse, and a puzzle to be solved if there is any hope of breaking it�
]]>
419 Nora Roberts 1250288320 Raquel 0 currently-reading 4.16 2023 Inheritance (The Lost Bride Trilogy, #1)
author: Nora Roberts
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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Nowhere Man 152833 - Observer

'His language sings...I should not be surprised if Hemon wins the Nobel Prize at some point'
- Giles Foden.

In Aleksandar Hemon's electrifying first book, The Question of Bruno" Jozef Pronek left Sarajevo to visit Chicago in 1992, just in time to watch war break out at home on TV. Unable to return, he began to make his way in a foreign land and his adventures were unforgettable. Now Pronek, the accidental nomad, gets his own book, and startles us into yet more exhilarating ways of seeing the world anew.

'If the plot is mercury, quick and elusive, sentence by sentence and word for word, Aleksandar Hemon's writing is gold'
- Times Literary Supplement

'Downbeat but also hilarious, while the writing itself is astonishing'
- Time Out

'Hemon can't write a boring sentence, and the English language is the richer for it'
- New York Times

'Sheer exuberance, generosity and engagement with life'
- Sunday Times]]>
256 Aleksandar Hemon 0330393502 Raquel 0 to-read 3.73 2002 Nowhere Man
author: Aleksandar Hemon
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit]]> 6515834 167 Francis Chan 1434767957 Raquel 0 to-read 4.12 2009 Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit
author: Francis Chan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Changes That Heal: How to Understand the Past to Ensure a Healthier Future]]> 51374 368 Henry Cloud 0310214637 Raquel 0 to-read 4.37 1992 Changes That Heal: How to Understand the Past to Ensure a Healthier Future
author: Henry Cloud
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 34
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
--back cover]]>
398 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346252 Raquel 0 to-read 4.36 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1954
rating: 0
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The Screwtape Letters 8130077
C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the unique vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below.� At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the wordly-wise devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation—and triumph over it—ever written. ]]>
222 C.S. Lewis Raquel 0 to-read 4.37 1942 The Screwtape Letters
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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The Book of Dreams 40909442
After the accident, Sam--a thirteen-year old synesthete with an IQ of 144 and an appetite for science fiction--waits by his father's bedside every day. There he meets Eddie Tomlin, a woman forced to confront her love for Henri after all these years, and twelve-year old Madelyn Zeidler, a coma patient like Henri and the sole survivor of a traffic accident that killed her family. As these four very different individuals fight--for hope, for patience, for life--they are bound together inextricably, facing the ravages of loss and first love side by side.

A revelatory, urgently human story that examines what we consider serious and painful alongside light and whimsy, The Book of Dreams is a tender meditation on memory, liminality, and empathy, asking with grace and gravitas what we will truly find meaningful in our lives once we are gone.]]>
400 Nina George 0525572538 Raquel 0 currently-reading 3.79 2016 The Book of Dreams
author: Nina George
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/08
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<![CDATA[Moriarty (Horowitz's Holmes, #2)]]> 22535533
Days after Holmes and Moriarty disappear into the waterfall's churning depths, Frederick Chase, a senior investigator at New York's infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency, arrives in Switzerland. Chase brings with him a dire warning: Moriarty's death has left a convenient vacancy in London's criminal underworld. There is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.

Chase is assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones, a Scotland Yard detective and devoted student of Holmes's methods of deduction, whom Conan Doyle introduced in The Sign of Four. The two men join forces and fight their way through the sinuous streets of Victorian London—from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the Docks—in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty's successor.

Riveting and deeply atmospheric, Moriarty is the first Sherlock Holmes novel sanctioned by the author's estate since Horowitz's House of Silk. This tale of murder and menace breathes life into Holmes's fascinating world, again proving that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however im- probable, must be the truth.]]>
285 Anthony Horowitz 0062377183 Raquel 0 currently-reading 3.75 2014 Moriarty (Horowitz's Holmes, #2)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Size 14 Is Not Fat Either (Heather Wells, #2)]]> 23217 not require her to drape her size 12 body in embarrassingly skimpy outfits. She can even cope (sort of) with her rocker ex-boyfriend's upcoming nuptials, which the press has dubbed The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade. But she's definitely having a hard time dealing with the situation in the dormitory kitchen—where a cheerleader has lost her head on the first day of the semester. (Actually, her head is accounted for—it's her torso that's AWOL.)

Surrounded by hysterical students—with her ex-con father on her doorstep and her ex-love bombarding her with unwanted phone calls—Heather welcomes the opportunity to play detective . . . again. If it gets her mind off her personal problems—and teams her up again with the gorgeous P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—it's all good. But the murder trail is leading the average-sized amateur investigator into a shadowy world. And if she doesn't watch her step, Heather will soon be singing her swan song!]]>
344 Meg Cabot 0060525126 Raquel 3 3.84 2006 Size 14 Is Not Fat Either (Heather Wells, #2)
author: Meg Cabot
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/06
date added: 2020/06/06
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<![CDATA[The House of Silk (Horowitz's Holmes, #1)]]> 11093329
Once again, THE GAME’S AFOOT�

London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap � a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.

Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world’s greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print…until now.
(front flap)]]>
294 Anthony Horowitz 0316196991 Raquel 4 3.96 2011 The House of Silk (Horowitz's Holmes, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2011
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/06/06
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<![CDATA[Size 12 Is Not Fat (Heather Wells, #1)]]> 23220 Heather Wells Rocks!

Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two � and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen � not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives � even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .]]>
345 Meg Cabot 0060525118 Raquel 3 3.77 2005 Size 12 Is Not Fat (Heather Wells, #1)
author: Meg Cabot
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/06
date added: 2020/06/06
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<![CDATA[Nightbirds on Nantucket (The Wolves Chronicles, #3)]]> 36644 218 Joan Aiken 0395971853 Raquel 0 to-read 4.13 1966 Nightbirds on Nantucket (The Wolves Chronicles, #3)
author: Joan Aiken
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/17
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<![CDATA[To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #1)]]> 15749186
But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh.

As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.]]>
355 Jenny Han 1442426713 Raquel 0 to-read 4.04 2014 To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #1)
author: Jenny Han
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/02/27
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<![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women #1)]]> 16050719 647 Louisa May Alcott Raquel 5 4.36 1868 Little Women (Little Women #1)
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1868
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/27
date added: 2020/02/27
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<![CDATA[Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life]]> 121732 Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life is a partial autobiography describing Lewis' conversion to Christianity. The book overall contains less detail concerning specific events than typical autobiographies. This is because his purpose in writing wasn't primarily historical. His aim was to identify & describe the events surrounding his accidental discovery of & consequent search for the phenomenon he labelled "Joy". This word was the best translation he could make of the German idea of Sehnsucht, longing. That isn't to say the book is devoid of information about his life. He recounts his early years with a measure of amusement sometimes mixed with pain.

However, while he does describe his life, the principal theme of the book is Joy as he defined it. This Joy was a longing so intense for something so good & so high up it couldn't be explained with words. He's struck with "stabs of joy" throughout life. He finally finds what it's for at the end. He writes about his experiences at Malvern College in 1913, aged 15. Though he described the school as "a very furnace of impure loves" he defended the practice as being "the only chink left thru which something spontaneous & uncalculating could creep in." The book's last two chapters cover the end of his search as he moves from atheism to theism & then from theism to Christianity. He ultimately discovers the true nature & purpose of Joy & its place in his own life.

The book isn't connected with his unexpected marriage in later life to Joy Gresham. The marriage occurred long after the period described, though not long after the book was published. His friends were quick to notice the coincidence, remarking he'd really been "Surprised by Joy". "Surprised by Joy" is also an allusion to Wordsworth's poem, "Surprised by Joy-Impatient As The Wind", relating an incident when Wordsworth forgot the death of his beloved daughter.]]>
185 C.S. Lewis 0006280838 Raquel 4 4.07 1955 Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/31
date added: 2020/01/31
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The Little French Bistro 32283424 From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop, an extraordinary novel about self-discovery and new beginnings.

Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After forty-one years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as the end of the world.

Here she meets a cast of colorful and unforgettable locals who surprise her with their warm welcome, and the natural ease they all seem to have, taking pleasure in life's small moments. And, as the parts of herself she had long forgotten return to her in this new world, Marianne learns it s never too late to begin the search for what life should have been all along.

With all the buoyant charm that made The Little Paris Bookshop a beloved bestseller, The Little French Bistro is a tale of second chances and a delightful embrace of the joys of life in France.]]>
311 Nina George 0451495586 Raquel 4 3.52 2010 The Little French Bistro
author: Nina George
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/24
date added: 2020/01/24
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The Little Paris Bookshop 23278537 “There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I sell books.�

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.

Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives.]]>
392 Nina George 0553418777 Raquel 5 3.46 2013 The Little Paris Bookshop
author: Nina George
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/17
date added: 2019/11/17
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Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren � an enigmatic artist and single mother � who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]>
338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Raquel 0 to-read 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/11/05
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<![CDATA[The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing]]> 18507827
When brain surgeon Thomas Eapen decides to cut short a visit to his mother's home in India in 1979, he sets into motion a series of events that will forever haunt him and his wife, Kamala; their intellectually precocious son, Akhil; and their watchful daughter, Amina. Now, twenty years later, in the heat of a New Mexican summer, Thomas has begun having bizarre conversations with his dead relatives and it's up to Amina-a photographer in the midst of her own career crisis-to figure out what is really going on. But getting to the truth is far harder than it seems. From Thomas's unwillingness to talk, to Kamala's Born Again convictions, to run-ins with a hospital staff that seems to know much more than they let on, Amina finds herself at the center of a mystery so thick with disasters that to make any headway at all, she has to unravel the family's painful past.]]>
512 Mira Jacob 0812994787 Raquel 0 to-read 3.98 2014 The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
author: Mira Jacob
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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<![CDATA[The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (League of Pensioners, #1)]]> 19135360 435 Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg 1447250990 Raquel 0 to-read 3.17 2012 The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (League of Pensioners, #1)
author: Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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The Truth About Magic 43838655 250 Atticus Poetry 1250232813 Raquel 0 to-read 3.97 2019 The Truth About Magic
author: Atticus Poetry
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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The Perfume Collector 16248311
Newlywed Grace Monroe doesn’t fit anyone’s expectations of a successful 1950s London socialite, least of all her own. When she receives an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is drawn to uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor.

Weaving through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London, the story Grace uncovers is that of an extraordinary women who inspired one of Paris’s greatest perfumers. Immortalized in three evocative perfumes, Eva d’Orsey’s history will transform Grace’s life forever, forcing her to choose between the woman she is expected to be and the person she really is.

The Perfume Collector explores the complex and obsessive love between muse and artist, and the tremendous power of memory and scent.]]>
456 Kathleen Tessaro 0062257838 Raquel 0 to-read 3.96 2013 The Perfume Collector
author: Kathleen Tessaro
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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<![CDATA[Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close]]> 4588
The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?

So begins a quest that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective - across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of friends, relatives, and complete strangers. He gets heavy boots, he gives himself little bruises and he inches ever nearer to the heart of a family mystery that stretches back fifty years. But will it take him any closer to, or further from, his lost father?]]>
326 Jonathan Safran Foer 0618711651 Raquel 0 to-read 3.98 2005 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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<![CDATA[Journey to the Center of the Earth]]> 32829
The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life � a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence.]]>
240 Jules Verne 0553213970 Raquel 0 to-read 3.87 1864 Journey to the Center of the Earth
author: Jules Verne
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1864
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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Swim the Moon 955233
After the loss of his wife, Scottish fiddle player Richard Brennan moves to Australia to escape the ghosts of his former life. Six years later, he returns for his father's funeral and decides to remain in his father's desolate cottage in the north of Scotland, gathering together the threads of his former life, scratching out a living playing music.

Then Richard meets Ailish, the enigmatic young woman who's ethereal singing haunts the bay by moonlight.

As their relationship builds, the secrets of his family's past are brought to light, one by one, leaving them to confront a history that is both terrifying and fantastic-a legacy that may well cost Richard his soul.
]]>
384 Paul Brandon 0312877935 Raquel 0 to-read 3.47 2001 Swim the Moon
author: Paul Brandon
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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The Pecan Man 18815695
In the summer of 1976, recently widowed and childless, Ora Lee Beckworth hires a homeless old black man to mow her lawn. The neighborhood children call him the Pee-can Man; their mothers call them inside whenever he appears. When the police chief's son is found stabbed to death near his camp, the man Ora knows as Eddie is arrested and charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, Ora sets out to tell the truth about the Pecan Man. In narrating her story, Ora discovers more truth about herself than she could ever have imagined.

This novel has been described as To Kill a Mockingbird meets The Help.]]>
146 Cassie Dandridge Selleck Raquel 0 to-read 4.17 2012 The Pecan Man
author: Cassie Dandridge Selleck
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/22
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Father Brother Keeper (Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction)]]> 21535551 198 Nathan Poole 1936747944 Raquel 0 to-read 4.32 2014 Father Brother Keeper (Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction)
author: Nathan Poole
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/22
shelves: to-read
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The Old Romantic 36299991
Meet Ken. He's obsessed with death, planning his own funeral and desperate to die in the bosom of his family. Unfortunately for Ken, that's the last place his family wants him.

His oldest son Nick left home over twenty years ago and reinvented himself. At forty, he has returned home to Kent, and found happiness with his girlfriend Astrid and her twelve-year-old daughter Laura, and he doesn't want the old man to spoil things. He's come a long way; he's a professional, a country gent, a family man. But the past is coming back for Nick and it won't let him be.

Reviewers hailed the book as 'extremely funny' with 'a clever plot and plenty of surprises.'

â€Louise Dean's fearless, frank and darkly comic novels have brought a fresh colour and character to English fiction.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent.

'Like its predecessors, it channels the rough music of everyday life for non-Bloomsbury folk with a tragicomic subtlety, a pin-sharp ear for dialogue and a flair for every nuance of character and class. Beneath the mordant delights of observation lies a sharp awareness of the grander themes � love, selfhood, family, freedom and above all death � that haunt minds and shape lives in Kentish cottages, and executive-style new-build homes, as much as Kentish castles. Admirers of Beryl Bainbridge still grieving her loss should find solace here.' Boyd Tonkin The Independent

'Dark, scurrilous and richly comic. There is so much to treasure in this terrific book, but its deepest joy is the sharp, perceptive writing.' Financial Times

'Very appealing...so vivid are the quintessentially British characters and the snappy, well-observed dialogue. Delightful, eccentric...' The Observer

'Dean's observations have a lyrical intensity few can match.' The Guardian

'A warm-hearted comedy of bad manners.' Daily Mail

â€Dean writes with beautifully controlled clarity about family ties, social class, the generation gap and the vanished England of the past. She's extremely funny, but also humane and moving.â€� The Times.

'Dean is able to demonstrate her unobtrusive skill as the creator of comic set-pieces...painfully funny. A clever plot and plenty of surprises.'The Sunday Times]]>
334 Louise Dean 1999856562 Raquel 0 to-read 3.00 2010 The Old Romantic
author: Louise Dean
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]]> 18693771 A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.]]>
464 Bessel van der Kolk 0670785938 Raquel 0 to-read 4.36 2014 The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
author: Bessel van der Kolk
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/22
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<![CDATA[The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden]]> 21094993
Nombeko Mayeki is on the run from the world's most ruthless secret service - with three Chinese sisters, twins who are officially one person, and an elderly potato farmer. Oh, and the fate of the King of Sweden - and the world - rests on her shoulders.

Born in a Soweto shack in 1961, Nombeko is destined for a short, hard life. When she is run over by a drunken engineer, her luck changes. Alive, but blamed for the accident, she is sent to work for the driver - the brandy-soaked head of a project vital to South Africa's security. Nombeko may be good at cleaning, but she's amazing with numbers. The drunken engineer isn't - and has made a big mistake. And only Nombeko knows about it...

Uproariously funny, this is an entrancing tale of luck, love and international relations.]]>
421 Jonas Jonasson 0007557906 Raquel 5 3.78 2013 The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden
author: Jonas Jonasson
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/21
date added: 2019/10/21
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<![CDATA[New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional]]> 19353106 384 Paul David Tripp 1433541386 Raquel 0 to-read 4.54 2014 New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional
author: Paul David Tripp
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/19
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<![CDATA[Harry, a History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon]]> 3130430 356 Melissa Anelli 1416554955 Raquel 0 to-read 4.14 2008 Harry, a History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon
author: Melissa Anelli
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/19
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<![CDATA[Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories]]> 13531832 Swamplandia! � a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize � comes a magical and uniquely daring collection of stories that showcases the author’s gifts at their inimitable best.

Within these pages, a community of girls held captive in a Japanese silk factory slowly transmute into human silkworms and plot revolution; a group of boys stumble upon a mutilated scarecrow that bears an uncanny resemblance to a missing classmate that they used to torment; a family’s disastrous quest for land in the American West has grave consequences; and in the marvelous title story, two vampires in a sun-drenched lemon grove try to slake their thirst for blood and come to terms with their immortal relationship.

Vampires in the lemon grove --
Reeling for the Empire --
Seagull army descends on Strong Beach, 1979 --
Proving up --
Barn at the end of our term --
Dougbert Shackleton's rules for Antarctic tailgating --
New veterans --
Graveless doll of Eric Mutis]]>
243 Karen Russell 0307957233 Raquel 0 to-read 3.68 2013 Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
author: Karen Russell
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/19
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Crimson Bound 21570318 An exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the extravagant court of Versailles, from the author of Cruel Beauty.

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless—straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in a vain effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her hunt for the legendary sword that might save their world. Together, they navigate the opulent world of the courtly elite, where beauty and power reign and no one can be trusted. And as the two become unexpected allies, they discover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic . . . and a love that may be their undoing. Within a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

A doomed warrior and the king's most notorious bastard must join forces to defeat a dark evil in this gorgeously intricate fantasy—perfect for fans of An Ember in the Ashes and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]>
447 Rosamund Hodge Raquel 0 to-read 3.64 2015 Crimson Bound
author: Rosamund Hodge
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/19
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<![CDATA[Twice Magic (The Wizards of Once, #2)]]> 38595903
But now, the boy Wizard and girl Warrior have been brought together in the Badwoods and they have witnessed the shocking consequences of the Stone That Takes Away Magic. They will need to cast aside their differences once more--for an Evil Spell has broken free.

It's up to Xar and Wish to find the ingredients. But it means entering dangerous territory unannounced...

Cressida Cowell brings her trademark wit to this spellbinding sequel, along with the stunning artwork and heartfelt adventure that has made her beloved around the world, weaving a story that is sure to transport readers to a world that will enchant and bewitch them.]]>
384 Cressida Cowell Raquel 3 4.21 2018 Twice Magic (The Wizards of Once, #2)
author: Cressida Cowell
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/10/19
date added: 2019/10/19
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<![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]>
480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Raquel 0 to-read 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/19
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<![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]>
382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Raquel 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/19
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The Madwoman Upstairs 25814154
But everything changes when Samantha enrolls at Oxford University and long lost objects from the past begin rematerializing in her life, beginning with an old novel annotated in her father’s handwriting. With the help of a handsome but inscrutable professor, Samantha plunges into a vast literary mystery and an untold family legacy, one that can only be solved by decoding the clues hidden within the Brontës� own works]]>
339 Catherine Lowell 1501124218 Raquel 4 3.60 2016 The Madwoman Upstairs
author: Catherine Lowell
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/30
date added: 2019/06/30
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<![CDATA[Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)]]> 338691
But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets...]]>
293 Louise Penny 0312948557 Raquel 0 to-read 3.86 2005 Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)
author: Louise Penny
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/02
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The Secret Keeper 13508607
1941: Elsötétítés. Harsognak a szirénák, Londonra bombák hullanak, ám Dorothy csak azzal törődik, hogy megteremtse saját önálló életét. Šmás. Nem olyan, mint a szülei, ő sikeres, gyönyörű, és boldog akar lenni Jimmyvel. Mindenáron.
1961: Egy forró nyári napon, míg családja a suffolki tanyaháznál, a patak partján piknikezik, a tizenhat esztendős Laurel gyermekkori lombkunyhójában bújik meg, és arról álmodozik, hogy Londonba szökik, ahol fényes jövő vár rá. De még mielőtt véget érne az idilli délután, Laurel szemtanúja lesz egy döbbenetes bűnténynek, ami a világon mindent megváltoztat.
2011: Laurelt, aki immár körülrajongott színésznő, egyre inkább elborítják a múlt árnyai. Emlékek kísértik: édesanyja halálos ágya mellett testvéreivel felidézi azt a hajdani nyári napot. A rejtély vonzerejének engedve visszatér egykori otthonába, hogy megpróbálja összerakosgatni a titokzatos történetet darabkáit. Három idegen � Dorothy, Vivien és Jimmy � története ez, akik három nagyon különböző világból származtak, három idegené, akiket valamikor régen a háborús Londonban hozott össze a véletlen, és akiknek az élete sorsszerűen egybefonódott.

Kate Morton legutóbbi sikerregényének szálai az 1930-as, az 1960-as évek és a jelen között szövődnek. Egy bűntett, a szerelem és a kiszámíthatatlan véletlen szolgáltatja a történet bonyodalmait, és az olvasó alig várja, hogy feltáruljanak a szereplők titkai, s megtudja, vajon a végén minden a helyére kerül-e.

Az ausztrál KATE MORTON Queensland hegyei között nőtt fel. Tanult színjátszást Londonban és angol irodalmat Ausztráliában, ma pedig Brisbane-ben él a családjával, dzsesszzenész férjével és három gyermekükkel. Ahogy korábbi regényei mindegyike, a Titkok őrzője is számos országban óriási sikert aratott. A világszerte rendkívül népszerű szerző négy kötetéből összesen immár közel tízmillió példány kelt el.]]>
484 Kate Morton 1439152802 Raquel 0 to-read 4.14 2012 The Secret Keeper
author: Kate Morton
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/02
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Dune (Dune, #1) 39776179
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad’Dib—and of a great family’s ambition to bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.]]>
704 Frank Herbert 0441013597 Raquel 0 to-read 4.23 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1965
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/02
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Raquel 4 4.47 1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/02
date added: 2019/06/02
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<![CDATA[The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (The Hundred-Year-Old Man, #1)]]> 13486632 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun and feel-good book for all ages.]]> 396 Jonas Jonasson 1843913720 Raquel 4 3.80 2009 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (The Hundred-Year-Old Man, #1)
author: Jonas Jonasson
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/02
date added: 2019/06/02
shelves:
review:

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Redeeming Love 11422
Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside.

Then she meets Michael Hosea. A man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything, Michael Hosea obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation until, despite her resistance her frozen heart begins to thaw.

But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she can no longer deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael Hosea does…the One who will never let her go.

A life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.
--back cover]]>
479 Francine Rivers Raquel 0 to-read 4.51 1991 Redeeming Love
author: Francine Rivers
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/03/29
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<![CDATA[The 49th Mystic (Beyond the Circle, #1)]]> 36548233
They are wrong. In the small town of Eden, Utah, a blind girl named Rachelle Matthews is about to find out just how wrong.

When a procedure meant to restore Rachelle's sight goes awry, she begins to dream of another world so real that she wonders if Earth might only be a dream experienced when she falls asleep in that reality. Who is a simple blind girl to have such strange and fantastic dreams?

She's the prophesied one who must find and recover five ancient seals--in both worlds--before powerful enemies destroy her. If Rachelle succeeds in her quest, peace will reign. If she fails, both worlds will forever be locked in darkness.

So begins a two-volume saga of high stakes and a mind-bending quest to find an ancient path that will save humanity. The clock is ticking; the end rushes forward.

Ready? Set?

Dream.]]>
409 Ted Dekker 0800729781 Raquel 0 to-read 4.15 2018 The 49th Mystic (Beyond the Circle, #1)
author: Ted Dekker
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/12/17
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<![CDATA[Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)]]> 6424171 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price. Until something goes wrong. . . .--back cover]]>
416 Michael Crichton 0345370775 Raquel 0 to-read 4.25 1990 Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)
author: Michael Crichton
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/07
shelves: to-read
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The Secret History 29044 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Raquel 0 to-read 4.17 1992 The Secret History
author: Donna Tartt
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/11/04
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Special Topics in Calamity Physics]]> 3483
Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer.]]>
514 Marisha Pessl 067003777X Raquel 0 to-read 3.72 2006 Special Topics in Calamity Physics
author: Marisha Pessl
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/11/04
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)]]> 84369 288 C.S. Lewis 0007202326 Raquel 5 4.03 1956 The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2018/09/17
date added: 2018/09/17
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<![CDATA[A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)]]> 33574273 It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.]]>
218 Madeleine L'Engle 1250153271 Raquel 0 to-read 3.91 1962 A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/17
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Surprise Me 35411583
In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: they will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring.

But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very foundation of their unshakeable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that questions some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all…]]>
432 Sophie Kinsella 0399592881 Raquel 0 to-read 3.39 2018 Surprise Me
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/08/01
shelves: to-read
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Finding Audrey 23305614
Then her brother's friend Linus stumbles into her life. With his friendly, orange-slice smile and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again - well, Starbucks is a start. And with Linus at her side, Audrey feels like she can do the things she'd thought were too scary. Suddenly, finding her way back to the real world seems achievable.]]>
286 Sophie Kinsella 0553536516 Raquel 0 to-read 3.74 2015 Finding Audrey
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/08/01
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Wedding Night 17910611 464 Sophie Kinsella 0812984277 Raquel 0 to-read 3.53 2014 Wedding Night
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/08/01
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Remember Me? 1358844
Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all.

Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

With the same wicked humor and delicious charm that have won her millions of devoted fans, Sophie Kinsella, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Shopaholic & Baby, returns with an irresistible new novel and a fresh new heroine who finds herself in a life-changing and utterly hilarious predicament…]]>
352 Sophie Kinsella Raquel 0 to-read 3.82 2008 Remember Me?
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/08/01
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<![CDATA[Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1)]]> 9416
Her job writing at Successful Savings not only bores her to tears, it doesn't pay much at all. And lately Becky's been chased by dismal letters from the bank –letters with large red sums she can't bear to read–and they're getting ever harder to ignore.

She tries cutting back. But none of her efforts succeeds. Becky's only consolation is to buy herself something ... just a little something....

Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-page article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her life–and the lives of those around her–forever.]]>
368 Sophie Kinsella 0440241413 Raquel 0 to-read 3.71 2000 Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1)
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/08/01
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The Undomestic Goddess 33722 Alternative cover edition of ISBN 9780385338691

Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She’s made a mistake so huge, it’ll wreck any chance of a partnership.

Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she’s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they’ve hired a lawyer–and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can’t sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope–and finds love–is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake.

But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back?]]>
404 Sophie Kinsella Raquel 0 to-read 3.87 2005 The Undomestic Goddess
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/08/01
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I've Got Your Number 12033455
Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents, she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.]]>
448 Sophie Kinsella 0385342063 Raquel 4 3.94 2011 I've Got Your Number
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2018/08/01
date added: 2018/08/01
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Can You Keep a Secret? 33724 374 Sophie Kinsella 0440241901 Raquel 3 3.82 2003 Can You Keep a Secret?
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2018/07/21
date added: 2018/07/21
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<![CDATA[The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia, #4)]]> 65641 Jill and Eustace must rescue the Prince from the evil Witch.

NARNIA...where owls are wise, where some of the giants like to snack on humans, where a prince is put under an evil spell...and where the adventure begins.

Eustace and Jill escape from the bullies at school through a strange door in the wall, which, for once, is unlocked. It leads to the open moor...or does it? Once again Aslan has a task for the children, and Narnia needs them. Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, they pursue the quest that brings them face to face with the evil Witch. She must be defeated if Prince Rillian is to be saved.]]>
243 C.S. Lewis Raquel 3 3.96 1953 The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia, #4)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2018/07/18
date added: 2018/07/18
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<![CDATA[The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia, #5)]]> 84119 The Horse and his Boy is a stirring and dramatic fantasy story that finds a young boy named Shasta on the run from his homeland with the talking horse, Bree. When the pair discover a deadly plot by the Calormen people to conquer the land of Narnia, the race is on to warn the inhabitants of the impending danger and to rescue them all from certain death.]]> 224 C.S. Lewis 0439861365 Raquel 4 3.92 1954 The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia, #5)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/02
date added: 2018/07/02
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Twenties Girl 6063187
When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie—a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance—mysteriously appears, she has one request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, because Sadie cannot rest without it.

Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties� girls learn some surprising truths from and about each other. Written with all the irrepressible charm and humor that have made Sophie Kinsella’s books beloved by millions, Twenties Girl is also a deeply moving testament to the transcendent bonds of friendship and family.]]>
435 Sophie Kinsella 0385342020 Raquel 4 3.85 2009 Twenties Girl
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/29
date added: 2018/05/29
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A Gentleman in Moscow 29430012 He can't leave. You won't want to.

With his breakout novel Rules of Civility, Amor Towles established himself as a master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction, bringing late-1930s Manhattan to life with splendid atmosphere and a flawless command of style. A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov.

When, in 1922, the thirty-year-old Count is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, he is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. An indomitable man of erudition and wit, Rostov must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors.

Unexpectedly, the Count's reduced circumstances provide him entry to a much larger world of emotional discovery as he forges friendships with the hotel's other denizens, including a willful actress, a shrewd Kremlinite, a gregarious American, and a temperamental chef. But when fate suddenly puts the life of a young girl in his hands, he must draw on all his ingenuity to protect the future she so deserves.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the Count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]>
462 Amor Towles Raquel 0 to-read 4.33 2016 A Gentleman in Moscow
author: Amor Towles
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/22
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<![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 31434883 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.]]>
336 Gail Honeyman 0735220689 Raquel 0 to-read 4.21 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/22
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<![CDATA[I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter]]> 29010395
But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.

But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?]]>
344 Erika L. Sánchez 1524700487 Raquel 0 to-read 4.00 2017 I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
author: Erika L. Sánchez
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/22
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Eleanor & Park 15745753 "So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I'm not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we're 16."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
"I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I'm not kidding," he says.
"You should be."

Set over one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.]]>
328 Rainbow Rowell 1250012570 Raquel 0 to-read 3.92 2012 Eleanor & Park
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)]]> 140225
The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan's country at the End of the World.]]>
248 C.S. Lewis 006112527X Raquel 4 4.10 1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/15
date added: 2018/05/15
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<![CDATA[The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)]]> 16160797 456 Robert Galbraith 0316206849 Raquel 0 to-read 3.88 2013 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/15
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<![CDATA[Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God]]> 3206011 187 Francis Chan 1434768511 Raquel 4 4.16 Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
author: Francis Chan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/15
date added: 2018/05/15
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<![CDATA[Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples]]> 13228935 333 Francis Chan 0781408237 Raquel 0 to-read 4.04 2012 Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples
author: Francis Chan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/15
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<![CDATA[You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity]]> 22505257 Crazy Love changed the way we saw our personal relationship with God, You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity will radically shift the way we see one of the most important relationships in our life. Jesus was right. We have it all backwards. The way to have a great marriage is by not focusing on marriage. Whether you are single, dating or married, You and Me Forever will help you discover the adventure that you were made for and learn how to thrive in it. 100% of the net profits from You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity will go towards providing food, shelter and rehabilitation for thousands of orphaned children and exploited women in partnership with global charities.]]> 192 Francis Chan 0990351408 Raquel 0 to-read 4.18 2014 You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity
author: Francis Chan
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/15
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<![CDATA[Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up]]> 11414907 How could a loving God send people to hell? Will people have a chance after they die to believe in Jesus and go to heaven?

With a humble respect for God's Word, Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle address the deepest questions you have about eternal destiny. They've asked the same questions. Like you, sometimes they just don't want to believe in hell. But as they write, "We cannot afford to be wrong on this issue."

This is not a book about who is saying what. It's a book about what God says. It's not a book about impersonal theological issues. It's a book about people who God loves. It's not a book about arguments, doctrine, or being right. It's a book about the character of God.

Erasing Hell will immerse you in the truth of Scripture as, together with the authors, you find not only the truth but the courage to live it out.]]>
197 Francis Chan 0781407257 Raquel 0 to-read 3.90 2011 Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up
author: Francis Chan
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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My Not So Perfect Life 30821598 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Part love story, part workplace drama, this sharply observed novel is a witty critique of the false judgments we make in a social-media-obsessed world. New York Times bestselling author Sophie Kinsella has written her most timely novel yet.

Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie's life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle--from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she's trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she's desperate to make her dad proud.

Then, just as she's finding her feet--not to mention a possible new romance--the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family's farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away--until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie's future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.

Sophie Kinsella is celebrated for her vibrant, relatable characters and her great storytelling gifts. Now she returns with all of the wit, warmth, and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her bestsellers to spin this fresh, modern story about presenting the perfect life when the reality is far from the truth.]]>
448 Sophie Kinsella 0593074793 Raquel 3 3.78 2017 My Not So Perfect Life
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Raquel
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2018/04/29
date added: 2018/04/29
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<![CDATA[Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons � well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel � would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]>
491 Terry Pratchett Raquel 3 4.27 1990 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Raquel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2018/04/24
date added: 2018/04/24
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