en-US Wed, 26 Mar 2025 07:11:18 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 218674082 Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse�

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

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

Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea.]]> 336 Sarah Penner 0778308006 Anna 0 to-read 4.32 2025
author: Sarah Penner
name: Anna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

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

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Anna 3 2025 3.73 2025
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Anna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: 2025
review:
The first 100 pages were boring I almost DNF. The book didn't start to get good until page 200. Content warnings: hostage situation, murder, infertility, stalking, organized crime. Not a page turner, not a mystery worth solving. The premise had so much potential, but the execution completely fell flat. The writing is incredibly dense, packed with unnecessary descriptions and conversations that go absolutely nowhere. Never wanted to read Niall's point of view. Why is Camilla's name shortened to Cam, was Camilla too long for the writer to type? Camilla is a girl's name, Cam is short for the boys name Cameron. The story drags on over 14 years (why? I genuinely have no idea), and the pacing is excruciatingly slow. I absolutely loved McAllister’s previous book "Wrong Place Wrong Time" so this was a disappointment.
]]> 220161576 In this razor-sharp, diabolical debut thriller, a young woman steps into her deceased twin’s influencer life, only to discover dark secrets hidden behind her social media façade.

Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything. Except a pulse.

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.

Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.

Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realizes she might be the next target.]]> 320 Liann Zhang 1668067897 Anna 0 to-read 3.90 2025
author: Liann Zhang
name: Anna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203956647 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 059365322X.]]> 400 Richard Osman Anna 2 didnt-finish 4.07 2024
author: Richard Osman
name: Anna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: didnt-finish
review:
DNF there were 86 characters and 113 pages it did not get any better. This seemed to want to be a Tom Cruise spy mystery traveling all around the world to murder but it failed on execution.
]]> 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

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

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

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

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Anna 0 2025, to-read 4.59 2024
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Anna
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: 2025, to-read
review:

]]> 214152415 This riveting psychological thriller from master of twists Steve Cavanagh, author of the �unguessable and unputdownable� (Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Kill For Me, Kill for You, What if the witness was more twisted than the killer?

Something is wrong with Ruby Johnson.

A former resident of the ultra-elite Manhattan upper class, Ruby now works as a maid in the type of houses she used to live in. Unassuming, she sees everyone’s dirty secrets from the inside of their beautiful, renovated brownstones. But when Ruby witnesses a murder, she has wicked plans in mind that don’t involve telling the authorities the truth.

Eddie Flynn, streetwise ex con-artist-turned-defense attorney, is the only lawyer in New York City willing to take on hopeless cases. And none is more hopeless than John Jackson’s—the gun that killed his neighbor found, with Jackson’s DNA, in his own home. Flynn and his unconventional team will need to use every trick they know to keep an innocent man from being locked up. But to save his client’s life, Eddie must first protect his own, as the scariest organized criminals in the city are out for his head.

Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Megan Miranda, Witness 8 is a fresh knockout page-turner from an author who is “the real deal� (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author).]]> 416 Steve Cavanagh 1668049376 Anna 0 to-read 4.15 2024
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Anna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127279000 What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

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

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

The truth is out there, if we just listen.]]> 352 Amy Tintera 1250880319 Anna 5 2025 4.07 2024
author: Amy Tintera
name: Anna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: 2025
review:
This was a fast paced mystery with only one POV and short chapters. Listen for the Lie is about Lucy who can’t remember if she killed her best friend five years ago and now a podcast is being made to see if she was really the murderer. Every interviewee lies about something. This is the first book, in a long time, that I have laughed out loud! My hands and eyes were glued to the pages as this brilliant, twisty dark comedy-meets-murder mystery captured me and I read it in 3 days! I do enjoy a humorous thriller! The chapters were short and punchy making them easy to read and the pages did turn quickly. Usually murder mysteries have endings that speed up too fast but this was paced just right. The book was fast paced and easy to read. I loved Lucy's sarcasm and snarkiness.
]]> 215593875 This is Josephine Baker in her own words.

Josephine Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s, dazzling audiences with her humour, beauty and effervescence on stage. She became an icon. Hemingway, Jean Cocteau and Picasso admired her; Shirley Bassey adored 'I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer'. It was told she strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah who wore a diamond collar.

Later, as one of the most recognisable women in the world, she became a spy for the French resistance, her celebrity working as her cover. She was awarded the LĂ©gion d'Honneur for military service. After the war she became increasingly interested in civil rights. In 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. All this from a girl born in Missouri to a poor single black woman and a white father she did not know.

Flirtatious, funny, candid and this memoir gives us the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker telling her own story. Formed from a series of conversations with the French journalist Marcel Sauvage, over a period of more than twenty years, this book offers an entertaining insight into one of the most interesting and beguiling figures of the twentieth century.]]> 304 Josephine Baker 0593853695 Anna 0 to-read 3.57 1949
author: Josephine Baker
name: Anna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195790999 Set in a wonderfully reimagined 15th century West Africa, Masquerade is a dazzling, lyrical tale exploring the true cost of one woman’s fight for freedom and self-discovery, and the lengths she’ll go to secure her future.

Òdòdó’s hometown of Timbuktu has been conquered by the the warrior king of Yorùbáland. Already shunned as social pariahs, living conditions for Òdòdó and the other women in her blacksmith guild grow even worse under Yorùbá rule.

Then Òdòdó is abducted. She is whisked across the Sahara to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, where she is shocked to discover that her kidnapper is none other than the vagrant who had visited her guild just days prior. But now that he is swathed in riches rather than rags, Òdòdó realizes he is not a vagrant at all; he is the warrior king, and he has chosen her to be his wife.

In a sudden change of fortune, Òdòdó soars to the very heights of society. But after a lifetime of subjugation, the power that saturates this world of battle and political savvy becomes too enticing to resist. As tensions with rival states grow, revealing elaborate schemes and enemies hidden in plain sight, Òdòdó must defy the cruel king she has been forced to wed by re-forging the shaky loyalties of the court in her favor, or risk losing everything—including her life.

Loosely based on the myth of Persephone, O.O. Sangoyomi’s Masquerade takes you on a journey of epic power struggles and political intrigue that turn an entire region on its head.]]> 352 O.O. Sangoyomi 1250904293 Anna 0 to-read 3.95 2024
author: O.O. Sangoyomi
name: Anna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61273858 From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par­ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197366 Anna 0 to-read 4.23 2023
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Anna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 133206574 When a rich Black debutante enlists the help of a low-level speakeasy manager to identify the head of an underground crime syndicate, the two are thrust into the dangerous world of Prohibition-era Chicago.

The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue rages on every shore with Chicago at its beating heart.

Twenty-year-old Nelly Sawyer is the daughter of the alleged “wealthiest Negro in America,� a Kentucky horse breeder whose wealth and prestige catapults his family to the heights of the exclusive, elite Black society. After the unexpected death of her brother—the family’s presumed heir—Nelly goes from being virtually unknown to a premier debutante overnight. But Nelly has aspirations beyond society influence and marriage. For the past year, she has worked undercover as an investigative journalist for the Chicago Defender , sharing the achievements and tribulations of everyday Black people living in the shadow of Jim Crow. Now, her latest assignment thrusts her into the den of a dangerous vice the so-called Mayor of Maxwell Street.

Charming and mysterious, Jay Shorey strives to balance his connection to the Chicago underworld with his desperate yearning for the refinement and protection of high society. Born to a murdered bi-racial couple in rural Alabama, he knows firsthand what it means to be denied a chance at the American dream. When a tragic turn of fate gave Jay a rare path out, he took it without question. He washed up on Chicago’s storied shores and never looked back, until now.Ěý

When Nelly’s and Jay’s paths cross, she recruits him to help expose the Mayor and bring about a lasting change in a corrupted city. Trapped between the monolith of Jim Crow, the inflexible world of the Black upper class, and the violence of Prohibition-era Chicago, Jay and Nelly work together and stoke the flames of a love worth fighting for. And yet, as with all things in America, there is a price to be paid. What risk is Nelly willing to take for a young man willing to risk it all?Ěý

Debut author Avery Cunningham’s stunning novel is at once an epic love story, a riveting historical drama, and a brilliant exploration of Black society and perseverance when the �20s first began to roar.]]> 528 Avery Cunningham 1368093000 Anna 0 to-read 3.52 2024
author: Avery Cunningham
name: Anna
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 197448682 The Goddess Of Warsaw is an enthralling story of a legendary Hollywood screen goddess with a dark secret. When the famous actress Lena Browning is threatened by someone from her war-time past, she must put her skills into play to protect herself, her illustrious career, and those she loves, then and now.
Before she was a “Living Legend�, Lena Browning was Bina Blonski, a wealthy Polish Jew whose life and prominent family were destroyed by the Nazis and imprisoned with the rest of Warsaw's Jews in a ghastly ghetto. Determined to fight back, the beautiful, blonde Aryan-looking Bina becomes a spy and an assassin, gaining information and stealing weapons outside the Warsaw ghetto to protect her family and fellow Jews. While Bina accomplishes amazing feats of bravery, she sacrifices much in the process � including a forbidden love.
More than a decade after escaping the horrors of the war, Lena Browning rises to fame in Hollywood. Yet she cannot help but hunger for revenge against the Nazis who escaped justice after the war. Fierce and fearless, Lena uses her star power to right the past’s wrongs . . . and perhaps even finds the happy ending she never had.
A gripping page-turner of one of history’s most heroic uprisings and a glamourous actress whose personal war never ends, The Goddess of Warsaw is filled with secrets, lies, twists and turns, and a burning pursuit of justice no matter the cost.
“Jaw-dropping moments worthy of a Tarantino film . . . Unrelentingly immersive and suspenseful, The Goddess of Warsaw spins a haunting tale of the cost of survival, sacrifice, and the long-denied secrets of the past.�
—NATALIE JENNER, bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society]]> 368 Lisa Barr 0063296608 Anna 1 didnt-finish 4.33 2024
author: Lisa Barr
name: Anna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: didnt-finish
review:
Last year I loved reading The Keeper of Hidden Books so I was looking forward to reading another book about WWII Poland with a Jewish heroine. I was so excited by the title of this book and waited forever to get it from the library. I read the author's note first because I wanted to know what her connection was with Poland and to my horror she said, "I had no idea how eerily similar the world I was writing about eighty years ago would be to present-day." For the last 15 months of genocide we've seen Palestinians who live in an outdoor concentration camp forced, at gunpoint, to pile their belongings on trucks and leave their homes, loved ones, and communities. IDF soldiers are branding Palestinian detainees with numbers on their skin. A second holocaust is happening today to the Palestinians. After seeing all the 1 star reviews on this book, I decided not to finish it as clearly its overexaggerated like the author's note and just a bad book. I googled the author and she recommends we read Sally Rooney as an author who is a humane person that cares about other human beings. I've never read her books, but I will now!
]]> 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Anna 3 2025 4.11 2024
author: Alison Espach
name: Anna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025
review:
I almost DNF’d half way through and really stayed to just see it through. I only read it because this was the number 1 fiction book last year because it was a read with Jenna pick. This is not my kind of book. No murder, no mystery. This is not the genre for me as I don't read fiction or chick-lit. With mysteries you are building up to get to the end to find out who did it, but this book was just a never-ending story. The book was a little boring. Not the page turner, edge of your seat, mystery I prefer. I hated reading about Pheobe's backstory since it was so depressing. All the reviews said the book was so funny but I never even chuckled. I think this book wouldn't be good for someone who lost their mother. This is one of those feel good "life" books with pockets of wisdom sprinkled throughout as I found myself highlighting quotes throughout.
]]> 64417401
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.]]> 384 Kate Quinn 0063304732 Anna 0 to-read 3.76 2024
author: Kate Quinn
name: Anna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217388243 From body-acceptance advocate and MEGABABE founder Katie Sturino comes a heartwarming and hilarious debut novel for fans for Emily Henry and Sex and the City

Sunny Greene is thirty-five, recently divorced, facing the looming prospect of going solo to her little brother’s wedding, and currently trying to find anything plus-sized in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit department that doesn’t make her want to cry. It’s not going well. But isn’t rock bottom the perfect place to start a climb?

She decides it’s now or never. Sunny has her PR empire, her gorgeous Chelsea apartment, her two dogs, and her loyal best friends. Maybe it's time to just love her body and accept herself for who she is. With a new commitment to confidence, her journey begins. Who says a plus-sized divorcee can’t put herself first, feel beautiful, and date up a storm?

Of course things are never straightforward in the dating world. Is fate knocking at her door with Dennis, the charming and down-to-earth mailman, or should she be with Ted, the business tycoon who seems ready to make her size-inclusive swimsuit brand a reality? And what should she do about her ex, who shows up unexpectedly, eager to reconnect?

With the same candor and confidence her followers love, Sturino brings us Sunny Greene, a Carrie Bradshaw for the next generation, and her journey through the trials and triumphs of dating, friendship, and finding yourself.]]> 304 Katie Sturino 1250344204 Anna 0 to-read 3.90
author: Katie Sturino
name: Anna
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214152057 When a beloved actress is cast in a feminist adaptation of a Fitzgerald classic, she finds herself the victim in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, is playing a part.

Lila Crayne is America’s sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning new West Village apartment and are set to begin filming their feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night.

To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch—and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem.

A twisty, thought-provoking novel of construction and deconstruction in conversation with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and told through the lens of the film industry, Sweet Fury is an incisive and bold critique of America’s deep-rooted misogyny. With this novel, Bischoff examines the narratives we tell ourselves, and what happens when we co-opt others into those stories; and she probes the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator and the true meaning of justice.]]> 288 Sash Bischoff 1668043254 Anna 0 to-read 3.42
author: Sash Bischoff
name: Anna
average rating: 3.42
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201102399 The new binge-worthy novel from the “queen of the one-sit read,� and New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. But this morning that will change. And one innocent question could be deadly. What have you done?

The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked.

But Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer.

How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia.

Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.]]> 307 Shari Lapena 0593489969 Anna 0 to-read 3.73 2024
author: Shari Lapena
name: Anna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 194020321
After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.

While going through their parent’s belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.]]> 256 Jeneva Rose Anna 5 2025 3.77 2024
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Anna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: 2025
review:
Love love loved this one! The book cover is perfection! That coolness factor is the whole reason I decided to read this book. I will accept no slander on this one. It's a little shorter than most books and an easy read, I read it in 5 days but if life didn't get in the way I could have done it in one sitting. When three estranged siblings are called back to the family home after the death of their mother, they discover a very disturbing videotape while going through her belongings. The chapters are short for this twisty thriller switching between everyone's POV. I could not put it down! Clues got dropped slowly and you don't find out what truly happened until the last couple of chapters. There's a couple red herrings thrown in to try to confuse you. The pacing was pretty slow but still kept me hooked. It had a satisfying ending as a lot of mysteries speed up the ending making it unrealistic, this book did not. What an absolute wild ride and the way it came together at the end? It gave me goosebumps.
]]> 218598759 The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.]]> Megan Miranda Anna 0 to-read 4.02 2024
author: Megan Miranda
name: Anna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212378273
London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.

Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.

Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.]]> 336 Pam Jenoff 0778307980 Anna 0 to-read 3.97 2025
author: Pam Jenoff
name: Anna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61327512 Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy �detective� work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could � because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands � Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.]]> 339 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546172 Anna 5 2025 4.00 2023
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Anna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: 2025
review:
I loved this short quirky book! Unlike the other reviews who said they knew who did it early on, it is not obvious and I didn't piece it together until the very end. Sixty-year old, Vera Wong, is a widow, mother and owner of a small, rarely visited, tea shop in San Francisco. She is incredibly lonely and bored but also quite sweet. One morning she discovers the body of a deceased man inside her tea shop! Vera decides to take the investigation into her own hands since the police don't seem to suspect foul play. Vera comes up with four likely suspects, the four people that popped by her tea shop the next day. Thus this book has multiple POVs for each chapter. The book is not primarily a murder mystery, the main genre is more like contemporary drama or women’s fiction, with a strong found-family trope. You have a diverse group of characters who are Chinese, Indian and an Indonesian. It's a hilarious, light hearted read. The story was cute, cozy and heart-warming.
]]> 216282884 An Instant #1 New York TimesĚýµţ±đ˛őłŮ˛ő±đ±ô±ô±đ°ů
A #1 Publishers WeeklyĚýµţ±đ˛őłŮ˛ő±đ±ô±ô±đ°ů

MelaniaĚýis a compelling and inspirational memoir that offers a glimpse into the life of a remarkable woman who has navigated challenges with grace and determination.Ěý
Ěý
In her memoir,ĚýMelaniaĚýreflects on her SlovenianĚýchildhood,Ěýthe pivotal moments that led her to the world of high fashion inĚýEurope and New York, and the serendipitous meeting with Donald Trump, a chance encounter that forever changed the course of her life. Melania opens up about their courtship,Ěýlife in the spotlight, andĚýexperiencing the joy of motherhood. SheĚýshares behind-the-scenes stories from her time in the White House, shedding light on her advocacy work and the causes close to her heart.
MelaniaĚýoffers an unprecedented look into her time as a First Lady who was born outside the United States -- a role she embraced with honor and dedication.ĚýIt brings readers intoĚýherĚýworld and presents an in-depth account of a woman who has led a remarkable life on her own terms.
MelaniaĚýTrump's story is one of resilience and independence, showcasing her strength and unwavering commitment toĚýher true self.Ěý]]> 338 Melania Trump Anna 1
Melania blasts her RNC speechwriter by name for plagiarizing her speech from Michelle Obama's speech. Melania's story, which I believe, claims that after watching Michelle Obama's speech she told her speechwriter over the phone that she liked these lines. The speechwriter didn't take good notes and later attributed those lines as Melania's writing them. Didn't Melania recognize those lines when she got the speech back? No, Melania goes off on how she should have had a fact checker for her speech. Girl please! You didn't write your own speech, you can't be mad it's not original material. Michelle Obama wrote her own speeches and spoke without notes. The word Obama is never used the book.

Melania uses the word "palpable" a lot throughout the book. I can barely pronounce that word, I seriously doubt it's in Melania's vocabulary. She politely mentions, with careful wording but I read between the lines, that she wasn't trying to be anyone's stepmom. Meanwhile in Kamala Harris' book she was a proud step-mom that went above and beyond in her duties! I'm sure Melania regrets that now as it seems her and Ivanka are not speaking.

She set the record on her "really don't care do you" jacket. She hates Rosie O'Donnell. She blamed the Obama administration for not allowing her to visit the White House early to see the private quarters so she could redesign it in advance. Note: Michelle did meet with Melania at the White House before she moved in. Melania didn't move to the White House until 6 months after her husband so what was the rush???

This book was published so fast after she wrote it because she writes about events in 2024 and the book is published the same year! She talks about her husband's assassination attempt and him having covid and it seems she actually likes him, shocker. She claimed to have given scholarships to an unspecified number of foster care students. She wrote how Barron was refused a bank account at her bank. And how after leaving the White House no one wanted to work with her on her charity initiatives. I had to fact check this with a simple google and it turns out her charity has never been registered and these other parties she blasts probably saw the scam and that it was just a way for them to funnel money to themselves tax-free, as they have done in the past. Just google "Judge fines Trump $2 million for misusing charity foundation" in 2019.

There's a lot of talk about her friendships with other first ladies. But not what actually she has done for cyberbullying or the LGBTQ community that she claims to support. She waxes poetic about the supposed work she did in the White House. She separates herself from her husband to say she is pro-choice and against separating families at the border. She does not support the BLM movement and showed how racist she was. She talks about George Floyd without mentioning his name. I had to check the date to see who this "Black Minneapolis resident" she was referring to.

The book has the most amount of color photos I've ever seen in a memoir, it was a whole chapter. This is a carefully curated book of a woman who greatly overemphasizes and exaggerates her achievements, her talents, and her poise. This book shows that Donald and Melania deserve each other and they don't care about their country. I learned absolutely nothing worth remembering about Melania. The writing is simplistic, robotic, and dull, there is lack of true depth. It feels like there is a victim mentality, making it seem like her life was hard with the media attacking her. There was no emotion in this book just like how we see her on TV. The book is utter garbage.

]]> 3.85 2024
author: Melania Trump
name: Anna
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
This was clearly written by a ghostwriter. Ivana wrote a fantastic memoir and I think Melania was trying to complete with it. Ivana started her book talking about growing up with communism in Czech but Melania starts her book off saying "everything thinks I had a hard life in communism in Slovenia but it didn't affect me" fast forward to the end of the book and then she talks about the restrictions of communism on her family, did she forget what she wrote at the start of the book? Melania even had a QVC jewelry line just like Ivana, that company lasted just a year.

Melania blasts her RNC speechwriter by name for plagiarizing her speech from Michelle Obama's speech. Melania's story, which I believe, claims that after watching Michelle Obama's speech she told her speechwriter over the phone that she liked these lines. The speechwriter didn't take good notes and later attributed those lines as Melania's writing them. Didn't Melania recognize those lines when she got the speech back? No, Melania goes off on how she should have had a fact checker for her speech. Girl please! You didn't write your own speech, you can't be mad it's not original material. Michelle Obama wrote her own speeches and spoke without notes. The word Obama is never used the book.

Melania uses the word "palpable" a lot throughout the book. I can barely pronounce that word, I seriously doubt it's in Melania's vocabulary. She politely mentions, with careful wording but I read between the lines, that she wasn't trying to be anyone's stepmom. Meanwhile in Kamala Harris' book she was a proud step-mom that went above and beyond in her duties! I'm sure Melania regrets that now as it seems her and Ivanka are not speaking.

She set the record on her "really don't care do you" jacket. She hates Rosie O'Donnell. She blamed the Obama administration for not allowing her to visit the White House early to see the private quarters so she could redesign it in advance. Note: Michelle did meet with Melania at the White House before she moved in. Melania didn't move to the White House until 6 months after her husband so what was the rush???

This book was published so fast after she wrote it because she writes about events in 2024 and the book is published the same year! She talks about her husband's assassination attempt and him having covid and it seems she actually likes him, shocker. She claimed to have given scholarships to an unspecified number of foster care students. She wrote how Barron was refused a bank account at her bank. And how after leaving the White House no one wanted to work with her on her charity initiatives. I had to fact check this with a simple google and it turns out her charity has never been registered and these other parties she blasts probably saw the scam and that it was just a way for them to funnel money to themselves tax-free, as they have done in the past. Just google "Judge fines Trump $2 million for misusing charity foundation" in 2019.

There's a lot of talk about her friendships with other first ladies. But not what actually she has done for cyberbullying or the LGBTQ community that she claims to support. She waxes poetic about the supposed work she did in the White House. She separates herself from her husband to say she is pro-choice and against separating families at the border. She does not support the BLM movement and showed how racist she was. She talks about George Floyd without mentioning his name. I had to check the date to see who this "Black Minneapolis resident" she was referring to.

The book has the most amount of color photos I've ever seen in a memoir, it was a whole chapter. This is a carefully curated book of a woman who greatly overemphasizes and exaggerates her achievements, her talents, and her poise. This book shows that Donald and Melania deserve each other and they don't care about their country. I learned absolutely nothing worth remembering about Melania. The writing is simplistic, robotic, and dull, there is lack of true depth. It feels like there is a victim mentality, making it seem like her life was hard with the media attacking her. There was no emotion in this book just like how we see her on TV. The book is utter garbage.


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

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

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

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

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 125033778X Anna 0 to-read 3.65 2025
author: Alice Feeney
name: Anna
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204905217
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.]]> 304 Lisa Marie Presley 0593733878 Anna 4 2024
I only read this because I had to know if her marriage to Michael Jackson was real and consummated. They don’t talk about how she walked away from Scientology, just that she did leave it. Mostly absent from this story is Priscilla Presley which does seem to emphasize their lack of relationship. I could never quite tell if she genuinely felt no connection to her own mother. She never acknowledges that Graceland would not be there if not for Priscilla. When Elvis was alive, Lisa was a spoiled terror at Graceland, and as she was allowed to do pretty much whatever she wanted. The fact Priscilla didn't immediately get rid of her boyfriend who molested Lisa says a lot.

As far as I can tell from what I’ve read, Lisa Marie never really worked, or had a job. Her money came from the Presley Estate. She talks a bit about how every time she tried to make music, studios would interfere and try to make her songs more Elvis-like.

Sadly Riley's mother did not provide a stable life for her, they moved around constantly, from Florida to be near the Church of Scientology, to Europe and to California. When Lisa Marie ultimately descended into depression and addiction, she could no longer care for her family and Riley had to step in.

Riley is what makes this book so special, she really honored her mother and family in such a beautiful way. There is a sense of sadness that hovers over the entire book.]]> 4.27 2024
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Anna
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: 2024
review:
This is a short book with no glossy photo pages. Riley only included a few pages on cardstock so they are not that clear to look at. I don't understand why such a rich person would save money to do that? One of the best parts of memoirs is seeing personal photos we haven't seen before.

I only read this because I had to know if her marriage to Michael Jackson was real and consummated. They don’t talk about how she walked away from Scientology, just that she did leave it. Mostly absent from this story is Priscilla Presley which does seem to emphasize their lack of relationship. I could never quite tell if she genuinely felt no connection to her own mother. She never acknowledges that Graceland would not be there if not for Priscilla. When Elvis was alive, Lisa was a spoiled terror at Graceland, and as she was allowed to do pretty much whatever she wanted. The fact Priscilla didn't immediately get rid of her boyfriend who molested Lisa says a lot.

As far as I can tell from what I’ve read, Lisa Marie never really worked, or had a job. Her money came from the Presley Estate. She talks a bit about how every time she tried to make music, studios would interfere and try to make her songs more Elvis-like.

Sadly Riley's mother did not provide a stable life for her, they moved around constantly, from Florida to be near the Church of Scientology, to Europe and to California. When Lisa Marie ultimately descended into depression and addiction, she could no longer care for her family and Riley had to step in.

Riley is what makes this book so special, she really honored her mother and family in such a beautiful way. There is a sense of sadness that hovers over the entire book.
]]> 182486315 From bestselling author and award-winning journalist Jo Piazza, comes aĚýtransportingĚýnovel rooted inĚýthe author's ownĚýfamily history about a long-awaited trip to Sicily, a disputed inheritance, and a family secret that some will kill to protect . . .

Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage.ĚýOn top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft withĚýgrief. But Aunt Rosie's death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret.ĚýRosie believes Sara's great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.

Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and prove her birthright. Flashing back to the past, we meet Serafina, a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly it isn’t long before a woman challenging the status quo finds herself in danger.

As Sara discovers more about Serafina she also realizes she is coming head-to-head with the same menacing forces that took down her great-grandmother. At once an immersive multigenerational mystery and an ode to the undaunted heroism of everyday women, The Sicilian Inheritance is an atmospheric, page-turning delight.]]> 384 Jo Piazza 0593474163 Anna 4 2025 ]]> 3.93 2024
author: Jo Piazza
name: Anna
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: 2025
review:
I listened to the audiobook and appreciated that they had two female voices to read the two characters. I typically don't only listen to memoirs on audiobook, but this book was easy to listen to. Equal parts rich historical fiction and gripping murder mystery. The Sicilian Inheritance covers one hundred years of struggling people and strong women. The two characters are Serafina who unofficially practices medicine in her small Sicilian town, helping to save many lives during the Spanish Flu in 1920s. While Sara is a failed American restaurant owner looking for connection and exploring her Italian roots while also researching what happened to the relative who left her some land and if she still has rights to it. Very strong female characters, inspired by the author's own family. The Serafina's storyline is juicy and twisty and I could stop listening!

]]> 40861864 From one of America's most inspiring political leaders, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris's commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents--an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India--met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California's working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California's thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in The Truths We Hold a master class in problem-solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.]]> 336 Kamala Harris Anna 4 2025
That said I learned about her career history as she prides herself on her work as a District Attorney for San Francisco fighting broken systems and prison reform that directly affect poor Black people. The book was more about her political career and little about her childhood. She showed how much she loved her step-kids. Her position on Black Lives Matter and supporting both victims and conducting law enforcement in an equitable manner was powerful. For those who do not perceive her as being Black enough, this book should dispel those criticisms. Or did she write this because of all the criticism that surrounded her when she was running for President against Biden that she didn't support the Black community? As she continuously referenced her upbringing as a Black-American, I didn't get much about her Indian heritage. The book reads like, "I'm going to run for President and here is my platform." Unlike Michelle Obama's book, which provided a lot of personal insights and gave a compelling, moving and interesting story, Harris' book gives the reader only a superficial look at her personal life, and a lot of political posturing!

Harris has worked to make marriage more equitable for the LGBTQ+ community. She reminded us that we have two Supreme Court justices who sexually assaulted a woman. She talked about cyber attacks from foreign governments as she was on the Homeland Security Senate Committee.

The book showed a picture of her marching against Apartheid in South Africa. So it was ironic that the reason she lost the Presidential election is because folks wanted a more progressive candidate, one that would end the genocide in Palestine. In a passage about water, Harris also gives a wink to Israel as a friend. Her record shows that she is firmly in the pocket of the "Israel Lobby."]]> 4.05 2019
author: Kamala Harris
name: Anna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: 2025
review:
I listened to the audiobook and borrowed the printed book from the library to see the pictures. The audiobook I got from the library had someone else narrating the book but I see that if you get it from audible, Kamala reads it, thank goodness! The whole time I was listening, I couldn't stand hearing Kamala's story from someone else's voice!

That said I learned about her career history as she prides herself on her work as a District Attorney for San Francisco fighting broken systems and prison reform that directly affect poor Black people. The book was more about her political career and little about her childhood. She showed how much she loved her step-kids. Her position on Black Lives Matter and supporting both victims and conducting law enforcement in an equitable manner was powerful. For those who do not perceive her as being Black enough, this book should dispel those criticisms. Or did she write this because of all the criticism that surrounded her when she was running for President against Biden that she didn't support the Black community? As she continuously referenced her upbringing as a Black-American, I didn't get much about her Indian heritage. The book reads like, "I'm going to run for President and here is my platform." Unlike Michelle Obama's book, which provided a lot of personal insights and gave a compelling, moving and interesting story, Harris' book gives the reader only a superficial look at her personal life, and a lot of political posturing!

Harris has worked to make marriage more equitable for the LGBTQ+ community. She reminded us that we have two Supreme Court justices who sexually assaulted a woman. She talked about cyber attacks from foreign governments as she was on the Homeland Security Senate Committee.

The book showed a picture of her marching against Apartheid in South Africa. So it was ironic that the reason she lost the Presidential election is because folks wanted a more progressive candidate, one that would end the genocide in Palestine. In a passage about water, Harris also gives a wink to Israel as a friend. Her record shows that she is firmly in the pocket of the "Israel Lobby."
]]> 55723020
In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain...and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.

"Brilliant... riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued."--Beth Macy, author of Dopesick


INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
“Brilliant� riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick
As heard on Fresh Air]]> 304 Anna Lembke 1524746738 Anna 0 to-read 3.88 2021
author: Anna Lembke
name: Anna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12951631
Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life. Dr. Joe demystifies ancient understandings and bridges the gap between science and spirituality. Through his powerful workshops and lectures, thousands of people in 24 different countries have used these principles to change from the inside out. Once you break the habit of being yourself and truly change your mind, your life will never be the same!]]> 329 Joe Dispenza 1401938086 Anna 0 to-read 4.10 2012
author: Joe Dispenza
name: Anna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34607047 In Raising Trump, Ivana Trump reflects on her extraordinary life and the raising of her three children—Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka—and recounts the lessons she taught her children as they were growing up.As her former husband takes his place as the 45th President of the United States, his children have also been thrust into the media spotlight—but it is Ivana who raised them and proudly instilled in them what she believes to be the most important life loyalty, honesty, integrity, and drive. Raising Trump is a non-partisan, non-political book about motherhood, strength, and resilience. Though Ivana writes about her childhood in communist Czechoslovakia, her escape from the regime and relocation to New York, her whirlwind romance, and her great success as a businesswoman, the focus of the book is devoted to Ivana’s raising of her children. Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump will all contribute their own memories to the book. “Every day, people ask me how I raised such great kids. They are truly amazed when I tell them that there was no magic to their upbringing. I was a tough and loving mother who taught them the value of a dollar, not to lie, cheat, or steal, respect for others, and other life lessons that I’ll share now in Raising Trump, along with unfiltered personal stories about Don, Eric, and Ivanka from their early childhood to becoming the �first sons and daughter.’� —Ivana Trump]]> 318 Ivana Trump 1501177303 Anna 5 2025
Ivana was a woman with a strong work ethic who valued ambition, discipline, and self-reliance. Despite being a workaholic, she maintained a balance by having family routines. She emphasized hard work, self-respect, and financial independence, and did not give her kids credit cards or lavish gifts. She believed in teaching by example, such as working hard to support her family and instilling values of integrity and loyalty.

She writes about how her children were taught manners and respect from an early age, and she fostered a sense of accomplishment by having them work for their money. Though she enjoyed luxury, such as vacations on her yacht and her fur vault, she also preferred simplicity in family celebrations. Her personal philosophy focused on resilience, loyalty, and the value of culture.

She didn’t believe in coddling her children with excessive wealth, opting instead to teach them independence and responsibility. She placed high value on trust in relationships, emphasized the importance of maintaining personal health, and lived with a deep appreciation for the arts.
]]> 3.69 2017
author: Ivana Trump
name: Anna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: 2025
review:
This books tells you about Ivana's life in Czechoslovakia and her philosophy in how she raised her kids so they wouldn't end up like the Hiltons with scandals. It was easy to read and she added a little sass to her stories.

Ivana was a woman with a strong work ethic who valued ambition, discipline, and self-reliance. Despite being a workaholic, she maintained a balance by having family routines. She emphasized hard work, self-respect, and financial independence, and did not give her kids credit cards or lavish gifts. She believed in teaching by example, such as working hard to support her family and instilling values of integrity and loyalty.

She writes about how her children were taught manners and respect from an early age, and she fostered a sense of accomplishment by having them work for their money. Though she enjoyed luxury, such as vacations on her yacht and her fur vault, she also preferred simplicity in family celebrations. Her personal philosophy focused on resilience, loyalty, and the value of culture.

She didn’t believe in coddling her children with excessive wealth, opting instead to teach them independence and responsibility. She placed high value on trust in relationships, emphasized the importance of maintaining personal health, and lived with a deep appreciation for the arts.

]]> 202102003 How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion - it's been a decade since she graduated, and this visit is special because she will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya's worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there is more to the story than they are letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister's death, she begins to realise how much Naomi hid from her. Despite Maya's warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus - the same one Maya belonged to. And if she had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within it.

Maya knows that her sister isn't the first person in the society to turn up dead. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she's been keeping all these years.]]> 384 Lauren Ling Brown 059372335X Anna 3 2024
There are so many characters but I recommend paying attention to [spoilers removed]throughout the book. I say that because with so many characters I kind of glossed over everyone and I wished I could remember what was special about them in the beginning and really watch for details. ]]> 3.48 2024
author: Lauren Ling Brown
name: Anna
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024
review:
This debut novel for the author was a slow burn that I wished I had DNF. There's three timelines and two narrators that sound the same, both were one dimensional and lacked depth. The book did nothing for me, I just wanted it to end. The books just drags on and on with nothing happening. It was so boring. The second to last chapter where you finally find out the ending is so dramatic and unbelievable. I only found it interested to learn about Princeton's secret societies and eating clubs.

There are so many characters but I recommend paying attention to [spoilers removed]throughout the book. I say that because with so many characters I kind of glossed over everyone and I wished I could remember what was special about them in the beginning and really watch for details.
]]> 198137983 You Deserve Good Gelato, covering everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the s*** that scares you. Because life is too short not to.

Kacie decided to leave her life as a pro dancer in New York City and move to Italy in 2021 - and she never looked back. Okay, that isn't strictly true...

In You Deserve Good Gelato, Kacie reflects on the pure terror of driving on Italian roads, the trials of speaking a new language (and getting it horribly, horribly wrong), and the genuine beauty of a slower pace of life, all with humor and heart. And by sharing her personal stories of life under the Tuscan sun, Kacie explains how travel is a privilege, why cultural differences are the coolest things in the world, and how there's a positive you can take away from literally any situation.

You Deserve Good Gelato will have you buying that ticket and embracing this big, beautiful world that we all call home.]]> 272 Kacie Rose 0593840437 Anna 3 2024 She was likeable on social media and just comes off as a warm, and a good person. Her book with constant crying has convinced me to never move abroad. I was always open to it and thought it might be fun but she has firmly convinced me that it will be a nightmare.

She's a Midwesterner with no travel abroad experience until her one trip to Italy. I think that explains why she has such low self-esteem living in Italy. I mean she has it easy, she has a boyfriend to take her everywhere! She makes it seem like the language barrier is the problem but when she was in a hostel full of people speaking English she was paralyzed to talk too. She was crippled with self-doubt. She was out of her comfort zone in an English speaking environment. She's always uncomfortable with no confidence and self-conscious about herself. Why are you qualified to write a travel book?

Once she referred to her hair as blonde so I immediately ran to her social media because I never thought her hair was blonde. Then I discovered that she does have her hair highlighted, but in the Italian style where they keep your natural color mixed in. Then with her hair flipped back in the front, all your see is 4 inches of brown roots over her forehead, in every single video. So I never thought of her as blonde because you don't really see it or maybe she was referring to a time when her hair was indeed all over lighter. I don't know?

She said she wanted to walk into a cafe and be greeted by ciao instead of Hi. She doesn't look Italian, she looks like Kelly Clarkson - English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish. That was cute when she went on Kelly's show and to see them side by side. Her travel tours look interesting but way overpriced.



]]> 3.70 2024
author: Kacie Rose
name: Anna
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: 2024
review:
I was going to rate this 5 stars until I read chapter 8 and that completely changed my opinion of her.
She was likeable on social media and just comes off as a warm, and a good person. Her book with constant crying has convinced me to never move abroad. I was always open to it and thought it might be fun but she has firmly convinced me that it will be a nightmare.

She's a Midwesterner with no travel abroad experience until her one trip to Italy. I think that explains why she has such low self-esteem living in Italy. I mean she has it easy, she has a boyfriend to take her everywhere! She makes it seem like the language barrier is the problem but when she was in a hostel full of people speaking English she was paralyzed to talk too. She was crippled with self-doubt. She was out of her comfort zone in an English speaking environment. She's always uncomfortable with no confidence and self-conscious about herself. Why are you qualified to write a travel book?

Once she referred to her hair as blonde so I immediately ran to her social media because I never thought her hair was blonde. Then I discovered that she does have her hair highlighted, but in the Italian style where they keep your natural color mixed in. Then with her hair flipped back in the front, all your see is 4 inches of brown roots over her forehead, in every single video. So I never thought of her as blonde because you don't really see it or maybe she was referring to a time when her hair was indeed all over lighter. I don't know?

She said she wanted to walk into a cafe and be greeted by ciao instead of Hi. She doesn't look Italian, she looks like Kelly Clarkson - English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish. That was cute when she went on Kelly's show and to see them side by side. Her travel tours look interesting but way overpriced.




]]> 220160814 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

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

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

But Nick and Al may not be who they say they are, leading these three women on a shocking collision course, wishing they had heeded a warning: Don’t let him in.]]> 368 Lisa Jewell 1668033879 Anna 0 to-read 4.00 2025
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Anna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Anna 1 didnt-finish 4.16 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Anna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: didnt-finish
review:
Too many characters, I was 100 pages in before I decided to DNF. This book won so many awards I felt I needed to read it but I just felt the story line was going no where for such a long book.
]]> 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]> 232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 Anna 5 2024
Coates is so incredibly talented and writing this book is bold, brave and unintentionally provocative. He is courageous in sharing his thoughts without concern of any potential blowback. Coates has written a powerful, beautifully written ’message� as he shares his thoughts on race, racism, racial equality. His writing style has such skill at crafting prose essays and what he wrote is an excellent and thought-provoking read. He compares Palestine with the Jim Crow era in the US. The same forms of apartheid, the same racist arguments on why two peoples need to remain separate and unequal.

This is one of the best books I’ve read about Palestine and how it connects to apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing. The book is comprised of essays about the power of perspective, as Coates sees his American past in Palestine’s present.

Even though he has an American passport, he is still stopped before entering his hotel by a soldier asking what he is doing there. In another instance at a checkpoint, a soldier demands to know what his religion is and is unsatisfied with the answer that he doesn't practice. The solder then interrogates him on what religion are his parents and he gives the same answer. Then the solider demands to know about his grandparents, Christian, and with that satisfactory answer he is allowed to pass. The irony to the encounter is that the solider was Black, an Ethiopian Jew, upholding this class system.

He talks about the different license plates and roads/highways that are different for Palestinians. How collecting rainwater for your house is also controlled by the government. Access to wells is restricted for Palestinians hence they resort to seemly innocently collecting their own rain water but apparently that is not allowed. Coates talks about Israel was selling weapons to apartheid South Africa in the 1970s when most other countries had an embargo on SA.

Coates says, "Palestinians have shorter lives, are poorer, and live in more violent neighborhoods." That's because they live in fear of settler violence and he shares a first hand account from someone he interviewed. "The Palestinians lacking a state, had no right to the land and perhaps no rights at all." From the same interview he shares how they need permits to build houses which are never granted so they build anyway then bulldozers come out and destroy their homes. "I don't think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel."

"Human rights groups point to the definition of apartheid which defines the crime of apartheid as inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establish and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them."]]> 4.52 2024
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Anna
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: 2024
review:
I saw his interview on Good Morning America and heard about all the controversy so I had to read this book! The biggest argument from negative reviews is that he wrote this book after a 10-day trip to Occupied Palestine. Note he was on a press tour of Palestine, you don't join that type of tour unless you are already familiar with the history and politics of the region and want to dive deeper. So it's not the same as insinuating that he was vacationing there and just stumbled upon this knowledge. He's always known about it but felt he couldn't authentically write the book without seeing the apartheid first hand and interviewing people who live there.

Coates is so incredibly talented and writing this book is bold, brave and unintentionally provocative. He is courageous in sharing his thoughts without concern of any potential blowback. Coates has written a powerful, beautifully written ’message� as he shares his thoughts on race, racism, racial equality. His writing style has such skill at crafting prose essays and what he wrote is an excellent and thought-provoking read. He compares Palestine with the Jim Crow era in the US. The same forms of apartheid, the same racist arguments on why two peoples need to remain separate and unequal.

This is one of the best books I’ve read about Palestine and how it connects to apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing. The book is comprised of essays about the power of perspective, as Coates sees his American past in Palestine’s present.

Even though he has an American passport, he is still stopped before entering his hotel by a soldier asking what he is doing there. In another instance at a checkpoint, a soldier demands to know what his religion is and is unsatisfied with the answer that he doesn't practice. The solder then interrogates him on what religion are his parents and he gives the same answer. Then the solider demands to know about his grandparents, Christian, and with that satisfactory answer he is allowed to pass. The irony to the encounter is that the solider was Black, an Ethiopian Jew, upholding this class system.

He talks about the different license plates and roads/highways that are different for Palestinians. How collecting rainwater for your house is also controlled by the government. Access to wells is restricted for Palestinians hence they resort to seemly innocently collecting their own rain water but apparently that is not allowed. Coates talks about Israel was selling weapons to apartheid South Africa in the 1970s when most other countries had an embargo on SA.

Coates says, "Palestinians have shorter lives, are poorer, and live in more violent neighborhoods." That's because they live in fear of settler violence and he shares a first hand account from someone he interviewed. "The Palestinians lacking a state, had no right to the land and perhaps no rights at all." From the same interview he shares how they need permits to build houses which are never granted so they build anyway then bulldozers come out and destroy their homes. "I don't think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel."

"Human rights groups point to the definition of apartheid which defines the crime of apartheid as inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establish and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them."
]]> 43124137 The unforgettable love story of a mother blinded by loss and her husband who insists on their survival as they undertake the Syrian refugee trail to Europe.

Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo--until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape. But what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind, and so they must embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain. On the way, Nuri is sustained by the knowledge that waiting for them is Mustafa, his cousin and business partner, who has started an apiary and is teaching fellow refugees in Yorkshire to keep bees.

As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls. Above all, they must journey to find each other again.

Moving, powerful, compassionate, and beautifully written, The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. It is the kind of book that reminds us of the power of storytelling.]]> 317 Christy Lefteri 1984821210 Anna 0 to-read 4.14 2019
author: Christy Lefteri
name: Anna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57390604
Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.

But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.

Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.]]> 417 Zoulfa Katouh 0316351377 Anna 0 to-read 4.48 2022
author: Zoulfa Katouh
name: Anna
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200100950

When Stephanie Kiser moves to New York City after college to pursue a career in writing, she quickly learns that her entry-level salary won't cover the high cost of living―never mind her crushing student loan debt. But there is one in-demand job that pays more than enough to allow Stephanie to stay in the city: nannying for the 1%. Desperate to escape the poverty of her own childhood, Stephanie falls into a job that hijacks her life for the next seven years: a glorified personal assistant to toddlers on Manhattan's Upper East Side.


At first, nannying seems like the perfect solution―the high pay covers Stephanie's bills, and she's surprised by how attached she becomes to the kids she cares for, even as she gasps over Prada baby onesies and preschools that cost more than her college tuition. But the grueling twelve-hour days leave her little time to see her friends, date, or pursue any creative projects that might lead to a more prestigious career. The allure of the seemingly-glamorous job begins to dull as Stephanie comes to understand more about what really happens behind the closed doors of million-dollar Park Avenue apartments―and that money doesn't guarantee happiness. Soon she will have to decide whether to stay with the children she's grown to love, or if there's something better out there just beyond her reach.


Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant is alternately poignant and funny, a portrait of a generation of Americans struggling to find work they love balanced against the headwinds of global uncertainty and an economy stacked against anyone trying to work their way up from the bottom. It's a provocative story of class, caregiving, friendship, and family―and a juicy, voyeuristic peek behind the curtain of obscene wealth and the privilege and opportunity that comes with it. In this unputdownable memoir, Stephanie chronicles her journey from newbie nanny to beloved caregiver—and the painful decision to eventually say goodbye to the children she has grown to love.]]> 336 Stephanie Kiser 1728298164 Anna 0 to-read 3.62 2024
author: Stephanie Kiser
name: Anna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

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

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Anna 0 to-read 3.67 2024
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Anna
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199798460
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.]]> 299 Emiko Jean 1668023938 Anna 0 to-read 3.97 2024
author: Emiko Jean
name: Anna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42121525
Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations is an ode to a disappearing world and a breathtaking page-turner about the possibility of hope against all odds.]]> 256 Charlotte McConaghy 125020402X Anna 0 to-read 4.11 2020
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Anna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 165938560 A deserted shipwreck off the coast of Iceland holds terrors and dark secrets in this chilling horror novel from the author of The Lighthouse Witches.

The year is 1901, and Nicky is attacked, then wakes on board the Ormen, a whaling ship embarked on what could be its last voyage. With land still weeks away, it's just her, the freezing ocean, and the crew - and they're all owed something only she can give them...

Now, over one hundred years later, the wreck of the Ormen has washed up on the forbidding, remote coast of Iceland. It's scheduled to be destroyed, but explorer Dominique feels an inexplicable pull to document its last days, even though those who have ventured onto the wreck before her have met uncanny ends.

Onboard the boat, Dominique will uncover a dark past riddled with lies, cruelty, and murder--and her discovery will change everything. Because she'll soon realize she's not alone. Something has walked the floors of the Ormen for almost a century. Something that craves revenge.]]> 340 C.J. Cooke 059355020X Anna 0 to-read 3.64 2023
author: C.J. Cooke
name: Anna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57649351 A woman receives an unexpected visitor during a deadly snowstormĚýin this chilling thriller fromĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Heather Gudenkauf

She thought she was alone�

True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.

As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls—haunted by secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. But soon it becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone is willing to do anything to find them.]]> 336 Heather Gudenkauf 0778333167 Anna 0 to-read 3.94 2022
author: Heather Gudenkauf
name: Anna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 154488336 Detective Cara Kennedy thought she’d lost her husband and son in an accident, but harrowing evidence has emerged that points to murder--and she will stop at nothing to find the truth in this riveting mystery from the author of City Under One Roof.

On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth.ĚýIt feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances.Ěý
Ěý
Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet.
Ěý
Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.]]> 288 Iris Yamashita 0593336704 Anna 0 to-read 3.54 2024
author: Iris Yamashita
name: Anna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 128139837
Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book.

What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone—or something—is hunting them all.

Taking tropes from murder mystery, police procedural, thriller, and horror, Drew Hayden Taylor weaves a pulse-pounding and propulsive narrative with an intricate cast of characters, while never losing the ability to make you laugh. Cold takes Indigenous traditional stories and thrusts them into the modern streets of Toronto, exploring themes of displacement and trauma, as well as offering playful satirical critiques of the current landscape of Indigenous literature.]]> 368 Drew Hayden Taylor 0771002890 Anna 0 to-read 3.69 2024
author: Drew Hayden Taylor
name: Anna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201156352 From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes a taut tale of renegade justice and long-awaited resolution, bringing the thrilling Detective Harriet Foster series to a heart-stopping conclusion.

Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.

Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri� Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.

Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice—and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.]]> 361 Tracy Clark 1662517335 Anna 0 to-read 4.18 2024
author: Tracy Clark
name: Anna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 126919284
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.]]> 294 Rachel Hawkins 1250280036 Anna 5 2024
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over. Camden reluctantly returns to Ashby House, a moody, gothic backdrop of a fifteen-bedroom mansion, to tie up loose ends and then all the secrets unravel. What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? Ashby House created a creepy atmosphere that really set the mood. If those walls could speak, they would have a story to tell and in a way they do. There are also lots of secrets along with unlikable characters

Full of twists, turns, I read the book in 5 days as I love a book that can keep me turning the pages as the storyline was fast-paced, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!]]> 3.80 2024
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Anna
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: 2024
review:
This is the third book from this author that I've read. The book was a mix of historical fiction and mystery, never had this combo before. However I was surprised the flashbacks only happened in the 1960s, Paris seemed like it was much long ago. The Heiress is told in three narrators: 1. husband Camden, 2. wife Jules, 3. a collection of letters by Camden’s adopted mother, Ruby. Ruby writes letters prior to her death at an elderly age, and through these letters we see what transpired during her years growing up and her four marriages. Ruby is quite the intriguing character! That is a peek at her portrait on the gorgeous cover. She may have more skeletons in her closet than any other character I've read about.

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over. Camden reluctantly returns to Ashby House, a moody, gothic backdrop of a fifteen-bedroom mansion, to tie up loose ends and then all the secrets unravel. What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? Ashby House created a creepy atmosphere that really set the mood. If those walls could speak, they would have a story to tell and in a way they do. There are also lots of secrets along with unlikable characters

Full of twists, turns, I read the book in 5 days as I love a book that can keep me turning the pages as the storyline was fast-paced, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!
]]> 145624877
At just twenty-one years old, Crystal Harrisâ€� life changed forever when she attended a party at the notorious Playboy mansion. Picked out of the crowd by Hugh Hefner, she became one of his infamous “girlfriends,â€� attending glamorous Hollywood parties and traveling the world. Yet this seemingly alluring lifestyle had a dark side. Hef controlled his girlfriends with strict rules regarding everything from their hair and makeup to their curfews, and Crystal was forced to compete with other women for her spot in the highly hierarchal system. Living at the mansion, she felt more like a fixture than a resident.Ěý
Ěý
She quickly rose to the top, but being Hef’s number one girlfriend came at the cost of Crystal’s identity outside her role in the Playboy universe. Her fate seemed sealed when Hef surprised her with a marriage proposal she could not imagine refusing. But as Crystal Hefner, she grew increasingly restless to understand who she truly was away from what she saw as Playboy’s toxic culture.

In ONLY SAY GOOD THINGS, Crystal offers a vulnerable and clear-eyed look at how her experience with Hugh Hefner catalyzed her transformative journey from someone who prized external validation over all else to a person who finally recognizes her true worth. This candid memoir provides a fascinating look behind the scenes at a powerful cultural icon and brand, and an equally empowering perspective on hard-won lessons about who we allow to determine our value.]]> 240 Crystal Hefner 1538765675 Anna 0 3.67 2024
author: Crystal Hefner
name: Anna
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 209192698 In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table.Ěý

Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.

From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.]]> 320 Ina Garten 0593799895 Anna 0 2024 4.25 2024
author: Ina Garten
name: Anna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> 206571264 From the nine-time women’s basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist—a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home.

On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women’s basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil. Brittney’s world was violently upended in a crisis she has never spoken in detail about publicly—until now.

In Coming Home, Brittney finally shares the harrowing details of her sudden arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement rallied for her release; the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America’s forgotten. In haunting and vivid detail, Brittney takes listeners inside the horrors of a geopolitical nightmare spanning ten months.

And yet Coming Home is more than Brittney’s journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family’s support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love—the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself.]]> 320 Brittney Griner 0593801342 Anna 0 2024 4.36 2024
author: Brittney Griner
name: Anna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> 203579177 From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures comes a breathtaking work of suspense about a father trying to save his daughter from a life-altering decision that will put everything he loves on the line.

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

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

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.]]> 338 Jason Rekulak 1250895782 Anna 5 2024
As it turns out, Aidan's father is a titan in the tech industry and the family is ridiculously wealthy. The property is a virtual fortress, complete with intimidating security personnel. Frank, a UPS driver feels completely out of his league. There is a ton of family drama on both sides, and Frank feels like something isn't right. He overhears mysterious conversations, and there's so many secrets, but the more he tries to find out about the family his daughter is marrying into, the more trouble he finds.

There are many unexpected twists and turns that had me glued to the page. Be prepared to now question everything you thought you knew. The book is told in five acts, but don’t worry as the chapters in between the acts are so short and fast paced. I was instantly interested from the beginning and invested in this daddy- daughter dynamic and trying to get to the bottom of the mystery behind Aidan’s high powered family. Overall, this is a fast-paced and gripping mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end, with shocking twists that catch you off guard. I highly recommend this book—it just might end up on my top ten thrillers list of 2024.

One thing I didn't like is how the author kept referencing tiktok. It wasn't relevant to the story. I love tiktok, but I don't want contemporary references in my books. I think he also mentioned the President's name and a couple other things that made it very clear this book took place in 2024. Which means if someone reads this book 10 years from now it won't feel timeless. It's like when you watch movies, no one is holding an iphone or scrolling on their phone. A book shouldn't be date stamped.]]> 3.62 2024
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Anna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: 2024
review:
It's rare that I read a book with a male protagonist but maybe that's because I'm always reading female authors. The book was easy to read right from the start. In this story we follow Frank Szatowski, a Gulf War veteran and UPS driver for 26 years without an accident, from rural Pennsylvania. Frank is a widower who has sadly been estranged from his daughter Maggie for the past three years. Frank is shocked when he receives a call from Maggie out of the blue inviting him to her wedding. Determined to make things right with his only child, Frank readily agrees. He's excited to meet his future son-in-law, Aidan Gardner, and get to know his family. The weekend-long event is set to take place at a lakeside estate in New Hampshire.

As it turns out, Aidan's father is a titan in the tech industry and the family is ridiculously wealthy. The property is a virtual fortress, complete with intimidating security personnel. Frank, a UPS driver feels completely out of his league. There is a ton of family drama on both sides, and Frank feels like something isn't right. He overhears mysterious conversations, and there's so many secrets, but the more he tries to find out about the family his daughter is marrying into, the more trouble he finds.

There are many unexpected twists and turns that had me glued to the page. Be prepared to now question everything you thought you knew. The book is told in five acts, but don’t worry as the chapters in between the acts are so short and fast paced. I was instantly interested from the beginning and invested in this daddy- daughter dynamic and trying to get to the bottom of the mystery behind Aidan’s high powered family. Overall, this is a fast-paced and gripping mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end, with shocking twists that catch you off guard. I highly recommend this book—it just might end up on my top ten thrillers list of 2024.

One thing I didn't like is how the author kept referencing tiktok. It wasn't relevant to the story. I love tiktok, but I don't want contemporary references in my books. I think he also mentioned the President's name and a couple other things that made it very clear this book took place in 2024. Which means if someone reads this book 10 years from now it won't feel timeless. It's like when you watch movies, no one is holding an iphone or scrolling on their phone. A book shouldn't be date stamped.
]]> 201626940 FromĚýNew York TimesĚýbestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposĂ© of the real Kennedy Curse—the family’s generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem—and the women who have paid the price for our obsession with Camelot

The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation’s wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact.

Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys� hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty’s story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren’t nearly as well known but should be.

Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys� orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.]]> 400 Maureen Callahan 0316276170 Anna 0 to-read 4.04 2024
author: Maureen Callahan
name: Anna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127306192 New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.]]> 342 Xóchitl González 1250786215 Anna 0 to-read 3.76 2024
author: Xóchitl González
name: Anna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58724923 A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.]]> 372 Jason Rekulak 1250819342 Anna 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Anna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199743730
1942. Seven-year-old Martine hides in an armoire when the Nazis come to take her father away. Pinned to her dress is a note with her aunt’s address in Paris, and in her arms, a bottle of wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her papa. When they are finally gone, the terrified young girl drops the bottle and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris.

But when Martine arrives in the city, her aunt is nowhere to be found. Without a place to go, the girl wanders the streets and eventually falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot, where Sister Ada finds her and takes her to the abbey, and watches over her.

1990. Charlotte, a commercial airline pilot, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. Successfully bidding on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during the Second World War, Henri gives Charlotte a seemingly inferior bottle he finds inside the box. Cleaning the label, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her on a quest to find the origins of this unusual—and very valuable—bottle of wine, a quest that will take her back fifty years into the past. . . .

A powerful tale of love, war, and family, The French Winemaker’s Daughter is an emotionally resonant tale of two women whose fates are intertwined across time. Loretta Ellsworth’s evocative and poignant page-turner will linger in the heart, and make you think about luck, connection, and the meaning of loyalty.]]> 288 Loretta Ellsworth 0063371812 Anna 0 to-read 3.95 2024
author: Loretta Ellsworth
name: Anna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Anna 5 2024
The brilliant storytelling leaves you craving more, ensuring this is one of the standout thrillers of the year. It will leave you on the edge of your seats, as you race to uncover the truth. Perfect for anyone looking for a fast-paced narrative and addictive read that can read in a weekend. Reminds me of Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise.
]]> 3.97 2024
author: Ashley Elston
name: Anna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: 2024
review:
This is an action-packed, mind-bending, rollercoaster of twists, turns, and nerve-racking tension that will keep you glued to the pages. With a masterful cat-and-mouse game between characters, the plot unravels in unexpected directions, making every page turn pulse with anticipation. Unlike the typical thrillers centered around unfaithful couples, hidden psychopaths, or dark family secrets, this book offers something fresh and thrilling.

The brilliant storytelling leaves you craving more, ensuring this is one of the standout thrillers of the year. It will leave you on the edge of your seats, as you race to uncover the truth. Perfect for anyone looking for a fast-paced narrative and addictive read that can read in a weekend. Reminds me of Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise.

]]> 207252770
Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge . . .

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith, and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.]]> 320 Paula Hawkins 0063396521 Anna 0 to-read 3.26 2024
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Anna
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205064691
The box was constructed during one of Japan’s most tumultuous periods, when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. In this moment of national crisis, Emperor Meiji placed a priceless Imperial secret in the Dragon Box, locked it, and hid it in a temple far from the palace. Only two people knew how to open the box: Meiji and the box’s sadistic constructor, Ogawa. Both died without telling a soul what was inside, or how to open it.

Since then, the Imperial family has held a clandestine contest to open the box every twelve years, in the Year of the Dragon. The Dragon Box is devilishly difficult, filled with tricks, booby traps, poisons, and mind-bending twists. Every puzzle master who has attempted to open it has died in the process.

But Brink is not any puzzle master. With his uncanny abilities, he may be the only person alive who can crack it. Yet, his determination is echoed by a radical group—headed by two sisters descended from an illustrious but disgraced samurai clan—who have vowed to claim Meiji’s secret. They know that the box’s contents have the power to change the fate of Japan, and the world. When they align with Brink’s archrival, Jameson Sedge, Brink is up against the most dangerous challenge of his life.

Mike Brink’s quest to open The Dragon Box launches him on a breakneck adventure across Japan, from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to the pristine forests of Hakone to historic Kyoto to an ancient cave in Kyushu. In the process, he discovers the power of Meiji’s hidden treasure, and� more crucially� the true nature of his extraordinary talent.]]> 336 Danielle Trussoni 0593595327 Anna 0 to-read 3.66 2024
author: Danielle Trussoni
name: Anna
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 202991908 From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a taut thriller about one author at the pinnacle of her career, whose past threatens to destroy everything she has—and everyone she knows.

A great writer knows when to deliver a juicy plot twist. But for one author, the biggest twist of all is her own murder.

With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood.

Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on—at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author’s illicit past. Turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter and frustrated cop on the trail, her secrets won’t stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?]]> 446 J.T. Ellison 1662520328 Anna 0 to-read 4.17 2024
author: J.T. Ellison
name: Anna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207299448
Though the authorities rule Liam's death accidental, Nora and her estranged brother, Sam, believe otherwise. As they form an uneasy alliance to unpack the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

With Laura Dave’s “signature blend of pulse-pounding suspense� (PEOPLE) and “trademark emotional heft� (The New York Post), The Night We Lost Him is a “propulsive� (Oprah Daily) must-read, with a heartbreaking final twist you’ll never see coming.]]> 298 Laura Dave 1668002930 Anna 1 3.56 2024
author: Laura Dave
name: Anna
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves:
review:
I loved "The Last Thing He Told Me" so I stuck this one out as I understood it would be a slow burn. "The Night We Lost Him" is about two half-siblings investigating what happened to their father when he died unexpectedly. There's two story lines, past and present, pay attention to the past as that is the most important, main story line. There were way too many characters for me to keep up with and everyone was unlikeable and suspicious. This is not a mystery or thriller, but rather a romantic drama that was not remotely interesting. It was so slow and nothing exciting happened the entire story that made me want to keep reading. I wished I had DNF but since it was well written I kept thinking it will get good soon, it didn't.
]]> 62929342 Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family, and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? ]]> 399 Rachel Khong 0593537254 Anna 3 2024
This quote from the book describes the book. Sometimes I'd read the flowery language and think what is this? The book has three parts written by three generations of one family in three different time periods: Lily, Nick and May. I HATED part 1 of the book and almost didn't finish the book because of how bad it was. It was boring, moved very fast, and completely unbelievable. A whole plot would be one sentence. I kept waiting for it to get interesting and part 1 never did. Lily was so insecure she was annoying to read. Was there a different editor for part 1 than the rest of the book? Also half the pages don't have page numbers.

Parts 2 and 3 redeemed it enough for me to finish the book and get engaged in the storyline. I learned a little about China and it explained one of the biggest mysteries in life, do you know a married a couple that had kids, the kids are grown and yet everyone in the family is dysfunctional? And you ask yourself, well if the parents are still married all these years, how did an intact family fail the kids?

“She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most.”]]> 3.94 2024
author: Rachel Khong
name: Anna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: 2024
review:
"I tried and failed to read the book I'd bought. It was a novel in which not much happened, each page a dense, thicket of descriptive language and characters in overwrought contemplative, and I regretted the choice. "

This quote from the book describes the book. Sometimes I'd read the flowery language and think what is this? The book has three parts written by three generations of one family in three different time periods: Lily, Nick and May. I HATED part 1 of the book and almost didn't finish the book because of how bad it was. It was boring, moved very fast, and completely unbelievable. A whole plot would be one sentence. I kept waiting for it to get interesting and part 1 never did. Lily was so insecure she was annoying to read. Was there a different editor for part 1 than the rest of the book? Also half the pages don't have page numbers.

Parts 2 and 3 redeemed it enough for me to finish the book and get engaged in the storyline. I learned a little about China and it explained one of the biggest mysteries in life, do you know a married a couple that had kids, the kids are grown and yet everyone in the family is dysfunctional? And you ask yourself, well if the parents are still married all these years, how did an intact family fail the kids?

“She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most.�
]]> 199798187 Three tight-knit friends embark on an extravagant divorce trip to the Maldives where they can unwind and celebrate a new chapter in midlife—until they realize the resort of their dreams is harboring a killer.

Best friends Darcy, Camilla, and Kate escape for a post-divorce retreat in the Maldives, the perfect place to relax, reset, and embrace a fresh start in life. Darcy is learning how to be a free woman at forty-two. Camilla has found the perfect calling as a fitness and wellness influencer with a devoted following. And Kate is finally working on the book she was meant to write after years of telling other people’s stories.

Their dream getaway? The exclusive and isolated Sapphire Island Resort. With luxurious private villas, crystal-clear waters, and sun-drenched white sand beaches, relaxation is guaranteed. But this is no ordinary friendship, and they’re not the only guests on the island with secrets. Who left the body on the beach—and who’s next?

A propulsive and deliciously dark tale about female friendship, loyalty, and lies, Bad Tourists is a white-hot thriller from the first word to its mind-blowing finish.]]> 336 Caro Carver 1668058847 Anna 0 didnt-finish 3.62 2024
author: Caro Carver
name: Anna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: didnt-finish
review:

]]> 199347234
When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.

But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control� emotions and “unsafe� behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.

Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. She’s damn good at it, too. Growing up in a dangerous group home taught her how to think fast, stay calm under pressure, and recognize a real threat when she sees one. And in the days leading up her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past—all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo . . .

Like Mother, Like Daughter is a thrilling novel of emotional suspense that questions the damaging fictions we cling to and the hard truths we avoid. Above all, it’s a love story between a mother and a daughter, each determined to save the other before it’s too late.]]> 320 Kimberly McCreight 0593536428 Anna 1 didnt-finish 3.64 2024
author: Kimberly McCreight
name: Anna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: didnt-finish
review:
I read 50 pages and just couldn't get into it. The story is told backwards which was also so annoying. It just moved to slow I decided to DNF.
]]> 202165532 One toxic family. Eight suspicious guests. Everyone is guilty. But who is a killer?

Welcome to the luxury McAlpine Lodge �

Nestled in the misty mountains, it’s the perfect getaway. Until a woman’s body is found.

Everyone is a suspect.

The cruel father.

The toxic mother.

The bitter family.

The silent staff.

The suspicious guests.

Each of them is guilty of something. But only one is a killer. You’ll never guess who �]]> 476 Karin Slaughter 0008625840 Anna 1 didnt-finish 4.44 2024
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Anna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: didnt-finish
review:
I really hated this book. DNF at 50 pages. It's so rare I don't finish a book but I could see this was going to be a long build up and I felt the plot was overly complicated with too many characters and too many back stories.
]]> 202514059
Maria, once an ambitious medical student, is a nanny for the super-rich. The money’s better, and so are the destinations where her work takes her. Just one more gig, and she’ll be set. Finally, she’ll be secure. But when her wards never show, Maria begins to make herself at home, spending her days luxuriating by the pool and in the sauna.

There’s just one rule: Don’t go in the basement. That room is off-limits. But her curiosity might just get the better of her.

And soon, she’ll wish her only worry was not getting paid.]]> 320 Catherine Steadman 059372576X Anna 2 2024 3.57 2024
author: Catherine Steadman
name: Anna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: 2024
review:
I need to stop reading stupid books. I hated this book on so many levels. I love a thriller especially psychological ones but this seemed a bit too action packed for me. The story line is just implausible. This is a story about Nina and Maria who find themselves trapped, separately, in a mansion in the British Virgin Islands. This entire story was far-fetched and poorly executed. The ending is unsatisfying, much like the entire book. Felt like there was not much character development so I wasn’t invested in them at all. This was a huge flop for me.
]]> 199262864
To add insult to injury, there’s a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now she isn’t certain of anything except her love for her kids and a growing realization that this place, although beautiful, is unsettling.]]> 339 Ally Condie 1538757583 Anna 0 to-read 3.16 2024
author: Ally Condie
name: Anna
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61407616 A summer in Greece for three best friends ends in the unthinkable when only two return home in this new novel from Ella Berman. . . .

Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.

While the girls were never convicted, Joni, ever the opportunist, capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess, on the other hand, resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .

Except now Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that one fateful night in Greece. And when she asks Bess to come back to LA to support her, Bess has a decision to make.

Is it finally time to face up to what happened that night, exposing herself as the young woman she once was and maybe still is? And what happens if she doesn’t like what she finds?]]> 384 Ella Berman 0593099540 Anna 0 to-read 3.36 2023
author: Ella Berman
name: Anna
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61281769 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063239920.

One Day meets Groundhog Day, in this heartwarming and emotionally poignant novel about a stressed woman who must relive the same day over and over, keeping her family and work life from imploding as she attempts to spare her husband from an unfortunate fate.

It is an ordinary Monday and harried London literary agent Emma is flying out of the door as usual. Preoccupied with work and her ever growing to-do list, she fails to notice her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. Even the dog seems sad.

She is far too busy, buried deep in her phone; social media alerts pinging; clients messaging with “emergencies�; keeping track of a dozen WhatsApp groups about the kids� sports, school, playdates, all of it. Her whole day is frantic—what else is new—and as she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out, desolate, dragging their poor dog around the block. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary and she has forgotten, again, she hears the screech of brakes.

Dan is dead.

The next day Emma wakes up� and Dan is alive. And it’s Monday again.

And again.

And again.

Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up: leaving WhatsApp, telling her boss where to get off, writing to Dan, listening to her kids, reaching out to forgotten friends, getting drunk and buying out Prada. But will Emma have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children, love her husband? Will this be enough to change the fate they seem destined for?

A moving “What if� story of what it is to be a woman in the modern world—never feeling we’re getting it quite right—about learning to slow down and appreciate life that is sure to resonate with women’s fiction fans.]]> 384 Cesca Major Anna 0 to-read 3.63 2023
author: Cesca Major
name: Anna
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Anna 0 to-read 3.77 2023
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Anna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 103516977
Personal stylist Allison Bornstein has mastered the art of helping people look good and feel good. In Wear It Well , she shares her philosophy and outlines systems that will bring your style into alignment and create a wardrobe that delights your spirit and reflects your most authentic self.

Use the viral Three-Word Method to discover and define your personal style. Curate your closet with the AB Closet-Editing System, eliminating items that don’t fit or work for your lifestyle to build a safe and inspiring space that is filled with only clothes that bring you joy, confidence, and empowerment. Create new, sustainable looks by shopping your closet and mixing and matching with the Nine Universal Pieces.

Filled with client stories, gentle guidance, and expressive photography, Wear It Well will inspire you to identify, articulate, and develop your personal style, and dress with ease.

UNIQUE BLEND OF WELLNESS, SELF-CARE, AND The only "Joy of Dressing" book there no other book merges fashion, wellness, and self-care. In a time when many of us are at home or beginning to venture back out professionally or socially, this book will help take away the stress and anxiety around dressing. It is also a refreshing take on self-care that can easily be added to morning routines.

A PROVEN The AB Closet Editing System and Three Word Method are simple ways to organize your closet and your mind that Bornstein has successfully used with hundreds of clients.

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO BODY Wear It Well discusses how to combat and banish the voices of shame that permeate fashion culture and our own heads when we buy clothing. Thi s will appeal to readers passionate about body positivity, and fans of The Body Is Not An Apology , Body Talk , and More Than A Body .

PROMOTES SUSTAINABLE Bornstein's program is based on shopping our closets rather than going out to buy an all-new wardrobe. She demonstrates how to choose ten versatile pieces to mix and match within our wardrobe . She also encourages readers to donate "never going to wear" clothes and to dress intentionally.

Perfect ]]> 224 Allison Bornstein 1797221426 Anna 3 2024
First I was surprised by how small the book was, then once I started reading half the pages were pictures. She also had a bunch of blank color pages, it then made it clear that she didn't have enough content to write a full book and thus needed a lot of filler pages. She makes a list of must have items in your closet and lists a black turtleneck. Really? I'm not Steve Jobs, this is not a staple or necessity.

I also let my mother borrow this book and her first observation is why should she take fashion advice from someone who has no sense of style. I already knew Allison dressed androgynous and never tells you what was on trend, because she doesn't follow trends. All the pictures of models or herself in the book in jeans and blazers were uninspiring and not interesting. For a fashion stylist, she only displayed one style of fashion - menswear - in the book. None of the photos were helpful, who needs dozens of pictures of blazers? She should have included pictures of her clients.]]> 3.94 2023
author: Allison Bornstein
name: Anna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: 2024
review:
When Allison first started on tiktok I was engrossed with her content, couldn't wait for new videos to post, loved them all! Then one day she wrote a post saying why she blocked people and it was for such petty reasons. To widely proclaim that you are proud to be doing this showed that she was unable to take constructive feedback on her posts. I read all the comments on her posts, no one is nasty, but people may politely disagree on her take and for her to say its her way or the highway told me she's not evolved enough as an adult in her craft. Since this soured me on her, I opted to borrow this book from the library instead of paying her for it.

First I was surprised by how small the book was, then once I started reading half the pages were pictures. She also had a bunch of blank color pages, it then made it clear that she didn't have enough content to write a full book and thus needed a lot of filler pages. She makes a list of must have items in your closet and lists a black turtleneck. Really? I'm not Steve Jobs, this is not a staple or necessity.

I also let my mother borrow this book and her first observation is why should she take fashion advice from someone who has no sense of style. I already knew Allison dressed androgynous and never tells you what was on trend, because she doesn't follow trends. All the pictures of models or herself in the book in jeans and blazers were uninspiring and not interesting. For a fashion stylist, she only displayed one style of fashion - menswear - in the book. None of the photos were helpful, who needs dozens of pictures of blazers? She should have included pictures of her clients.
]]> 54197718
A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation.

She thought this would be a break from the stresses of work and raising her young children. A chance to repair her damaged marriage. A week of hiking and hot tubs with two other couple friends. It sounded like heaven.

Then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a lonely dirt road. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel. But it turns out the woods aren’t as easy to navigate as they thought.

Hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost.

And as they navigate deeper into the woods, the members of their party are struck down mysteriously one by one. Has a wild animal been hunting them? Or is the hunter one of them?

But as more time passes, one thing becomes clear:

Only one of them will return home alive.]]> 295 Freida McFadden Anna 0 to-read 3.87 2020
author: Freida McFadden
name: Anna
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176451879
One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, especially loneliness and an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you.

In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?

Intricate, heart-racing, and from an author who “is the real deal� (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Kill for Me, Kill for You will keep you breathless until the final page.]]> 340 Steve Cavanagh 1668049341 Anna 5 2024 4.14 2023
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Anna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: 2024
review:
Wow what a fast-paced psychological thriller! This is not a mystery book where the crime happened in the past, in this book you are taken through the crime as it happens which is very gory. The book gets you engrossed from chapter 1, no slow start to this book! This was such a fascinating, twisty, crazy story based on the movie Strangers on a Train where two strangers agree to kill for the other. This book has so much suspense, jaw-dropping twists and I enjoyed every minute of it! Move this to the top of your to read list immediately!
]]> 182506457
Helene Sula (@heleneinbetween) always knew she wanted to pursue something a little different from a “normal life”—not an outright rejection of the conventional path many of her peers embraced but one that empowered her to experience other cultures and corners of the globe. To lead a stable life and travel the world. To seek adventure and still be happily married. Helene’s story proves that a life of travel doesn’t have to be the antithesis of stability; rather it can be an integral part of a vibrant, satisfying existence.

In her debut memoir, Helene shares the measured steps she took to pursue her dreams of becoming an international travel blogger. Through her honest and straightforward writing style, Helene conveys her story of self-discovery and encourages readers to take risks and pursue their own passions. This book will resonate with anyone who has ever felt stuck in a mundane career or routine and wants a fresh start without completely starting over. Even—or perhaps especially—for someone who fears change, the secret lies in taking the plunge.]]> 224 Helene Sula 1958803413 Anna 4 2024
I remember she used to sell photo filters, though hers were not to my taste as she preferred a darker aesthetic, but I appreciated that she liked color. Yet strangely she didn’t want to spend the money to have color photos in her book. A travel book, by a travel influencer, should have glossy color photos in the middle of the book. This was the oddest decision she made with publishing this book. She tells all these travel stories and then there is no accompanying photo to go with it. In the back of the book, she captions one photo as showing the coat her husband wears with a hole in it. First of all, on a black and white photograph, on cardstock, we can’t see that detail. But that embarrassing story is one she should have been left out of the book. The book starts off painfully slow, I now understand why memoirs start in the middle then go back to the beginning.

I stopped following her on Instagram because I don’t know if travel influencing has slowed down as she was always shilling some course. I signed up for her newsletter and those emails got so annoying with the persistent language to urgently pay for her course. Anyway after reading this book, I thought I should check in again on her IG to see if it’s worth a refollow and the first thing I see is her talking about being homesick which is how the book starts off. She wants to come off as this cool person living abroad in the UK, not Europe, but really just a homebody that wants to be back in TX.

The other reason I had initially unfollowed was a cringe post about her complaining about stores in Germany being closed on Sundays. Everyone in the comments told her the way she talked about it just gave off ugly American vibes and she just needed to plan her week better to buy what they needed prior to Sunday. But she didn’t heed the feedback and strangely kept the post up. It was so entitled and her IG is still stories about how different Europe is. I feel there's a difference between the experienced traveler who has been all over the world and the American who stays in Europe constantly pointing out how unfriendly everyone is to you.
]]> 3.91
author: Helene Sula
name: Anna
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: 2024
review:
Helene, is a loquacious, smiley, wild haired redhead whom I started following in 2016 as I loved her travel photography before everything became a talking reel. She really made the case for me to explore Germany some more.

I remember she used to sell photo filters, though hers were not to my taste as she preferred a darker aesthetic, but I appreciated that she liked color. Yet strangely she didn’t want to spend the money to have color photos in her book. A travel book, by a travel influencer, should have glossy color photos in the middle of the book. This was the oddest decision she made with publishing this book. She tells all these travel stories and then there is no accompanying photo to go with it. In the back of the book, she captions one photo as showing the coat her husband wears with a hole in it. First of all, on a black and white photograph, on cardstock, we can’t see that detail. But that embarrassing story is one she should have been left out of the book. The book starts off painfully slow, I now understand why memoirs start in the middle then go back to the beginning.

I stopped following her on Instagram because I don’t know if travel influencing has slowed down as she was always shilling some course. I signed up for her newsletter and those emails got so annoying with the persistent language to urgently pay for her course. Anyway after reading this book, I thought I should check in again on her IG to see if it’s worth a refollow and the first thing I see is her talking about being homesick which is how the book starts off. She wants to come off as this cool person living abroad in the UK, not Europe, but really just a homebody that wants to be back in TX.

The other reason I had initially unfollowed was a cringe post about her complaining about stores in Germany being closed on Sundays. Everyone in the comments told her the way she talked about it just gave off ugly American vibes and she just needed to plan her week better to buy what they needed prior to Sunday. But she didn’t heed the feedback and strangely kept the post up. It was so entitled and her IG is still stories about how different Europe is. I feel there's a difference between the experienced traveler who has been all over the world and the American who stays in Europe constantly pointing out how unfriendly everyone is to you.

]]> 204316949 From dealing with your mean teenage daughter to rebelling against the latest diet trend, America’s newest standup sensation packs a hilarious punch with her real talk about what it’s like to be a regular woman today. For a long time, no one pulling the strings in the comedy world thought that an over-fifty woman from rural Tennessee could make it in the industry. But Leanne Morgan has defied the odds, reaching millions with her musings on menopause, Weight Watchers, and her opposites-attract relationship with her husband, Chuck. In her charming, Southern-accented voice, Morgan brings readers inside her quest to find her calling after so many years trying to figure out what that meant. Along the way, she discusses everything from growing up as a butcher’s daughter, to her strategy for landing a husband with health insurance, to the glories of aging and the comfort of wearing big old grannie panties. Equal parts warm and hilarious,Ěýthis book is a must-read by one of comedy’s rising stars—reminding you that every time life leaves you asking, “What in the world?â€�, something good is going to come out of it someday.]]> 240 Leanne Morgan 0593594398 Anna 0 to-read 4.35
author: Leanne Morgan
name: Anna
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199846794
This dark historical adventure captures the beginnings of the Hollywood studio system and the “blue movie� industry that grows up alongside it.

A full 45 years after the events of Cottonwood, and two decades after the events of Hop Alley, Bill Ogden has relocated from the frontier west to the seedy noir world of 1916 Los Angeles. He has a photography studio in Los Angeles, and his granddaughter, Flavia, has joined him (she was looking for a fresh start after bludgeoning her drunken, abusive husband to death in Wichita). The novel’s characters include dangerous ex con, an arrogant young leading man, a naive would be film actress, film workers crossing from mainstream cinema to stag films—their lives intertwine, as a series of murders take place across the city.It is at once a stripped down noir, and a panoramic look at Los Angeles at the beginning of motion pictures—a Boogie Nights set at start of the film era.

Scott Phillips has created a world pulsing with life and threat, populated with criminals, dreamers, opportunists, and unforgettable characters living on the margins looking to make a quick buck, or launch a career, all of their lives crossing with the still very capable Bill Ogden and his equally capable granddaughter.]]> 384 Scott Phillips 1641294930 Anna 0 to-read 3.47 2024
author: Scott Phillips
name: Anna
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207675122 The gripping true story of how leading Israeli journalist Amir Tibon, along with his wife and their two young children, were rescued from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023 by Tibon’s own father—an incredible tale of survival that also reveals the deep tensions and systemic failures that led to Hamas’s attacks that day.
Ěý
On the morning ofĚýOctober 7, Amir Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli communityĚýless than a mile from Gaza City. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the family’s reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry as gunfireĚýechoed just outside the door. With his cell phone battery running low, Amir texted his “The girls are behaving really well, but I’m worried they’ll lose patience soon and Hamas will hear us.â€�
Ěý
Some 45 miles north, Amir’s parentsĚýhad just cut short an early morning swim along the shores of Tel Aviv. Now, they jumped in their Jeep and sped toward Nahal Oz,Ěýarmed only with a pistol but intent on saving their family at all costs.
Ěý
InĚýThe Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells this harrowing story in full for the first time. He describes his family's ordeal—and the bravery that ultimately led to their rescue—alongside the histories of the place they call home and the systems of power that have kept them and their neighbors in Gaza in harm’s way for decades.Ěý
Ěý
Woven throughout is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the failed peace process. More than one family's odyssey,ĚýThe Gates of GazaĚýis the intimate story of a tight-knit community and the broader saga of war, occupation, and hostility between two national movements—a conflict that has not yet extinguished the enduring hope for peace.]]> 352 Amir Tibon 0316580961 Anna 0 to-read 4.68 2024
author: Amir Tibon
name: Anna
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198281740
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…�

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.]]> 324 Matt Haig 0593489276 Anna 0 to-read 3.45 2024
author: Matt Haig
name: Anna
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198563729 Daphne and Amber Parrish are thrust back into each other’s lives upon the resurgence of a long-forgotten threat, forcing a vicious game of cat and mouse where everything is on the line, in this thrilling sequel to the million-copy-bestselling Reese’s Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish.

Amber Patterson Parrish has come a long way from being an invisible wallflower. Her hard work and immaculate planning have paid off now that she’s a prominent socialite, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been bumps along the way. Less than a year since her husband Jackson’s tax-evasion scandal, Amber is still at the top of the Bishops Harbor community pecking order, free to do as she wishes while Jackson sits in prison. But that freedom is quickly coming to an end. With Jackson getting released from prison, Amber’s time—and money—is vanishing.

Meanwhile, Daphne Parrish left Bishops Harbor after her divorce from Jackson Parrish, swearing she would never go back. But when one of her daughters runs away from home, desperate to see her father, Daphne agrees to return for the summer to allow him supervised visits. Once out of prison, Jackson swears he’s a changed man, but Daphne knows all too well that he can’t be trusted.

When a ghost from Amber’s past emerges looking for revenge, the three of them find unlikely allies in one another, but who is playing who? When all is said and done, they’ll have to fight tooth and nail for everything they have left in this zero-sum game.

With shocking turns and entertaining characters, The Next Mrs. Parrish will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about duplicity and betrayal.]]> 336 Liv Constantine 0593599926 Anna 3 2024
I hated The Last Mrs. Parrish and rated it 1 star but since I read it 6 years ago and don't remember anything about the plot I can say that The Next Mrs. Parrish is a stand alone book you can read without reading the other. Sequels should really come out a year later. The storyline of this book was so farfetched but the chapters were short so it was an easy read. This book has everything in it: getting drugged, custody dispute, gaslighting, and domestic violence. The book has three narrators who play off each other to do their best to be horrible to each other. Some of the characters in this book were too awful for words. Very unrealistic story line, but pretty fast paced.

I did like hearing what perfume people wore - Grand Soir for her MIL Birdie which surprised me, I wouldn't have seen this socialite wearing such a bold choice. But then Jackson wears just a generic "Creed" when the brand has 100 fragrances.]]> 3.76 2024
author: Liv Constantine
name: Anna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves: 2024
review:
3.5 stars, rounded up for a popcorn thriller.

I hated The Last Mrs. Parrish and rated it 1 star but since I read it 6 years ago and don't remember anything about the plot I can say that The Next Mrs. Parrish is a stand alone book you can read without reading the other. Sequels should really come out a year later. The storyline of this book was so farfetched but the chapters were short so it was an easy read. This book has everything in it: getting drugged, custody dispute, gaslighting, and domestic violence. The book has three narrators who play off each other to do their best to be horrible to each other. Some of the characters in this book were too awful for words. Very unrealistic story line, but pretty fast paced.

I did like hearing what perfume people wore - Grand Soir for her MIL Birdie which surprised me, I wouldn't have seen this socialite wearing such a bold choice. But then Jackson wears just a generic "Creed" when the brand has 100 fragrances.
]]> 199743738 Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

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

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

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

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at� The Midnight Feast.]]> 354 Lucy Foley 0063003104 Anna 4 2024
The book incorporates the folklore legend of the Birds, perhaps reminiscent of Hitchcock's classic film "The Birds." Ultimately the book has too many story lines that just wasn't thrilling for me at all.
I almost DNF at 95% and I could have because it had an underwhelming finish that was not satisfying. It won't be one of my top books of this year.]]> 3.55 2024
author: Lucy Foley
name: Anna
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves: 2024
review:
This story follows four different perspectives plus flashback journey entries and a future detective narrator so already I was annoyed. But the chapters were short so that made it an easy read. I just couldn't get into the journal entries until the end when I understood their importance then I had to actually care when I read those chapters. See in the beginning of the book I had no idea what was going on when it would flip back to the journal entries that were set in another timeline.

The book incorporates the folklore legend of the Birds, perhaps reminiscent of Hitchcock's classic film "The Birds." Ultimately the book has too many story lines that just wasn't thrilling for me at all.
I almost DNF at 95% and I could have because it had an underwhelming finish that was not satisfying. It won't be one of my top books of this year.
]]> 140111148
Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom to a teenage daughter and working as a full time nurse. While on duty at the hospital one day, a patient named Caitlin arrives in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, having jumped from a bridge and plunging over twenty feet to the train tracks below.Ěý

But when a witness comes forward with shocking details about the fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was CaitlinĚý pushed Ěýand if so, by whom and why?Ěý

Meghan has always tried to stay emotionally detached from her patients, but this time, she mistakenly lets herself get too close until she’s deeply entangled in Caitlin’s and her family’s lives. Only when it’s too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims.]]> 330 Mary Kubica 0778308065 Anna 5 2024 3.77 2024
author: Mary Kubica
name: Anna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: 2024
review:
This is my 4th book by this author as she is skillful at storytelling. I binged this book in 24 hours because it was such a good thriller! An ICU nurse Meghan has a patient who jumps off a bridge. Was it suicide or homicide? Multiple twists in the book! The book weaves a tale of secrets, deception, and betrayal as Meghan finds herself embroiled in a web of lies that threatens to unravel her life. An entire cast of characters you cannot trust. A gripping and shocking book. I had so many questions swirling through my head while reading this book. Through a plot both well-written and skillfully laid out, the mildly slow burn first half quickly caught fire into an explosion of dread. Even the somewhat unresolved conclusion worked perfectly for me, as it left me utterly speechless as I gasped with the final well-timed reveal.
]]> 11444122 250 Jennifer Baumgartner 0738215201 Anna 5 2024 3.17 2012
author: Jennifer Baumgartner
name: Anna
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: 2024
review:
Incredible book! Must read if you have too many clothes and need to figure out what you over shop and still don't like your style.
]]> 28186250
In this highly anticipated new cookbook, Angela shares wildly delicious recipes that are perfect for busy lifestyles, promising to make plant-based eating convenient every day of the week—including holidays and special occasions! Filled with more than 100 family-friendly recipes everyone will love, like Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers, Fusilli Lentil-Mushroom Bolognese, Apple Pie Overnight Oats, Mocha Empower Glo Bars, and the Ultimate Flourless Brownies, Oh She Glows Every Day also includes easy-to-make homemade staples; useful information on essential pantry ingredients; tips on making recipes kid-, allergy-, and freezer-friendly; and so much more.]]> 352 Angela Liddon 0143196510 Anna 0 cookbooks 4.19 2013
author: Angela Liddon
name: Anna
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: cookbooks
review:

]]> 199235727
I used to clean other people’s houses—now, I can’t believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.

Even though I’m wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it’s our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it’s like to be in her shoes.

But her cold stare gives me chills�

The Lowells� maid isn’t the only strange thing on our street. I’m sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors.

Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?

I thought I’d left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?]]> 364 Freida McFadden 1464223319 Anna 0 to-read 3.79 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: Anna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199797615
Growing up in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn’s Borough Park, Sara Glass knew one painful truth: what was expected of her and what she desperately wanted were impossibly opposed. Tormented by her attraction to women and trapped in a loveless arranged marriage, she found herself unable to conform to her religious upbringing and soon, she made the difficult decision to walk away from the world she knew.

Sara’s journey to self-acceptance began with the challenging battle for a divorce and custody of her children, an act that left her on the verge of estrangement from her family and community. Controlled by the fear of losing custody of her two children, she forced herself to remain loyal to the compulsory heteronormativity baked into Hasidic Judaism and married again. But after suffering profound loss and a shocking sexual assault, Sara decided to finally be completely true to herself.

Kissing Girls on Shabbat is not only a love letter to Glass’s children, herself, and her family—it is an unflinching window into the world of ultra-conservative Orthodox Jewish communities and an inspiring celebration of learning to love yourself.]]> 304 Sara Glass 1668031213 Anna 0 to-read 4.28 2024
author: Sara Glass
name: Anna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58371432
Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases--a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea's surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she's not looking, and she could swear she's seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn't right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.]]> 344 Simone St. James 0440000211 Anna 0 to-read 3.76 2022
author: Simone St. James
name: Anna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59947696
It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger.

She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered.

After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up� it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.]]> 416 Gillian McAllister 0063252341 Anna 5 2024
I listened to half of the book on audiobook and while it was easy to follow, I also just felt I was missing details for instance the book is occasionally told by a second narrator and I didn't know who that person was and where they came from. So I got the hardcover from the library and wrote down a character list so I could keep up with everyone.

The British author wrote this book in 2020 and had a character refer to Biden as "that old guy" which I found so apropos as exactly when I'm reading this in 2024 he's removed from the election because the public deemed him too old. A character also mentions "Trump is actually just insane - as opposed to merely Republican."]]> 3.95 2022
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Anna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: 2024
review:
This is a crime novel where you must stop the ending, told backwards. Because every crime has its inception in the past, buried deep in history. Jen is the narrator and her husband has been so good at lying that his secrets have been hidden in plain sight with complete lack of details or explanations. The best kind of liar. This was a unique plot, one I've personally never read in a book before, absolute mindblower! The twists were not predictable to me!

I listened to half of the book on audiobook and while it was easy to follow, I also just felt I was missing details for instance the book is occasionally told by a second narrator and I didn't know who that person was and where they came from. So I got the hardcover from the library and wrote down a character list so I could keep up with everyone.

The British author wrote this book in 2020 and had a character refer to Biden as "that old guy" which I found so apropos as exactly when I'm reading this in 2024 he's removed from the election because the public deemed him too old. A character also mentions "Trump is actually just insane - as opposed to merely Republican."
]]> 198123576 400 Gillian McAllister 006325249X Anna 0 to-read 3.54 2023
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Anna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]> 327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 Anna 0 to-read 4.47 2024
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Anna
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213066781
Prepare to be schooled in the art of conversation by dynamic duo Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair. Dismissing the notion that small talk is a painful social obligation, these self-proclaimed small talk maestros share their gift of gab in this laugh-out-loud and instructive audiobook. With their help you might find yourself excitedly asking your barista about the weather…and maybe you’ll get a free coffee. Who knows!

In The Art of Small Talk, Casey and Jessica share six simple rules for how to engage in small talk and achieve the connectedness we all crave with any and everyone. Backed by scientific research (conducted by real experts), they’ll teach you how to move past the perceived misery of idle chit-chat and start making magic out of the mundane.

The audiobook features smart humor, genuine advice, and conversations with both the famous and the intellectual. Hear from folks like Amy Poehler, Colin Quinn, Tony Hale, Malcolm Gladwell, June Diane Raphael, and a range of experts with their takes on not only the how but also the why. Filled with entertaining tips to take you from Hostile Beginner to Confident Expert, compelling insights on the significance of chatting up strangers, plus transformational tape of a real, live, Small Talk trainee in action, The Art of Small Talk breathes new life into a lost art and explores its profound impact on our human experience.

After listening to the undisputed Patron Saints of Small Talk, you will have all the tools and gumption at your disposal to take your headphones off on the tarmac and ask your mate in 20C: Have you listened to the Art of Small Talk by Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair? It will change your life.]]> 5 Casey Wilson 1962556034 Anna 0 to-read 3.66 2024
author: Casey Wilson
name: Anna
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199116301
Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.]]> 255 Peter Swanson 0063205033 Anna 0 to-read 3.58 2024
author: Peter Swanson
name: Anna
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18143970
More than a style guide, this revolutionary book by a seasoned stylist teaches a method of conscious dressing that begins with a powerful internal change. Instead of just grabbing for whatever’s on hand, you’ll learn to set your goals for the day, determining how you want to be perceived, and then dress in a way that helps manifest those intentions. Change Your Clothes, Change Your Life reveals the true power your clothing has to affect your life, showing how this second skin impacts your job prospects, your romantic life, your income, and even your deepest sense of self. Translating his styling methods into a philosophy anyone can apply on her own, Brescia also delivers tips and tricks of the trade to help convert even the most hapless dresser into a happy and educated shopper. Because the goal is to have you not only looking great, but feeling more confident, too. From major closet overhauls to a whole new philosophy on color, this is a comprehensive manual for anyone who’s ever looked at her closet in despair.

Accessible, direct, honest, and thought-provoking, Change Your Clothes, Change Your Life takes an eye-opening look at the intersection between our clothing and our emotions, hopes, and dreams, showing us how improving our external appearance can have life-changing effects on how we’re perceived by others—and more importantly, on how we perceive ourselves.]]> 288 George Brescia 147674873X Anna 5 2024 3.46 2014
author: George Brescia
name: Anna
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> 193529165
Trust is a luxury no one can afford.

September 1943: Berlin is the heart of darkness—and the last place Dr. Elin Lund wishes to be. An expert in psychological profiling, she’s been summoned from Copenhagen to investigate the gruesome murders of eight young women. Even in the midst of unspeakable evil, these killings stand apart. And with her homeland now under Nazi occupation and a young son to protect, Elin can’t refuse such a request.

Homicide Detective Kurt Schneider, head of the criminal police unit, is grudging in his welcome. The orders to find the killer come from the top, and to fail means death. The stakes are too high to risk any mistakes—or to trust a stranger. Yet the pair, trapped in an uneasy partnership, each has expertise the other needs. And Schneider, like Elin, is clearly guarding secrets of his own.

Racing to complete the investigation and return to her son, Elin feels the net tightening. Every sliver of evidence reveals a killer infinitely more dangerous, and more powerful, than anyone suspected. And in drawing closer to the terrifying truth, Elin has unwittingly made herself his new obsession…]]> 448 Karen Robards 0778305511 Anna 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Karen Robards
name: Anna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]> 384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 Anna 2 2024
I went in blind not realizing this book is a fictional account of the Ted Bundy murders, did we need another retelling of this? We already know the story of Ted Bundy. At the end of the book the character mentions that Zac Efron starred in a Netflix film about the same topic to which I thought why didn't I watch that instead of reading the book. This book coincided with the release of a real-life survivor's account of her experiences, just a week apart. In the afterwards the author thanks her for answering her email, so I wondered did that call influence the survivor to write her own book when she found out this author is stealing someone’s real life experiences for profit. In the acknowledgments I was expecting the author to write something about the real women impacted by this tragedy, but no, just thanking the one woman she interviewed. I can't imagine what the survivors would think about reading this.]]> 3.99 2023
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Anna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves: 2024
review:
This was like reading a Dateline episode, I didn't find it that interesting especially once they got to court room. A fourth of the way in I thought about not finishing it, but I forced myself to finish it, I should have DNF. The book has two POV’s in different timelines which I hate as its confusing and you don't really get to know either character. One chapter even ends with a cliffhanger that is not explained later. The book covers themes of sorority life, acne, psychiatry, grief, and homosexuality. Overall the book is very dull and the pacing slow. Unfortunately this was a miss for me as it was unbelievably boring.

I went in blind not realizing this book is a fictional account of the Ted Bundy murders, did we need another retelling of this? We already know the story of Ted Bundy. At the end of the book the character mentions that Zac Efron starred in a Netflix film about the same topic to which I thought why didn't I watch that instead of reading the book. This book coincided with the release of a real-life survivor's account of her experiences, just a week apart. In the afterwards the author thanks her for answering her email, so I wondered did that call influence the survivor to write her own book when she found out this author is stealing someone’s real life experiences for profit. In the acknowledgments I was expecting the author to write something about the real women impacted by this tragedy, but no, just thanking the one woman she interviewed. I can't imagine what the survivors would think about reading this.
]]> 181350367 For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]> 358 Kristen Perrin 0593474015 Anna 0 to-read 3.76 2024
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Anna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195430688
Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean... Oysters, she thought, where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual a one-way plane ticket and a note reading Go to Paris . But Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a childhood trauma has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. When her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and, for the first time in her life, Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress and together they embark on an adventure.

Her first iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters, and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces her to a veritable who’s who of the 1980s Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, Stella begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed� at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.]]> 288 Ruth Reichl 0812996305 Anna 0 to-read 3.68 2024
author: Ruth Reichl
name: Anna
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195820717 The truth is never skin deep.
Ěý
It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.
Ěý
But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, Ty is nowhere to be found and there’s a stranger dead in the foyer—the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed Janelle Beckett. Soon, both the police and an army of Internet sleuths are asking questions Bree doesn't know how to answer. Desperate to find Ty and to keep her own secrets buried, Bree realizes there’s only one person she can turn her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past.Ěý

Fierce, smart, and thrilling to the end, Missing White Woman not only explores “Missing White Woman� syndrome and traveling while Black, but deftly inverts the hallmarks of the domestic suspense genre to How well can we truly know the people we love? And what happens to these stories when seen through the eyes of a Black woman?]]> 336 Kellye Garrett 0316256978 Anna 0 to-read 3.48 2024
author: Kellye Garrett
name: Anna
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199797969
Reclusive, mysterious author Ginevra Ex is famous for her unusual approach to crafting her big bestselling she hires real people and conducts intensive interviews, then fictionalizes them. Her latest main character, Rory, is thrilled when Ginevra presents her with an extravagant bonus—a lavish trip along Italy’s Mediterranean coast on the famed, newly renovated Orient Express. But when Rory boards the train, she’s stunned to discover that her brother, her best friend, and even her ex-fiancé are passengers, as well. All invited by Ginevra, all hiding secrets.

With each stop, from Cinque Terre to Rome to Positano, it becomes increasingly clear that Ginevra has masterminded the ultimate real life twisty plot with Rory as her main character. And as Ginevra’s deceptions mount, and the lies and machinations of Rory’s travel companions pile up, Rory begins to fear that her trip will culminate like one of Ginevra’s with a murder or two. In the opulent compartments of the iconic train, Rory must untangle the shocking reasons why Ginevra wanted them all aboard—and to what deadly end.

Another stylish and compulsively readable mystery from Jaclyn Goldis, this is the perfect read for fans of Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Paula Hawkins.]]> 336 Jaclyn Goldis 1668013045 Anna 0 to-read 3.29 2024
author: Jaclyn Goldis
name: Anna
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 78296909 An evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women--from the New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation.

Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth--another female casualty of China's controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she's forced to make increasingly desperate decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter.

Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name and the wealth that comes with it, a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. She's even hired a Chinese nanny to help her balance the demands of being a working wife and mother. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca's job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.

The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Twisting and suspenseful and surprisingly poignant, it's a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. It is a story of two women in a divided city--separated by severe economic and cultural differences yet bound by a deep emotional connection to a child.]]> 288 Jean Kwok 0063031469 Anna 5 2024
It's compelling storytelling that surrounds topics stemming from cultural misconceptions and language barriers. The unexpected twists found along the way are a delightful bonus. The Leftover Woman is an eye-opening look at China’s controversial One Child Policy and tells a story seen through the eyes of an undocumented immigrant versus a person of privilege, that feels both thoughtful and thought-provoking.

This multifaceted book intertwines two characters. One of them is Jasmine who in an arranged marriage at a young age gives birth to a baby girl in a small village in China that is taken away from her. The other character is Rebecca Whitney, a white, privileged, wealthy woman, a publishing executive, married to a handsome, smart, Columbia University professor, raising her adopted Chinese daughter Fifi with Chinese, clumsy nanny Lucy. Jasmine comes to NYC illegally and works at the Opium club which represents the dark underbelly of the Asian community in NYC. Both women are trying to survive, but in opposite ways and they intertwine where the two cultures meet.

I listened to the first chapter on audiobook then switched to the hardcover to read. I felt they picked the wrong narrator for Jasmine. Throughout the book its a theme that her English is not good, so why have a someone with an American accent read her part?

I have some issues with chapter one. For a immigrant who knows no one in American and has no job after being there 7 months, she strangely has an apartment, a cell phone in 2007, and can easily navigate through the NYC subway. She sees a symbol on a jacket and connects the dots that it belongs to a self-defense school where she shows up? Unbelievable! ]]> 3.72 2023
author: Jean Kwok
name: Anna
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/05
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves: 2024
review:
This book was a two day read! I would describe this more as a historical fiction, multicultural, family drama, mystery. It's not a thriller or suspenseful. It's a tale of motherhood, loss, courage, and hope.

It's compelling storytelling that surrounds topics stemming from cultural misconceptions and language barriers. The unexpected twists found along the way are a delightful bonus. The Leftover Woman is an eye-opening look at China’s controversial One Child Policy and tells a story seen through the eyes of an undocumented immigrant versus a person of privilege, that feels both thoughtful and thought-provoking.

This multifaceted book intertwines two characters. One of them is Jasmine who in an arranged marriage at a young age gives birth to a baby girl in a small village in China that is taken away from her. The other character is Rebecca Whitney, a white, privileged, wealthy woman, a publishing executive, married to a handsome, smart, Columbia University professor, raising her adopted Chinese daughter Fifi with Chinese, clumsy nanny Lucy. Jasmine comes to NYC illegally and works at the Opium club which represents the dark underbelly of the Asian community in NYC. Both women are trying to survive, but in opposite ways and they intertwine where the two cultures meet.

I listened to the first chapter on audiobook then switched to the hardcover to read. I felt they picked the wrong narrator for Jasmine. Throughout the book its a theme that her English is not good, so why have a someone with an American accent read her part?

I have some issues with chapter one. For a immigrant who knows no one in American and has no job after being there 7 months, she strangely has an apartment, a cell phone in 2007, and can easily navigate through the NYC subway. She sees a symbol on a jacket and connects the dots that it belongs to a self-defense school where she shows up? Unbelievable!
]]> 159497481
In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls� in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money. As the war moves closer to the city, the once-innocent Trang gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a young and charming American helicopter pilot, Dan. Decades later, Dan returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and, unbeknownst to her, reckon with secrets from his past.

At the same time, Phong—the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman—embarks on a search to find both his parents and a way out of Việt Nam. Abandoned in front of an orphanage, Phong grew up being called “the dust of life,” “Black American imperialist,� and “child of the enemy,� and he dreams of a better life for himself and his family in the U.S.

Past and present converge as these characters come together to confront decisions made during a time of war—decisions that force them to look deep within and find common ground across race, generation, culture, and language. Suspenseful, poetic, and perfect for readers of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, Dust Child tells an unforgettable and immersive story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies through love, hard-earned wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.
Read less]]> 12 Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai Anna 0 to-read 4.12 2023
author: Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai
name: Anna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198509143
Hazel Davis is drifting: she’s stalled in her career, living in a city she hates, and less successful than her younger sister @evelyn, a lifestyle influencer. Evie came of age on the family YouTube channel after a viral video when she was five. Ten years older and spotlight-averse, Hazel managed to dodge the family business—so although she can barely afford her apartment, at least she made her own way.

Evie is eighteen now, with a multimillion-dollar career, but Hazel is still protective of her little sister and skeptical of the way everyone seems to want a piece of her: Evie’s followers, her YouTuber boyfriend and influencer frenemies, and their opportunistic mother. So when Evie disappears one day during an unsettling live stream that cuts out midsentence, Hazel is horrified to have her worst instincts proven right.

As theories about Evie’s disappearance tear through the internet, inspiring hashtags, Reddit threads, and podcast episodes, Hazel throws herself into the darkest parts of her sister’s world to untangle the truth. After all, Hazel knows Evie better than anyone else . . . doesn’t she?]]> 336 Olivia Muenter 1683694015 Anna 0 to-read 3.39 2024
author: Olivia Muenter
name: Anna
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60784641 From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.]]> 279 Rachel Hawkins 125028001X Anna 5 2024 3.59 2023
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Anna
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: 2024
review:
I read a lot of cheesy mystery books but this wasn't it so I read it in 2 days. The Villa is a slow-burn drama about a crime from the past that intertwines with the present. In 1974 five people all spending time at Villa Rosato in Orvieto. Too much drinking and drugs and makes for a bad mix. The Villa has two contrasting timelines: a present-day timeline with Jessica “Chess� and Emily “Em� and a 1970’s timeline with rockstars, Pierce and Noel who bring along stepsisters Mari and Lara. The publisher says this book was "Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein." This book is a slow burn with layers with many deeper themes and messages.
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