Carla's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 16 Apr 2025 04:19:47 -0700 60 Carla's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg All the Summers in Between 199797980
Unfulfilled as a housewife, Thea enjoys the dazzling sense of adventure Margot brings to her life, but will the truth of what happened to them that fateful summer ruin everything? Testing the boundaries of how far she’ll go for a friend, Thea is forced to reckon with her uncertain future while trying to decide if some friends are meant to remain in the past.

Set in the dual timelines of 1967 and 1977, All the Summers In Between is at once a mesmerizing portrait of a complex friendship, a delicious glimpse into a bygone Hamptons, and a powerful coming-of-age for two young women during a transformative era.]]> 320 Brooke Lea Foster 1668034379 Carla 0 currently-reading 3.15 2024 All the Summers in Between
author: Brooke Lea Foster
name: Carla
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Say You'll Remember Me 216437557 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer comes a new playful yet deeply emotional contemporary romance.

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

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

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]> 416 Abby Jimenez 0349442827 Carla 5 4.19 2025 Say You'll Remember Me
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Carla
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Gravewater Lake 214037520 A woman who can’t remember her past encounters a mysterious stranger in a chilling novel of mounting psychological suspense by the authors of The Last Girl Left.

She wakes on the shore of a remote lake in the middle of the night, freezing and afraid. With no memory of who she is or how she got there, she stumbles frantically toward the lights of a house. The handsome stranger who lives there is shocked to see a woman on his doorstep and takes her in.

Trapped by a winter storm and cut off from the outside world, she starts to suspect that all is not right with the house on Gravewater Lake—or the man, who says his name is Gregg. Because there are whispers in the night, and phantom footsteps pace the halls. Is Gregg hiding a dark secret, or is she losing her mind?

As she struggles to remember her past and make sense of her present, she soon discovers that people are not always who they seem, and the truth might be more deadly than she could ever have imagined.]]> 359 A.M. Strong 1662518404 Carla 0 currently-reading 3.90 2025 Gravewater Lake
author: A.M. Strong
name: Carla
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> A Welcome Reunion 174670409 From the bestselling author of The Perfect Child comes a short thriller about a couple faced with the terrifying return of a girl they once called their own who threatens everything they hold dear.

Janie is the last person Hannah and Christopher Bauer want to see again.

But Janie’s moved back to Clarksville. She’s no longer the frail child Hannah and Christopher adopted over eleven years ago. The child who destroyed their lives. Now Janie is out of juvenile detention—a beautiful, confident young adult—and publicly promoting her new tell-all memoir.

At just eighteen, Janie has a violent and tragic story to share, brimming with grisly details. Details the public can’t get enough of…and that the Bauers can’t bear to relive. Janie has taken a new name and claims to have reformed her sociopathic ways. She’s ready to make amends. But when the Bauers refuse to meet with her, she takes matters into her own hands.

After the social worker formerly assigned to the case makes disturbing revelations about Janie’s calculated behavior, the Bauers brace for Janie’s next move, determined to protect their family—at any cost.]]> 82 Lucinda Berry 1662516681 Carla 5 3.54 2023 A Welcome Reunion
author: Lucinda Berry
name: Carla
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Vacation House 124944200 Two women. Two secrets. One terrible night.

PAXOS, GREECE
The vacation house is a luxurious getaway for a wealthy English family, windows open to sun and the sea, a sparkling swimming pool, and a verdant garden. One hot summer night, while the parents and their friends drink wine and amuse themselves, a young woman—the teenage daughter of the Greek caretaker—ventures for a walk on their private beach. Her life will never be the same again.

LONDON, ENGLAND, TWENTY YEARS LATER
Julia is the perfect spouse and mother. Slender, blonde, expensively dressed, she’s the classic “yummy mummy� of high cook, organizer, arm candy, and speechwriter to her influential husband. But behind her winning smile is a stifled woman trapped in a gilded cage, stricken with anxiety and perfectionism. When Julia meets Laurel, a therapist who promises to help her find fulfillment, Julia opens herself up to the hope of a different future.

BOUND BY THE PAST
What happened in Greece all those years ago that binds these two women together? And will uncovering the truth destroy everything� or set them free?

The Edgar-nominated, #1 internationally bestselling author ofĚýThe Daughter ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe Playground weaves a breathtaking tale of betrayal, family, and secrets from the past in this crackling novel of psychological suspense.]]> 287 Jane Shemilt 0063243598 Carla 0 currently-reading 3.67 2023 The Vacation House
author: Jane Shemilt
name: Carla
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Big Bad 195945941 Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth.

The Strauss family is on knife’s edge. Sam is a resentful stay-at-home dad. Rachel feels the restlessness in her blood returning. Their children are getting out of hand. And a recent mudslide has forced the wolves out of the woods to look for food. As dusk falls and tensions rise, the family must come together to survive the night—from the threats outside and those within.

Chandler Baker’s 'Big Bad' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 59 Chandler Baker 1662514891 Carla 3 3.75 2023 Big Bad
author: Chandler Baker
name: Carla
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Memory Library 182359374 For forty-two years, Sally Harrison has been building a library.

Each year, on her daughter’s birthday, she adds a new book to her shelves � with a note in the front dedicated to her own greatest work.

But Ella � Sally’s only child � fled to Australia twenty-two years ago after a heated exchange, and never looked back. And though Sally still dutifully adds a new paperback to the shelves every time the clock strikes midnight on July 11th, her hopes of her daughter ever thumbing through the pages are starting to dwindle.

Then disaster strikes and Ella is forced to return to the home she once knew.

She is soon to discover that when one chapter ends, another will soon follow�

All you have to do is turn the page�

Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second changes are written in the margins.]]> 335 Kate Storey Carla 4 4.32 2024 The Memory Library
author: Kate Storey
name: Carla
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Exodus (The Ravenhood, #2) 53312623 Can you live a lie?

It’s a ghost town, this place that haunts me, the one that made me.

It’s clear to me that I’ll never outgrow Triple Falls or outlive the time I spent here.

I can still feel them all, my boys of summer.

Even when I’d sensed the danger, I gave in.

I didn’t heed a single warning. I let my sickness, my love, both rule and ruin me. I played my part, eyes wide open, tempting fate until it delivered.

There was never going to be an escape.

All of us are to blame for what happened. All of us serving our own sentences. We were careless and reckless, thinking our youth made us indestructible, exempt from our sins, and it cost us all.

I’m done pretending I didn’t leave the largest part of me between these hills and valleys, between the sea of trees that hold my secrets.

It’s the reason I’m back. To make peace with my fate.

And if I can’t grieve enough to cure myself in my time here, I’ll remain sick. That will be my curse.

But it’s time to confess, to myself more so than any other, that I’d hindered my chances because of the way I was built, and because of the men who built me.

At this point, I just want to make peace with who I am, no matter what ending I get.

Because I can no longer live a lie.]]> 450 Kate Stewart Carla 4 4.35 2020 Exodus (The Ravenhood, #2)
author: Kate Stewart
name: Carla
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů 13129925
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.

Designed by Andie Reid, cover photography by Christine Ferrara.]]> 248 Grady Hendrix 1594745269 Carla 3 3.64 2014 ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Carla
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom]]> 236056 195 Louis Sachar 0590590898 Carla 4 3.98 1987 There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom
author: Louis Sachar
name: Carla
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> What Does It Feel Like? 214312329
“What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date. Eve’s story is my story.”—Sophie Kinsella

Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.

As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.

Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.

“Why did I write such a personal book? I have always processed my life through writing. Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe. Writing is my happy place, and writing this book, although tough going at times, was immensely satisfying and therapeutic for me.”—Sophie Kinsella]]> 144 Sophie Kinsella 0593977564 Carla 5 4.26 2024 What Does It Feel Like?
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Carla
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Bad Tourists 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 Carla 4 3.62 2024 Bad Tourists
author: Caro Carver
name: Carla
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Best of Luck 195945937 Hell of a Book.

For best friends with vastly different fortunes, what’s left to hash out other than a forced confession at gunpoint? All that the destitute, sickly, and grieving Will demands is that monstrously successful Barry admit to draining all the luck right out of him. Like blood. As the standoff escalates, the truth is not the only thing ready to come out.

Jason Mott’s 'Best of Luck' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 29 Jason Mott 1662516711 Carla 3 3.74 2023 Best of Luck
author: Jason Mott
name: Carla
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves:
review:

]]> In Bloom 195945770 The Cabin at the End of the World and The Beast You Are.

Journalist Heidi Cohen is in Cape Cod investigating the sources of recurring toxic algae blooms along the coast. A local named Jimmy has his own theory for her. Every year the fetid growth gets worse—but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows. Decades ago, something happened to Jimmy that he’s never forgotten. Is Heidi ready for the real story?

Paul Tremblay’s 'In Bloom' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 35 Paul Tremblay 1662516908 Carla 2 3.05 2023 In Bloom
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Carla
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Those Girls 23014603 Librarian’s note: This is a previously-published edition of
Kindle ASIN: B00R1AWE1A.

Chevy Stevens is back with her most powerful, emotional thriller yet� a story of survival…and revenge.

Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father’s fists. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. Events spiral out of control and a chance encounter with the wrong people leaves them in a horrific and desperate situation. They are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives.

Eighteen years later, they are still trying to forget what happened that summer when one of the sisters goes missing and they are pulled back into their past.

This time there’s nowhere left to run.

As much of a thriller as it is a deep exploration of the bonds among sisters, THOSE GIRLS is an unforgettable portrait of desperation, loyalty, and evil.]]> 384 Chevy Stevens 1250034582 Carla 0 currently-reading 3.95 2015 Those Girls
author: Chevy Stevens
name: Carla
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Just One Look 60097386 A young woman's escalating obsession with a seemingly perfect man leads her down a dangerous path in this "delicious and marvelously controlled" (The New York Times Book Review) novel of suspense.

"Bitingly modern and totally addictive, Lindsay Cameron's suspense debut is the freshest take on stalker fiction since You."--Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SHE READS

Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are.

Cassie Woodson is adrift. After suffering an epic tumble down the corporate ladder, Cassie finds the only way she can pay her bills is to take a thankless temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit. The daily drudgery amplifies all that her life is lacking--love, friends, stability--and leaves her with too much time on her hands, which she spends fixating on the mistakes that brought her to this point.

While sorting through a relentless deluge of emails, something catches her eye: the tender (and totally private) exchanges between a partner at the firm, Forest Watts, and his enchanting wife, Annabelle. Cassie knows she shouldn't read them. But it's just one look. And once that door opens, she finds she can't look away.

Every day, twenty floors below Forest's corner office, Cassie dissects their emails from her dingy workstation. A few clicks of her mouse and she can see every adoring word they write to each other. By peeking into their apparently perfect life, Cassie finds renewed purpose and happiness, reveling in their penchant for vintage wines, morning juice presses, and lavish dinner parties thrown in their stately Westchester home. There are no secrets from her. Or so she thinks.

Her admiration quickly escalates into all-out mimicry, because she wants this life more than anything. Maybe if she plays make-believe long enough, it will become real for her. But when Cassie orchestrates a "chance" meeting with Forest in the real world and sees something that throws the state of his marriage into question, the fantasy she's been carefully cultivating shatters. Suddenly, she doesn't simply admire Annabelle--she wants to take her place. And she's armed with the tools to make that happen.]]> 320 Lindsay Cameron 0593159071 Carla 3 3.34 2021 Just One Look
author: Lindsay Cameron
name: Carla
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1)]]> 55502861
Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.]]> 336 India Holton 0593200160 Carla 3 3.64 2021 The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1)
author: India Holton
name: Carla
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Ankle Snatcher 195945776 The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Marcus grew up believing his father killed his mother—then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. Always leave the lights on, his father warned, or the boogeyman will get you. Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over.

Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.

Grady Hendrix’s 'Ankle Snatcher' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 29 Grady Hendrix 166251705X Carla 3 3.71 2023 Ankle Snatcher
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Carla
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Pram 195945795
Willy and Marianne’s farmhouse in Maine has acres of meadow and fresh air, and a lonesome bridle path in the forest along which Willy daydreams and ambles. When he’s loaned a decrepit old baby stroller to cart his groceries home, the rickety squeak of the wheels comforts him. So do the sweet coos of a baby Willy knows can’t be real. Can it? In this twisted thicket, wishes come true—with a price.

Joe Hill’s The Pram is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 58 Joe Hill 1662516894 Carla 4 3.75 2023 The Pram
author: Joe Hill
name: Carla
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Collected Regrets of Clover]]> 61214136
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit , Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a road trip to uncover a forgotten love story—and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover is perfect for readers of The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as it turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.]]> 320 Mikki Brammer 1250284392 Carla 4 4.14 2023 The Collected Regrets of Clover
author: Mikki Brammer
name: Carla
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Kill Night 77433756
Nick Collins vows to uncover the truth behind an accusation of murder, but as the trial progresses, the only truth he discovers is that his big-city client doesn’t stand a chance against small-town beliefs. If the accused is found guilty until proven innocent, the real killer could still be out there, and there won’t be any heroes left to catch them.]]> 58 Victor Methos 1662509901 Carla 4 3.97 2023 Kill Night
author: Victor Methos
name: Carla
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[These Cold Strangers (We Could Be Heroes)]]> 73553676
When she recognizes the heroic stranger in a sensationalized news video, Addison Blake plans to use the information to her career’s advantage. That means returning to the hometown she left behind ten years ago, but her ambitions are more important than the ghosts of her past. She’s focused on breaking this story—as long as it doesn’t break her first.

J.T. Ellison’s These Cold Strangers is part of We Could Be Heroes, a darkly inquisitive collection of short stories that examines heroic intentions versus their real-life consequences. Read or listen to each in a single sitting.]]> 63 J.T. Ellison 1662509758 Carla 4 3.95 2023 These Cold Strangers (We Could Be Heroes)
author: J.T. Ellison
name: Carla
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Life, Loss, and Puffins 181840754 An exhilarating and emotional novel about grief, hope, friendship, and taking life one beautiful and spontaneous day at a time by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Freakishly smart. That’s the unwelcome box Ru Evans is put into for life. After all, she taught herself Euclidean geometry at age seven, has an eidetic memory, and is about to enter college at thirteen years old.

Boarding at a house near campus 150 miles from home, Ru meets seventeen-year-old Gabriel, an outsider himself who, like Ru, has trouble making friends—until they form a fast sibling-like bond. Finding a relatable someone in the world to talk to is a first for both of them.

But when Ru’s mother dies and the threat of living with her miserable aunt looms, Ru hatches an escape. It’s an impulsive road trip that takes Ru and Gabriel from California to Canada, where Ru can fulfill her ultimate to see Atlantic puffins in the glorious wild.

Mile by mile, Ru discovers the joy of friendship, found family, dark night skies, and the aurora borealis, and she basks in going from being a smart person to just a person. Though she knows they’ll be in trouble when they’re caught, for the short time they are navigating twist by twist of an unknown road, the freedom is liberating, and she is living for what feels like the first time.]]> 269 Catherine Ryan Hyde 166250442X Carla 0 currently-reading 4.38 2024 Life, Loss, and Puffins
author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
name: Carla
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Trouble 75300569
Polly’s fourth-grade daughter has been spending a lot of time with her classmate Sylvie—maybe too much. Sylvie’s clothes are a little…flashy…and her phone (a ten-year-old with a phone!) doesn’t seem to have any parental controls. It seems that Sylvie’s mother, with her vape pens and her too-high heels, may not be making good choices. As Polly tries to exert a positive influence, she discovers just how little anyone can tell about a family from the outside.

Janelle Brown’s Trouble is part of We Could Be Heroes, a darkly inquisitive collection of short stories that examines heroic intentions versus their real-life consequences. Read or listen to each in a single sitting.]]> 36 Janelle Brown 166251008X Carla 4 3.78 Trouble
author: Janelle Brown
name: Carla
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Unknown Caller 63833706 66 Lisa Unger 1662509499 Carla 4 3.98 2023 Unknown Caller
author: Lisa Unger
name: Carla
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Pigeon Tony's Last Stand 63833628 72 Lisa Scottoline 1662511213 Carla 3 3.95 2023 Pigeon Tony's Last Stand
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Carla
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Make It Sweet 54447129 From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Callihan comes a charming, emotional romance about redefining dreams and discovering unlikely love along the way.

Life for Emma isn’t good. The world knows her as Princess Anya on Dark Castle, but then her character gets the axe—literally. The cherry on top is finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman. She needs a break, and sanctuary comes in the form of Rosemont, a gorgeous estate in California promising rest and relaxation.

Then she meets the owner’s equally gorgeous grandson, ex–hockey player and current recluse Lucian Osmond, and she sees her own pain and yearning reflected in his eyes.

He’s charming when he wants to be but also secretive and gruff, with protective walls as thick as Emma’s own. Despite a growing attraction, they avoid each other.

But then there’s an impromptu nighttime skinny-dip, and Lucian’s luscious homemade tarts and cream cakes start arriving at Emma’s door, tempting her to taste life again�

In trying to stay apart, they only grow closer—and their broken pieces just might fit together and make them whole.]]> 369 Kristen Callihan 1542016894 Carla 4 3.92 2021 Make It Sweet
author: Kristen Callihan
name: Carla
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Girl Who Died 54860498 Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

But Skálar isn't just one of Iceland's most isolated villages, it is home to less than a dozen people. Una's only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day and the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with but who is determined to keep her at arm's length.

As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space - the site of a local legendary haunting - drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar's past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that's been kept secret for generations.]]> 320 Ragnar Jónasson 1250793734 Carla 4 3.37 2018 The Girl Who Died
author: Ragnar JĂłnasson
name: Carla
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive, #1)]]> 63879533
A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and Emily Wilde's Encylopaedia of Faeries.

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.'s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.'s sister Sophy, and Henerey's brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings' disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance - and what it could mean for life as they know it.]]> 432 Sylvie Cathrall 0356521095 Carla 2 3.65 2024 A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive, #1)
author: Sylvie Cathrall
name: Carla
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Carla 4 4.11 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Carla
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> A Sweet Sting of Salt 186872566 Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, she’ll have to fight to keep herself—and the woman she loves—safe in this stunning queer reimagining of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife.

When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, already drenched to the boneĚýin the freezing cold and barely able to speak a word of English.

Although Jean is the only midwife in the village and for miles around, she’s at a loss as to who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to grow. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?

Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?]]> 352 Rose Sutherland 0593594592 Carla 4 3.84 2024 A Sweet Sting of Salt
author: Rose Sutherland
name: Carla
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Last Lifeboat 63212660
Inspired by a remarkable true story, a young teacher evacuates children to safety across perilous waters,Ěýin a moving and triumphant new novel from New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor.
Ěý
1940, Kent : Alice King is not brave or daring—she’s happiest finding adventure through the safe pages of books. But times of war demand courage, and as the threat of German invasion looms, a plane crash near her home awakens a strength in Alice she’d long forgotten. Determined to do her part, she finds a role perfectly suited to her experience as a schoolteacher—to help evacuate Britain’s children overseas.
Ěý
1940, London : Lily Nichols once dreamed of using her mathematical talents for more than tabulating the cost of groceries, but life, and love, charted her a different course. With two lively children and a loving husband, Lily’s humble home is her world, until war tears everything asunder. With her husband gone and bombs raining down, Lily is faced with an impossible keep her son and daughter close, knowing she may not be able to protect them, or enroll them in a risky evacuation scheme, where safety awaits so very far away.
Ěý
When a Nazi U-boat torpedoes the S. S. Carlisle carrying a ship of children to Canada, a single lifeboat is left adrift in the storm-tossed Atlantic. Alice and Lily, strangers to each other—one on land, the other at sea—will quickly become one another’s very best hopeĚýas their lives are fatefully entwined.]]> 371 Hazel Gaynor 0593440315 Carla 5 4.25 2023 The Last Lifeboat
author: Hazel Gaynor
name: Carla
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Good Samaritan 37422823 She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to�

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.]]> 399 John Marrs 1503958345 Carla 5 4.10 2017 The Good Samaritan
author: John Marrs
name: Carla
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Seven Year Slip 62926938 An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.]]> 336 Ashley Poston Carla 4 4.18 2023 The Seven Year Slip
author: Ashley Poston
name: Carla
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
review:

]]> What Happened to the McCrays? 195391623 From New York Times bestselling author Tracey Lange, a poignant story about the resilience of family, the importance of community, and the magic of middle school hockey

When Kyle McCray gets word his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York, where he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. Kyle left suddenly two and a half years ago, abandoning people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends—not to mention Casey, his wife of sixteen years and a beloved teacher in town. He plans to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave again, especially after Casey makes it clear she wants him gone.

The longer he’s home, the more Kyle understands the impact his departure has had on the people he left behind. When he’s presented with an opportunity for redemption as the coach of the floundering middle school hockey team, he begins to find compassion in unexpected places. Kyle even considers staying in Potsdam, but that’s only possible if he and Casey can come to some kind of peace with each other.

Full of love and hope, What Happened to the McCrays? takes an intimate look at both sides of a failed marriage and two people who must finally confront the awful pain of their past or risk being consumed by it.]]> 352 Tracey Lange 1250328438 Carla 5 4.10 2025 What Happened to the McCrays?
author: Tracey Lange
name: Carla
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Beach House Rules 220161354 "Southern bestselling sensation� (Katie Couric Media) Kristy Woodson Harvey returns with a delightfully moving new novel about a mother-daughter duo learning to lean on their community of women—and each other—after their world is turned upside down.

When Charlotte Sitterly’s husband is arrested for a white-collar crime, she and her daughter Iris are locked out of their house by the FBI and—what’s potentially even worse—thrust into the spotlight of @JuniperShoresSocialite, the town’s snarky anonymous Instagram account. Cut off from her bank accounts and feeling desperate, Charlotte takes up an acquaintance’s offer to stay at a beachfront former bed-and-breakfast that’s home to a community of single mothers and draws plenty of gossip in the small coastal North Carolina town.

Charlotte and Iris find solace and are surprised by how much fun they’re having with the other families despite their circumstances. But when the women discover a secret link between them, it changes everything they thought they knew about the unconventional family they’ve created and leaves them wondering whether their coming together was a coincidence at all. Will the skeletons in the mommune closets help Charlotte and Iris reclaim their place in the Juniper Shores community—or shatter the sisterhood forever?

“Perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner� (Country Living), Beach House Rules is a charming exploration of the joy of friendship, the true meaning of family, and reclaiming the power to reshape our own destiny.]]> 368 Kristy Woodson Harvey 166807480X Carla 0 to-read 4.43 Beach House Rules
author: Kristy Woodson Harvey
name: Carla
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Lies That Bind 52909027 In the irresistible new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted and Something Borrowed, a young woman falls hard for an impossibly perfect man before he disappears without a trace. . . .

It's 2 A.M. on a Saturday night in the spring of 2001, and twenty-eight-year-old Cecily Gardner sits alone in a dive bar in New York's East Village, questioning her life. Feeling lonesome and homesick for the Midwest, she wonders if she'll ever make it as a reporter in the big city--and whether she made a terrible mistake in breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, Matthew.

As Cecily reaches for the phone to call him, she hears a guy on the barstool next to her say, "Don't do it--you'll regret it." Something tells her to listen, and over the next several hours--and shots of tequila--the two forge an unlikely connection. That should be it, they both decide the next morning, as Cecily reminds herself of the perils of a rebound relationship. Moreover, their timing couldn't be worse--Grant is preparing to quit his job and move overseas. Yet despite all their obstacles, they can't seem to say goodbye, and for the first time in her carefully constructed life, Cecily follows her heart instead of her head.

Then Grant disappears in the chaos of 9/11. Fearing the worst, Cecily spots his face on a missing-person poster, and realizes she is not the only one searching for him. Her investigative reporting instincts kick into action as she vows to discover the truth. But the questions pile up fast: How well did she really know Grant? Did he ever really love her? And is it possible to love a man who wasn't who he seemed to be?

The Lies That Bind is a mesmerizing and emotionally resonant exploration of the never-ending search for love and truth--in our relationships, our careers, and deep within our own hearts.]]> 352 Emily Giffin 0399178953 Carla 4 3.71 2020 The Lies That Bind
author: Emily Giffin
name: Carla
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> The Stolen Queen 211025454 From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.

New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.� Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.]]> 352 Fiona Davis 0593474279 Carla 5 3.93 2025 The Stolen Queen
author: Fiona Davis
name: Carla
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Ties That Tether 49694080
At twelve years old, Azere promised her dying father she would marry a Nigerian man and preserve her culture even after emigrating to Canada. Her mother has been vigilant about helping--forcing--her to stay well within the Nigerian dating pool ever since. But when another match-made-by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up at a bar, enjoying the company and later sharing the bed of Rafael Castellano, a man who is tall, handsome, and white.

When their one-night stand unexpectedly evolves into something serious, Azere is caught between her growing feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother who will never accept a relationship that threatens to dilute Azere's Nigerian heritage.

Azere can't help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity? The answer will either cause Azere to be audacious and fight for her happiness or continue as the compliant daughter.]]> 306 Jane Igharo 0593101944 Carla 4 3.77 2020 Ties That Tether
author: Jane Igharo
name: Carla
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meet Me in London (Meet Me #1)]]> 57649352 Fans of Josie Silver'sĚýOne Day in December and Christina Lauren's In a Holidaze will adore watching Victoria and Oliver's pretend engagement dissolve asĚýtheir very real chemistry threatens to upendĚýall theirĚýcarefully laid-out secrets. Set against the most charming London backdrop, Meet Me in London is an irrisistableĚýseasonal treat!

What do you do when your fake engagement starts to feel too real�

Aspiring clothes designer Victoria Scott spends her days working in a bar in Chelsea and her evenings designing vintage clothes, dreaming of one day opening her own boutique. But these aspirations are under threat from the new department store opening at the end of her road. She needs a Christmas miracle, but one is not forthcoming.

Oliver Russell’s Christmas is not looking very festive right now. His family’s new London department store opening is behind schedule, and on top of that his interfering, if well-meaning, mother is pressing him to introduce his girlfriend to her over the holidays—a girlfriend who does not exist. He needs a diversion…something to keep his mother from meddling while he focuses on the business.

When Oliver meets Victoria, he offers a proposition: pretend to be his girlfriend at the opening of his store and he will provide an opportunity for Victoria to showcase her designs. But what starts as a business arrangement soon becomes something more tempting as the fake relationship starts to feel very real. But when secrets in Victoria’s past are exposed, will Oliver walk away, or will they both follow their hearts and find what neither knew they were looking for�?

"An ideal Christmas escape!"�Laura Jane Williams, Bestselling author of Our Stop
Ěý]]> 336 Georgia Toffolo 1335459979 Carla 0 to-read 3.47 2020 Meet Me in London (Meet Me #1)
author: Georgia Toffolo
name: Carla
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Irish Eyes (Callahan Garrity Mystery, #8)]]> 832295 320 Mary Kay Andrews 0061098698 Carla 3 3.78 2000 Irish Eyes (Callahan Garrity Mystery, #8)
author: Mary Kay Andrews
name: Carla
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hypnotist (Joona Linna, #1)]]> 9835731 Prepare for The Hypnotist to cast its spell

In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.

It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.

An international sensation, The Hypnotist is set to appear in thirty-seven countries, and it has landed at the top of bestseller lists wherever it’s been published—in France, Holland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark. Now it’s America’s turn. Combining the addictive power of the Stieg Larsson trilogy with the storytelling drive of The Silence of the Lambs, this adrenaline-drenched thriller is spellbinding from its very first page.]]> 503 Lars Kepler 0374173958 Carla 3 3.76 2009 The Hypnotist (Joona Linna, #1)
author: Lars Kepler
name: Carla
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Daughter of the Siren Queen (Daughter of the Pirate King, #2)]]> 36682619
When Vordan exposes a secret her father has kept for years, Alosa and her crew find themselves in a deadly race with the feared Pirate King. Despite the danger, Alosa knows they will recover the treasure first . . . after all, she is the daughter of the Siren Queen.]]> 341 Tricia Levenseller 1250096014 Carla 3 4.06 2018 Daughter of the Siren Queen (Daughter of the Pirate King, #2)
author: Tricia Levenseller
name: Carla
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Secret, Book & Scone Society (Secret, Book, & Scone Society, #1)]]> 33632473
Miracle Springs, North Carolina, is a place of healing. Strangers flock here hoping the natural hot springs, five-star cuisine, and renowned spa can cure their ills. If none of that works, they often find their way to Miracle Books, where, over a fresh-baked “comfort� scone from the Gingerbread House bakery, they exchange their stories with owner Nora Pennington in return for a carefully chosen book. That’s Nora’s special talent—prescribing the perfect novel to ease a person’s deepest pain and lighten their heaviest burden.

When a visiting businessman reaches out to Nora for guidance, she knows exactly which novels will help. But before he can keep their appointment at Miracle Books, he’s found dead on the train tracks.

Stunned, Nora forms the Secret, Book, and Scone Society, a group of damaged souls yearning to gain trust and earn redemption by helping others. To join the society, members must divulge their darkest secret—the terrible truth that brought each of them to Miracle Springs in the first place.

Determined to uncover the truth behind the businessman’s demise, the women meet in Nora’s cramped and cozy bookstore to share stories and trade support. And as they untangle a web of corruption, they also discover their own courage, purpose, and a sisterhood that will carry them through every challenge—proving it’s never too late to turn the page and start over . . .]]> 290 Ellery Adams 1496712374 Carla 3 3.64 2017 The Secret, Book & Scone Society (Secret, Book, & Scone Society, #1)
author: Ellery Adams
name: Carla
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Ready or Not 154462768
Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy and close to her childhood best friend Willa, but far from her midwestern, traditional family who never really understood her. While her job is only dream- adjacent , she’s hoping her passion and hard work will soon help her land a more glamorous role. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect…until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve's loyalĚýfriendship with Willa is feeling off , right when she needs her most. And it’s Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and isâ€� suddenly kinda hot? Then there’s the baby's father, who is supportive but conflicted. Before long, Eve is rethinking everything she thought she knew about herself and her world.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.]]> 400 Cara Bastone 0593595718 Carla 4 3.96 2024 Ready or Not
author: Cara Bastone
name: Carla
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Oak Avenue (Dark Corners Collection, #7)]]> 41131903
While renovating her Victorian home, Ana Clementine finds an ornate door buried under forty years of earth. Once she restores it to the attic, she starts hearing whispers, her loving husband becomes a stranger, and her baby daughter learns a chilling new word. Maybe Ana has unlocked the house’s secrets. Or maybe she’s becoming just a little unhinged herself.

Brandi Reeds’s Oak Avenue is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.]]> 72 Brandi Reeds 1542090636 Carla 5 3.60 2018 Oak Avenue (Dark Corners Collection, #7)
author: Brandi Reeds
name: Carla
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Remedy (Dark Corners Collection, #6)]]> 41455792
After years of traditional treatments and therapies, Derrick still suffers from pain ineluctable enough that it has become his identity. Then he hears of an exclusive, very private New York clinic that promises relief. It comes highly recommended by a friend. The multisession remedy unfolds as a sensorial wonder that’s so illuminating it’s enough to bring tears to Derrick’s eyes. It’s all working so well. So unexpectedly well.

Adam Haslett’s The Remedy is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.]]> 30 Adam Haslett 1542040167 Carla 3 2.96 2018 The Remedy (Dark Corners Collection, #6)
author: Adam Haslett
name: Carla
average rating: 2.96
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Until the Day I Die 40167540
Shorie is not only worried about her mother’s mental state but also for the future of her parents� company. Especially when she begins to suspect that not all of Erin’s colleagues can be trusted. It seems someone is spinning an intricate web of deception—the foundation for a conspiracy that is putting everything, and everyone she loves, at risk. And she may be the only one who can stop it.

Now, thousands of miles away in a remote, and oftentimes menacing, tropical jungle, Erin is beginning to have similar fears. Things at the resort aren’t exactly how the brochure described, and unless she’s losing her mind, Erin’s pretty sure she wasn’t sent there to recover—she was sent to disappear.]]> 349 Emily Carpenter 1503959236 Carla 5 3.92 2019 Until the Day I Die
author: Emily Carpenter
name: Carla
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Not You It's Me (Boston Love, #1)]]> 57659497 Gemma Summers is unlucky in love.

She’s known it since third grade, when her first crush blew a spitball into her hair, and a decade-long string of bad dates, boring sex, and abysmal morning-afters has done nothing to improve her prospects.

When a random radio contest lands her courtside tickets to the hottest playoff game of the season, Gemma thinks her luck may finally be on the upswing � at least, until the dreaded jumbotron kiss-cam lands on her and her date, who’s too busy ignoring her to notice�

Thankfully, the sexy stranger sitting next to her is more than willing to step in.

One kiss.
Two strangers.
No strings attached.

Or� so she thinks. Turns out, kissing Chase Croft � Boston’s most eligible bachelor � may be enough to convince even a girl who’s given up on love to let down her guard one last time...

NOT YOU IT’S ME is a full-length, comedic contemporary romance about a girl who doesn’t believe in love� and the man who changes her mind. It is the first installment of the internationally bestselling BOSTON LOVE STORY series and can be read as a complete standalone. Due to sexy-times and strong language, it is intended for readers 17 and up.]]> 428 Julie Johnson 0991311396 Carla 4 3.38 2015 Not You It's Me (Boston Love, #1)
author: Julie Johnson
name: Carla
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Golden Hour 42282946 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives and A Certain Age creates a dazzling epic of World War II-era Nassau—a hotbed of spies, traitors, and the most infamous couple of the age, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The Bahamas, 1941. Newly-widowed Leonora “Lulu� Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires?

Or so Lulu imagines. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess’s social circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands� political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward’s marriage lies an ugly—and even treasonous—reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu falls in love.

Then Nassau’s wealthiest man is murdered in one of the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting coverup reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick Thorpe’s complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen.

The stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human courage, set against a shocking true crime . . . and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.]]> 480 Beatriz Williams 0062834754 Carla 4 3.74 2019 The Golden Hour
author: Beatriz Williams
name: Carla
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Daydream Cabin 53520099 A headstrong woman discovers it’s never too late for change in this spirited novel about lost hope and second chances.

Substitute counselor for wayward teens isn’t how public-school teacher Jayden Bennett planned to spend her summer vacation. However reluctant, she’s hiking up her jeans and heading for remote Piney Wood Academy in north Texas. Two months. Seven days a week. Few amenities. And three troubled girls daring Jayden to make a difference. She understands what she’s up against. She has her own burdens to bear.

Jayden’s not in it alone. The devoted elderly couple who run Piney Wood trusts in Jayden’s tough-love approach to get the job done. So does drill instructor Elijah Thomas, whose hardened boot-camp hide conceals a heart broken one too many times. Jayden is making it beat again. For both of them, falling in love is a risk. Because all summers must come to an end.

But with each new sunrise on these rustic acres, Jayden discovers that Piney Wood is a last chance for her, too. And with so many lives in turnaround, a new beginning for everyone could be a dream come true.]]> 319 Carolyn Brown 1542009766 Carla 5 4.38 2020 The Daydream Cabin
author: Carolyn Brown
name: Carla
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Almost Like Being in Love 156709251 A modern-day Ohio woman and a seventeenth-century Scottish laird fall in love at first sight in a magical holiday romance by Sariah Wilson, the bestselling author of The Chemistry of Love.

Maren Kelly and her friend Penny may be lost in the Scottish Highlands, yes. They may be caught in the blizzard of the century, sure. But despite their dire straits, Maren is going to honor her ailing mother’s wish for them to experience all the magic, mystery, and whimsy Scotland has to offer, even if she freezes to death trying. When they’re rescued by the dashing Duncan Campbell, who seems like he walked straight out of the seventeenth century, Maren is more than a wee bit bewildered.

Their shelter is Duncan’s castle in Highglen, a captivating village that feels somehow familiar…as does the laird himself. Brimming with holiday cheer and friendly, boisterous family members, Highglen is a safe haven in the frigid winter storm. Maybe it’s the carolers and the warm hearth—or Duncan’s comforting brogue and stolen kisses—but Maren feels as though she’s come home. And in Duncan, she may have found her long-awaited soulmate.

But is this a miracle that could last a lifetime?]]> 174 Sariah Wilson Carla 4 3.73 2023 Almost Like Being in Love
author: Sariah Wilson
name: Carla
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> This Girl's a Killer 202204691 Ask Cordelia Black why she did it. The answer will always be: He had it coming.

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

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

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

Soon enough Cordelia has to come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad, and the murderous. Both her family, and her freedom, depend on it.]]> 432 Emma C. Wells 1464218625 Carla 4 3.65 2024 This Girl's a Killer
author: Emma C. Wells
name: Carla
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Only If You're Lucky 60891867
And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered... and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.

A tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal—another gripping novel from an author quickly becoming the gold standard in psychological suspense.]]> 371 Stacy Willingham 1250887933 Carla 3 3.54 2024 Only If You're Lucky
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Carla
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Flock (The Ravenhood Book 1) 214568110 INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE, CAN'T MISS BONUS SCENE BETWEEN CECELIA AND SEAN!

Discover the first in Tiktok phenom Kate Stewart’s internationally bestselling Ravenhood trilogy, a deliciously steamy, irresistibly edgy and suspenseful Robin Hood retelling that offers a thoroughly unique modern-day spin on the original brotherhood of morally gray bad boys � for fans of Lauren Asher and Ana Huang.

Can you keep a secret?

The one thing Cecelia Horner knows about her move to Triple Falls is, it’ll be temporary. After one year working for her elusive father at his factory, he’ll hand over the inheritance she needs to help her single mother. With that, Cecelia will leave the town, and everyone in it, behind forever.

On her first day, she collides with her new supervisor, Sean. Enigmatic, charming, irresistible, Sean lures Cecelia into a new world of sex, lies, and alliances. Determined to make the most of her time in Triple Falls, Cecelia allows herself to blindly fall. But the more Cecelia is drawn in, the stronger her belief that Sean is keeping a secret. A secret that Dominic, Sean’s best friend, and the darkest, most dangerous of his crew, is determined to keep Cecelia from uncovering.

Cecelia discovers something else—a maelstrom of untapped desires within herself along with a powerful pull of first love. The more Cecelia becomes immersed in Sean and Dominic’s perilous world, the more she starts to realize that the men she’s trusted are hiding far more than she could have ever imagined. And the secret they’re hiding just might be the thing to break her fall.]]> 366 Kate Stewart 149675669X Carla 4 4.22 2020 Flock (The Ravenhood Book 1)
author: Kate Stewart
name: Carla
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tangled Woods (Dark Corners Collection, #5)]]> 41132332
Poison-tongued film critic Reginald Wright is known for his creative insults and intolerance for the garbage culture, insufferable rudeness, and thoughtless racism of predictably common people. Now, against his better judgment, and with a marriage in crisis, he’s attempting a getaway in the Poconos that quickly fulfills his every low expectation. In fact, it’s becoming a nightmare. And that’s just what Reginald needs to wake up.

Emily Raboteau’s The Tangled Woods is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.]]> 37 Emily Raboteau 1542041295 Carla 3 2.86 2018 The Tangled Woods (Dark Corners Collection, #5)
author: Emily Raboteau
name: Carla
average rating: 2.86
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension]]> 181346634
There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it's basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.]]> 334 Hanif Abdurraqib 0593448790 Carla 4 4.32 2024 There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: Carla
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Last Party 205837684 A loving mother. A notorious murderer. They both have reasons to hide their secrets in a novel of escalating shock and suspense by New York Times bestselling author A. R. Torre.

Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. Affluent, sociable, and accomplished, Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection. It seems an ideal life, if not for a decades-old crime that has become Perla’s dark and consuming secret obsession.

Twenty-three years ago, Leewood Folcrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party. Though he’s been condemned to a life sentence, his crime is not forgotten. Not by Perla, nor by an inquisitive doctoral student interviewing Folcrum for his dissertation. He’s getting the killer to open up—about his motives, his confession, and the truth of what really happened on that horrible night.

As the past and the present entwine, the deceptions behind the infamous murder begin to surface. But who’s deceiving who now? And why? And as an ingeniously twisted plan is set in motion, who will be the next to die?]]> 349 A.R. Torre 1662519583 Carla 5 4.08 2024 The Last Party
author: A.R. Torre
name: Carla
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook]]> 32828538 From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a familiar story with a dark hook—a tale about Peter Pan and the friend who became his nemesis, a nemesis who may not be the blackhearted villain Peter says he is�

There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. This is how it happened. How I went from being Peter Pan’s first—and favorite—lost boy to his greatest enemy.
Ěý
Peter brought me to his island because there were no rules and no grownups to make us mind. He brought boys from the Other Place to join in the fun, but Peter's idea of fun is sharper than a pirate’s sword. Because it’s never been all fun and games on the island. Our neighbors are pirates and monsters. Our toys are knife and stick and rock—the kinds of playthings that bite.

Peter promised we would all be young and happy forever. Peter lies.]]> 292 Christina Henry 0399584021 Carla 4 4.22 2017 Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook
author: Christina Henry
name: Carla
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shame on Him (Fool Me Once, #3)]]> 20580495
When a routine subpoena-delivery turns up a dead body, Lorelei knows that solving the murder is exactly what she needs to boost her confidence…until private investigator Dallas Osborne walks in and takes over the case. Dallas has always rubbed Lorelei the wrong way. It’s aggravating enough that he’s a pompous ass, but he’s also entirely too good-looking.

If she wants to catch the killer, Lorelei will need to loosen up and defy her parents—not to mention the law. And she’ll need to partner with Dallas, working closer (much closer) to the sexy investigator than she ever expected.

Join the feisty Fool Me Once ladies for another fun-loving romp from bestselling author Tara Sivec.]]> 147 Tara Sivec 147787321X Carla 3 4.00 2014 Shame on Him (Fool Me Once, #3)
author: Tara Sivec
name: Carla
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Seaside Library 61155449
There are secrets that bring friends together, and others that drive them apart�

Mariners Island is barely ten miles long, but when Ivy, Ariana and Cam were teenagers, it was their whole world. Beyond the pristine beaches and iconic lighthouse lies the beautiful old library that belongs to Ivy’s family. While that bound Ivy to the island as an adult, Ariana could not leave Mariners behind fast enough. The town holds too many� memories . Not only her unrequited feelings for Cam, but the tragedy that left a scar on the community.

When a young girl went missing, a teenage Cam was unthinkably the prime suspect. Ariana and Ivy knew he couldn’t have hurt anyone, and they promised to protect him—even if it meant lying on his behalf.

Now, twenty years later, Ariana returns to Mariners just as new evidence emerges on the case, calling into question everything the three friends thought they knew—and everyone they thought they could trust. What really happened that night? Over the course of one eventful summer, Ariana, Ivy and Cam will learn the truth—about their pasts, their futures and the ties that still bind them as closely as the pages of a book�

Don't miss these other great summer beach reads from Brenda Novak]]> 400 Brenda Novak 0778333515 Carla 4 3.56 2023 The Seaside Library
author: Brenda Novak
name: Carla
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Miao Dao (Dark Corners Collection, #4)]]> 41139986 A girl comes of age with a vengeance—and help from a friend—in a tale of unnerving suspense from National Book Award winner and literary master Joyce Carol Oates.

Bad things have been happening since Mia began to mature. Her dad left. Boys at school can’t keep their hands to themselves. A lecherous stepfather has moved in. Her only refuge is an abandoned lot on her suburban cul-de-sac, crawling with feral felines—one of which follows Mia home. Ghostly white and affectionate, she is Mia’s new companion and—as Mia’s tormenters will soon discover—her fierce protector.

Joyce Carol Oates’s Miao Dao is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.

]]> 81 Joyce Carol Oates 1542040280 Carla 3 3.50 2018 Miao Dao (Dark Corners Collection, #4)
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Carla
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Like Mother, Like Daughter 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 Carla 4 3.64 2024 Like Mother, Like Daughter
author: Kimberly McCreight
name: Carla
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Kennedy Girl 209823367
This American Girl in Paris might hold the fate of nations...

It's the 1960s, and the fashion culture of New York, Paris, and Milan is starting to make an impression on the mid-century American woman. Jackie Kennedy's effortless style leads the nation, although Mia's bustling bakery job doesn't often give her the time or money to craft a stylish closet after her idol in the White House. But when a mysterious stranger suddenly offers her a modeling job in Paris at the esteemed House of Rousseau, she takes a chance on it, despite knowing nothing about the world of fashion. As an orphan with big dreams, holding a one-way plane ticket to Paris, she sets off for what she hopes is a better life.

But the job of a model runs deeper than photoshoots and runway walks, and as Mia adjusts to the Parisienne lifestyle, she realizes that not everything is as it seems. Becoming more and more successful in her position as an up-and-coming model, she is soon drawn into the Cold War by the very fashion house she works for. And as she finds herself falling further into national crimes and politics, Mia will soon have to decide which side of history she's really on.

Jackie Kennedy is no longer the only woman for whom fashion and politics dramatically collide...

The Kennedy Girl is an immersive and heart-pounding story perfect for history buffs and armchair travelers alike, with glimpses into both the propulsive Cold War era of espionage and the inner-workings of the most prestigious Parisian fashion houses.]]> 432 Julia Bryan Thomas 1728297184 Carla 0 currently-reading 3.71 The Kennedy Girl
author: Julia Bryan Thomas
name: Carla
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed (Dark Corners Collection, #3)]]> 41561433
It’s bad enough that its venom-dripping chelicerae can slice through flesh like warm butter. Worse? It’s right there under the bunk. It’s a fact now. To make it through the night, the children must obey the don’t get out of bed, stay out of the shadows, and don’t wake the beast. But as the threats multiply, so do the rules of survival. And with the safety of dawn still hours away, the fun is just beginning.

Edgar Cantero’s There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider under Your Bed is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.]]> 24 Edgar Cantero 1542090423 Carla 2 2.85 2018 There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed (Dark Corners Collection, #3)
author: Edgar Cantero
name: Carla
average rating: 2.85
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shame on Me (Fool Me Once, #2)]]> 18663319
The job: act as bait for a cheating husband. The target: Matt Russo. The case should be as easy as getting a man’s attention—and Paige has never had trouble with that. The problem is Matt—in all his nerdy-hot glory—turns out to be not such a scumbag after all.

And when the case hits closer to home than Paige could ever have imagined—landing her in a face-off with the mob—she wonders if taking the job just to prove that she has a brain maybe wasn’t her best idea.

This second outing for the Fool Me Once team follows in the same fun, feisty footsteps as bestselling author Tara Sivec’s Shame on You.]]> 149 Tara Sivec 1477801111 Carla 3 3.86 2014 Shame on Me (Fool Me Once, #2)
author: Tara Sivec
name: Carla
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shame on You (Fool Me Once, #1)]]> 37711833
When Kennedy takes a case to slap cuffs on a bail jumper turned dog-napper, she figures it’ll be an easy paycheck. But trouble has a way of finding Kennedy. Enter the last man on the planet she’d willingly choose as a partner: her cheating ex-husband’s best friend, Griffin Crawford.

As gorgeous as he is unwelcome, Griffin has always had a thing for Kennedy, and after keeping quiet about her ex’s cheating, he’ll do anything to earn back her trust. Whether or not she wants to admit it, Kennedy will need help as the case of the Chihuahua thief spirals out of control. Griffin may be just her man—in more ways than one.]]> 139 Tara Sivec 1477867481 Carla 3 3.99 2014 Shame on You (Fool Me Once, #1)
author: Tara Sivec
name: Carla
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Women and Children First 123006769 A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.

Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs, and all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.

Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski’s Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.]]> 336 Alina Grabowski 1638930783 Carla 3 3.33 2024 Women and Children First
author: Alina Grabowski
name: Carla
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sleep Tight Motel (Dark Corners Collection, #2)]]> 41431168
Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. He’ll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.

Lisa Unger’s The Sleep Tight Motel is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.

An Edgar Award nominee.]]> 50 Lisa Unger 154209030X Carla 4 3.73 2018 The Sleep Tight Motel (Dark Corners Collection, #2)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Carla
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hannah-Beast (Dark Corners Collection, #1)]]> 41080498
Thirty-four years ago, on October 31, poor Hannah Talbott took part in a scavenger hunt gone violently wrong. The mean girls made sure of it. To this day, for a haunted local mother, the most unsettling Halloween costume of all is an urban legend they call Hannah-Beast. It’s a reminder of the past she can’t forget. Especially tonight when it’s come back, so close to home.

Jennifer McMahon’s Hannah-Beast is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.]]> 48 Jennifer McMahon 1542090415 Carla 4 3.80 2018 Hannah-Beast (Dark Corners Collection, #1)
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Carla
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Beautiful Graves 60831811 From USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen comes a passion- and angst-charged story about a woman caught between a secure relationship and a once-in-a-lifetime spark with her muse.

They say first loves are oftentimes the end of one’s innocence.

Those words couldn’t ring truer for Everlynne Lawson, whose first brush with romance came with a heartbreak…and the thing that seems to follow her everywhere she goes. Death.

After a great tragedy, Everlynne loses all she cares about—her dreams, her family, and her soulmate, Joe.

Guilt-ridden, Everlynne decides to isolate herself in Salem, Massachusetts. A shell of the woman she once was, she takes her days one at a time, careful not to allow herself the joy she believes others in her life were robbed of. But when the mysterious, handsome Dominic storms into her life, it becomes more difficult to stay in solitude. Dominic is adventurous, joyous, with lust for life and a passion to make her his.

Everlynne is on the cusp of reinventing herself once again when the old wounds of her past are resurrected, rawer than ever. There is nothing worse than being in love with two men.

Especially when one of them hates you.]]> 373 L.J. Shen 1542036321 Carla 5 3.93 2022 Beautiful Graves
author: L.J. Shen
name: Carla
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti (Meet Me in Italy, #2)]]> 57926132 A secret romance sends three estranged sisters to the Amalfi Coast to follow clues about their mother's past, and challenges them to a whole new future, in this emotional novel from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Probst.

Priscilla, Devon, and Bailey haven't been close in years, but when the sisters are forced to come together to settle their mother's estate, they discover a secret. In an old trunk, they happen upon ownership papers for a house on the Amalfi Coast, along with a love letter to their mother from an anonymous man, promising to meet her in Italy during the summer of her sixty-fifth birthday.

Now they're questioning everything they knew about her history. In order to get answers about the woman they thought they knew, they'll have to go back to where it all started. The sisters embark on a trip to the stunning cliffside village of Positano, Italy, to track down the mysterious ex-lover, and figure out who their mother really was.

As Priscilla, Devon, and Bailey unearth the truth, they also experience the magic of Italy, the power of sisterly love, a little unexpected romance, and newfound hope for the future.]]> 384 Jennifer Probst 059333289X Carla 3 3.97 2022 The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti (Meet Me in Italy, #2)
author: Jennifer Probst
name: Carla
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wild Scottish Knight (The Enchanted Highlands, #1)]]> 125120553
The knight was supposed to be a man.

Not me, Sophie MacKnight, a marketing associate from California.

This must be a practical joke that the Scots play on visiting Americans. Because otherwise I’ve inherited a haunted castle in Scotland, along with one irritatingly sexy Scotsman, who would be delighted if I turned tail and ran.

Frankly, I thought I would fly here, sell the heap of bricks, and head back home to a life that I…well, I was comfortable with at the very least. Instead, the people of Loren Brae are in trouble, and it appears that as the new owner of the castle, I’m next in line to reinstate the magickal Order of Caledonia. Which means, first, I have to learn to believe in magick. And secondly, I have to train to become a knight.

And my trainer? None other than Lachlan Campbell, the grumpiest man I’ve ever had the annoyance of meeting. It’s a toss-up who is pricklier, Lachlan, or his kilted Chihuahua, Sir Buster. Not only does Lachlan think that I can’t hack it, but he also resents my claim on his castle.

If only he didn’t look so devastatingly hot in his kilt.

Now, I’m stuck proving myself to him, all while trying to figure out how to help my new friends in Loren Brae.

Sparks fly as our swords meet, and we battle our rising attraction for each other.

Who will win in this (Highland) game of love?]]> 316 Tricia O'Malley Carla 3 3.65 2023 Wild Scottish Knight (The Enchanted Highlands, #1)
author: Tricia O'Malley
name: Carla
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
review:

]]> The Book Thief 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]> 592 Markus Zusak Carla 4 4.38 2005 The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
name: Carla
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Love the Way You Lie (House of Crows, #4)]]> 57981141
Matthew, Claire, and Mason haven't been back to Merle House since the summer they were sixteen. They tried for years to put their history behind them, to forget the mystery of the girl who vanished so long ago. But a powerful force from their past is still at play. This time, there's no hiding from it.

Love the Way You Lie is part of House of Crows, a four-part serial about friends with a shard history of darkness. They've spent their lives running, but they can no longer hide from the past. Each story can be read or listened to in a single haunted sitting.]]> 91 Lisa Unger 1542027306 Carla 4 4.02 2021 Love the Way You Lie (House of Crows, #4)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Carla
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Circling the Drain (House of Crows, #3)]]> 57981221
Mason Brandt dropped out of seminary and found a job at a spiritual center offering guidance to troubled teens. Mason was on himself years ago - a suspect in a young girl's disappearance. When a female student is found murdered. Mason is dogged by suspicion and flees. He hopes Merle House will offer him sanctuary once again.

Circling the Drain is part of House of Crows, a four-part serial about friends with a shared history of darkness. They've spent their lives running, but they can no longer hide from the past. Each story can be read or listened to in a single haunted sitting.]]> 70 Lisa Unger 1542027292 Carla 4 3.91 2021 Circling the Drain (House of Crows, #3)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Carla
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ghosts of Rome (Rome Escape Line)]]> 225008753 In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Rome Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls from the sky, The Choir is plunged into lethal danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.

The Choir is riven with internal tensions and infighting. The organization is in danger of falling apart, which would leave thousands of escaped allied soldiers, POWs, Jews, and objectors stranded in a Rome that is ruled with vicious efficiency by the Nazis. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the architect of the Escape Line and acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, seemingly paralyzed by what he sees as the intolerable risks of keeping the Escape Line in operation.

One man has been given the task of definitively destroying the entire operation and the price of his failure is high—SS Commander Paul Hauptmann’s wife and children are under Gestapo supervision in Berlin. Hauptmann is ordered to stay on in the city he both loathes and loves and to dismantle the Escape Line, or watch his family perish. Into this deliriously thrilling melee steps the Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance who has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann’s authority.

A beautifully written and expertly crafted historical suspense novel that is bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters, The Ghosts of Rome is the thrilling follow-up to Joseph O’Connor’s best-selling My Father’s House.]]> 384 Joseph O'Connor 178730387X Carla 0 to-read 3.78 2025 The Ghosts of Rome (Rome Escape Line)
author: Joseph O'Connor
name: Carla
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What Have You Done? 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 Carla 4 3.73 2024 What Have You Done?
author: Shari Lapena
name: Carla
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fog Descending (House of Crows, #2)]]> 57966605
Driven by an uncanny mystery from his youth, Ian Randall became a “spiritual cleanser,� ridding disturbances from homes. But his belief in the beyond was challenged by his wife’s death. Merle House, the root of Ian’s obsession, could change that. The woods are restless again. Maybe here, Ian will find what he needs—if he’s willing to make a deal with the dark.

Fog Descending is part of House of Crows, a four-part serial about friends with a shared history of darkness. They’ve spent their lives running, but they can no longer hide from the past. Each story can be read or listened to in a single haunted sitting.]]> 70 Lisa Unger 1542027284 Carla 4 3.90 2021 Fog Descending (House of Crows, #2)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Carla
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Unlikely Story 216375597 From the bestselling author of Recipe for Second Chances comes a swoonworthy romance bursting with wit about a therapist who falls for the wrong man…but perhaps the right one was hiding in the margins all along.

As a relationship therapist, Nora helps patients explore their feelings honestly. But she’s hiding an embarrassing relationship secret of her own: she’s in love with someone she’s never even met.

J edits the advice column Nora’s been writing anonymously for the last seven years. He’s in London, she’s in New York, and they communicate solely through shared files. When he confides that his girlfriend’s out of the picture, and her boss asks her to come to London, Nora takes both as a sign.

But that’s not the only thing on her mind. A client’s ex-boyfriend just moved into her co-op, directly beneath her. Eli blames Nora for his breakup and seems determined to make her life miserable, gleefully planning a noisy renovation.

Yet despite all his bluster, Nora eventually starts to see the softness behind Eli’s brusque, charming exterior…and after a slipup reveals a startling secret, Nora wonders whether someone can be two things at once.]]> 312 Ali Rosen 1662527934 Carla 0 to-read 3.88 2025 Unlikely Story
author: Ali Rosen
name: Carla
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Speak to Me of Home 218720419 From #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Jeanine Cummins comes a deeply felt multigenerational family story that asks:ĚýWhat does it mean to call a place home?

On her wedding day in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1968, Rafaela Acuña y Daubón has mild misgivings, but she marries Peter Brennan Jr. anyway, in a blaze of romantic optimism. She has no way of knowing how dramatically her life will change when she uproots her young family to start over in the American Midwest, unleashing a fleet of disappointments. Against the backdrop of her mother’s isolation in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1980s, Rafaela’s daughter, Ruth Brennan, longs only to belong. Eager to fit in, Ruth lets go of her language, habits, and childhood memories of Puerto Rico. It's not until decades later, when Ruth’s own daughter, Daisy, returns to Puerto Rico that her mother and grandmother begin to truly reflect on the choices that have come to define their lives.

When a hurricane ravages the island in 2023, leaving Daisy critically injured, Rafaela and Ruth return to the city where it all began. As they gather at Daisy’s bedside, they’re confronted by the pasts that brought them to this point. We follow them as they come of age, fall in love, take risks, and contend with all the heartbreaks, triumphs, and reversals of fortune � both good and bad � that make up a meaningful life. As old memories come to light, so do buried secrets, leaving everyone in the family wondering exactly where it is that they belong.

A striking, resonant examination of marriage, family, and identity,ĚýSpeak to Me of HomeĚýis ultimately a story of mothers and daughters that asks: how can three women who share geography and genetics have such wildly different ideas of where it is they come from? And more importantly, can they discover the common language to find their way home?]]> 384 Jeanine Cummins 1250759366 Carla 0 to-read 4.35 Speak to Me of Home
author: Jeanine Cummins
name: Carla
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Falling for You Again 221317843 Fate reunites a young woman with her ex-husband in a delightful and inspiring novel about family, old loves, and marriage on a dare by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kerry Lonsdale.

Furniture artisan Meli Hynes still abides by her uncle’s truism: the only lasting love story is the one between artists and their creations. Having already given marriage a shot—for all of twenty-four hours during a Las Vegas fling—Meli made her choice. The wood-crafting shop that is her family legacy will always come first.

But when her uncle decides to sell to a competitor, Meli’s promised inheritance goes belly-up. She’ll do anything to muddle the deal. Including a marriage of convenience to an unforgettable and very practical old friend—the competitor’s son, Aaron. With a controlling family of his own, and every bit as impulsive as Meli, Aaron is in. After all, this isn’t the first time he and Meli got hitched on a whim.

The rules of the ruse are simple: public displays of affection and live together as happy newlyweds. The hardest rule of all? Never let real feelings get in the way of what they plan to be a purely professional second time around.]]> 271 Kerry Lonsdale 1662525281 Carla 0 to-read 4.31 Falling for You Again
author: Kerry Lonsdale
name: Carla
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sirens 210411871 A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine

2019: Lucy awakens in her ex-lover’s room in the middle of the night with her hands around his throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister’s house on the coast of New South Wales hoping Jess can help explain the vivid dreams that preceded the attack—but her sister is missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she starts to unearth strange rumours about Jess’s town—tales of numerous missing men, spread over decades. A baby abandoned in a sea-swept cave. Whispers of women’s voices on the waves. All the while, her dreams start to feel closer than ever.

1800: Mary and Eliza are torn from their loving home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship heading for Australia. As the boat takes them farther and farther away from all they know, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies.

A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.]]> 352 Emilia Hart 1250280826 Carla 0 to-read 3.84 2025 The Sirens
author: Emilia Hart
name: Carla
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Forget Me Not 217387937 A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.

Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.

With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents� as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.]]> 368 Stacy Willingham 1250887976 Carla 0 to-read 4.29 2025 Forget Me Not
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Carla
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All My Darkest Impulses (House of Crows, #1)]]> 57981429
For disgraced professor Matthew Merle, the inheritance of his grandfather's crumbling mansion is both a burden and an offer of safe haven. His childhood friend Claire, a psychiatrist, desperately needs a haven of her own after one of her patients unleashes his dark side. At turning points in their lives, it's inevitable that they should return to the past. And to Merle House. It's been waiting for them.

All My Darkest Impulses is part of House of Crows, a four-part serial about friends with a shard history of darkness. They've spent their lives running, but they can not longer hide from the past. Each story can be read or listened to in a single haunted sitting.]]> 63 Lisa Unger 1542027276 Carla 4 3.77 2021 All My Darkest Impulses (House of Crows, #1)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Carla
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Salt & Broom 123443274
"Salt and broom, make this room
Safe and tight, against the night."

Trunks packed with potions and cures, Jane Aire sets out on a crisp, clear morning in October to face the greatest challenge of her sheltered girls�-school existence. A shadow lies over Thornfield Hall and its reclusive master, Edward Rochester. And he’s hired her only as a last resort. Jane stumbles again and again as she tries to establish a rapport with her prickly new employer, but he becomes the least of her worries as a mysterious force seems to work against her. The threats mount around both Jane and Rochester—who’s becoming more intriguing and appealing to her by the day. Jane begins to fear her herb healing and protective charms may not be enough to save the man she’s growing to love from a threat darker and more dangerous than either of them imagined.]]> 282 Sharon Lynn Fisher 1662515685 Carla 4 4.12 2023 Salt & Broom
author: Sharon Lynn Fisher
name: Carla
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Crash 216223604 The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.

But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
]]> 384 Freida McFadden 1464232989 Carla 4 3.58 2025 The Crash
author: Freida McFadden
name: Carla
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Bookseller 221484756 A woman with a dark past...

Helen Appleby just wants a quiet life. Recently released from prison for the manslaughter of her partner, she's trying to forget her past mistakes � all of them - to rebuild her life and move on.

When she decides to open a bookshop, she’s certain this is the perfect new start. Here, amongst the quiet shelves of her shop and between the covers of her books, she can hide away from the real world and begin again. The world of books the perfect place to find happiness - even if it is all lies.

But the past can never stay hidden�

As she settles into life as an apparently timid bookseller, it seems that someone is determined to sabotage Helen's new life and ruin everything she's built.

But Helen has killed once before. And to protect her future, she could be willing to kill again...]]> 287 Valerie Keogh 1805494546 Carla 0 to-read 4.06 2025 The Bookseller
author: Valerie Keogh
name: Carla
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

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

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Carla 0 to-read 3.72 2025 Famous Last Words
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Carla
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[By Her Own Design: The Story of Ann Lowe, Society's Best-Kept Secret]]> 57992944 The incredible untold story of Ann Lowe, Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress designer, a Black woman who made some of the most famous dresses of all time, only to be forgotten by history.

1953, New York City

Less than a week before the society wedding of the year where Jacqueline Bouvier will marry John F. Kennedy, Jr, a pipe bursts at Ann Lowe's dress shop and ruins eleven dresses, including the expensive wedding dress, a dress that will be judged by thousands. A Black designer who has fought every step of the way, Ann knows this is only one struggle after a lifetime of them. She and her seamstresses will find the way to re-create the dresses. It may take all day and all night for the next two weeks to accomplish the task, but they will do it.

1918, Tampa

Raised in Jim Crow Alabama, Ann learned the art of sewing from her mother and her grandmother, a former slave, who are the most talented seamstresses in the state. After Ann elopes at twelve with an older man who soon proves himself to be an abusive alcoholic, her dreams of becoming a celebrated designer seem to be put on hold. But then a wealthy Tampa socialite sees Ann's talent and offers her an amazing opportunity--the chance to sew and design clothing for Florida's society elite. Taking her young son in the middle of the night, Ann escapes her husband and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.

Based on the true story of one of the most famous designers of the twenties through the sixties who has since been unjustly forgotten, By Her Own Design is an unforgettable novel of determination despite countless obstacles and a triumph celebrated by the world.]]> 384 Piper Huguley 0063059746 Carla 5 4.23 2022 By Her Own Design: The Story of Ann Lowe, Society's Best-Kept Secret
author: Piper Huguley
name: Carla
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tiger Honor (Thousand Worlds, #2)]]> 58293370
Nothing goes according to plan, however. As soon as Sebin arrives for orientation, they are met by a special investigator named Yi and his assistant, a girl named Min. Yi informs Sebin that they must immediately report to the ship Haetae and await further instructions. Sebin finds this highly unusual, but soon all protocol is forgotten when there's an explosion on the ship, the crew is knocked out, and the communication system goes down. It's up to Sebin, three other cadets, and Yi and Min to determine who is sabotaging the battlecruiser. When Sebin is suddenly accused of collaborating with the enemy, the cadet realizes that Min is the most dangerous foe of all...]]> 256 Yoon Ha Lee 1368055540 Carla 3 3.86 2022 Tiger Honor (Thousand Worlds, #2)
author: Yoon Ha Lee
name: Carla
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dragon Pearl (Thousand Worlds, #1)]]> 34966859 THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD MIN comes from a long line of fox spirits. But you'd never know it by looking at her. To keep the family safe, Min’s mother insists that none of them use any fox-magic, such as Charm or shape-shifting. They must appear human at all times.

Min feels hemmed in by the household rules and resents the endless chores, the cousins who crowd her, and the aunties who judge her. She would like nothing more than to escape Jinju, her neglected, dust-ridden, and impoverished planet. She’s counting the days until she can follow her older brother, Jun, into the Space Forces and see more of the Thousand Worlds.

When word arrives that Jun is suspected of leaving his post to go in search of the Dragon Pearl, Min knows that something is wrong. Jun would never desert his battle cruiser, even for a mystical object rumored to have tremendous power. She decides to run away to find him and clear his name.

Min’s quest will have her meeting gamblers, pirates, and vengeful ghosts. It will involve deception, lies, and sabotage. She will be forced to use more fox-magic than ever before, and to rely on all of her cleverness and bravery. The outcome may not be what she had hoped, but it has the potential to exceed her wildest dreams.]]> 312 Yoon Ha Lee 136801335X Carla 3 3.81 2019 Dragon Pearl (Thousand Worlds, #1)
author: Yoon Ha Lee
name: Carla
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #6)]]> 200034641
Princess Ilaria has had it up to her tiara with the paparazzi, her own wild reputation, and the public eye. Trading places with her assistant, Ilaria wants just one blissfully ordinary weekend. Then a handsome photographer with a sexy Scottish burr offers to be her guide. Sparks fly, but how long can they last? Ilaria’s secret has to come out—and it could ruin a perfectly serendipitous romance.

Sariah Wilson’s Royal Valentine is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 71 Sariah Wilson Carla 3 3.14 2024 Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #6)
author: Sariah Wilson
name: Carla
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[With Any Luck (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #5)]]> 200034157
Audrey Love is cursed to be the person before you find your soulmate, the girl you dump for your true love. So when her best friend disappears hours before his Valentine’s Day wedding, Audrey fears that she did the unthinkable and kissed him at last night’s bachelor party. With help from the best man, she retraces her steps to find the missing groom and, with any luck, a true love of her own.

Ashley Poston’s With Any Luck is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 43 Ashley Poston 166251980X Carla 3 3.22 2024 With Any Luck (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #5)
author: Ashley Poston
name: Carla
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Drop, Cover, and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #4)]]> 200033957
This Valentine’s Day, Daisy Murray has her heart set on binge-watching rom-coms. Instead, an earthquake traps her inside a bakery with its impossibly rude and insufferably handsome owner and head baker. They already have a history: she’s always smiled, he’s always scowled. Where better to finally get to know each other than amid the disaster? Then again, they have no choice. Besides, it could have its sweet, undeniable, and unpredictable perks.

Jasmine Guillory’s Drop, Cover, and Hold On is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 40 Jasmine Guillory 1662519834 Carla 3 2.93 2024 Drop, Cover, and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #4)
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: Carla
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The People vs. Alex Cross (Alex Cross, #25)]]> 34522506 This time it's Alex Cross on trial.

Alex Cross is on the wrong side of the law. Serving a suspension from the force while he awaits trial for murder, Cross has been branded as a trigger-happy cop, another bad apple walking the streets with a gun, an accusation that Cross will do anything to refute. To make himself feel useful again, Cross opens a counseling office in the basement of his home. When his former partner Sampson shows up needing his help, Cross jumps at the chance, even if it may end up costing him what's left of his career. When a string of young, blonde women go missing, the investigation leads Cross and Sampson to the most depraved, darkest corners of the internet. Struggling to prove his own innocence and uncover the truth lurking online, Cross must risk everything to save his most at-risk patient of all...himself.
]]> 432 James Patterson Carla 4 4.18 2017 The People vs. Alex Cross (Alex Cross, #25)
author: James Patterson
name: Carla
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Masterpiece 37504654 In her latest captivating novel, nationally bestselling author Fiona Davis takes readers into the glamorous lost art school within Grand Central Terminal, where two very different women, fifty years apart, strive to make their mark on a world set against them.

For the nearly nine million people who live in New York City, Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel, a masterpiece of design. But for Clara Darden and Virginia Clay, it represents something quite different.

For Clara, the terminal is the stepping stone to her future, which she is certain will shine as the brightly as the constellations on the main concourse ceiling. It is 1928, and twenty-five-year-old Clara is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. A talented illustrator, she has dreams of creating cover art for Vogue, but not even the prestige of the school can override the public's disdain for a "woman artist." Brash, fiery, confident, and single-minded—even while juggling the affections of two men, a wealthy would-be poet and a brilliant experimental painter—Clara is determined to achieve every creative success. But she and her bohemian friends have no idea that they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression, an insatiable monster with the power to destroy the entire art scene. And even poverty and hunger will do little to prepare Clara for the greater tragedy yet to come.

Nearly fifty years later, in 1974, the terminal has declined almost as sharply as Virginia Clay's life. Full of grime and danger, from the smoke-blackened ceiling to the pickpockets and drug dealers who roam the floor, Grand Central is at the center of a fierce lawsuit: Is the once-grand building a landmark to be preserved, or a cancer to be demolished? For Virginia, it is simply her last resort. Recently divorced, she has just accepted a job in the information booth in order to support herself and her college-age daughter, Ruby. But when Virginia stumbles upon an abandoned art school within the terminal and discovers a striking watercolor hidden under the dust, her eyes are opened to the elegance beneath the decay. She embarks on a quest to find the artist of the unsigned masterpiece—an impassioned chase that draws Virginia not only into the battle to save Grand Central but deep into the mystery of Clara Darden, the famed 1920s illustrator who disappeared from history in 1931.]]> 368 Fiona Davis 1524742953 Carla 5 3.78 2018 The Masterpiece
author: Fiona Davis
name: Carla
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Hello Stranger 61884987 Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary� condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.]]> 323 Katherine Center 1250283787 Carla 4 3.92 2023 Hello Stranger
author: Katherine Center
name: Carla
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #3)]]> 200034154 USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game.

Rosie Whittaker and her sister are up for some Galentine’s pampering at a day spa. Getting locked inside a flotation tank is so Rosie. Enter a firefighter hero determined to pry this luckless pearl out of her high-tech shell. All Rosie has to go on is a dreamy voice and a flirty sense of humor. Remain calm, Rosie. This could be what you’ve been waiting for. Is this the man she’s waited for her whole life?

Sally Thorne’s Rosie and the Dreamboat is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 44 Sally Thorne 1662520085 Carla 2 3.42 2024 Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #3)
author: Sally Thorne
name: Carla
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #2)]]> 200034606
Holly is dealing with the impending death of her grandmother and still reeling from a bad breakup. One bright spot: a Valentine’s Day card on Holly’s windshield—even if it wasn’t meant for her. An amusing mistake soon turns into a lovely exchange of anonymous notes, little acts of kindness, and a growing affection between two strangers. What happens when one of them has to say goodbye?]]> 61 Abby Jimenez 166251963X Carla 3 3.99 2024 Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Carla
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]>