en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 08:49:02 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 214493977 Did you love Madeline Miller’s Circe? Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls? Jennifer Saint's Elektra? Natalie Haynes�� A Thousand Ships?

But did you ever wonder who the real women behind the myths of the Trojan War were?

Now award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends �� and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Because, contrary to perceptions built up over three millennia, ancient history is not all about men �� and it's not only men's stories that deserve to be told . . .

In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women �� queens, mothers, warriors, slaves �� were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not �� until now) remembered them.

A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women �� from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope �� Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.]]> 496 Emily Hauser 1529912660 Lucy 0 to-read 4.40 2025
author: Emily Hauser
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> 10482305
Beyond the Pawpaw Trees is a tour through a land as strange and wonderful as Oz, filled with people as delightfully batty as any in Alice’s looking glass. It is a place to return to again and again, beautifully brought to life in Palmer Brown’s fanciful words and intricate, sugar-spun drawings.]]> 136 Palmer Brown 1590174615 Lucy 2 4.11 1954
author: Palmer Brown
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1954
rating: 2
read at: 2018/10/13
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> 63946906 An enlightening linguistic journey through a thousand years of feminist language--and what we can learn from the vivid vocabulary English once had for women's bodies, experiences, and sexuality

So many of the words we use to articulate the experiences women share feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are scrupulously accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value, yet they perpetuate taboos. Where are the plain, honest words for the experiences that women encounter in their daily lives?

Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women's sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women's paid and unpaid work, and gender. Along the way, she challenges our modern language's ability to insightfully articulate women's shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs. Nuttall also tells the story of words like womb and breast, whose meanings have changed over time, as well as how anatomical words such as hysteria and hysterical came to have such loaded legacies.

Inspired by today's heated debates about words like womxn and menstruators--and also by more personal conversations between her and her teenage daughter--Nuttall describes the profound transformation of the English language. In the process, she unearths some surprisingly progressive thinking that challenges our assumptions about the past--and, in some cases, puts our twenty-first-century society to shame.]]> 292 Jenni Nuttall 0593299574 Lucy 0 to-read 3.81 2023
author: Jenni Nuttall
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 56756196
Packed with mouth-watering recipes to make again and again, and chapters on dumplings, noodles, hotpots, rice and even sweets things. All are perfect to try at home for a weekend feast and for quick and easy weeknight dinners there's handy batch cooking and freezer tips.

With beautiful photography and useful step-by-step explanations, this book is a must-have for beginners interested in the basics or more experienced cooks curious about techniques and flavor combinations. Whether you fancy Ramen with Hand-Pulled Noodles or Miso Chicken Claypot Rice, Pippa's vibrant recipes are sure to satisfy every craving.]]> 176 Pippa Middlehurst 1787137767 Lucy 3 food 4.14
author: Pippa Middlehurst
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: food
review:
Lovely to read, but too many meat or fish recipes for me personally.
]]> 6604800
Macaulay attacked Hard Times for its 'sullen socialism', but 20th-century critics such as George Bernard Shaw and F.R. Leavis have praised this book in the highest terms, while readers the world over have found inspiration and enjoyment from what is both Dickens' shortest completed novel and also one of his important statements on Victorian society.]]> 268 Charles Dickens 0140623523 Lucy 2 1001-booklist 3.52 1854
author: Charles Dickens
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1854
rating: 2
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: 1001-booklist
review:

]]> 220569213 An unputdownable supernatural thriller about a mysterious global event, set in an Australian rural town.

It began in every town and city at the same time, in every dark and twisted corner of our world. One third of the earth's citizens were asleep at the time. Their awakening was marked by horror and confusion. Just about everyone else had their routine interrupted as they witnessed the event with eyes wide open. They prayed it was a dream.

In the small, sleepy town of Gattan, population 7448, it happened at eleven o'clock on a Saturday morning. At the local soccer field, only one boy, aged ten years and one week, remained standing as the brothers, sisters and parents of his teammates realised the horror they were witnessing. Their screams split the sky.

One hundred and thirty million died that first day.

Every day since, on the morning of a child's ninth birthday, it happens again. No one knows why. The ongoing horror becomes known as Orpheus Nine and bereft parents cruelly labelled Orpheans. Global leaders have no answers as chaos takes hold. Conspiracy theories and violence spread as scientists wrestle with the ongoing toll and anxious citizens and militant Orpheans try to take matters into their own hands.

In Gattan, the chasm between life before and after grows wider for three old friends, now parents. They struggle with waves of grief at the loss of one child, guilt at one child's survival and anger as another child edges closer to their birthday. No matter the cost, each of the friends attempt to fight the unfathomable in their own way. But the reality is, the clock keeps ticking, the world order is crumbling and the gods are watching ...

From the bestselling author of Mammoth comes a propulsive and spine-chilling thriller that prompts the is this the end of days or the start of something new?

'mysterious, comedic, terrifying and unexpectedly moving' ELIZABETH GILBERT

'Chris Flynn is the fifth horseman of the apocalypse. He'll decimate us with his words and we'll thank him for it.' SIANG LU

'Compelling . . . A darkly funny, thought-provoking read, Orpheus Nine will appeal to fans of Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind.' BOOKS+PUBLISHING]]> 227 Chris Flynn 073365228X Lucy 0 to-read 4.00
author: Chris Flynn
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 208460840
Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become �� or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?

In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture �� or nature?]]> 176 John Boyne 0857529870 Lucy 2 4.21 2024
author: John Boyne
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
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]]> 60177373 Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.�� And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.]]> 607 Stephen King 1668002175 Lucy 4 4.05 2022
author: Stephen King
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/29
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]]> 214537759 OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK �� An astonishing memoir that explores how far we will go to protect ourselves, and the healing made possible when we face our secrets and begin to share our stories

“A beautiful account of the journey of courage it takes to face the truth of one’s past.”—Bessel van der Kolk, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score

For decades, Amy ran. Through the dirt roads of Amarillo, Texas, where she grew up; to the campus of the University of Virginia, as a student athlete; on the streets of New York, where she built her adult life; through marriage, motherhood, and a thriving career. To outsiders, it all looked, in many ways, perfect. But Amy was running from something—a secret she was keeping not only from her family and friends, but unconsciously from herself. “You’re here, but you’re not here,�� her daughter said to her one night. “Where are you, Mom?�� So began Amy’s quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory—a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began.

In her search for the truth, to understand and begin to recover from buried childhood trauma, Griffin interrogates the pursuit of perfectionism, control, and maintaining appearances that drives so many women, asking, when, in our path from girlhood to womanhood, did we learn to look outside ourselves for validation? What kind of freedom is possible if we accept the whole story and embrace who we really are? With hope, heart, and relentless honesty, she points a way forward for all of us, revealing the power of radical truth-telling to deepen our connections—with others and ourselves.]]> 288 Amy Griffin 0593731204 Lucy 0 to-read 4.30 2025
author: Amy Griffin
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 209594872 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]> 384 Ava Reid 0063211556 Lucy 0 to-read 3.90 2025
author: Ava Reid
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 199797799
Everyone knows Judy Blume.

Her books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so drawn to them? And why are we still talking about them now in the 21st century?

In The Genius of Judy , her remarkable story is revealed as never before, beginning with her as a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey. The books she wrote starred regular children with genuine thoughts and problems. But behind those deceptively simple tales, Blume explored the pillars of the growing women’s rights movement, in which girls and women were entitled to careers, bodily autonomy, fulfilling relationships, and even sexual pleasure. Blume wasn’t trying to be a revolutionary—she just wanted to tell honest stories—but in doing so, she created a cohesive, culture-altering vision of modern adolescence.

Blume’s bravery provoked backlash, making her the country’s most-banned author in the mid-1980s. Thankfully, her works withstood those culture wars and it’s no coincidence that Blume has resurfaced as a cultural touchstone now. Young girls are still cat-called, sex education curricula are getting dismissed as pornography, and entire shelves of libraries are being banned. As we face these challenges, it’s only natural we look to Blume, the grand dame of so-called dirty books. This is the story of how a housewife became a groundbreaking artist, and how generations of empowered fans are her legacy, today more than ever.]]> 288 Rachelle Bergstein 1668010909 Lucy 0 to-read 3.80 2024
author: Rachelle Bergstein
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 195430723
At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.

These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world.

Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.]]> 304 Karen Valby 0593317521 Lucy 0 to-read 4.23 2024
author: Karen Valby
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> 52957076
Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents�� House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her six siblings �� and with the childhood they shared.]]> 413 Abigail Dean 0008389055 Lucy 3 3.63 2021
author: Abigail Dean
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> 62322008
Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say.

But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally's life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .]]> 384 Liz Nugent 1844885968 Lucy 3 4.14 2023
author: Liz Nugent
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 11996 "As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker."

A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered... if indeed there were crimes.

The youngest of forty—a child with no name and no past—she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden—in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights—she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.

Then everything changes... and nothing changes.

A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been... and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.]]> 208 Jacqueline Harpman 0380731819 Lucy 3 4.22 1995
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> 217902784
Guided by her grandmother’s cherished photo album from the 1940s, which documents her time spent as a medic-nurse in Scotland during World War II, Nora stumbles upon a mysterious old bookstore in Edinburgh. There, amidst the smell of old books and shelves lined with relics of forgotten lore, Nora's eyes fall upon a peculiar little red book. As she delves into its pages, strange and unexplainable events unfold, including a sudden snowstorm that strands her in the Highlands with a handsome but surly journalist named Alistair.

Snowed in and at odds with one another, Nora and Alistair struggle to get along. With little else to do but tend the fire, Nora immerses herself in the red book’s tale of a young woman from centuries past, on a quest to save her grandmother and resist the pull she feels toward a dashing but aloof son of a Scottish Duke.

As the days pass, stranded in the cabin, Nora discovers a box of letters with an eerie connection to her grandmother’s past, uncovering a family secret buried deep in time. As the weather worsens and their supplies dwindle, bizarre events begin to escalate. With Alistair’s help, Nora starts to unravel the mystery, but what she uncovers not only threatens to fracture her idea of reality but may place her and Alistair in mortal danger.]]> 476 Jessica Dodge 1965409024 Lucy 0 to-read 4.30
author: Jessica Dodge
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Lucy 4 4.68 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> 31456428 Before Verity . . . there was Julie.
When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she'd imagined won't be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather's estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family's employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital.
Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scots Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they've grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation.
Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.
In the prequel to Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, this exhilarating coming-of-age story returns to a beloved character just before she learned to fly.
]]> 336 Elizabeth Wein 0385683456 Lucy 3 3.68 2017
author: Elizabeth Wein
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> 144715767 “Welcome to the family,�� Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters�� secrets are far more dangerous than my own��

Every day I clean the Winchesters�� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out�� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of��

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 328 Freida McFadden 1408728516 Lucy 3 4.31 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
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]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Lucy 4 4.10 2010
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
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]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Lucy 5 4.34 2009
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins 0439023483 Lucy 5 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
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]]> 212174157 From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.]]> 704 Antonia Hodgson 152933988X Lucy 0 to-read 4.48 2025
author: Antonia Hodgson
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> 219802412 It was as if the present and the past were a spider’s web, wherein a shock to one strand could make the whole structure shake.
��
The Kelly family’s��idyllic holiday in the south��of��France is disturbed when Cass, a thirteen-year-old girl, goes missing.��She’s discovered several hours later with no visible��signs��of��injury. Everyone present dismisses the incident as a close brush with tragedy.��
��
Sixteen years later, at a funeral for a member��of��the Kelly family, Cass collapses. The present and the past start to collide as buried secrets come to light and old doubts resurface. What really happened to Cass in the south��of��France? And what’s wrong with her now?
��
A gripping tale��of��unravelling memories and moral ambiguities,��Signs of Damage��wrestles with the difference between understanding other people, and trying to explain them.]]> 304 Diana Reid 176115110X Lucy 0 to-read 3.60 2025
author: Diana Reid
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57873481 The new novel from Salley Vickers, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Librarian and GrandmothersArtist, Hassie Days, and her sister, Margot, buy a run down Jacobean house in Hope Wenlock on the Welsh Marches. While Margot continues her London life in high finance, Hassie is left alone to work the large, long-neglected garden. She is befriended by eccentric, sharp-tongued, Miss Foot, who recommends, Murat, an Albanian migrant, made to feel out of place among the locals, to help Hassie in the garden.As she works the garden in Murat's peaceful company, Hassie ruminates on her past the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood and the love affair that left her with painful, unanswered questions.But as she begins to explore the history of the house and the mysterious nearby wood, old hurts begin to fade as she experiences the healing power of nature and discovers other worlds.In her haunting new novel, Salley Vickers, the bestselling author of The Librarian and The Cleaner of Chartres, writes with the profound psychological insight and sense of the numinous power of place that is the hallmark of all her novels.'Salley Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand. She's a presence worth cherishing' Philip Pullman'The Gardener is a novel of regrowth & regeneration, of sisters overcoming a toxic parental legacy & of the healing power of seed packets. The perfect fictional promise to draw us through a harsh winter' Patrick Gale 'Steeped in a sense of the redemptive power of place, Sally Vickers's 11th novel is a paean to green-fingered regeneration that is both rigorous and charming' Observer]]> 296 Salley Vickers 0241482798 Lucy 3 3.57 2021
author: Salley Vickers
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 196841933 A finalist for the 2025 YALSA William C. Morris Award for Best Debut Novel for Teens, as well as an Indie Next Pick, Amazon Editor’s Pick, and one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of 2024.

An unflinching YA debut about a troubled teen who discovers a pack of feral girls in the woods and is swept up in the ensuing mystery: Are the Wild Girls of Happy Valley lost princesses from a faraway land, as they believe, or are they brainwashed victims of a deranged kidnapper?

In her ambitious debut perfect for fans of Sadie and The Hazel Wood, Madeline Claire Franklin crafts a gripping exploration of how the world teaches young girls to cage their wildness―and what happens when they claw themselves free.

After being placed in foster care, Rhi is hungry for a fresh start and begins working at the Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve. While in the woods, she stumbles upon a surreal sight: a pack of wolves guarding four feral and majestic girls. After Rhi gains their trust, they reveal that they’re princesses from another land, raised by a magical prophet they call Mother―and they're convinced Rhi is their lost fifth sister.

Unsure what to believe, Rhi ushers the girls to civilization, where they’re met with societal uproar and scrutiny, dubbed by the ravenous media and true crime junkies as “The Wild Girls of Happy Valley.�� Desperate to return to their kingdom, the girls look to Rhi for help. Rhi knows the girls are deluded, but at the same time she’s drawn in by their boldness and authenticity―traits she is afraid she has lost within herself. And when Rhi witnesses strange phenomena she can’t quite explain, the line between fantasy and reality grows blurry.

As the hunt for answers intensifies, Rhi must make a decision that will change the course of her life and the lives of her Wild Girls forever.

Content Warnings �� This book portrays, describes, or discusses in detail: Complex-PTSD, suicide and suicidal ideation, disordered eating, body shaming, family and domestic violence, emotional abuse, cannibalism, and sexual assault.]]> 368 Madeline Claire Franklin 1638931003 Lucy 0 to-read 4.12 2024
author: Madeline Claire Franklin
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195790586 She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.�� Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?]]> 336 Katherine Center 1250283809 Lucy 5 4.06 2024
author: Katherine Center
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 112972173
Tamsyn Bligh is not a witch, but she makes her living off of them. As a procurer and seller of magical items, Tamsyn’s business is not always above board, but she’s been trying to fix that (mostly.) Bowen is an occasional customer—as well as the star of several of Tamsyn’s dirtiest dreams—but she’s been around enough witches to know that, as a human, getting involved with one is not the smartest idea. She’s finagled an invite to the Witchy Wedding of the Century in the hopes of finally making a score big enough to retire. Just one priceless magical artifact from Tywyll House would set her up for life.

But Tamsyn isn’t the only one sneaking about in Tywyll House, and the mix of a very strong spell combined with a wedding mishap transports Bowen and Tamsyn into Tywyll House’s past, to the Yuletide Celebration of 1957. As Bowen and Tamsyn work together to get back to the present, they must also face off with the origins of Tywyll House’s haunting, the suspicions of their fellow witches…oh, and the fact that somewhere between the mistletoe and the bonfire, they might be falling in love.]]> 352 Erin Sterling 1035405342 Lucy 2 3.64 2024
author: Erin Sterling
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 59093587 The contestants of a reality television dating show compete for love—and their lives—in this pulse-pounding and viciously funny fiction debut from the GLAAD Award-winning author of Real Queer America.

When the final four women in competition for an aloof, if somewhat sleazy, bachelor's heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they mentally prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and of course, the salacious drama that viewers nationwide tune in to eagerly devour. Each woman came on 'The Catch' for her own reasons—brand sponsorships, followers, and yes, even love—and they've all got their eyes steadfastly trained on their respective prizes.

Enter Patricia, a temperamental, but woefully misunderstood local, living alone in the dark, verdant woods and desperate to forge a connection of her own. As the contestants perform for the cameras that surround them, Patricia watches from her place in the shadows, a queer specter haunting the bombastic display of heterosexuality before her. But when the cast and crew at last make her acquaintance atop the island's tallest and most desolate peak, they soon realize that if they're to have any hope of making it to the next Elimination Event, they'll first have to survive the night.

A whirlwind romp careening toward a last-girl-standing conclusion and a scathing indictment of contemporary American media culture, Patricia Wants to Cuddle is also a love story: between star-crossed lesbians who rise above their intolerant town, a deeply ambivalent woman and her budding self-actualization, and a chosen family of misfit islanders forging community against all odds.]]> 256 Samantha Allen 163893004X Lucy 4 3.52 2022
author: Samantha Allen
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 213712805 The power dynamics of the office are never more obvious than when it comes to food: mandatory lunches with the boss, the colleague who tries to curry favour with home-baked goods, discovering the discarded remnants of someone else's late-night binge . . .

In their Saitama office, Ashikawa is the kind of woman Nitani knows he will likely marry: sweet, obliging, and determined to wean him off his addiction to instant noodles. But he finds himself increasingly unable to respect her �� or the sugary treats she shares around the workplace, winning their colleagues�� affection with baking rather than hard work.

Oshio is bolder and uninhibited �� she is Nitani's drinking buddy. In the oppressive office atmosphere, the pair grows closer, both outsiders struggling with the rigid status quo.

Driven to behave in increasingly absurd ways by the workplace rules that govern their lives, they must navigate the tensions of modern life: between leisure and hard work; indulgence and restraint; the promise of delicious food, and the reality of a lonely pot noodle.]]> 134 Junko Takase 1804947342 Lucy 0 to-read 3.03 2022
author: Junko Takase
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 154985516 For fans of Piranesi and The Midnight Library, a stunning historical fantasy novel set on a grand express train, about a group of passengers on a dangerous journey across a magical landscape

It is said there is a price that every passenger must pay. A price beyond the cost of a ticket.

There is only one way to travel across the Wastelands: on the Trans-Siberian Express, a train as famous for its luxury as for its danger. The train is never short of passengers, eager to catch sight of Wastelands creatures more miraculous and terrifying than anything they could imagine. But on the train's last journey, something went horribly wrong, though no one seems to remember what exactly happened. Not even Zhang Weiwei, who has spent her life onboard and thought she knew all of the train’s secrets.

Now, the train is about to embark again, with a new set of passengers. Among them are Marya Petrovna, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist looking for redemption; and Elena, a beguiling stowaway with a powerful connection to the Wastelands itself. Weiwei knows she should report Elena, but she can’t help but be drawn to her. As the girls begin a forbidden friendship, there are warning signs that the rules of the Wastelands are changing and the train might once again be imperiled. Can the passengers trust each other, as the wildness outside threatens to consume them all?]]> 336 Sarah Brooks 1250878616 Lucy 3 library-book, netgalley 3.58 2024
author: Sarah Brooks
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: library-book, netgalley
review:

]]> 37543204 208 Penelope Lively 0241982189 Lucy 3 3.65 2017
author: Penelope Lively
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Lucy 0 to-read 4.34 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 20697530
The 150 recipes inThe Art of Eating Wellare easy enough for midweek meals, yet possess enough flair to share with friends; you'll learn why eating the right fat feels good for your body, why a plate of meat and two veggies fills you up better than any low-fat pasta dish, and how you can put an end to your sugar crashes and cravings.The Art of Eating Wellis a unique approach to a healthy cookbook; there are no calorie counters. This book is about eating simple, homemade, family-style food that will reawaken your taste buds and tune you on to the taste of real food, so you can take control over what goes into your body and look and feel better as a result! The book is divided into Kitchen and Pantry Basics; Cooking in Advance; Breakfast; Soups made from nourishing bone broth (quality animal foods are at the heart of what they do); Salads; Sides and Snacks; Main Meals, including Meat, Poultry, Fish; Vegetable Mains; Baking and Desserts; Dips, Dressings and Sauces; Super Powered Juices and Smoothies; Basics. There are also tips on Cooking with Children; Getting a head start on the week with the `Sunday Cook Off`; Frugal Feasts and easy One-Pot Dishes.

Self-taught cooks, the British Hemsley sisters have created, through personal experience, research, and much trial and error, an ethos and style of eating that is disarmingly simple. "Diets" are often not sustainable, andThe Art of Eating Welltakes readers on a journey, gently educating and framing a perspective from which the reader can reclaim the word "diet" as a noun (as in the kind of foods a person habitually eats) rather than a verb (to restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight). Jasmine and Melissa show you how and why cooking and eating organic, nutrient-dense, grain- and refined sugar-free, whole and unprocessed foods will nourish both body and mind. They promote an all-encompassing, nurturing alternative to fad diets and processed meals, focusing instead on taste, quality foods and ingredients, traditional wisdom, and modern science.]]> 276 Jasmine Hemsley 1576877272 Lucy 4 4.03 2014
author: Jasmine Hemsley
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 48736212
In Kindred, Neanderthal expert Becky Wragg Sykes shoves aside the cliché of the rag-clad brute in an icy wasteland, and reveals the Neanderthal you don't know, who lived across vast and diverse tracts of Eurasia and survived through hundreds of thousands of years of massive climate change. This book will shed new light on where they lived, what they ate, and the increasingly complex Neanderthal culture that is being uncovered, up to and including the very recent discovery of verifiably Neanderthal cave art.

Based on the author's first-hand experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research and theory, this easy-to-read but information-rich book lays out the full picture we now have of the Neanderthals for the first time, from amazing new discoveries changing our view of them forever to the more enduring mysteries of how they lived and died, and their relationship with modern humans.]]> 463 Rebecca Wragg Sykes 1472937481 Lucy 0 to-read 4.14 2020
author: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 222532844 From Rachel Kushner, Booker Prize finalist and two-time National Book Award finalist, comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France

'The most exciting writer of her generation' BRET EASTON ELLIS

'Reinvents the spy novel in one cool, erudite gesture' HERNAN DIAZ

'Compulsively readable... Kill Bill written by John le Carré' OBSERVER

Sadie Smith �� a thirty-four-year-old American undercover agent of ruthless tactics and bold opinions �� is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists influenced by the beliefs of an enigmatic elder, Bruno Lacombe, who has rejected civilisation, lives in a Neanderthal cave, and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism.

Sadie casts her cynical eye over this region of ancient farms and sleepy villages, and finds Bruno’s idealism laughable, but just as she is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.

Beneath this taut, dazzling story about a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and
the future lies a profound treatise on human history. Creation Lake is Rachel Kushner’s finest novel yet �� a work of high art, high comedy and irresistible pleasure.]]> 416 Rachel Kushner 1529933382 Lucy 3 3.26 2024
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: booker-prize-shortlisted-winners, library-book
review:

]]> 224103430 The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills�� wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.]]> 400 M.L. Rio 1668070022 Lucy 0 to-read 3.87 2025
author: M.L. Rio
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 197717646
It's 2004 and former reality TV star and party girl Maya Miller has just married the most eligible bachelor on the planet: Colin Sterling, of the globally famous Sterling family whose history of aristocratic titles and land holdings rival a British royal and whose media empire is comparable to the Murdochs. To some, Maya represents the American dream. To others, a gold digger. But when Colin's cousin Arianna, the heiress to the family's immense fortune, is found murdered, Maya is thrust into the spotlight: first as she is revealed to be the next heiress to the fortune, and then as the prime suspect.

Swiftly, the entire Sterling family goes into lockdown at Silver House, the family's ancestral estate in the English countryside. They're told it's for their own safety—but Maya becomes convinced that it's not to keep threats out, but to keep secrets in. Now, she has no choice but to find and expose the truth hidden within the Sterling family, and why Arianna, a girl she had never met, chose her to take her place. But Maya has secrets of her own. And she knows that in order to survive the Sterlings, she'll have to beat them at their own game.]]> 432 Anna Sophia McLoughlin 1728296137 Lucy 0 to-read 3.57 2025
author: Anna Sophia McLoughlin
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219401075 Four strangers time travel to the past and find themselves stuck on the day all their lives were changed in this stunning speculative mystery from award-winning film and television producer Dete Meserve, perfect for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Wrong Place Wrong Time and The Paradox Hotel.

What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past? Four strangers in the beach town of Ventura, California are about to find out.��

Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep��landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake.

Enter Aeon Expeditions, the groundbreaking time travel��invention of Mark Saunders—which allows��some lucky clients�� the chance��to spend an hour in their past. Even though Aeon’s technology ensures time travel can’t alter the future, all four clients,��including Mark’s ex-wife Elizabeth,��yearn to revisit the hour that changed their lives forever.��

But when their “hour�� extends beyond sixty minutes, they find themselves stranded in the past. As their paths intertwine unexpectedly, they unearth shocking secrets hidden in the shadows of their shared All their lives were shattered the same night on a secluded highway by the beach. As they delve into the hidden truths of that pivotal hour, a startling revelation emerges. They were not alone. Someone else was present, harboring deadly intentions.

The Memory Collectors is a heart-wrenching, genre-bending novel brimming with hope, grief and second chances.

]]> 336 Dete Meserve Lucy 0 to-read 4.21 2025
author: Dete Meserve
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218185743
These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can't be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.]]> 304 Kylie Lee Baker 0778368459 Lucy 0 to-read 4.30 2025
author: Kylie Lee Baker
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195177497 This cozy debut science fiction novel tells a story of misfits, rebels, found family—and a mystery that spans the stars.

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury—and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as: Why are there love poems in the lobby inbox? How many Imperial spies are currently on board? What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver's conference? And perhaps most pertinently��who is driving the ship?

Each guest has a secret, every member of staff a universe unto themselves. At the center of these interweaving lives and interlocking mysteries stands Carl, one time stowaway, longtime manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It's the love of his life and the only place he's ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl's comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?]]> 324 Grace Curtis 075641931X Lucy 0 to-read 3.67 2024
author: Grace Curtis
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215362651 “The story of relationships built and broken, mistakes inherited and repeated, and the beauty of trying again��.already one of the year’s best.”��People

Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws�� lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task—an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie’s shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett’s friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined.

The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents�� story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past—both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.

Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.]]> 448 Eric Puchner 0385550669 Lucy 0 to-read 3.66 2025
author: Eric Puchner
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214269343 A young witch cursed with sacrificing memories to cast spells must decide how much she’s willing to lose to save her town in this thrilling tale of magic, love, and self-discovery—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic.

In the small town of Gold Springs, Calliope Petridi and her two sisters carefully guard the secret of their magic and the price they must pay to practice it: memories. The more powerful the magic, the greater the memory required.

Luckily, all Calliope wants to do is forget. Forget the mother who left them without a trace. Forget the cracks in her relationships with her judgmental oldest sister, Thalia, and her distant middle sister, Eurydice. Forget about the very cost of her magic. And most of all, forget the way the love of her life shattered her heart two years ago.

But when an ancient evil awakens in their town, the fragile thread that holds the sisters together breaks. As their magic slowly begins to fade, Calliope accidentally binds herself to an annoyingly handsome leader of a rival coven infamous for their ruthless pursuit of power.

Battling a sizzling chemistry to a man she can't trust, Calliope needs to confront her sisters and the painful memories of her past, dark family secrets, and ancient magic in order to keep the town and all she loves safe. But will she have anything left of herself?]]> 400 Breanne Randall 0593875001 Lucy 0 to-read 3.60 2025
author: Breanne Randall
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59470553
But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. A girl named Melantho, who says one more death can stop a thousand.

The prince of Ithaca must die—or the tides of fate will drown them all.

Sarah Underwood weaves an epic tapestry of lies, love, and tragedy, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Alexandra Bracken, and Renée Ahdieh.]]> 432 Sarah Underwood Lucy 2 3.42 2023
author: Sarah Underwood
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 61964751
In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.]]> 355 Patti Callahan Henry 1668011832 Lucy 0 to-read 4.03 2023
author: Patti Callahan Henry
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 41827019 A layered and thrilling suspense novel that grapples with how to live as a woman in the modern world - or in the pages of a book - when the stakes are dangerously high.


When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it’s meant to be a fresh start, away from the big city and the scene of a violent assault she’s desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of a new life and single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative writing group.

When a troubled student starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.

Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late?

At once a breathless battle-of-wits and a disarming exploration of sexual politics, The Body Lies is an essential book for our times.

___________________

'Gripping and strange in the best possible way: the perfect marriage of risky literary fiction and full-on thriller' MARIA SEMPLE, bestselling author of Where d'ya go Bernadette?]]> 288 Jo Baker 085752643X Lucy 4 library-book 3.46 2019
author: Jo Baker
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: library-book
review:

]]> 59571699 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis—with explosive results.

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing.

But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?]]> 368 Ali Hazelwood 1408725789 Lucy 4 3.88 2022
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Lucy 3 4.19 2025
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 52541673 320 Julia Baird 1460710894 Lucy 0 to-read 3.75 2020
author: Julia Baird
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219446158 A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes!

Truyan Saigas didn't choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.

Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father's disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .]]> Elizabeth Lim 0593650638 Lucy 0 to-read 4.49 2025
author: Elizabeth Lim
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214152206 From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars, a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice�� came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.]]> 464 Rebecca Romney 1982190248 Lucy 0 to-read 4.47 2025
author: Rebecca Romney
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1253621 116 Unknown 057122329X Lucy 3 4.12
author: Unknown
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2017/08/26
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
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]]> 212806636 A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.]]> 368 Allegra Goodman 0593730089 Lucy 0 to-read 4.02 2025
author: Allegra Goodman
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44294655
But there is something within Dorothy that's different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority.

A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world's most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.]]> 250 Chelsea G. Summers Lucy 0 to-read 3.73 2019
author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50246
Alternate cover is available here.]]> 329 Daphne du Maurier Lucy 3 3.85 1969
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2014/08/28
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 60372120
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.”—Toni Morrison

For Glory Edim, that "friend of my mind" is books. Edim, who grew up in Virginia to Nigerian immigrant parents, started the popular Well-Read Black Girl book club at age thirty, but her love of books stretches far to public libraries alongside her little brothers after elementary school while her mother was working; to high school librairies where she discovered books she wasn't being taught in class; to dorm rooms and airplanes and subway rides—and, eventually, to a community of half a million other readers.

When Edim's father moved back to Nigeria while she was still a child, she and her brothers were left with a single mother and little money, often finding a safe space at their local library. Books were where Edim found community, and as she grew older, she discovered the Black writers whose words would forever change her: Nikki Giovanni through children's poetry cassettes; Maya Angelou through a critical high school English teacher; Toni Morrison while attending Morrison's alma mater, Howard University; Audre Lorde on a flight to Nigeria. In prose full of both joy and heartbreak, Edim recounts how these writers and so many others helped her to value to find her own voice when her mother lost hers, to trust her feelings when her father remarried, to create bonds with other Black women and uplift their own stories.

Gather Me is a glowing testament to the power of representation and the lasting impact of literature to gather our disparate parts and put them back together.]]> 288 Glory Edim 0525619798 Lucy 0 to-read 4.21 2024
author: Glory Edim
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.�� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders�� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Lucy 2 4.34 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
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]]> 32604292 With over one hundred tasty, family-friendly plant-based recipes in the follow-up to the bestselling Oh She Glows Cookbook, Oh She Glows Every Day is the perfect book for busy people wanting fuss-free healthy eating on a daily basis.

Angela Liddon's irresistible and foolproof recipes have become the gold standard for plant-based cooking. Her phenomenally popular blog and bestselling debut, The Oh She Glows Cookbook, have amassed millions of fans eager for her latest collection of creative and accessible recipes.

Now, in this highly anticipated follow-up cookbook, Liddon shares wildly delicious recipes that are perfect for busy lifestyles, promising to make plant-based eating convenient every day of the week-including holidays and special occasions!

Filled with more than one hundred family-friendly recipes everyone will love, like Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers, Fusilli Lentil-Mushroom Bolognese, and Ultimate Flourless Brownies, Oh She Glows Every Day also includes useful information on essential pantry ingredients and tips on making recipes kid-, allergy-, and freezer-friendly.

A beautiful go-to cookbook from one of the Internet's most beloved cooking stars, Oh She Glows Every Day proves that it's possible to cook simple, nourishing, and tasty meals-even on a busy schedule.]]> 352 Angela Liddon 0718184580 Lucy 3 food 3.95
author: Angela Liddon
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2018/08/26
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: food
review:

]]> 54345835 The Green Barbecue is the only vegetarian and vegan cookbook you need in 2021.

With summer on the horizon, it's time to make the most of the sunny days by sticking on the grill and getting some great food on the barbecue. If prepping a meat-free bbq seems a challenge, think again: this collection of 75 flavour-packed and mouth-watering recipes is completely meat-free.

Whether you're entertaining for vegetarian guests or you're preparing a flexitarian feast, these recipes are quick and easy to make, great for all the family and completely fuss-free.

With a wide range of veggie-friendly options, from griddled papaya and charred tenderstem to crispy barbecue tofu and dill-soused feta, this is the ultimate veggie book of 2021, to cook outdoors or in.

Over half a million copies now sold of Rukmini Iyer's Roasting Tin books. Convenient, simple and delicious one-dish cooking: the go-to books for busy people.]]> 240 Rukmini Iyer 1529110270 Lucy 3 food 3.78 2021
author: Rukmini Iyer
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: food
review:

]]> 54197718
A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation.

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

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

Hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost.

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

But as more time passes, one thing becomes clear:

Only one of them will return home alive.]]> 295 Freida McFadden Lucy 3 3.87 2020
author: Freida McFadden
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
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]]> 62080187
But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate�� with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance.

Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels.

And then Tricia reaches the final cassette.

The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth.]]> 286 Freida McFadden Lucy 3 4.09 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 13046541 272 Sally Butcher 1862058849 Lucy 4 food 4.25 2011
author: Sally Butcher
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: food
review:

]]> 12126510
In one of the most eerie horror stories ever written, Alfred Bannerlee finds himself precipitated into a mysterious household. Shortly after his arrival a strange murder is committed. Two more deaths occur, and there broods over the whole house an atmosphere of nameless horror. And all the time there lurks in the background the strange figure of Parson Lolly, who should have been three hundred years dead. Bannerlee's diary of events tells the tale, and itself plays no small part in solving the mystery.

Why is the manuscript hidden in the lid of that box, and what on earth or out of it makes that noise in the castle? And why does the murderer tell most of the story? Dire deeds in Wales]]> 390 Virgil Markham Lucy 0 to-read 3.17 1928
author: Virgil Markham
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.17
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205335957
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.]]> 400 Rachel Gillig 0356522962 Lucy 0 to-read 4.62 2025
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile�� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 498 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Lucy 4 4.56 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
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]]> 2000471
With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag.

Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.]]> 496 Victoria Finlay 034083014X Lucy 4 3.95 2006
author: Victoria Finlay
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/08
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
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]]> 6457081
Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning, who has a talent for finding fossils, and whose discovery of ancient marine reptiles such as that ichthyosaur shakes the scientific community and leads to new ways of thinking about the creation of the world.

Working in an arena dominated by middle-class men, however, Mary finds herself out of step with her working-class background. In danger of being an outcast in her community, she takes solace in an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, a prickly London spinster with her own passion for fossils.

The strong bond between Mary and Elizabeth sees them through struggles with poverty, rivalry and ostracism, as well as the physical dangers of their chosen obsession. It reminds us that friendship can outlast storms and landslides, anger and jealousy.]]> 352 Tracy Chevalier 0007178379 Lucy 4 3.87 2009
author: Tracy Chevalier
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:
Bought last summer in the Lyme Regis museum.
]]> 203579301 This is a story of girl meets printer.

A customer service assistant spends her long workdays printing letters. Her one friend is the printer and, in the dark confines of her office, she begins to open up to him, talking about her fears, her past, her hopes and dreams.

To her, it seems like a beautiful friendship is blossoming. To her boss, it seems like she's losing her mind.

Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and - worse - separation from her beloved printer. But she's not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is he...]]> 256 Fien Veldman 1035906449 Lucy 2 3.23 2023
author: Fien Veldman
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 42270835 Author of The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in 1960s Florida.

Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide 'physical, intellectual and moral training' which will equip its inmates to become 'honorable and honest men'.

In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear 'out back'. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King's ringing assertion, 'Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.' But Elwood's fellow inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse; the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors.

The tension between Elwood's idealism and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision which will have decades-long repercussions.

Based on the history of a real reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped and destroyed the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative by a great American novelist whose work is essential to understanding the current reality of the United States.]]> 213 Colson Whitehead Lucy 4 4.25 2019
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/06
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
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]]> 200982383 It’s the season
for treason��

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.]]> 474 Mai Corland 1649376901 Lucy 0 to-read 3.80 2024
author: Mai Corland
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1598062 173 Carolyn Keene 0671497391 Lucy 1 3.59 1984
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1984
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 123423832 Two women. An office filled with secrets. One terrible crime that can't be taken back.

Dawn Schiff is strange. At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant. She never says the right thing. She has no friends. And she is always at her desk at precisely 8:45 a.m.

So when Dawn doesn't show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell—beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running—is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everything��

It turns out Dawn wasn't just an awkward outsider—she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds herself caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse that leaves her wondering: who's the real victim?

But one thing is incredibly clear: somebody hated Dawn Schiff. Enough to kill.

The Coworker is a tense, unputdownable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden that explores the dark ways the past can echo through the present―with deadly consequences.]]> 362 Freida McFadden 172829620X Lucy 2 3.68 2023
author: Freida McFadden
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 53470767 One woman's journey of reclamation through natural landscapes as she contemplates identity and womanhood, nature, place and belonging.



Anita Sethi was on a journey through Northern England in Summer 2019 when she became the victim of a racially motivated hate crime. The crime was a vicious attack on her right to exist in a place on account of her race. After the event Anita experienced panic attacks and anxiety. A crushing sense of claustrophobia made her long for wide open spaces, to breathe deeply in the great outdoors. She was intent on not letting her experience stop her from traveling freely and without fear.

Between the route from Liverpool to Newcastle lays the Pennines, known as the backbone of Britain. That backbone runs through the north and also strongly connects north with south, east with west--it's a place of borderlands and limestone, of rivers and scars, of fells and forces. The Pennines called to Anita with a magnetic force; although a racist had told her to leave, she felt drawn to further explore the area she regards as her home, to immerse herself deeply in place. Anita's journey through the natural landscapes of the North is one of reclamation, a way of saying that this is her land too and she belongs in the UK as a brown woman, as much as a white man does.

We're living in an era of increased hostility in which more people of color around the world are being told to go back; strong statements of belonging are needed more than ever. Anita's journey gives her the perspective to reflect upon the important issues encompassed in her experience of abuse including speaking out, gaslighting, trauma, kindness, and notions of strength. Her journey transforms what began as an ugly experience of hate into one offering hope and finding beauty after brutality.

Anita transforms her personal experience into one of universal resonance, offering a call to action, to keep walking onwards, forging a path through and beyond pain. Every footstep taken is an act of persistence. Every word written against the rising tide of hate speech, such as this book, is an act of resistance.]]> 320 Anita Sethi 1472983939 Lucy 3 3.35 2021
author: Anita Sethi
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 31685789
Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough ... not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.]]> 321 Emma Donoghue Lucy 3 4.18 2010
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: booker-prize-shortlisted-winners
review:

]]> 60668886 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout, comes Lucy by the Sea, a novel featuring Lucy Barton, the indomitable heroine of My Name is Lucy Barton and Oh William! Lucy is uprooted from her life in New York City and reluctantly goes into lockdown with her ex-husband William in a house on the coast of Maine. Strout's new novel is a miraculous work of fiction. A brilliantly sharp evocation of the period we have just lived through, it is a novel that both resonates deeply and consoles us too.

'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel

'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith

'She gets better with each book' Maggie O'Farrell

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW
]]> 288 Elizabeth Strout 0241606993 Lucy 3 4.12 2022
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 54377375
When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted.

But after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her infant daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua.

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.]]> 384 Abby Jimenez 1538715686 Lucy 0 to-read 4.13 2021
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49241246 From the USA Today bestselling author of The Friend Zone comes an adorable and fresh romantic comedy about one trouble-making dog who brings together two perfect strangers.

Two years after losing her fiancé, Sloan Monroe still can’t seem to get her life back on track. But one trouble-making pup with a ‘take me home�� look in his eyes is about to change everything. With her new pet by her side, Sloan finally starts to feel more like herself. Then, after weeks of unanswered texts, Tucker’s owner reaches out. He’s a musician on tour in Australia. And bottom line: he wants Tucker back.

Well, Sloan’s not about to give up her dog without a fight. But what if this Jason guy really loves Tucker? As their flirty texts turn into long calls, Sloan can’t deny a connection. Jason is hot and nice and funny. There’s no telling what could happen when they meet in person. The question is: with his music career on the rise, how long will Jason really stick around? And is it possible for Sloan to survive another heartbreak?]]> 384 Abby Jimenez 0349423423 Lucy 3 4.04 2020
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 208159162 "Like an old wives�� tale, like a piece of wisdom passed down through generations which no one questioned or even thought about too hard. Like folklore. It was just something everyone knew, a rule to be followed:

Don’t go to Almanby."

Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it. And Antonia—poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather.

So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever. And as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe.

Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable—you are about to join the privileged few who come to understand exactly why we don't go to Almanby.]]> 446 Adam S. Leslie 1915368480 Lucy 0 to-read 3.61 2024
author: Adam S. Leslie
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 206101583 'A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.'

Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees—and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.

One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst—and the path of her life is changed forever.

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the Strange universe. Featuring an introduction by Susanna Clarke and gorgeous illustrations from Victoria Sawdon truly worthy of the magic of this story, this is a mesmerising, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's bookshelf.]]> 64 Susanna Clarke 1639734481 Lucy 0 to-read 3.48 2024
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217370312 Best-selling author and professional chef Claire Thomson offers up her best 70 recipes with pulses as star of the show, revealing just how simple it is to create delicious one-pan meals that all of the family will love.

Beans, chickpeas and lentils��are so versatile �� you can roast, bake, fry, stew them, or make salads, soups, dips and snacks from them and reap the rewards of their nutritious goodness. They are full to bursting with protein and fibre, iron, potassium and folate and are loved the world over.

Drawing inspiration from across the globe, Claire showcases recipes that will inspire you to choose pulses as your budget-friendly midweek go-to ingredient. From Turkish Lentil Tomato Soup and Pasta e Fagioli to Pork Belly with Butter Beans and Sage,��One Pan Beans is a practical and dynamic source of kitchen inspiration.]]> 160 Claire Thomson 1837832684 Lucy 0 to-read 5.00
author: Claire Thomson
name: Lucy
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]> 374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Lucy 5 3.99 2019
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 50049417
In a post-apocalyptic America, a community survives in a national park, surrounded by water that keeps the Dead at bay. But when winter comes, there's nothing to stop them from crossing the ice.

Then homebody Peter puts the camp in danger by naively allowing a stranger to come ashore and he's forced to leave the community of Wranglestone. Now he must help rancher Cooper, the boy he's always watched from afar, herd the Dead from their shores before the lake freezes over.

But as love blossoms, a dark discovery reveals the sanctuary's secret past. One that forces the pair to question everything they've ever known.

An action-packed and thought-provoking debut, for fans of Patrick Ness, Marcus Sedgwick, DREAD NATION and The Walking Dead.]]> 384 Darren Charlton Lucy 3 3.51 2020
author: Darren Charlton
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 55650158 Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.]]> 359 Dolen Perkins-Valdez 0593337697 Lucy 2 4.36 2022
author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 106291410 From the internationally best-selling author, a twisted, multi-layered spin on the classic horror novel

In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

You know who I am. She's going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There's not a thing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence--and preserve his sanity--as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .]]> 245 Jo Nesbø 0593537165 Lucy 2 library-book 3.23 2023
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: library-book
review:

]]> 203017792
EASY WINS will become your go-to for the most flavourful dishes that come together quickly and promise daily moments of triumph.]]> 352 Anna Jones 0008526656 Lucy 3 food 4.39 2024
author: Anna Jones
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: food
review:

]]> 33998348 333 Ariel Lawhon 0385541694 Lucy 0 to-read 3.72 2018
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7896184 262 Marcus Sedgwick 1842551876 Lucy 0 to-read 3.48 2010
author: Marcus Sedgwick
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123604959 0 Marcus Sedgwick 1444003410 Lucy 3 3.00 2011
author: Marcus Sedgwick
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 84981 148 Natalie Babbitt 0374480095 Lucy 0 to-read 3.90 1975
author: Natalie Babbitt
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60596112
Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.]]> 347 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662500335 Lucy 0 to-read 4.15 2022
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Lucy 0 to-read 4.04 2023
author: Amanda Peters
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61659088 One house. Nine guests. Endless motives for murder...

In the seaside town of Hamlet Wick, guests assemble for the party of the year.

At tonight's 1920s-themed murder mystery party in the crumbling Hamlet Hall, everyone has their own part to play.

But before the dessert has even been served, one of the guests is found murdered in his room.

Trapped in the house together, can the killer be found before they strike again?

In a close-knit community, old rivalries run deep...
]]> 384 Tom Hindle 1529902177 Lucy 3 3.54 2023
author: Tom Hindle
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 52185452 From the acclaimed author of Ghost Wall, Summerwater is a devastating story told over twenty-four hours in the Scottish highlands, and a searing exploration of our capacity for both kinship and cruelty in these divided times.

On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents.

A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a retired couple reminisce about neighbours long since moved on; a teenage boy braves the dark waters of the loch in his red kayak. Each person is wrapped in their own cares but increasingly alert to the makeshift community around them. One particular family, a mother and daughter without the right clothes or the right manners, starts to draw the attention of the others. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls.]]> 208 Sarah Moss 1529035430 Lucy 5 netgalley
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this.]]> 3.52 2020
author: Sarah Moss
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/31
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: netgalley
review:
I absolutely loved Sarah Moss's last novel, Ghost Wall, so I was actually thrilled to be approved to read Summerwater. And I was so happy that it lived up to my high expectations. Beautifully written and it felt like there wasn't a single extra word or word out of place. I loved the concept of writing from the point of view of various guests at the holiday camp, and the way Moss creates such an atmospheric setting is amazing. Loved, loved loved this one and I'm already looking forward to rereading it sometime.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this.
]]> 51055885 'Magnificent��... Dressed for War��works on many as an evocation of an uncommon time; as a celebration of an uncommon woman; as��pure, unalloyed fun.' Lucy Davies,��Daily TelegraphDressed For The Story of Audrey Withers, Vogue editor extraordinaire from the Blitz to the Swinging Sixties��is the untold story of our most iconic fashion magazine in its most formative years, in the Second World War. It was an era when wartime exigencies gave its editor, Audrey Withers, the chance to forge an identity for it that went far beyond stylish clothes. In doing so, she set herself against the style and preoccupations of �մDz��ܱ�’s mothership in New York, and her often sticky relationship with its formidable editor, Edna Woolman Chase, became a strong dynamic in the Vogue story. �� But Vogue had a good war, with great writers and top-flight photographers including Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton �� who loathed each other �� sending images and reports from Europe and much further afield �� detailing the plight of the countries and people living amid war-torn Europe. Audrey Withers�� deft handling of her star contributors and the importance she placed on reflecting people’s lives at home give this slice of literary history a real edge. With official and personal correspondence researched from the magazine’s archives in London and in New York, Dressed For��War��tells the marvellous story of the titanic struggle between the personalities that shaped the magazine for the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond.]]> 357 Julie Summers Lucy 3 3.90
author: Julie Summers
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 209200786
And you thought burning the turkey was the worst that could happen…��

Christmas is all about lists. To do lists. Shopping lists. Lists to bloody Santa. And doesn’t Anna Johnson know it. Waking up on Christmas Eve after the annual Johnson party, she's hungover, exhausted and really sick and tired of Christmas already. All she wants is to tick the last things off her endless list and sit down with the world’s biggest glass of wine. ��

But apparently that’s not going to happen any time soon because now her list looks like ��

1. Wrap the presents��

2. Peel the potatoes ��

3. Stuff the turkey��

4. Solve the murder of Santa

A mysterious death in her home really is the last thing she has time for right now, but with police officers who could double as the Chuckle Brothers and a husband and two kids intent on watching Christmas films, it looks like it’s up to her to find out what the hell’s gone on. Oh �� and figure out what to do with the body before her in-laws arrive.

Happy bloody Christmas indeed.��

–�ē�ē�ē�ē�ē�ē�ē���-

'A brilliantly written, hilarious whodunnit. Smart and very, very funny. Don't read on public transport, you'll laugh so hard people will think you're a lunatic.' IAN MOORE

‘This book is so funny, I’m quite annoyed I didn’t write it!' GILL SIMS

'A compulsive Christmas cake binge of a read �� terrific! So piercingly funny, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or wince. A murder mystery brew that beats egg-nog hands down!' J.M. HALL

��I adored this festive and funny cracker full of glittering one-liners and wit. It’s the perfect Christmas present for that best friend who would definitely help you hide a body!' CHRISSIE MANBY

'Chock-full of proper jokes!' ABIGAIL BURDESS]]> 333 Jo Middleton 0008711119 Lucy 2 3.81 2024
author: Jo Middleton
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 197036052
The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart's content�� which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet...]]> 272 Robert Thorogood 1728284473 Lucy 2 3.78 2024
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 2225238
After winning his hot-air balloon in a poker game, Scoresby finds himself floating north. On the Arctic island of Novy Odense, Scoresby and his dæmon Hester become involved in a deadly plot involving an oil magnate, a corrupt mayoral candidate, and a hired killer who is Lee's longtime nemesis from the Dakota Country. Forming an alliance with one of the island's reviled armored bears, Scoresby fights to break up the conspiracy.

This clothbound volume features the illustrations of John Lawrence, a removable board game on the inside back cover, and the story that offers a glimpse into the origins of the friendship of two beloved characters in the His Dark Materials trilogy.]]> 104 Philip Pullman 0375845100 Lucy 3 3.84 2008
author: Philip Pullman
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 220238824 From the author of the "phenomenal achievement" (Kirkus) Take Me Home, a children’s librarian must temporarily move her public library into a shed in the county botanic gardens, where her archnemesis is the assistant director.

Single mom Tansy Perkins only has room in her life for her daughter and her library. And maybe the next book to add to her collection. But after a catastrophic hurricane severely damages her library, she's forced to temporarily move her branch into the adjacent county botanic gardens, where Jack Reid—the world’s grouchiest gardener who rescued her and her daughter from the flood—happens to be the assistant director.

Jack has always preferred plants over people, having�� built a strong track record of avoiding relationships ever since his divorce six years ago. So, Tansy and her quirky band of bookish colleagues�� encroachment into his carefully-kept territory is a little more than irksome, especially when it means sharing his already-scarce resources.

When Jack and Tansy are tasked with working together on the spring festival, they have no choice but to call a truce. And soon their newfound professional partnership gives way to a deep intimacy that they've both been silently craving. But Tansy has lost too much to risk her heart, and Jack has sworn off real love. When an opportunity arises for funding that both the library and gardens need, will their loyalties lie with the futures they'd always planned for, or the new spark they've found with each other?]]> Melanie Sweeney 0593716124 Lucy 0 to-read 4.31 2025
author: Melanie Sweeney
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198563735
Hazel Elliot doesn’t look back. If the universe closes a door, she burns the whole house down. But when she’s summoned home for her father’s wedding, she’s forced to return to small-town Lockett Prairie, Texas, for the first time since she fled for college.

Ash Campbell has been in love with Hazel since they were teenagers, when she dated his best friend. Now, Ash works at Hazel’s favorite coffee shop, where they feud over the best chair, and his sizzling attraction to the prickly girl from home has only gained steam.

When Ash’s car breaks down just as family obligations pull him home, there’s only one person who can get him there on time. But Hazel has one condition: everything between them must stay the same. And if he fails to oblige? She gets the coffee shop. So the frenemies endure bad music, inclement weather, and B&Bs with only one bed—and that’s just the drive across Texas. When they finally arrive, Hazel must face the bridges she’s burned, because there’s nowhere in a small town to hide, not even from herself. And, right where she least expects it, she might just find a man worth changing everything for . . .]]> 368 Melanie Sweeney 0593716094 Lucy 4 ebook 3.80
author: Melanie Sweeney
name: Lucy
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: ebook
review:

]]> 63208806
But soon the world of Father Winter threatens to claim everything she holds dear. Will they be able to solve the magical mysteries that surround them . . . ?]]> 448 Natasha Hastings 0008496056 Lucy 4 4.02 2022
author: Natasha Hastings
name: Lucy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]>