Riley's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 04 Mar 2025 20:31:54 -0800 60 Riley's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg These Silent Woods 56268973
The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.

Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.]]>
288 Kimi Cunningham Grant 1250793394 Riley 0 to-read 4.01 2021 These Silent Woods
author: Kimi Cunningham Grant
name: Riley
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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Seed 11422798
In the vine-twisted swamps of Louisiana, the shadows have teeth.

Jack Winter has spent his entire life running from something no one else can see. His childhood is his darkest secret, but after a near fatal accident along a deserted road, the darkness he was sure he’d escaped rears its ugly head� and smiles.

But this time, he isn’t the only one who sees the soulless eyes of his past. This time, his six-year-old daughter Charlie leans into his ear and whispers: Daddy, I saw it too.

And then she begins to change.

Faced with reliving the nightmares of his childhood, Jack watches his daughter spiral into the shadows that had nearly consumed him twenty years before.

But Charlie isn’t the only one who’s changing.

Jack never outran the darkness. It’s been with him all along.

And it’s hungrier than ever.

A new breed of dark fiction: the subtlety of Seed will haunt you, and the end will wickedly satisfy.]]>
460 Ania Ahlborn Riley 0 to-read 3.75 2011 Seed
author: Ania Ahlborn
name: Riley
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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Brother 23492624 Brother follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.

Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows� backyard.

But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…]]>
319 Ania Ahlborn 147678373X Riley 0 to-read 3.89 2015 Brother
author: Ania Ahlborn
name: Riley
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)]]> 146941871 610 Chloe Walsh 1728299942 Riley 0 currently-reading 4.48 2018 Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Riley
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Redeeming 6 (Boys of Tommen, #4)]]> 110212831 I’m saving you, six.

With his world unraveling around him, and pressure rising at home, Joey Lynch’s life has never been in more turmoil. Desperate to prove himself worthy of the only person he’s ever put his trust in, Joey fights to stay away from a world that threatens to destroy everything. But with the odds stacking against him by the day, can he keep his head above water?

Unwilling to give up on the boy she loves, Aoife Molloy fights to save her best friend from the edge of self-destruction. Drowning in a world she doesn’t understand, with only her heart to guide her, Aoife refuses to turn her back on Joey, no matter how badly the odds are stacked against them.

Through heartbreak and horror, Aoife and Joey have had each others backs, and this time is no different.

Come what may.

Irrevocable life changing circumstances, unexpected additions, new schools, and healing hearts all come together in Redeeming 6, the explosive finale for Ballylaggin’s hotheaded lovers.

This is your comeback, kid.

Based in Ireland, the Boys of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, hurling, love, and teenage heartbreak.

* Warning *

Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers. Due to its bad language, mature themes, and potentially triggering scenes, Redeeming 6 is recommended for mature readers.]]>
1066 Chloe Walsh Riley 0 to-read 4.63 2023 Redeeming 6 (Boys of Tommen, #4)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Riley
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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Saving 6 (Boys of Tommen, #3) 44153947
When teenagers from the same side of the tracks collide.

The second born son in a broken marriage, Joey Lynch has spent a lifetime picking up the pieces of a family unraveling. When his older brother Darren skips town on his first day of secondary school, twelve year old Joey finds himself thrown into the role of protector to his younger siblings and mother. Plagued by self-loathing, and furious with the world, he grapples with teenage life, his unwavering sense of duty to his family, while balancing precariously close to a life of addiction that threatens to swallow him whole. The only light in his sea of darkness is his boss’s firecracker of a daughter who refuses to back down. A girl who just so happens to be his classmate.

Aoife Molloy has never been backwards in coming forward. Her bubbly and self-assured nature has never led her astray. Until her first day of secondary school when she collides with a hotheaded boy who sparks a burning curiosity inside of her that only grows stronger by the day.

Falling into a complicated friendship with her father’s apprentice, Aoife works to unravels the secrets around Joey Lynch’s life, while he desperately fights to keep her out.

Friendship, devotion, and first love all come together in Saving 6, the first of two books for Aoife and Joey.

Based in Ireland, the Boys of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, hurling, love, and teenage heartbreak.

* Warning *

Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers. Due to its bad language, mature themes, and potentially triggering scenes, Saving 6 is recommended for mature readers.]]>
725 Chloe Walsh Riley 0 to-read 4.47 2023 Saving 6 (Boys of Tommen, #3)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Riley
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Keeping 13 (Boys of Tommen, #2)]]> 42968173 Until now.

Following a devastating injury that has left him sidelined and stripped of his beloved number 13 jersey, Johnny is struggling to hold onto his dreams. Lost, insecure, and desperately seeking comfort, he sets his sights on unraveling the mystery of the girl with the midnight-blue eyes. With his best friend, Gibsie, by his side, Johnny embarks on his quest of exposing the secrets surrounding the girl who haunts his every waking hour.

Keeping secrets has never been a problem for Shannon. The life she was born into demands nothing less. She knows that demons and evil men don't just exist in fairytales. They exist in her world, too. Traumatized beyond repair after her return from Dublin, and desperate to protect her little brothers, Shannon finds herself falling into the same old cover-up, barely keeping her head above water, as her future unravels before her eyes. Beaten and broken, her walls are up and her trust is shaken. Only one boy has the ability to climb those walls. The boy who owns her heart.

Secrets are exposed and lives are changed forever in Keeping 13, the explosive sequel to the bestselling book, Binding 13. Follow Johnny and Shannon as they try to navigate their way through the aftermath of that fateful rugby match in Dublin.

Falling in love was the easy part, what comes next is the test...

Friendship, first love, rising fame, horrifying secrets, and pain all fuel together as two teenagers from the opposite side of the tracks collide in Keeping 13, the concluding story for Johnny and Shannon.

Based in Ireland, the Boys of Tommen series is bound to captivate and lure you into the world of rugby, love, and teenage heartbreak.


Warning
Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers. Due to its bad language and certain scenes, Keeping 13 is recommended for mature readers.
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938 Chloe Walsh Riley 0 to-read 4.51 2018 Keeping 13 (Boys of Tommen, #2)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Riley
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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Taming 7 (Boys of Tommen, #5) 196219692
She's the quintessential sunshine girl. He's the lovable class clown. But storm clouds are rolling in, and this Tommen boy is about to get serious.

Tommen's cheekiest lad, Gerard 'Gibsie' Gibson, has always been a comedian, but most people don't see what lurks beneath the surface. He is haunted by events of the past and he uses humor to cope, hiding his true self from the world.

Claire Biggs, the epitome of sunshine, has always loved Gibsie, her brother's friend and her favorite neighbor. She has always seen a side to him that no one else seems to notice. She becomes determined to tame her wild-at-heart childhood best friend.

When lines are crossed, it becomes unclear whether Gibsie and Claire's friendship will survive. Will it blossom into something more, or will they lose themselves in the wild?

Following characters that readers have grown to adore, Taming 7 will only expand your love for the Boys of Tommen universe. This book is perfect for readers looking

New adult/YA crossover Irish romanceDual POVsFriends-to-loversAngsty tearjerkersBingeworthy TikTok books]]>
464 Chloe Walsh Riley 0 to-read 4.29 2024 Taming 7 (Boys of Tommen, #5)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Riley
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson]]> 6900
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.]]>
210 Mitch Albom Riley 0 to-read 4.19 1997 Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
author: Mitch Albom
name: Riley
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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Dead of Winter 63264519 From bestselling author Darcy Coates comes Dead of Winter, a remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will teach you to trust no one. There are eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing...only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport...and they're far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.]]>
352 Darcy Coates 1728270251 Riley 0 currently-reading 3.79 2023 Dead of Winter
author: Darcy Coates
name: Riley
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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

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

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

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

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.]]>
372 Jason Rekulak 1250819342 Riley 4 4.12 2022 Hidden Pictures
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Riley
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:

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Malibu Rising 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he ’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]>
369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Riley 0 dnf 4.02 2021 Malibu Rising
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Riley
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: dnf
review:

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Beartown (Beartown, #1) 33413128
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.]]>
432 Fredrik Backman Riley 0 dnf, to-read 4.27 2016 Beartown (Beartown, #1)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Riley
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: dnf, to-read
review:

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I Fell in Love With Hope 61713106
Since then, I've sworn never to love anyone again. With three exceptions: My friends, Sony, Neo, and Coeur, a little gang of rebellious, dying kids. Sony leads the charge with the air of freedom and only one lung to breathe it. Neo, a bad-tempered and wheel-chaired writer, keeps track of our great deeds from stealing to terrorizing our nurse. Coeur is the beautiful boy, the muscle, the gentle giant with a failing heart.

Before death inevitably knocks down our doors, my thieves and I have one last heist planned. A great escape that will take us far from abusive parents, crippling loss, and the realities of our diseases. So what happens when someone else walks through the door? What happens when a girl joins our party and renders me speechless with her mischievous smile? What happens when she has suns in her eyes, and as terrified as I am to lose again, I start to fall?

Trigger warnings found in foreword

Written By Lancali]]>
402 Lancali Riley 0 dnf, to-read 3.86 2022 I Fell in Love With Hope
author: Lancali
name: Riley
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: dnf, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)]]> 42201431
Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.

Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of... lucky.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501128035.]]>
432 Christina Lauren 1501128035 Riley 0 to-read 3.88 2019 The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)
author: Christina Lauren
name: Riley
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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Ward D 123193218 spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward.

Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out.

And as the hours tick by, Amy grows increasingly convinced something terrible is happening within these tightly secured walls. When patients and staff start to vanish without a trace, it becomes clear that everyone on the unit is in grave danger.

Amy’s worst nightmare was spending the night on Ward D.

And now she might never escape.
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348 Freida McFadden Riley 0 to-read 3.98 2023 Ward D
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)]]> 196241667 From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller and viral TikTok phenomenon, The Pumpkin Spice Café, comes a brand new spicy romance set in Dream Harbor!

When a secret message turns up hidden in a book in the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, Hazel can't understand it. As more secret codes appear between the pages, she decides to follow the trail of clues� she just need someone to help her out.

Gorgeous and outgoing fisherman, Noah, is always up for an adventure. And a scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. Even better that the cute bookseller he's been crushing on for months is the one who wants his help!

Hazel didn’t go looking for romance, but as the treasure hunt leads her and Noah around Dream Harbor, their undeniable chemistry might be just as hot as the fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon buns the bookstore sells�

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store is a cozy romantic mystery with a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:
� opposites attract
� small town
� forced proximity
� he falls first]]>
384 Laurie Gilmore Riley 0 to-read 3.67 2024 The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Riley
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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Good Material 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story�

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]>
345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 Riley 0 to-read 3.85 2023 Good Material
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Riley
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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The One 40670312 How far would you go to find The One?

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner the one you are genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.� They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after� isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others�

A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.]]>
418 John Marrs Riley 0 to-read 4.09 2016 The One
author: John Marrs
name: Riley
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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Keep It in the Family 60109530
Mia and Finn are busy turning a derelict house into their dream home when Mia unexpectedly falls pregnant. But just when they think the house is ready, Mia discovers a chilling message scored into a skirting board: I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC. Following the clue up into the eaves, the couple make a gruesome discovery: their dream home was once a house of horrors.

In the wake of their traumatic discovery, the baby arrives and Mia ’t shake her fixation with the monstrous crimes that happened right above them. Haunted by the terrible things she saw and desperate to find answers, her obsession pulls her ever further from her husband.

Secrecy shrouds the mystery of the attic, but when shards of a dark truth start to emerge, Mia realises the danger is terrifyingly present. She is prepared to do anything to protect her family—but is it already too late?]]>
380 John Marrs 1542017289 Riley 0 to-read 4.08 2022 Keep It in the Family
author: John Marrs
name: Riley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Tenant 221733727 There’s no place like home�

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he's desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake's looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets...

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour�]]>
368 Freida McFadden 1464238812 Riley 0 to-read 4.29 2025 The Tenant
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Boyfriend 208503280 She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim.

Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.

Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.

Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.

Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she ’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim...

A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…]]>
368 Freida McFadden 1728296226 Riley 3 3.95 2024 The Boyfriend
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:
i read this in 3 sittings but i saw all the plot twists coming. it was a page turner but not my favourite.
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The Crash 216223604 The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

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

She never arrives at her destination.

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

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

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

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
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384 Freida McFadden 1464232989 Riley 0 to-read 3.58 2025 The Crash
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #1)]]> 55710822 In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar - and maybe snag him as a prom date - even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic-comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love - and rethink her own ideas of what happily ever after should look like.]]>
356 Lynn Painter 1534467629 Riley 4 4.28 2021 Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #1)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Riley
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)]]> 61918816 A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.

Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin�-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass� scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.

And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,� and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she ’t refuse.]]>
416 Abby Jimenez 1538704390 Riley 4 4.29 2023 Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Riley
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
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Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]>
454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Riley 0 to-read 3.88 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Riley
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
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The Night We Lost Him 207299448
Though the authorities rule Liam's death accidental, Nora and her estranged brother, Sam, believe otherwise. As they form an uneasy alliance to unpack the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

With Laura Dave’s “signature blend of pulse-pounding suspense� (PEOPLE) and “trademark emotional heft� (The New York Post), The Night We Lost Him is a “propulsive� (Oprah Daily) must-read, with a heartbreaking final twist you’ll never see coming.]]>
298 Laura Dave 1668002930 Riley 0 to-read 3.56 2024 The Night We Lost Him
author: Laura Dave
name: Riley
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
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Blue Sisters 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]>
342 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Riley 0 currently-reading 3.94 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Riley
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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What If It's Us 36260157
Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.

But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?

Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.

Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.

But what if they ’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?

What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?

What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?

But what if it is?]]>
448 Becky Albertalli 0062795244 Riley 3 3.92 2018 What If It's Us
author: Becky Albertalli
name: Riley
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/07/10
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Love and Other Words 36206591 The story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).]]>
432 Christina Lauren 1501190539 Riley 5 4.23 2018 Love and Other Words
author: Christina Lauren
name: Riley
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/10
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The Idiot 30962053 A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.

The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.

At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan's friends. On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana. Selin's summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people. For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself: a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer.]]>
423 Elif Batuman 1594205612 Riley 0 to-read 3.67 2017 The Idiot
author: Elif Batuman
name: Riley
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/21
shelves: to-read
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Never Lie 195946666
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.]]>
337 Freida McFadden Riley 4 3.97 2022 Never Lie
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves:
review:
read in less fhan 24 hours!! i really enjoyed this, i didnt see any of the plot twists coming. im on freida mcfadden binge rn and am gonna start ward d.
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<![CDATA[The Housemaid Is Watching (The Housemaid, #3)]]> 199235727
I used to clean other people’s houses—now, I ’t believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.

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

But her cold stare gives me chills�

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

Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?

I thought I’d left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?]]>
364 Freida McFadden 1464223319 Riley 4 3.79 2024 The Housemaid Is Watching (The Housemaid, #3)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves:
review:
i had no idea what was gonna happen. i loved the beginning bc it was a lot of gossip between the women and i thought it was so funny. suzette was driving me insane w all the backhanded compliments. i wanna know more about janice tho. shes a weird one and i wish that was more in the story. however, the one who did end up being the “murderer� made my mouth drop. i think i had about 6 mouth drops and a couple of gasps. i like this one better than the second but the first one is still top tier. can def read this as a stand alone if u want.
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The Things We Cannot Say 40899464
Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents� farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.

Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.]]>
448 Kelly Rimmer 1525831518 Riley 0 to-read 4.51 2019 The Things We Cannot Say
author: Kelly Rimmer
name: Riley
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)]]> 38359036 äٴǷɾ (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.]]>
272 Heather Morris 006287067X Riley 4 4.32 2018 The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)
author: Heather Morris
name: Riley
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:

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Go as a River 61888081 In the spirit of Where the Crawdads Sing, and set amid the beauty and wilderness of the Colorado mountains, an unforgettable and deeply moving story of a young woman who follows her heart.

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family's peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land but determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria's chance encounter with Wil on a street corner profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the nearby mountains. Taking shelter in a small hut, she struggles to survive in the wilderness, with no clear notion of what her future will be. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the natural world the strength and meaning that set her on a quest to regain all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River rises to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the midst of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when the river is dammed.]]>
320 Shelley Read 0385688776 Riley 0 to-read 4.22 2023 Go as a River
author: Shelley Read
name: Riley
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/06
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The Locked Door 57795665
While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.

Until the day the police arrived at their front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police ’t pin anything on her.

As long as they don’t look in her basement.]]>
313 Freida McFadden Riley 0 to-read 4.00 2021 The Locked Door
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 199719283
When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, they find something elusive―the friendship of two like-minded, pitch-black souls who just happen to enjoy killing other serial killers.

From small-town West Virginia to upscale California, and from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.

But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love.

Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves?
Or have they finally met their match?

Tropes:
Golden retriever x black cat
He falls first
Touch him/her and die
Friends to lovers
Forced proximity
One bed]]>
351 Brynne Weaver 1638931739 Riley 0 to-read 4.15 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Riley
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Naturals (The Naturals, #1)]]> 62949648
Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Naturals is a gripping novel with killer appeal and a to-die-for romance. Don't miss the other books in the Naturals   Killer Instinct ,  All In , and  Bad Blood .  
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311 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 0316540625 Riley 0 to-read 4.19 2013 The Naturals (The Naturals, #1)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Riley
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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Behind Her Eyes 28965131 Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes?

Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still ’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise ’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.]]>
307 Sarah Pinborough 125011117X Riley 0 to-read 3.79 2017 Behind Her Eyes
author: Sarah Pinborough
name: Riley
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]>
368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Riley 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Riley
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Hopeless (Chestnut Springs, #5)]]> 174753697
I’m the outcast bartender, a shy girl from the wrong side of the tracks.

He’s thirty-five and all man, and I’m twenty-two and all� virgin.

He’s also my fiancé. Correction: my fake fiancé.

We start out as a bet. He doesn’t believe that anyone holds my last name against me. So he offers me his to prove a point.

It’s win-win. He gets a break from his concerned family’s prying, and I get a chance to shed my family’s reputation while I save up to ditch this small town.

He says all I have to do is wear his ring, follow his lead, and pretend I ’t keep my hands off of him in public.

But it’s what happens between us in private that blurs all those carefully drawn lines.

It’s what transpires behind closed doors that doesn’t feel like pretending at all.

This engagement was supposed to be for show. This agreement? It has an end date.

He once told me he’d never fall in love.

And yet here I am, head over heels for my fake fiancé.]]>
486 Elsie Silver Riley 0 to-read 4.12 2023 Hopeless (Chestnut Springs, #5)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Riley
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1) 199368721 She's been driving him wild for years . . . the good kind of wild.

The kind of wild that comes with wanting your best friend's little sister and knowing you can't have her.

Forbes may have labeled Ford Grant the World's Hottest Billionaire, but all he cares about is escaping the press and opening a recording studio in gorgeous small town Rose Hill. Something that comes to a screeching halt when he ends up face-to-face with a young girl who claims he's her biological father. Now, he spends his days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old, all while trying desperately to keep his hands the hell off his best friend's sister, Rosie Belmont.

After living in the city, Rosie came blasting back into town like a storm. Beautiful, messy, and chaotic. And one wide-eyed, desperate plea for a job is all it takes for Ford to hire her. He vows to keep her at arm's length. Tries to stick to scowls and grumpy one-liners. But with her, verbal sparring is a type of foreplay―friction that soon turns to blistering heat.

Ford knows damn well he shouldn't cross this line. But shouldn't and can't are two very different things.

And the only thing he truly can't do is resist her.]]>
402 Elsie Silver 0349441626 Riley 0 to-read 3.98 2024 Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Riley
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)]]> 195820807
Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?]]>
432 Abby Jimenez 1538704439 Riley 0 to-read 4.35 2024 Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Riley
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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The House Across the Lake 58909880 The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]>
369 Riley Sager Riley 0 to-read 3.57 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Riley
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
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Everything I Know About Love 46041465
When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else� realizing that you are enough.

Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones� Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.]]>
368 Dolly Alderton 0062968785 Riley 0 to-read 3.98 2018 Everything I Know About Love
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Riley
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: to-read
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No Longer Human 194746 No Longer Human, this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Donald Keene, who translated this and Dazai's first novel, The Setting Sun, has said of the author's work: "His world � suggests Chekhov or possibly postwar France, � but there is a Japanese sensibility in the choice and presentation of the material. A Dazai novel is at once immediately intelligible in Western terms and quite unlike any Western book." His writing is in some ways reminiscent of Rimbaud, while he himself has often been called a forerunner of Yukio Mishima.

Cover painting by Noe Nojechowiz, from the collection of John and Barbara Duncan; design by Gertrude Huston]]>
176 Osamu Dazai Riley 0 to-read 3.99 1948 No Longer Human
author: Osamu Dazai
name: Riley
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 0
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These Violent Delights 49203397 The Secret History meets Call Me by Your Name in Micah Nemerever's compulsively enjoyable debut novel - a feverishly taut Hitchcockian story about two college students, each with his own troubled past, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence.

When Paul and Julian meet as university freshmen in early 1970s Pittsburgh, they are immediately drawn to one another. A talented artist, Paul is sensitive and agonizingly insecure, incomprehensible to his working-class family, and desolate with grief over his father's recent death. Paul sees his wealthy, effortlessly charming Julian as his sole intellectual equal - an ally against the conventional world he finds so suffocating. He idolizes his friend for his magnetic confidence. But as charismatic as he can choose to be, Julian also is volatile and capriciously cruel. An admiration isn't the same as trust.

As their friendship spirals into an all-consuming intimacy, Paul is desperate to protect their precarious bond, even as it becomes clear that pressures from the outside world are nothing compared with the brutality they are capable of inflicting on one another. Separation is out of the question. But as their orbit compresses and their grip on one another tightens, they are drawn to an act of irrevocable violence that will force the young men to confront a shattering truth at the core of their relationship.

Exquisitely plotted, unfolding with propulsive ferocity, These Violent Delights is a novel of escalating dread and an excavation of the unsettling depths of human desire.]]>
460 Micah Nemerever 0062963635 Riley 0 to-read 3.96 2020 These Violent Delights
author: Micah Nemerever
name: Riley
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 14891 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.]]> 496 Betty Smith 0061120073 Riley 0 to-read 4.29 1943 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
author: Betty Smith
name: Riley
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1943
rating: 0
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Dark Matter 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]>
342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Riley 0 to-read 4.13 2016 Dark Matter
author: Blake Crouch
name: Riley
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/30
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The Rom-Commers 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 Riley 0 to-read 4.06 2024 The Rom-Commers
author: Katherine Center
name: Riley
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/28
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The Bodyguard 58724801 Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with her bare hands. But the truth is, she's an elite bodyguard and she's just been hired to protect a superstar actor from his stalker.

Jack Stapleton's a Hollywood heartthrob - captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, rising out of the waves in clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity.

When Jack's mom gets sick, he comes home to the family's Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn't want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah - against her will and her better judgment - finds herself pretending to be Jack's girlfriend as a cover.

Protecting Jack should be easy. But protecting her own heart? That's the hardest thing she's ever done...]]>
302 Katherine Center 1250219396 Riley 0 to-read 3.94 2022 The Bodyguard
author: Katherine Center
name: Riley
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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The Trees 56269278 309 Percival Everett 164445064X Riley 0 to-read 4.06 2021 The Trees
author: Percival Everett
name: Riley
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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Beach Read 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

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

They’re polar opposites.

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

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]>
400 Emily Henry 1984806734 Riley 0 to-read 3.99 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Riley
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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People We Meet on Vacation 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]>
400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Riley 0 to-read 3.85 2021 People We Meet on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Riley
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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Book Lovers 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens� life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters� trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]>
377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Riley 0 to-read 4.09 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: Riley
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/25
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Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They ’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]>
400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Riley 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: Riley
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

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

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

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

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]>
400 Emily Henry Riley 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Riley
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Emperor and the Endless Palace]]> 146145975 “What if I told you that the feeling we call love is actually the feeling of metaphysical recognition, when your soul remembers someone from a previous life?�

In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor—but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue.

In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead.


And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before.

Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly tested by the worlds around them.

As their many lives intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love—a power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both.

An unpredictable roller coaster of a debut novel, The Emperor and the Endless Palace is a genre-bending romantasy that challenges everything we think we know about true love.]]>
312 Justinian Huang 0778305236 Riley 0 to-read 3.48 2024 The Emperor and the Endless Palace
author: Justinian Huang
name: Riley
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/25
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The Nanny 61530932 A woman discovers the father of the child she is nannying may be her biggest (Only)Fan in this steamy contemporary romance by Lana Ferguson.


After losing her job and being on the brink of eviction, Cassie Evans finds herself with two choices: get a new job (and fast) or fire up her long-untouched OnlyFans account. But there are no jobs to be found, and as for OnlyFans. . . . Well, there are reasons she ’t go back. Just when all hope seems lost, an ad for a live-in nanny position seems the solution to all her problems. It’s almost too perfect—until she meets her would-be employer.

Aiden Reid, executive chef and DILF extraordinaire is far from the stuffy single dad Cassie was imagining. She is shocked when he tells her she’s the most qualified applicant he’s met in weeks, practically begging her to take the job. With hands that make her hindbrain howl and eyes that scream sex, the idea of living under the same roof as Aiden feels dangerous, but with no other option, she decides to stay with him and his adorably tenacious daughter, Sophie.

Cassie soon discovers that Aiden is not a stranger at all, but instead someone who is very familiar with her—or at least, her body. She finds herself at a loss for what to do, given that he doesn’t remember her. As their relationship heats to temperatures hotter than any kitchen Aiden has ever worked in, Cassie struggles with telling Aiden the truth, and the more terrifying possibility—losing the best chance at happiness she’s ever had.]]>
421 Lana Ferguson 059354935X Riley 0 to-read 3.54 2023 The Nanny
author: Lana Ferguson
name: Riley
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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Out on a Limb 124950295 397 Hannah Bonam-Young 1778027784 Riley 0 to-read 4.25 2023 Out on a Limb
author: Hannah Bonam-Young
name: Riley
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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Darling Venom 150304767 My second began with his brother.

From Wall Street Journal bestseller Parker S. Huntington comes a broken love story laced with angst and forbidden romance.

I wasn’t supposed to be on that roof on Valentine’s Day.

Neither was Kellan Marchetti, the school’s designated freak.

We met on the verge of ending our lives.

Somehow, the tattered strings of our tragedies tangled and tightened into an unlikely bond.

We decided not to take the plunge and agreed to check on each other every Valentine’s Day until school ended.

Same time.

One roof.

Two restless souls.

We kept our promise for three years.

On the fourth, Kellan made a decision, and I was left to deal with the consequences.

Just when I thought our story ended, another one began.

They say all love stories look the same and taste different.

Mine was venomous, disgraceful, and written in scarlet scars.

My name is Charlotte Richards, but you can call me Venom.]]>
470 Parker S. Huntington 1950209032 Riley 0 to-read 4.08 2021 Darling Venom
author: Parker S. Huntington
name: Riley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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Saving Noah 36121086 We forgive murderers, not pedophiles.

Not since Lionel Shriver brought us We Need to Talk About Kevin has a writer delved into the complexities of a disturbed mother/son relationship. Until now.

Meet Noah—an A-honor roll student, award-winning swimmer, and small-town star destined for greatness. There weren’t any signs that something was wrong until the day he confesses to molesting little girls during swim team practice. He’s sentenced to eighteen months in a juvenile sexual rehabilitation center.

His mother, Adrianne, refuses to turn her back on him despite his horrific crimes, but her husband won’t allow Noah back into their home. In a series of shocking and shattering revelations, Adrianne is forced to make the hardest decision of her life. Just how far will she go to protect her son?

Saving Noah challenges everything you think you know about teenage sexual offenders. It will keep you up at night long after you've read the last page, questioning beliefs you once thought were true.]]>
259 Lucinda Berry Riley 5 3.89 2017 Saving Noah
author: Lucinda Berry
name: Riley
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/13
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holy moly what a roller coaster. i kept thinking the mother was delulu the entire time at the beginning, i couldnt get over it. and then i went to anger towards noah and then to utter sadness to complete SHOCK!!!!! i have not had a mouth drip like that since i read the housemaid a few months ago. holy fkn shit. read at ur own risk imma just say that.
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<![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
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!]]>
329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Riley 5 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/25
date added: 2024/04/13
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Mile High (Windy City, #1) 60909831
Chicago hockey isn't complete without me - everyone's favourite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night.

What I don't like is the new flight attendant on our team's private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I'll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she'll be begging to quit her job.

But every road trip blurs the lines, and I can't quite figure out if I keep pushing that flight attendant call button in order to push her buttons, or if it's more than that.

STEVIE

I've been a flight attendant for years. I thought I'd seen it all, but when my new job lands me onboard working for the most egotistical and self-righteous diva in the NHL, I start to second guess everything. Including the promise I made to myself of never hooking up with an athlete again . . . no matter how annoyingly tempting he may be.

Evan Zanders is unfiltered, unapologetic, and too attractive for his own good. He loves his image, but I hate everything about it.

Everything but him.]]>
603 Liz Tomforde Riley 4 3.98 2022 Mile High (Windy City, #1)
author: Liz Tomforde
name: Riley
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/07
date added: 2024/04/13
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Still Life 57001545
As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot -- a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics -- he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills.

With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a richly drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.]]>
464 Sarah Winman 0593330757 Riley 0 to-read 4.08 2021 Still Life
author: Sarah Winman
name: Riley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/09
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A Hue of Blu 104394068 Bold, charismatic, and charming Blu Henderson wears a fake smile every day, pushing through life because she has to � not because she wants to.
Quiet, introverted, and mysterious Jace Boland catches her eye the second she sees him. After that, it’s game over � not just for Blu, but for Jace as well.
Drawn together by inexplicable attraction, a whirlwind connection forms that persists and torments, mends and breaks, and forces both Blu and Jace to confront the traumas of their past while trying to make their relationship work.
“A Hue of Blu� explores how two broken hearts can find comfort in tragic losses, how two broken souls can find peace in pain, and how loving yourself may be the only way to love another�
No matter the consequence.

Alcoholism, toxic relationships, mental health (specifically depression and BPD), body image, self-harm, mentions of OW/OM, and loss of a parent.]]>
341 Marie-France Léger 8361151125 Riley 2 i give 2 1/2⭐️ ]]> 3.79 2023 A Hue of Blu
author: Marie-France Léger
name: Riley
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves:
review:
I had anticipated this book for a long time. I saw it on booktok ofc w all kinds of quites in it and thought why not? God why did i do this. I didnt feel anything for the characters (especially Jace) however i will say that Blu reminded me a lot of myself in situations which made me a bit emotional but nothing serious. I cant even tell u what happened at the beginning of this book bc i simply dont remember bc nothing happened :))
i give 2 1/2⭐️
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The Women 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

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

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

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

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]>
471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Riley 0 currently-reading 4.59 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Riley
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Heartless (Chestnut Springs, #2)]]> 61373532 Working as a nanny for the world’s grumpiest single dad should have been simple. Except I ’t keep my eyes off him. And he ’t keep his hands off of me.

Cade Eaton is thirteen years older than I am and barely looks my way. Until I get him into the hot tub one night for a game of truth or dare. Then all bets are off—and so are our clothes.

He’s gruff, a little rough around the edges. But broad-shouldered ranchers with calloused hands and filthy mouths are this city girl’s kryptonite. So who am I to resist?

But it’s in our quiet moments together that he softens. It’s when he takes care of me that I realize his hardened exterior is just a façade. It’s when I watch him go all sweet with his little boy that I really fall for him.

Someone convinced him once that his best wasn’t good enough. But I’ve never felt more cherished than I do in his arms.

My contract may say this arrangement is only for two months.

But my heart says this is forever.
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476 Elsie Silver Riley 4 4.39 2022 Heartless (Chestnut Springs, #2)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Riley
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
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<![CDATA[Blossom in Winter (Blossom in Winter, #1)]]> 49240716 "We are not meant to be together. I should've known better. And yet..."

Petra, a seventeen-year-old Dutch-American and the only heir of finance tycoon Roy Van Gatt, has always had her life rigorously planned and supervised by her strict father. From her internship at his hedge fund firm on Wall Street to her degree in economics at Columbia University, Petra is all set for a bright future in finance.

But everything falls apart when she develops a dangerous relationship with her father’s business partner and utmost confidant, Alexander Van Dieren. A Dutch nobleman, known as an unrepentant heartbreaker, twenty-three years her senior, and who is, above all else, her beloved godfather.

A twisted obsession for some, unconditional love for others, but one thing is sure: it’s a relationship that might cost them everything...

This book is intended for mature audiences.]]>
528 Melanie Martins 173335641X Riley 0 to-read 3.94 2020 Blossom in Winter (Blossom in Winter, #1)
author: Melanie Martins
name: Riley
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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I Who Have Never Known Men 43208407 ‘For a very long time, the days went by, each just like the day before, then I began to think, and everything changed�

Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.]]>
188 Jacqueline Harpman 152911179X Riley 0 to-read 4.24 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Riley
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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Notes on an Execution 57773248
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.

Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.]]>
306 Danya Kukafka 0063052733 Riley 0 to-read 4.04 2022 Notes on an Execution
author: Danya Kukafka
name: Riley
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home (Magnolia Parks Universe, #3)]]> 61447046 645 Jessa Hastings Riley 0 to-read 4.24 2022 Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home (Magnolia Parks Universe, #3)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: Riley
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing (Magnolia Parks Universe, #4)]]> 63922275 »Daisy Haites - The Great Undoing« ist der vierte Band von Jessa Hastings' TikTok-Sensation, dem Magnolia Parks Universum, und setzt Daisy Haites' Geschichte fort.

Daisy Haites dachte, sie hätte alles in ihrem alten Leben hinter sich die Kriminalität, ihre Familie und den Mann, den sie liebt. Doch als ihre Sicherheit erneut bedroht ist, muss sie wieder zu ihrem Gangsterbruder Julian und ihrem Ex-Freund Christian zurückkehren, die beide verzweifelt versuchen, sie zu beschützen.
Alles wird noch komplizierter, als Magnolia Parks mit einem gebrochenen Herzen auftaucht, und Julian ihr näher kommt als er sollte. Denn sich zu verlieben ist für Julian nicht nur unerwünscht - es könnte für alle Beteiligten tödlich sein ...

In diesem TikTok-Bestseller kehrt Londons attraktivste Gangsterfamilie zurü Daisy und Julian müssen in dieser dramatischen Fortsetzung nicht nur ihr Leben, sondern auch ihre Herzen beschützen.]]>
366 Jessa Hastings 1398717002 Riley 0 to-read 4.47 2022 Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing (Magnolia Parks Universe, #4)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: Riley
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Daisy Haites (Magnolia Parks Universe, #2)]]> 59708060
As their romance blossoms into something neither were anticipating, Daisy, Christian, and Julian each have to come to terms with the fact that in this life everything comes at a price. As their relationships intersect and tangle, they all learn that sometimes life’s most worthwhile pursuits can only be paid in blood.]]>
436 Jessa Hastings Riley 0 to-read 4.09 2021 Daisy Haites (Magnolia Parks Universe, #2)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: Riley
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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Never (Never, #1) 122053874 THE BRAND NEW FANTASY ROMANCE FROM THE AUTHOR OF TIKTOK SENSATION MAGNOLIA PARKS

There is a boy of legend in the tales passed down in my family. He glides on the coat-tails of the sun, rides the wind, and freedom runs through his veins. His heart - so the legend goes - is wild.

The boy lived in a faraway land tucked behind a star, where pirates were still true, mermaids didn't hide, and fairies flew through the air like autumn leaves on a windy day. He took my mother there, just like he took my grandmother, and my great-grandmother.

Just as he would come for me.

*

Swept away from her life in London to a place beyond the stars, Wendy's granddaughter Daphne is torn between the boy of legend - Peter Pan, whose fate is irrevocably intertwined with her family's - and Jem Hook, the pirate who has captured her heart against all her better judgement.

Filled with hope and heartbreak, beauty and betrayal, dreams and devastating reality, Never Can we ever be free while we're holding on to the past? And what would happen if - just once - we truly let go?

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377 Jessa Hastings 1398717126 Riley 0 to-read 3.23 2023 Never (Never, #1)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: Riley
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: to-read
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If Only I Had Told Her 75408318 An intensely emotional and gripping companion novel to Laura Nowlin's USA Today and New York Times Bestselling novel If He Had Been With Me about the love that both breaks and heals us. Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Jenny Han.

If only I'd told her that I loved her years ago, then I wouldn't be here now.

Finn has always loved Autumn. She's not just the girl next door or his mother's best friend's daughter, she is his everything. But she's not his girlfriend. That's Sylvie, and Finn would never hurt her, so there's no way Autumn could know how he truly feels. 

Jack, Finn's best friend, isn't so sure. He's seen Finn and Autumn together. How could she not know? And how is he supposed to support and protect Finn when heartache seems inevitable?

Autumn surrounds herself with books and wants to write her own destiny—but one doesn't always get a new chapter and fate can be cruel to those in love. 

Told through three different perspectives, If Only I Had Told Her is a love story brimming with truth, tragedy, and the unexpected bonds that heal us.]]>
410 Laura Nowlin 1728276233 Riley 2 didnt like the first one and hated this one more SORRY.]]> 3.95 2024 If Only I Had Told Her
author: Laura Nowlin
name: Riley
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
review:
no. finnys part was good but omg. jack: i cant go out w a girl cause finnys dead.. i dont wanna go to college cause finnys dead.. i wont make friends cause finnys dead HOLY CHRIST like we get it. autumn: im pregnant and thats all were gonna talk about for 100 pages.
didnt like the first one and hated this one more SORRY.
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The Art of Racing in the Rain 3153910
Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life ... as only a dog could tell it.]]>
336 Garth Stein 1554681723 Riley 0 to-read 4.22 2008 The Art of Racing in the Rain
author: Garth Stein
name: Riley
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
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A Certain Hunger 57073124
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.]]>
254 Chelsea G. Summers 1951213432 Riley 0 to-read 3.78 2019 A Certain Hunger
author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: Riley
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier, #2)]]> 127306440
Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure.

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.]]>
151 T. Kingfisher 1250830850 Riley 0 to-read 3.78 2024 What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier, #2)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Riley
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)]]> 58724626 From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher."

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.]]>
165 T. Kingfisher 1250830753 Riley 0 to-read 3.86 2022 What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Riley
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Last House on Needless Street]]> 54621094
All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...

You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...]]>
337 Catriona Ward 1788166167 Riley 0 to-read 3.82 2021 The Last House on Needless Street
author: Catriona Ward
name: Riley
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read
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Flawless 202136684
Ambientada numa pequena localidade, com cenas sensuais e muito emotivas, esta história de inimigos a amantes vai conquistar o seu coração.

As regras eram simples: manter-se afastado de problemas e da filha do seu agente. Agora está agarrado a ela, num quarto com uma única cama. Afinal, as regras foram feitas para serem quebradas�

Rhett Eaton é um profissional dos rodeios. Uma estrela. Mas arrisca-se a perder tudo depois de alguns escândalos públicos. O agente diz-lhe que precisa de recuperar a imagem e apresenta a própria filha como supervisora até ao final da época. Definitivamente, ele não precisa de uma babysitter, especialmente uma que usa jeans justos, tem um sorriso sexy e uns lábios em que ele não consegue deixar de pensar�

Summer Hamilton não será mais uma das suas conquistas. Ela consegue ver o homem por trás da máscara e não se afasta - pelo contrário, puxa-o para mais perto de si.

Não significa nada, assegura Summer. Significa tudo, responde Rhett.

Há limites que eles não podem passar. A reputação dele não aguenta mais golpes, menos ainda o coração ferido de Summer.]]>
364 Elsie Silver 9897247033 Riley 4 all i gotta say is yeehaw 4.06 2022 Flawless
author: Elsie Silver
name: Riley
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves:
review:
all i gotta say is yeehaw
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Betty 48564330 A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in which a young girl discovers stark truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

"A girl comes of age against the knife."

So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence--both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape, rich with birdsong, wild fruit, and blazing stars, becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.

But despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write. She recounts the horrors of her family's past and present with pen and paper and buries them deep in the dirt--moments that has stung her so deeply, she could not tell them, until now.

Inspired by the life of her own mother, Tiffany McDaniel sets out to free the past by telling this heartbreaking yet magical story--a remarkable novel that establishes her as one of the freshest and most important voices in American fiction.]]>
480 Tiffany McDaniel 052565707X Riley 0 to-read 4.41 2020 Betty
author: Tiffany McDaniel
name: Riley
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch, #1)]]> 123179008
For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy� Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It’s been years since he’s seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he ’t take his eyes off her. Despite his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.

Emmy’s got too much on her mind to think about romance. And Luke knows he should stay away from his best friend’s younger sister. But what if Luke is just what Emmy needs to get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?]]>
356 Lyla Sage Riley 2 3.83 2023 Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch, #1)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Riley
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/04
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves:
review:
why did u feel like this whole book was talking about a whole lot of nothing? it was cute but this couldve easily been 200 pages.. not 320!!
]]>
<![CDATA[Love Redesigned (Lakefront Billionaires, #1)]]> 199070596 Julian
If I ever caught on fire, Dahlia Muñoz would fan the flames with a smile.
So, when she returns to Lake Wisteria, I fully intend to avoid the interior designer.
At least until my meddling mother exploits my savior complex.
The faster I help Dahlia find her creative spark, the sooner she will leave town.
But while I was busy getting rid of Dahlia, I overlooked one potential issue.
What happens if I want her to stay?

Dahlia
People say the devil has many faces, but I know only one.
Julian Lopez—my childhood rival and family frenemy.
I vow to steer clear of him while recovering from my broken engagement, but then the billionaire makes an irresistible offer.
Renovate a historic house together and triple our profits.
Our temporary truce becomes compromised as we face years� worth of denied attraction and mixed emotions.
Giving into our desire is inevitable…but falling in love?
That isn’t part of the plan.

Love Redesigned is a steamy, small town romance about two family friends-turned-childhood rivals. It is the first book in the standalone Lakefront Billionaires series and has a happy ending.]]>
530 Lauren Asher Riley 0 to-read 4.00 2023 Love Redesigned (Lakefront Billionaires, #1)
author: Lauren Asher
name: Riley
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Swift and Saddled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2)]]> 195532965
The last thing Ada Hart needs is a man to take care of her. Not anymore. After failing out of her interior design program and the disaster that was her short-lived marriage, Ada clawed her way up from her rock bottom. Now, the only person she trusts is herself, and that has gotten her further than ever before. She has her own business, and one of the largest ranches in Wyoming just hired her for the most important project of her career.

When Ada arrives in Meadowlark, she finds herself in a dive bar where she ’t seem to shake the eyes of a handsome cowboy. When she leads him to the back of the bar, he leaves her with a kiss that most people can only fantasize about. She almost regrets that she’ll never see him again . . . except it turns out he’s her new boss.

Weston Ryder is a happy guy. Even happier now that the mystery woman from the bar is the interior designer for his dream project on his family’s ranch. He feels like he hit the jackpot. It’s too bad she wants absolutely nothing to do with him outside of work. Ada is convinced the pull she feels toward Wes will go away, but Wes ’t stop thinking about her. Even though walls are coming down around Rebel Blue, Ada’s walls are firmly in place.

Can they make it through this project without giving in? Or will they both put their dreams on the line for a chance at love?]]>
320 Lyla Sage 059373243X Riley 0 to-read 3.91 2024 Swift and Saddled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Riley
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Island 58340727 It was just supposed to be a family vacation.
A terrible accident changed everything.
You don't know what you're capable of until they come for your family.

After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram.

But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.

Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.]]>
375 Adrian McKinty 0316531286 Riley 0 to-read 3.71 2022 The Island
author: Adrian McKinty
name: Riley
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Housemaid's Secret (The Housemaid, #2)]]> 62848145 As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can't risk losing this job � not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . .

It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything...

That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go...]]>
318 Freida McFadden 1837901317 Riley 4 lets just say my jaw dropped at least 6 times and half of them were in the last 30 pages. god i live freida mcfadden.]]> 4.21 2023 The Housemaid's Secret (The Housemaid, #2)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Riley
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/29
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves:
review:
4 1/2⭐️
lets just say my jaw dropped at least 6 times and half of them were in the last 30 pages. god i live freida mcfadden.
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<![CDATA[Unravel Me (Playing for Keeps, #3)]]> 199913897
The third book in the globally popular Playing for Keeps series.

Can he leave the past behind to forge the future he’s always wanted?

When it comes to dating, Adam Lockwood wouldn’t know luck if it hit him in the face. After a failed relationship and a string of dates gone wrong, the thought of being vulnerable with someone is terrifying—most women only see his fame. But when his dog runs into Rosie Wells, a beautiful woman with a blush as pink as her hair, she doesn’t seem to have a clue who he is, and Adam seizes the opportunity as a chance to finally be himself.

Rosie has her hands full as a single mother and fourth-year veterinary student, and she certainly wouldn’t know a hockey player if she ran into one. She doesn’t have time to date, and she’s fiercely protective of her little family. But when a chance encounter leads her to Adam, she knows it’s worth risking her heart.

The only problem? Adam is used to wearing a mask—he’s a goalie, after all. And as he holds onto a secret that threatens to unravel him and destroy his new family, they’re both at risk of losing more than ever before.]]>
512 Becka Mack 1668059223 Riley 0 to-read 4.14 2023 Unravel Me (Playing for Keeps, #3)
author: Becka Mack
name: Riley
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Play with Me (Playing for Keeps, #2)]]> 199913902 In the sizzling hockey romance that has taken TikTok by storm, a dedicated player struggles with the number one team rule: don’t go near the captain’s sister.






The second book in the globally popular Playing for Keeps series.



He’s found the perfect person—but she’s the only one he ’t be with�



Garrett Andersen knows that playing professional hockey requires absolute dedication to the rules. There’s just one rule he’s finding difficult to follow: stay away from his captain’s younger sister.



As a professional dancer, Jennie Beckett knows what it takes to excel. She prides herself on being every bit as confident and bold as her brother, sassy as hell, and the only person in charge of her pleasure. No wonder Garrett ’t stay away from her—even if he forgets how to form sentences whenever she’s around.



Jennie would rather avoid her brother’s teammate, especially after several embarrassing run-ins, but suddenly they’re neighbors. And as the connection between them grows, Garrett and Jennie decide to have some fun, no strings attached. Between their busy schedules and her brother’s disapproval, they know keeping things casual and low-key is the smartest play.



But what if their feelings get in the way? After all, they’re only supposed to be playing with each other…]]>
544 Becka Mack 1668059207 Riley 0 to-read 4.08 2022 Play with Me (Playing for Keeps, #2)
author: Becka Mack
name: Riley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Consider Me (Playing for Keeps, #1)]]> 199913907
The first book in the globally popular Playing for Keeps series.

For a shot at love, he’ll do whatever it takes�

Carter Beckett is the NHL’s best player—both on and off the ice. His career is at its peak, his friends are performing better than ever, and there’s no shortage of women to spend the night with. What more could he want?

Olivia Parker isn’t new to professional hockey players, thanks to her best friend’s boyfriend, but she has no interest in dating one herself—no matter how hot he is. And anyway, she loves working as a teacher and hanging out with her best friend, drama-free. Why would she want to spend her time stroking the ego of an arrogant athlete?

But once Carter meets Olivia, he ’t think of anything else. Too bad for him, Olivia is hellbent on keeping him at arm’s length, with no intention of giving into his charms. Perhaps it’s time for Carter to up his game…after all, nobody said he had to play fair.

Sparks will fly as Carter does whatever it takes for Olivia to consider him.]]>
544 Becka Mack 1668059177 Riley 0 to-read 3.74 2022 Consider Me (Playing for Keeps, #1)
author: Becka Mack
name: Riley
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Vaster Wilds 62952130
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.]]>
272 Lauren Groff 0593418395 Riley 0 to-read 3.73 2016 The Vaster Wilds
author: Lauren Groff
name: Riley
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Last Call at the Local (Love, Lists & Fancy Ships, #3)]]> 63139958
Raine Hart is used to the challenges of living with ADHD. It’s why she ditched her life in Boston to busk around Europe as a traveling musician. No boss. No schedule. No one to disappoint but herself. But when a careless mistake in Ireland leaves her unable to perform, she sees no other option but to give up her nomadic life.

Since inheriting the Local, Jack Dunne has wanted to make the pub his own. But the baggage of running a family business and the intrusive thoughts that stem from his OCD make changing things a challenge.

Over a pint with handsome, tattooed Jack, Raine accidentally insults him and the pub. Instead of taking offense, Jack, impressed by her vision of what the pub could be, offers her a job bringing it to life.

But when Raine and Jack develop feelings for one another their opposite lifestyles won’t accommodate, it becomes clear the pub isn’t the only thing that needs reinventing. As the end of their business collaboration draws near, they’ll have to find a way past the limits they’ve placed on themselves or let go of a love that could last a lifetime.]]>
368 Sarah Grunder Ruiz 0593549066 Riley 0 to-read 3.81 2024 Last Call at the Local (Love, Lists & Fancy Ships, #3)
author: Sarah Grunder Ruiz
name: Riley
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Last One 62919433
And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.]]>
448 Will Dean 1668021153 Riley 0 to-read 3.50 2023 The Last One
author: Will Dean
name: Riley
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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Nestlings 65212029 Nat Cassidy is at his razor-sharp best again with his horror novel Nestlings, which harnesses the creeping paranoia of Rosemary's Baby and the urban horror of 'Salem's Lot, set in an exclusive New York City residential building.

Ana and Reid need a break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling―with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia, but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on their baby.]]>
293 Nat Cassidy 1250265258 Riley 0 to-read 3.81 2023 Nestlings
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Riley
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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FantasticLand 28695606
Presented as a fact-finding investigation and a series of first-person interviews, FantasticLand pieces together the grisly series of events. Park policy was that the mostly college-aged employees surrender their electronic devices to preserve the authenticity of the FantasticLand experience. Cut off from the world and left on their own, the teenagers soon form rival tribes who viciously compete for food, medicine, social dominance, and even human flesh. This new social network divides the ravaged dreamland into territories ruled by the Pirates, the ShopGirls, the Freaks, and the Mole People. If meticulously curated online personas can replace private identities, what takes over when those constructs are lost?

FantasticLand is a modern take on Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale that probes the consequences of a social civilization built online.]]>
272 Mike Bockoven 1510709444 Riley 0 to-read 3.84 2016 FantasticLand
author: Mike Bockoven
name: Riley
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Magnolia Parks (Magnolia Parks Universe, #1)]]> 58527403 423 Jessa Hastings 1737281198 Riley 0 to-read 3.68 2021 Magnolia Parks (Magnolia Parks Universe, #1)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: Riley
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Ruins 21726 336 Scott Smith 1400043875 Riley 0 to-read 3.67 2006 The Ruins
author: Scott Smith
name: Riley
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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