Lydia's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:46:14 -0700 60 Lydia's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Broken Country 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Lydia 4 4.45 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Morbidly Yours (Love in Galway, #1)]]> 123853225
Lark Thompson would rather get crushed by a falling anvil than stay next to a funeral home during her stay in Galway, Ireland. The vivacious American cartoon creator and animator came here to embrace life, not be reminded of losing her husband.

When Lark learns of Callum’s dilemma and aversion to marrying out of necessity rather than love, she agrees to help the introverted mortician. Although sworn off love herself, she is optimistic that Callum can find The One and secure his inheritance.

But as the dating project progresses and their friendship grows, so does a mutual attraction. The more time she spends with serious, sarcastic Callum, the more she dreads finding him a match. And the more disastrous dates he endures, the more he dreads Lark’s imminent return to the states.

If they think it’s possible to ignore their connection, they’re dead wrong.]]> 328 Ivy Fairbanks Lydia 5 3.86 2023 Morbidly Yours (Love in Galway, #1)
author: Ivy Fairbanks
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage]]> 211399774 Two former serial killers trying to keep their past buried realize that old habits die hard in this “wildly original, razor-sharp thriller� (Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestsellingauthor of All the Colors of the Dark).

I wasn't smashing the patriarchy; I was killing it. Literally.

Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they're murderers. Well, they used to be. They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to rid from the world. Then Hazel got pregnant.

Now, they’re just another mom-and-dad-and-baby. They gave up vigilante justice for life in the suburbs: arranged play dates instead of body disposals, diapers over daggers, mommy conversations instead of the sweet seduction right before a kill. Hazel finds her new life terribly dull. And the more she forces herself to play her monotonous, predictable role, the more she begins to feel that murderous itch again.

Meanwhile, Fox has really taken to being a father. Always the planner, he loves being five steps ahead of everyone and knowing exactly what’s coming around the bend. Plus, if anyone can understand Hazel needing one more kill, it’s Fox. But then Hazel kills someone without telling Fox. And when police show up at their door, Hazel realizes it will take everything she has to keep her family together.]]> 352 Asia Mackay 0593875583 Lydia 0 currently-reading 3.60 2025 A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage
author: Asia Mackay
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![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 Lydia 4 3.83 2023 Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch, #1)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/05
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[If the Shoe Fits (Meant to Be, #1)]]> 55660420 Before Midnight. When a spot on the show needs filling ASAP, Cindy volunteers, hoping it might help jump-start her fashion career, or at least give her something to do while her peers land jobs in the world of high fashion.

Turns out being the only plus size woman on a reality dating competition makes a splash, and soon Cindy becomes a body positivity icon for women everywhere. What she doesn't expect? That she may just find inspiration-and love-in the process. Ultimately, Cindy learns that if the shoe doesn't fit, maybe it's time to design your own.]]> 304 Julie Murphy 1368050387 Lydia 4 3.88 2021 If the Shoe Fits (Meant to Be, #1)
author: Julie Murphy
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
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review:

]]> Lights Out 211200239
I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Josh Hammond has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his eye: Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.]]> 416 Navessa Allen 1638932239 Lydia 5 4.22 2024 Lights Out
author: Navessa Allen
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> The Favorites 211399784 A love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating about a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and rollercoaster relationship. Then a shocking incident at the Olympic Games suddenly ends their partnership.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the "real story" through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can't stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy either. So after a decade of silence she's telling her story, from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 Lydia 4 4.20 2025 The Favorites
author: Layne Fargo
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)]]> 60657589
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.]]> 336 Heather Fawcett 059350013X Lydia 4 3.99 2023 Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
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]]> Mile High (Windy City, #1) 123014107
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.]]> 490 Liz Tomforde Lydia 4 4.19 2022 Mile High (Windy City, #1)
author: Liz Tomforde
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
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]]> Sense and Sensibility 14935 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141439662

'The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!'

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.

This edition includes explanatory notes, textual variants between the first and second editions, and Tony Tanner's introduction to the original Penguin Classic edition.]]> 409 Jane Austen 0141439661 Lydia 4 4.10 1811 Sense and Sensibility
author: Jane Austen
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1811
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 9 (50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard)]]> 53500472 50 shocking true crime cases, including;

Thomas Bunday: After killing at least five women, Bunday committed suicide by riding his motorcycle into oncoming traffic.

John Crutchley: Geeky electronics whizz who liked to tie up his victims, cut them and drain their blood, which he’d later drink.

Frank Canonico: Offered an unusual motive for the murders he commited. He said that he only killed women who “treated him like a sex object.�

Charles Davis Jr.: Ambulance driver who called in the location of his victims� bodies so that he could be dispatched to pick them up.

Ivan Hill: Trawled a 30-mile stretch of California State Route 60 looking for victims. Eight were murdered in just three months.

David Lucas: A Ripper-type killer, Lucas savagely stabbed and slashed his five victims to death. Currently on Death Row at San Quentin.

Charles Terry: A habitual sex offender, the 6� 5� Terry has been linked by some experts to the Boston Strangler murders.

Danny Figueroa: A survivalist with a ‘Rambo� obsession, Figueroa took to firing at strangers from sniper positions, killing four.

Wayne Garrison: A double murderer by the age of 14, Garrison served just four years of juvenile detention. Later in life, he would start killing again.

Bryan Jones: A psychopathic sex killer who had a habit of lighting his victims� corpses on fire.

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Plus 40 more riveting true crime cases…Scroll up to get your copy now.

Book Series by Robert Keller

Most of my works cover serial killers, while the “Murder Most Vile� series covers individual true crime stories. These are the main collections;

American Monsters50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard OfMurder Most VileHuman MonstersBritish MonstersAustralian MonstersCanadian MonstersGerman MonstersCannibal KillersPlus various other standalone books, including the The Deadly Dozen, which is available as a free download on Amazon, and Serial Killers Unsolved, which you can get for free when signing up to my mailing list.Robert Keller’s True Crime eBook

Serial KillersTrue CrimeSerial Killer BiographiesMurder and MayhemTrue Murder CasesSerial Killer Case FilesTrue Crime Short Stories]]> 208 Robert Keller Lydia 0 currently-reading 4.29 50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 9 (50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard)
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Pride & Prejudice 129915654 400 Jane Austen Lydia 4 4.38 1813 Pride & Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1813
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
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]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Volume 8]]> 48758320 50 shocking true crime cases, including;

James Walraven: Known as the “Bathtub Strangler� Walraven raped and murdered three women in DeKalb County, Georgia.

James Debardeleben: When the US secret service started tracking an elusive conterfeiter known as the ‘Mall Passer,� they had no idea that the same man was also a serial killer.

Michael Gargiulo: Wannabe actor who targeted beautiful models and starlets. Among his victims was a girlfriend of Hollywood star, Ashton Kutcher.

Warren Bland: A killer with an unnaturally high sex drive, Bland raped, tortured, and killed countless women and young girls.

Horace Kelly: Riverside County killer who shot his victims from behind and then had sex with their corpses.

Thomas Huskey: Know as 'Zoo Man,' Huskey always insisted that prostitutes go with him to the city zoo for sex. Some of them never returned.

Hugh Morse: Former Marine who graduated from Peeping Tom to a sex killer. Among his victims were a 69-year-old woman and a nine-year-old girl.

James Ritchie: He was a Straight-A student and star athlete. But something went wrong in James Ritchie’s life. He ended up as one of Alaska’s most feared serial killers.

Darrell Ferguson: A huge man, Ferguson stabbed, kicked, and stomped eight frail, elderly victims to death.

Reginald Oates: Oates was just 18 years old when he lured four pre-teen boys to Baltimore’s Leakin Park, where he raped, murdered, and mutilated them.

˃˃˃

˃˃˃

˃˃˃

Plus 40 more riveting true crime cases…Scroll up to get your copy now.

Book Series by Robert Keller

Most of my works cover serial killers, while the “Murder Most Vile� series covers individual true crime stories. These are the main collections;

American Monsters50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard OfMurder Most VileHuman MonstersBritish MonstersAustralian MonstersCanadian MonstersGerman MonstersCannibal KillersPlus various other standalone books, including the The Deadly Dozen, which is available as a free download on Amazon, and Serial Killers Unsolved, which you can get for free when signing up to my mailing list.Robert Keller’s True Crime eBook

Serial KillersTrue CrimeSerial Killer BiographiesMurder and MayhemTrue Murder CasesSerial Killer Case FilesTrue Crime Short Stories]]> 206 Robert Keller Lydia 4 4.17 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Volume 8
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

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

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Lydia 4 3.73 2025 Famous Last Words
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
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]]> This Is a Love Story 216426697 An intimate and lyrical celebration of great love, great art, and the sacrifices we make for both

For fifty years Abe and Jane have been coming to Central Park, as starry-eyed young lovers, as frustrated and exhausted parents, as artists watching their careers take flight. They came alone when they needed to get away from each other, and together when they had something important to discuss. The Park has been their witness for half a century of love. Until now.

Jane is dying, and Abe is recounting their life together as a way of keeping them going: the parts they knew—their courtship and early marriage, their blossoming creative lives—and the parts they didn’t always want to know—the determined young student of Abe’s looking for a love story of her own, and their son, Max, who believes his mother chose art over parenthood and who has avoided love and intimacy at all costs. Told in various points of view, even in conversation with Central Park itself, these voices weave in and out to paint a portrait as complicated and essential as love itself.]]> 304 Jessica Soffer 0593851269 Lydia 4 3.22 This Is a Love Story
author: Jessica Soffer
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.22
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #6)]]> 200034641
Princess Ilaria has had it up to her tiara with the paparazzi, her own wild reputation, and the public eye. Trading places with her assistant, Ilaria wants just one blissfully ordinary weekend. Then a handsome photographer with a sexy Scottish burr offers to be her guide. Sparks fly, but how long can they last? Ilaria’s secret has to come out—and it could ruin a perfectly serendipitous romance.

Sariah Wilson’s Royal Valentine is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 71 Sariah Wilson Lydia 3 3.14 2024 Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #6)
author: Sariah Wilson
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

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

Ashley Poston’s With Any Luck is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 43 Ashley Poston 166251980X Lydia 4 3.22 2024 With Any Luck (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #5)
author: Ashley Poston
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Drop, Cover, and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #4)]]> 200033957
This Valentine’s Day, Daisy Murray has her heart set on binge-watching rom-coms. Instead, an earthquake traps her inside a bakery with its impossibly rude and insufferably handsome owner and head baker. They already have a history: she’s always smiled, he’s always scowled. Where better to finally get to know each other than amid the disaster? Then again, they have no choice. Besides, it could have its sweet, undeniable, and unpredictable perks.

Jasmine Guillory’s Drop, Cover, and Hold On is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 40 Jasmine Guillory 1662519834 Lydia 4 2.93 2024 Drop, Cover, and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #4)
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: Lydia
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

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

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

Sally Thorne’s Rosie and the Dreamboat is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 44 Sally Thorne 1662520085 Lydia 3 3.42 2024 Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #3)
author: Sally Thorne
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #2)]]> 200034606
Holly is dealing with the impending death of her grandmother and still reeling from a bad breakup. One bright spot: a Valentine’s Day card on Holly’s windshield—even if it wasn’t meant for her. An amusing mistake soon turns into a lovely exchange of anonymous notes, little acts of kindness, and a growing affection between two strangers. What happens when one of them has to say goodbye?]]> 61 Abby Jimenez 166251963X Lydia 4 3.99 2024 Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Exception to the Rule (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #1)]]> 200033357 New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners.

One typo, and a boy and girl connect by chance. Wishing each other a happy Valentine’s Day isn’t the end. In fact, it becomes a friendly annual tradition—with rules: no pics, no real names, nothing too personal. As years pass, the rules for their email “dates� are breaking, and they’re sharing more than they imagined—including the urge to ask�what if we actually met?

Christina Lauren’s The Exception to the Rule is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting.]]> 101 Christina Lauren 1662519893 Lydia 4 4.21 2024 The Exception to the Rule (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #1)
author: Christina Lauren
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fall Risk 223199392 Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.]]> 82 Abby Jimenez 1662529082 Lydia 4 4.13 2025 The Fall Risk
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bridesmaid for Hire (Bridesmaid for Hire, #1)]]> 194022372 Sometimes the wedding of the century calls for desperate measures.
And sometimes those desperate measures are to pretend the person you hate most is actually your boyfriend.


After years of working her tail off at her event-planning business, Maggie Mitchell is ready for a vacation. With nothing on her mind but R & R, she’s enjoying the warm weather of Bora Bora when in saunters Brody McFadden, her brother’s best friend and also her sworn enemy. Thanks to years of tension between the two—kicked off by a make-out session at her brother’s wedding that ended horribly—Maggie has sworn to stay away from the man. That is, until she finds out he’s in Bora Bora for his boss’s daughter’s wedding, hoping to use the trip to win a real future at the company.


Maggie promised herself she wouldn’t even think of work on the island, but as word spreads about the “wedding of the century� taking place in the midst of her vacation, she realizes offering her services as a bridesmaid and planner could bring her business to the next level. The only catch? She needs to pose as Brody’s girlfriend to get the job…while letting him stay in her peaceful bungalow.


Tensions rise, irritation flairs, and despite years� worth of bickering behind closed doors, Maggie ’t quite squash the sparks building between her and her new fake boyfriend, especially when she learns the real reason their first kiss was cut short. But as the wedding day draws closer and everything starts to go wrong, it just might be Brody who sends Maggie’s business crashing down—and her heart along with it.

]]> 448 Meghan Quinn 1728294363 Lydia 4 3.72 2024 Bridesmaid for Hire (Bridesmaid for Hire, #1)
author: Meghan Quinn
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Lydia 0 currently-reading 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)]]> 211081101
The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara's homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.

Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save� and which kingdom she’ll destroy.

Passionate and violent, The Bridge Kingdom is a seductive fantasy perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]> 448 Danielle L. Jensen 0593975189 Lydia 0 currently-reading 4.01 2018 The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)]]> 123257687
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.]]> 342 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649375808 Lydia 5 3.88 2023 Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 7]]> 43972253 50 shocking true crime cases, including;

Cesar Barone: Embarked on a killing spree in order to emulate his hero, Ted Bundy. Caught after he boasted about his misdeeds.

Steven Catlin: A financially-motivated serial killer who used the rare toxin Paraquat to murder his mother and two of his wives.

Bobby Jack Fowler: A nomadic killer, Fowler wandered the country, killing wherever he stopped. He has been linked to over 50 murders.

Debra Sue Tuggle: Obsessed with sex, Tuggle frequently fell pregnant. When she couldn’t be bothered with an abortion, she suffocated the baby instead.

Bernard Giles: A happily married family man who enjoyed picking up young hitchhikers to rape and strangle.

Boone Helm: An outlaw of the Old West, Boone had a taste for cannibalism and would sometimes kill and eat his saddle partners.

Paul Rowles: Obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, Rowles started hunting and attacking women who looked like her. Few survived the encounter.

Darren Vann: Used online sex sites to lure prostitutes to cheap hotels where he raped and strangled them.

Buddy Earl Justus: Kept us a regular work routine during the week. Over the weekends he'd go on road trips, trawling for victims.

Cory Morris: Young killer who murdered five prostitutes in his trailer, leaving their bodies to rot on the premises.

˃˃˃

˃˃˃

˃˃˃

Plus 40 more riveting true crime cases…Scroll up to get your copy now.

Book Series by Robert Keller

Most of my works cover serial killers, while the “Murder Most Vile� series covers individual true crime stories. These are the main collections;

American Monsters 50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Murder Most Vile Human Monsters British Monsters Australian Monsters Canadian Monsters German Monsters Cannibal Killers Plus various other standalone books, including the The Deadly Dozen, which is available as a free download on Amazon, and Serial Killers Unsolved, which you can get for free when signing up to my mailing list.

Robert Keller’s True Crime eBook Categories:

Serial Killers True Crime Serial Killer Biographies Murder and Mayhem True Murder Cases Serial Killer Case Files True Crime Short Stories ]]> 208 Robert Keller Lydia 4 4.28 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 7
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Twisted Love (Twisted, #1) 62057697
He has a heart of ice…but for her, he'd burn the world

A diverse new adult steamy romance from Tiktok sensation and USA Today bestselling author Ana Huang.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can't escape.

Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.

But when he's forced to look after his best friend's sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:

A crack.

A melt.

A fire that could end his world as he knew it.

***

Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can't remember.

But despite her broken past, she's never stopped seeing the beauty in the world...including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn't want.

Her brother's best friend.

Her neighbor.

Her savior and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen-but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both...and everything they hold dear.

Twisted Love is a contemporary brother's best friend/grumpy sunshine romance. It's book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.]]> 343 Ana Huang 1728274869 Lydia 4 3.71 2021 Twisted Love (Twisted, #1)
author: Ana Huang
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Caraval (Caraval, #1) 27883214 A legendary competition.
A mesmerizing romance.
An unbreakable bond
between two sisters.

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.]]> 407 Stephanie Garber 1250095255 Lydia 4 3.97 2016 Caraval (Caraval, #1)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Lydia 5 4.37 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gild (The Plated Prisoner, #1)]]> 56483061 The fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule.

Gold.

Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold.

Even me.

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe.

Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.

Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.

Because these bars I’m kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I’d never left.

The myth of King Midas reimagined. This compelling adult fantasy series is as addictive as it is unexpected. With romance, intrigue, and danger, the gilded world of Orea will grip you from the very first page.

Please Note: This book contains explicit content and darker elements, including mature language, violence, and rape. It is not intended for anyone under 18 years of age. This is book one in a series.

An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.]]> 402 Raven Kennedy Lydia 4 3.60 2020 Gild (The Plated Prisoner, #1)
author: Raven Kennedy
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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]]> A Killing Cold 211004079 A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she ’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.]]> 291 Kate Alice Marshall 1250343054 Lydia 3 3.80 2025 A Killing Cold
author: Kate Alice Marshall
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> PS: I Hate You 209455843
Sure, Dom was Josh’s life-long best friend. He’s also the infuriating man who broke Maddie’s heart back when she was naïve enough to give it to him. But since Dom insists on following the rules and Josh didn’t leave much room for Maddie to argue the matter, they embark together on a farewell trip that spans thousands of miles, exploring new places and revisiting their complicated history along the way.

After a snowstorm leads to a shared bed, Maddie starts to wonder if her brother might be matchmaking from the grave. But when grief also reopens old wounds between them, Maddie will need more than Josh’s ghostly guidance to trust Dom again.]]> 432 Lauren Connolly Lydia 4 4.07 2024 PS: I Hate You
author: Lauren Connolly
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 50659472 The epic third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.

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

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

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the fate of Feyre's world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.]]> 699 Sarah J. Maas 1635575605 Lydia 5 4.47 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 6]]> 37425212 50 shocking true crime cases, including;

Charles Albright: Some people collect coins or stamps, Charles Albright collected eyeballs.

Paul Bateson: The depraved killer behind New York’s “Fag in a Bag� murders.

Anthony & Nathaniel Cook: Horrendously cruel siblings who terrorized Toledo, Ohio with a series of startlingly bloody murders.

William Gautney: A murderous tramp who rode the rails across America, snatching and killing children wherever he stopped off.

Vicky Dawn Jackson: Deadly nurse who turned a small Texas hospital into a house of death.

Richard Macek: The ‘Mad Biter� savaged his victims with his teeth.

Joe Roy Metheny: Cannibal killer who claimed that he sold his victims� flesh in 'pork sandwiches.�

Joseph Naso: This killer rapist enjoyed posing and photographing his victims� corpses.

Gary Lee Schaefer:’Born-again Christian� and diligent churchgoer, Schaefer was also the savage sex slayer of young girls.

Lesley Eugene Warren: A smooth-talking lady’s man with a taste for rape and murder.

˃˃˃

˃˃˃

˃˃˃

Plus 40 more riveting true crime cases…Scroll up to get your copy

Book Series by Robert Keller

Most of my works cover serial killers, while the “Murder Most Vile� series covers individual true crime stories. These are the main collections;

American Monsters50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard OfMurder Most VileHuman MonstersBritish MonstersAustralian MonstersCanadian MonstersGerman MonstersCannibal KillersPlus various other standalone books, including the The Deadly Dozen, which is available as a free download on Amazon, and Serial Killers Unsolved, which you can get for free when signing up to my mailing list.Robert Keller’s True Crime eBook

Serial KillersTrue CrimeSerial Killer BiographiesMurder and MayhemTrue Murder CasesSerial Killer Case FilesTrue Crime Short Stories]]> 209 Robert Keller Lydia 4 4.18 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 6
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Lydia 3 3.85 2023 Good Material
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #5)]]> 220389090
All Evie Cruz wants for Christmas is a nap. And maybe some ornaments for her naked Christmas tree. And while she’s making a list, she wouldn’t mind unwrapping her sexy upstairs neighbor like a present. Luckily, the building’s Santa-themed party and a surprise sprig of mistletoe give her just the opening she needs to make all her wishes come true.

Alexis Daria’s Only Santas in the Building is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 65 Alexis Daria 1662529376 Lydia 4 3.36 2024 Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #5)
author: Alexis Daria
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4)]]> 220389457
When Everleigh Dangerfield’s baking disaster necessitates a call to 911, firefighter Griffin Brantley douses the flames in the kitchen, but the ones he stokes in Everleigh are an entirely different story. Unfortunately, Everleigh’s only visiting and doesn’t do casual hookups, no matter how smoldering the temptation. But Everleigh’s holiday mishaps have just begun. And Griffin is seemingly always on call. If Everleigh is game for a change of plans, he can give her the merriest Christmas of her life.

Alexandria Bellefleur’s Merriment and Mayhem is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 58 Alexandria Bellefleur 1662529341 Lydia 4 3.28 2024 Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4)
author: Alexandria Bellefleur
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #3)]]> 220389455
Nina and William are underpaid adjunct professors at the same university, where winter break is no break at all: ’tis the season to make extra money. When their holiday side hustle has them stranded by a blinding blizzard in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing to do but cuddle up for warmth and play a game of Never Have I Ever to pass the time. But in the game of love, secrets never stay secret for long�

Olivia Dade’s All by My Elf is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 55 Olivia Dade 166252823X Lydia 4 2.58 2024 All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #3)
author: Olivia Dade
name: Lydia
average rating: 2.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #2)]]> 220389465 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she ’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 59 Tessa Bailey 1662528736 Lydia 4 2.79 2024 Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #2)
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Lydia
average rating: 2.79
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1)]]> 220389458 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Ali Hazelwood’s Cruel Winter with You is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 73 Ali Hazelwood 1662528396 Lydia 4 3.68 2024 Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 Lydia 4 3.92 2024 The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
author: Ally Carter
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
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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.
]]> 476 Elsie Silver Lydia 4 4.39 2022 Heartless (Chestnut Springs, #2)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)]]> 55457493
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?]]> 422 Richard Osman Lydia 5 4.36 2021 The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)
author: Richard Osman
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Community Board 61193944
Where does one go, you might ask, when the world falls apart? When the immutable facts of your life—the mundane, the trivial, the take-for-granted minutiae that once filled every second of every day—suddenly disappear? Where does one go in such dire and unexpected circumstances?

I went home, of course.

MURBRIDGE COMMUNITY MESSAGE BOARD

FREE: 500 cans of corn. Accidentally ordered them online. I really hate corn. Happy to help load.

REMINDER: use your own goddamn garbage can for your own goddamn pet waste. I’m looking at you Peter Luflin.

REMINDER: monthly Select Board meeting this Friday. Agenda items: 1) sludge removal; 2) upkeep of chime tower; 3) ice rink monitor thank you gift. Questions? Contact Hildegard Hyman.

Darcy Clipper, prodigal daughter, nearly thirty, has returned home to Murbridge, Massachusetts, after her life takes an unwelcome left turn. Murbridge, Darcy is convinced, will welcome her home and provide a safe space in which she can nurse her wounds and harbor grudges, both real and imagined.

But Murbridge, like so much else Darcy thought to be fixed and immutable, has changed. And while Darcy’s first instinct might be to hole herself up in her childhood bedroom, subsisting on Chef Boy-R-Dee and canned chickpeas, it is human nature to do two things: seek out meaningful human connection and respond to anonymous internet postings. As Murbridge begins to take shape around Darcy, both online and in person, Darcy will consider the most fundamental of American questions: What can she ask of her community? And what does she owe it in return?]]> 272 Tara Conklin 0062959379 Lydia 3 3.31 2023 Community Board
author: Tara Conklin
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Lydia 0 currently-reading 3.67 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Teller of Small Fortunes 207611551 A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.

Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences�

Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.

Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.]]> 336 Julie Leong 0593815912 Lydia 4 3.82 2024 The Teller of Small Fortunes
author: Julie Leong
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Like Mother, Like Mother 203164564
Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blond hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does.

But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents� dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?

Spanning generations, and populated by complex, unforgettable characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell to become the people we believe we’re meant to be.]]> 336 Susan Rieger 0525512497 Lydia 3 3.76 2024 Like Mother, Like Mother
author: Susan Rieger
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![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 Lydia 5 3.67 2024 The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Wild Huntress 207567925
BRANWEN possesses a gift no other human has: the ability to see and slay monsters. She’s desperate to cure her mother’s sickness, and the Wild Hunt is her only option.

GWYDION is the least impressive of his magically talented family, but with his ability to control plants and his sleight of hand, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his cruel older brother from becoming a tyrant.

PRYDERI is prince-born and monster-raised. Deep down, the royal crown doesn’t interest him—all he wants is to know is where he belongs.

A trickster, a prince, and a wild huntress—if they band together against the monstrous creatures within the woods, they have a chance to win. But nothing is guaranteed, for all are fair game in love and the Hunt.]]> 421 Emily Lloyd-Jones 0316568147 Lydia 4 4.00 2024 The Wild Huntress
author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1)]]> 60755618 The rules were simple . . .
Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble.

But now I’m stuck with her . . . And there’s only one bed . . .
Oh well, rules are made -- to be broken . . . aren't they?

I’m the face of professional bull riding -- the golden boy.
Or at least I was, until it all blew up in my face.
Now my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I’m stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my “full-time supervision.�

But I don’t need a goddamn babysitter --
especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk,
and a mouth she ’t stop running.

A mouth I just ’t stop thinking about . . .

Because Summer isn’t just another conquest.
She sees the man behind the mask, and she doesn’t run --
she pulls me closer, even when she shouldn’t.

She says this means nothing -- but I say this means everything.

She says there are boundaries we shouldn’t cross.
That my reputation ’t take any more hits -- and neither can her damaged heart.

I say I’m going to steal it anyway.
]]> 424 Elsie Silver Lydia 4 4.06 2022 Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/15
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Lydia 5 4.59 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

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

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]> 626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 Lydia 5 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Colored Television 201102398 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593544372

A dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity–industrial complex

Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she; her painter husband, Lenny; and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,� she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp.

But things don’t work out quite as hoped. In search of a plan B, like countless writers before her, Jane turns her desperate gaze to Hollywood. After she meets with a hot young producer to create “diverse content� for a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer.� She can create what he envisions as the greatest biracial comedy to ever hit the small screen. Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong.]]> 277 Danzy Senna Lydia 2 3.54 2024 Colored Television
author: Danzy Senna
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods., #2)]]> 8195188 284 Tera Lynn Childs 1101019999 Lydia 0 to-read 3.88 2009 Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods., #2)
author: Tera Lynn Childs
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)]]> 139391940 A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes�

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� found family
� spicy]]> 373 Laurie Gilmore 0008610665 Lydia 5 3.36 2023 The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Lydia 5 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, #1)]]> 60879779
I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let's get started.

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

My brother

My stepsister

My wife

My father

My mother

My sister-in-law

My uncle

My stepfather

My aunt

Me]]> 371 Benjamin Stevenson 0063279029 Lydia 5 3.75 2022 Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, #1)
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)]]> 43884209
� Enjoy a drunken night out.
� Ride a motorcycle.
� Go camping.
� Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
� Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
� And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red� Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…]]> 384 Talia Hibbert 0062941208 Lydia 4 3.79 2019 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1)]]> 52439531
To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch -- and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.]]> 386 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1368052401 Lydia 5 4.13 2020 The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Lessons in Chemistry 206305528
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride�) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.]]> 404 Bonnie Garmus Lydia 5 4.24 2022 Lessons in Chemistry
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Lydia 4 4.12 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Independent Study (The Testing, #2)]]> 17165932 320 Joelle Charbonneau 0547959206 Lydia 0 to-read 3.94 2014 Independent Study (The Testing, #2)
author: Joelle Charbonneau
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[206 Bones (Temperance Brennan, #12)]]> 5957702 The #1 New York Times bestselling author and producer of the Fox television hit, Bones, returns with a spectacular new Tempe Brennan novel.

There are 206 bones in the human body. Forensic anthropologists know them intimately, can read in them stories of brief or long lives and use them to reconstruct every kind of violent end. 206 Bones opens with Tempe regaining consciousness and discovering that she is in some kind of very small, very dark, very cold enclosed space. She is bound, hands to feet. Who wants Tempe dead, or at least out of the way, and why? Tempe begins slowly to reconstruct...

Tempe and Lieutenant Ryan had accompanied the recently discovered remains of a missing heiress from Montreal to the Chicago morgue. Suddenly, Tempe was accused of mishandling the autopsy -- and the case. Someone made an incriminating phone call. Within hours, the one man with information about the call was dead. Back in Montreal, the corpse of a second elderly woman was found in the woods, and then a third.

Seamlessly weaving between Tempe's present-tense terror as she's held captive and her memory of the cases of these murdered women, Reichs conveys the incredible devastation that would occur if a forensic colleague sabotaged work in the lab. The chemistry between Tempe and Ryan intensifies as this complex, riveting tale unfolds. Reichs is writing at the top of her game.]]> 308 Kathy Reichs 0743294394 Lydia 0 to-read 3.94 2009 206 Bones (Temperance Brennan, #12)
author: Kathy Reichs
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Remix 21472663
Kaz is still reeling from being dumped by the love of her life... Ruby is bored of hearing about it. Time to change the record.

Three days. Two best mates. One music festival. Zero chance of everything working out.]]> 304 Non Pratt Lydia 0 to-read 3.58 2015 Remix
author: Non Pratt
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)]]> 40916679
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.]]> 433 Holly Jackson 1405293187 Lydia 5 4.30 2019 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)
author: Holly Jackson
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![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 Lydia 5 4.29 2023 Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> In Any Lifetime 198619824 319 Marc Guggenheim 1662518021 Lydia 0 currently-reading 3.78 2024 In Any Lifetime
author: Marc Guggenheim
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever]]> 61111260 The amateur DNA sleuth who solved one of the most infamous cold cases in American history--the Golden State Killer crime spree--tells the incredible true story of how she did it, and explains how her methods have forever changed criminal investigations.

In the span of just a few years, Barbara Rae-Venter went from researching her family history as a retiree to finding a serial killer who had baffled law enforcement for decades. I Know Who You Are tracks her improbable journey to becoming the nation's leading authority in investigative genetic genealogy, and to identifying the Golden State Killer--who had evaded authorities for forty-four years--in just sixty-three days.

Rae-Venter also details other extraordinary cases that she has worked on, from the first criminal cold case she ever cracked--uncovering the long-lost identity of a child abductee--to the heartbreaking case of the Billboard Boy, which began with unidentified remains dumped along a North Carolina highway. When she looks at DNA data, Rae-Venter sees numbers, percentages, probabilities--but she also sees the very stuff that makes us who we are. Drawing on both her own experiences and insights from all the key players in her investigations, Rae-Venter brings readers inside her unique "grasshopper mind as she analyzes DNA data; pores through obituaries, marriage records, and old newspapers articles; and envisions different scenarios that bring her closer and closer to her target. She lets readers join in on urgent calls from sheriffs, FBI agents, district attorneys, and researchers, and she takes us inside the struggle to obtain a usable crime scene DNA sample and other unexpected roadblocks that often make the search more difficult. Time and again, Rae-Venter pushes through setbacks, finds new angles of investigation, and uses the most cutting-edge new technology--much of it developed during her search--until, finally, a critical piece of the puzzle suddenly tumbles into place.

I Know Who You Are captures the exhilaration of the moment of discovery in cold case investigations, but also the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around these cases and informs Rae-Venter's careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of recognizing that we may not be who we thought we were.

*Listening Length: 8 hours and 23 minutes]]> 288 Barbara Rae-Venter 0593358899 Lydia 4 3.93 2023 I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever
author: Barbara Rae-Venter
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Pretty App (App, #2) 22663320
Then Harrison—and every other high school in America—becomes obsessed with posting selfies on the ubiquitous Pretty App. Next: Leo, an adorable transfer student, arrives at Harrison and begins to show Blake that maybe being a queen bee doesn't mean being a queen bitch. And though Audrey suspects somebody’s playing foul, Blake finds herself catapulted to internet fame after being voted one of the prettiest girls in the country. She's whisked away to star in a reality show—in Hollywood, on live TV. But she doesn’t know who to trust. Because everybody on the show wants to win.

And nobody is there to make friends.

The Boyfriend App author Katie Sise spins another irresistible tale of technology, secrets, and big-time romance in this story of what it takes to be #trulybeautiful.]]> 352 Katie Sise 0062195298 Lydia 0 to-read 3.48 The Pretty App (App, #2)
author: Katie Sise
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Lydia 4 4.16 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/18
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review:

]]> The Lonely Hearts Book Club 61341469
Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden...and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur's gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.]]> 352 Lucy Gilmore 1728256216 Lydia 4 3.84 2023 The Lonely Hearts Book Club
author: Lucy Gilmore
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Lydia 5 4.16 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1) 33131867 Left too little.
I had nothing to lose...until him.

**

~Lana~

I didn't expect him.
I didn't want to fall in love.
But I can't let him go.

Logan Bennett makes the world a safer place.
He's brilliant.
He's a hero.
He locks away the sick and depraved.
But while he's saving lives, I'm taking them. Collecting the debts that are owed to me.

Ten years ago, they took from me. They left me for dead.
They should have made sure I stayed dead.

Now I'm taking from them.
One name at a time.

I've trained for too long.
I've been patient.
I can't stop now.

Revenge is best served cold...

They never see me coming, until I paint their walls red.

Logan doesn't know how they hurt me. He doesn't know about the screams they ignored. He doesn't know how twisted that town really is.

He just knows people are dying.
He doesn't know he's in love with their killer.

No one suspects a dead girl.
And Logan doesn't suspect the girl in his bed.

They're looking for a monster.
Not a girl who loves red.
Not a girl in love.

I'm a faceless nightmare.

At least until I tell them the story they've pretended never happened.

But in the end, will Logan choose them? Or will we watch them burn together?

**Graphic
**Adult language
**Some triggers could be too much for the easily disturbed reader
**Sexual content
**Fucked up moral compass; read at your own risk.]]> 132 S.T. Abby Lydia 0 to-read 4.21 2016 The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1)
author: S.T. Abby
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Lydia 5 currently-reading 4.47 1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Lydia 5 3.87 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/30
date added: 2024/06/30
shelves:
review:
I am just absolutely gutted after finishing this book. The last 50 pages definitely had me feeling all the emotions. From the love, the tragedy, the humor, and the moral ambiguity this book had it all. It may seem like a fun lighthearted read at first but that’s just to lure you in and then absolutely destroy you and leave you sobbing on your couch. So beautifully tragic but also fun and creative. Excellent story.
]]> You Are Here 201465867
Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey.]]> 368 David Nicholls 0063394057 Lydia 5 3.97 2024 You Are Here
author: David Nicholls
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
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review:
A beautiful and realistic depiction of life and love. I found these characters incredibly relatable and complex. The human experience is not linear and neither was this story.
]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 5]]> 20958888 A catalog of evil, including;

Alfred Cline: A prolific "Bluebeard Killer" who murdered at least eight of his wives on their honeymoons.

Kimberly Saenz: Psychotic nurse who killed her elderly patients by injecting them with bleach.

Robert S. James: An inventive serial killer who used auto accidents and rattlesnake bites as his methods of mayhem.

Robert Browne: Claimed 49 victims who he killed by “every method known to man.�

Rudy Bladel: Bitter at being fired from his job, Bladel spent the next 20 years blowing away railroad employees.

Thomas Whisenhaer: A dedicated family man who enjoyed carrying out postmortem mutilations on his victims.

Lorenzo Fayne: Horrendous child murderer who killed in order to have sex with his victims' corpses.

Jeremy Bryan Jones: Charming ladies� man who killed at least 4 and possibly as many as 21 women.

Larme Price: Targeted "Middle Eastern" shopkeepers and claimed his killings were committed in revenge for 9/11.

Ricky Lee Green: Sexual deviant who enjoyed mutilating and gutting his victims.

˃˃˃ Plus 40 more riveting cases and a BONUS ARTICLE with brief summaries of an additional 50 serial killer cases.

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Scroll up and grab a copy now.

]]> 188 Robert Keller Lydia 4 4.24 2014 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 5
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI]]> 46263944
Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities--beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books--sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes," Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest--and first--forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.

Heinrich was one of the nation's first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious--some would say fatal--flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation.

Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon--as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them.]]> 336 Kate Winkler Dawson 0525539557 Lydia 3 3.64 2020 American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI
author: Kate Winkler Dawson
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:
Very interesting and well researched history turned story. My issue with it was really only in the last 10 pages. The author outlines many shortcomings of forensic science that were accurate as of 2009 but have since had tons of changes and improvements that were not addressed. Given that this book was written in 2020 I was very disappointed to see none of the vast improvements forensic science has made in the intervening years discussed. Also for someone who emphasizes throughout the entirety of the book that non forensic professionals should not try to speak on forensic science this non forensic author sure adds her opinions clearly at the end.
]]> Paper Towns 2914097 Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...]]> 305 John Green 0525478183 Lydia 5 4.00 2008 Paper Towns
author: John Green
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:
Always a great book. This was my second read through and I really found a new depth of understanding in it reading it back through as an adult.
]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 4]]> 20656379 A catalogue of evil, including;

Joseph Briggen: Farmer who believed that his prize-winning hogs had to consume human flesh in order to achieve peak conditioning.

William Christenson: Committed a series of crimes so brutal that investigators called him “an American Jack the Ripper.�

Alonzo Robinson: A necrophile and cannibal who killed at least 6 and turned their flesh into "jerky."

Dorothy Williams: A horrendously brutal female killer who bludgeoned, stomped, stabbed and strangled her elderly victims to death.

Eric Napoletano: Mommy’s boy who murdered his wives and lovers and evaded the law with the help of his NYPD employee mother.

Robert Nixon: The “Brick Moron� bludgeoned 8 women to death in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Joseph Bryan: Pedophile who confessed that it excited him to see young boys "tied up and screaming."

Douglas Gretzler & William Steelman: A deadly serial killer team who claimed as many as 17 victims, including 9 in one night.

Andre Rand: The “Pied Piper of Staten Island� committed a string of child murders in New York. He enjoyed comparing himself to his hero, Ted Bundy.

Robert Weeks: Narcissistic killer who had a problem dealing with rejection. Women who turned him down invariably ended up dead.

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Plus 40 more riveting cases....Scroll up to grab a copy.
]]> 170 Robert Keller Lydia 4 4.22 2014 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 4
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:
This book was definitely interesting as the series always is. Only wish the author would go a tiny bit more in depth with killers that had large numbers of victims. Sometimes if feels as though he just skims over some of them.
]]> <![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61242426
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success � not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 296 Travis Baldree Lydia 5 4.05 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:
Very cute and cozy. A slow to build plot that feels like a well run shopping episode of a D&D campaign. Would definitely read a sequel, planning to read the prequel.
]]> This Is Where It Ends 24529123 The #1 New York Times Bestseller
 A Buzzfeed Best Book of the Decade
A Paste Magazine Best Book of the Decade

 Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun�

10:00 a.m.: The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.: The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03: The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05: Someone starts shooting.

In 54 minutes, four students must confront their greatest hopes, and darkest fears, as they come face-to-face with the boy with the gun.

Includes special bonus content: a letter from the author, discussion questions, two bonus chapters, a conversation with the author, and a playlist!

Praise for This Is Where It Ends:
A Buzzfeed Best Book of the Decade
A Paste Magazine Best Book of the Decade
A BookRiot Best Book of the Decade
A Professional Book Nerds Best Book of the Decade

"Marieke Nijkamp's brutal, powerful fictional account of a school shooting is important in its timeliness." —Bustle.com

"A gritty, emotional, and suspenseful read and although fictionalized, it reflects on a problematic and harrowing issue across the nation." —Buzzfeed

"A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss." —BookRiot

]]> 288 Marieke Nijkamp 149262246X Lydia 0 3.67 2016 This Is Where It Ends
author: Marieke Nijkamp
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Confessions, #1)]]> 13521399 James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a #1 New York Times bestselling teen detective novel about the mysterious Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone-maybe not even herself.

As Tandy sets out to clear the family name, she begins to recall flashes of experiences long buried in her vulnerable psyche. These memories shed light on her family's dark secrets, and digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs proves to be a disturbing and dangerous game. Who knows what any of the Angels are truly capable of?]]> 372 James Patterson 0316224189 Lydia 4 3.88 2012 Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Confessions, #1)
author: James Patterson
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)]]> 32075671 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.]]> 454 Angie Thomas 0062498533 Lydia 0 to-read 4.46 2017 The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)
author: Angie Thomas
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)]]> 24233708 343 Hank Green 1524743453 Lydia 5 to-read 4.05 2018 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)
author: Hank Green
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/22
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Missing Girls 23212667
It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.]]> 396 Megan Miranda Lydia 3 3.72 2016 All the Missing Girls
author: Megan Miranda
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nancy Drew Files Vol. I: Secrets Can Kill; Deadly Intent; Murder on Ice]]> 46221903
In Secrets Can Kill , Nancy goes undercover to investigate the elusive thief stalking the nighttime halls of Bedford High. With her inside contact, gorgeous senior Daryl Gray, Nancy attempts to uncover the dangerous secrets that run deep at Bedford, but soon it’s a whole new game—a game called murder. And Nancy is the killer’s next target.

In Deadly Intent , Nancy is ready to rock out at a concert in New York City—but the band’s lead guitarist vanishes minutes before they’re set to go on stage. Nancy and her on-again-off-again boyfriend Ned investigate, and their list of suspects leads them to a conspiracy that threatens to shake the entire music industry.

In Murder on Ice , Nancy and Ned head to a ski resort to rekindle their romance. But instead of love, they find deadly peril. Can Nancy find the killer, before an avalanche of murder buries them all?]]> 416 Carolyn Keene 1534463127 Lydia 0 3.83 Nancy Drew Files Vol. I: Secrets Can Kill; Deadly Intent; Murder on Ice
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Lydia 5 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 3]]> 20497780 A catalogue of evil, including;

Marc Sappington: Dubbed the "Kansas City Vampire," Sappington ate the flesh of his victims, and drank their blood.

Stephen Judy: An unspeakably cruel killer who went to the chair in Indiana for the barbaric murder of a young mother and her three children.

Raymond Brown: This juvenile psycho literally hacked his victims (including his grandmother and great grandmother) apart.

Rory Conde: A necrophile rapist, Conde haunted Florida’s Tamiami Trail, claiming at least six victims.

Martha Wise: A death obsessed nutcase who enjoyed setting fires, attending funerals, howling at the moon, and poisoning her family's drinking water.

Bruce Mendenhall: Family man and small town politician who spent his nights hunting and strangling prostitutes.

Jason Scott: An enterprising serial killer who used his job at the UPS depot in Largo, Maryland to find potential victims.

Eddie Lee Mosley: A certified imbecile who was smart enough to evade the police for over a decade committing 40 murders and 150 rapes.

Charles Floyd: Lots of men find redheads attractive, but Charles Floyd was driven to rape and murder them.

Anthony Joyner: Depraved nursing home employee who raped and murdered six women aged between 80 and 97.

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Plus 40 more riveting cases....Scroll up to grab a copy. ]]> 167 Robert Keller Lydia 0 4.19 2013 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 3
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 2]]> 19099724 A catalogue of evil, including;

Sean Vincent Gillis: A depraved psychopath who used his victims' body parts as sex toys.

Thomas Piper: Outwardly respectable clergyman who had a deadly obsession with little girls.

Louise Peete: Sex-crazed femme fatale who committed three murders and also drove four of her husbands to suicide.

Thor Nis Christiansen: Killed four young women in order to have sex with their corpses.

Roger Kibbe: The ruthless I-5 Strangler murdered at least 8 stranded female motorists along California's freeways.

Orville Lee Majors: Angel of Death who waged a deadly campaign against his elderly patients. Believed to be responsible for over 100 murders.

Robert Shulman: This Long Island prostitute slayer bludgeoned his victims before hacking them to pieces.

Tillie Klimek: "Psychic" who predicted her victims' deaths, right before she poisoned them.

Jarvis Catoe: D.C. serial killer whose murder spree prompted a Congressional hearing, and changes to the Washington Police Department.

Mack Ray Edwards: Edwards found a unique way of getting rid of his victims - he buried them under the freeways he was building.

]]> 162 Robert Keller Lydia 0 4.17 2013 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 2
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 1]]> 19067681 A catalogue of evil, including;

Harry Powers: A depraved psychopath who got his kicks torturing lovelorn widows and spinsters to death

Jack Spillman III: Dubbed the “Werewolf Butcher,� Spillman literally tore his victims apart

Dana Sue Gray: A unique female serial killer who battered, stabbed and choked her elderly victims to death in order to bankroll her shopping addiction

James Swann: Psychotic shooter who claimed her was ordered to kill by the evil spirit of Malcolm X

Altemio Sanchez: A brutal killer known as the “Bike Path Rapist,� Sanchez evaded capture for over 20 years, until DNA evidence nailed him

Chester Turner: Known as "Chester the Molester," Turner raped and murdered countless women, until his deadly acts were eventually captured on video

David Parker Ray: Spent over $100 000 dollars putting together his torture chamber, which he called the "Toy Box"

Judy Buenoano: After poisoning her husband and two lovers, and drowning her son, she turned to a car bomb for her next murder

David Meirhofer: The first serial killer caught by FBI's, now famous, Behavioral Science Unit

Jake Bird: Traveling ax murderer who claimed dozens female victims across America

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Plus 40 more riveting cases....Scroll up to grab a copy.
]]> 169 Robert Keller Lydia 0 3.90 2013 50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of: Volume 1
author: Robert Keller
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/16
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Lydia 2 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 2
read at: 2014/01/22
date added: 2024/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3)]]> 17233800
The girl with straight A's and the perfect life—that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy family…and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker—a guy she has no business even talking to. But after the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

The last thing Isaiah needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks. But when their shared love of street racing puts their lives in jeopardy, Isaiah and Rachel will have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.]]> 474 Katie McGarry 037321099X Lydia 0 to-read 4.26 2013 Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3)
author: Katie McGarry
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Walk the Edge (Thunder Road, #2)]]> 17928147 426 Katie McGarry 0373211627 Lydia 0 to-read 4.23 2016 Walk the Edge (Thunder Road, #2)
author: Katie McGarry
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Darkness Dwellers (Kiki Strike, #3)]]> 15793537
First they ventured deep under New York to save the city itself.

Then things got personal as the Irregulars ventured into a haunted mansion in Chinatown to uncover an evil twin.

Now, in the third installment of bestselling author Kirsten Miller’s Kiki Strike series, this delightful group of delinquent geniuses jump feet first into a fastpaced international pursuit, going underground in Paris to pursue a pair of treacherous royals who have killed Kiki’s parents.

With a dash of romance, a fresh take on good manners, and loads of buttkicking bravery, Kiki, Betty, Ananka and the other Irregulars sharpen their amazing skills in this highly anticipated new adventure.]]> 403 Kirsten Miller 1599907364 Lydia 0 to-read 4.23 2013 The Darkness Dwellers (Kiki Strike, #3)
author: Kirsten Miller
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> All of the Above 25399512 A funny and moving love story about friends, first loves and self-discovery by Queen of Teen 2014.

When sixteen-year-old Toria Bland arrives at her new school she needs to work out who her friends are in a crazy whirl of worry, exam pressure and anxiety over fitting in. Things start looking up when Toria meets the funny and foul-mouthed Polly, who's the coolest girl that Toria has ever seen. Polly and the rest of the 'alternative' kids take Toria under their wing. And that's when she meets the irresistible Nico Mancini, lead singer of a local band - and it's instalove at first sight! Toria likes Nico, Nico likes Toria, but then there's Polly ... love and friendship have a funny way of going round in circles.]]> 319 Juno Dawson 1471404676 Lydia 0 to-read 3.84 2015 All of the Above
author: Juno Dawson
name: Lydia
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)]]> 27276318 Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily ’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating� rule, she ’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 367 Colleen Hoover Lydia 0 to-read 4.21 2016 It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> All the Light We Cannot See 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 Lydia 0 to-read 4.31 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/12
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]]> If You Come Softly 159903 181 Jacqueline Woodson 0142406015 Lydia 5 4.03 1998 If You Come Softly
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Lydia
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/11
date added: 2019/01/11
shelves:
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