Stephanie's Updates en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 11:32:45 -0700 60 Stephanie's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7458071911 Wed, 30 Apr 2025 11:32:45 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie added 'The Haunting of Bellington Cottage']]> /review/show/7458071911 The Haunting of Bellington Cottage by Laura Parnum Stephanie gave 4 stars to The Haunting of Bellington Cottage (Hardcover) by Laura Parnum
bookshelves: 2025-reads, netgalley, middle-grade, horror
**My thanks to HarperCollins Children’s Books for providing me with an advanced review copy via NetGalley**

4 stars

A delightful spooky story for middle-grade readers with a relatable protagonist and an intriguing mystery.

Iris is hoping that a ski trip with distant family friends and their daughter Violet, who she befriended on a previous vacation, will be an opportunity to reconnect—especially as Iris’s hometown best friend recently moved away. But Violet’s not eager to renew their old easy relationship, and Iris’s love for all things spooky (so long as they’re fictional) makes the adults in their lives reluctant to believe her when she starts to suspect that there might be an Actual Real Life Ghost in their creepy winter rental cottage.

The best part of the book is definitely Iris’s personal growth, as over the course of the story she is forced to consider outside perspectives and re-evaluate her own actions, especially her treatment of her friends. This self-reflection is sometimes uncomfortable for her, but is ultimately good for Iris’s social development and sense of self.

While investigating possible ghosts, Iris and her friend Violet find the diary of a girl from the early 1900s, which unfortunately sometimes slips in the accuracy of its period writing. This probably makes the diary easier for a modern middle schooler to read but does stick out as a weakness in the writing.

I would 100% recommend this title to young readers with an interest in ghost stories. It’s a mysterious and character-focused tale that doesn’t get too frightening, and an excellent choice for young people struggling with change and with long-distance friendships. ]]> ReadStatus9362729943 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 09:40:37 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie is currently reading 'House of Beth']]> /review/show/7526006135 House of Beth by Kerry Cullen Stephanie is currently reading House of Beth by Kerry Cullen
]]> ReadStatus9276068496 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:00:45 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie finished reading '6:40 to Montreal']]> /review/show/7460089098 6 by Eva Jurczyk Stephanie finished reading 6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk
]]> ReadStatus9267618273 Thu, 03 Apr 2025 14:24:19 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie is currently reading '6:40 to Montreal']]> /review/show/7460089098 6 by Eva Jurczyk Stephanie is currently reading 6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk
]]> ReadStatus9267416811 Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:25:08 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie finished reading 'The Haunting of Bellington Cottage']]> /review/show/7458071911 The Haunting of Bellington Cottage by Laura Parnum Stephanie finished reading The Haunting of Bellington Cottage by Laura Parnum
]]> Rating843045440 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 10:41:50 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie Carlson liked a review]]> /
Stephanie Carlson liked Erin's review of Six Days in Bombay:
Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi
" Thanks to Netgalley and HARLEQUIN Trade Publishing for access to this title. ALL opinions expressed are my own.

Alka Joshi is a fantastic author. Her characters tug at your heartstrings. She transports her readers to India in different parts of its history. Also, whomever is designing the covers of her books makes it unreasonably difficult to resist adding them to your bookshelf.


Six Days in Bombay is set in 1930s and tells the story of Sona, a young nurse of British-Indian heritage who befriends a wealthy female painter. Their meeting will spurn Sona to undertake an adventure that takes her beyond India's borders and promises to help her become the woman she so desires to be.

This was a beautiful story. Once I began reading, I couldn't tear myself away. I like when I believe the plot will move in one direction and the author throws a few curves into my thinking.






Expected Publication Date 15/04/25
Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Review Date. 31/03/25"
]]> Review7400648970 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:45:49 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie added 'My Kind of Trouble']]> /review/show/7400648970 My Kind of Trouble by L.A. Schwartz Stephanie gave 3 stars to My Kind of Trouble (Hardcover) by L.A. Schwartz
bookshelves: 2025-reads, netgalley, romance
3 stars

**My thanks to Alcove Press for providing me with an advanced review copy via NetGalley**

A charming must-read for library defenders, involving a world in which common sense and a well-built community triumph over panicked reactionaries seeking to block services for those who truly need it. In that sense it’s a cute little fantasy, one that provides the reassuring sense that nothing will truly go wrong in the course of the story and goodness will prevail, which is exactly the sort of escapism I think a lot of us need right now.

The plot, inspired by The Music Man, follows the expected beats, and the obligatory romance novel third act breakup is thankfully brief. Props go to Schwartz for two good depictions of autism, which are neither stereotyped nor overdone. Our female lead’s pushiness can get a little uncomfortable in the novel’s first chapters, but she gets better over time. The dialogue suffers from heavy therapy speak, but I think that’s again part of the comforting fantasy that the book is trying to feed you, even if it comes off a little scripted.

It's not my favorite, but it’s cozy and cute, and I appreciate that it didn’t let me ever feel anxious about things ending happily for all. ]]> Review3948823241 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:45:03 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie added 'All Systems Red']]> /review/show/3948823241 All Systems Red by Martha Wells Stephanie gave 4 stars to All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) by Martha Wells
bookshelves: 2025-reads, public-library, sci-fi, novella
4.5 stars

I often struggle with novellas, which I often find struggle to balance establishing a setting and character and telling a complete story with effective pacing. Luckily for me, All Systems Red fit perfectly into its length; I grew very comfortable with the world Wells wrote and the protagonist she followed while enjoying a tightly-paced little plot. I also loved the ending, and am very excited to see what Murderbot, our intrepid sec-bot hero, winds up doing next.

What I particularly enjoyed in this story, aside from the great pacing and fun concept, was how well Wells portrayed the discomfort of being treated like something you are not—in this case, Murderbot’s discomfort with being treated as a human when they are not a human, and do not consider themself to be a human. There’s also a distinct difference between being treated like a “person,� which comes with its own discomfort when you’re used to being treated as equipment, and being treated like a human, and I think Wells balances this precarity in a really interesting way.

I also found Murderbot to be an incredibly charming character and I want to see more of them. I’ll definitely be continuing in the series. ]]> Review7400267327 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:43:57 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie added 'The Uproar']]> /review/show/7400267327 The Uproar by Karim Dimechkie Stephanie gave 4 stars to The Uproar (Kindle Edition) by Karim Dimechkie
bookshelves: 2025-reads, contemporary, netgalley, literary-fiction
**My thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced review copy via NetGalley**

4 stars

A fable about loss of innocence, The Uproar is a disturbing and sharp-edged social thriller. I’m glad I read it, and I never want to read it again.

The Uproar isn’t a challenging read in terms of prose; the language is well composed but everyday and easy to digest. It is, however, a challenging read in terms of the uncomfortable feelings and ideas it forces the reader to sit with.

Much of the book reads like a modern-day nightmare: While attempting to do good by both his family and the community he serves, a social worker (Sharif) finds himself accused of a terrible crime (assaulting a poverty-struck Haitian immigrant teenager). Trying desperately to clear his name, save his marriage with his pregnant wife, and help the clearly troubled teen who has accused him, Sharif is forced to question whether his bleeding-heart liberal ideals are realistic—and how far he’s willing to take those ideals when adhering to them would seem to threaten his family, livelihood, and reputation.

In terms of its themes, this book is really affective; as I followed Sharif’s story I found myself guiltily starting to doubt my own ideals. As an animal lover, I especially felt a lot of guilt over my initial reaction to Sharif’s predicament with his wife’s dog Judy, which serves as the inciting incident in the family’s following troubles. Judy is described as an 8-year-old, huge (150 lbs), smelly, partly incontinent, dog-aggressive, cat-hunting, expensive-food-and-meds-requiring, stair-incapable bully breed mutt that was slated for euthanasia seven years ago (whereupon he was rescued by Sharif’s wife). Judy needs to be rehomed for the duration of Sharif’s soon-to-be-born daughter’s leukemia treatment, but no friend who has met Judy is willing to watch him again, and all the no-kill shelters are full. My immediate thought, on reading this dilemma, was that Judy’s humans had already given him seven years of borrowed time, and he was never going to find a unicorn foster or forever family willing to put up with him. Reader, how ashamed I felt as I kept reading! While Judy seemed like a lost cause at the beginning of the novel, by the end he was one of the main positive lights in Sharif’s life, providing unconditional doggy love and comfort that I should never have initially discounted. Shame on me; please boo me now.

While the beginning and the middle of the book are a stressful nightmare, the ending is an absolute gut punch. This novel isn’t just a critical view of liberal hypocrisy, it’s a devastating analysis of the psychic toll of living under both late stage capitalism and the microscope of social media. The only downside is that the book threatens to push the reader into despair, which I think needs to be guarded against. Imperfect implementation doesn’t mean that ideals are all hollow and worthless. Perfection may be impossible, but improvement is not; cynicism says more about us and the disappointments we’ve faced than what’s actually possible to achieve.

If you liked Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, you’ll like The Uproar by Karim Dimechkie. ]]> ReadStatus9252186030 Sun, 30 Mar 2025 19:14:47 -0700 <![CDATA[Stephanie wants to read 'True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News']]> /review/show/7449163645 True or False by Cindy L. Otis Stephanie wants to read True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News by Cindy L. Otis
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