Book Review

  • Review: The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

    This book has been everywhere lately and with good reason! I have been a fan of Simone St James for quite a while. I read The Broken Girls a couple of years ago and then quickly binged the rest of her books, loving each and every one! When I saw that this book was coming out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! This is one of those authors and books that received a ton of hype and while sometimes I am weary of overly hyped books, this was one I was sure to love. All of her books have been great and I knew I had nothing…

  • Review: The Winter Companion (Parish Orphans of Devon #4) by Mimi Matthews

    To say that I have been eager to read this final installment of the Parish Orphans of Devon series is a gross understatement. I absolutely loved all of Mimi Matthews books and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one! Of all the orphans, Neville was probably to most mysterious character for me and the one we never seemed to get to know, beyond the basic back story told by the other characters. I was excited to see how Neville’s love story as well as his character unfolded in this book. There was so much discussion in the other books about how Neville’s accident as a child had…

  • Review: Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

    I worked in public education for twelve years and during that time I had a close friend who was a counselor in our Guidance Office. We would have lunch together every day and talk about how we needed to write a book about public education because people would never believe the things we have to go through on a daily basis. In fact we stated keeping a list of things that would happen in our office each year and at the end of the school year we would go back and reflect on the year of weird things we had to deal with. The list was long every single year…

  • Take Two Review: Why Kill the Innocent (Sebastian St. Cyr #13) by C.S. Harris

    When I first read this book, it was only the third book I had read in this series. I read book 1 and then book 12 before reading this one and that was it. I went into this one feeling a little lost in the series in regards to the principle characters, but tried to keep my focus on the mystery itself. Then back in Dec, I decided to bit the bullet as it were and read the entire series again from beginning to end as it was intended and what I have discovered is this series is positively unputdownable! While I might not love every book in the series,…

  • Review: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) by C.S. Lewis (Audible Edition)

    Even though I was a big reader as a child, this book just never made it on my to be read list. I wasn’t into fantasy as a kid and thus this book never appealed to me. I was way more into the American Girl books than Narnia and I even went to a Catholic school…..the Narnia books are practically required reading at Catholic schools! But for whatever reason, I just by passed this entire series until now. As an adult I have absolutely fallen in love with fantasy and magical novels and now that I have a little boy, I can’t wait to share the Narnia books with him…

  • Take Two Review: Where the Dead Lie (Sebastian St. Cyr #12) by C.S. Harris

    I was first approached to read this series in 2017. At that time I hadn’t heard of Sebastian St Cyr and was hesitant to read the twelfth book in the series, so I read the first book with the intention of reading the series before this one, but sadly that was overly ambitious and I only had time for book 1 and then moved right into this one. At that time I enjoyed the mystery and didn’t feel lost in the mystery itself, but definitely felt lost with some of the other plot points threaded through out the series. As a result, I felt that it was a worthy while…

  • Review: Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau

    This author has written a variety of historical fiction novels that I have enjoyed over the years. And when I say variety, I mean variety. She’s written books about Tudor era mysteries with nuns and eighteenth century porcelain collectors and now here we are moving across the pond to Coney Island in the early 1900s. That’s a pretty impressive spread! All of her books have been well researched and incredibly detailed so I was more than happy to check this one out as well. There aren’t many books set in Coney Island and for me, it conjures romantic, carefree, and quirky images of by gone days so I was absolutely…

  • Review: The Borgia Confessions by Alyssa Palombo

    I have been a fan of Alyssa Palombo since her very first book. I think she is absolutely a fresh voice in historical fiction and I am always down to read one of her new books. Last year her book on Katrina Van Tassel was so fun and I was eager to see where her next story might take place. When I saw that it was in Italy featuring one of the most notorious families in history, I was so here for it! Palombo always does a marvelous job researching her novels so that they please history fans but they also have enough character development and intrigue to satisfy fans…

  • Review: When Falcons Fall (Sebastian St. Cyr #11) by C.S. Harris

    Now that I have completed this book, I am caught up with the series however I decided to keep reading and re-read the other books in this series so that I could read the later books with a more complete view of the larger narrative. I was excited for this one because it was going to take us out of London and into the country with the promise of finding out more about Sebastian’s history. That was the big draw for me with this book, but I have to admit, I sort of missed foggy old London. If you haven’t read this series, this would be a difficult book to…

  • Review: An Everyday Hero (A Heart of a Hero #2) by Laura Trentham

    Let me just put this out there right now, I don’t read a lot of military fiction or romances. While I love military history and have family that have served  and continue to serve in the military, it’s just not a genre that I ever think about picking up to read. Ever. No real reason why, I just simply don’t think of it. So why now? Here is the shallow answer—I loved the cover. Sure the cover lured me in, but I have to admit I was intrigued by the summary and I love Southern fiction and thought this one might be a diverting read. Plus, I love romances what…