Book Review

  • Review: The Murder List by Hank Phillippi Ryan

    Right from the start this book sounded edgy and different. I haven’t read anything by Hank Phillippi Ryan before, but I liked that the main character in this book sounded like she had her shit together but yet it might all be a lie. I have been having quite a bit of luck with thrillers this summer but I was looking for something with a little more suspense rather than the thrills and chills of a psychological thriller and this book sounded like it would fit the bill. I mean it does have ‘a novel of suspense’ in its formal title on Goodreads! Eager to read this one, I started…

  • Review: The Perfect Son by Lauren North

    Full disclosure, I wanted to read this book because I loved the cover. It was eye catching and coupled with the title suggested and interesting and complex mystery that I was instantly dying to read. This book is also the author’s debut and I was even more excited to read it since her author bio sounded so relatable! Here’s the CliffNotes version—Lauren’s love of psychological suspense has grown since childhood and her dark imagination of always wondering what’s the worst thing that could happen in every situation—I felt like I found my person! Like many kids I had a huge imagination but unlike other kids who were dreaming of unicorns…

  • Review: The Matrimonial Advertisement (Parish Orphans of Devon #1) by Mimi Matthews

    I read a short story by Mimi Matthews back in December last year and loved it but it was months before I read one of her full novels. In fact, I just read my first full length book by Matthews a couple of weeks ago and I fell even more in love with her writing! So much so, that I knew without a doubt that I needed to read all of her books and the sooner the better. So I binged this book in the space of 24 hours. I started with the Audible edition, but quickly changed to the written form since I read much faster that way and…

  • Review: The Me I Used to Be by Jennifer Ryan

    I was kind of lukewarm about this one when it came up for review, but I’ve heard such great things about Jennifer Ryan’s cowboy romances so I was interested to see if her romance talents transferred over to a different style of romance novel. I haven’t read anything by her but I was open giving this book a try if nothing else beyond being curious about a new romance. I’ve had great luck with women’s fiction and romances lately so I felt like, why not? Even if I was lukewarm about it initially, I thought the author sounded experienced and the book itself had a fun setting (Napa) so if…

  • Review: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (Audible Edition)

    I am about to come at you with an unpopular opinion. I haven’t read Lord of the Rings, I watched the films but was completely lost and hated them so much. I’ve tried to watch them so many times and simply gave up. This is a series that I want to love so so so bad. I have multiple copies of the books but I am afraid to read them because I hated the movies so much and feared I would find the books boring. Having discovered audiobooks recently, I thought this would be a good time to try my hand at reading this classic series especially with this fantastic…

  • Review: Relative Fortunes (Julia Kydd #1) by Marlowe Benn

    I decided to read this book based purely on the cover art. The cover art suggests a fun historical mystery with a quirky and fashionable lady detective. Plus it was the first in a new series and I couldn’t help but get excited to be one of the first people to read Julia Kydd! The 1920s aren’t really my favorite era to read, but I love the art and fashion and have read a few historical mysteries that have been set in that period and loved them so I am typically open to reading more from that time period. I was excited to see that this was the authors first…

  • Review: Chai Another Day (A Spice Shop Mystery #4) by Leslie Budewitz

    This mystery series sounded like the perfect cozy book to read with a warm up of tea! I loved that it was set in a tea shop in Seattle’s famous Pike’s Place Market. A place that I have visited on a number of occasions. I thought that a book set in that quirky little market would be idyllic and something very ‘Pacific Northwest’. It was and easy yes for me and I was thrilled when it arrived. Even though it was the fourth book in a series, it sounded like it was going to be more mystery focused rather than focusing on the characters and their lives. So I didn’t…

  • Review: The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

    This was a book that I almost passed on for my review calendar. I was eager to do a feature and giveaway for it because I know that a lot of my readers are into the show Stranger Things  and this book was recommended for fans of the show. But I wasn’t sure that this was going to be a book that I could fit into my summer reading. When the book arrived on my desk for review I looked at it and it was pretty short with fairly direct writing style and I thought about it a little bit but then casually set it aside. The days went on…

  • Review: Death and Other Happy Endings by Melanie Cantor

    Sometimes persistence pays off. This book was pitched to me at least four times for review and each time I passed. Not because I didn’t want to read it, I just didn’t think I could fit it in anywhere close to the review date. It wasn’t until the book physically arrived at my house that I took some real stock of my review calendar to see if I could accommodate this book. The publicist for this book raved about it with such passion that I felt compelled to work it in. I hate missing out on great books simply for calendar purposes so I made it happen. I snuck in…

  • Review: The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews

    At Christmas, I had the privilege of reading Mimi Matthews’ holiday novella, Holiday by Gaslight, and absolutely adored it. I read it in like one sitting and often thought about what a great story it was. I wanted desperately to pick up her other books, but that the time I just couldn’t fit them in. Since then she has become a USA Today Best Selling Author, and I continue to see people raving about her books all over my social media. When this  book came up for review, I didn’t have room for it, but I knew I just had to work it in somehow. I remembered reading the holiday…