Book Reviews
Week of October 12th
A slow-burn story involving family secrets, loyalty and prejudice.
Full Book Review Coming Soon!
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
Lionel Essrog is not a typical detective. His friends call him “freakshow” due to his Tourette’s tics and mannerisms. His OCD tendencies and verbal outbursts leave him alienated from society. He is also an orphan who, along with three others from St. Vincent’s Home for Boys, begins working for a low-level mobster, Frank Minna, from an early age. When he is old enough, h quits high school to start working at Frank’s new venture: a limo service, which serves as a cover Frank’s detective agency. Along with fellow orphans Gilbert, Tony and Danny they make up “Frank’s Boys”.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of October 5th
Poirot has a problem. The famously meticulous a discreet detective is approached by three irate strangers who insist he accused them of the murder of Barnabus Pandy. Who is Barnabus Pandy? Was he indeed murdered? Poirot would never knowingly accuse an innocent person of murder!
Who would pen letters from the famous Hercule Poirot?
GoodReads Rating: 2.5 Stars
Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope set off for home as a powerful winter storm rolled in. Missing a turn in the road, she comes upon an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road. When she gets out to investigate, she realizes the driver has left their baby in the back seat and the driver’s side door is left open.
Vera takes the child towards safety, lights in the distance which turn out to be the home of Vera’s own distant relatives. In order to solve this mystery, Vera will uncover secrets that may lead back to her own past.
GoodReads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of September 28th
Shay Benson made a mistake; out of twisted familial loyalty only an abuse victim could comprehend, she embezzled to help her drug-addicted brother. Unfortunately, the mistake sent her to prison for three years. Now a convicted felon released to a world in which she has no friends of family, she stumbled into the only warmth she could find: a church.
Pastor Drew Douglas is struggling to cope with the grief of losing his wife while trying to provide love and support to his two children through their grief as well. His faith is suffering as he deals with the strain. He prays to God for help to find his faith and find love again. Then Shay Benson walked into his church.
The two will, together, find healing and strength in each other and in their faith. As they are drawn together, could Shay’s past come to affect their relationship?
GoodReads Rating: 2 Stars
Virginia Troy is a survivor. As a child, she survived her time in a cult and the night that cult leader tried to take her life in a fire, which burned through the compound. She and four other children were saved by Anson Salinas, but the children’s mothers perished that night.
Still haunted by images of that night, Virginia fought her way to becoming a successful gallery owner in Seattle. Occasionally, she purchases paintings from another cult survivor, Hannah Brewster. Each painting depicts the fire which almost took their lives, and Virginia always considered these paintings a sort of therapy for Hannah. But, when Hannah takes her own life and burns down her home, Virginia’s suspicions are raised. Hannah sent her a picture of her final painting which depicts Quinton Zane, the cult leader who almost took their lives. Is this a message?
GoodReads Rating: 3
Book Reviews
Week of September 20th
Into this world The One came. Now 13 years old, Fallon is forced to decide to accept her destiny and begin her training, which means two years away from her family. She will be tested mentally and physically, her strength brought out by a fierce and loyal teacher in whom she must place her trust in order to truly find her power.
Along the way, she will encounter people along the way she must convince to join her in her fight against the dark. The light cannot defeat the dark without trusted allies. Will she be able to instill fidelity in other survivors of The Doom?
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
The sickness (“The Doom”) spread like wildfire. With a 100% mortality rate, the population was quickly divided into segments: those that are immune, and those that are destined to succumb. Many who survive find themselves with new-found magick. Such a surge in power can, and does, corrupt some survivors. Those that are corrupted by their powers towards the darkness are Uncannys, and they are bent on indiscriminate destruction.
Magicks and those immune to The Doom continue to live in fear as they are hunted on two sides, both the Purity Warriors (working with uncannys) and the US government. What is left of the government continues to capture and experiment upon magicks. The containment centers which hold these prisoners are rife with abuse.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of September 13th
Becoming a vampire takes thoughtful consideration. Marcus MacNeil was sired on the battlefields during the American Revolution. Feverish and confused, he may not have understood the power Matthew de Clermont was offering before he accepted. In modern day, he met his mate in the warmblood, Phoebe Taylor. Together, the two decide she will begin her journey of immortality so that they may live out their immortal lives together.
Becoming a vampire takes more than just a decision, however. The path to immortality is steeped in tradition and education. New vampires are sheltered from friends and family as they are taken through their youth again, learning how to adapt to the power in their bodies. Learning to move, control their strength and hunt takes strong guidance. Unfortunately, Marcus cannot be a part of Phoebe’s transformation. He and Phoebe must separate for 90 days while she grows under the tutelage of her sire, Miriam, great Aunt, Freya, and loyal de Clermont family servant, Francoise.
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
The sickness (“The Doom”) spread like wildfire. With a 100% mortality rate, the population was quickly divided into segments: those that are immune, and those that are destined to succumb. Many who survive find themselves with new-found magick. Such a surge in power can, and does, corrupt some survivors.
Survivors of The Doom are left to rebuild their lives. They look for friends and loved ones, praying to find one another. Strangers encountered are met with suspicion and occasionally violence. Communities must rebuild and hide from “Raiders” seeking only to destroy. People gifted with magick must also hide from those that hunt them out of fear of that power.
GoodReads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of August 23rd
Seven strangers have been invited to visit a luxurious house on an isolated island in Mexico. Each was lured to the island under false pretenses, and each has something to hide.
When the guests start to die under suspicious circumstances, each stranger is suspicious in their own way. Can they survive the dangers of the island until the next boat comes to their rescue?
GoodReads Rating: 2 Stars
Maddie Townsend believed that she had a pretty great life. She and her husband had been married for 20 years, and they were blessed with three beautiful and smart children. They were active and well liked in their small-town community of Serenity, South Carolina, where Maddie had grown up with her two best friends, Helen and Dana Sue. Then it all fell apart.
GoodReads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of August 17th
In 2005 on a beautiful summer evening, three teen-aged boys opened fire in a busy mall full of shoppers, movie goers and restaurant patrons. Over just 8 minutes, a shocking number of lives would be taken, countless families would be devastated and heroes would be born.
Simone Knox had left the movie theater to run to the ladies’ room when she heard the gunshots, she locked herself in a stall in the bathroom and called 911. Unfortunately, her two best friends were still in the theater when the gunman opened fire. One friend was fatally shot, the other made it to the ICU because Simone’s call for help came so quickly. Still, in her mind, heroism is not hiding in a bathroom to call for help. The guilt she carries for not being there with her friends is a burden she will have to work through to find real peace and happiness.
GoodReads Rating: 5 Stars
I read Julie Garwood historical romance novels when I was in school. To be honest, they were my favorite escape from homework. I was enamored of the charm and wit characteristic of a Julie Garwood heroine, and I was excited to read this newer release, having not had the pleasure of a Julie Garwood read in quite some time.
I must say, I had a good time reading this book. Though this is book 13 of the Buchanan-Renard series, readers do not have to be familiar with the other books in order to understand what happens in this adventure. I enjoyed the pacing of the story, moving briskly enough that it kept my interest throughout the quick 302 pages. The story captured my attention and kept me tuned in for the few hours I read the book.
GoodReads Rating: 2 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of August 3rd
(Unintentionally Debut Novel Week!)
Miranda Brooks is happy. She is a successful history teacher in Philadelphia. She just moved in with her boyfriend, and has just begun a summer break in which she can enjoy co-habitated life with her boyfriend. Strangely, she receives a copy of The Tempest in the mail with a highlighted passage. Later that night at their housewarming party, she receives a call from her mother. Her Uncle Billy, to whom she has not spoken in 16 years, has passed away.
An eccentric seismologist and bookstore owner with a passion for traveling to earthquake zones, Billy was a huge part of Miranda’s life. Until he wasn’t. Miranda’s memory of her last encounter with Uncle Billy is a scar she thought long healed, until the news of his passing brings memories rushing back.
Uncle Billy used to teach Miranda through scavenger hunts. Miranda soon realizes The Tempest is the first clue in a new, beyond-the-grave scavenger hunt from her uncle. That clue will send her back to California for his funeral and to search for answers to family secrets kept hidden for more than 16 years.
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
When Pip was just 13 years old, a popular high school senior, Andie Bell, went missing, presumed murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh. Sal’s confession was his suicide just days after his girlfriend’s disappearance. Pip’s memory of Sal Singh made her suspicious of the investigation. Sal had been so kind to her. How could he be a killer? Pip decided to re-examine Sal’s presumed guilt as her capstone project, hoping to prove him innocent.
Pip thought her investigation would bring answers. She never thought those answers would put her life in danger.
GoodReads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of July 27th
We all have times in our lives when we feel like we are standing at a fork in the path. We feel the need to transform internally; the feeling that only comes with major life transformations. Unfortunately, the transformation requires introspection and growing. We all feel that the growth should happen faster. We often feel anxious, uncertain, and abandoned by God. I mean, we laid our troubles at his feet in prayer. Why do we not have all the answers yet?
Sue Monk Kidd offers her perspective to help readers walk through these transformations more spiritually and mindfully.
Using the imagery of a butterfly in chrysalis she reminds us, “…waiting does provide the time and space necessary for grace to happen.”
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
The first book of the All Souls Trilogy, this recently released as an original series on AMC starring Gregg Chillin, Matthew Goode, and Teresa Palmer.
Diana Bishop is a scholar, not a witch. At least, that is what she has been trying to convince herself her entire life. While researching at the famous Bodleian Library at Oxford, she comes across a powerful and magical book well-hidden for centuries. When the enchanted book opens for her, she inadvertently sets off a series of events that will change her life forever.
Matthew Clairmont is a vampire who has been searching for answers to the origins of his species for centuries. A well-known and well-respected scientist at Oxford, he is inexplicably drawn to Diana Bishop. As the enchanted book opens under the will of Diana Bishop, he recognizes the danger and must protect her while working with her to uncover its secrets.
Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of July 20th
Adeline Blake might be crazy. She did escape from a mental institution, and not just any mental institution. Rushbrook Sanitarium is where rich families hide their mentally unstable relatives in shame, unaware that the Sanitarium holds darker secrets. The darkest of these secrets escape with Adeline, as she is witness to a murder the night she vanishes.
Months later, Adeline believes her past to be behind her. She has started a new life in Burning Cove, California, working at a tea shop, mixing her own proprietary blends for visiting celebrities. When she and a rich and mysterious businessman vacationing in Burning Cove attend the show of a famous psychic, Zolanda, they are as shocked as everyone in the audience when she predicts the bloody death of someone in the theater.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Amalie Vaughn loves to fly. As the star trapeze artist of a traveling carnival show, Ramsey Circus. Until the night she is kidnapped and forced to ascend the trapeze with a killer. She escapes, but develops a fear of heights and will never be able to perform again.
Six months later, Amalie and Hazel have opened Hidden Beach Inn, moving past their former lives at Ramsey Circus. Little did they know that the Hidden Beach Inn was the scene of a psychic suicide and is rumored to be cursed. When their first guest is murdered onstage by his autonomous robot invention, Amalie vows work with Matthias Jones to help solve the murder to save her inn.
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of July 6th
“Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths. All her ways are satisfying. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her. Happy are those who hold her tightly.“
Proverbs 3:13-18
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
July 6th is above July 13th because it took me three weeks to complete this audiobook… And I am still not all the way through. The full review will be posted soon!
Not for the faint of heart, Jordan B. Peterson takes his time walking readers through each of his 12 rules with a thorough argument which often meanders through his point with seemingly irrelevant antidotes and examples. I often found myself lost in the details, wondering how he would connect his points, which he always seemed to connect. His Christian faith weaved through the message, as does his socially conservative perspective.
I disagreed with some of the book, but did find it appropriately thought provoking and insightful.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of July 13th
Irene Glasson is on the run. A devoted secretary to a murdered woman, she ran from a killer and reinvented herself working for a small-time gossip magazine in Los Angeles.
When the woman from whom she is to receive a hot tip is also murdered, she embarks on a mission to find the killer. Working with a former world-famous magician at his exclusive coastal resort in Burning Cove, California, the two must uncover secrets from the past to find a killer before it is too late.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Max Lucado weaves a story of hope through the story of Joseph.
For me, this book falls prey into a self-help stereotype. Lucado integrates multiple stories of trouble overcome by friends (or friends of friends) which make your troubles feel weak and petty. I also found Lucado’s tone to be somewhat condescending.
Instead of feeling hope, I felt small and frivolous.
GoodReads Rating: 2 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of June 29th
The Beautiful Mystery is Book 8 in the Chief Inspector Gamache Series.
Chief Inspector Gamache has been called to investigate a murder in the unlikeliest of places – a cloistered monastery lost to the world until the recent publication of their ancient chants.
The music release, intended to be a small release sold to friends and family to help raise money for repairs to the monetary became a world-wide hit. The unwanted international attention, though helpful for building repairs, began to create a rift in the cloistered order which ended in the murder of their choir instructor.
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
Cannie Shapiro won. The smart and witty heroine who won us over in Good in Bed is now a mother to her beautiful and smart 12-year old daughter. She and her gorgeous husband have built a comfortable life together, currently overwhelmed with planning their increasingly-distant daughter’s bat mitzvah.
Told through the perspective of both Cannie and her teen-aged daughter, Joy, Certain Girls is a story about mother and daughter forced to confront their history and their future.
Cannie’s world has become delightful and predictable as she writes adventure books under a pseudonym, volunteers for the library and serves as an emergency “out” for her BFF, Samantha, as she searches for a date for her brother’s wedding.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of June 22nd
Vulnerability is an uncomfortable topic to read through 260 pages. At the heart of “Daring Greatly” is the powerful vulnerability of showing up and allowing yourself to be seen.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and seat and blood; who strives valiantly…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” – Theodore Roosevelt
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
Have you ever sat on the couch eating a bag of chips, but you do not remember heading to the pantry? Do you know why you often arrive at work but cannot recall details of how you got there? Habit.
In Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit”, he explains what habits are, why we create habits, and why they are so difficult to break. He divides the books into three parts:
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of June 15th
Labyrinth is a Savich and Sherlock thriller.
Agent Lacey Sherlock is involved in a car accident on a dark road in Washington D.C. As she is hit, her car flies out of control, a man smashes against her windshield and runs away from the scene of the crash. Sherlock is knocked unconscious and wakes up in the hospital, unable to remember who she is. Trying to find herself and her memory, she works with Dillon Savich, the husband and father of her young son of whom she has no recollection, to find the victim of her crash. Why did he run? DNA tests show him to be a CIA Analyst at Langley. What is he hiding?
GoodReads Rating: 2 Stars*
*If you are a fan of this series, you will enjoy
Anthony Horowitz leverages the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to bring to life a new tale of suspense and intrigue. Set just after the events at Reichenbach Falls, a New York detective from the famous Pinkerton Agency shows up in Switzerland to investigate Moriarty’s death. His warning of a power vacuum created by Moriarty’s loss is severe. There are ruthless and violent criminal leaders in London working to solidify their power in the British criminal underworld.
Working with Inspector Jones from Scotland Yard, the two investigators pursue a menacing, ruthless and mysterious crime boss through the streets of Victorian London. Can they stop him before he lays claim to Moriarty’s criminal authority?
GoodReads Rating: 3 Stars
Book Reviews
Week of June 8th
Though this book was published 15 years ago, I chose to re-read this book recently and write this review because Malcolm Gladwell uses Blink to talk about a subject heavily discussed in our society today. He talks about race and our potential underlying biases which may influence our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors or “The Dark Side of Thin-Slicing”.
Gladwell writes, our attitudes have two levels. We have a conscious level of beliefs we have chosen. We have a layer to our beliefs on an unconscious level as well. These associations are automatic responses that exert themselves before we have time to think about them.
GoodReads Rating: 4 Stars
“There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.” — Oprah
Oprah Winfrey is known for beginning each project with intention. Her intention with this book is to provide readers with wisdom from people with whom she has had the opportunity to speak over the years. She leverages this wisdom to help guide readers on their personal journeys. Her consistent message of hope and encouragement provides the you-got-this backdrop you would expect from an Oprah Winfrey publication.
GoodReads Rating: 5 Stars