The Mistletoe Mystery

Author: Nita Prose
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 128
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Miguel, is intent on making the season Molly's most joyful yet.

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential - and personal - mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince.

Review: This was my first Nita Prose novel, and it was cute. I picked up the clues right away and it went as expected. However, this is about the the time of year I start dreaming about Christmas so it was fun to read a Christmas novella.

Rosarita

Author: Anita Desai
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Scribner, 2025
Pages: 112
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Away from her home in India to study Spanish, Bonita sits on a bench in El Jardin de San Miguel, Mexico, basking in the park's lush beauty, when she slowly becomes aware that she is being watched. An elderly woman approaches her, claiming that she knew Bonita's mother - that they had been friends when Bonita's mother had lived in Mexico as a talented young artist. Bonita tells the stranger that she must be mistaken; her mother was not a painter and she had never traveled to Mexico. Though the stranger leaves, Bonita cannot shake the feeling that she is being followed.

Days later, haunted by the encounter, Bonita seeks out the woman, who she calls The Trickster, and follows her on a tour of what may, or may not, have been her mother's past. As a series of mysterious events brilliantly unfold, Bonita is unable to escape The Trickster's presence, as she is forced to confront questions of truth and identity, and specters of familial and national violence.

Review: Once we cross into Magical Realism, authors lose me. I can't follow what isn't grounded in reality. The author's language and descriptions were en pointe, but the story was lost on me. I couldn't follow what was real and what wasn't.

Before Dorothy

Author: Hazel Gaynor
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2025
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Chicago, 1924: Emily and her new husband, Henry, year to leave the bustle of Chicago for the purpose of their own American dream among the harsh beauty of the prairie. But leaving the city means leaving Emily's beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world.

Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have established their new home among the warmth of the farming community in Kansas. Aligned to the fickle fortunes of nature, their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep.

The wide-eyed child isn't the only thing to disrupt Emily's world.
Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and her much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy.

Review:  Purely by coincidence, I began listening to this book on the same day that I started reading, Emerald's of Oz by Peter Guzzardi It's been forever and a day since I've watched the movie, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and even longer since I read Frank L. Baum's book. 

Hazel Gaynor is a wonderful historical fiction novelist so I knew I would enjoy Before Dorothy. Within the first couple of chapters, I thought for sure this would end up being my next five-star read. However, very shortly, it became a novel that would have been more aptly titled Before Oz. I just wanted more about young Aunt Em and her sisters. That said, I still highly recommend this novel. 

Gaynor recommends Timothy Egan's book, Worst Hard Time, for related reading. It is excellent non-fiction reading for more information about the Dust Bowl.

Hazel Gaynor Novels
A Memory of Violets
The Girl from the Savoy
The Girl Who Came Home

Coauthored Novels
Fall of Poppies
Meet Me in Monaco

Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow

Author: Peter Guzzardi
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2019
Pages: 176 (3 hours, 16 min)
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: After a lifetime in book publishing, Peter Guzzardi had edited a remarkable group of diverse authors, from Stephen Hawking to Deepak Chopra, from Carol Barnett to Douglas Adams, from Byron Katie to Geneen Roth. yet everything he'd learned from working with them felt oddly familiar. One day it suddenly became clear: all that wisdom had its roots in a file he'd watched as a child, The Wizard of Oz.

That revelation led to this book. It's a jewel box of insights drawn from Dorothy's heroic journey from helpless in Kansas to powerful in Oz, then back to Kansas, transformed by what she found along the way. In Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow, we discover what the most-matched file in history has to teach us. With that knowledge we become free to embark on our own journey, having activated the power to direct our lives that we possessed all along
.

Review: Purely by coincidence, I began listening to this book on the same day that I started reading, Before Dorothy, Hazel Gaynor's latest historical fiction novel. It's been forever and a day since I've watched the movie, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and even longer since I read Frank L. Baum's book. 

Emerald's of Oz and Before Dorothy were wonderful companion novels, and between the two, served as a great refresher to the original book and movie.

The Seven Year Slip

Author: Ashley Potston
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Sometimes the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it. 

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn't want to get to close to anyone - she isn't sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt's apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would've fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in the future. 

Her aunt always said that the apartment was a pinch in time, a plac
e where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she'll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time - but a matter of timing.

Review: I typically like time travel novels, although I'm not so much into fluffy romance novels. I decided to give this one a chance and started it over Labor Day weekend. The weather was perfect and this novel had a lightness about it that suited. It was cute and enjoyable. I found myself wanting to jump ahead to see if pieces came together as expected, but I held back and went along for the ride.

The Girl in Suite 11

Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press, 2025
Pages:
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel - owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann - arrives, it's like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo's ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus' hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She's greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus' mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy. 

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she's willing to sacrifice to save this woman. . .and if she can even trust her?

Review: Odd that a follow-up to The Woman in Cabin 10 was 10 years later because I barely remember a thing about that novel.

The Woman in Suite 11 is not my favorite Ruth Ware novel, or even in the top three of her best, in my opinion. I mean how much bad luck can one person have in a decade.

That said, if you're able to suspend belief and don't think too much, it's not a bad story. More than once though I wanted to smack Laura and ask, what are you even thinking? And Judah. Good grief.

I don't recommend this novel, unless you're like me, and want to read all of Ruth Ware's novels.

Ruth Ware Novels
One by One
One Perfect Couple
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
The It Girl
The Lying Game
The Turn of the Key
The Woman in Cabin 10
Zero Days

From Here to the Great Unknown

Author: Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 304
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved. 

Riley got tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told her story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble.  About her singular, lifelong
relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother's wish to reveal these memories, incandescent, and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

Review: I found out to late that the audio version of this book contains Lisa Marie's actual audio recordings, and that would have been great. However, I still liked this book. 

I became an Elvis fan when my husband and I visited Graceland a few years ago. I agreed to go on the tour on a lark, but it was quite interesting. We also visited Sun Records where Elvis had recorded much of his music.

While Lisa Marie blames her dad's death for a lot of her issues later in life, I would argue that even if he had lived, she would have still been a wild child and who knows how that would have played out in her adult life. Neither parent set boundaries or expectations.

I sincerely wish things had gone differently for Lisa Marie, and her son Ben. So much tragedy.

The Younger Wife

Author: Sally Hepworth
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: The Husband: A heart surgeon at the top of this field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself. The Daughters: Tully and Rachel Aston look up on their father's fiancee, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she's after their father's money. The Former Wife: With their mother ins a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family's secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is. The Younger Wife: Heather has secrets of her own. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses in all of them?

Review: I didn't love the ending in this book, but I'm still "Highly Recommending" because I liked the way the story unfolded. The characters were "mostly" likeable too, which is a bonus in a thriller.

I've been having trouble focusing while reading this year, probably because my life is very busy with one daughter graduating high school and the other entering her senior year, but this captured my attention quickly (and held it). 

Sally Hepworth Novels
The Mother-in-Law
The Good Sister
The Soulmate

Canary Girls

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2024
Pages: 432
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Early in the Great War, men left Britain's factories in droves to enlist. Struggling to keep up production, arsenals hired women to build the weapons the military urgently needed. "Be the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun," the recruitment posters beckoned.

Thousands of women - cooks, maids, shopgirls, and housewives - answered their nation's call. These "munitionettes" worked grueling shifts often seven days a week, handling TNT and other explosives with little protective gear.

Among them is nineteen-year-old former housemaid April Tipton. Impressed by her friend Marjorie's description of higher wages, plentiful meals, and comfortable lodgings, she takes a job at Thornshire Arsenal near London, filling shells in the Danger Building - difficult, dangerous, and absolutely essential work.

Joining them is Lucy Dempsey, wife of Daniel Dempsey, Olympic gold medalist and star forward of Tottenham Hotspur. With Daniel away serving in the Footballers' Battalion, Lucy resolves to do her bit to hasten the end of the war. When her coworkers learn she is a footballers; wife, they invite her to join the arsenal ladies' football club, the Thornshire Canaries.

The Canaries soon acquire an unexpected fan in the boss' wife, Helen Purcell, who is deeply troubled by reports that Danger Building workers suffer from serious, unexplained illnesses. One common symptom, the lurid yellow hue of their skin, earns them the nickname "canary girls." Suspecting a connection between the canary girls' maladies and the chemicals they handle, Helen joins the arsenal administration as their staunchest, though often unappreciated, advocate.

The football pitch is the one place where class distinctions and fears for their men fall away. As the war grinds on and tragedy takes its toll, the Canary Girls persist despite the dangers, proud to serve, determined to outlive the war and rejoice in victory and peace.

Review: I'm on a mission to read all of Jennifer Chiaverini's historical fiction novels this year. Once again her novel piqued my interest and I did a bit of research into historical facts about the Canary Girls. While all of the canary girls in the novels are fictional, much of what they experienced was fact. Women did give birth to yellow babies, of course they suffered ill effects from working with TNT and other chemical's, and women's soccer was banned in England following the war.

Other Jennifer Chiaverini Novels
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters
Switchboard Soldiers

Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2021
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend 

Synopsis: In May 1875, Elizabeth Todd Edwards reels from news that her younger sister Mary, former First Lady and widow of President Abraham Lincoln, has attempted suicide.

Mary's shocking act followed legal proceedings arranged by her eldest and only surviving son that declared her legally insane. Although they have long been estranged, Elizabeth knows Mary's tenuous mental health has deteriorated through decades of trauma and loss. Yet is her suicide attempt the impulse of a deranged mind, or the desperate act of a sane woman terrified to be committed to an asylum? And - if her sisters can put past grievances aside - is their love powerful enough to save her?

Maternal Elizabeth, peacemaker Frances, envious Ann, and much adored Emilie had always turned to one another in times of joy and heartache, first as children, and later as young wives and mothers. But when Civil War erupted, the conflict that divided a nation shattered their family. The Todd sister's fates were bound to their husband's choices as some joined the Lincoln administration, others the Confederate Army.

Now, though discord and tragedy have strained their bonds, Elizabeth knows they must come together to help Mary in her most desperate hour.

Review: This is my second Jennifer Chiaverini novel this month. I'm trying to play catch up since she has become a prolific author and her subjects interest me.

My husband and I took our children to Springfield, Illinois a few years ago to visit Abraham Lincoln's Presidential Library and Home. Being a history nerd, I remember a lot of the places mentioned in the novel, most notably Lincoln's home which we toured, and Elizabeth Todd Edwards' home which we saw. These experiences made the novel come to life.

Later in the novel, there is much discussion about Mary Todd Lincoln's afflictions and her subsequent stay at an asylum. As I was reading, I wondered what a doctor in the 21st century would diagnosis. As it turns out, she may have had something called pernicious anemia, which you could read about here. Today it is treatable and certainly wouldn't upend someone's life the way it did Mary's.

While this novel reads a lot like a non-fiction biography instead of a historical fiction novel, I can't discredit the insight into Mary Todd Lincoln's family and background. It's an interesting read. 

Other Jennifer Chiaverini Novels 
Canary Girls
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
Switchboard Soldiers

The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America

Author: Kostya Kennedy
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2025
Pages: 304
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt.

Revere was not the only rider that night, and indeed, he had completed at least 18 previous rides across New England and other colonies, disseminating intelligence about British movements. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come - as the American Revolution morphed from isolated skirmishes to a full-fledged war - became one of our founding legends.

Review: I have never in my life been bored with the history, let alone with the Revolutionary War. However, this book changed all that. It was difficult to get engaged, but I hung in there thinking the chapter on "the ride" itself would be pulse pounding and exciting. I was wrong.

I did enjoy the chapter about William Dawes. He was an entertaining character who isn't given much notice in history books or novels about the war.

As another reviewer on Goodreads said, this was a 20 page term paper dragged out for 200 pages. 

Atmosphere

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2025
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Francis. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA's Space Shuttle Program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston's Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilots Hank Redmond and John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Review: I chose this novel because it's Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I have to admit, space does not excite me. That said, tennis never excited me either, but Carrie Soto is Back was excellent. This was somewhere between The Seven Husband of Evelyn Hugo and Carrie Soto is Back. I liked it, but didn't love it.

Other Taylor Jenkins Reid Novels
Carrie Soto is Back
Daisy Jones and The Six
Malibu Rising
Maybe in Another Life
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Switchboard Soldiers

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2023
Pages: 464
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. Pershing needed telephone operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information.

At the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women - but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them.

More than 7,600 women responded, including Grace Banker of New Jersey, a switchboard operator with AT&T and an alumna of Barnard College, Marie Miossec, a Frenchwoman and aspiring opera singer, and Valerie DeSmedt, a twenty-year-old Pacific Telephone operator from Los Angeles, determined to strike a blow for her native Belgium.

They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. Army under the Articles of War. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. The switchboard soldiers could do it in 10 seconds.

Deployed throughout France, including near the front lines, the operators endured hardships and risked death or injury from gunfire, bombardments, and the Spanish Flue. Not all of them would survive.

The women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Their story has never been the focus of a novel. . .until now.

Review: Sometimes when reading historical fiction, it's difficult to know what is fact and what is fiction. Grace Banker was a real person and kept a war time journal. She is mentioned on the World War I Museum website (fun fact, a few years ago my husband and I took our children to this museum in Kansas City, Missouri). She also has a Wikipedia page. The other two prominently featured characters in this novel, Marie and Valerie, are fictional ladies.

This book was so good that these characters lived in my head, and I found it difficult to concentrate on other books. This was a problem because I only had this as an audio version, and for me that means, I only listen when I drive (and only when I'm by myself). It took most of June and into July to finish.

Other Jennifer Chiaverini Novels
Canary Girls
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters

Small Things Like These

Author: Claire Keegan
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic Inc., 2021
Pages: 128
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Review: Sometimes short books are the hardest to get into, and sometimes they're perfect. I loved this short story. I sympathized with the characters immediately, and was in awe of the author who pulled me in with so little explanation and detail. This story packed a punch and did not belabor the subject. Five stars.

A Map to Paradise

Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2025
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter's agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He's her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.

Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood's sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don't see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?

As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it's a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke. . .

Review: Susan Meissner is a reliably good author. This wasn't my favorite novel that she's written, but it was still very good reading. Some of the events/circumstances were far-fetched and I didn't love a couple of the characters. That said, Meissner knows how to tell a story.

Susan Meissner novels
As Bright as Heaven
Only the Beautiful

Fire and Bones

Author: Kathy Reichs
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Scribner, 2024
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend  

Synopsis: Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, Tempe is called to Washington, D.C. to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and when Tempe delves into the property's history, she becomes suspicious about the ownership.

The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and sending a good story, Tempe teams up with a new ally, tele journalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the 1930s and 40s the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom
Gang. While interesting, this fact seems irrelevant, until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang members is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attack? So many questions.

As Tempe and Ivy dig deeper, an arrest is finally made. Then another fire claims one more victim, and slowly, Tempe's instincts begin pointing to the obvious. But her moves since coming to Washington have been anticipated - and every path forward seems to bring a lethal threat.

Review: I had just a few minutes to browse the library's selection of books on CD, and this one sounded interesting. I should have, but I didn't realize this was part of a series until I popped the CD into my car's player. I had nothing else to listen to so I rolled with it.

Not only is this part of a series, it's book #23!

However, I actually enjoyed this and while I know I'm missing the backstory to some of the characters, it wasn't a problem. It remains to be seen if I'll read any of the books leading up to this, but at least I liked this a whole better than some of the novels I've chosen lately.

The Golden Couple

Author: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all - until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn't stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide though Avery's door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it's no longer simply a marriage that's in danger.

Review: Yay! After a dry spell of many books that I simply did not enjoy, I loved this book. Definitely the best book this team of authors has ave written.

Other novels by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
An Anonymous Girl
The Wife Between Us

Save What's Left

Author: Elizabeth Castellano
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 304
Rating: Do Not Recommend 

Synopsis: When Kathleen Deane's husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage, Kathleen is confused. They live in Kansas. They've been married thirty years. Who said anything about being happy? But with Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thought lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year. 

It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie's letters. Kathleen's new neighbor, Rosemary, is cantankerous, and the town's supervisor won't return Kathleen's emails, but worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen's absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in a fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairytale, but it's exactly what she needed.

Review: My book picker is broken. This is another book that I simply didn't love. It's a GMA Book Club pick and People magazine posted rave reviews as well, but real people aren't rating it favorably on Goodreads and elsewhere.

It had the potential to be cute or even funny, but it wasn't either. Ugh.

The Unexpected Diva

Author: Tiffany L. Warren
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2025
Pages: 432
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield has been raised in the safety of Philadelphia's Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza's happy childhood always included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. But on the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, young Eliza's world is thrown into a tailspin when her mother dies.

Eliza's inheritance is contested by her mother's white cousins, leaving her few options. She can marry her longtime beau, Lucien, though she has no desire to be a wife and mother. Or she can work as a tutor for rich families. Her mother's dying wish was for Eliza to pursue her talent and become a professional singer, but that grand vision now seems out of reach.

When a chance performance on a steamboat to Buffalo, New York, leads to a surprising opportunity, fearless Eliza seizes her moment. Within a year she is touring America, singing to packed houses, and igniting controversy wherever she goes. In a country captivated by "the Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind, Eliza is billed by tour promoters as "the Black Swan." An unlikely diva, Eliza is tall, dark-skinned, and robust of figure compared to the petite European prima donna, but even the harshest critics can't deny Eliza's extraordinary gift. Menaced by racist crowds, threatened by slave-catchers who kidnap free Black people, Eliza lives a public life full of risk, but one which holds the promise of great riches, and the freedoms those buy.

Review: A fictional account of a real person, this novel started out slow. Just as I was thinking I could not endure 432 pages whining about a man she was engaged to marry, but did not love, the author put Eliza on a boat bound for Buffalo and the novel was off to the races. I really enjoyed this novel.

The Story She Left Behind

Author: Patti Callahan Henry
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books, 2025
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington's magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother's lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother's vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London's most deadly natural disasters - the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson's family retreat nestled in the Lake District. Is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her m
other and the story she left behind.

Review: I wanted to love this novel, but I really didn't. The build up was slow and the resolution was weak. Everything was just a little too neat and tidy. It had The Secret Book of Flora Lea vibes, whereas I think I would have preferred something more along the lines of Surviving Savannah. Both of these are novels also written by Patti Callahan Henry.

I waffled on how to rate this novel. I loved Flora Lea, but was I ready for a book so similar to it by this author? I don't think so. I also struggle with books that venture into the imaginary and mystical and I just finished Peony in Love (by Lisa See) which was a lot that. 

Maybe The Story She Left Behind was the right book, just at the wrong time.

Patti Callahan Henry Novels
Surviving Savannah
The Secret Book of Flora Lea

Peony in Love

Author: Lisa See
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2007
Pages: 304
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: In seventeenth-century China, an elaborate villa on the shores of Hangzhou's West Lake, Peony lives a sheltered life. One night, during a theatrical performance in her family's garden, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man and is immediately overcome with emotion. So begins Peony's unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorry, the living world and the afterworld.

Eventually expelled from all she's known, Peony is thrust into a realm where hungry ghosts wander the earth, written words have power to hurt and kill, and dreams are as vivid as waking life. Lisa See's novel, based on actual historical events, evokes vividly another time and place - where three generations of women become enmeshed in a dramatic story, uncover past secrets and tragedies, and learn that love can transcend death.

Review: I have read Lisa See before and loved her novels, but I didn't care for this one. Lisa's strength as an author is her knowledge of Chinese culture, and I did learn a lot, but the plot wasn't my cup of tea. Let's file this under "meh."

Other Lisa See Novels:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

When the Jessamine Grows

Author: Donna Everhart
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Kensington, 2024
Pages: 400
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believe this is simply not their fight.

Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta's own father-in-law. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons' heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta's frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home.

But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son and Joetta is battered by the strain of running a farm with so little help. As the country becomes further entangled in the ramifications of war, Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her - until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster.

Though shunned and struggling to survive, Joetta remains committed to her principles, and to her belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come - for a fractured nation, for Joetta and for those she loves...

Review: This is a time period I generally enjoy reading about, but I have to admit, When the Jessamine Grows was boring, and more than once I sort of rolled my eyes.

Carrie Soto is Back

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 416
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nickie Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the "Battle-Axe" anyway. Even if her body does move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to provde before he gives up the game forever.

Review: I love Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing style and I've read many of her books to great enjoyment. I know nothing about tennis, and quite frankly, I'm not even remotely interested in it, but this book was great. I live with an athlete whose drive is an animal of its own, and found Carrie relatable on that level.

The audio version of this novel is excellent - it's performed, not read (similarly to the audio version of Where'd You Go, Bernadette).

Other Taylor Jenkins Reid Novels
Atmosphere (coming soon)
Daisy Jones and The Six
Malibu Rising
Maybe in Another Life
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Here We Go Again

Author: Betty White
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Scribner, 2010
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Betty White first appeared on television in 1949 and went on to have one of the most amazing careers in TV history, starring in shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, among many others. She was one of the hardest-working actresses of any era, and her sense of humor and perennial optimism carried her through decades of industry changes and delighted millions of fans.

Here We Go Again is a behind-the-scenes look at Betty's career from her start on radio to her first show, Hollywood on Television, to several iterations of The Betty White Show and much, much more. Packed with wonderful anecdotes about famous personalities and friendships, stories of Betty's off-screen life, and the comedienne's trademark humor, this deliciously entertaining book will give readers an entree into Betty's fascinating life, confirming yet again why this funny lady was one of the most memorable and beloved actresses of all time. 

Review: I picked this up thinking it would be light and laugh-out-loud funny. It was a fun read, but it wasn't silly. I loved this look back in time and following Betty's White's career. I primarily remember her from The Golden Girls, a show I watched first with my grandmother and later with college roommates.

The New Couple in 5B

Author: Lisa Unger
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Park Row Books, 2025
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad's late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade.

At first, the building and its electric tenants couldn't feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there's more to the Windermere than meets the eye. Why is the doorman ever-present? Why are there cameras everywhere? And why have so many gruesome crimes occurred there throughout the years? When one of the neighbors turns up dead, Rosie must get to the truth about the Windermere before she, too, falls under its dangerous spell.

Review: I saw this on a book stand on a business trip to Tampa in February. This is my first Lisa Unger novel, and what a ride. The setting, plot, and descriptions of the Windermere drew me in, but this novel wasn't without flaws. A pet peeve about many thrillers, this one included, the author writes in a character confession. I prefer the protagonist put the pieces together him or herself, and the details are revealed to the reader in a more organic way. 

More or Less Maddy

Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Galley Scout Press, 2025
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent break-up, it's normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn't help that she's always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy's latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

Review: I usually love Lisa Genova, but this wasn't my favorite. It felt a little like a The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel rip off, if you've seen that show on Amazon Prime (highly recommend, by the way). "Not my favorite" though, in no way means that you shouldn't read this. It's a good story and Lisa Genova is a wonderful author.

Other Lisa Genova Novels
Inside the O'Briens
Love Anthony
Still Alice

What the Wife Knew

Author: Darby Kane
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2024
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Dr. Richmond Dougherty is a renowned pediatric surgeon, an infamous tragedy survivor, and a national hero. He's also very dead - thanks for a fall down the stairs. His neighbors angrily point a finger at the newest Ms. Dougherty, Addison. The sudden marriage to the mysterious young woman only lasted ninety-seven days, and he'd had two suspicious "accidents" during that time. Now Addison is a very rich widow.

As law enforcement starts to circle in on Addison and people in town become increasingly hostile, sides are chosen with Kathryn, Richmond's high school sweetheart, wife number one, and the mother of his children, leading the fray. Despite rising tensions, Addison is even more driven to forge ahead on the path she charted years ago. . .

Determined at all costs to unravel Richmond's legacy, she soon becomes a target - with a shocking note left on her bedroom wall: You will pay. But it will take a lot more than faceless threats to stop Addison. Her plan to marry Richmond then ruin him may
have been derailed by his unexpected death, but she's not done with him yet.

Review: One of the best thrillers I have ever read. It was hooked on page 1; the first chapter packed an intriguing punch. The entire novel was twisty and compelling. It's hard to talk about thrillers without posting a spoiler so I'm going to leave it at this - read it, read it, read it.

Let's Call Her Barbie

Author: Renee Rosen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2025
Pages: 432
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she's setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.

In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth's vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe let them dream they can be anything.

As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels - head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Steve Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie's fashion - she knows they're working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.

In the decades to come - through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions - each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll - she's a legacy.

Review: Barbie was a hot topic when I was a pre-teen. I had graduated from baby dolls, and my friends were starting to play with Barbies. I wanted one in the worst way, and my conservative mother was a not a fan. My dad was heavily involved in the volunteer fire department and each year they had a children's Christmas party. At the time, the department's membership was staggering and everyone had children. On the day of the party, we would walk in to the main hall and there would be stacks of gifts arranged in front of the stage. They were wrapped according to age so if there were 50 children age 10, there would be 50 gifts wrapped in the same paper. It was impressive to my young eyes when you consider they bought gifts for infants to 12 years old, I believe. 

As you may have guessed, the year I was dying for a Barbie doll, I got one at the fire department Christmas party. I had circumvented my mothers and gotten the only gift I remember truly wanted that year. (I have since thanked the ladies who did the shopping all those years ago).

The book combines my Barbie memories and a topic that is relevant three decades later - leadership. Leadership is top-of-mind for me right now in my professional life. I just attended an intense two and half days of leadership program in St. Petersburg, Florida. My supervisor also started a leadership book club with several of us at work. I reviewed our first book, Multipliers.

Other Renee Rosen Novels

What the Lady Wants
Windy City Blues

The Demon of Unrest

Author: Erik Larson
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 592
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.

At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter's commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chestnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries to avert a war that he fears is inevitable - one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans. 

Review: I loved Isaac's Storm so much, and was expecting the same sort of quick-reading, narrative non-fiction for this novel. I was wrong. It was interesting, but not a fast-paced thriller that just happened to be non-fiction. I think one would have to be really into the Civil War to stick this novel out. I liked it, and Larson certainly paints a picture and tells a story.

The Christmas Tree Farm

Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Fiction / Christmas
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 176
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When Madison McDowell returns from several years teaching overseas, she has high hopes of picking up where she left off at her family's Christmas tree farm in Oregon. But between damage from a recent wildfire and neglect due to her sister Addie's unwillingness to invest, the farm is in sad shape. In fact, Addie is intent on selling the property. And to top it off, her former high school flame, the now-widowed Gavin Thompson, has plans to break Madison's heart again by turning his neighboring property into a dusty, noisy dirt bike track for his daughter.

With the odds stacked against her, Madison decides there's only one thing to do: double down on her dreams. It will take a ton of hard work - and some help from an unlikely ally - to save the farm she so dearly loves. But it may take a miracle to restore her relationship with her sister.

Review: Christmas is over and we're in the very blah month of January. Why not read another Christmas novella? The Christmas Tree Farm lived up to expectations, and it was a fun, festive read to distract me from the cold, gray days.

A Novel Summer

Author: Jamie Brenner
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Park Row Books, 2024
Pages: 320
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Author Shelby Archer found inspiration for her first novel while living on the picturesque shores of Provincetown on Cape Cod. When she comes to the town to celebrate her new bestseller, she is expecting a warm homecoming. But instead she is confronted with the cold shoulders of friends and neighbors who feel exposed and betrayed.

Heartbroken, Shelby tries to move on and focus on her next novel. But then an unexpected call comes: her dear friend who owns the beloved Land's End bookshop needs help for the summer. Shelby reluctantly returns to the Cape to manage the store.

Back at the beach, Shelby sets her focus on the tiny seaside shop, getting lost in the shelves of steamy romance novels and dusty classics and trying to right the wrongs of her past. With every page turned and every customer served, Shelby comes closer to gaining back the trust of those she hurt. But as her manuscript deadline nears, she is again forced to choose between her own success and a second chance at love and belonging.

Review: "Bookish" novels are not my favorite. How
ever, Jamie Brenner is one of my favorite authors so skipping this was not an option. This novel took a long time to gain traction and pull me in. Not a favorite.

Other Jamie Brenner Novels
Blush
Drawing Home
Gilt
Summer Longing
The Forever Summer
The Gin Lovers
The Husband Hour

The Gin Lovers

Author: Jamie Brenner
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2012
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: It's 1925, and the Victorian era with its confining morals is all but dead. Unfortunately, for New York socialite, Charlotte Delacorte, the scandalous flapper revolution is little more than a headline in the tabloids. Living with her rigid and controlling husband, William, her Fifth Avenue townhouse is a gilded cage. But when William's rebellious younger sister, the beautiful and brash Mae, comes to live with them after the death of their mother, Charlotte finds entree to a world beyond her wildest dreams - and a handsome and mysterious stranger whom she imagines is as confident in the bedroom as he is behind the bar of his forbidden speakeasy.

Review: Jamie Brenner is one of my favorite authors, and I loved The Gin Lovers. Spicier than what is typical from her, this was perfect to read when you just want to be buried underneath an electric blanket with a cup of tea. 

The jazz age and Prohibition era captures my imagination every time, and the characters were impossible to put down. The Gin Lovers is a delightful soap opera, and one I recommend for long, cold January days.

Originally published as a 6 part serial for ebooks, The Gin Lovers is the compilation of these parts into one novel. Each chapter has an arc which makes reading this as a singular novel interesting. Something is always happening.

Other Jamie Brenner Novels
A Novel Summer
Blush
Drawing Home
Gilt
Summer Longing
The Forever Summer
The Husband Hour

The Last House on the Street

Author: Diane Chamberlain
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 384
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: 1965: Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to a bank manager, Ellie isn't committed to her expected future as her family believes. She's chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill.

2010: Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill's new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it's the place where Kayla's husband died in an accident - a fact known to a mysterious woman who warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals leaving threatening notes. And Kayla's neighbor Ellie Hockley is harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

Two women, two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth - no matter what that truth may bring in light.

Review: I was on a Diane Chamberlain kick for awhile, but then I got away from reading her. This author can write, and I find myself googling for more information on either the subject matter or something she mentions. I found myself thinking about these characters, especially Kayla, when I had to set the book aside. I shed a few tears and not for the characters necessarily, but for all the people who would have experienced these turbulent times and because some people still can't' see past the colors of someone's skin. Five stars.