Connie's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 11:33:19 -0700 60 Connie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)]]> 217536270
In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.

But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him . . . or her.

Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.]]> 624 Callie Hart 1538774194 Connie 0 to-read, book_club_after_dark 4.28 2024 Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)
author: Callie Hart
name: Connie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read, book_club_after_dark
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Big Tumble (Lawrence Mallory Book 2)]]> 50764494 An overweight low-life who’d once stiffed him on legal fees interrupts Mallory’s gin and vermouth and offers him money to hold a large envelope for a day or two. He won’t say what’s in it or why he wants it held—only that it must be sealed when he gets it back or there will be no payment. Mallory wisely refuses and sends him on his way, but that night a punk kid breaks into his house looking for the same envelope.
Mallory gets the kid to talk, and it turns out he’s working for a loan company operator named Brent Granger who does loan-sharking on the side. The next day, Mallory goes to see Granger who tells him he is being blackmailed over the contents of the envelope. He also won’t say what it is, so Mallory refuses his request to hire him.
That night, a well-aimed punch to the jaw knocks Mallory out cold. When he wakes up, he finds himself back in Granger’s office with double vision and two dead men on the floor, both of whom are Granger. Mallory’s .38 is there too, and it’s the murder weapon.
As Mallory pursues the investigation, he is aided by his wife, Kate, who’d been his secretary when he was a lawyer. There’s plenty of kidding and wisecracking back and forth between them, but she’s a smart and competent partner (albeit one with a temper). Their teenage daughter, Susanna, whose career goal is to be the first female homicide detective on the Central City Police Force, is not about to be left out either.
This family of detectives must solve Granger’s murder before an overzealous police lieutenant has Mallory behind bars and on trial for his life. As for the mysterious envelope, when it finally materializes, what’s inside turns out to be more sinister and explosive than anything anyone might have imagined.
If you’re looking for a little family comedy/drama mixed in with your murder and mayhem and a writing style somewhat reminiscent of Nelson DeMille, this may be your cup of tea. If it is, you’ll also want to follow the adventures of the Mallory family in Appointment with Murder, the first book in the series, which is also available on Amazon Kindle.
]]> 216 Richard V. Hart Connie 0 currently-reading 4.18 The Big Tumble (Lawrence Mallory Book 2)
author: Richard V. Hart
name: Connie
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Connie 4 3.86 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Connie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:
This is a slow moving story about two brothers managing their relationship while grieving their father. It is sad. I thought about not finishing and decided that I did really want to know the ending. I'm glad I stuck with it.
]]> Beautyland 58993490

It’s Fashion Week and Lower Manhattan churns with construction on the third anniversary of 9/11, as Emma O’Farrell Paige arrives at the federal courthouse to depose her former boss, the diabolical villain behind a counterfeit perfume ring.

With little more than tenacity and courage, Emma breaks free from her dysfunctional Midwest childhood and fights for her long-distance marriage to independent league baseball pitcher Ethan Paige, as she plays to win among world-class dealmakers in the trenches of the international beauty biz.

Under the guidance of mentor and boss Julian Petrenko, Emma masterminds the two-hundred-million-dollar fragrance deal with boy band sensation ‘UK Connection�. When the deal of the decade reveals the underbelly of the vaulted Beautyland, Emma is forced to examine herself as closely as she’s studied the beauty game.

****

Beautyland is hard to put down, engaging the reader from the first word, a riveting story of a women who knows her destiny and never gives up. Dana Kline’s writing makes you feel every emotion deeply and twists and turns in the story are ones you would never expect. I didn’t want the book to end as I felt like I was saying goodbye to my friend. You will truly love this book�

� Tracey Bregman

American Actress & Producer]]> 284 Dana Kline 1528987780 Connie 4 I heard about it on The Book Review Podcast. ]]> 3.25 2021 Beautyland
author: Dana Kline
name: Connie
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this book and am surprised by the lower rating.
I heard about it on The Book Review Podcast.
]]> <![CDATA[A Grandmother Begins the Story]]> 123204565
Written like a crooked Métis jig, A Grandmother Begins the Story  follows five generations of women and bison as they reach for the stories that could remake their worlds and rebuild their futures.

Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens truly means.
Allie, Carter's mother, is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife. And Geneviève is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Meanwhile, Mamé, in the Afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to cut herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward.

This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of vividly realized, funny, wise, confused, struggling characters—including descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land—heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction.]]> 336 Michelle Porter 1643755188 Connie 0 couldn-t_finish 3.84 2023 A Grandmother Begins the Story
author: Michelle Porter
name: Connie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: couldn-t_finish
review:

]]> The Boyfriend Candidate 153109622
As a shy school librarian, Alexis Stone is comfortable keeping out of the spotlight. But when she’s dumped for being too meek—in bed!—she decides she needs to change. And what better way to kick-start her new more adventurous life than with her first one-night stand?

Enter Logan, the gorgeous, foul-mouthed stranger she meets at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis’s opposite—and boy, do opposites attract! Just as she’s about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Cameras Logan promptly—and shockingly—flees.

Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. Turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor’s seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career—and jeopardize Alexis’s job—until a solution is proposed: he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until election day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 11 Ashley Winstead 1488227918 Connie 4 book_club_after_dark It didn't end the way I thought it would but I approve ;-)]]> 3.67 2023 The Boyfriend Candidate
author: Ashley Winstead
name: Connie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: book_club_after_dark
review:
This was a fun book, had some good laughs.
It didn't end the way I thought it would but I approve ;-)
]]> When the Sky Fell on Splendor 40390513
In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It's silly, it's fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.

Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn't fiction--it's a bright light, something massive hurtling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate...everything changes.]]> 384 Emily Henry Connie 3 3.22 2019 When the Sky Fell on Splendor
author: Emily Henry
name: Connie
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:
This was a good story and kept me interested but the ending was disappointing.
]]> <![CDATA[Queenie: Godmother of Harlem: A Graphic Novel]]> 60310718 A historical graphic novel inspired by the life of Harlem's legendary mobster, Stephanie Saint-Clair

Queenie follows the life of Stephanie Saint-Clair—the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, Saint-Clair left the island in 1912 and headed for the United States, eager to make a new life for herself. In New York she found success, rising up through poverty and battling extreme racism to become the ruthless queen of Harlem’s mafia and a fierce defender of the Black community.
   
A racketeer and a bootlegger, Saint-Clair dedicated her wealth and compassion to the struggling masses of Harlem, giving loans and paying debts to those around her. But with Prohibition ending, and under threat by Italian mobsters seeking to take control of her operation, she launched a merciless war to save her territory and her skin. In an America still swollen by depression and segregation, Saint-Clair understood that her image was a tool she could use to establish her power and wield as a weapon against her opponents.
   
Authors Elizabeth Colomba and Aurelie Levy's meticulous details—in both story and art—bring Saint-Clair’s story to life in a tense narrative, against a sometimes bloody backdrop of jazz and voodoo. The story tackles the themes of colonization, corruption, police violence, and racial identity, but above all, Queenie celebrates the genius of a woman forgotten by history.
ձ> 160 Elizabeth Colomba 1419757741 Connie 3 3.69 2023 Queenie: Godmother of Harlem: A Graphic Novel
author: Elizabeth Colomba
name: Connie
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:
It was a quick read and seemed like a flat story.
]]> Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Connie 0 currently-reading 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Connie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me, #1)]]> 216437557 disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong�

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]> 416 Abby Jimenez 0349442827 Connie 0 to-read 4.08 2025 Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Connie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Three Souls 18169712 An absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying love

We have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this ...

So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife. Beside her are three souls—stern and scholarly yang; impulsive, romantic yin; and wise, shining hun—who will guide her toward understanding. She must, they tell her, make amends.

As Leiyin delves back in time with the three souls to review her life, she sees the spoiled and privileged teenager she once was, a girl who is concerned with her own desires while China is fractured by civil war and social upheaval. At a party, she meets Hanchin, a captivating left-wing poet and translator, and instantly falls in love with him.

When Leiyin defies her father to pursue Hanchin, she learns the harsh truth—that she is powerless over her fate. Her punishment for disobedience leads to exile, an unwanted marriage, a pregnancy, and, ultimately, her death. And when she discovers what she must do to be released from limbo into the afterlife, Leiyin realizes that the time for making amends is shorter than she thought.

Suffused with history and literature, Three Souls is an epic tale of revenge and betrayal, forbidden love, and the price we are willing to pay for freedom.]]> 439 Janie Chang 1443423904 Connie 4 4.05 2013 Three Souls
author: Janie Chang
name: Connie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Phoenix Crown 64417401
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.]]> 384 Kate Quinn 0063304732 Connie 4 3.76 2024 The Phoenix Crown
author: Kate Quinn
name: Connie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Margo's Got Money Troubles 199534613
“[An] enormously entertaining and lovable book.� —Nick Hornby, New York Times Book Review

A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.

As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.

“A wholly original novel. . . . Thorpe is both poetic and profound in the way she brings her remarkable story to an end.� —The Associated Press]]> 304 Rufi Thorpe 0063356589 Connie 3 3.86 2024 Margo's Got Money Troubles
author: Rufi Thorpe
name: Connie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Things We Leave Unfinished]]> 53137938
Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy� of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century—the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another.

But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book—it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes—even if it means destroying Noah’s career.]]> 400 Rebecca Yarros 1682815668 Connie 3 book_club_of_eli 4.26 2021 The Things We Leave Unfinished
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Connie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: book_club_of_eli
review:

]]> Blue Sisters 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 342 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Connie 4 3.93 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Connie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fall Risk 223199392 Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.]]> 82 Abby Jimenez 1662529082 Connie 5 4.11 2025 The Fall Risk
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Connie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Twisted Love (Twisted, #1) 62057697
He has a heart of ice…but for her, he'd burn the world

A diverse new adult steamy romance from Tiktok sensation and USA Today bestselling author Ana Huang.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can't escape.

Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.

But when he's forced to look after his best friend's sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:

A crack.

A melt.

A fire that could end his world as he knew it.

***

Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can't remember.

But despite her broken past, she's never stopped seeing the beauty in the world...including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn't want.

Her brother's best friend.

Her neighbor.

Her savior and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen-but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both...and everything they hold dear.

Twisted Love is a contemporary brother's best friend/grumpy sunshine romance. It's book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.]]> 343 Ana Huang 1728274869 Connie 1 book_club_after_dark 3.71 2021 Twisted Love (Twisted, #1)
author: Ana Huang
name: Connie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: book_club_after_dark
review:
I didn't enjoy this book and just skimmed over half of it.
]]> The Booklover's Library 195458052
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job to provide for herself and her beloved daughter, Olivia. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots� Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her.

When the threat of war becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In her daughter’s absence, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, as well as the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and her work forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.]]> 432 Madeline Martin 1335000399 Connie 4 cisg 3.96 2024 The Booklover's Library
author: Madeline Martin
name: Connie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: cisg
review:

]]> A Reliable Wife 7018208
With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.
]]> 305 Robert Goolrick 1565129776 Connie 4 A good four star read if the ending were better, I would have given it five.]]> 3.16 2009 A Reliable Wife
author: Robert Goolrick
name: Connie
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this story and it surprised me a couple of times but the ending fell flat.
A good four star read if the ending were better, I would have given it five.
]]> <![CDATA[On a Move: Philadelphia's Notorious Bombing and a Native Son's Lifelong Battle for Justice]]> 181109964 304 Mike Africa Jr. 0063318873 Connie 3 4.02 2024 On a Move: Philadelphia's Notorious Bombing and a Native Son's Lifelong Battle for Justice
author: Mike Africa Jr.
name: Connie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> The Colorado Kid 10574 But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...?

No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself...

]]> 178 Stephen King 0843955848 Connie 1 3.35 2005 The Colorado Kid
author: Stephen King
name: Connie
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:
This was so boring that after I finished it I was wondering if this was the worst thing Stephen King had written. So I googled that, and my lord there are a lot of people with opinions on that subject. I clicked on a few articles and The Colorado Kid was on every worst list I checked.
]]> The Paying Guests 20821087
With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,� the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.]]> 564 Sarah Waters 1594633118 Connie 0 to-read 3.42 2014 The Paying Guests
author: Sarah Waters
name: Connie
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Take My Hand 55650158 Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.]]> 359 Dolen Perkins-Valdez 0593337697 Connie 0 to-read 4.36 2022 Take My Hand
author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
name: Connie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> November 9 25785388
Beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover returns with an unforgettable love story between a writer and his unexpected muse.

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.

Can Ben’s relationship with Fallon—and simultaneously his novel—be considered a love story if it ends in heartbreak?]]> 10 Colleen Hoover 1442388900 Connie 0 3.77 2015 November 9
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Connie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Husband's Secret 18220696
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all - she's an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything - and not just for her. There are other women who barely know Cecilia - or each other - but they, too, are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband's secret.]]> Liane Moriarty 110163071X Connie 0 3.70 2013 The Husband's Secret
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Connie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> When the World Tips Over 203820262 An explosive new novel brimming with love, secrets, and enchantment

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids� father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls� world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.]]> 528 Jandy Nelson 0525429093 Connie 0 4.20 2024 When the World Tips Over
author: Jandy Nelson
name: Connie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Swift River 199798557 A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK | A Most Anticipated Book from Today, Real Simple, Time, Los Angeles Times, and BookPage

“The book we all need to revive our souls� (Nicole Dennis-Benn): A sweeping family saga about the complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the disappearance of a father, and the long-hidden history of a declining New England mill town.

“A powerful novel about how our family history shapes us, Swift River broke my heart, and then offered me hope.� —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: She’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and the fact that since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.

But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered. She is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, spanning the 20th century and revealing a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she’s learned of the past change her future?]]> 304 Essie J. Chambers 1668027917 Connie 4 3.47 2024 Swift River
author: Essie J. Chambers
name: Connie
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Out on a Limb 203052524
Winnifred "Win" McNulty has always been wildly independent. Not one to be coddled for her limb difference, Win has spent most of her life trying to prove that she can do it all on her own. And, with some minor adjustments, she's done just fine.

That is until she has a one-night stand with the incredibly charming Bo, a perfect stranger. And that one night changes everything.

While Bo is surprisingly elated to step up to the plate, Win finds herself unsure of whether she can handle this new challenge on her own or if she’ll need a helping hand.

Together, Win and Bo decide to get to know one another as friends and nothing more. But, as they both should know by now, life rarely goes according to plan.]]> Hannah Bonam-Young Connie 4 book_club_after_dark 4.18 2023 Out on a Limb
author: Hannah Bonam-Young
name: Connie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: book_club_after_dark
review:

]]> Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Connie 4 3.98 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Connie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Casual Vacancy 14601865 18 J.K. Rowling 1619695006 Connie 1 book_club_of_eli The word authentic was completely over used, the characters were unlikeable, the topic quite boring, and the ending unrewarding. Ugg. ]]> 3.34 2012 The Casual Vacancy
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Connie
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2012/12/10
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: book_club_of_eli
review:
This was a book club pick, I hated it.
The word authentic was completely over used, the characters were unlikeable, the topic quite boring, and the ending unrewarding. Ugg.
]]> The Woman in the Library 56803179 In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.]]> 292 Sulari Gentill Connie 3 The correspondence with Leo really broke the flow of the story.]]> 3.46 2022 The Woman in the Library
author: Sulari Gentill
name: Connie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves:
review:
This was okay, very choppy.
The correspondence with Leo really broke the flow of the story.
]]> Beautyland 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Connie 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Beautyland
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Connie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of�

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Connie 5 book_club_of_eli This is such a good read!! 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Connie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: book_club_of_eli
review:
This is such a good read!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Lost and Found Bookshop (Bella Vista Chronicles, #3)]]> 48613318 In this thought-provoking, wise and emotionally rich novel, New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs explores the meaning of happiness, trust, and faith in oneself as she asks the question, "If you had to start over, what would you do and who would you be?"

There is a book for everything . . .

Somewhere in the vast Library of the Universe, as Natalie thought of it, there was a book that embodied exactly the things she was worrying about.

In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative—not counting her scoundrel father.

But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem–Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.

After she moves into the small studio apartment above the shop, Natalie carries out her grandfather’s request and hires contractor Peach Gallagher to do the necessary and ongoing repairs. His young daughter, Dorothy, also becomes a regular at the store, and she and Natalie begin reading together while Peach works.

To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations, from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future, and her own heart.
]]> 368 Susan Wiggs 006291409X Connie 5 It read well as a stand alone.
I really enjoyed this story and all the characters. It is sad and charming.
Looking forward to reading more from Susan Wiggs.]]> 3.84 2020 The Lost and Found Bookshop (Bella Vista Chronicles, #3)
author: Susan Wiggs
name: Connie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:
I picked this up on a display at the library, not realizing it was #3 in a series.
It read well as a stand alone.
I really enjoyed this story and all the characters. It is sad and charming.
Looking forward to reading more from Susan Wiggs.
]]> <![CDATA[Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities]]> 6106482
Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.]]> 236 Amy Stewart 1565126831 Connie 0 currently-reading 3.83 2009 Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
author: Amy Stewart
name: Connie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Connie 3 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Connie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:
I had waited for a few months to get this book from Libby and was excited to finally read it but was disappointed. The first third of the book was pretty good, but the more I read the more disappointed I became. The book was very choppy, the author would end with a cliff hanger and then when she finally got back around to it, it was a let down. The ending was ridiculous.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Be a Wallflower (Would-Be Wallflowers, #1)]]> 58460799 From New York Times bestseller Eloisa James, a new Regency-set novel in which a heiress with the goal of being a wallflower engages a rugged American in a scorchingly sensual, witty wager that tests whether clothing does indeed make the man—or the wallflower!

Miss Cleopatra Lewis is about to be launched in society by her aristocratic grandfather. But since she has no intention of marrying, she visits a costume emporium specifically to order unflattering dresses guaranteed to put off any prospective suitors.

Powerful and charismatic Jacob Astor Addison is in London, acquiring businesses to add to his theatrical holdings in America—as well as buying an emerald for a young lady back in Boston. He's furious when a she-devil masquerading as an English lady steals Quimby's Costume Emporium from under his nose.

Jake strikes a devil's bargain, offering to design her “wallflower wardrobe� and giving Cleo the chance to design his. Cleo can't resist the fun of clothing the rough-hewn American in feathers and flowers. And somehow in the middle of their lively competition, Jake becomes her closest friend.

It isn't until Cleo becomes the toast of all society that Jake realizes she's stolen his fiercely guarded heart. But unlike the noblemen at her feet, he doesn't belong in her refined and cultured world.

Caught between the demands of honor and desire, Jake would give up everything to be with the woman he loves�if she'll have him!

]]> 384 Eloisa James 0063139537 Connie 0 to-read 3.64 2022 How to Be a Wallflower (Would-Be Wallflowers, #1)
author: Eloisa James
name: Connie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On the Bright Side: The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 Years Old]]> 37492097 Pogingen iets van het leven te maken. Samen met zijn vriend Evert en de andere leden van de Oud-maar-niet-dood-club, probeert Hendrik zijn laatste levensjaren in een verzorgingshuis in Amsterdam-Noord zo aangenaam mogelijk te maken.
Van tijd tot tijd valt het Hendrik zwaar om de moed erin te houden. Gelukkig heeft hij de pen weer opgepakt. Met de hem zo kenmerkende charmante, ironische humor neemt hij de medebewoners, de directie, zijn vrienden en de ouderdom in het algemeen op de korrel, waarbij hij zichzelf zeker niet spaart.]]> 1 Hendrik Groen 1549116088 Connie 4 There is some sadness but most of it is silly stories of the 'Old but not dead club' and ailments of getting older. ]]> 4.08 2016 On the Bright Side: The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 Years Old
author: Hendrik Groen
name: Connie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
This was such an enjoyable story.
There is some sadness but most of it is silly stories of the 'Old but not dead club' and ailments of getting older.
]]> Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 17737875 But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr. Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.
All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative, the very opposite of Mr. Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr. Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different...
Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that 32 hours leave readers longing for more.]]> 32 Susanna Clarke Connie 0 couldn-t_finish 3.94 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Connie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: couldn-t_finish
review:

]]> Queen Charlotte 178128313
“We are one crown. His weight is mine, and mine is his…�

In 1761, on a sunny day in September, a King and Queen met for the very first time. They were married within hours.

Born a German Princess, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was beautiful, headstrong, and fiercely intelligent� not precisely the attributes the British Court had been seeking in a spouse for the young King George III. But her fire and independence were exactly what she needed, because George had secrets� secrets with the potential to shake the very foundations of the monarchy.

Thrust into her new role as a royal, Charlotte must learn to navigate the intricate politics of the court� all the while guarding her heart, because she is falling in love with the King, even as he pushes her away. Above all she must learn to rule, and to understand that she has been given the power to remake society. She must fight—for herself, for her husband, and for all her new subjects who look to her for guidance and grace. For she will never be just Charlotte again. She must instead fulfill her destiny� as Queen.]]> 12 Julia Quinn Connie 4 I was interested in Brimsley and Kennedy's romance and it did give some more details.
However, I still do not know what became of Kennedy. ]]> 3.94 2023 Queen Charlotte
author: Julia Quinn
name: Connie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
This mostly followed the series, was just missing a couple of the characters.
I was interested in Brimsley and Kennedy's romance and it did give some more details.
However, I still do not know what became of Kennedy.
]]> <![CDATA[When He Was Wicked (Bridgertons, #6)]]> 52970853
In every life there is a turning point..

A moment so tremendous, so sharp and breathtaking, that one knows one's life will never be the same. For Michael Stirling, London's most infamous rake, that moment came the first time he laid eyes on Francesca Bridgerton.

After a lifetime of chasing women, of smiling slyly as they chased him, of allowing himself to be caught but never permitting his heart to become engaged, he took one look at Francesca Bridgerton and fell so fast and hard into love it was a wonder he managed to remain standing. Unfortunately for Michael, however, Francesca's surname was to remain Bridgerton for only a mere thirty-six hours longer -- the occasion of their meeting was, lamentably, a supper celebrating her imminent wedding to his cousin.

But that was then . . . Now Michael is the earl and Francesca is free, but still she thinks of him as nothing other than her dear friend and confidant. Michael dares not speak to her of his love . . . until one dangerous night, when she steps innocently into his arms, and passion proves stronger than even the most wicked of secrets . . .]]> Julia Quinn Connie 3 3.73 2004 When He Was Wicked (Bridgertons, #6)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Connie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
This was my least favorite of the Bridgerton series.
]]> <![CDATA[What You Are Looking For Is in the Library]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine editor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]> 304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 Connie 2 book_club_of_eli I found it quite boring and was unhappy with the descriptions of Mrs. Komachi.
She was an interesting character, her weight did not need to be mentioned in such a negative way repeatedly. ]]> 4.07 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: Connie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: book_club_of_eli
review:
This was a book club pick.
I found it quite boring and was unhappy with the descriptions of Mrs. Komachi.
She was an interesting character, her weight did not need to be mentioned in such a negative way repeatedly.
]]> <![CDATA[Dating Dead Men (Wollie Shelley Mystery #1)]]> 1310439 How to Avoid Getting Dumped All the Time. Wollie is meeting plenty of eligible bachelors but not falling in love, not until she stumbles over a dead body en route to Rio Pescado—a state-run mental hospital—and is momentarily taken hostage by a charismatic “doctor� who is on the run from the Mob. Wollie fears that her beloved brother, a paranoid schizophrenic living at Rio Pescado, is involved in the murder, so rather than go to the authorities, she decides to solve the crime on her own. As she meets up with an array of small-time crooks and swaggering mobsters only slightly more sinister than the men she’s been dating, Wollie realizes that “getting dumped� is the least of her problems. Finding true love, she discovers, sometimes means learning how to avoid getting killed . . .

Dating Dead Men will keep readers guessing until the final bullet is shot—and cheering for the irresistible Wollie as she makes her way out of confusion and into the welcoming embrace of Mr. Right.]]> 336 Harley Jane Kozak 0385510187 Connie 3 Seriously though, no sane woman would have done the things Wollie did.]]> 3.43 2004 Dating Dead Men (Wollie Shelley Mystery #1)
author: Harley Jane Kozak
name: Connie
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
This was an okay story and had some humor.
Seriously though, no sane woman would have done the things Wollie did.
]]> The Last Ranger 63249808 🎧9 hours

The best-selling author of The River returns with a lush and vivid mystery set in Yellowstone National Park where a skirmish between a local hunter and a wolf biologist turns violent, and a park ranger, facing his own personal demons, sets out to determine what really happened.


Ren is a park ranger, tasked with duties both mundane and thrilling: breaking up fights at campgrounds, saving tourists from moose attacks, and attempting to broker an uneasy peace between the wealthy vacationers who tromp around with cameras and the locals who want to carve out a meaningful living amid this western landscape.

When Ren discovers his friend Hilly, a biologist and wolf expert, nearly dead in the steel jaws of a wolf trap, he hopes it’s just an accident, but the small red ribbon tied to the stake makes him fairly certain that it wasn’t. What begins as an inquiry into a known poacher soon opens into the discovery of a local group of ranchers who have formed an alliance at odds with both the park and with Ren’s responsibility to protect it.

Rife with surprising humor, populated by a cast of extraordinary characters, each drawn to Yellowstone for their own reasons, Peter Heller once again mines the rich vein where our very human impulses play out against the stunning beauty of the natural world.]]> 287 Peter Heller 0593535111 Connie 0 to-read 3.70 2023 The Last Ranger
author: Peter Heller
name: Connie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Situationship 217885191 Find out how Maddy and Doug met in this sweet and hilarious short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.

Travel nurse Maddy doesn't have time for a relationship, not even with the ruggedly handsome farmer who she feels a spark of attraction to.

Doug is a walking green flag. After a run in with Maddy thanks to the Wakan town mascot, Kevin Bacon the pig, he can't help but feel the spark too.

Even though she doesn't plan on staying in Minnesota forever, Maddy believes she and Doug can still have a fling� or maybe they’ll just find themselves in a situationship. 

“The Situationship�was originally published as a bonus chapter in the Target exclusive edition of Just for the Summer. This ebook original also includes a first look at Abby’s new release, Say You’ll Remember Me.]]> 37 Abby Jimenez 1538773724 Connie 4 3.94 2024 The Situationship
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Connie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Sleeping Beauties 34466922
If they are awakened, and the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place.

The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease.

Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain?]]> 702 Stephen King 150116340X Connie 3
This was a real page turner and I did enjoy most of it.
There are a lot of characters. He was introducing new ones 500 pages into it.
They were hard to keep track of, and remember who was good and who was bad.

I liked the storylines for Lila, Michaela, Jared, Clint and even Frank.

The ending was disappointing.

(I started reading this book to my brother Mike during the final days I spent with him. At first, I had planned to read The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. I had picked it up from the library—it sounded interesting, and Mike was on board. But when he heard the title of the first part, 'The Terrible Princess,' he changed his mind. He asked me to grab one of his Stephen King books instead. So, I grabbed Tommyknockers. But Mike had already read that one, so I went back and came back with Sleeping Beauties instead. That would do. He was lying on the couch while I read, and every time I said a bad word, he would chuckle. It’s a sweet memory I’ll always hold on to)]]> 3.71 2017 Sleeping Beauties
author: Stephen King
name: Connie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars

This was a real page turner and I did enjoy most of it.
There are a lot of characters. He was introducing new ones 500 pages into it.
They were hard to keep track of, and remember who was good and who was bad.

I liked the storylines for Lila, Michaela, Jared, Clint and even Frank.

The ending was disappointing.

(I started reading this book to my brother Mike during the final days I spent with him. At first, I had planned to read The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. I had picked it up from the library—it sounded interesting, and Mike was on board. But when he heard the title of the first part, 'The Terrible Princess,' he changed his mind. He asked me to grab one of his Stephen King books instead. So, I grabbed Tommyknockers. But Mike had already read that one, so I went back and came back with Sleeping Beauties instead. That would do. He was lying on the couch while I read, and every time I said a bad word, he would chuckle. It’s a sweet memory I’ll always hold on to)
]]> Playing for Pizza 2399214 308 John Grisham 0440244714 Connie 4 3.42 2007 Playing for Pizza
author: John Grisham
name: Connie
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2010/10/27
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this book about a NFL quarterback that costs him team the chance to play in the Superbowl and then decides to hide out in Italy to play until things calm down. I liked the football, food and comradery. The ending was predictable but still very enjoyable.
]]> Terminal (Lomax & Biggs #5) 28963518
Marshall Karp, coauthor of the #1 bestselling NYPD Red series, sets his latest thriller in LA, where someone is recruiting terminally ill patients to commit one final act before they die. Murder.

Laced with twists, turns, and Karp’s trademark biting cop humor, you may find yourself rooting for the killers—law-abiding citizens who have abandoned their values to earn a half million dollars for the loved ones they will leave behind. You may also find yourself asking, “What would I do?�

If you’ve never met LAPD detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, TERMINAL is the perfect place to start.]]> 256 Marshall Karp Connie 0 to-read 4.52 2016 Terminal (Lomax & Biggs #5)
author: Marshall Karp
name: Connie
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cut, Paste, Kill (Lomax & Biggs, #4)]]> 7553188
As more bodies are discovered, each one connected by the intricate scrapbooks left at the murder scenes, Mike and Terry are on the hunt for a vigilante stalking unpunished criminals. They must race to decode the meaning behind the scrapbooks before the crafty avenger has time to cut and paste the story for another kill.

With laugh-out-loud humor and crackling dialogue, the chapters hurtle toward a killer finale in the most thrilling Lomax & Biggs adventure yet.]]> 304 Marshall Karp 031237822X Connie 0 to-read 4.05 2010 Cut, Paste, Kill (Lomax & Biggs, #4)
author: Marshall Karp
name: Connie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Something in the Water 36388243 If you could make one simple choice that would change your life forever, would you?

Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . .

Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares?

Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . .

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave?

Wonder no longer. Catherine Steadman's enthralling voice shines throughout this spellbinding debut novel. With piercing insight and fascinating twists, Something in the Water challenges the reader to confront the hopes we desperately cling to, the ideals we're tempted to abandon, and the perfect lies we tell ourselves.]]> 342 Catherine Steadman 1524797189 Connie 4 3.54 2018 Something in the Water
author: Catherine Steadman
name: Connie
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Connie 4 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Connie
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Slow Dance 204911494
Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.]]> 11 Rainbow Rowell 0063380226 Connie 2 3.63 2024 Slow Dance
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Connie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Homegoing 27071490 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.]]> 305 Yaa Gyasi Connie 0 to-read 4.48 2016 Homegoing
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Connie
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Go Ask Alice 206332376 0 Anonymous Connie 2
This was extremely depressing. ]]> 2.00 Go Ask Alice
author: Anonymous
name: Connie
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:
read next: UNMASK ALICE

This was extremely depressing.
]]> <![CDATA[Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries]]> 60041102 Two teens. Two diaries. Two social panics. One incredible fraud.

In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous.

But Alice was only the beginning.

In 1979, another diary rattled the culture, setting the stage for a national meltdown. The posthumous memoir of an alleged teenage Satanist, Jay's Journal merged with a frightening new crisis—adolescent suicide—to create a literal witch hunt, shattering countless lives and poisoning whole communities.

In reality, Go Ask Alice and Jay's Journal came from the same dark place: Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who betrayed a grieving family, stole a dead boy's memory, and lied her way to the National Book Awards.

Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries is a true story of contagious deception. It stretches from Hollywood to Quantico, and passes through a tiny patch of Utah nicknamed "the fraud capital of America." It's the story of a doomed romance and a vengeful celebrity. Of a lazy press and a public mob. Of two suicidal teenagers, and their exploitation by a literary vampire.

Unmask Alice . . . where truth is stranger than nonfiction.]]> 349 Rick Emerson 1637740425 Connie 0 to-read 3.93 2022 Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries
author: Rick Emerson
name: Connie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sycamore Row 17345381 John Grisham takes you back to where it all began . . .

John Grisham's A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.

The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

In Sycamore Row, John Grisham returns to the setting and the compelling characters that first established him as America's favorite storyteller. Here, in his most assured and thrilling novel yet, is a powerful testament to the fact that Grisham remains the master of the legal thriller, nearly twenty-five years after the publication of A Time to Kill.]]> John Grisham 0385366485 Connie 3 3.93 2013 Sycamore Row
author: John Grisham
name: Connie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:
Meh, this was okay, it really dragged along.
]]> <![CDATA[True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between]]> 209812423 From trailblazing Michigan governor and rising Democratic star Gretchen Whitmer comes an unconventionally honest, personal, and funny account of her remarkable life and career, full of insights that guided her through a global pandemic, showdowns with high-profile bullies, and even a kidnapping and assassination plot.

When Gretchen Whitmer was growing up, her beloved grandmother Nino taught her that you can always find something good in other people. “Even the meanest person might have pretty eyes,� she would say. Nino’s words persuaded Whitmer to look for the good in any person or situation—just one of many colorful personal experiences that have shaped her political vision. (And, as Whitmer writes, one that resonated more than another piece of advice her grandmother offered, to “never part your hair in the middle.�)

In this candid and inspiring book, Whitmer reveals the principles and instincts that have shaped her extraordinary career, from her early days as a lawyer and legislator and her 2018 election as governor of Michigan, to her bold and innovative actions as she led the state through a series of unprecedented crises. Her motto in politics, she writes, is to “get shit done.�

Whitmer shares the lessons in resilience that steered her through some of the most challenging events in Michigan’s history, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, a five-hundred-year flood, the rise of domestic terrorism, and the fierce fight to protect reproductive rights.

Along the way, she tells stories about the outsize characters in her family, her lifelong clumsy streak, the wild comments she’s heard on the campaign trail, her self-deprecating social media campaigns (including her star turn as a talking potato with lipstick), and the slyly funny tactics she deploys to neutralize her opponents.

Written with Whitmer’s trademark sense of humor and straight-shooting style, True Gretch is not only a compelling account of her remarkable journey, but also a blueprint for anyone who wants to make a difference in their community, their country, or the world. It is a testament to the power of humor, perseverance, and compassion in the face of darkness.]]> 176 Gretchen Whitmer 1668072319 Connie 0 to-read 4.24 2024 True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
author: Gretchen Whitmer
name: Connie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hummingbird: A Novel 24700387 The Curiosity comes a compelling and moving story of compassion, courage, and redemption.

Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal, and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had.

At the same time, Deborah’s primary patient is Barclay Reed, a retired history professor and expert in the Pacific Theater of World War II whose career ended in academic scandal. Alone in the world, the embittered professor is dying. As Barclay begrudgingly comes to trust Deborah, he tells her stories from that long-ago war, which help her find a way to help her husband battle his demons.

Told with piercing empathy and heartbreaking realism, The Hummingbird is a masterful story of loving commitment, service to country, and absolution through wisdom and forgiveness.]]> Stephen P. Kiernan 0062416596 Connie 4 I wish Barclay's story would have had a better ending.
]]> 3.93 2015 The Hummingbird: A Novel
author: Stephen P. Kiernan
name: Connie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
This is a heavy story dealing with death and PTSD.
I wish Barclay's story would have had a better ending.

]]> <![CDATA[The Mistletoe Mystery (Molly the Maid, #2.5)]]> 210040063 Molly the Maid has a whole new mystery to solve in this heartwarming novella from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.

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 Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s mofinst 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?

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.]]> 112 Nita Prose 0593875443 Connie 3 The reader knows what is going to happen.
Molly is the only one out of the loop.]]> 3.41 2024 The Mistletoe Mystery (Molly the Maid, #2.5)
author: Nita Prose
name: Connie
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
This was an okay story, not really a mystery.
The reader knows what is going to happen.
Molly is the only one out of the loop.
]]> Thunderstruck 826342
In Thunderstruck , Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,� nearly commits the perfect murder.

With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate.]]> 392 Erik Larson 1400080673 Connie 3 I enjoyed The Devil in the White City and decided this needed to come home with me.

This was an okay read, I didn't feel invested in either of the storylines, but I did finish it. ]]> 3.81 2006 Thunderstruck
author: Erik Larson
name: Connie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
While straightening up books at the free store, this one caught my eye.
I enjoyed The Devil in the White City and decided this needed to come home with me.

This was an okay read, I didn't feel invested in either of the storylines, but I did finish it.
]]> My Own Words 29868604
My Own Words offers Justice Ginsburg on wide-ranging topics, including gender equality, the workways of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book’s sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams. Justice Ginsburg has written an introduction to the book, and Hartnett and Williams introduce each chapter, giving biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted. This is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of America’s most influential women.]]> 400 Ruth Bader Ginsburg 150114524X Connie 0 couldn-t_finish I love RBG but I thought this was going to be more about her and not her thoughts and opinions on other people and things.]]> 4.02 2016 My Own Words
author: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
name: Connie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: couldn-t_finish
review:
Not what I was expecting.
I love RBG but I thought this was going to be more about her and not her thoughts and opinions on other people and things.
]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old]]> 35960007 A #1 international bestseller in the vein of Fredrik Bachman's A Man Called Ove: an irresistible, funny, charming, and tender-hearted tale about friendship, love, and an old man who is young at heart.
Technically speaking, Hendrik Groen is....elderly. But at age 83 1/4, this feisty, indomitable curmudgeon has no plans to go out quietly. Bored of weak tea and potted geraniums, exasperated by the indignities of aging, Hendrik has decided to rebel--on his own terms. He begins writing an exposé: secretly recording the antics of day-to-day life in his retirement home, where he refuses to take himself, or his fellow "inmates," too seriously.
With an eccentric group of friends he founds the wickedly anarchic Old-But-Not-Dead Club--"Rule #3: No Whining Allowed"--and he and his best friend, Evert, gleefully stir up trouble, enraging the home's humorless director and turning themselves into unlikely heroes. And when a sweet and sassy widow moves in next door, he polishes his shoes, grooms what's left of his hair, and determines to savor every ounce of joy in the time he has left, with hilarious and tender consequences.


A bestselling phenomenon that has captured imaginations around the world, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is inspiring, charming, and laugh-out-loud funny with a deep and poignant core: a page-turning delight for readers of any age.

*Includes reading group guide*]]> 384 Hendrik Groen 1455542156 Connie 0 to-read 3.82 2014 The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old
author: Hendrik Groen
name: Connie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Chestnut Man 41154336
A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen.

His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery—a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago.

A tragic coincidence—or something more twisted?

To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues.

Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over.

And no one is safe.]]> 519 Søren Sveistrup 0062895362 Connie 0 to-read 4.17 2019 The Chestnut Man
author: Søren Sveistrup
name: Connie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> No Exit 35522836
Darby Thorne is a college student stranded by a blizzard at a highway rest stop in the middle of nowhere. She’s on the way home to see her sick mother. She’ll have to spend the night in the rest stop with four complete strangers. Then she stumbles across a little girl locked inside one of their parked cars.

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, no way out because of the snow, and she doesn’t know which one of the other travelers is the kidnapper.

Who is the little girl? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?]]> 287 Taylor Adams 1912106760 Connie 0 to-read 3.98 2017 No Exit
author: Taylor Adams
name: Connie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Third Gilmore Girl 207298106 Brought to you by Penguin.

Beloved award-winning actress Kelly Bishop, famous for playing the iconic Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls , finally tells the whole story of her six decades in show business.

Kelly Bishop’s storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing, but it is probably her role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy.
Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future, sharing some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.
Full of witty insights, The Third Gilmore Girl is a warm, unapologetic, and powerful memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades.

]]> 256 Kelly Bishop 1668023776 Connie 5 I highly recommend! ]]> 4.35 2024 The Third Gilmore Girl
author: Kelly Bishop
name: Connie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
review:
This is a great memoir. I knew nothing of her early career and found it very interesting.
I highly recommend!
]]> <![CDATA[The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson]]> 158649513 Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling multigenerational novel of survival, love, and the families we make.

In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister� to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.

In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.

Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.]]> 384 Ellen Baker 0063351196 Connie 4 3.84 2024 The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson
author: Ellen Baker
name: Connie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Dictionary of Lost Words 49354511 Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium�, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid� flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.]]> 384 Pip Williams 1925972593 Connie 4 3.97 2020 The Dictionary of Lost Words
author: Pip Williams
name: Connie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Librarianist 62645180 From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself.

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.

Behind Bob Comet's straight-man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.

With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.]]> 352 Patrick deWitt 0063085127 Connie 3 3.37 2023 The Librarianist
author: Patrick deWitt
name: Connie
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> All the Colors of the Dark 203019740 From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.]]> 608 Chris Whitaker 0593798872 Connie 4 4.23 2024 All the Colors of the Dark
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Connie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> A Little Life 39100683
In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.

Source: penguinrandomhouse.com]]> 951 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539266 Connie 0 couldn-t_finish 4.29 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Connie
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: couldn-t_finish
review:
I couldn't finish this book. The sexual abuse was just too much. I cared about the characters but couldn't handle it.
]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Connie 0 to-read 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Connie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Summer According to Humphrey (According to Humphrey #6)]]> 7055089
Camper Humphrey meets a friendly wild mouse, tracks down Og when he gets lost by the lake, and uses his wily charm to help kids adjust to cabin life and make new friends. Everyone's favorite classroom pet keeps entertaining kids across the nation, and his books have won eight state awards and were nominated for fourteen others.]]> 176 Betty G. Birney 0399247327 Connie 3 4.24 2009 Summer According to Humphrey (According to Humphrey #6)
author: Betty G. Birney
name: Connie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Book of Doors 156480764
In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door .

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because some doors should never be opened.]]> 408 Gareth Brown 1787637247 Connie 5 4.03 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Connie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Keeper of Stories 59904786 She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they always had done, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her�

When Janice starts cleaning for Mrs B � a shrewd and tricksy woman in her nineties � she meets someone who wants to hear her story. But Janice is clear: she is the keeper of stories, she doesn’t have a story to tell. At least, not one she can share.

Mrs B is no fool and knows there is more to Janice than meets the eye. What is she hiding? After all, doesn’t everyone have a story to tell?]]> 386 Sally Page Connie 4 4.07 2022 The Keeper of Stories
author: Sally Page
name: Connie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games, #2)]]> 50531218 Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions - including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she's not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture - by any means necessary.

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.]]> 380 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 0241480744 Connie 4 4.19 2021 The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games, #2)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Connie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3)]]> 58658940 Avery’s fortune, life, and loves are on the line in the game that everyone will be talking about.

To inherit billions, all Avery Kylie Grambs has to do is survive a few more weeks living in Hawthorne House. The paparazzi are dogging her every step. Financial pressures are building. Danger is a fact of life. And the only thing getting Avery through it all is the Hawthorne brothers. Her life is intertwined with theirs. She knows their secrets and they know her.

But as the clock ticks down to the moment when Avery will become the richest teenager on the planet, trouble arrives in the form of a visitor who needs her help—and whose presence in Hawthorne House could change everything. It soon becomes clear that there is one last puzzle to solve, and Avery and the Hawthorne brothers are drawn into a dangerous game against an unknown and powerful player.]]> 400 Jennifer Lynn Barnes Connie 3 4.10 2022 The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Connie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Silent Patient 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Connie 5 book_club_of_eli 4.17 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Connie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: book_club_of_eli
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Life's Too Short (The Friend Zone, #3)]]> 54848572 THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"A hilarious, tender, and altogether life-affirming gem of a book." --Emily Henry, bestselling author of Beach ReadA brilliant and touching romantic comedy about two polar opposites, one adorable dog, and living every day to its fullest. When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted. But after her half sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her baby daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua. Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see. Minnesota Book Awards winnerBookRiot, Top Books of 2021ŷ, Best of 2021 Romance FinalistShe Reads, Best of 2021 Romance Winner]]> 299 Abby Jimenez Connie 5 4.23 2021 Life's Too Short (The Friend Zone, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Connie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:
Another great story by Abby Jimenez!
]]> Not in Love (Not in Love, #1) 198716261 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.]]> 384 Ali Hazelwood 1408728915 Connie 0 couldn-t_finish This was not a romantic comedy. . . yuck.]]> 3.59 2024 Not in Love (Not in Love, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Connie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves: couldn-t_finish
review:
Libby recommended this book to me after I finished an Abby Jimenez novel.
This was not a romantic comedy. . . yuck.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)]]> 157067546 When an acclaimed author dies at the Regency Grand Hotel, it's up to a fastidious maid to uncover the truth, no matter how dirty—in a standalone novel featuring Molly Gray, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick.

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J.D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead� very dead —on the hotel’s tea room floor.

When Detective Stark, Molly's old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to who killed J.D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the case threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer's identity. But that key is buried deep in her past—because long ago, she knew J.D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery post-haste. If there's one thing Molly knows for sure, it's that dirty secrets don't stay buried forever...]]> 289 Nita Prose 0593356195 Connie 4 I enjoyed the backstory of Molly and her Gran.]]> 4.04 2023 The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)
author: Nita Prose
name: Connie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:
Another good murder mystery.
I enjoyed the backstory of Molly and her Gran.
]]> The Lost Apothecary 57011522
A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary....

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious 12-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive.

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.]]> 0 Sarah Penner 1488210764 Connie 4 3.50 2021 The Lost Apothecary
author: Sarah Penner
name: Connie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[If Cats Disappeared from the World]]> 37941620
The postman’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week�

With each object that disappears the postman reflects on the life he’s lived, his joys and regrets, and the people he’s loved and lost.

Genki Kawamura’s timeless tale is a moving story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters most in life.]]> 0 Genki Kawamura 1250299519 Connie 5 3.80 2012 If Cats Disappeared from the World
author: Genki Kawamura
name: Connie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Practical Magic (Practical Magic, #1)]]> 7427531 Second Nature, Illumination Night and Turtle Moon now offers her most fascinating and tantalizingly accomplished novel yet -- a winning tale that amply confirms Alice Hoffman's reputation not only as a genius of the vivid scene and unforgettable character but as one of America's most captivating storytellers.

When the beautiful and precocious sisters Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned at a young age, they are taken to a small Massachusetts town to be raised by their eccentric aunts, who happen to dwell in the darkest, eeriest house in town. As they become more aware of their aunts' mysterious and sometimes frightening powers -- and as their own powers begin to surface -- the sisters grow determined to escape their strange upbringing by blending into "normal" society.

But both find that they cannot elude their magic-filled past. And when trouble strikes -- in the form of a menacing backyard ghost -- the sisters must not only reunite three generations of Owens women but embrace their magic as a gift -- and their key to a future of love and passion. Funny, haunting, and shamelessly romantic, Practical Magic is bewitching entertainment -- Alice Hoffman at her spectacular best.]]> Alice Hoffman 0743545656 Connie 4 3.46 1995 Practical Magic (Practical Magic, #1)
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Connie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year]]> 199503801 Margaret Renkl Connie 0 couldn-t_finish 4.01 2023 The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
author: Margaret Renkl
name: Connie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: couldn-t_finish
review:

]]> We Are the Ants 23677341 The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley comes a brand-new novel about a teenage boy who must decide whether or not the world is worth saving.

Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.

Only he isn’t sure he wants to.

After all, life hasn’t been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer’s. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend’s suicide last year.

Wiping the slate clean sounds like a pretty good choice to him.

But Henry is a scientist first, and facing the question thoroughly and logically, he begins to look for pros and cons: in the bully who is his perpetual one-night stand, in the best friend who betrayed him, in the brilliant and mysterious boy who walked into the wrong class. Weighing the pain and the joy that surrounds him, Henry is left with the ultimate choice: push the button and save the planet and everyone on it…or let the world—and his pain—be destroyed forever.]]> 455 Shaun David Hutchinson 148144963X Connie 0 to-read 4.12 2016 We Are the Ants
author: Shaun David Hutchinson
name: Connie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The World According to Humphrey]]> 6588553 The first book in the series about everyone's favorite classroom pet! You can learn a lot about life by observing another species. That’s what Humphrey was told when he was first brought to Room 26. And boy, is it true! In addition to having FUN-FUN-FUN in class, each weekend this amazing hamster gets to sleep over with a different student, like Lower-Your-Voice-A.J. and Speak-Up-Sayeh. Soon Humphrey learns to read, write, and even shoot rubber bands (only in self-defense, of course). With lots of friends to help, adventures to enjoy, and a cage with a lock-that-doesn’t- lock, Humphrey's life is almost perfect. If only the teacher, Mrs. Brisbane, wasn’t out to get him! Boys and girls can't help falling in love with Humphrey! Kids will be eager to get their paws on all 12 books in the series! Be sure to look for Humphrey's Tiny Tales for younger readers.]]> 130 Betty G. Birney 1101100109 Connie 3 I read the first one in the series to get his backstory.
My granddaughters and I are starting a bookclub and the first book we are reading is Summer According to Humphrey :-) ]]> 4.54 2004 The World According to Humphrey
author: Betty G. Birney
name: Connie
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/29
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:
Cute story about a school hamster.
I read the first one in the series to get his backstory.
My granddaughters and I are starting a bookclub and the first book we are reading is Summer According to Humphrey :-)
]]> Ink Blood Sister Scribe 62854842 In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .]]> 416 Emma Törzs 0063253461 Connie 4 Recommend]]> 3.98 2023 Ink Blood Sister Scribe
author: Emma Törzs
name: Connie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/09
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
This was a good read and kept me guessing until the end.
Recommend
]]> <![CDATA[The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)]]> 199418295 Listening Length: 7 hours and 3 minutes

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes�

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� found family
� spicy]]> Laurie Gilmore Connie 4 3.05 2023 The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Connie
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
This was a cute and predictable rom com.
]]> Weyward 112973698
I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 416 Emilia Hart 1250880696 Connie 4 It was a pretty good story, I do wish there had been less violence.]]> 3.91 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Connie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed the natural world elements that were mixed with magic.
It was a pretty good story, I do wish there had been less violence.
]]> The Maid 59478268
�The Maid is a masterful, charming mystery that will touch your heart in ways you could never expect.... This is the smart, quirky, uplifting read we need.� (Ashley Audrain, number one best-selling author of The Push)

A dead body is one mess she can’t clean up on her own.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, 25-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter - she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black. But will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

Both a Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different - and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 10 Nita Prose Connie 5 I thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery and am looking forward to the next novel in this series.]]> 3.71 2022 The Maid
author: Nita Prose
name: Connie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
Molly is a great, quirky and fun character.
I thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery and am looking forward to the next novel in this series.
]]> The Briar Club 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Connie 4 I enjoyed the additional dynamic of the family that owned the house and the friendships that the children had with the tenants. I liked the recipes and plan on trying the 2nd place honey cake.]]> 4.26 2024 The Briar Club
author: Kate Quinn
name: Connie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
This was different than Kate Quinn's usual novels.
I enjoyed the additional dynamic of the family that owned the house and the friendships that the children had with the tenants. I liked the recipes and plan on trying the 2nd place honey cake.
]]> We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Connie 3 book_club_of_eli
It was a twisted story and left me with several questions.
I think there will be some interesting discussions. ]]> 3.66 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Connie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: book_club_of_eli
review:
This was a book club pick.

It was a twisted story and left me with several questions.
I think there will be some interesting discussions.
]]> <![CDATA[The Collected Regrets of Clover]]> 61214136
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit , Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a road trip to uncover a forgotten love story—and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover is perfect for readers of The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as it turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.]]> 320 Mikki Brammer 1250284392 Connie 5 4.14 2023 The Collected Regrets of Clover
author: Mikki Brammer
name: Connie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Zero Days 62919765 Ruth Ware returns with this adrenaline-fueled thriller about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer.]]> 356 Ruth Ware 1982155299 Connie 3 Jack's injury was referenced soooo many times, it was ridiculous. By the last half of the book I was annoyed when it would be mentioned. Seriously the book would have been 50% shorter if Jack hadn't injured her side.
The storyline had potential but this was a miss. ]]> 3.59 2023 Zero Days
author: Ruth Ware
name: Connie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
review:
This was okay.
Jack's injury was referenced soooo many times, it was ridiculous. By the last half of the book I was annoyed when it would be mentioned. Seriously the book would have been 50% shorter if Jack hadn't injured her side.
The storyline had potential but this was a miss.
]]> <![CDATA[Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales, #12)]]> 40535988 New York Times-bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank returns to the American South in this latest novel about friendship and love that is full of heart, humor, and rich description.

A woman wounded by her past comes to Sullivan's Island, South Carolina to find new meaning in life and to find herself. As she takes up a new hobby of beekeeping, she begins to come into her own and rebuild her life. When a new friend comes in and she finally allows for something more than just "friendship", everyone will realize that life could use a little taste of sweetness.

In what is sure to be another classic, Dorothea Benton Frank weaves a fun tale of self-discovery, love, and friendship with her signature charming wit, indelible poignancy, and hallmark themes.

]]> 416 Dorothea Benton Frank 0062861220 Connie 3
It was pretty good. I liked the development of Holly and her beekeeping.

But some of the storylines lines were just weird. ]]> 3.77 2019 Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales, #12)
author: Dorothea Benton Frank
name: Connie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
Piper got me this book from a LFL.

It was pretty good. I liked the development of Holly and her beekeeping.

But some of the storylines lines were just weird.
]]> Such a Good Family 211659698 An unforgettable and emotionally charged story of two mothers whose lives are changed forever by a devastating accusation � and how far they’ll go to protect those they love.

I was so happy when my son, Knox, began dating my best friend’s daughter. Our kids grew up together and we used to joke, as we sipped wine and watched them play, that they’d get married one day. But when Knox came home late after a party, zipping his hoodie up to hide the scratches I caught a glimpse of on his collarbone, a chill went down my spine.

That night, our whole world shattered. Now, I hardly recognize my husband as he sweeps into action, calling in a hot-shot lawyer to defend our boy.

I love my son, but what if I don’t know him at all? It turns out, everything I thought I knew about my perfect family is a lie. And I’m about to discover just what I’ll do to stop it from falling apart.

This addictive novel will draw you deep into the heart of seemingly happy families and expose the dark secrets that lie within them. Fans of Liane Moriarty, Jodi Picoult and Celeste Ng will be utterly gripped by Such a Good Family.]]> 362 Caitlin Weaver 1805086138 Connie 2 3.78 2024 Such a Good Family
author: Caitlin Weaver
name: Connie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
I did not enjoy this family drama.
]]> The Lost Bookshop 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,� she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.�

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found�

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]> 432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Connie 4 4.03 2023 The Lost Bookshop
author: Evie Woods
name: Connie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this story, it went in a several directions I wasn't expecting.
]]> <![CDATA[This Mortal Coil (This Mortal Coil, #1)]]> 33876440
Only she can find and decrypt it, if she can unravel the clues he left for her. The closer she gets, the more she finds herself at risk from Cartaxus, a shadowy organization with a stranglehold on the world's genetic tech. But it's too late to turn back.

There are three billion lives at stake, two people who can save them, and one final secret that Cat must unlock. A secret that will change everything.]]> 425 Emily Suvada 1481496336 Connie 4 4.12 2017 This Mortal Coil (This Mortal Coil, #1)
author: Emily Suvada
name: Connie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
Initially I didn't think I was going to like this story but it ended up getting me hooked, and the cliffhanger. . . ugh!
]]> The Days I Loved You Most 198189780 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Today Show Pick

Unforgettable and utterly romantic, The Days I Loved You Most is an emotional, life-affirming novel that asks, What if you could write the final chapter of your own love story?

In the summer of 1941, on the New England shores where they were raised, Evelyn and Joseph fell in love. Now, more than sixty years later, with a lifetime between them, they have gathered their three grown children to share the staggering news: she has received a heartbreaking diagnosis, and he can't live without her. So in one year's time they will end their love story on their own terms.

Over the next year, the couple retraces their past—all the joys and regrets that brought them to this moment. They embark on a journey to live out their greatest dreams and to connect with each of their children. But as their final days draw closer, they must confront the stark reality of what's to come, and make peace with the legacy they will leave behind for their family.

Spanning the twentieth century from World War II to 9/11 and beyond, The Days I Loved You Most is a timeless tale of unwavering devotion -- a moving tribute to the enduring power of love and a reminder that even in the darkest moments, there is always hope and beauty to be found.]]> 336 Amy Neff Connie 4 This was a sweet love story. 3.96 2024 The Days I Loved You Most
author: Amy Neff
name: Connie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
This was a sweet love story.
]]> In a Dark, Dark Wood 27834600
Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself.

When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.]]> 352 Ruth Ware 1501112333 Connie 4 3.76 2015 In a Dark, Dark Wood
author: Ruth Ware
name: Connie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:
This was a good 'who done it' but I wouldn't call it scary.
]]>