Posts

ARC BOOK REVIEW: No Rest For the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams

Image
  No Rest for the Wicket by Rachel Louise Adams  Published: September 16, 2025 Publisher: St Martins Press /Minotaur books Length: 322 pages Buy: Kindle | Audio  | Hardcover Thank you to Netgalley.com and St. Martins Press for the #Gifted copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.  Dolores hasn’t been home in almost 20 years but when she is informed that her father is missing, she leaves the secure life she built in LA as a forensic pathologist and heads home. Dolores is from a small town in Wisconsin that is known as the Halloween haven and Dolores doesn’t like Halloween.  This is a fabulous debut novel full of secrets from the past, someone hellbent on revenge, an awkward family reunion and missing memories from the past slowly coming back. I love that this small Halloween town is overrun by feral cats and that the police spend half their time tracking them down. The main local police officer has a huge chip on her s...

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci

Image
A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci Published: April 16, 2024 Publisher: Grand Central Publishing  Length: 14 hours 28 Minutes  Buy: Kindle | Audio What a fantastic book. Another 5 star read for me this year and to think when I first started it I didn’t think I was going to like it and stopped to go on to something else only to come back and couldn’t put it down. Oh the life of a mood reader!  Set in Virginia in 1968 a black man is accused of killing a wealthy white couple that he worked for. Jack Lee is an white attorney who has never represented a black defendant. In a time of difficult racial tensions taking this case may cost Jack more than his reputation.  Desiree DuBose is a black attorney who has represented many black defendant, and civil rights cases even taking one to the supreme court. She shows up in town hoping Jack will turn the case over to her but he refuses to let it go and instead she joins him in the case.  There are a lot of moving pieces ...

ARC BOOK REVIEW: Nobody Knows You're Here by Bryn Greenwood

Image
 Nobody Knows You're Here by Bryn Greenwood  Publishing September 16, 2025 Buy: Kindle | Paperback A BIG thank you to the author for a free copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.  This is a whole new genre for this author. Her first mystery thriller and I wasn’t sure about it at first. It seemed to much like any other mystery read. Her characters usually have some quirkiness to them. Something that sets them slightly apart and I didn’t get that from Beatice. But I found it in Aiden, the groundskeeper where she is being held and Isabel her keeper. Both Isabel and Aiden work for “Them”. The organization that kidnapped Beatrice and is holding her as a “nanny” to other children they have kidnapped.  Beatrice struggles to figure out who to survive, how to keep the children alive and relatively less traumatized and eventually how to escape. The relationships she builds with the kids and the others holding her are engaging and ...

BOOK REVIEW: Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza

Image
Nine Elms (Kate Marshall book 1) by Robert Byndza Published: December 1, 2019 Buy: Kindle | Paperback What a great start to a series this was. Kate Marshall was a detective investigating a serial murderer who is targeting young women.  Accidently she discovers her boss is the perpetrator and almost doesn’t survive the encounter. Now many years later she has moved on as a university professor when a new string of murders mimicking the original murders start to occur. Kate is dragged back into the investigation bringing along her assistant. Little does she know from the start that this will blossom into her becoming a private investigator.  I really liked this story. I was immediately drawn in and it held my attention. Kate is an imperfect heroine which I love, and the story evolved in a satisfying way. I think this is going to be a great series and can’t wait to see what Kate and her assistant T...

ARC BOOK REVIEW: Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher

Image
Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher Publishing August 19, 2025 Buy: Kindle | Audio | Special Edition I received a free copy of this audiobook from Macmillan Audio . I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.  I didn’t realize while reading this that it was a twisted unique take on Snow White but now that I’ve read it I can totally see it. Healer Anja is something of an expert in poisons. Now asked by the King to help his daughter Snow who has taken ill – no healers have been able to cure her, and he fears it may be poison – she travels to the desert to see Snow and hopes that she can help. In her studies Anja has been known to drink poison to document the side effects, when she does something similar with a strange apple, she has found Snow eating she finds herself able to travel into mirrors and a shadow world of silver and gray.  This was a great retelling and kept me engaged. I loved Anja’s awkwardness and her busy mind wandering to tangents only t...

BOOK REVIEW: Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

Image
Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton   Published: March 4 2025 Buy: Kindle | Audio   Who hasn’t dreamed of touching and caring for a wild animal? The difference is that Chloe not only did this but kept the hare wild.     They grew to trust each other and learned about each other.   Chloe did extensive research after finding a baby hare on her country property however, information on caring for a hare was limited.  There was lots of information on folklore of the hare and even how to trap or kill a hare, but very little on care and feeding of a hare.  This book is the book Chloe was searching for.  It is beautifully written and detailed in the history of hares, the folklore (mad as a hare) how they live, give birth, eat and hide.  But its also about us, and how we live with the animals that live among us.   I wasn’t sure about this book when I picked it up, but I was riveted by this story of living with a wild crea...

BOOK REVIEW: The Reckless Oaths We Made by Bryn Greenwood

Image
The Reckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood  Published: August 20, 2019 Buy: Audio | Paperback | Kindle I’m not even sure how to describe this book but it was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. While Gentry speaking in Old English took some getting used to it was well worth it. If you think you may struggle reading the Old English try the audio book it is narrated beautifully.  Zee has relied on herself for a long time. Taking care of her younger sister and her nephew and helping her unappreciative hoarder mother. When her sister is abducted by dangerous inmates in a prison escape, Zee is desperate to find her.  Gentry is the only person who is consistently there for Zee and his unconditional support of her is something she doesn’t understand or know how to take. Gentry is used to people thinking he is odd and not understanding his quest. His parents treat him like a child, but Zee sees him for the adult he is and accepts his unique ways unconditionally....