My Reading Diary (with spoilers)

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison My rating: 4 of 5 stars Good Girls Lie was a fun, fast paced thriller. It is set in an exclusive all-girls private school in the hills of Virginia. I love that setting. I am a sucker for a good private school complete with things like "honor code" and "secret societies." (Yes, I loved Gossip Girl!) So once I got started on this book, I snuggled right in and immersed myself in the setting. Why 4 stars instead of 5? Probably because I figured out the twist pretty early in. But this was Mean Girls and Gossip Girl all rolled into one with some murder and mystery added just for fun. That's all I am really going to say on this one to avoid any spoilers. It's a fun read, well worth the time! View all my reviews

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore My rating: 3 of 5 stars As you scan reviews for this, I realize my 3 star review is sort of out of place. I couldn't decide where to rate this one. I think maybe it is a 3.5... but since Goodreads still doesn't let us do partial stars, I decided to round down on this one. Why? Because honestly I can't see myself recommending this one to anyone to read. I did the audio on it, and it was an okay book to pass the time on walks with my dog. But I couldn't really get into the jumping around timeline. First of all, it's never explained and that just bugs me. Her mom didn't have it, no one else in her life seems to "suffer" from this, and I just want to know why. It's an interesting premise, living your life out of order. But the fact that just about every year Oona can't seem to get things together enough to leave her next year self in a better spot is just annoying. One time... I get it. But every tim...

The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have to tell you that I don't often voluntarily pick up historical fiction novels that aren't book club reads. It's just not a genre that I am often drawn to. I had the opportunity to meet this author at an event where she spoke about this book and the premise just drew me in. I haven't read much about the Kennedy's generally. The closest thing I can think of is 11.22.63 by Stephen King (which was SO good). But I do enjoy Hollywood themed books where you get a glimpse into the life of the wealthy and famous so I guess that is what caught my attention. At a little over 500 pages, I really expected to be reading this over the course of a week. Instead, I found myself flying through the story and almost reading the entire thing in one day! It was very well written and well-paced. The main character Alicia is likeable. She is a modern girl in a not-so-modern time. You get introduced to all the K...

Killing the Rougarou by Shawn M. Beasley My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I saw the title of this book, I was immediately intrigued. I grew up in Southern Louisiana (a good Cajun girl at heart!) and I know the stories of the Rougarou. When I saw the author was also from South Louisiana, I knew I had to read this one. It's a big book - at almost 500 pages it is a little intimating (and literally HEAVY) to pick up. You don't typically expect a thriller to be this long. Comparatively, my review is going to be shorter. I think there was a LOT of detail into the characters. The flow of the story was really unique. You would jump forward to an event then jump WAY back and get all the details on the characters involved in that event and how they came to be, how they met, etc etc before finally coming back around to the event and then what happens after. The cover of the book calls this a "romantic thriller" - and there was definitely a decent amount of romance. And by ...

The Holdout by Graham Moore My rating: 5 of 5 stars Thinking about what I would write as a review for this book, I went back to look at some other reviews. This was one of those books that I immediately knew I wanted to read as soon as a I saw the premise of the book and I didn't read a lot of reviews before hand because I was afraid of tripping over any spoilers. After I finished reading it, I have to say I was surprised to see it was under 4 stars on Goodreads, so I went back to read some of the reviews and I guess I can see what some people perceive as flaws. I am a former practicing attorney, went to law school, watched all the legal thrillers growing up, have read every Grisham novel and most other mainstream (and some not-so-mainstream) legal thrillers over the span of my life beginning in my early teens. I love these sort of books. I love the procedural stuff. I love the nitty-gritty lawyer battle stuff. So it is no surprise that I loved this one. Does it get a lit...

How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper My rating: 4 of 5 stars When you are in the middle of a quarantine and the news everyday is talking about illness and death, it seems like a great time to pick up a book called "How Not to Die Alone" right? In all seriousness, the book summary compared it to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and I thought if this was going to be a funny/quirky book like that, it was just what I needed for a change of pace. The main character, Andrew, has the interesting job of working with the Death Administration in the U.K. where he is tasked with going to the home of recently deceased individuals who died alone and with know immediately known next of kin to try to uncover any clues that might either reveal finances to fund a burial and/or identify a next of kin who may be able to assist with the burial and also disposing of any remaining estate. I have no idea if this is a real job. I did stop for a second before writing this review to google...

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had the pleasure of meeting Attica Locke recently at an author event and grabbed a copy of Bluebird, Bluebird while I was there. I really loved the writing style and the flow of the story. I could completely see this becoming a movie. It was a story filled with racial tension and mystery, showing the battle between police forces. I enjoyed the Texas Ranger story line, the Rangers are a unique entity and this made me realize I would like to read more stories that include them as a character line. The one flaw I saw with this story was that there were so many characters thrown at you so early in. I contemplated stopping to put a sticky note inside the book cover to keep them straight. But as the story moved along, the primary characters came to the forefront and you could let the others go the side. I liked the way the author moved in and out of timelines fluidly, allowing characters to reminisce for a moment about some...

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda My rating: 4 of 5 stars I would say this is a 3.5 star read, rounding up because I was compelled to keep reading it to see what happened. I had a really difficult time following the writing style in the beginning. It was just difficult to follow. The narrator, Leah, was so standoffish and kept referring to things in her past but so cryptically that you really had no idea what was going on. So the flow of the writing was a turn-off, but the mystery was a draw that kept me reading. I wasn't sure if Leah was crazy, if her friend Emmy was real, if all of this was just in Leah's mind. Kudos to the author for writing a good mystery. View all my reviews

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is my second book by Kate Quinn, the first being The Huntress. I really enjoyed Alice Network but I think The Huntress is still my favorite of the two. This story bounces back and forth between Eve and Charlie as narrators. Eve's timeline is set during WWI and Charlie's timeline is set after WWII where she seeks out Eve's help in locating her cousin Rose who has been missing since the war. This book is a story of female spies during WWI but also a story of how the effects of the war lingers for many years. It's a story of revenge. It's definitely a story of powerful women (a Kate Quinn thing, it seems!). You will learn how Eve and Charlie's stories overlap as the timelines move along. It's a very good read and the characters are likeable. But I definitely didn't feel the level of tension that you normally see from novels in this genre. View all my reviews

The Obituary Society by Jessica L. Randall My rating: 4 of 5 stars I grabbed this book for free on Amazon Kindle and was looking forward to a fun and lighthearted "girl goes home to small town" story. There was definitely some of that, but there was also family secrets and bad guys! Who has a bad guy in a small town? A little paranormal as well. It was more than it appeared but it was a fun, quick read. View all my reviews

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book was a difficult, but oh so necessary read. I was late to the party on this one. I hadn't heard anything about it until I saw it on a list of "books to read before you watch the movie." I am not a huge non-fiction reader just because I tend to find it too wordy and cumbersome and I enjoy escaping into fiction. However, this is an important topic and so I bought a copy a couple of months ago from a local bookstore. This week I felt drawn to pick it up and honestly expected it to take me at least a week to get through it assuming that I would break it up with something fiction in between. How wrong I was. I picked it up yesterday afternoon and finished this morning. The way the author structured this book was so well done it really kept you engaged throughout. The main story highlighted on the book summary is that of Walter McMillian, who Bryan (author/lawyer) met as a yo...

In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a very difficult book to read. It was heartbreaking. I love a good cry book, but this one tested my limits. As a parent, as a human. I am giving it 5 stars because... wow. But boy did it hurt. The one saving grace is that so much is shared in the book summary. At one point in the earlier part of the book I actually stopped reading to come back to the summary and got a little relief on knowing at least the immediate fate of some of the characters. You have the first 25% of the book which is focused on an introduction to the characters and then this horrible accident and the immediate aftermath. That was tragic enough. Then the remaining 75% of the book is about life after this tragedy. This was a book club pick, and I imagine our discussion of this will not be without tears again. There was so much sadness here. But loss is sad and in that regard, this author did a fantastic job of putting this into words. Vie...

Followers by Megan Angelo My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have been really looking forward to catching up on my library books and book club books to finally pick up this book that has been sitting on my shelf for a few months. That fact that I ended up reading it during a week when most of the world is quarantined due to a nasty virus, made it that much more disturbing of a read. The book takes place in two alternate timelines: 2015 and 2051. In 2015, the world is what we know... social media obsessed and in love with celebrities and "influencers." In 2051, the world is different. As you bounce between these two timelines, you begin to piece together what happened 35 years prior to change the world as we know it. This wasn't a book you could really speed through, there are a lot of little nuggets of information dropped throughout the book that give you little bite size pieces of information. So you have to pay attention. In some ways I felt like this book was a little...

Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was literally a one-sitting read. It moved so quickly that it was like watching a fast-paced movie. This was my first book by this author. I met him recently at an author event and he was quick witted and funny - that came through in his writing. Even when writing about a pretty intense topic. This is listed as #1 with a new character, Eve Ronin. I hope to see more on this character because I really liked the tough female detective and her almost ready for retirement partner as a detective duo. It was very reminiscent of Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben. If you like those authors, you will enjoy this! View all my reviews

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson My rating: 5 of 5 stars All fans of murder mysteries... stop what you are doing right now and GET THIS BOOK! This was such a fun reading experience. There were so many references to classic murder mysteries that it reminded me of all the books that I haven't read in ages and want to read again! What made it even better was that it was written in a style that is very reminiscent of those classics. It was a slow burn but not slow moving. I finished this book in less than a day. I just saw this book has an under 4 star average... which is really surprising to me. I have to imagine that the people who didn't like it haven't ever enjoyed those classic mysteries. The summary on Goodreads does an excellent job of telling you what the story is about. If you an appreciate an Agatha Christie novel, you will appreciate this one. I commend the author on recreating this style! View all my reviews

The Kill Club by Wendy Heard My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a super fast-paced thriller set in the grungy side of Los Angeles. The story is broken into chapters titled by that chapter's narrator... some narrators you know and some you only meet briefly. What you are quickly pulled into is a secret club of people identified to kill someone random in exchange for having someone they know that is causing them problems killed. Think abusive spouses, child abusers, etc. This book has several spoilers to be shared along the way so I am trying to be careful with what I share. The main character, Jazz, is a tough young woman with a few too many tattoos, who gets in to a few too many fights, is a drummer in a band and spends her days working in a Trader Joes. She is a tough girl you can get behind. This is a gritty story that keeps you guessing right until the end. It's an upcoming book club pick which introduced me to this author for the first time and I look forward to readi...

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord My rating: 4 of 5 stars I put this one on my library hold list after seeing a few of my trusted bookstagrammers sharing positive reviews. It sounded like a perfect "break book" after reading something heavier. It was exactly that! The library had the book labeled as "older teen" and that was pretty accurate. I definitely felt like I was too old to be reading this story of two high school seniors attending an elite private school in NYC and engaging in a flirtatious twitter war. It's silly and sweet and endearing. It will also make you hungry. There are so many delicious descriptions of mac & cheese sandwiches and decadent desserts. If you are a foodie and enjoy some modern day pop culture references and want something light and fun to read... pick it up! View all my reviews

The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Fenton My rating: 4 of 5 stars I did a mix of audio and reading for this one, which allowed me to move through it pretty quickly. Three friends are faced with an opportunity at the age of 50 to go back in time 10 years to their 40th birthday and make some different decisions. The deal is that they get to spend one year there and then they will have to decide (all or none) on either continuing their new paths and reliving that decade or jumping back to 50 again. So just stop there and ask your self what would YOU? Pick an age that you feel like was a pivot point in your life... would you go back to it? I know my answer... As with all books like this, these women make some really frustrating decisions that make you want to just yell at them. I think I have decided that these are the types of characters that I dislike the most in a book... flaky women. I'm not lowering the rating because of that, it's just a personal opinion. I thought this ...

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough My rating: 4 of 5 stars ( MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD) I am starting the draft of this blog post as I am about 20 pages from finishing this book.  I have no idea how it is going to end, but I can tell you this is not the book I thought it was going to be.  On the back cover of this book, in big bold print, it says " Why is everyone talking about the ending of Behind Her Eyes?"   I am assuming there will be a big twist, but I don't know what it will be... Yet. Here is what I do know... The book jumps around between narrators and  timelines.  So there are two narrators, Louise and Adele.  Then there are three timelines: Then, Now and Later.  In the beginning its a little confusing.  Most of the story is taking place in the "now" with several glances into the "then" and not much on the "later." Adele is married to David. David is a psychologist.  Adele is flipping crazy.  Let's ju...

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This random book about children who spontaneously catch on fire kept popping up in my life in various ways (book club chatter, instagram post, etc). So when I saw it available on Audio, I decided to give it a try. What a quick fun read. I think this is one of the books where the audio is a must because the reader was just so good. The Southern accents were spot on and the dialect just made you chuckle. This was a sweet story about a young woman who is a little lost and who agrees to help an old college friend who has never really been a great friend to her. When Lillian is asked to come and live with Madison to care for Madison's step children who just happen to spontaneously catch on fire Lillian agrees thinking it will be nice to live in a fancy house and make good money while being close to this friend that she has held on a pedestal for so long. What Lillian doesn't expect is to really come to love these ...

Slightly South of Simple by Kristy Woodson Harvey My rating: 5 of 5 stars I met this author recently and she was so sweet and funny. She was talking about book 3 in this Peachtree Bluff series and after hearing her discuss this trilogy I knew I wanted to read it. Book one did not disappoint. It is set in coastal Georgia and is full of Southern characters, several "y'alls" and lots of feisty ladies (i.e., everything you would expect from a book like this!). Mom (Ansley) has 3 daughters who all for various reasons come back home to Georgia to live with their mother at the same time. You explore the bond between sisters, the love of a mother, and a few other stories of past loves, broken hearts, and the challenges of marriage and kids. This book alternates between Mom's point of view and the oldest daughter Caroline's point of view. What I already knew from hearing the author speak about the book is that each book is written the same way with Mom and one of t...

When You See Me by Lisa Gardner My rating: 4 of 5 stars Continuing the story of Detective D.D. Warren, Special Agent Kimberly Quincy and victim turned vigilante Flora Dane is always a tense adventure! I immediately request these from the library as soon as they come out. I felt like this one was a little slow to start, but that may have just been my mood in the beginning. The central character in this story is a young girl who can't speak and has witnessed unspeakable crimes. DD, Flora and Kimberly have to learn how to communicate with her to figure out what is happening in these mysterious Georgia mountains. Flora also gets the opportunity to look more into her former captor's life and gets some more questions answered (which was a great continuation of that story line). As always, they say these books can stand alone - and technically the could. But, I think you would appreciate the story better if you at least went back to the original book where we met Flora Dane....

F*ck Marriage by Tarryn Fisher My rating: 5 of 5 stars My book club friends insisted I take this book home from a book swap because everyone thought it would be hilarious if I came home with a book titled F*CK Marriage after just getting engaged a couple of weeks before. I brought it home, put it on the pile and honestly wasn't sure I was going to read it. Then a couple of weeks ago, I read Tarryn Fisher's newest book, The Wives, and LOVED it. So I picked this one up, read the summary and thought I would give it a try. This is very different from The Wives. This is a romance/chick lit type book with three primary characters: Billie, Woods and Satcher. Billie and Woods were married, Woods cheated, they divorced and Billie ran away across the country for a couple of years. She came back to NYC, feeling attractive and confident and ready to screw with Woods (who is now engaged to be married to someone new). Satcher was Woods' best friend. They all end up ...

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have to say I am really surprised to see the overall rating for this book under a 4.0. The somewhat mediocre ratings kept me from picking this book up sooner, but I am so glad I did. The story is told from two different women's point of view. You have Alix, a 30-something white mother of two who just left the city she loved (NYC) where her career was thriving to move to Philadelphia for her husband's career. A move they had always agreed was going to happen. Alix is really struggling to find her place in Philly and she loses focus and motivation on her own work projects (a lifestyle blog and social media presence). Then you have Emira, a 25 year old black woman who is still struggling to find her passion in life and is constantly comparing herself to her other 25 year old friends that she sees as more successful in their lives. Emira goes to work as a babysitter for Alix, primarily responsible for caring for Alix...

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a book club selection and if I am honest, I was really dreading picking up another WWII historical fiction at this time. But a few of my friends had read it and said great things - and book club is next week - so I finally started on it. I was instantly drawn into the characters. You hop back and forth between present day (Alice) and WWII Poland (Alina). Alice is being asked by her 95 year old Polish grandmother to go on a wild goose chase in Poland with very little clues to what she is looking for. Alice will have to leave behind her 7 year autistic son and her 10 year old gifted daughter, both to be cared for by her brilliant husband who has stayed pretty uninvolved with the day to day responsibilities with the kids. Despite those challenges, she embarks on the journey to learn more about her history and figure out the mysterious clues from her non-verbal grandmother. Meanwhile you are rea...

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher My rating: 5 of 5 stars I kept seeing The Wives pop up on various social media posts by different readers and the reviews went from "I loved this book!" to "I loved this book... but that ending..." There is definitely a group of readers that are annoyed by the ending. Here is how I judge the ending of a good thriller: (1) Did it trick me (or keep me guessing to the very end)? and (2) Did they actually END it or just leave it with some random cliffhanger? This book had positive answers from my point of view on both of those questions. I got about half way into the book, stopped to text my friend a "WTH?!?!" then literally didn't put it down again until it was done. And I was still guessing at the ending up until probably the last 10 pages. Highly recommend this thriller! 5 Stars! I am debating writing a spoiler blog for this one because the spoilers would just be too good. I might just have to jot some notes in my pe...

Vox by Christina Dalcher My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a book club selection that I was putting off reading. I just read The Testaments for another book club and I didn't know that I was ready for another book full of women's suppression. The premise in Vox is that we have a new U.S. President who is basically a puppet being led by a member of Clergy and other powerful leaders. We enter the story one year into a national regulation on women's speech. Every female in the US has been outfitted with a "bracelet" that counts the number of words they speak in a day. They are only allowed 100. If they go over 100, they get an electric shock. The shock will increase in intensity with every word spoken and quickly becomes horribly painful. 100 words is not much. As of right now in this review, I have written 144 words. Through the story we learn about Jean, who used to live with a friend who was an activist and would try to push Jean to get involved. Jean used ...

First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story by Huda Al-Marashi My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 Stars. I listened to the audio on this one which was a nice way to enjoy this story. Another book club selection, it was a book that I may not have picked up otherwise. The memoir is meant to show you how young first generation immigrants navigate an American love story while balancing with the cultural pressures and expectations they are expected to follow. In all honesty, I thought this was such an "American" love story that my overwhelming feelings throughout this book can be summed up in two ways: (1) I am SO glad I didn't have a daughter and (2) Man, we women sure can get in our damn way sometimes! I found myself feeling sorry for Hadi, that poor guy just loved Huda and never doubted that he would marry her and that regardless of any "expectations" in his mind, it was a "love marriage." But Huda had spent her life watching American r...

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first "met" this author by reading The Dinner List in 2018. I fell in love with that book. I felt like it touched my soul in so many ways. It was a very personal book for me, one I could relate to - almost a little too much. When I saw the premise of In Five Years, I knew I had to read it and after finishing it in one day (it would have been one sitting, but I had to work in between), I can say this one did the same thing. In Five Years introduces us to a very Type A personality in Dannie (a New York City lawyer, with her perfect boyfriend living in their perfectly planned life) and her polar opposite best friend Bella (artist, whimsical, free spirited, serial dater). These two girls have been best friends since they were seven years old. Right there - I am hooked. I love a good story of lifelong girlfriends. I have been blessed in my life to have a friend that has been part of my life since I was 9. We know every...

Do You Mind If I Cancel? by Gary Janetti My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars probably? But 5.0 if you are the kind of person who enjoys short funny memoirs of hilarious gay men. :) I only know Gary Janetti from his Instagram account (which I personally find hilarious). I did the audio book of this one, which was read by him in a very unique cadence. It was a lot of short sentences with very hard stops. That's a horrible description but that is the best I can give you. It took a little getting used to, but the dialogue itself was funny so I kept going. The audio book is less than 3 hours long, so it is a super fast listen. The entire book is telling the story of Gary's younger life in NY as he aspired to be a writer in film or TV. There are a ton of digressions into what was going to happen in certain circumstances (in Gary's imagination) but in reality none of them actually do. Which I found hilarious. Because didn't we all do that in our 20's? Build something A...

(No Spoilers Here...) I will tell you what I didn't realize about this book before I started reading it. It's really a book of short stories.  Maybe I missed that in the description. I expected to pick up a book about a child raised by a chef and learning the nuances of food and following that path.  It was sort of that, but sort of not. I want to try to write a review here that does have any spoilers, because there are several spoilers to be shared, especially in the first few "chapters."  (I put chapters in quotes, because they are not really chapters as much as short stories.) I was fortunate enough to meet this author at an author event recently.  I had never heard of his books before that but I loved the premise of this one and his newer one.  After hearing him speak, he was just such an endearing person and I think that made me enjoy this book even more.  I could really see his personality come through in the story. So this is a book about E...

(Spoilers Ahead) I have read multiple books by Shari Lapena and A Stranger in the House was recently recommended to me by someone as another good one by her. I requested it from my library that day and finally picked the book up yesterday.  Just a short day later, I have finished and immediately had to pick up my computer to come write my review and my blog.  Mostly because I didn't want the details of how this book annoyed me to slip through my fingers. Karen and Tom Krupp are set up as a normal couple, but you open thinking that maybe Tom has a secret.  He comes home and finds his wife missing and her phone and purse left behind and he starts worrying immediately. Not long after, the police show up at his door and tell them that his wife's car was involved in a single vehicle accident and they need him to come to the hospital to identify whether the injured driver is his wife.  Upon arriving at the hospital, he confirms that it is and the story just runs aw...

(Spoilers Ahead) I grabbed What Have You Done as a Kindle First read awhile back.  I finally got around to reading it and I was so glad I did!  This book sucked me in right from the beginning.  It opens with the story of a young Liam being tied up and almost drowned in a bathtub by his mentally disturbed mother as she was trying to get them all back together with his father (who you learn is deceased).   Then suddenly Liam awakes from the dream, naked in a bathtub filled with water (something he is terrified of) and with no memory of what happened to the night before.  Boom! Sucked in! Present day, Liam is a forensic investigator for a police department and his brother Sean being a cop in the same department.  Both survived their mother's attack and have grown up to be responsible adults... maybe. Liam is called to the scene of a homicide after his disturbing morning and he arrives to find the woman he had a long affair with until very recentl...

(Spoilers Ahead) I have had After the Rain on my Kindle for probably a year now.  I am a big fan of Renee Carlino's and I grabbed this one while it was on sale awhile ago and just never got around to reading until last week.  Renee is a great teller of love stories and this book was no different.  This is the story of Avelina ("Ava") and Nate.  You meet Ava in the beginning as a young girl who grew up with a fairly idealistic life until her father passes away when she is a teenager.  After that, her mom falls into a very deep depression and Ava is basically raising herself. Ava aspires to be a nurse but has a love of horses and is traveling around with her mother and winning barrel races on her prized horse.  On one of these trips Ava meets Jake, another rodeo guy, and falls in love. She drops out of high school and marries him three months later.  Ava's mom moves to Spain to live with family and her older brother is an attorney in New York. Ava...

(Spoilers Ahead) I have read a few of Susan Meissner's books and I have had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times discussing some of her other books.  I have had A Bridge Across the Ocean on my Kindle for a while and since I have plans to stay on the Queen Mary for an all day book event and overnight stay in just a couple of weeks, I thought it was the perfect time to read this one. I actually ended up listening to this one on audio, which had some challenges.  The reader was great, able to inflect accents of French and German quite seamlessly.  But there were definitely parts where I paused and thought "what did she just say?" You have three timelines happening throughout the book: (1) Present day, Brette, who has the gift of "sight" and the ability to see "drifters" (ghosts/spirits) although she has spent most of her life trying to ignore that gift. (2) 1946 post-WWII Germany, Annaliese, a German Ballerina who ends up married to a Na...

(Spoilers Ahead) I received a copy of Girls Like Us from my Girly Book Club's Book Trib giveaway.  It was my first book by this author and I enjoyed it.  It was set on Long Island.  The main character, Nell, is an FBI agent with the Behaviorial Analysis Unit (BAU) who is home in Long Island following the death of her father.  Her father was a homicide detective with the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office.  He had spent all of Nell's life on the force and as a result, she was really part of the "family" of cops.  Her father died in a motorcycle accident that was presumed to be the result of a mix of drinking too much and wet roads.  While Nell is in town, one of the local cops (Lee) asks Nell to consult on a homicide case that just occurred. It appears that this may be a serial killer as the way the girls were killed and their bodies disposed of was very similar.  As she starts to investigate she uncovers some inconsistencies that lead her to s...

(Spoilers Ahead) I had the chance to reconnect with a favorite author of mine at a recent book club.  I love asking authors I enjoy what they are currently recommending as one of their favorite recent reads.  This author said, "The Light We Lost - I must be reading it for the fifth or sixth time."  Well, that is telling in and of itself.  So I put it on my to-read list and requested it from my local library. I picked it up last weekend and after finishing another love story, I wasn't sure I was ready to pick this one up right away, but I did anyway.  I was immediately pulled in to the writing. This was a love story for the ages.  Lucy and Gabe meet on September 11, 2001 in New York.  The day of their first meeting I think was a driver for their very intense love story.  The book is written as letters or a novel from Lucy to Gabe.  If you have ever had an intense, all consuming love... the one for which you compare all things love ...