Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter If you need a fun little mind vacation, Mr. Wrong Number is the book for you! It’s such a cute book with a sweet story with an inevitable happy ending. Getting to there isn’t always easy though. This book will hit you in all the feels. It’s funny, it’s emotional, it’s silly, it’s just plain a great read. I recommend it to women who want to read something light and easy. 5 (out of 5) Stars Books Read in 2023: 91 Pages Read in 2023: 31,167 ..read more

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett The Dutch House was chosen for the book club I attend. I clearly do not have the same taste in books as the person who chose that one. It was dreadful and I completely hated it. I constantly found reasons not to read it and only actually managed to get to 6% by book club night so I skipped going. Because I’m me and have an inability to DNF books, I forced myself to finish it… six weeks later. There were moments that were more interesting than others but they were few, far between, and fleeting. Nothing really happened for the entire book yet it covered mos ..read more

Aries by Gemma James Aries cannot truly be called a novella. It’s a serial, the first installment of what should’ve just been a longer book. It’s interesting and reasonably well written and the premise is good, too. The problem is the direction the story went with the queen falling in love with her captor, the man abusing her and keeping her as a sex slave. That’s not a love story, that’s Stockholm Syndrome. Not cool at all. I don’t recommend this book. 2 (out of 5) Stars Books Read in 2023: 24 Pages Read in 2023: 7455 ..read more

Skink: No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen Skink: No Surrender is hilarious. So many crazy, over the top things happen and Skink is crazy and over the top himself. It is a pretty quick read and just totally enjoyable. I recommend it to anyone who is in the mood to read a really fun book. 5 (out of 5) Stars Books Read in 2023: 19 Pages Read in 2023: 6275 ..read more

Lost and Found by Amy Shojai The attitude toward those with autism in this book is a bit alarming, clearly a “they are damaged and so we must fix them” sort of thing. Also, the medical people refer to the medication they are giving as a cure. A medication that must be given daily at precise intervals for life in order to prevent violent side effects and keep the person taking it free of signs of autism is not a cure. The premise is kind of over the top unbelievable. Refusing to involve the police makes no sense. That they just wanted a flash drive and were willing to kill and kidnap mult ..read more

Remember Me by Christopher Pike What if you died from a fall and everyone assumed you had died by suicide? What if you really didn’t think you jumped? What if you thought one of your friends might have murdered you? What if you were a ghost and had to wait for the investigator to figure it out? What if someone else might die if he takes too long? All this plus questions of the afterlife and moving on and the dead communicating with people who are still alive are covered in Remember Me. It reads very quickly and pulls you completely into the story, which is told from the point of view of ..read more

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus As is typical with books by Karen McManus, The Cousins was filled with twists and turns and so many things I did not expect. My daughter read the book just before I did and she happened to be sitting next to me when I got to one of the big shockers and my mouth dropped open and my eyes got huge and she knew exactly what I had just read. All three points of view it alternates between have their own voice and are easily identifiable as Milly, Aubrey, or Jonah. Every question (except maybe one) was somehow answered satisfactorily by the end. This is a truly excell ..read more

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes I preordered The Final Gambit ten months before it was published. It was worth every month of that wait! The book is full of surprise twists and puzzles to solve. The light romance is nice, too. By the end of this book all the questions have been answered and the ends are tied up, for now at least. I was very sad that my time with Avery and the Hawthorne brothers had come to an end, but it was a very satisfying end so that made it okay. I very highly recommend this book to everyone, but you have to read the first two Inheritance Games books first. 5 (o ..read more

The Chocolate Cure by Roxanne Snopek The Chocolate Cure is perfectly predictable. It’s a sweet story that ended up exactly how I wanted it to. The main character starts out a bit insufferable, but she evolves over the course of the book and ends up super nice. It’s a very enjoyable mind vacation. I recommend it to adults who enjoy fun, predictable brain candy. 5 (out of 5) Stars Books Read in 2022: 21 Pages Read in 2022: 7550 Graphic Novels: 1 ..read more

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson One minute you are reading about something that happened decades ago on a Caribbean island, the next you are reading about a woman who grew up in England now living in Italy, and the next you are reading about siblings coming to terms with their mother’s death and details of her life they never knew. Amazingly, it was never confusing, was truly effective, and, really, was just the way I tell a story. The characters were very well developed and realistic. From about halfway through I barely put it down because I wanted to know the rest of the story. It’s a bit ..read more