Category: characters

The Best Books I Read in May (2024)

In May, I read 21 books, bringing my total for the year to 88. (One book behind schedule.)

Of those, four were really good. My three favorites were:

Thunder and Rain, by Charles Martin. Because obviously. I don’t even have a thing for cowboys and he made Tyler sound appealing. This was a lovely read.

The Dead Romantics, by Ashley Poston. Why had this been languishing on my TBR like it was nothing? I enjoyed every second of this read!

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, by Helen Simonson. So much to love about this historical fiction read!

What I Read in May (2024)

Books Read in May: 21
Books Read for the Year: 88 /215

Topical Books/Monthly Goal Books:
The Iron Raven, by Julie Kagawa (re-read). Can’t believe I only have two more books to go in this series!
Thunder and Rain, by Charles Martin (TBR). This made me cry, of course.
Prey, by Rachel Vincent (re-read). Still glued to this re-read.
The Dead Romantics , by Ashley Poston (TBR). This was a great read!
The Irish Cottage, by Juliet Gauvin (TBR). Eh. I liked this at first, but I thought it ended up being kind of meh.
The Guinevere Deception, by Kierstin White (TBR). I enjoyed this! Nice twist on the traditional Arthurian legends.
Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic, by Meghan Ciana Doidge (TBR). Still enjoying this series!

For Review:

The Sicilian Inheritance, by Jo Piazza. This was an intriguing read—but man, the characters were, for the most part, not likable people. Did not make me want to visit Sicily.

A Burden of Ice and Bone, by Kyra Whitton. I enjoyed this read, although it was a touch depressing—and the “twist” towards the end was pretty expected.

Bless Your Heart, by Lindy Ryan (audio). This was a fun listen. A bit like having a flashback to the late ’90’s…unsettling. It ended up being a lot gorier than I thought it would be, but I enjoyed the narrator and the cozy-mystery feel.

The Garden Girls, by Jessica R. Patch. I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve read in this story so far. I love thrillers, and I absolutely love the way faith is integrated the darkness these books touch on. This read had several levels of creepiness, but it kept me fully engaged the entire time.

Extinction, by Douglas Preston. Of course I’ve read Relic, years ago,—terrifying—but I haven’t read too many Preston books. I enjoyed this one, although I really didn’t like any of the characters. Just the scenic descriptions and the idea of seeing these animals were fascinating. I had no idea what was actually going on.

The Backup Princess, by Kate O’Keeffe. This was a cute, fun romantic read.

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, by Helen Simonson. Really enjoyed this historical fiction read! Great characters, conflict, and a lovely setting.

The Keeper of the Irish Secret, by Susanne O’Leary. I liked the narrator of this audio book quite a lot. I enjoyed the read and the family drama, too.

Summers at the Saint, by Mary Kay Andrews. This was much more of a thriller than a romance.

The Return of Ellie Black, by Emiko Jean. I really didn’t like any of these characters, but it was a solid read.

One Last Shot, by Betty Cayouette. Nothing unexpected here. I think the miscommunication trope was overused a bit, too.

The Best Life Book Club, by Sheila Roberts. I enjoyed this sweet read about a bunch of friends and their books and challenges.

Every Time We Say Goodbye, by Natalie Jenner. This was a little hard for me to get into at first, but I ended up enjoying it.

Just Because:

Divine Direction, by Craig Groeschel. I enjoyed this audio book. Groeschel’s style is so down-to-earth.

Left Unfinished:

Welcome Home, Caroline Kline, by Courtney Preiss. I tried, but this felt very superficial and way too bogged down with baseball obsession.

A Girl from Nowhere, by James Maxwell. Yeah, this wasn’t for me. It felt very slow and not fleshed out, and I got bored quickly.

Love You, Mean It, by Jilly Gagnon. I think I read about 15% of this before realizing I didn’t care about the characters or what happened to them. Definitely a me problem, and not the book.

The Dangerous Ones by Lauren Blackwood. The language was a real stumbling block for me and I couldn’t get into it. And Jerusalem was so hateful!

Book Review:  The Return of Ellie Black, by Emiko Jean

Image belongs to Simon & Schuster.

Title: The Return of Ellie Black  
Author:  Emiko Jean       
Genre: Fiction, thriller       
Rating:  4 out of 5

Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

Honestly, I almost put this down about 15% of the way through, but I stuck it out a little bit longer and it picked up. I didn’t really feel a connection with any of the characters, so it was a struggle for me to get into the story. Ellie…well, I didn’t really care for her. And Chelsey just felt chaotic and cold, frankly. This was a solid read, I just didn’t have much invested in the characters.

Emiko Jean is a bestselling author. The Return of Ellie Black is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, by Helen Simonson   

Image belongs to Random House.

Title: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
Author:  Helen Simonson   
Genre:   Historical fiction     
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 

It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

This was so much fun to read! I immediately liked Constance and couldn’t wait to find out what was in store for her. I was invested in all the secondary characters, too. Poppy was a lot of fun, and poor Harris had me rooting for him to overcome his trauma and grief. This was an excellent historical fiction read, and I was engrossed from the beginning.

Helen Simonson is a bestselling author. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Random House in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Garden Girls, by Jessica R. Patch   

Image belongs to Harlequin/Love Inspired.

Title:  The Garden Girls
Author:  Jessica R. Patch      
Genre: Mystery, romance, Christian     
Rating:  5 out of 5

On a remote Outer Banks island, a serial killer collects his prized specimens. And to stop him, an FBI agent must confront his own twisted past.

FBI agent Tiberius Granger has seen his share of darkness. But a new case sets him on edge. It’s not just the macabre way both victims—found posed in front of lighthouses—are tattooed with flowers that match their names. There’s also the unsettling connection to the woman Ty once loved and to the shadowy cult they both risked everything to escape. 

Bexley Hemmingway’s sister has gone missing, and she’ll do anything to find her—including teaming up with Ty. That may prove a mistake, and not just because Ty doesn’t know he’s the father of her teenaged son. It seems the killer is taunting Ty, drawing everyone close to him into deeper danger.

As the slashing winds and rain of a deadly hurricane approach the coast of North Carolina, the search leads Ty and Bex to an island that hides a grisly secret. But in his quest for the truth, Ty has ignored the fact that this time, he’s not just the hunter. Every move has been orchestrated by a killer into a perfect storm of terror, and they will need all their skills to survive…

I enjoyed this so much! The stories of the creepy cult really weirded me out, but I love the interactions on the team and between Bex and Tiberius. I really had no idea who was truly going to be the crazy killer, so that part was well-down. A bit of sadness at the end, but this was an excellent read.

Jessica R. Patch is a bestselling author. The Garden Girls is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Love Inspired in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Sicilian Inheritance, by Jo Piazza     

Image belongs to Penguin Group Dutton.

Title: The Sicilian Inheritance
Author:  Jo Piazza      
Genre: Historical fiction     
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.

Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and prove her birthright. Flashing back to the past, we meet Serafina, a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly it isn’t long before a woman challenging the status quo finds herself in danger.

As Sara discovers more about Serafina she also realizes she is coming head-to-head with the same menacing forces that took down her great-grandmother.

This was a pretty solid read, although Sara was the only character I really liked. I was suspicious of everyone else, including Serafina. I honestly didn’t feel much of a connection to any of the characters, but the writing was solid, and the setting was appealing.

Jo Piazza lives in Philadelphia. The Sicilian Inheritance is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group Dutton in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  What’s Eating Jackie Oh?, by Patricia Park   

Image belongs to Random House Children’s.

Title: What’s Eating Jackie Oh?   
Author: Patricia Park    
Genre:   YA   
Rating:  3 out of 5

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority.

She just hasn’t told her second-gen Korean American parents yet. They would never understand her unconventional dream to become a professional chef. Just ask her brother Justin, who hasn’t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island.

For now, when she isn’t avoiding studying for AP World History, Jackie is improving her French cooking techniques and working at her grandparents’ Midtown deli Melty’s.

Then the most unexpected thing: Jackie gets recruited for a casting audition for the teen edition of Burn Off!, her favorite competitive cooking show. Even more unexpected, Jackie becomes a contestant.

Jackie is thrown headfirst into the cutthroat competitive TV show world filled with psych outs, picky mom critiques, and dreaded microaggressions to lean into her heritage.

All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But is her way to cook traditional French cuisine? Lean into her heritage? Or is it something more? To advance through the competition, Jackie must prove who she is on and off the plate.

Jackie Oh herself just didn’t work for me. I didn’t like her much at all. She had the whole I’m-a-special-snowflake mentality—but God forbid anyone treat her like a special snowflake—just let her do whatever she wants, already. It was perfectly fine for Jackie to judge everyone around her based strictly on appearances, but when someone dared judge her? Then they were narrow-minded, ignorant, and racist. While the things Jackie was so against are real issues, she was unlikable enough to make me skim over them.

The only reason I kept reading this was because of the food. Not all the food, but Jackie’s menus sounded fascinating and tasty, and I liked how she eventually got her act together and showcased the different cultures she was surrounded by. The ending was a total dud, as there was no resolution, merely a transcript of a social media posting. As a reader, I feel like the author broke my trust by leaving this story without a resolution.

Patricia Park is from Queens. What’s Eating Jackie Oh? is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Random House Children’s in exchange for an honest review.)

The Best Books I Read in April (2024)

In April, I read 20 books, bringing my total for the year to 66. I’m behind, but I’m catching up! Of those, several were really excellent reads, but I narrowed it down to three favorites.

The Last Bloodcarver, by Vanessa Le. I really liked the unique magic system here that was combined with an early scientific culture. The characters were great, and I enjoyed even the secondary characters a lot. Can’t wait to read more in this world.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt. A POV character is a curmudgeonly octopus named Marcellus? Are you kidding me? That’s all I needed to know to buy this. In hardcover. And it was worth it! I had to ration this and only read a few pages a day, because I loved it so much1

The Bourbon Thief, by Tiffany Reisz. First of all, this cover is gorgeous. Secondly, a friend suggested this after we were talking about the voice of a story I’m writing and how I felt like it should be more of a Southern fiction feel. And she was 100% correct! Beautiful Southern fiction feel, although parts of this were truly horrifying. I was fully invested from the very beginning.

What I Read in April (2024)

Books Read in April: 22
Books Read for the Year:  68/215
Topical Books/Monthly Goal Books:
The Iron Warrior, by Julie Kagawa. I honestly don’t remember reading this before, but I enjoyed it, as I have the other books in this series.
Pride, by Rachel Vincent (re-read). I forgot how much I enjoyed this series—and how I annoyed I get with the characters, too.
Reached, by Ally Condie (re-read). I actually like the first two books in the trilogy better, although this still reignited my love of poetry.
I See Me, by Meghan Ciana Doidge (TBR). I enjoyed reading this first book in another series set in the Adepts universe.
Bitter Falls, by Rachel Caine (TBR). People are terrible.
Austenland, by Shannon Hale (TBR). At first, Jane annoyed me, but she grew on me, and I enjoyed this read.
Where the River Ends, by Charles Martin (audio). This, of course, made me cry.
Dust Tracks on a Road, by Zora Neal Hurston (TBR). I didn’t care for this as much as Hurston’s other works.
Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt (TBR). A curmudgeonly octopus named Marcellus? Yes, please.
The Bourbon Thief, by Tiffany Reisz (TBR). Loved this. It was dark, it was sometimes horrifying, and it was such a well-done bit of Southern fiction! Phenomenal voice.

For Review:

Expiration Dates, by Rebecca Serle. This was…I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I liked the premise, but the way the MC used the notes as an excuse to just check out/be mediocre about things was not cool.

The Last Bloodcarver, by Vanessa Le. I really enjoyed this! I liked the magic system, and the culture was fascinating. Wonderful characters, even the secondary ones, and I can’t wait to read more.

Sincerely, The Duke, by Amelia Grey. This was a decent romance read, although I had trouble getting behind the big conflict: the MC is a red-haired, green-eyed triplet—which must be kept a secret.

The Trail of Lost Hearts, by Tracey Garvis Graves. I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. reading this, so I could find out what happened! Loved the characters and really enjoyed seeing them change and grow.

Love, Unscripted, by Denise Hunter. I thoroughly enjoyed this enemies-to-lovers read. So sweet!

The British Booksellers, by Kristy Cambron. I enjoyed this so much! A unique to me WWII setting (not the the usual London setting, nor the English countryside) and also a WWI plot, too. I enjoyed both of the timelines so much!

The Reappearance of Rachel Price, by Holly Jackson. This was a twisty YA thriller. The MC was very prickly, but I grew to like her a lot!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, by Molly X. Chang. I wasn’t a very big fan of the writing. It felt very surface-level, more of a summary than actual narrative, and the whole Rome/Ancient China-esque with inter-dimensional travel setting didn’t really work for me.

Weekends with You, by Alexandra Paige (review forthcoming). I loved the idea of this, the whole group of flatmates dynamic, but Henry was a bit of a prat.

The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple, by Joanna Davidson Politano (review forthcoming). This had a leisurely pace, but I loved the characters a lot, and found myself wanting to stay up and read, even though I was so tired I kept falling asleep.

What’s Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park (review forthcoming). Jackie was kind of a jerk, and I didn’t care for her.

The One that Got Away with Murder, by Trisha Lundy (review forthcoming). I enjoyed this read! Robby was a bit weird to me, but the author kept me guessing who the murderer actually was.

Left Unfinished:

The Bride of Death, by F.M. Aden. I only made it about 5% of this before quitting with no regrets. Not only was it a knockoff of The Bear and the Nightingale, by Kathleen Arden, but the writing needed much more editing and polishing to make it bearable.

Fog & Fireflies, by T. H. Lehnen. This just wasn’t a good fit for me. I loved the cover—it’s absolutely gorgeous—but the feel of the story just didn’t draw me in.

Book Review: Weekends with You, by Alexandra Paige    

Image belongs to Avon and Harper Voyager.

Title: Weekends with You  
Author:  Alexandra Paige     
Genre:  Fiction    
Rating:  4 out of 5

Flowers have always been the best communicators. They’ve mastered falling over one another in the perfect way to announce exactly what they need: sunlight, water, space. They do not rush. They do not bloom before their time. They do not take without giving in return…

They are nothing like the rest of London.

Between trying to keep her north London flower shop, The Lotus, afloat and falling for a flatmate, Lucy Bernstein is going to have to rethink everything she knows about “creative arrangements.”

Unwillingly becoming one of eight flatmates in a quirky warehouse conversion would have been difficult enough without any romantic entanglements, but when Lucy lays eyes on Henry Baker, the traveling photographer who only comes home twelve weekends a year, she knows her hands will be full with more than just posies. As each weekend progresses, Lucy also finds herself unexpectedly falling for all her new flatmates, along with this bustling but ultimately sweeter home.

Can Lucy learn from the flowers she tends to and bravely reach for all that she needs to bloom?

I really loved the whole flatmate aspect with the weekend adventures—this sounds like so much fun! I like Lucy a lot, but Henry really had some issues that I did not care for. If I’d been Lucy, I’d have let that whole situation go after his first or second stupid move. I really enjoyed the friendships between all of the flatmates, though, and the adventures they had. Those were a lot of fun to read.

Alexandra Paige lives in New Jersey. Weekends with You is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Avon and Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.)