Tag: fiction

Book Review and Blog Tour:  The Librarian Spy, by Madeline Martin

Image belongs to harlequin/Hanover Square Press.

Title:  The Librarian Spy    
Author:  Madeline Martin
Genre:   Historical Fiction
Rating:  4.2 out of 5

Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence.

Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.

As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.

I enjoyed this read! I do love a good WWII historical fiction, and this was definitely well-worth reading. I enjoyed Ava’s story just a tiny bit more than Elaine’s, but I loved how both stories came together. Elaine must have been terrified most of the time, surrounded by horrors and grief as she was, while risking her life to get the truth out there. Do yourself a favor and pick up this read!

Madeline Martin is a bestselling author. The Librarian Spy is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Hanover Square Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review and Blog Tour:  Ruthless, by Gena Showalter

Image belongs to Harlequin.

Title:  Ruthless    
Author:   Gena Showalter
Genre:  Fantasy
Rating: DNF

Micah the Unwilling, fae King of the Forgotten, can tame even the most violent of beasts. Forged on the battlefield, this iron-willed warrior considers his soldiers his family, and he will stop at nothing to reclaim their dispossessed land. Gearing for war with a sadistic enemy, he is disciplined and focused—until a feral beauty he encountered long ago wanders into his camp.

Viori de Aoibheall wields a terrifying ability to sing monsters to life. Having spent her childhood in a forest, raising herself and her frightening creations—the only friends she’s ever known—she’s ill prepared for the scarred royal and his fearsome brutality. Not to mention the ferocity of their connection and the carnality of his touch. But the real problem? Her brother is Micah’s greatest foe. And though the sensual king makes her burn, she must stop him, whatever the cost.

It really pains me to say this, but I didn’t read more than 15% of this because it was…not good. I’m normally a big Gena Showalter fan, especially her YA novels, but this…I just couldn’t do it. It was very clichéd, like a bad rip-off of a fairy tale. And the characters were unlikable. Micah was a jerk, concerned about himself—and his insta-love, which is another cliché. Viori was just an all-around terrible person, completely selfish and self-absorbed, cruel, and erratic. And…she has this mysterious history in New York, although she lives in the fae kingdoms, which wasn’t really believable for me. The worst thing, and the deciding vote for me not wasting any more time on this novel, was the mention of Cookie the Uncrumbled. If that’s not a bad, b-rate movie name, I don’t know what is.

Gena Showalter is a bestselling author. Ruthless is her newest novel.

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

Book Review:  Long Story Short, by Serena Kaylor

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  Long Story Short    
Author: Serena Kaylor
Genre: YA  
Rating: 5 out of 5

Growing up homeschooled in Berkeley, California, Beatrice Quinn is a statistical genius who has dreamed her whole life of discovering new mathematical challenges at a school like Oxford University. She always thought the hardest part would be getting in, not convincing her parents to let her go. But while math has always made sense to Beatrice, making friends is a problem she hasn’t been able to solve, so her parents are worried about sending her halfway across the world. The compromise: the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has six weeks to show her parents she can pull off the role of “normal” teenager and won’t spend the rest of her life hiding in a library.

Unfortunately, hearts and hormones don’t follow any rules, and there is no equation for teenage interactions. When she’s adopted by a group of eclectic theater kids, and immediately makes an enemy of the popular—and, annoyingly gorgeous—British son of the camp founders, she realizes that relationships are trickier than calculus. With her future on the line, this girl genius stumbles through illicit parties, double dog dares, and more than your fair share of Shakespeare. But before the final curtain falls, will Beatrice realize that there’s more to life than she can find in the pages of a book?

This was such a fun, sweet book! It was a bit like reading from a female Sheldon Cooper’s POV. Bea is clueless about so many things, but fortunately she manages to make a couple of good friends who help show her the way. The secondary characters are wonderful, and I loved them a lot. Nik came off as jerk at first, but it was soon easy to see the truth of him (Well, I could see it. Bea definitely couldn’t.). This was such a relatable read, and made me laugh out loud several times.

Long Story Short is Serena Kaylor’s debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  The Bodyguard, by Katherine Center

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:   The Bodyguard
Author:  Katherine Center
Genre:   Fiction
Rating:  5 out of 5

She’s got his back.

Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka “bodyguard”), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.

Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.

When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???

Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

I loved this so much! The voice is excellent, and I was laughing at Hannah’s antics and thoughts—especially her reaction to the cow. Pretty sure I actually snorted at that point. This was sweet, and funny, and just so much fun to read! I highly recommend it!

Katherine Center is a bestselling author. The Bodyguard is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Upgrade, by Blake Crouch

Image belongs to Random House.

Title: Upgrade  
Author: Blake Crouch
Genre:   Sci-fi
Rating:  4 out of 5

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

Like Crouch’s other books, this one was way over my head, but I enjoyed it. The author did a good job of capturing the sheer overwhelming nature of Logan’s transformation—good enough for those of us who are still regular humans and can’t process things like a computer. There’s a lot of action in this near-future story, and the book flew by.

Blake Crouch is a bestselling author who lives in Colorado. Upgrade is his newest novel.

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

Book Review:  Paradise Girls, by Sandy Gingras

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:   Paradise Girls   
Author: Sandy Gingras  
Genre:   Fiction
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

Mary Valley is in a funk. She’s a writer for home magazines, but she’s lost touch with what home means. Her life seems meaningless. The last house she wrote about was a gazillion-dollar mansion with a moat! Plus, she’s estranged from her daughter, CC and granddaughter, Larkin and mired in a dead-end relationship with her boss.

Daniel is a man adrift since his son Timmy was killed in Afghanistan. He’s living on a houseboat in Florida with Timmy’s three-legged dog, Tripod and taking tourists out on fishing charters. But his life is on the edge. He’s painting his houseboat black, and he can’t stop thinking about “getting lost at sea.”

When Mary’s boss tells her he’s spending Christmas with his ex, she books a trip with her family to The Low Key Inn, a hotel on the edge of the Everglades. But things go wrong from the get-go. CC bails out of the vacation, and Mary is stuck with an unhappy Larkin. The hotel is dated and down-on-its-luck, and perhaps its owner is a witch. Then Mary meets Daniel, casts a hook into his head and wrecks his boat.

I think Ollie was probably my favorite character in this story! I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Mary is so klutzy and accident-prone that it made me laugh, and Larkin was adorable. I wasn’t a big fan of CC, but I did like Daniel. And, frankly, the Low Key Inn sounds completely wonderful and charming and I want to go right now.

Sandy Gingras is an award-winning author. Paradise Girls is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:    Potiphar’s Wife, by Mesu Andrews

Image belongs to WaterBrook & Multnomah.

Title:    Potiphar’s Wife
Author:    Mesu Andrews
Genre:    Christian fiction
Rating:  4.2 out of 5

Before she is Potiphar’s wife, Zuleika is a king’s daughter on the isle of Crete, where the sisterhood of women rules in the absence of their seafaring husbands. Now that she’s come of age, Zuleika knows she will soon be betrothed. Her father believes his robust trade with Egypt will ensure Pharaoh’s obligation to marry his daughter.

But Pharaoh refuses and gives her instead to Potiphar, the captain of his bodyguards–a crusty bachelor twice her age, who would rather have a new horse than a Minoan wife.

Abandoned by her father, rejected by Pharaoh, and humiliated by Potiphar’s indifference, Zuleika years for affection. But when her obsession with Joseph, the Hebrew chamberlain with the face and body of the gods, goes terribly wrong, she discovers the truth: Only the God of Joseph can heal her wounded heart.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this for so long, and I finally had the time! I’ve loved all of Mesu Andrews’ books I’ve read, and I really enjoyed this one, too, although not quite as much as some of the others. I found Zully really difficult to like, frankly. She was so selfish and self-absorbed and couldn’t see past her own short-sighted ambitions to anyone else. I enjoyed the secondary characters like Joseph quite a bit, and I would have liked to see more from Potiphar’s point-of-view, but Zully annoyed me quite a bit. Still, a solid read that I enjoyed.

Mesu Andrews is an award-winning author. Potiphar’s Wife is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of WaterBrook & Multnomah in exchange for an honest review.)

The Best Books I Read in June (2022)

In June, my reading recovered a bit: I read 20 books, and DNFed six more.

Six of those twenty books really stood out, but I’ll try to pick the three I enjoyed the most.

The Iron Flower, by Laurie Forest. I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed this re-read. I’d basically forgotten everything that happened, so it was like I was reading this magical adventure for the first time.

This Vicious Grace, by Emily Thiede. From the very first page, the voice of this story completely captured my attention and then my heart. I thought the setting was unique, but it was the characters that made this truly enjoyable. Alessa and Dante’s banter and repartee were just so much fun! Even the secondary characters were captivating.

Nora Goes Off Script, by Annabel Monaghan. This was sweet and snarky, emotional and believable, and I binge-read it in one go!

Honorable mention: Here for the Drama by Kate Bromley, The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor, and Her Darkest Secret by Jessica R. Patch.

Book Review:  The Lost, by Jeffrey B. Burton

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  The Lost    
Author:  Jeffrey B. Burton
Genre:  Mystery
Rating:  4.5 out of 5

Glencoe, Illinois: A home invasion turned kidnapping at the mansion of billionaire financier Kenneth J. Druckman brings Mason “Mace” Reid and his cadaver dog, Vira, to this wealthy northern suburb of Chicago. Druckman was assaulted, left behind while his wife and young daughter were taken for ransom.

Brought to the scene by the FBI, Reid specializes in human remains detection, and Vira is the star of his pack of cadaver dogs he’s dubbed The Finders. After Vira finds the dead body of the mother, former supermodel Calley Kurtz, everyone is on high alert to find Druckman’s missing daughter before the five-year-old disappears forever. But the trail Vira finds on the property’s dense woodlands leads right back to Druckman himself.

With the help of Detective Kippy Gimm, Reid and Vira must race against the clock. Nothing is as it appears to be . . . and the red herrings could be lethal.

I’m really enjoying this series! Mace and Kippy are both characters I like—especially Mace with his self-deprecating humor—and obviously, Vira is amazing. I liked how the two separate storylines intwined, adding more nuance to both and, as always, I’m fascinated by the talents of cadaver dogs. This is a good, solid mystery.

Jeffrey B. Burton was born in California but now lives in St. Paul. The Lost is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Her Darkest Secret, by Jessica R. Patch

Image belongs to Harlequin.

Title:  Her Darkest Secret    
Author: Jessica R. Patch  
Genre:   Mystery, Christian
Rating:  4.5 out of 5

The sight of a goose feather at a murder scene modeled after a children’s poem is enough to make FBI special agent Fiona Kelly’s blood turn to ice. Almost two decades ago, a feather was left with her sister’s body—and with every subsequent victim of the Nursery Rhyme Killer. Now he’s back. Only this time, his latest gruesome murder is a message to the only one who ever got away: Fiona.

Finding “Rhyme” is an obsession that’s fueled Fiona’s career—and destroyed her marriage to fellow FBI agent Asa Kodiak. Now Fiona and Asa have to put their past tensions aside and work together one last time. But Rhyme is watching, and catching this killer may force Fiona to reveal her biggest, darkest secret…the one only he knows.

I enjoyed this so much! I never did figure out who the killer was—which rarely happens—and each new twist kept me on the edge of my seat. The team dynamics were very well done, and I’d love to read more about these characters, especially Fiona and Asa. I’ve read a few less than stellar Christian romantic suspense novels, but never a thriller like this, and I loved how the faith was integrated seamlessly into the storyline. I highly recommend this read!

Jessica R. Patch is a bestselling author. Her Darkest Secret is her newest novel.

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