Always With a Book

Penitence by Kristin Koval #bookreview #audiobook

Penitence by Kristin Koval #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Libro.fm / Macmillan Audio for the ALC and Celadon Books #partner for the advanced copy of Penitence in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Celadon Books / Macmillan Audio Published: January 28, 2025   Summary: For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a poignant exploration of love and forgiveness. It’s a suspenseful, addictive page-turner filled with literary insight that compels readers to consider whether each of us is…

View Post

Cackle by Rachel Harrison #bookreview #audiobook

Cackle by Rachel Harrison #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Penguin Audio Published: October 5, 2021   Summary: A darkly funny, frightening novel about a young woman learning how to take what she wants from a witch who may be too good to be true, from the author of The Return. All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start.…

View Post

The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng #bookreview

The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng #bookreview

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Riverhead Books Published: March 28, 2023   Summary: Set against a changing Singapore, a sweeping novel about one boy’s unique gifts and the childhood love that will complicate the fate of his community and country Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of twentieth-century coastal Singapore in the waning years of British rule. He…

View Post

Us Against You by Fredrick Backman #bookreview #series

Us Against You by Fredrick Backman #bookreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Washington Square Press Published: March 5, 2019   Summary: The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown returns with an unforgettable novel. Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. Have you ever seen a town rise? Ours did that, too. A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don’t expect life…

View Post

Beartown by Fredrik Backman #bookreview #series #backlistreview

Beartown by Fredrik Backman #bookreview #series #backlistreview

Thank you Atria Books, #partner, for the finished copy of Beartown in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Washington Square Press Published: March 23, 2021 (Originally Published 2016)   Summary: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People, a dazzling and profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true. By the lake in Beartown is an old ice rink, and in…

View Post

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel #bookreview #audiobook

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: February 22, 2022   Summary: From the USA Today bestselling and Edgar-nominated author of Darling Rose Gold comes a dark, thrilling novel about two sisters–one trapped in the clutches of a cult, the other in a web of her own lies. Welcome to Wisewood. We’ll keep your secrets if you keep ours.…

View Post

Chloe Cates is Missing by Mandy McHugh #bookreview #audiobook

Chloe Cates is Missing by Mandy McHugh #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Published: January 18, 2022   Summary: The disappearance of a young internet celebrity ignites a firestorm of speculation on social media, and to find her a detective will have to extinguish the blaze.   Chloe Cates is missing. The 13-year-old star of the hit YouTube series CC and Me has disappeared, and nobody knows where she’s gone – least of all ruthless momager…

View Post

Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke #bookreview #audiobook

Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: April 20, 2021   Summary: Elle Castillo once trained as a social worker, supporting young victims of violent crime. Now, she hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children. After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer.…

View Post

Homecoming by Kate Morton #bookreview

Homecoming by Kate Morton #bookreview

Thank you to TandemCollectiveGlobal, Mariner Books, #partner, for a finished copy of Homecoming in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Mariner Books Published: April 4, 2023   Summary: Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town…

View Post

The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange #bookreview

The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange #bookreview

Thank you Celadon Books, #partner for the advanced copy of The Connellys of County Down in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Celadon Books Published: August 1, 2023   Summary: From Tracey Lange, the New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans, comes The Connellys of County Down: a story about fierce family loyalty, good intentions gone awry, and the consequences of improbable love. When Tara Connelly is released from prison after…

View Post

Memoir Madness 2023: 4 mini-reviews #memoirs #bookreviews #audiobooks

Memoir Madness 2023: 4 mini-reviews #memoirs #bookreviews #audiobooks

This month I participated in MEMOIR MADNESS 2023  – a challenge over on Instagram where we focused on reading memoirs throughout the month of March. It’s a little play on March Madness and I have loved participating in this. I love reading memoirs – it’s one of my favorite forms of nonfiction that I try to read throughout the year. So far, I’ve read 3 this month, but you are…

View Post

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai #bookreview #audiobook

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Libro.fm / Penguin Random House Audio, for the ALC and Viking Books, #partner for the finished copy  of I Have Some Questions for You in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Viking Books / Penguin Random House Audio Published: February 21, 2023   Summary: The riveting new novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers A successful film professor and podcaster,…

View Post

The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester #bookreview #audiobook

The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Forever / Hachette Audio Published: September 15, 2020   Summary: From the New York Times best-selling author of The Paris Orphan comes an unforgettable historical novel about a secret collection of Dior gowns that ties back to the first female pilots of WWII and a heartbreaking story of love and sacrifice. England, 1939: The Penrose sisters couldn’t be…

View Post

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner #bookreview #audiobook

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: March 19, 2019   Summary: From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II. In 1943, Elise Sontag is…

View Post

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins #bookreview #audiobook

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Libro.fm / Macmillan Audio, #partner for the ALC of The Villa in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Macmillan Audio Published: January 3, 2023   Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware. As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond…

View Post

Smoke Screen by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger #bookreview #series

Smoke Screen by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger #bookreview #series

I borrowed this book from the library. Publisher: Orenda Books Published: June 1, 2021 (first published 2019)   Summary: When the mother of a missing two-year-old girl is seriously injured in a suspected terrorist attack in Oslo, crime-fighting duo Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the case, and things aren’t adding up … The second instalment in the addictive, atmospheric, award-winning Blix & Ramm series. Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The…

View Post

Review: The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

Review: The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

Publisher: Del Ray Books Published: July 20, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A family returns to their hometown—and to the dark past that haunts them still—in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in…

View Post

Review: A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner (audio)

Review: A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner (audio)

Publisher: NAL / ChristianAudio.com Published: Print – February 4, 2014 / Audio – March 11, 2015 Source: Print – Personal copy / Audio via Library   Summary: A beautiful scarf, passed down through the generations, connects two women who learn that the weight of the world is made bearable by the love we give away…. September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning…

View Post

Review: The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund

Review: The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund

Publisher: Harvill Secker Published: April 14, 2016 Source: Personal copy   Summary: The most terrifying thriller you’ll read this year It starts with just one body – the hands bound, the skin covered in marks. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg is determined to find out who is responsible, despite opposition from her superiors. When two more bodies are found, it becomes clear that she is hunting a serial killer. With her…

View Post

Review: Death Deserved by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger

Review: Death Deserved by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger

Publisher: Orenda Books Published: February 20, 2020 (first published July 2, 2018) Source: Personal copy   Summary: Police officer Alexander Blix and celebrity blogger Emma Ramm join forces to track down a serial killer with a thirst for attention and high-profile murders, in the first episode of a gripping new Nordic Noir series… Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always…

View Post

Review: Why Did You Lie by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Review: Why Did You Lie by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: August 11, 2016 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide. An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing. Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea. They have one thing in…

View Post

Review: The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe (reread)

Review: The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe (reread)

Publisher: Random House Audio Published: December 27, 2016 Source: Library   Summary: Acclaimed Swedish author Camilla Grebe makes her solo American debut with a psychological thriller as cunning in its twists as it is captivating in its storytelling – for fans of the celebrated crime fiction of Camilla Läckberg, Jo Nesbø, Ruth Ware, and Fiona Barton. Winter’s chill has descended on Stockholm as police arrive at the scene of a…

View Post

Review: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

Review: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Published: August 3, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: Six friends. One college reunion. One unsolved murder. A college reunion turns dark and deadly in this chilling and propulsive suspense novel about six friends, one unsolved murder, and the dark secrets they’ve been hiding from each other—and themselves—for a decade. Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to southern, elite Duquette University, down…

View Post

Review: Limelight by Amy Poeppel (audio)

Review: Limelight by Amy Poeppel (audio)

Publisher: Atria / Emily Bestler Books / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: May 14, 2019 (Paperback Release) / May 1, 2018 (Original Pub Date) Source: Print: Paperback via Author / Audio via library   Summary: In a smart and funny novel by the author of the critically acclaimed “big-hearted, charming” (The Washington Post) Small Admissions, a family’s move to New York City brings surprises and humor. Allison Brinkley—wife, mother, and former…

View Post

Review: In the Month of the Midnight Sun by Cecilia Ekback

Review: In the Month of the Midnight Sun by Cecilia Ekback

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: June 14, 2016 Source: Personal Copy   Summary: An orphaned boy brought up to serve the state as a man. A rich young woman incapable of living by the conventions of society. Neither is prepared for the journey into the heat, mystery, violence and disorienting perpetual daylight of the far North. Stockholm 1856. Magnus is a geologist. When the Minister sends him to survey the…

View Post

Review: One Year Gone by Avery Bishop

Review: One Year Gone by Avery Bishop

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing Published: August 10, 2021 Source: ARC Paperback via Author / ARC E-copy via Let’s Talk Books Promo   Summary: A mother will risk everything to find her missing daughter in this twisty thriller from the author of Girl Gone Mad. “Sometimes teenagers run away…Give her a few days. She’ll be back.” That’s what the police tell Jessica Moore when her seventeen-year-old daughter, Wyn, vanishes. All signs point…

View Post

Review: Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen

Review: Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen

Publisher: Orenda Books Published: October 17, 2019 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland, when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed…

View Post