37. The Duke and the Wallflower by Jessie Clever

listened on Chirp

389 pgs.

2020
Adult historical romance
Finished 7/29/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.89
My rating: 2.75

My comments:  Ultra-handsome duke and plain Jane marry after knowing each other for about a week, and although they would never admit it to each other, instantly fall in love, while fighting it the whole time.  Light-hearted and fun to read, but.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Shunned by a society that puts attractiveness above all else, Lady Eliza Darby’s wallflower status keeps her from getting the one thing she wants most, namely, to be a mother. But when her scorned older sister returns home to see all of her sisters wed in happy matches, it may be Eliza’s only chance to secure a husband and have the children she so desires.

Jilted in a publicly humiliating display, Dax Kane, the Duke of Ashbourne, has sworn off love forever and has no wish to wed. But when the title demands it, he selects the most perfect candidate for the position: Lady Eliza Darby, a wallflower so unattractive, he won’t be in danger of falling in love with her. But the Jilted Duke will soon discover looks have nothing to do with love.

34. A Cold Trail by Robert Dugoni

#7 Tracy Crosswhite

listened on Audible

355 pgs.

2020
Adult mystery/police procedural
Finished 7/21/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.37
My rating: 4.25
Setting: contemporary Cedar Grove, WA

My comments:  In this, the 7th in a series, Dugoni changes up the setting a bit (back to Tracy's hometown) and gives us yet another solid mystery.  With her 2-month old daughter, almost-too-perfect husband, a new Irish nanny, and visits from her Seattle partner, Tracy solves a cold-case murder that's bothered her for over 20 years.

Goodreads synopsis:  “Tracy Crosswhite is one of the best protagonists in the realm of crime fiction today, and there is nothing cold about A Cold Trail.” —Associated Press

In New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni’s riveting series, Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite returns home to a brutal murder and her haunted past.

The last time homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite was in Cedar Grove, it was to see her sister’s killer put behind bars. Now she’s returned for a respite and the chance to put her life back in order for herself, her attorney husband, Dan, and their new daughter. But tragic memories soon prove impossible to escape.

Dan is drawn into representing a local merchant whose business is jeopardized by the town’s revitalization. And Tracy is urged by the local PD to put her own skills to work on a new the brutal murder of a police officer’s wife and local reporter who was investigating a cold-case slaying of a young woman. As Tracy’s and Dan’s cases crisscross, Tracy’s trail becomes dangerous. It’s stirring up her own haunted past and a decades-old conspiracy in Cedar Grove that has erupted in murder. Getting to the truth is all that matters. But what’s Tracy willing to risk as a killer gets closer to her and threatens everyone she loves?

22. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

listened on Libby

355 pgs.

2020
Adult CRF
Finished 5/7/2025
Goodreads rating:  4.09
My rating: 5
Setting: Lockett Island, Antarctica

My comments:  Delightful, charming, and funny....with an edge. Just what I needed. Loved it!  An 85 year-old travels by herself to Antarctica to learn about the penguins that live there, despite the objections of the small scientific crew that work there.  Told in three voices, that of Veronica, her newly found grandson, Patrick, and the podcast of Terry the yound femald scientist who lives at the station on Lockett Island.  I loved the story.

Goodreads synopsis:  A curmudgeonly but charming old woman, her estranged grandson, and a colony of penguins proves it's never too late to be the person you want to be in this rich, heartwarming story from the acclaimed author of Ellie and the Harpmaker.

Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she’s coming to visit—and won’t take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica's closed heart starts to open.

Her grandson, Patrick, comes to Antarctica to make one last attempt to get to know his grandmother. Together, Veronica, Patrick, and even the scientists learn what family, love, and connection are all about.

46. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

listened on Libby
320 pgs. (10:40)

2020
Adult Fantasy Horror
Finished 5/22/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.67
My rating: 3
Setting: 1950 Mexico, rural small community a train ride away from Mexico City

My comments: I had no idea when I began this book that it was a fantasy horror story, so when weird things started happening, I was put off a bit.  Arriving in an isolated mansion, High Point, on a mountainside in Mexico in 1950, Noemi has been sent by her father after receiving a really strange, discombobulated letter from her newly married cousin.  Not only is the mansion falling apart to the point that it is moldy, but the family that her cousin has married into is terribly strange and forbidding.   Over-the-top weird and secretive.  Once very rich as silver mine magnates, they now use candles and oil lamps instead of electricity and have all sorts of bizarre rules like not speaking a word to each other while eating a meal.  As more and more rumor and gossip about past deaths and illnesses assail Noemi, you realize that she is getting herself into something dangerous and really bizarre.

Goodreads synopsis:  After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

45. Throwaway Jane - Scott William Carter

#1 Karen Pantelli

listened on Libby
314 pgs.

2020
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/19/24
Goodreads rating: 4.32
My rating: 4.25
Setting: Contemporary Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix

My comments: Karen Pantelli has become a drifter.  Three years after leaving the FBI with emotional scars, she finds herself busing in a bar in Denver.  This is where the wild ride begins.  She rescues a 13 year-old girls who seems terrified and won't speak, and Karen is framed to be a wanted killer.  So she and the girl, who calls herself Jane, are on the run.  They end up in Las Vegas where the story more-or-less cumulates.  Karen is from Tucson and is very protective of her bipolar sister who now lives in Phoenix with her two daughters, and their relationship comes into play in the story as well.  Very easy to listen to, good narration, good story.

Goodreads synopsis:  Former FBI agent Karen Pantelli lives by a simple philosophy: never, ever care. Three years after a tragic mistake ends her once-stellar career, she drifts from one dead-end job to another, quickly moving on when she finds herself getting too attached. A new city. A new life. A new way of forgetting and being forgotten.

Until one chilly night behind a seedy bar, when a frightened girl leaps out of the back of a speeding van.

As they end up on the run in a thrilling chase that spans half the country, Karen soon realizes it's much easier to say you don't care than to actually mean it. And that unlocking the secrets in this girl's extraordinary mind might not only save both of them, but bring down one of the most sinister organizations the world has ever known.

31. The House on the Water by Margo Hunt

A Novella

listened on Audible
82 pgs.  (2:47)

2020
Adult Mystery/Thriller
Finished 4/8/24
Goodreads rating: 3.51
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary beachfront rental home, Florida

My comments:  There were lots of twists and turns in this entertaining story, although none were particularly surprising.  An easy, enjoyable listen.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the author of Buried Deep comes a brand-new thriller about a summer vacation turned deadly and a group of friends trapped together until they can determine who among them is capable of murder.

Every year, Caroline Reed takes a trip with her best friend, Esme Lamont. They’re usually accompanied by their spouses - but this year, everything’s changed.

Esme has just gone through a bitter divorce, and Caroline is wondering if her own marriage is reaching its breaking point as she and her husband, John, cope with the discovery that their 19-year-old son has been abusing drugs. Still, the inseparable duo books a weeklong stay at a beach-front home in Shoreham, Florida, inviting Esme’s brother, Nick, and his new husband, Ford, in hopes that the additional guests will help lighten the mood.

After a blissful first night in the vacation home, tragedy strikes, and one of the houseguests is found dead. While it’s assumed at first to be a horrific accident, it quickly becomes clear that there’s something more sinister at play, and over the course of this fast-paced, deeply chilling novella, the potential motives of each guest are revealed - until a shocking conclusion is reached.

21. The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

#2 Harbinder Kaur

listened on Libby (I think)
315 pgs. (9;09)
2020
Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 3/18/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.93
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Britain

My comments: 3.5  Mystery writers are being murdered, beginning with a 90-year-old woman who is a whiz at figuring out "who dunnit."  An interesting group of characters gather together to figure out what's going on.  Definitely not as good as Ruth Galloway, which I was a bit hopeful for, but entertaining.

Goodreads synopsis:  Murder leaps off the page when crime novelists begin to turn up dead in this intricate new novel by internationally best-selling author Elly Griffiths, a literary mystery perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Agatha Christie.

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should not be suspicious. Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing out of the ordinary when Peggy’s caretaker, Natalka, begins to recount Peggy Smith’s passing.

But Natalka had a reason to be at the police station: while clearing out Peggy’s flat, she noticed an unusual number of crime novels, all dedicated to Peggy. And each psychological thriller included a mysterious postscript: PS: for PS. When a gunman breaks into the flat to steal a book and its author is found dead shortly thereafter—Detective Kaur begins to think that perhaps there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.

And then things escalate: from an Aberdeen literary festival to the streets of Edinburgh, writers are being targeted. DS Kaur embarks on a road trip across Europe and reckons with how exactly authors can think up such realistic crimes . . .

10. The Court of Shadows by Victor Dixen

#1 Vampyria

listened on Audible

translated from French by Francoise Bui

364 pgs.
copyright 2020
Adult Fantasy/Vampires

Finished 1/29/24
Goodreads rating: 3.80
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Versailles, France, 300 years after Louis XIV was on the throne

My comments:  The minute I saw Victor Dixen's name, I decided I must read this book.  I read the Phobos series and loved it.  It always takes a bit for his books to be translated, and I'm ever so glad this was put into an audio book.  The reading was lovely, except for when the names were read - all with a very quick, totally French accent.  Couldn't understand them.  At all.  And I took French for years!

     I'm not certain I ever really liked Jeanne/Diane, the protagonist.   The beginning was a bit boring, typical Vampire stuff.  The second part of the books was much more creative and interesting, with an unexpected ending to be savored.  Looking forward to number two in the series, which should be in America around July.

Goodreads synopsis:  A fiery heroine seeks vengeance against a royal court of deadly vampires in this epic alternate history set in lavish Versailles.

Louis XIV transformed from the Sun King into the King of Shadows when he embraced immortality and became the world’s first vampire. For the last three centuries, he has been ruling the kingdom from the decadent Court of Shadows in Versailles, demanding the blood of his subjects to sate his nobles’ thirst and maintain their loyalty.

In the heart of rural France, commoner Jeanne Froidelac witnesses the king’s soldiers murder her family and learns of her parents’ role in a brewing rebellion involving the forbidden secrets of alchemy. To seek her revenge, Jeanne disguises herself as an aristocrat and enrolls in a prestigious school for aspiring courtiers. She soon finds herself at the doors of the palace of Versailles.

But Jeanne, of course, is no aristocrat.
She dreams not of court but of blood.
The blood of a king.

38. The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

#12 Ruth Galloway

listened on Audible

2020
373 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/27/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 3.75

Setting: Contemporary Norfolk, England

My comments: It's been two years, and Ruth and Kate - now nine - live with Frank in Cambridge where both Ruth and Frank teach.  The mystery for this episode, back in Norfolk, is a bit convoluted with a large group of ex-hippie-type people who hang around together totally supporting each other and the man who is arrested for the murder of two women.  At the end of this one Ruth has said no to Frank's marriage proposal and decides to move back to her much-loved cottage in Norfolk.  There will be an opening for the head of archaeology at her previous university, and she and Nelson have gotten closer and closer...so the next book is going to definitely take us in a more positive direction in that respect, I think.  Pretty decent mystery, but a little dragged out.

Goodreads synopsis:  Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway changed her life—until a convicted killer tells her that four of his victims were never found, drawing her back to the place she left behind.

7. Dark Highway by Lisa Gray

#3 Jessica Gray

listened on Audible

2020
318 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/19/23
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary 29 Palms Highway, California

My comments: Third in the Jessica Shaw, Private Detective, series. A great protagonist - smart, lots of emotional baggage but devoid of physical baggage… she practically lives out of her car. Set in 29 Palms, California, it‘s about the disappearance/abduction of several women and goes back and forth between time periods and voices. I liked it a lot and could clearly picture it because I‘ve visited this area several times. Good one!

Goodreads synopsis:  LA-based artist Laurie Simmonds disappeared two months ago, her campervan abandoned on the isolated Twentynine Palms Highway, miles from anything—or anyone. With the police investigation stalled, her parents put all their faith in private investigator Jessica Shaw to find out the truth of what happened.

Jessica and her partner Matt Connor discover that two other women are missing, their disappearances connected to the same highway. When a link emerges between these women and a group of former college friends, Jessica feels certain they’re closing in on their target.

But no sooner do they follow this up than Laurie’s parents get spooked and drop the case. Jessica is blindsided but determined not to give up: three women are missing, and many more may be at risk. She can’t turn her back on them. But the more she pulls at the threads of the truth, the closer she comes to danger. Can she find out who’s behind these crimes before they come for her?

77. Gathering Dark by Candice Fox

listened on Chirp

2020
319 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 12/13/22
Goodreads rating: 3.92
My rating: 4.5/5
Setting: Contemporary LA

My comments: Two points of view:  a female cop who's having a rough time with the rest of the cops in LA and an ex-con, ex-doctor who was convicted as an innocent person.  This book is rift with bad cops, which really, REALLY pissed me off to the point that I had to stop listening once in awhile.  Lots of tarnished characters...which is a great thing.  The plot is complicated and there are points that were really difficult to fathom because of so much ... badness.  But there's also positivity, lots and lots of it, and even humor thrown in.  I loved all the flawed personalities. I loved being kept on my toes throughout the story, and as unbelievable as it seemed in places, I really liked the way it was put together and told.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A convicted killer. A gifted thief. A vicious ganglord. A disillusioned cop. Together they’re a missing girl’s only hope.

Dr. Blair Harbour, once a wealthy, respected pediatric surgeon, is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s determined to keep her nose clean and win back custody of her son. But when her former cellmate begs for help to find her missing daughter, Blair is compelled to put her new-found freedom on the line.

Detective Jessica Sanchez has always had a difficult relationship with the LAPD. And her inheritance of a multi-million dollar mansion as a reward for catching a killer has just made her police enemy number one.

It’s been ten years since Jessica arrested Blair for cold-blooded murder. So when Jessica opens the door to the disgraced doctor late one night she expects abuse, maybe even violence. What comes next is a plea for help…

72. Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik

listened on Libby - borrowed from Library

2022
304pgs.
Contemporary Adult Mystery (scifi?)
Finished 11/29/2022 - took ages to finish
Goodreads rating: 3.70
My rating: 3.5
Setting: contemporary cold, cold, cold Greenland

My comments: Set in Greenland at a tiny science research station in October as the days are getting very short and 24-hour darkness is almost upon them.  Although Val has crippling anxiety, she drowns herself in pills and booze to embark on the journey there when she is asked, as an expert in languages, to come to try to figure out what an 8-year old girl is trying to say. This girl has been thawed from the ice....and speaks a language that has never been heard before. Of course, there are a lot of mysterious, unacceptable things going on, and that will include, but the end of the story, many deaths.  It was interesting to listen to the story unfold, to consider the possibilities that were suggested, and to commiserate with the protagonist's anxiety issues.  Could there really be some sort of enzyme in an eanimal (eels in this case) that could actually prologn/reactivate/regenerate life?  I would have rated this a 4, but it was very draggy in places, which made me shave off half a point.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the author of The River at Night and Into the Jungle comes a harrowing new thriller set in the unforgiving landscape of the Arctic Circle, as a brilliant linguist struggling to understand the apparent suicide of her twin brother ventures hundreds of miles north to try to communicate with a young girl who has been thawed from the ice alive.

Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother, Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.

When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility­—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North to meet this girl, and try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.

The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.

85. Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone

listened on Audible

2020

250 pgs. estimate/audio only
Adult RomCom
Finished 8/7/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Brooklyn & NJ

My comments:  Another delightful Cara Bastone romcom.  I read them out of order, but it was okay.  Extremely cute, happy, upbeat.  HEA, this one with no epilogue, thank goodness.  Pretty much the entire book was listening to the conversations that the two protagonist had on the phone, and listening to their personalities meshing.  No steam, no sex, completely clean.  Set in Brooklyn and New Jersey, so much fun!

Goodreads synopsis:    True love is on the line in this charming, laugh-out-loud rom-com—created specifically for the audio format!

Paint your toes. Pick up the wrong coffee and bagel order. Drive from Brooklyn to Jersey in traffic so slow you want to tear your hair out. It’s amazing all the useless things I can accomplish while on hold for three hours with customer service. Three hours when I should be getting the Date-in-a-Box website ready to launch at the big business expo in a few days. Except my shiny new website is glitching, and my inner rage-monster is ready to scorch some earth… when he finally picks up. Not the robot voice I expected but a real live human named Cal. He’s surprisingly helpful and really knows his stuff, even if he’s a little awkward…. in an adorable way.

And suddenly I’m flirting with him? And I think he’s flirting back.
And suddenly it’s been hours, and we’re still on the phone talking and ordering each other takeout while he trouble shoots my website.
And suddenly we’re exchanging numbers and sending texts and DMs every day, leaving voice mails (who even does that anymore?!).
And suddenly I’m wondering if it’s possible for two people fall in love at first talk.

Because I’m falling… hard.

65. The Planters by Victor Zugg

#2 A Ripple in Time

read on Kindle

2020
371 pgs.
Adult Time Travel
Finished 6/21/21
Goodreads rating: 4.30 - 624 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1720 South Carolina coastline

First line/s: "Nathan Sims eyed the sword's sharp point, hovering inches from his throat."

My comments: Most of this episode taes place on the open sea as Mason, Charlie, Jeremy, and Nathan travel back-and-forth between the plantation and the Spanish fort in Saint Augustine where they sell the rice so that they can pay the first installment that they owe Mrs. Stevens in New York for the purchase of the plantation.  At the end, the rotten Nthan has died and Karen is nearing the end of her pregnancy.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A continuing struggle for survival in a time long past.

        Former Federal Air Marshall Stephen Mason has again done the impossible. He has passed back through an unexplainable time portal and reunited with the three people he cares about most.
        It’s 1720, Charles Town, Carolina Colony, a time and place fraught with hardships and hazards. Carving out a life here will be challenging, especially for these modern-day transplants. There are few people they can trust, none in whom they can confide. But they have each other. And they have a rice plantation.
        With no apparent way home, the plan is simple: grow, harvest, sell, and make life as comfortable as possible, without getting too far ahead of history. But with a million ways things can go wrong, the execution may prove considerably more complicated.
        New to a new world, can Mason, Karen, Jeremy, and Lisa navigate the hard realities they are only beginning to understand?

63. The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

listened on Libby/borrowed from the library

narrated by Patti Murin

Unabridged audio (15:47)
2020
416 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 6/16/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.65 - 42,662 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Egypt & Boston

First line/s: "My calendar is full of dead people."

My comments: This book blew me away  There's so much to it, multiple stories flowing in and around and together.  There may be some spoilers in the following.  There are some really difficult themes:  1 - end of life, and not just because so much of the story is about the protagonist being a death Doula and deeply involved in hospice.  2 - physics and quantum theory, both of which no matter how "clearly" they are explained, will never be clear to me.  3 - loving, deeply loving, two men at the same time.  And there are two parallel stories about two different women and their situations that cut deeply at the heart.  4 - choices.  5 - family.  6 -  losing a beloved parent.  7 - abandoning everything you know and love to raise an underage sibling.  And I realize there's so much more, layer after layer.  Between the research and the story outline, I can't even imagine how long this book took to write.  And the ending.  Oh my gosh, the ending.   It was brilliant.  It could've ended in two very different ways.  You're left realizing that, in the end, it's always about choices.

Goodreads synopsis:  Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She's on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

          Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.
          But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.
          After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.
          As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?

Picture Book: The Lost Package by RIchard Ho

Illustrated by Jessica Lanan

found at St. Patrick School Library

2021

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:   4.14 - 262 ratings

My rating:  4
Endpapers:  Solid blue

1^st line/s:  "Like other packages, this one began as an empty box."

My comments:  So much of the telling in this story is shown through the illustrations, not the text.  The illustrations are absolutely lovely.  My only criticism is that in this day and age, when the postal system is under such scrutiny, why the package wasn't returned to the USPS to wend its way to its final destination.  Sure, it was a great story of the package's path, but a little negative to the postal system, even though I know that was not the author's intent after reading about his family background. I'm really fretting about the USPS's slow demise.....

Goodreads:  The heartwarming story of a package that gets lost, then found and an in-depth behind the scenes look at what happens at the post office, in Richard Ho and Jessica Lanan's The Lost Package...

50. Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

#2 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

listened on Libby/borrowed from the library

narrated by many, a whole line up

Unabridged audio (10:48)
2020
417 pgs.
YA Mystery
Finished 5/10/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.42 - 21,850 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Fairview, CT

First line/s: "You'd think you'd know what a killer sounds like."

My comments: This  is a  sequel to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.  I liked this one much better than the  first.  Great plot line that fit together well, more believable clues and reasons to go after suspects.  The last chapter or two were particularly believable, and it didn't leave you with an HEA...a pretty dark ending which worked quite well.  It will be interesting to see if Ms. Jackson attempts a number three.

Goodreads synopsis:  The highly anticipated sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder! More dark secrets are exposed in this addictive, true-crime fueled mystery.

          Pip is not a detective anymore.
          With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.
          But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh.
          The police won't do anything about it. And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way... and this time everyone is listening. But will she find him before it's too late?

45. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

listened on Libby/borrowed from library

narrated by the author, Elizabeth Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte

Unabridged audio (5:32)
2020
432 pgs.
YA CRF in Verse
Finished 5/5/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.32 - 52,442 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary NYC and Dominican Republic

First line/s: "I know too much of mud.

I know that when a street doesn't have sidewalks

& water rises to flood the tile floors of your home,

learning mud is learning the language of survival."

My comments: Incredible, lovely writing.  Many times when you hear a book read aloud that has been written in verse you cannot tell that it WAS written inverse.  This, read by two readers (one being the author), the poetry just flowed.  Absolutely gorgeous words.  Very sad, depresssing, but the beauty of the writing ... and of the story ... made up for it.  Learning about the "DR" community both in New York City and the Dominican Republic and hearing the story told with a large amount of Spanish verbiage included added to the experience.  And it was read with lovely, lilting accents of two SpanishAmerican narrators.  The story was tough.  But I would consider this a masterpiece.

Goodreads synopsis:   In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

          Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…
          In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.
          Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.
          And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

43. Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

#1 The Last Hours - Shadowhunters

listened on Libby/borrowed from library

narrated by Finty Williams

Unabridged audio (21:22)
2020
592 pgs.
YA Fantasy
Finished 4/27/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.47 - 53,658 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: turn-of-the century London

First line/s: "Lucie Herondale was then years old when she first met the boy in the forest."

My comments: Twenty hours listening to the mesmerizing happenings in the Shadowhunters' world, where a new group of 16 to 18 year olds use their newly honed Shadowhunter skills to fight demons and learn more about downworlders.  Cordelia Carstairs and her brother, Alastair, arrive in London to join their Shadowhunter family of cousins, aunts, and uncles who live there.  James and Lucie Herondale, children of Tessa a Will, along with Cordelia, are the protagonists in this story.  Because Tessa is half demon, James and Lucie are adapting to living with the quarter demon blood they have, untried and untested because no other half demons have ever had children.  Matthew Fairchild is James's best friend and parabati, brother to Charles, who is now engaged to Grace, James's long time love - although it is a magical attachment that he is unaware of.  Christopher and Thomas Lightwood, cousins, round out the group of friends.  Characters are really well done and memorable, and the only questions you have about them are questions that have been left intentionally unanswered by the author.  So much will happen in book two!  I really, really liked this.

Goodreads synopsis:  Chain of Gold, a Shadowhunters novel, is the first novel in a brand-new trilogy where evil hides in plain sight and love cuts deeper than any blade. .

          Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.
          But Cordelia’s new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. These monsters are nothing like those Shadowhunters have fought before—these demons walk in daylight, strike down the unwary with incurable poison, and seem impossible to kill. London is immediately quarantined. Trapped in the city, Cordelia and her friends discover that their own connection to a dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers—and forced a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero

Picture Book - The Forest Man: The True Story of Jadav Payeng by Anne Matheson

Illustrated by Kay Widdowson 

found at Amelia Givin Library

2020 FlowerPot Press

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.80 - 60 ratings

My rating:  4
Endpapers:  Simple.  White with one-inch yellow grid lines.

1^st line/s:  "Jadev Payeng loves trees."

My comments:  Someone called this "a treat for the eyes" and I agree.  How one person took two hours traveling back and forth for forty years to replant and recreate a decimated forest island in India.  The last six pages told of animals, easy-to-follow further facts, and a great glossary.  Perfect for younger classes learning about biomes, or for any age that cares about making the world a better place, and growing trees.

Jadav Payeng

Goodreads:  After years of harsh monsoon seasons, a forest on the river island of Majuli is in danger of being slowly washed away. Jadav, a boy living on the island, is determined to save the forest he loves.

          This is the true story of how one young boy dedicated his life to creating and cultivating an expansive forest that continues to grow to this day. In a world impacted by climate change, Jadav Payeng's inspirational story shows how one person's contributions can make a difference in helping to save our environment.
          Featuring a beautiful arlin paper cover with foil text enhancements and educational back matter including a glossary, fun facts, and resources for further reading, this book introduces a new understanding of our planet and encourages mindfulness and action when it comes to caring for the environment.
          In partnership with Trees for the Future (TREES), each book sold plants a tree.