5. Deep into the Dark by P. J. Tracy

#1 in a series about an LA Female cop (Det. Margaret Nolan), although she wasn't really the protagonist in this first book....

listened on Audible

339 pgs.

2021
Adult murder mystery/police procedural
Finished 1/29/25
Goodreads rating: 3.77
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary LA

My comments: Sam Easton is an Afghanistan war vet with some shattered (and recurring) memories who becomes deeply involved in a series of murders that become more and more related to him.  Tracy's writing is eloquent, I really love the way she puts words together!  Looking forward to more of her writing.

Goodreads synopsis:  Sam Easton—a true survivor—is home from Afghanistan, trying to rebuild a life in his hometown of LA. Separated from his wife, bartending and therapy sessions are what occupy his days and nights. When friend and colleague Melody Traeger is beaten by her boyfriend, she turns to Sam for help. When the boyfriend turns up dead the next day, a hard case like Sam is the perfect suspect.

But LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, whose brother recently died serving overseas, is sympathetic to Sam's troubles, and can't quite see him as a killer. She's more interested in the secrets Melody might be keeping and the developments in another murder case on the other side of town.

67. The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

listened on Libby

355 pgs.

2021
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 7/27/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.95
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1888 Dakota Territory

My comments: Entrancing historical fiction based on true events where on January 12, 1888 an unforgiving blizzard belted the Dakota territory and killed many people, mainly kids that were walking home from school on the prairie.  We follow a number of main characters for many years, finding the outcomes of all their lives.  Good , but sad story.

Goodreads synopsis:  The New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife reveals a little-known story of courage on the prairie: the freak blizzard that struck the Great Plains, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders--especially their children.

The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a long cold spell, warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats--leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At just the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard struck without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn't get lost in the storm?

Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers--one who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It's also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn't care what lies they told them to get them there--or whose land it originally was.

At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents' choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground, and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today--because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.

53. One Little Mistake by Lucinda Berry

listened on Audible
100? pgs.(2:23) only in audio format

2021
Adult mystery novella
Finished 6/7/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.48
My rating: 4.5

My comments: A really good mystery that keeps you frustrated and guessing.  A young mother gets arrested for OUI and endangering her two babies.  She's never been much of a drinker and had only had two glasses of wine.  But she'd blacked out, couldn't remember any of the particulars about anything, including her arrest.  When she goes to AA on the advice of her lawyer she is taken under the wings of a fascinating woman who becomes her mentor.  The story very quickly progresses from there...a very good story, indeed.

Goodreads synopsis:  When overwhelmed stay-at-home mom Alexis finds herself at odds with her husband after she’s charged with a DUI, she is given one chance to get her family back: complete AA and admit her faults. The problem is, she’s never had a drinking problem and has no idea what caused the blackout that led to her arrest. Still, she’s committed to working through the program, if that’s what it takes to be reunited with her two young children. But when she connects with a new friend, Farrah - a confident, successful powerhouse of a woman Alexis can’t help but idolize - she’s empowered to take a closer look at her husband’s role in her downfall. What she finds shocks her to her core, quickly spiraling into something more sinister than she ever imagined.

49. Lethal Beauty by Scott William Carter

#2 Karen Pantelli

listened on Audible
298 pgs.

2021
Adult Mystery series
Finished 5/28/24
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 3.5
Setting: contemporary 

My comments: There were little things that bothered me about this book, sometimes explanations went on and on and ON and other times were quickly blasted over.  And some or the characters were really hard to believe.  But it kept me entertained on the road from Chincoteague home at the end of a very fun Memorial Day weekend.

Goodreads synopsis:  Never mess with a woman with nothing left to lose.

Another state. Another city. Another dead-end job. A stellar FBI agent until tragedy set her adrift, Karen Pantelli finds herself working at a pizza joint in Billings, Montana, trying to ignore the increasing global unrest dominating the news, when three armed men walk through the door. Soon a shocking turn of events launches her on a cross-country quest for a former college classmate, an alluring but manipulative woman with just one goal in life: to marry rich. Very rich.

But what happens when this stunning beauty ensnares the richest, most powerful man of them all? He may have a singular ambition of his own … with lethal consequences for a world already in turmoil.

36. Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron

listened on Audible
357 pgs.

2021
Adult contemporary romance
Finished 4/13/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.71
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Toronto

My comments: One word: delightful.  Want to giggle and be thoroughly entertained?  In a reading slump?  This is the book to read.  Set in contemporary Toronto, this romantic comedy packs humor, family love and strife, and the love of cooking and baking into one very enjoyable story.  A huge plus for me was being able to peek into the culture and foods of the Indian Muslim community.  Note:  no actual gratuitous "steam", but the author does what she needs to get her point across....

Goodreads synopsis:   Reena Manji doesn’t love her career, her single status, and most of all, her family inserting themselves into every detail of her life. But when caring for her precious sourdough starters, Reena can drown it all out. At least until her father moves his newest employee across the hall--with hopes that Reena will marry him.

But Nadim’s not like the other Muslim bachelors-du-jour that her parents have dug up. If the Captain America body and the British accent weren’t enough, the man appears to love eating her bread creations as much as she loves making them. She sure as hell would never marry a man who works for her father, but friendship with a neighbor is okay, right? And when Reena’s career takes a nosedive, Nadim happily agrees to fake an engagement so they can enter a couples video cooking contest to win the artisan bread course of her dreams.

As cooking at home together brings them closer, things turn physical, but Reena isn’t worried. She knows Nadim is keeping secrets, but it’s fine— secrets are always on the menu where her family is concerned. And her heart is protected… she’s not marrying the man. But even secrets kept for self preservation have a way of getting out, especially when meddling parents and gossiping families are involved.

34. Sleeping Dogs Lie by Samantha Downing

listened on Audible
Novella - 100? pgs.(2:08)

2021
Adult Mystery Novella
Finished 4/11/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.60
My rating: 4.25
Setting: contemporary Bel Marin Keys, Novato, CA

My comments: This was just what I needed to get me out of my reading slump.  First of all, it took place on Bel Marin Keys off Novato Boulevard!  Over on the other side of the key from where Dede lives, and a house that was backed up directly to the lagoon.  That in itself was pretty cool, and so was the story - fun and descriptive and it didn't take long for you to figure out that something very weird was going on. Dog walking!  Fun mystery with red herrings.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the internationally best-selling author of My Lovely Wife and He Started It comes a twisted, entertaining novella about a dog walker swept into a criminal investigation when her client winds up dead.

Shelby works as a dog walker in Northern California, and she’s just finished up her biweekly trip to the park with a husky named Pluto. When she brings him back to his house, she finds his owner—Todd Burke, a well-known local businessman and founder of an organic supplements company—dead on the bathroom floor. As a detective interviews Shelby, a medical examiner inspects the body, and more cops search Todd’s home, it becomes clear that the victim’s life was less picture-perfect than his clean-cut persona might lead you to believe.

68. Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

listened on Audible

2021
416 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 9/24/23
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 4
Setting: A contemporary-ish US city

My comments:  My second go at this....got partway through when it first came out and stopped for some reason. Glad I tried it again, it was a fun story. Of any kids' fantasies I've read in recent years, it's the most Harry Potter-ish without being too much like Harry Potter. Characters you hate to love and love to hate...yup, I'll read the second in the series.

Goodreads synopsis:  Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

Amari must compete against some of the nation’s wealthiest kids—who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives and are able to easily answer questions like which two Great Beasts reside in the Atlantic Ocean and how old is Merlin? Just getting around the Bureau is a lesson alone for Amari with signs like ‘Department of Hidden Places this way, or is it?’ If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magican threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

67. These Silent Woods - Kimi Cunningham Grant

listened on Audible

2021
275 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 9/21/2023 
Goodreads rating: 4.10
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary - in the middle of the woods off a long, private dirt road, on the edge of a National Forest....I'm thinking somewhere in remote PA

My comments: This is one of the best books I've read in a long while.  I loved every beautiful word, the plt, the complex characters, and the very special setting...all the details.  It was almost like I'be been waiting for the story with these kinds of details - living alone in the wodds on your own (Cooper is with his 8-year old daughter) surviving, enjoying nature and the birds, and loving your kid.  It was the details that really made it for me, as well as the brief flashbacks that explained what had happened to Cooper to bring him to this place.  So well done.  And the HEA that I would have never imagined.   Loved it.

Goodreads synopsis:   No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.

The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.

Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.

21. The Art of Loving Libby Green by Bellebird James

read on Kindle
252 pgs.

2021
YA CRF
Finished 3/10/23
Goodreads rating: 4.08
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary New Zealand

My comments: A real tough look at homelessness.  Dylan is homeless, trying to watch out for his absurdly alcoholic father and finish his senior year at high school.  He is an incredible graffiti artist whose only dream is to go to SOFA, the prestigious art school right in his community.  But living in a tent beside an abandoned public toilet and riding his bike are all he has to hang on to.  His father abandons him for days, even week on end and he has to take care of his little elderly dog, Bear.  He has no money, so he steals his food and his father makes him steal booze and cigarettes.  It's really sad, quite heartbreaking.  He's got a crush on Libby Green, but he keeps to himself until one day they sit beside each other in art class.  There's the typical obnoxious boyfriend, blah, blah, blah, but I very much enjoyed it, on the whole and as sad as it was.

18. Rachel's Story by Leigh Russell

Read on Kindle

2021
244 pgs.
YA dystopia
Finished 2/25/2023
Goodreads rating: 3.74
My rating: 3
Setting: Destroyed world which is now entirely desert

My comments: Dystopian, which I love.  Good story, but too quickly glosses over some of the important, more interesting points.  It ends waiting for the next book.

Goodreads synopsis:  A girl struggles to survive in a dystopian world destroyed by war, where food is scarce, the government rules, and ordinary people only exist to serve.

As a child, living in a post-apocalyptic world, the only person Rachel can rely on is her mother. But when her mother is killed, Rachel is initiated into The Programme, where selected young girls are medicated to make them fertile.

Fearing for her future, Rachel escapes. But freedom comes at a price and Rachel must navigate through a terrifying landscape of persecution to survive.

What is on the other side of the city wall? Will the repressive government hunt her down? One thing is certain. Rachel's world will never be the same again . . .

Rachel's Story is the perfect read for fans of women's fiction and dystopian novels, such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

14. Lonely Hearts by Lisa Gray

#4 Jessica Shaw

listened on Audible/Kindle Unlimited

2021
303 pgs.
Adult Mystery - Series
Finished 2/12/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.31
My rating: 4.5

My comments: Fun to have a little bit of a different perspective than usual for this one, though it flips between characters a lot.  It's about women who first correspond, and then marry, prison inmates.  There's one particularly movie star-handsome serial killer that is the star and center of this murder mystery/fiasco.  It went fast and was really interesting.  I like Jessica.  She's flawed, a fairly hard drinker, bleached and tattooed ... and pretty smart!

Goodreads synopsis:  She found love on Death Row with her prison pen pal. She’s been missing ever since. Can Jessica Shaw track her down?

A missing persons case should be pretty straightforward for private investigator Jessica Shaw. After all, it’s what she does best. But this latest case proves to be anything but straightforward.

Christine Ryan is desperate to find her childhood friend Veronica Lowe. Veronica disappeared more than fifteen years ago, not long after having a child with a Death Row inmate, notorious serial killer Travis Dean Ford. When Ford’s widow, Jordana, is murdered in the same way as his victims, Christine fears Veronica and her daughter will be next. If they’re even still alive…

Discovering that both Veronica and Jordana were members of the Lonely Hearts Club, a pen pal service for women who want to write to men in prison, Jessica realizes she needs to find Veronica before the killer does. But as Jessica follows the leads it begins to feel like someone is following her. Travis has been dead for years, so who is hunting the Lonely Hearts?

12. FInlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

#1 Finlay Donovan 

listened on Libby

2021
355 pgs.
Adult Funny Tongue-in-cheek mystery
Finished 2/5/23
Goodreads rating: 4.05
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary suburban Virginia

My comments: I kept thinking, at many points, that there's no way she can get herself out of this.  I was proven wrong over and over again.  This book is funny and lighthearted as well as eye-rollingly nutty in places....and I loved it.  Reminded me a bit of Stephanie Plum, but much better, right down to the sidekick.

Goodreads synopsis:  Finlay Donovan is killing it...except, she’s really not. A stressed-out single mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: The new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written; her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her; and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet. She soon discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moments, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from award-winning Elle Cosimano.

10. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

2022 Newbery Award Winner

listened on Audible (used a credit for it)

2021

336 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 1/30/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4ish
Setting: 2060 New Mexico and 2400 Planet in another galaxy

My comments: This book was awarded the Newbery Medal last Monday, which sent me in a tailspin to obtain an audio reading asap.  It was read beautifully.  The cover is gorgeous. And it was an absolutely interesting piece of storytelling.  I'm not a big fan of folk/mythology/storytelling, and there were lots of places in the book where very important stories were told, stories that needed to be listened to in order to understand messages from Petra's grandmother, and then from herself.  I had to force myself to pay attention to these parts.  There seemed to me lots of repetitive places, and sometimes the story seemed to drag a bit. Creepy in places, sad in places, clever and adventurous in others.  Some of the pondering seemed more adult than child-centered. Lots to think about.  Good story, but I wouldn't have chosen it for a Newbery....but I never really like/agree with the Newbery choices, so ....

Goodreads synopsis:  There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

8. Alone by Megan E. Freeman

Read on Kindle - it was in verse 

2021

404 pgs.
Middle grades/survival CRF
Finished 1/28/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary-ish small town Colorado

My comments: A beautifully written novel in verse  Gorgeous words.  And an incredible story. I so wish there had been an additional five pages so that we could hear what had happened to her parents for the past three years.  Three years all alone in a deserted and abandoned Colorado town...at 12 years old, trusting yourself to figure out how to survive!  Wow!  I can't imagine kids not enjoying this, and I can't wait to begin reading it aloud to my fifth graders.

Goodreads synopsis:  When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

5. Cyber Count by S. L Beaumont

#1 or 2 Kat Munro (Don't need to read#1 if there is one before this...)

read on Kindle

2021
330 pgs.
Adult Police Procedural/Mystery
Finished 1/22/22
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary London

My comments: This is all about cyber crime and crypto coin.  There are two major crimes being investigated by Kat and her cop sorta-boyfriend, Adam.  There are some really sleazy characters and it's written very simply (yet with lots of cyber crime info that I didn't care enough about, so it went in and out of my head).  Run of the mill.

Goodreads synopsis:  Has cyber-crime escalated to murder?

Forensic accountant Kat Munro puts her traumatic past behind her and begins dating journalist Connor O’Malley, whose investigations into online crime attract the wrong kind of attention. When a colleague’s teenage son goes missing, and his friend’s body is discovered, Kat finds herself working with DS Adam Jackson again.

The murder enquiry leads Adam to an exclusive London school where allegations of drugs, gaming fraud and child pornography abound. As he gets deeper into the investigation, Adam is forced to face issues in his private life while suppressing his feelings for Kat.

The faceless hackers become desperate, and Connor is found drugged with his research missing. Can Kat and Adam put the past behind them to solve a series of seemingly unrelated incidents before someone else becomes the victim of an elusive cyber-crime network?

4. Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea

listened on Libby/borrowed through library

2021
368 pgs.
adult mystery
Finished 1/22/22
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: mostly contemporary NYC

My comments: Oh my, talk about twists and turns and surprises!  This very complicated plot started off a bit slowly for me, but it was setting up the rest of the story really well, and once I got into it I was utterly fascinated.  And although we watch what unfolds through various eyes, each character is keeping information back, sometimes even falsifying it so we're always a little unsure of what - or why - something is happening.  There are two protagonists, Avery/Claire, a famous television investigative reporter, and Walt, a retired-in-his-forties FBI agent who now lives ... and drinks rum ... in Jamaica.  Throw in an ugly murder mystery, a woman killed on 9/11, an in-hiding hedge fund multi-millionnaire, and you have the beginning ingredients for one wild ride.

Goodreads synopsis:  Fans of Lisa Unger and Allen Eskens won’t want to miss this thrilling new suspense novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken! Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…

The New York Times Best Thrillers This Season | E! News Recommended Books | Overdrive Biggest Books of the Month | Everything Zoomer, December’s Best Fiction

Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience's attention. Her latest story--a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal--is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner's office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.

Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won't be complete until she can clear Victoria's name. Alone she's had no luck, but she's convinced that Avery's connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria's DNA.

But the twisted puzzle of Victoria's private life belies a much darker mystery. And what Avery doesn't realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery's own secret past--one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .

Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11.
Twenty years ago, no one listened.
Today, you will.
TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past... 

3. Mastermind by Andrew Mayne

#1 Theo Cray & Jessica Blackwell

listened on Audible

2021
332 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Thriller/Espionage
Finished 1/7/2022
Goodreads rating:  4.32
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary all over the world, actually

My comments: From the very beginning, none of the story has any actual believability, but if you keep tongue in cheek and think of this as a fantasy, it's quite intriguing!  It takes leaps and bounds, uses non-existent clues, gives head-scratching (and quick) pseudo-explanations for most things, and leaves the reader totally clueless in places, but it's still one heck of a ride/read!  The antagonist, Michael Haywood aka The Mastermind, has been toying with Jessica for years.  And bringing Theo and Jessica together was a stroke of genius.  Both are too smart (or believable) for their owns goods and they are certainly attracted to each other.  I enjoyed it!

Goodreads synopsis:  A mysterious electrical storm plunges Manhattan into darkness. As a strange, smothering fog rolls in, all communication crashes. In the blink of an eye, the island seems to vanish into a void.

FBI special agent Jessica Blackwood and brilliant scientist Dr. Theo Cray know this isn’t a freak accident. It’s a sinister sleight of hand. Their greatest adversary, a serial killer and cultist known as the Warlock, has escaped during a prison transfer in New York. A depraved master of manipulation, he promised the end of days. He’s making good on it.

One by one, cities across the globe are erupting in chaos as they disappear into the same black holes. Even for two ingenious trackers like Jessica and Theo, there’s still so much to learn about the pattern to the Warlock’s madness. The voids are just a warm-up for something bigger. To discover it—to stop it—Jessica and Theo must descend into the darkest of shadows—and minds. 

2. A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn

listened on Audible

2021
402 pgs.
Adult Romance
Finished 1/2/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.25
My rating: I didn't rate it - I read it, and liked some of it, not all of it...some was pretty good and some was pretty bad.....
Setting: Contemporary LA/Beverly Hills, CA

My comments: Huxley and Lottie. The usual. Why do I read these? An extremely handsome, buff, 35 year-old billionaire businessman with no girlfriend.....right....and petite, adorable, sexy 25 year-old from the lesser parts of Beverly Hills become fakely engaged (I love fake dating stories, I guess that's what pulled me in) for absolutely ridiculous reasons. The whole story was ridiculous, unbelievable, and extremely steamy. I DID like being inside Shame-on-me, I read the whole thing, all the way through the hugely descriptive (too) steamy parts to the HEA.  But it's a pretty charming cover, wouldn't you say?

Goodreads synopsis:  How did you two meet?

The quintessential question asked to every couple. And the answer is usually some bubbly, lovey dovey tale of being struck in the bum by Cupid’s arrow.

My meet cute (well not so meet cute) is slightly different. I was trolling a wealthy neighborhood in Beverly Hills, searching for someone to take me as their bride, you know, to make my arch nemesis jealous who consequently just fired me.

He was stomping around the block like some sort of gorgeous ogre, mumbling about a business deal gone wrong and attempting to finagle his way out of it.

And that’s when we bumped into each other.

There were no sparks.

Not even a hint of blossoming love.

But next thing I knew, I was scarfing down free chips and guac, listening to this man lay out all of his problems which led to his big ask . . . he wanted me to be his Vivian Ward, you know, from Pretty Woman--minus the frisky behavior.

We’re talking about living in a mansion, intimate double dates, and pretending we were head over heels in love . . . and engaged. Can you imagine?

The absolute audacity.

But people do crazy things when they’re desperate. And I reeked of desperation. So, I struck up a deal.

My one big mistake, though . . . big . . . HUGE? I accidentally fell for the incomparable Huxley Cane.

116. Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner

#1 Frankie Elkin

2021

400 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished  12/26/2021
Goodreads rating:  3.94 
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Mattapan (Boston)

My comments: Interesting plot and characters.  I could not envision the tough Mattapan neighborhood, because in the lat 1950's, early 1960's I was able to wander around freely while visiting my Aunt Laura who lived on Hollingsworth Ave.  Now it's a really rough Haitian neighborhood full of gangs.  

     There's a lot of sadness in the story, which overlaps Frankie's own sad history with the current sad story.  Frankie's a wreck - an alcoholic with many, many issuead, but she's looking for redemption in the only way she can -- her knack for finding missing personas who no one else can. Great premise, looking forward to the second in the series, which will come out in 2022

Goodreads synopsis:  From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgotten

Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim's wary family tells Frankie she's on her own--and she soon learns she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

115. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

listened on Libby - borrowed from the library

2021

352 pgs.
Adult Rom Com with one steamy part
Finished 12/24/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.44
My rating: 4.5
Setting: mostly Stanford University campus, a little at a Boston conference

My comments: For some reason I really loved this story.  A romcom about fake dating that anyone and everyone will realize is going to have a HEA, but its telling is pretty cool.  Yes, frustration's because the protagonist lies so much to protect herself and the guys she's falling for, but otherwise the story would have been about a quarter of its length, lol.  I love that it was set in academia, at Stanford, with really smart protagonists.  And the bad guys is so bad, no glossing over it.  Of course the good guy is really good (and of course has the fantastic body hidden under ordinary clothing to go along with it.}  Maybe it's just my current mood, but this story really tickled me in many ways.

Goodreads synopsis:  As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding... six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.