10. Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni

#1 Keera Duggan, Seattle lawyer

listened on Audible

396 pgs.

2023
Adult Murder Mystery -  legal thriller
Finished 2/13/2026
Goodreads rating:  4.42 
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Seattle

My comments: I love murder mysteries, but I'm not the biggest fan of being on the legal side of things.   Not sure why, although I used to love the John Grisham novels - from the legal side.  This was a great mystery, but the way the answers came together were a bit perplexing to me ... sort of hard to believe.  But it kept me interested and thinking, and although I disliked most of the characters, I'm happy to have read it.  I do like Robert Dugoni.

Goodreads synopsis:  A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? A twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.

Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.

As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.

32. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

listened on Libby

320 pgs. (10:08)

Beautifully narrated by Brittany Pressley

2023
Adult Fantasy 
Finished 7/11/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 5
Setting: Jasper, North Carolina (an author-created town in the mountains of West NC) in 2022 and 1950.

My comments: This was such a compelling book!  A beautifully written story that could have been incredibly complicated, but it was woven so well that it wasn't at all. (This sort of story usually has me confused, but not this one!)  June Farrow's life....and plight....and mysteries swallowed me up completely. I look forward to seeing if there are other books by Adrienne Young that I've missed out on.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.  

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.

26. Where Peace is Lost by Valerie Valdes

read on Kindle

390 pgs.

2023
Adult SciFi
Finished 6/16/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.00
My rating: 3.5
Setting: On some far distant planet

My comments:  It was time for a decent scifi. I don't actually read books any more, I listen to them, but I read this one. and my reading was somewhat sporadic, so it got stretched out quite a bit from start to finish. I think this made it appear to go slowly - however I think it was my own pacing, not the book's, so I'll round my rating up to a four instead of down to a three. I liked Kel. A reviewer labeled this book a romance - I have to take issue with that. A little bit, maybe, but not enough to label the entire book a romance!

Goodreads synopsis:  A brand-new space fantasy novel from master world-builder Valerie Valdes! A refugee with a secret, a dangerous foe, and a road trip that could either save a planet or start a war.

Where peace is lost, may we find it.

Five years ago, Kelana Gardavros lost everything in the war against the Pale empire. Now Kel Garda is just another refugee living on the edge of an isolated star system. No one knows she was once a member of an Order whose military arm was disbanded and scattered across the galaxy. And no one knows that if her enemies found her, they might destroy the entire world to get rid of her.

Where peace is broken, may we mend it.

Kel’s past intrudes in the form of a long-dormant Pale war machine, suddenly reactivated. If the massive automaton isn’t stopped, at best it will carve a swath of devastation that displaces thousands of people. At worst, it will kill every sentient creature on the planet.

Where we go, may peace follow.

When two strangers offer to deactivate the machine for a price, Kel and a young friend agree to serve as their guides. The journey through swamps infested with predators and bandits is bad enough, but can they survive more nefarious dangers along the way? And will Kel’s fear of revealing her secrets doom the very people she’s trying to protect?

Where we fall, may peace rise.

13. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

#1 Empyrian

listened on Libby

498 pgs.  (21:22)

2023
Adult Dystopian Fantasy (now called Romantasy)
Finished 3/17/25
Goodreads rating: 4.58
My rating: 3

My comments: Well, I made it through hours and hours of what?  Arguments.  Hateful banter.  Battling tactics.  Young people dying.  And dying.  And dying.  Dragons.  I've never been a dragon fan and I'm still not.  And then after 2/3 or the book.....lust.  And more lust.  I'm certainly not opposed to lust, but when it's so much more of the story than the first 2/3 of the book it's a bit eye-rolling.  Major battles, exposed lying, lots of flying through the air and being attacked by creatures that cannot die.  And then, at the very end, switched points of view, from Violet to Zaren.  I refused to give up through all....what....20 hours? and I'm glad I completed it, but it seemed endless.  I'm not its biggest fan.  

Goodreads synopsis:  Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

          But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

          With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
          She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
          Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
          Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die

4. Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie

listened on Audible while sick in Tucson

371 pgs. (9:49)

2023
Adult contemporary mystery
Finished 1/22/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.84
My rating: 4
Setting: 2008 northeastern Oklahoma

My comments: A queer Cherokee archaeologist/investigator for the BIA returns home to her native Oklahoma after three years to search for her missing sister.  This one got a little slow in more than one place, but ultimately was pretty decent storytelling, adding fuel to the fire in the history of missing Native American females, which has been going on - and almost completely ignored - for years and years.

Goodreads synopsis:  A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women…one of them her sister.

There are secrets in the land.

As an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land's indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own.

While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.

When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, vanishes, Syd knows she must return home. She refuses to let her sister's disappearance, or the remains, go ignored—as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.

But not everyone is glad to have Syd home, and she can feel the crosshairs on her back. Still, the deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing indigenous women cases going back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in the town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.

The truth will be unearthed.

68. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2023
Adult Magical Realism/Fantasy
Finished 7/30/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Upper East Side of NYC

My comments: A girl who now lives in her beloved aunt's apartment on the upper east side of NYC, one day walks into it and discovers that she's gone back in time exactly seven years...and meets the young man who lived there seven years ago.  Very interesting, keeps your attention.

Goodreads synopsis:  Nominee for Readers' Favorite Romance (2023)

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

59. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

listened on Audible

307 pgs.

2023
Adult Mystery
Finished 6/26/24
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 4
Setting: Rural Maine (Rt. 9 north of Bangor) and Nova Scotia

My comments: Two voices, 1960 and perhaps 2000?  A four-year-old Micmac girl is kidnapped by a woman who has had many miscarriages and of course is slightly off.  The family of the little girl, Ruthie, (both parents, two brothers and a sister) never get over the feeling that she is still alive.  She is raised by the kidnapper and her husband as their own child, the mother being an odd woman who's super afraid that something is going to happen to now-Norma.  The story keeps switching back-and-forth between Ruthie/Norma and Joe, her two year older brother, who blames himself for her disappearance and has had an unhappy life because of the guilt he feels.  He's a good person, they are a good family, but it takes them almost five decades to reunite.  Such a sad story, but a really good one, too...

Goodreads synopsis:  A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.  

58. Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

listened on Libby

387 pgs.

2023
Adult mystery
Finished 6/23/24
Goodreads rating: 3.75
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Washington DC outskirts

My comments: Mia, from a Korean American family has a 20-year-old twin brother and a 13-year old autistic brother who cannot speak or communicate in any way.  The book starts with the stay-at-home father/caregiver taking Eugene on his daily walk to the park and never returning.  The entire book is based on trying to figure out what happened to the dad.  Did he leave?  Did he die?  If he did, where is he?  Eugene knows, but he can't communicate it.  Mia, the not-really likeable protagonist did start to grow on me a bit well into the book.  I loved the first half of the book, but the second half became more and more philosophical, which I really do dislike (in a book or in real life conversation, lol).  I probably would have rated this a 5 at first, but it went down by the time I finished.  I DID have a lot to think about, and I can still remember it months later, so that's a truly positive thing!

Goodreads synopsis:  When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another--both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.

57. City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

# 1 Cara Kennedy

listened on Libby
304 pgs.

2023
Adult mystery
Finished 6/19/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.54
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Alaska, winter

My comments: There were some elements of this story that drove me crazy, but the general premise AND the three voices you hear work quite well.  There's something about an entire town living in one huge building in Alaska that strikes a cord.  One of my problems is that only a handful of people were mentioned, and the idea of hundreds of people living here all together doesn't come together at all in my brain.  Our protagonist is hugely claustrophobic, so of course there are lots of scenes where this comes into account for her.  Too many.  I loved the way the three voices all intertwined, one being that of a young woman with some sort of mental disorder (schizophrenia?) - I loved being in her head and hearing what she was thinking.  The story ends with unanswered questions about Cara's past, so I definitely get the feeling there will be another book about her on the way!

Goodreads synopsis:  A stranded detective tries to solve a murder in a tiny Alaskan town where everyone lives in a single high-rise building, in this gripping debut by an Academy Award–nominated screenwriter.

When a local teenager discovers a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore of the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, Cara Kennedy is on the case. A detective from Anchorage, she has her own motives for investigating the possible murder in this isolated place, which can be accessed only by a tunnel.

After a blizzard causes the tunnel to close indefinitely, Cara is stuck among the odd and suspicious residents of the town—all 205 of whom live in the same high-rise building and are as icy as the weather. Cara teams up with Point Mettier police officer Joe Barkowski, but before long the investigation is upended by fearsome gang members from a nearby native village.

Haunted by her past, Cara soon discovers that everyone in this town has something to hide. Will she be able to unravel their secrets before she unravels?"

54. Beyond Reach by Molly Black

#2 Reese Link, Maine cop

listened on Chirp
198 pgs.

2023
Genre/Level
Finished 6/11/24
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Maine coast

My comments: This was supposed to be set inn Maine, but it could have been set anywhere.  It kept my attention but wasn't overwhelming "good."  

Goodreads synopsis:  Small town police officer Reese Link, teaming up with her new Maine State Police partner, is assigned another explosive the second warden in the state has turned up murdered. These seem like vengeance killings, but Reese suspects something much darker, more maniacal, and she knows it will take all she has to enter this killer’s mind and outwit him before he strikes again.

Reese Link is determined to do right by her deceased older brother, to fill his shoes in the local police department, and to avenge his murder. She also wants to make her father, a local lobsterman, proud. But the local force is male, and close-knight, and Reese soon learns that being accepted won’t be so easy.

Small town life on a harbor in Maine can be rough. Winters can be cruel and stretch forever, while the working class who inhabit the harbor suffer no fools. Reese knows this town like the back of her hand—but when she teams up with a State police officer, she quickly realizes she’ll have to branch out to other areas, way out of her comfort zone. She will have to learn quickly about all regions of Maine, as she hunts deadly killers wherever they may take her.

All along, she must fight her own demons, shake off the heaviness of her childhood, the depression of this town, and ask is she good enough?

51. The Night I Died by Anne Frasier

listened on Kindle Unlimited Audio
283 pgs.

2023
Adult mystery
Finished 6/4/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.97
My rating:  4
Setting: 

My comments: Anne Frasier certainly knows how to write a good tale.  In this one, single detective Olivia Wells leaves her home in LA to work on a mystery in Kansas.  She was born and raised there, but remembers absolutely nothing before the train wreck that killed her mom and best friend.  There were no huge surprises in the story, but it was exciting and fun to read.  Olivia certainly had a quirky personality, which I really enjoyed, although some of the subject matter was uncomfortable. 

Goodreads synopsis:  A mother’s unthinkable crime and an investigator’s forgotten past collide in a shocking novel of suspense by Anne Frasier, the New York Times bestselling author of The Body Reader . Private detective Olivia Welles hasn’t been to her hometown since childhood, not since the night she died. She has no memory of the world before the car crash, or of coming back to life in the morgue. But now, years later, when fellow survivor Bonnie Ray calls from a Kansas jail begging for help, Olivia feels the tug of a dark and unremembered past. Bonnie looks guilty of murdering her young son—the third child to die under suspicious circumstances. Intrigued and seeking closure, Olivia agrees to investigate. Back in the foreboding town where her heart stopped and started again, Olivia finds an unexpected ally in Will LaFever, a journalist with his own motives for uncovering the truth. Together they unearth more than they expect about Bonnie, her traumatized family, and the crime. You’re lucky you don’t remember any of it, Olivia’s father used to say. But Olivia’s luck is running out. This time, escaping Finney County with her life might be impossible.

50. Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

listened on Libby - borrowed from the library
416 pgs.

2023
Adult romance
Finished 6/1/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.33
My rating: 3.75
Setting: contemporary Minnesota or Wisconsin or somewhere like that

My comments: Very likeable main characters, both doctors who don't seem to have to work very much, Jacob who has extreme anxiety, Briana who is newly divorced and very distrustful of men, which carries over to the big misunderstanding/miscommunication climax that happens in every one of these romance novels.  It was this part that lowered by rating.  Lots of complex issues in this story, and most of it was quite delightful to read.  There was one short, steamy moment, but other than that this was pretty clean.

Goodreads synopsis:  Dr. Briana Ortiz's life is going downhill. Her divorce is about to be made official, her brother is running out of time to get a liver donor and that promotion she wanted so much is almost certainly going to that new doctor she can no longer stand. However, just when all systems are programmed for hate, Jacob Maddox flips the scoreboard by sending Briana a card. One that proves that Jacob, in fact, is not the Antichrist.

Bri and Jacob continue to write to each other... And so, he decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable, and she can't help but wonder how she's going to resist this quiet and attractive newcomer... especially when he asks you for a favor you can't refuse.

40. The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

listened on Libby
355 pgs.

2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Mystery
Finished 5/4/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4
Setting: England, flipping between 1939 and 1960

My comments: Two sisters are sent off to the countryside with hundreds of other kids to be billeted with families to keep them safe from the upcoming bombings of London at the beginning of WWII.  Luckily, these two girls find a home with a wonderful woman and her son.  This is a story of loss, love, and grief.  There were not enough surprises in the retelling, most was told at the beginning and just recapped with a few more details, which made it a little boring in places.  Lovely writing.  I loved the settings.

Goodreads synopsis:  When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

35. Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

listened on Libby
370 pgs.

2023
YA Romance
Finished 4/13/24
Goodreads rating: 3.70
My rating: 1

My comments: The story should have been told in about the half the pages that it took.  It really, really dragged.  I almost DNF at about 30% but kept pushing and pushing to finish it.  Winter Young is the male version of Taylor Swift and Sydney Cossette is a brilliant spy.  They are both 19 and have the savvy of at least 30-somethings.  Totally unbelievable.  At some point you just have to suspend belief about everything that's happening.  Descriptions are over-the-top and much too lengthy.  Boring.  I can't believe I stuck it out and finished it.  Blech. 

Goodreads synopsis:  Meet Winter Young―Global pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. His rabid fans would move heaven and earth for even a glimpse of him―just imagine what they’d do to become his latest fling.

Meet Sydney Cossette―Part of an elite covert ops group, Sydney joined their ranks as their youngest spy with plans to become the best agent they’ve ever had. An ice queen with moves as dangerous as her comebacks, Sydney picks up languages just as quickly as she breaks hearts. She's fiery, no-nonsense, and has zero time for romance―especially with a shameless flirt more used to serving sass than taking orders.

When a major crime boss gifts his daughter a private concert with Winter for her birthday, Sydney and Winter's lives suddenly collide. Tasked with infiltrating the crime organization’s inner circle, Sydney is assigned as Winter's bodyguard with Winter tapped to join her on the mission of a lifetime as a new spy recruit. Sydney may be the only person alive impervious to Winter's charms, but as their mission brings them closer, she’s forced to admit that there's more to Winter Young than just a handsome face . . .

30. None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

listened on Libby
380 pgs.

2023
Adult psychological "thriller"
Finished 4/3/24
Goodreads rating: 4.15
My rating: 2....barely
Setting: contemporary London

My comments: Nope.  Not for me.  Do you want to be sad, depressed, and bored for over ten hours of your life?  Then this is the book for you!  Slow and repetitive with barely any surprises that you couldn't figure out were coming.. this is a very popular "thriller." that just didn't do it for me.  I did enjoy the setting of contemporary London, though.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

23. Penelope in Retrograde by Brooke Abrams

listened on Audible

247 pgs. (7:46)
2023
Adult romance, no smut

Finished 3/23/24
Goodreads rating: 4.11
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Coronado Island, San Diego, CA (with a few flashbacks to the past)

My comments: I almost put this down after listening to the first few chapters. The protagonist seemed frenzied, over-the-top. But she/it did settle down and the storytelling became tongue-in-cheek funny, if not exaggerated and in some places, a bit ridiculous, but really fun. Penny is a romance writer, but the story is devoid of anything steamy, very clean. Great characterizations and interesting characters, including an elderly grandmother who was a hoot. The protagonist grew a lot during the story. Disliked her during the first 2/3 of the book, then she started smartening up. Enjoyable read.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this witty and heartfelt debut from author Brooke Abrams, a romance writer with a passion for astrology reluctantly travels home for Thanksgiving to make amends with her estranged family…and possibly manifest her own happily ever after. Romance writer Penelope Banks can write the perfect love story, but when it comes to family, all she’s got is a rough draft. Penny shelved the idea of fitting in with her high-achieving family years ago, but when her new business venture—a romance bookstore—is at risk of closing before its doors have opened, she’s forced to ask for help from the one place she never expected. Home. Penny’s prepared for the usual Thanksgiving her perfect sister, meddling nana, matchmaking mother, and workaholic father. The guest she didn’t anticipate? Her ex-husband, Smith. After an awkward rideshare with Smith leaves Penny questioning why the romance in her life exists only in her novels, Penny adds some fiction to reality and turns her father’s colleague into the perfect fake boyfriend. With only four days to mend damaged relationships, and her bookstore’s future at stake, all the stars must align for Penny to finally write a happily ever after for herself and her family.

20. Weyward by Emilia Hart

listened on Libby - borrowed from library

416 pgs.
2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Magical Realism

Finished 3/10/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.10
My rating:/
Setting: Cottage in England during three different time periods:  1619, 1942, contemporary

My comments: LOVE the cover!  Told from the point of view of three women in the Weyward family:  Altha, in 1619, on trial for practicing witchcraft, supposedly using a spell to have a farmer's cows trample him to death.  Violet, in 1942, living a hugely restricted life with her brother, being intimidated by a hateful father.  And then there's Kate in 2019, never leaving her flat because of an abusive, controlling husband, until she finally takes matters into her own hands.  Three really interesting stories of three strong women, bonded by blood and history and the huge touch of magic that connects them with the natural world, the birds, the bees, the bugs, and all growing things.  It was hard to put down and beautifully narrated by three different female voices.

Goodreads synopsis:  I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.

17. Georgie, All Along - Kate Clayborn

listened on Libby, borrowed from Library
340 pgs.
2023
Adult Romance

Finished 3/1/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.81
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Virginia, alongside a river

My comments: This one checks off all the boxes for a decent romantic comedy with a little steam.  I loved getting to know the characters and their back stories, it wasn't all drama and misunderstandings through those were definitely included.  Great narrators, the male put on the southern accent that was quite charming.  The philosophical-trying-to-figure-things-out parts didn't drive me nuts, as they usually do.  I very much enjoyed this story and greatly looked forward to returning to it.

Goodreads synopsis:  A wise and witty new novel that echoes with timely questions about love, career, reconciling with the past, and finding your path while knowing your true worth.

Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.

But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path.

Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.

Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . . .

13. The Boyfriend Candidate by Ashley Winstead

listened on Libby

2023
384 pgs.
Adult RomCom
Finished 2/10/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.83
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Austin, TX

My comments:  Another fake girlfriend/boyfriend trope.  Very cute.  Set in Austin, Texas, Logan is running for governor.  He is young and smart, brash and outspoken, running for governor.  Alexis is, shy and a "yes-girl" because she doesn't want to be unkind to anyone, and a school librarian.  Of course there are all sorts of miscommunications between the two but ultimately, as it always does in this sort of novel, the love story wins.  (She had no idea who he was in the beginning?  Yeah, right.....)  Just plain fun - with lots of eye-rolling.

Goodreads synopsis:  As a shy school librarian, Alexis Stone is comfortable keeping out of the spotlight. But when she's dumped for being too meek-in bed!-she decides she needs to change. And what better way to kick-start her new more adventurous life than with her first one-night stand?

Enter Logan, the gorgeous, foul-mouthed stranger she meets at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis's opposite-and boy, do opposites attract! Just as she's about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Cameras Logan promptly-and shockingly-flees.

Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. Turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor's seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career-and jeopardize Alexis's job-until a solution is he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until election day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?

12. The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

#1 Steinbeck & Reed

listened on Audible
339 pgs.
2023
Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 2/7/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.27
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary Minnesota

My comments: Van Reed is a cold case agent for the MBsomething-or-other - I think the same agency that Virgil Flowers works for.  Her horrible upbringing in a cult has left her bruised with psychic nightmares about really bad people.  The characters in this book certainly dip into every possible type.... including a LOT of stupid, mean cops!  Well written. Liked it a lot.

Goodreads synopsis:  Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes—decades of secrets yet to be unearthed.

Summer 1980: With no fear of a local superstition, three girls go into a Minnesota wood. Only one comes out. Dead silent. Memory gone. No trace of her friends. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.

Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. Their common ground is the need to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.

As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.