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.

99. Scoring the Keeper's Sister by Delancey Stewart

listened to Audio on Chirp
narrated by Ellie Gossage and Logan McAllister
Unabridged audio (5:08)
2019
204 pgs.
Adult Low-Steam Romance
Finished 6/26/2020
Goodreads rating:  402 - 610 ratings
My rating: 2.5
Setting: contemporary San Diego

First line/s: "There are a few things you need to know about me."

My comments: The story was okay, steam factor there but low, most of the 5- hours was story.  Professional soccer team San Diego.  Nothing special or different and only good endings for both mother's sickness and love.  Did not really care for either of the readers.

Goodreads synopsis:  Soulmates don't always start as friends. Sometimes they start as enemies. And sometimes they need cheese to help seal the deal... 
          ERICA: 
          Signing up for a matchmaking service was not my idea.
          But when Andrew-the-Hand-Model dumped me, my brother suggested I try Mr. Match. And I figured it couldn’t hurt. As it was, I’d never get away from meathead moron soccer players (since my brother plays keeper for the South Bay Sharks and I manage PR for the team). But Mr. Match is a moron too because he matched me with a guy I see at work every day. A guy who has a different girl on his arm at every turn. And a soccer player.
          Fernando Fuerte, the “Fuerte Fire,” is one guy I can assure you is NOT my match. 
          FERNANDO: 
          Getting girls is not a problem.
          Getting girls who care about something besides my status as the South Bay Sharks star striker, my salary, and my social status?
          Yeah. That’s the problem. So when my buddy Max tells me he’s actually Mr. Match–the secret proprietor of San Diego’s hottest matchmaking app, I let him convince me to try it. 
          And Erica Johnson is not actually a bad match–only she doesn’t seem to agree. And then there’s the small matter of her being in the middle of trying to save the team (and me) when the owner’s ex brings to light some, ahem, unsavory accusations about me…      
          And then there’s her enormous and disapproving twin brother…
          And there’s something about cheese, too. 
          But if I have my way? Erica will definitely be my match.

25. Rewinder by Brett Battles

listened to on Audible
2014 Creative Space Independent Publishing
272 pgs.
Unabridged 7:48)
YA Fantasy/Time Travel
Finished Wednesday, 4/26/16
Goodreads rating: 3.87 - 2737 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Time Travel, but much is contemporary America....sort of.....

From chapter 2:  " I read somewhere that everyone is the hero of his or her own story.  Maybe that's true for most people, but not for me.  Of all the rules we were taught before we were allowed to travel in time, one stands above all:  Don't screw anything up.
     I didn't mean to, but, well...
     Here I am, Denny Younger, destroyer of worlds.
     You wouldn't be here if not for me."

My comments:  I think this one's a five!  Every now and then I come across a book I just can't put down.  This is one of them.  What would've happened if American had always stayed a British colony?  There are really two parts to the book, and both were intense - the steps building up to the climactic changing point and what happened because of it.  I had to think clearly in order to follow all the time traveling that was going on, but I was able to do it.  I was afraid at the end I would be left hanging, but although the ending entices me to want to read the next volume, I was quite satisfied.

Goodreads synopsis:  You will never read Denny Younger’s name in any history book, will never know what he's done. 
          But even if you did, you’d never believe it.
          The world as you know it wouldn't be the same without him. 
          Denny was born into one of the lowest rungs of society, but his bleak fortunes abruptly change when the mysterious Upjohn Institute recruits him to be a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. The job at first sounds like it involves researching old books and records, but Denny soon learns it's far from it. 
          A Rewinder's job is to observe history.
          In person.
          Embracing his new duties with enthusiasm, Denny witnesses things he could never even imagine before. But as exciting as the adventures into the past are, there are dangers, too. For even the smallest error can have consequences. 
          Life-altering consequences. 
          Time, after all, is merely a reference point.

13. The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker

listened to in the car - the last one in my 07 Malibu.....
2012 Random House
294 pgs.
Fantasy/Dystopia Adult (coming-of-age, YA)
Finished 2/24/16
Goodreads rating: 3.63
My rating: 2
Setting:  Contemporary/futuristic San Diego, CA

First line/s:  "We didn't notice it right away.  We couldn't feel it.  We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin."

My comments:  Wow.  This was tough to rate - the writing was wonderful, but the story was so terribly depressing that I dreaded listening to the story.  I have no idea where the title came from, and the ending (which was quite unsatisfying) just happened.  The words, though, were beautifully crafted!

Goodreads synopsis:  “It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”
          Luminous, haunting, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, a story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty.
          On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life--the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.
          With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, a resilient and insightful young girl, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.