2026 Reading

Published in the Current Year - 2026

1.  No One Knew (#2 Noelle Marshall) (3.5)

2.  Anatomy of an Alibi - Ashley Elston (4.5)

3.  Detour - Jeff Rake (5)

4.  First Sign of Danger (#4 Haven's Rock) (4.5)

5.  The Price of Honey - Liane Moriarty, 34 pgs. (2026)

6.  The Roommate

7.  You'll Miss Me When You're Gone

8.  The Line

9.  Storm Tide(#16 Mike Bowditch) - Paul Doiron, 2026 (3.5)

10.  Our Perfect Storm - Carley Fortune, 2026 Libby (4.5)

11.  Ironwood (#2 Catalina Island) Michael Connelly, 2026 (4)

12.  The Shippers

13.  Keeper of Lost Children - Sadeqa Johnson, 2026 Libby (4.75)

YA

1.  

Middle Grade

1.  Candle Island - Lauren Wolk (5)

Historical Fiction

1.  Candle Island (1970s coast of Maine)

2.  Murder on the Red River (#1 Cash Blackbear) Marcie R Rendon (1970 ND/MN state line)

3.  Girl Gone Missing (#2 Cash Blackbear) Marcie R. Rendon (1970 ND/MN state line)

4.  Sinister Graves (#3 Cash Blackbear) - Marcie R. Rendon, 2022 (   "     )

5.  Keeper of Lost Children - Sadeqa Johnson, 2026 (4.75)

6.  The Sunflower House - Adriana Allegri, 2024 (5)

7.  The Women of Arlington Hall - Jane Healey, 2025  (3)

8.    By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult, 2024 (5)

Fantasy/SciFi/Magical Realism

1.  The Women of Wild Hill (Miller) (4)

2.  Detour (Rake) (5)

3.  The Price of Honey - Liane Moriarty, 34 pgs. (2026)

Shorts

1.  Natural Selection - Erin Hildebrand, 54 pgs. (2024)

2.  The Price of Honey - Liane Moriarty, 34 pgs, 2026 

3.  The Roommate - Andrea Mara

4.  You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone - A. R. Torrey

5.  The Line - Tim Weaver

6.  A Fatal Delivery - Lauren Oliver

7.  The Silent Muse - Lauren Ling Brown

DNF

1. The Everlasting - Alix E. Harrow - listened for almost an hour - not for me

2.  Little One - Olivia Muenter - listened for 26% - just too s-l-o-w

3.  Raft of Stars - Andrew J. Graff (read 30% - 3:29, so tried, too slow)

Series

1. Nash Falls (#1 of 2) - David Baldacci, 2025 (4.5)

2.  Dead of Autumn (#1 Alexa Williams, Carlisle, PA) 2014 (3.5)

3. No One Knew (#2 Noelle Marshall) - Kendra Elliot 2026 (3.5)

4.  Her Deadly Game (#1 Keera Duggan) - Robert Dugoni, 2023 (4)

5.  Murder on the Red River (#1 Cash Blackbear) - Marcie Rendon 2017 (4)

6.  First Sign of Danger (#4 Haven's Rock) - Kelley Armstrong, 2026 (4.5)

7.  Girl Gone Missing (#2 Cash Blackbear) Marcie R. Rendon, 2019 (4)

8.   A Solitude of Wolverines (#1 Alex Carter) - Alice Henderson, 2020 (3.75)

9.  Wool

10.  First Sign of Danger

11.  Las Vegas Girl

12.  Gone by Midnight

13.  A Drink Before the War (#1 Kenzie & Gennaro) - Dennis Lehane, 1994 (3.75)

14.  A Blizzard of Polar Bears

15.  The Line

16.  The Drifter

17.  Storm Tide(#16 Mike Bowditch) - Paul Doiron, 2026 (3.5)

18.  Ironwood (#2 Catalina Island) Michael Connelly, 2026 (4)

19.  Burning Bright (#2 Peter Ash) - Nick Petrie, 2017 (4.25)

20.  Light it Up (#3 Peter Ash) - Nick Petrie, 2018 (3.75)

21.  Girl Alone (#1 Ella Dark)  - Blake Pierce (2)

22.  Judgment Prey (#15 Virgil Flowers & #33 Lucas Davenport) - John Sandford, 2023(3.5)

23.  Sinister Graves (#3 Cash Blackbear) - Marcie R. Rendon, 2022 (4)

24.  The Shadow Friends (#3 The Martini Club) - Tess Gerritsen, 2026 (2)

4.5 and 5 Stars

1.  Nash Falls (#1 of 2)- David Baldacci, 2025 (4.5)

2.  Anatomy of an Alibi - Ashley Elston, 2026 (4.5)

3.  Detour - Jeff Rake, 2026 (5)

4.  Candle Island - Lauren Wolk, 2025 (5)

5.  The Arizona Triangle - Sydney Graves, 2024 (4.5)

6.  First Sign of Danger #4 Haven's Rock) - Kelley Armstrong, 2026 (4.5)

7.  Mad Mabel - Sally Hepworth, 2025 (5)

8.  Dead of Night - Lisa Gray, 2025 (4.5)

9.  Gone by Midnight

10.  The Drifter

11.  Our Perfect Storm - Carley Fortune, 2026 Libby (4.5)

12.  The Silent Muse

13.  Keeper of Lost Children - Sadeqa Johnson, 2026  (4.75)

14.  The Sunflower House - Adriana Allegri, 2024 (5)

15.  By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult, 2024 (5)

Novels Read in 2026

January (7)

1.  Nash Falls (#1 of 2) - David Baldacci, 2025 Libby (4.5) 

       #2, the second half of the story will be out 4/9/2026

2.  The Women of Wild Hill - Kirsten Miller, 2025 Libby (4)

3.  Dead of Autumn (#1 Alexa Williams, Carlisle, PA) 2021 on Audio, pub prev to then, Aud (3.5)

4.  No One Knew (#2 Noelle Marshall) - Kendra Elliot 2026 Audible (3.5)

5.  Birding with Benefits - Sarah T. Dubb, 2024 Libby (3)

6.  Anatomy of an Alibi - Ashley Elston, 2026 Audible (4.5) 1/25

7.  Detour - Jeff Rake, 2026 Audible (5) 1/27

         #2, the second half of the story is nowhere in sight

February (4)

8.  Candle Island - Lauren Wolk, 2025, Audible (5)

9.  Natural Selection - a short story by Erin Hildebrand, 2024 Audible (3.75)

10.  Her Deadly Game (#1 Keera Duggan) Robert Dugoni, 2023 Audible (4)

11.  Murder on the Red River (#1 Cash Blackbear) - Marcie R. Rendon, 2017 Libby (4)

March (3)

12.  Girl Gone Missing (#2 Cash Blackbear) Marcie R. Rendon  Audible (4) 3/5  

13.  A Solitude of Wolverines (#1 Alex Carter) - Alice Henderson, Audible (3.75)  3/13

14.  The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth - Barbara O'Neal, Audible (4) (3/17)  

April (4)

15.  The Arizona Triangle - Sydney Graves, 2024 Audible (4.5) 4/8 DRAFT

16.  Wool (#1 Silo) Hugh Howey, Audible (4) 4/17 DRAFT

17.  First Sign of Danger (#4 Casey Duncan/Haven's End) - Kelley Armstrong, 2026 Libby (4.5) GR 4/27

18.  Las Vegas Girl - Leslie Wolf, (#1 Baxter & Holt), 2018 (3) Horrible Narrator 4/30  DRAFT

May (6)

19.  The Price of Honey - Liane Moriarty short story, 2026 Kindle/Aud (4) 5/2 

20.  The Roommate - Andrea Mara, short story #2 Deadly Ambition series, 2026 Aud (3.5) 5/5  DRAFT

21.  Mad Mabel - Sally Hepworth, 2025 Libby (5) 5/12 

DNF - The Everlasting - Alix E. Harrow - read almost an hour, not for me

22.  Dead of Night - Lisa Gray, 2025 Audible (4.5) 5/15

23.  You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone - A. R. Torrey- #3 Deadly Ambitions series, 2026 (3.5) DRAFT

DNF - Little One - Olivia Muenter - read 26%, exceedingly s-l-o-w

(Pretty sure I've missed one here....)

24.  Gone by Midnight (#3 Crimson Lake) - Candace Fox 2019 Chirp (5) DRAFT 5/29

June (6)

25.  A Drink Before the War (#1 Kenzi & Gennaro) - Dennis Lehane, 1994 Libby (3.75) 6/7

26.  Great Big Beautiful Life - Emily Henry, 2025 Libby (4.25) 6/9

27.  A Blizzard of Polar Bears (#2 Alex Carter) - Alice Henderson, Audible (3)

28.  The Line - Tim Weaver (#6 Deadly Ambition) (short story) 2026 Audible (3)

29.  The Drifter (#1 Peter Ash) - Nick Petrie, 2016 Libby (4.5) 6/29

30.  Winter Counts - David Heska Wibli Weiden, 2020 Libby (3.75) 6/30

July (5)

31.  Storm Tide (#16 Mike Bowditch) Paul Doiron, 2026 Audible (3.5) 7/6

32.  Our Perfect Storm - Carley Fortune, 2026 Libby (4.5) 7/11

33.  Ironwood (#2 Catalina Island) Michael Connelly, 2026 Libby (4) 7/18

34.  A Fatal Delivery - Lauren Oliver, short story, Audible (2.5) 7/19

35.  Burning Bright (#2 Peter Ash) - Nick Petrie, 2017 Audible (4.25) 7/23

August (9)

36.  Light it Up (#3 Peter Ash) - Nick Petrie, 2018 Libby (3.75) 8/5

37.  The Shippers - Katherine Center, 2026, Libby (3.5) 8/9

38.  Girl Alone (#1 Ella Dark) - Blake Pierce, (2) 8/11

39.  Judgment Prey (#15 Virgil Flowers & #33 Lucas Davenport) - John Sandford, 2023 Libby (3.5) 8/15

40.  Sinister Graves (#3 Cash Blackbear) - Marcie R. Rendon, 2022 Libby (4) 8/18

41.  The Silent Muse - Lauren Ling Brown (Short Story) #6 Deadly Ambition Collection (4.5) 8/19

42.  Amazing! - Kate Evans, 2026 Kindle (2) 8/21

43.  Keeper of Lost Children - Sadeqa Johnson, 2026 Libby (4.75) 8/24

44.  The Sunflower House - Adriana Allegri, 2024 Libby (5) 8/31

September

45.  The Women of Arlington Hall - Jane Healey, 2025 Audible (3) 9/6

DNF -  Raft of Stars - Andrew J. Graff (read 30% - (3:29, so tried, too slow)

46.  By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult, 2024 Libby (5) 9/13

47.  The Shadow Friends (#3 Martini Club) Tess Gerritsen, 2026 Aud (2) 9/18

55. The Answer is No: A Short Story by Frederik Bachman

listened on Audible, only on Audible

68 pgs. (Short story) (1:49)

2024
Adult Short Story HUMOROUS
Finished 12/31/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.91
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary anywhere (translated)

My comments: This story is a riot that tries to answer the question: what is it to be happy?  It is ridiculously silly in its satire and really cracked me up.

Audible synopsis:  In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

• Goodreads synopsis:  Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?

  
  Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
  
  Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.

54. The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani

listened on Libby

416 pgs. (12:17)

2025
Adult CRF
Finished 112/30/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.86
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Lake Como, NJ AND Italy - Tuscany

My comments: I loved listening to this, Mira Sorvino does a wonderful job and kept me listening even when I thought it was getting a little too long.  Jess tells her entire story, and in doing so keeps going back in her memories to conversations and moments in time with her family.  This technique worked really well for me, and I feel I got to know Jess - and her tight, eccentric Italian-American New Jersey shore family very well.  The second half of the story is set in Tuscany, Italy, which I didn't really like as well as the first part, though both told the story of an Italian family with strong, firm roots in Italy.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the beloved New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, a “dazzling” storyteller (Washington Post), and a “comedy writer with a heart of gold” (NYT), comes a novel about one woman’s quest to build her own life before it’s too late. 

Jess Capodimonte Baratta is not living the life of her dreams. Not even close.
 
In blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, “the perfect husband," Jess moves into her parents’ basement to hide and heal. Jess is the overlooked daughter, who dutifully takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. Despite her role as the family handmaiden, Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her confidant, her dapper uncle Louie, who believes she can do anything (once she invests in a better wardrobe).  
 
When the Capodimonte and Baratta families endure an unexpected loss, the shock unearths long-buried secrets that will force Jess to question her loyalty to those she trusted. Fueled by her lost dreams, Jess takes fate into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home, Carrara, Italy.
 
From the shadows of the majestic marble-capped mountains of Tuscany, to the glittering streets of Milan, and on the shores of enchanting Lake Como (the other one), Jess begins to carve a place in this new/old world. When she meets Angelo Strazza, a passionate artist who works in gold, she discovers her own skills are priceless. But as Jess uncovers the truth about her family history, it will change the course of her life and those she loves the most forever.  In love and work, in art and soul, Jess will need every tool she has mastered to reinvent her life.

Fed by the author’s cherished Italian roots comes a bighearted, hilarious novel of the the story of one woman’s determination to live a creative life that matters, with enough room left over for love. With a one-way ticket to Italy, Jess is determined to write a new story on her own terms--this time, in stone.

Dex Appeal - Rolodex Cards - Christmas 2025

    

Christmas 2025 Dex Appeal #1 Collaged

Christmas 2025 Dex Appeal #2 Stamped and Colored

Christmas 2025 Dex Appeal - How they were packaged and sent

Tags and Journal Cards

2.5 inch circle tags (except for two, lol)

Punched To and From Christmas tags

Christmas Tree tags

ATCs

go to Full Deck Challenge ATCs

go to Misc. ATPs I've done to play with collage.

Fierce & Fabulous ATC

Made for the heck of it, because I loved the stamp

April, 2026

26.12

     26.12.1  cag

     26.12.2  

     26.12.3

     26.12.4  

     26.12.5  

     26.12.6

     26.12.7  

Bug Troubles (Now What?) ATC

April 2026

12.11

     12.11.1  cag

     12.11.2  

     12.11.3

     12.11.4  

     12.11.5  

     12.11.6  

     12.11.7

Steampunk Spring ATC 

Set of 3 - but more to come?  I like them....

Made for a JJCV swap April 2026

26.10 Created mid-April, 2026

     26.10.1  cag

     26.10.2

     26.10.3

Clara Nurtures ATC

No. 6 in AALL Young Misses series

Created March/April 2026

26.11

     26.11.1

     26.11.2

     26.11.3

Holly Creates ATC

No. 5 in AALL Young Misses series

Created March/April 2026

26.10

     26.10.1

     26.10.2

     26.10.3 

     26.10.4

Love My Pet ATC Set of 7

26.7 Created 3/29/2026

     26.7.1  cag

     26.7.2  Mary Griffiths

     26.7.3  Sheila Ingham

     26.7.4  Rhonda Katz

     26.7.5  Christie Glebe

     26.7.6  Chaz Shields

     26.7.7  Lynn Marie Alltop

           extras - HUGS & Sayings

     26.6.8  Linda Johnson

     26.7.9  Trina Marie (K. Baffano)

     26.7.10  Staci Schachermeyer

     26.7.11  

     26.7.12  Lyndsay Prager

Go for it! ATC set of 10

26.5 created 3/1/2026  

     26.5.1  Lyndsay Prager

     26.5.2   Nancy Bolduc

     26.5.3  Jeanna Collins

     26.5.4  Lisa Frase

     26.5.5  cag

     26.5.6

     26.5.7  

     26.5.8

     26.5.9  

     26.5.0

St. Paddy Kitty ATC

26.6 created late February 2026

     26.6.1

     26.6.2  Lindsay Prager

     26.6.3  Frances Finnegan

Boho ATC Swap through JJCV

26.4 created February 2026

       26.4.1  Izzy I.

       26.4.2  Tracy W.

       26.4.3

       26.4.4  cag

3 of Diamonds

26.3 Created January 2026

     26.3.1 (Or Dog)  Nancy Bolduc

     26.3.2 (Gr Gal)  Lisa Frase

     26.3.3 (R Teddy)

     26.3.4

BEE HAPPY

(Color Your World Swap thru JJCV)

26.2 Created January 2026

     26 2.1  Jill A.

     26.2.2  Tracy W.

     26.2.3   Nancy B.

     26.2.4   Sandi B.

     26.2.5   Rhonda C.

     26.2.6  cag

     26.2.7  

     

APC Colorful Collage - Spades

26.1 Created January 2026

     26.1.1 (2SpY) Mary G

     26.1.2 (3SpO)  Sheila I

     26.1.3 (4SpBr)

     26.1.4 (5SpW)FD  cag

     26.1.5 (6SpGO)

Gretchen Blooms ATCs

25.6 Created December 2025

     25.6.1  cag

     25.6.2  Sheila I

     25.6.3 (blue) Mary G

     25.6.4

     25.6.5  Tracy W.

Renata Celebrates ATCs

25.5 Created December 2025

     25.5.1  cag

     25.5.2  (No Sugar skull or Dia De Los Muertos)

                   Stacey

     25.5.3  Tracy W.

     25.5.4  Nancy Bolduc

    

Fiona Sings ATCs

25.4 Created December 2025

     25.4.1   Holly C.

     25.4.2  Jackie H

     25.4.3  Jill A

     25.4.4  Melissa S

     25.4.5  cag

     25.4.6  Tracy W.

Beatrice Reads ATCs (MudPud page)

25.3  Created November 2025

     25.3.1  Katie

     25.3.2  Stacey

         25.3.3  Sheila I

         25.3.4  Lyndsay P

         25.3.5  Mary G

         25.3.6  cag

         25.3.7  Angela C

         25.3.8  Tracy W. (ripped & glued)

Colors of Fall ATCs 

25.2.(1-9) Created September 2025

     25.2.1  P. J. J

     25.2.2  Staci S

     25.2.3  Susan C

     25.2.4  Yvonne B

        25.2.5  Jeri Dawn McRae

        25.2.6

        25.2.7

        25.2.8  Sandi Baecker

        25.2.9  Lisa Frase

8/2025 ATCs  

25.1.(1-9) Created August 2025

     25.1.1  Mary G (8/25)

     25.1.2  Debra A (8/25)

     25.1.3   Heidi M (8/25)

     25.1.4   Alyssa T (8/25)

        25.1.5

Any doubt that I'm a junk journaler?

Christmas Bookmarks and Pockets for My Brunch Friends

Christmas Ephemera

 I've had a blast making miscellaneous ephemera this week, some to go out in swaps and some to insert into Christmas cards.

Double pockets with tags

More double pockets with tags

Christmas Hidden Paper clips with tabs

Christmas Tree Tags

"Beatrice Reads" - A New ATC Series

 I love my AALL stamps, and I've decided to make a series of ATCs using the three I already have.  I finished the first two and gave them to Stacey and Katie, and now I've sent these three out to Sheila I, Lyndsay P, and Mary G in JJCV.

                                   

49. The Ascent by Allison Buccola

listened on Audible (purchased)

352 pgs.

2025
Adult mystery
Finished 11/3/25
Goodreads rating:  3.90
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Philadelphia, with flasbacks both 10 and 20 years ago

My comments: This was a good mystery, and at one point I was definitely wondering if Lee was an untrustworthy narrator because some of her reasoning didn't seem...well...reasonable.  This story definitely proves that some people are not at all what they seem.  I was left a bit upset that there was no resolution about why she was abandoned and how, that was the biggest mystery for me.  Stories that include insider's looks at a cult always interest me.

Goodreads synopsis:  What would you do if the past showed up on your doorstep? A woman who grew up in a cult must decide if she can trust the stranger claiming to have answers to the dark mysteries of her childhood.

Twenty years ago, the members of a reclusive commune outside Philadelphia vanished without a trace. The mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. No sightings of the members were ever verified, and no bodies ever found. But the group did leave one thing a twelve-year-old girl wandering alone on the side of the road in search of her lost family.

In the years since that morning, Lee Burton has tried to put the pain of her past behind her. She has built a new identity for herself, with a doting husband and seven-month-old daughter, Lucy. No one in her life now knows about her connection to “the cult that went missing,” not even her husband. But new motherhood is proving a bigger challenge than she anticipated. She doesn't want to let Lucy out of her sight even for a moment. She can't return to work. She's not sleeping, and she's starting to have paranoid thoughts of Lucy being harmed.  

Then a stranger shows up on her doorstep, offering to finally answer all of Lee’s questions about her past—if she could only trust that the woman is who she says she is. As she digs deeper into the woman's history, the safe, stable life that Lee has constructed for herself threatens to shatter. In The Ascent, Allison Buccola has crafted a nerve-rattling thriller about motherhood, identity, and the truths we think we know about our families.

48. Lightning in a Mason Jar by Catherine Mann

read on Kindle

270 pgs.

2025
Adult CRF/HF
Finished 10/28/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 4
Setting: 1970s and contemporary Bent Oak, SC

My comments: Took forever to read, but was ultimately an excellent story.  Told in two voices: Bailey Rae's in 2025 and Winnie's years previously in the late 70s, we learn the backstory and the current story of a 25-year-old who has lost her "adoptive" mother...Winnie.  Abusive marriages, abused children, and found families versus blood families are the huge themes in the story.

Goodreads synopsis:   In South Carolina, a woman discovers her aunt’s profound secrets in an emotional novel spanning decades about trauma, survival, and the bonds of female friendship.

Since Bailey Rae Rigby’s adoptive aunt Winnie passed, Bent Oak, South Carolina, doesn’t have much of a hold on her anymore. So it seems.

Bailey Rae aims to settle the small estate and, armed with her aunt’s inspiring personal cookbook, buy a food truck with an ocean view in Myrtle Beach. Everything goes awry when a distraught young mother arrives in town clutching a copy of that same cookbook. Embedded inside is a code that promises a safe place in Bent Oak for desperate women on the run. For Bailey Rae it opens up a world of questions. Who really was the beloved aunt she’s known most of her life?

Winnie Ballard’s story reaches back fifty years—one of a Southern debutante’s harrowing marriage, of her escape and reinvention, and the galvanizing friendship of three resilient women who overcame their traumas, created a shelter, and found purpose. But there’s more to Winnie’s deliverance and long-held secrets than Bailey Rae imagines.

With each revelation, Bailey Rae draws on her aunt’s courage to find purpose herself. For now, whatever threats may come, Bailey Rae isn’t going anywhere.

47. The Bookstore Family by Alice Hoffman - a short story

listened on Audible

42 pgs.

copyright
Adult contemporary fiction
Finished 10/28
Goodreads rating: 4.22
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Paris and an island off the coast of Maine, contemporary

My comments:   Depressing short story about a young woman who has spent five years in France since leaving the small Maine island that she grew up on and loved until she returns home because her mother is dying.

Goodreads synopsis:  New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman takes her sweet bookshop series to Paris with an emotional short story about chasing your dreams—and finding your passion where you least expect it.

Growing up, Violet was so busy helping others realize their dreams, she found little time to pursue her own. But five years ago, she took the chance of a lifetime, leaving the family bookshop on Brinkley’s Island, Maine, to attend culinary school in Paris. Now she’s working her dream job as a pâtissiere in an upscale Parisian restaurant—yet all she can think about is home.

Feeling unmoored, Violet finds herself still searching for something…Connection? Maybe. She hasn’t made any real friends in the city. Inspiration? Possibly. Her desserts are lovely, but they’re definitely lacking something.

After her aunt Isabel urges her to keep on looking, Violet finally gets a taste of what she’s been missing in the café at the Museum of Romantic Life. But just as life begins to come into focus, she’s abruptly called home to Maine. Like her aunt before her, Violet soon learns that family could hold the key to discovering what she truly needs.

46. Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

listened on Libby

373 pgs.

2025
Adult rom-com.  No steam at all until very near the end.
Finished 10/20/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.12
My rating: 4.25 
Setting: Contemporary upper west side, Manhattan (with quite a bit of time spent back-and-forth on the Staten Island Ferry)

My comments: I love it when you wait and wait for an audio book to arrive from your library waiting list and the moment you start it you know you've found a winner!  This was a winner.  Even with the heaviest of heavy themes: grief - the light touches, humor, character development and great writing helped it stay more-or-less light-hearted all the way to the end.  You always knew what was coming, but the surprises about how were super-delightful.

Goodreads synopsis:  Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of... a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart.

Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.

45. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

listened on Audible

336 pgs.

2022
Adult fantasy/magical realism
Finished 10/13
Goodreads rating: 4.03
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary England

My comments: This is a sweet, very cozy fantasy about witches and family/no family/found family.  I read it as an online read with a small group of others and found lots to discuss and lots to like.

Goodreads synopsis:  As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....