(⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½) Nobody’s Fool was my fourth Harlan Coben book—and hands down, my favorite. It kicks off with a jaw-dropper: twenty-something Sami Kierce wakes up in a Spanish hostel, covered in blood, with his girlfriend Anna dead beside him and no clue what happened. So he panics and runs. Fast forward 22 years—he’s now a struggling PI, new dad, and night school teacher in NYC. And one evening, in walks Anna. Alive. Or is she? That’s the moment this twisty thrill ride really takes off. Coben juggles multiple timelines and threads—a decades-old kidnapping, a released killer, and a deeply personal mystery—with sharp dialogue and a healthy dose of dark humor. Sami’s […]
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Not Exactly a Joyride
⭐⭐⭐✰✰ (3.5 stars) When I picked up Fun for the Whole Family, I expected a breezy, heartwarming story about quirky siblings reuniting for some chaotic-but-lovable family drama. I blame the cover—it practically screams “rom-com road trip.” What I got instead was a slow-burning, emotionally tangled reunion where nearly everyone is famous, everyone is frustrated, and North Dakota is the punchline a few too many times (especially annoying if, like me, you have family ties there). The Endicotts are a wildly improbable bunch: a novelist, a pro soccer player, and a movie star, all from the same family. Jude, the actress, calls her siblings together in a remote North Dakota town […]
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Mitch Rapp Unleashed: Capture or Kill Is the Adrenaline Shot the Series Needed
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you’ve been missing the raw, unfiltered version of Mitch Rapp—the one who kicks down doors and finishes the job by any means necessary—Don Bentley’s Capture or Kill delivers in full. This is Bentley’s second Mitch Rapp novel, and he steps into Vince Flynn’s combat boots with confidence. The result is a high-stakes prequel that’s both a throwback and a thrill ride. Set in 2011, just before the raid on bin Laden’s compound, the story drops Rapp into a deadly web of Iranian plots, CIA infighting, and an off-the-books mission with world-shifting consequences. Rapp is younger, less restrained, and running hot. And Bentley captures that heat brilliantly. Longtime fans will appreciate […]
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Agent 355 by Marie Benedict – A Revolutionary Story That Ends Too Soon
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ I’ve always appreciated Marie Benedict’s mission to spotlight the untold stories of women throughout history. Some of her books are hits, others are misses—Agent 355 lands somewhere in the middle. It’s a quick novella that I whipped through in no time, but it left me feeling unsatisfied. The premise is compelling: a mysterious female spy working within the Culper Ring during the American Revolution. There are moments of intrigue, particularly in the espionage scenes and political maneuverings, but they’re buried under repetitive inner monologues and uneven pacing. Readers hoping for a vivid, pulse-pounding spy thriller may find this more subdued and speculative than satisfying. The story feels underdeveloped, and the […]
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Twists, Truths, and Tupelo Grove: Where Secrets Lie is a Must-Read Mystery
If you’re looking for your next binge-worthy suspense read, put Where Secrets Lie by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker at the top of your list. I just finished it—five stars, no hesitation. I couldn’t put it down. The story follows Savannah Webster, a professor at Tupelo Grove University who’s trying to move forward after a painful divorce. But when her ex-husband Hez shows signs of slipping back into trouble, and a dangerous smuggling ring threatens the university her family founded, she finds herself caught in a high-stakes tangle of secrets, lies, and buried history. What really stood out to me? The intricacies of the plot. Coble and Acker clearly did their research—this […]
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The Rebel Romanov Tells a Tragic Tale—But Reads Like a Textbook
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars) When I first picked up The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had, I assumed it was a historical novel. A few pages in, my eyes started to glaze over—and that’s when I realized it was actually a biography. Still, I was curious about Julie’s life, so I pressed on. Helen Rappaport, known for her royal deep dives, tells the little-known story of Princess Julie, aunt of Queen Victoria and one-time bride-to-be of Grand Duke Constantine. Handpicked by Catherine the Great, Julie entered a dangerous court full of rivalries, gossip, and a husband who alternated between cruel and charming. Her courage to walk away from […]
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A Stirring Tribute to Librarians Who Fought with Books
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars) Janet Skeslien Charles truly levels up with Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, a novel that surpasses her debut The Paris Library in both heart and storytelling power. Inspired by the real Jessie Carson—an American librarian who helped restore wartime France through the written word—this book highlights a forgotten chapter of literary history. Charles’s fictionalized Jessie is brave, grieving, and driven. Her journey through WWI-ravaged towns, delivering books to soldiers and rebuilding libraries, is both emotionally resonant and vividly detailed. The novel explores how stories create connection, community, and healing—especially when everything else has been shattered. The dual timeline follows a modern-day librarian, Wendy Peterson, in 1987 New York, who stumbles across […]
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The Artful Origins of a Notorious Rogue: Fagin Gets His Say
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars) What happens when a classic villain gets a second shot at telling his side of the story? In Fagin the Thief, Allison Epstein breathes fresh life into the teeming streets of Dickensian London and reclaims one of literature’s most misunderstood characters. This is not the Fagin of Oliver Twist fame—at least, not entirely. Epstein’s version is still a thief, a liar, and a rogue, but he’s also a survivor, shaped by loss, poverty, and prejudice. The story takes us back to Fagin’s childhood in a Jewish enclave, where he lives with his mother and eventually falls under the spell of a charismatic pickpocket. From there, we’re swept into the dark […]
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Too Cold, Too Cruel: Why This Hunger Games Prequel Isn’t for Teens
Review (⭐️⭐️ 2 stars): The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes attempts to deepen the lore of Panem by diving into the early life of Coriolanus Snow, but instead of delivering a gripping origin story, it offers a slow, unsettling narrative that’s both emotionally hollow and shockingly inappropriate for the YA shelf. The pacing is glacial for the first half, bogged down in bureaucratic politics and Snow’s narcissistic inner monologue. The violence, while expected in this world, is crueler and more disturbing than ever—without the moral clarity that grounded the original trilogy. There’s a particularly toxic romance that feels forced and predatory, and the ending offers little resolution, just a bleak […]
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Pippa Latour’s Astonishing WWII Memoir
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ rounded up to 5 What a story! I’ve read my share of WWII spy novels—some gripping, some not—but The Last Secret Agent is something else entirely. It’s not a novel. It’s the real-life account of Pippa Latour, the last surviving British female spy from Churchill’s Special Operations Executive, finally telling her story after decades of silence. Pippa parachuted into Nazi-occupied France at 23, posed as a teenage soap seller, and risked her life to send 135 coded messages to London. No gadgets. No backup. Just grit, silk hair ribbons, and nerves of steel. She worked alone, passed through Gestapo checkpoints, and survived—one of the few who did. What makes […]
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