⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bombed out of her home, hunted, and lonely, Anna Pastorino has every reason to remain invisible. Instead, the half-Jewish widow accepts refuge above a Genoa printing shop and joins the clandestine DELASEM network, using her bookkeeping skills to forge identity papers for Jews fleeing Fascist Italy. The historical rescue operation gives Daughter of Genoa its compelling foundation, while Anna’s relationships provide its emotional heart. Her growing love for daring aviator Massimo Teglio is tender and dangerous, complicated by Father Vittorio’s feelings for her and his worsening tuberculosis. Devereaux handles these divided loyalties with compassion, showing how fear, faith, grief, and desire become tangled during wartime. The romantic triangle occasionally […]
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Relentless, Razor-Sharp, and Built for Action Fans
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you like your thrillers fast, gritty, and just a little bit dangerous, The Terminal List by Jack Carr delivers the goods. Navy SEAL James Reece returns home after a disastrous mission that wipes out his entire team. Soon after, tragedy strikes again—this time much closer to home. When the official explanations don’t add up, Reece starts digging, and what he uncovers sets him on a path that’s equal parts investigation and vengeance. What follows is a tightly wound, high-stakes hunt that doesn’t let up. Carr’s background as a former SEAL shows in every detail. The action feels real, the tactics are sharp, and the pacing hits that sweet […]
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A Quiet Little Masterpiece About Kindness
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Theo of Golden completely stole my heart. In a world full of noisy, high-concept fiction, this novel feels like sitting on a porch at sunset with someone wise enough to change your life in a single conversation. The story begins when Theo, a mysterious elderly man from New York, arrives in the small Southern town of Golden and discovers a wall of pencil portraits hanging inside a local coffee shop. One by one, he purchases the portraits and quietly returns them to the people depicted in them. What sounds simple becomes deeply moving as each encounter reveals hidden grief, loneliness, hope, regret, and redemption. Allen Levi writes with extraordinary […]
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A Hidden History That Refuses to Stay Buried
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez blends past and present into a richly layered story about family, identity, and a nearly forgotten piece of American history. This is a dual-timeline novel, and it works beautifully. In the present day, Nikki Lovejoy-Berry—a Washington, D.C. real estate agent—is summoned to western North Carolina by her estranged grandmother, Mother Rita. What Nikki expects are answers about their fractured family. What she gets instead is a fight. Mother Rita is being pushed off land that has been in their family for generations—land that once formed the Kingdom of the Happy Land, a self-sufficient community built by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. In the historical narrative, […]
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The Gourmet Bookworm’s 5-Star Reads of 2025
I read a record-breaking 206 books in 2025. Two hundred and six. Even I had to sit down when I counted them up. Relatively few books earn top marks from me. I’m selective; in fact, my average rating is 3.77. If a book made this list, it did more than entertain—it lingered, stirred something, or flat-out impressed me. This year delivered—historical fiction, thrillers, literary standouts, faith-centered reads, and stories that stayed with me. I even ventured into a couple of memoirs, which isn’t typical for me. Growth! Below are my five-star reads of 2025, listed alphabetically. Across the Ages — Gabrielle Meyer Genre: Historical Fiction | Time-Slip | Christian Romance […]
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Penguins, Personal Growth… and a Plot You’ve Seen Before: A Review of How the Penguins Saved Veronica
How the Penguins Saved Veronica is one of those light, feel-good reads that’s easy to pick up—but a little harder to fully love. The story alternates between Veronica, a wealthy, prickly loner, and Patrick, a directionless young man. For much of the book, neither is especially likable. Veronica is sharp-tongued and judgmental; Patrick is immature and self-absorbed. It takes a while—honestly, about two-thirds of the way through—before either begins to win you over. The premise is undeniably charming, even if it stretches believability. Antarctica makes for a fresh, icy backdrop, and the penguin scenes are the highlight—sweet, informative, and often the emotional glue holding the story together. You’ll even come […]
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An Interesting Premise Buried Under Heavy-Handed Storytelling
⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende sets out to tell a sweeping, emotional story about displaced children across generations—but for me, it never quite found its footing. The novel moves between 1938 Vienna and modern-day America, following Samuel Adler, a young Jewish boy escaping the Nazis via the Kindertransport, and Anita Díaz, a child separated from her mother at the U.S. border. On paper, it’s a powerful parallel. In execution, it feels overworked. There are simply too many storylines competing for attention, and it’s no surprise when they eventually converge in a way that feels more predictable than profound. Allende leans heavily into her trademark mysticism, but […]
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Small-Town Secrets, Big-Time Twists—Slaughter Dials It Back (Just Enough)
In We Are All Guilty Here, Karin Slaughter kicks off her new North Falls series with a story that’s intense, twisty, and—dare I say—slightly less disturbing than some of her recent work. Either she’s easing up… or I’m getting used to it. (Also, I still can’t get over that’s her real name.) Set in a seemingly tight-knit Georgia town, the novel opens with the disappearance of two teenage girls during a Fourth of July celebration—an event that fractures the illusion that everyone knows everyone. Officer Emmy Clifton takes the case personally, and what unfolds is a layered mystery spanning years, riddled with secrets, guilt, and long-simmering resentments. What worked for […]
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A Fearless Life Lived on the Front Lines
⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 stars) Erika Robuck brings to life the extraordinary true story of Dickey Chapelle in The Last Assignment, and what a life it was. Chapelle’s daring career as a war correspondent—charging straight into combat zones when most would run the other way—makes for a fascinating and often humbling read. It’s the kind of story that leaves you looking at your own life and thinking… well, maybe I’ll just stay safely on my couch with a good book. Robuck does a wonderful job capturing both the grit and the inner drive of a woman who refused to live small. There’s a strong sense of purpose woven throughout the narrative, a reminder […]
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Back to Where the War Began
⭐⭐⭐⭐ After loving the finale of the Danny Ryan trilogy, I circled back to the beginning with City on Fire—and it was fascinating to see how it all started. Set in Providence, Rhode Island in the late 1980s, the novel opens with a fragile peace between the Irish and Italian crime families that control the city. That peace shatters when a reckless romantic entanglement ignites a full-blown mob war. Danny Ryan, a dockworker who has tried to stay on the edges of the criminal world, finds himself pulled into the conflict through family loyalty and circumstance. As violence escalates and alliances shift, Danny begins a transformation that will shape the […]
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