⭐⭐⭐ After loving Black Cake, I went into Good Dirt with high hopes, which may be why this one felt like such a letdown. Charmaine Wilkerson aims for another sweeping family story, but this time the pieces never fully click. The novel follows Ebby Freeman, whose childhood trauma and family history are tied to the loss of a stoneware jar passed down through generations. On paper, that heirloom should carry deep meaning, yet I kept wondering why anyone would want it in the first place and why it held such enormous value. Instead of anchoring the story, the jar often left me scratching my head. Wilkerson raises intriguing questions about legacy, race, and […]
Read more...Tag Archives: contemporary fiction
When Your Ex Is Your Handler, Nothing Goes According to Plan
⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 stars) The Handler is a sharp, high-octane spy thriller with a killer hook: a disgraced former CIA operative forced back into the field—with his ex-wife as his handler. That alone is enough to grab your attention, but Woodward delivers far more than a clever premise. Meredith Morris-Dale is a talented CIA case officer whose career hangs by a thread after a mission goes sideways. Instead of being shown the door, she’s handed an impossible assignment. A long-embedded CIA mole inside Iran’s uranium enrichment program wants out, and the only person he’ll trust is Meredith’s ex-husband, John Dale. Fired, sidelined, and bitter, John is the last person she wants to […]
Read more...
A Sequel That Leaves New Readers Behind
This novel makes one thing clear pretty quickly: it was written with prior knowledge in mind. Having never read The Woman in Cabin 10, I often felt unmoored, as if I’d walked into the second half of a conversation and was expected to keep up. Key relationships and emotional stakes are taken for granted instead of built on the page, which makes it hard to fully invest. The setup should work. Travel journalist Lo Blacklock, sidelined by motherhood and a changing media landscape, jumps at the chance to attend the opening of a luxurious Swiss hotel on Lake Geneva. The owner is a reclusive billionaire, the setting is glamorous, and a […]
Read more...
The Neighbors Look Nice. They’re Not.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Other People’s Houses turned out to be a great way to stumble into a series. This was my first time reading a DC Morgan novel, and I’m officially in—now I want to read the rest. Set in a glossy UK suburb where everyone appears successful, the story peels back the carefully curated lives of neighbors who are desperate to keep up appearances. When a wealthy couple is murdered in their pristine home, the investigation exposes tangled relationships, financial secrets, and resentments that have been quietly festering for years. Mackintosh does a nice job juggling multiple perspectives, keeping you guessing about who’s lying, who’s hiding something, and who’s capable of […]
Read more...
A Horrific Thriller That Goes Way Too Far
⭐⭐⭐ Pretty Girls is a book I finished out of stubbornness, not enjoyment. I like a solid thriller. I can handle dark subject matter. But this one pushed straight past dark into twisted, gory, gruesome, and deeply disturbing territory. The violence is graphic to an almost numbing degree, with explicit depictions of torture, sexual assault, and murder that felt excessive rather than necessary. Instead of heightening suspense, it often pulled me out of the story. That said, Slaughter can write. The novel is complex, the characters are well developed, and the emotional fallout within the family feels authentic. There’s a strong foundation here, even if it’s buried under layers of brutality. […]
Read more...
Sisterhood, Sacrifice, and the High Cost of Chasing a Dream
⭐⭐⭐ Spectacular Things follows sisters Mia and Cricket Lowe, well known in their small Maine town as the daughters of a gifted single mother and as rising soccer royalty. From an early age, their paths feel set: Mia becomes the responsible, academically driven caretaker, while Cricket pours her talent and energy into the single-minded pursuit of soccer stardom. The novel traces the many sacrifices required to keep that dream alive—unfulfilled ambitions, family tragedy, and the quiet pressure placed on the sibling who is expected to hold everything together. Dorey-Stein is at her best when exploring grief, loyalty, and how love can slide into obligation without anyone quite noticing. I’m a soccer […]
Read more...
Ancient Weapon, Modern Panic: Harvath Back on the Chessboard
⭐⭐⭐⭐ In Blowback (Scot Harvath #4), Brad Thor pulls his sidelined hero back into action after Harvath’s counterterrorism career goes down in flames—torched by political maneuvering and a senator with presidential ambitions. When a terrifying new threat emerges, the president quietly brings Harvath back inside, because when things get ugly, he’s still the guy you call. The central premise is classic Thor excess in the best and worst ways. An ancient weapon, discovered deep beneath an Alpine glacier, was once designed to wipe out the Roman Empire. Now a shadowy organization plans to use it to cripple the modern world. Harvath races across Europe to stop it, and the pace rarely lets […]
Read more...
The Thursday Murder Club Does It Again—With Extra Heart and Extra Twists
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ If you’re already a fan of The Impossible Fortune, you can relax—you’re in very good hands. And if you’re new to Richard Osman, this is a lovely place to start. Life is humming along—wedding plans, personal worries, the usual business of growing older—when trouble shows up, as it always does, right on cue. A guest disappears, an uneasy romantic partner raises more questions than answers, and whispers begin to circulate about something extremely valuable that people might be willing to kill for. Before long, Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim find themselves knee-deep in cryptic clues, hidden motives, and a con that keeps shifting shape. Osman once again proves he’s a master […]
Read more...
Gripping and Gloomy, With a Few Rough Edges
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is an intense, often gripping novel—but not one I’d personally put in starred-review territory. The story follows Dominic Salt and his three children, the last caretakers of Shearwater, a remote island near Antarctica that safeguards the world’s largest seed bank. Cut off from the rest of the world and battered by violent storms and rising seas, their fragile existence is upended when a mysterious woman named Rowan washes ashore. Her arrival brings hope, suspicion, and a cascade of unsettling revelations—sabotaged radios, buried grief, long-kept secrets, and a grave that raises more questions than answers. I’ll be honest: the climate change theme turned me off, and it’s […]
Read more...
A Big-Hearted Story About Faith, Belonging, and Everyday Miracles
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I went into Life, and Death, and Giants not quite sure what to expect, and came out completely smitten. This is one of those books that doesn’t shout for attention. It just sits down beside you, tells its story, and somehow makes itself at home in your heart. Gabriel Fisher is born different—startlingly so—and the small town of Lakota, Wisconsin, has no idea what to make of him. After a devastating loss, he’s taken in by his devout Amish grandparents, who believe the safest path is a hidden one. But some things can’t stay tucked away forever, especially in a place where everyone knows everyone else. Ron Rindo writes about grief, […]
Read more...