4.5 stars Talk about dysfunctional families! Everyone in Karin Slaughter’s This Is Why We Lied has secrets, but only one of them is a killer. From the first scream at McAlpine Lodge, the tension never lets up. This locked-room mystery—the 12th book in the Will Trent series—had me hooked from the start. Will Trent and Sara Linton just wanted a quiet honeymoon. Instead, they stumble upon a murder and a web of lies so tangled it’s hard to know who to trust. Mercy McAlpine, the lodge manager, dies whispering her last words to Will, and every family member and guest quickly becomes a suspect. Mercy’s abusive ex, her ice-cold parents, […]
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When the Music Turns into Mayhem: The Dark Maestro Hits a Sour Note
⭐⭐⭐ (3 stars) I was really looking forward to The Dark Maestro. Brendan Slocumb’s first two books were fresh and original, blending music and mystery in a way that worked beautifully. But this one? It veers way off-key. The plot centers on Curtis Wilson, a classical music prodigy whose career gets derailed when his dad—who happens to be a drug dealer—ticks off a ruthless cartel. The family goes into witness protection, but when law enforcement fails to deliver, Curtis and crew decide to take down the cartel themselves. Sure, why not? The premise was already shaky, but then came the comic book storyline. It was supposed to be metaphorical or […]
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Edge-of-Your-Seat Espionage: The Beijing Betrayal Ends the Ryker Series with a Bang
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you love political thrillers that move fast and hit hard, Joel C. Rosenberg’s The Beijing Betrayal should be at the top of your list. This is the final installment in the Marcus Ryker series, and Rosenberg doesn’t just stick the landing—he lights the runway on fire. Ryker’s latest mission sends him to Pakistan to hunt down the world’s most dangerous terrorist. What he finds instead is a nightmare scenario: a cutting-edge lab, a deadly virus, and a sinister plan that could wipe out millions. Meanwhile, Washington is distracted by tense trade talks with Beijing—unaware that China is quietly prepping for a full-scale invasion of Taiwan. What follows is […]
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Juicy Drama, Questionable Morals, and a Fast-Paced Plot
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.5 stars, rounded up) The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth is the kind of book that pulls you in quickly and keeps the pages turning. I read (and listened to) it while under the weather, and it made the time fly—which says a lot. Hepworth’s writing style is smooth and engaging, with just enough snark to make the characters’ dysfunction bearable. The setup is pure domestic drama: an older man divorces his wife—who has dementia—to marry a much younger woman. That plot point alone left me horrified. The whole “in sickness and in health” part of the vows? Completely ignored. And what’s worse, no one in the story really […]
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Wanted to Love It — Settled for Liking It
⭐️⭐️⭐️ I recently read Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera, and I’m a little bummed. This was one of those books where the premise reeled me in right away: a Dominican-American mother and daughter facing off over the gentrification of their neighborhood. Yes, please. But while it had all the ingredients for a knockout debut, it didn’t quite land for me. The story follows Eusebia, a neighborhood matriarch secretly sabotaging luxury condo development, and her daughter Luz, who falls for one of the developers. It’s a setup that promises rich drama and layered themes—but the execution never quite came together. I struggled with the disconnect between the two narrators and found […]
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Lost Books, Found Ambition: A Look at The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
⭐️⭐️ I’ll admit it—if a book involves a library, I’m probably going to read it. So Eva Jurczyk’s The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections had me from the title alone. It’s set in a dusty, prestigious university library where a rare manuscript disappears, and a quiet, second-in-command librarian named Liesl suddenly finds herself in charge. The mystery is a good one. The missing books aren’t just generic plot devices—they’re authentic historical works, and Jurczyk (a librarian at the University of Toronto herself) clearly knows the world she’s writing about. That behind-the-scenes look at special collections was easily my favorite part. Where it fell short for me was tone and cohesion. […]
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Gorgeous Setting, Questionable Choices
⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve ever dreamed of escaping to the Amalfi Coast—eating lemon pasta, sipping crisp white wine, and staring out at the sparkling sea—One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle has your name on it. The book’s setting in Positano is downright dreamy. I loved the sensory details. The food, the wine, the charming seaside streets—I felt like I was there. On that level, the book is a five-star getaway. Unfortunately, the plot and characters didn’t live up to the scenery. The premise—grieving daughter somehow meets her mother as a young woman—requires a huge suspension of disbelief. I’m fine with a little magical realism, but this one felt too far-fetched, even […]
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A Gritty Legal Thriller That Hits Close to Home
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ As a Minnesota native, I always get a little thrill when a novel captures the setting with real authenticity—and Allen Eskens *nails* it in *The Stolen Hours*. From downtown Minneapolis to the courthouse corridors, his descriptions feel lived-in and true. I’ve been to many of the places he references, and it made the story all the more vivid. This is a fast-paced legal thriller that follows Lila Nash, a young assistant county attorney still haunted by a brutal assault in her past. When a woman is pulled from the Mississippi River barely alive, Lila starts connecting dots that others have missed—and realizes a predator has been hiding in plain […]
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Coben’s Twisty Thriller Keeps You Guessing
(⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️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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