3.5 stars Sandra Brown delivers another suspenseful thriller in Blood Moon, in which a troubled detective and a determined TV producer race against time to prevent another disappearance. Detective John Bowie, teetering on the edge of professional disaster, teams up with Beth Collins, a true crime producer convinced that a series of teenage girls vanishing under a blood moon isn’t a coincidence. With only four days until the next blood moon, they dig into a case riddled with corruption, danger, and an undeniable attractio The plot had promise, with an intricate mystery and a solid twist at the end. However, the book struggled to keep my attention. The pacing was sluggish […]
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Peanut Butter Chaos: A Whimsical Recipe for Laughs
Picture this: you’re starving. What better fix than a peanut butter sandwich? That’s when How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps arrives, accordion in hand, turning your snack craving into a woodland adventure. This isn’t your typical how-to guide. It’s a laugh-out-loud, over-the-top journey featuring a donkey in clogs stomping peanuts, an accordion-playing raccoon, and synchronized squirrels spreading peanut butter with a knife carved by a beaver. And, of course, there’s a skunk adding its own flair. For kids aged 4-7, including four of my grandkids, this book is perfect for giggles. The steps are hilariously absurd, and the story emphasizes teamwork and accepting differences. Each […]
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A High-Octane Battle Between Good and Evil
Dark Angel, the second entry in Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson’s Shepherds series, delivers a gripping and intense military thriller with a unique faith-based twist. Former Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson is back, now training with the Shepherds, an elite organization of warriors tasked with confronting spiritual threats. But the challenge of stepping into his role as the rookie leader of a new team is just the beginning. Jed’s visions of an imminent overseas attack force him into action, and what follows is a pulse-pounding mission that blurs the line between the seen and the unseen. Andrews and Wilson skillfully weave together elements of counterterrorism, faith, and supernatural warfare, creating a […]
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A Gripping 1960s Courtroom Drama
A Calamity of Souls transports readers to 1968 Virginia, where Black Vietnam veteran Jerome Washington is on trial for the murder of his white employers, Leslie and Anne Randolph. Jerome, caught at the scene covered in blood, is immediately arrested. Jack Lee, a white defense lawyer with no experience in murder trials, reluctantly takes on Jerome’s case. Out of his depth, Jack partners with Desiree DuBose, a Black attorney from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. Together, they fight to save Jerome from the electric chair, navigating a flawed legal system entrenched in racism. Baldacci draws from his own experiences as a former attorney and his childhood in 1960s Virginia to […]
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Hello Beautiful
Ann Napolitano, the brilliant writer behind Dear Edward (2020), has done it again with her latest novel, Hello Beautiful. While I normally steer clear of Oprah’s Book Club picks, Ann Napolitano is phenomenal, so I gave it a go. We meet William Waters as a young boy in a house silenced by tragedy. His parents can hardly look at him, so it’s a relief when he earns a scholarship to college far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, an ambitious young woman. He is soon engulfed in her boisterous close-knit Italian family, and embraced by sisters Sylvie, a romantic bibliophile, Cecelia, an aspiring artist, and Emeline, […]
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May Reads
June is upon us, so it is time to post my reviews of the books I read in May, a smattering from the historical fiction, thriller, memoir, mystery, biography, and literary fiction genres. I use Goodreads to track and rate my reading. 5 stars is reserved for rare blew-my-socks-off reads, 4 stars means I enjoyed it and would absolutely recommend. 3 stars is good, but not great. I very rarely rate lower because I do not finish books I’m not enjoying. The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life by Ann Voskamp This book is for those in need of a renewed revelation of the grace of God. […]
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