My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

One thing Thorne learned early on in fatherhood was that lying to your child was the key to domestic harmony. Carrots were what dwarves ate to give them the ability to see in dark mines, and if you ate yours before they cooled, you, too, might be able to spot gemstones in the dark. Baths were necessary because they washed away any leftover bad dreams from the night before. If you didn’t go to sleep, you wouldn’t grow big enough to ride a unicorn. Unicorns lived in Cheshire and only let little girls who ate their vegetables ride them.

Sadie had been the one to precipitate his proposal to Mrs. Merkle, although not as enthusiastically as she’d advocated for him to marry Miss Highland, the milliner (she had a nice smile and Sadie would always have new bonnets), or their neighbor Mrs. Downwith (septuagenarian she might be, but she enjoyed baking biscuits and had a lapdog Sadie found charming).

The commotion amid the congregation this morning rivaled the time Mrs. Inglewood fell so fast asleep that she’d toppled off her pew and woke screaming that the devil had finally come to get her.

My Review:

I rarely read this genre but I would more often if they were all as cleverly penned and compelling a tale as this one. Elizabeth Everett has mad skills and I am her newest acolyte. I fell into her poignant and heart squeezing arrangements of words that were brilliantly peppered with amusing lashing of wit and wry humor as well as insightful observations. Her characters were uniquely drawn while each was deeply flawed yet endearing, hard-working, and mostly well- intended. I adored them while also wanting to give them a thump or two with my Kindle.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Esther was from an age where loving your neighbor meant loving your actual neighbor, not just adding an emoji to your Twitter name in times of crisis.

Olivia was pregnant with her first and acted as if it made her incapable of lifting a dirty cup into the dishwasher.

The funeral ladies grouped organic devotees in with PETA activists, war criminals, and people who bought designer shoes. One time Iris’s dad had accidentally brought plant-based queso to a cookout at Esther’s, and they’d acted as if he’d murdered an entire village.

It was so different from Los Angeles, where everyone walked around as if they might bestow upon you the honor of doing them a favor.

Mary Frances had come into the world screaming and never stopped. The nurse kept asking, What’s her name? What’s her name? right after she was born, and Esther couldn’t even hear the question. Her daughter refused to be put down for the first two years of her life. They had her tested for everything under the sun, but she didn’t have any medical problems. Just an opinion, at such a young age.

My Review:

I adored this tale as well as all the inhabitants residing within. The characters were knowable and endearing, as well as amusing and authentically drawn. I fell right into their storylines and felt for each and every one of them as their vulnerabilities and regrets were exposed. Ms. Swinarski’s agile writing was well-honed, well-paced, and perceptively scripted. I’ll be on the lookout for more of her clever arrangements of words.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Nothing was ever out of place in Victoria Blake’s kitchen. Even the plastic storage boxes on the bottom shelf all had their matching lids, proving to Tasha’s mind that her mother had done a deal with Satan at some point because how else to explain such an unnatural thing?

My Review:

This was a fun and vastly entertaining read that was enjoyable from start to finish. The storylines were unfailingly engaging, amusing, busy, and creatively detailed with a variety of activities and a full cast of uniquely quirky characters. I jumped into the series with book three, and although I didn’t struggle to keep up, I feel deeply compelled to read the first two for my own self-indulgence. I adored it!

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

The thing no one ever wants to say about dating is this: It’s hard to be real, sure. It’s harder to let someone else be.

Exercise isn’t really a part of my adult life, what with all the sweating, and the fact that I now have a hair-care regimen.

She’s not coming. Some mix-up with my personality. She decided she didn’t like it.

I once read that there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on Earth. It seemed impossible. It always seems impossible to believe the things we cannot see.

My life has been filled with magical moments, I was just so busy waiting I didn’t see them when they were here.

My Review:

This was a delight to read and wickedly perceptive and observant. I smirked most of the way through perusal although there were several profound inner musings that I had to stop and reread a few times.

I adored every clever word as much as I did the quirky characters, each was authentically detailed yet I ached for just a little more of each chapter. The writing was well-honed, cleverly original, delightfully witty, keenly insightful, amusingly entertaining, and sparked sharp visuals across my gray matter.

Rebecca Serle has strong word voodoo and now rests at the top of my favorites list.

Under a thick canopy of pine trees, Cassidy Wilder frantically searches for a hiding place. Her breath catches in her mouth as she hears heavy footsteps. She says a silent prayer, but she knows he’s closing in on her. She knows it’s too late…

When a robbery at a local store ends with multiple deaths and the abduction of sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Cassidy Wilder, FBI agent Beth Katz and her partner Dax Styles are called in. Visiting Cassidy’s family home just a couple of blocks away from the quiet little store where she went missing, Beth’s heart breaks as she talks to her grieving parents and promises to find their daughter.

Looking at CCTV footage, Beth is horrified to see how calm the killer is as he shoots everyone in the store before forcing the terrified Cassidy to follow him into his truck. Then Beth uncovers multiple robberies just like this one, where all witnesses are killed and a young girl is taken. All of the victims are taken at night and found dead the following morning, so Beth knows time is running out to save Cassidy.

When Cassidy’s lifeless body is discovered dumped on a busy highway near a patch of forest, Beth is devastated. And as more girls go missing, she fears the murderer is escalating. A breakthrough finally comes when she finds a name written in blood next to one of the bodies. Beth knows she’s close to catching the killer and is determined to stop any more lives from being taken—even if it means serving her own form of justice. Will she be able to resist the urge to take a life herself? Or will she become the killer’s next victim?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

She often compared herself to science-fiction characters who by no fault of their own had been the issue of two opposite species. In her case, both sides of her had different ideas of how to deal with monsters and each had a convincing argument for being themselves. Yes, she often referred to herself as two people because in reality that’s what she’d become.

Covering up crimes of the rich and powerful wasn’t new, but it made those responsible as guilty as the perpetrator. Beth might well be a serial killer, but she’d never been corrupt. She followed a set of rules and stuck to them.

My Review:

Silly me for jumping into this series with the third installment yet I didn’t struggle to keep up. However, I am eaten up with a fatal case of curiosity about the prior books and itching to read them as well. The crimes were disturbing and twisted, as were the individuals who were committing them. The storylines were complicated, well-nuanced, and multi-layered while each character was complex and cunningly crafted, even the secondary ones. D.K. Hood has mad skills although I worry for her neighbors if they give her grief.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Kirsten’s smile in response to our confirmed dinner plans is blinding. All that fake ceramic in her mouth should come with a potentially-damaging-to-the-eye warning.

On a scale of one to ten, my femininity is at a solid six, seven when I make an effort. Kirsten is an eleven. Kirsten and her bridal party combined are six figures.

…she studies me. Like a cheetah would study a gazelle she can’t wait to eat alive.

“I promise to love you, your four cats, six hens, and thousand rescue books for as long as my heart shall beat… I promise to love you even when you finish all the hot water in the shower and sing Taylor Swift at the top of your lungs for half an hour non-stop.” “I promise to love you even when you kick me under the covers at night and hog all the blankets.” “I promise to always be there when you need me and be strong when you’re vulnerable. I promise to never lie to you, to always tell you the truth, even when it hurts.” “I promise to keep on loving you every day, until my last breath, even when you get gray hair or when you lose your teeth, because you are the love of my life… and I will never stop loving you.”

My Review:

I reveled in this divinely amusing tale, it sparkled with clever humor and endearing characters. I adore Camilla Isley and I declare this book is her best missive yet. The gal has seriously strong word voodoo and never fails to pull me into a delightful vortex of quirky and authentic characters with real-world problems that are so much more fun than my own.

Good advice doesn’t age, and as life starts to look brighter, Beth begins to wonder if she could track down Evelyn and thank her for her help. But as Beth uncovers more about Evelyn’s story, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. And now Beth is determined to bring peace to Evelyn as she has to her.

A spell-binding, heart-warming story of friendship, love and being brave enough to be yourself.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Rob’s betrayal had taken more from me than just him, and I didn’t think I’d ever forgive him for that.

I recognised the pattern from my parents’ house, where the tea set was always locked away in a cabinet ‘for best’, as if they were waiting for the Queen to come for tea.

When it came down to it, things didn’t change as much over the decades as we might think. Love– with friends, family or lovers– had always been the glue that held everything together. It was merely the details that changed.

My Review:

My first Clare Swatman experience and I picked an excellent one to start on my path to enlightenment. Her writing style was emotive and thoughtful yet easy to follow with a unique premise and well-nuanced storylines and narratives that pulled me in and held me close.

Beth was forced to start over while navigating a painful divorce, realistic single-parenting problems, and unexpected life lessons. She gradually worked her way towards healing by anonymously helping others as an agony aunt on her newly developed website after finding inspiration from a stash of old letters written and answered some thirty years prior.

I felt every bump of Beth’s journey and reveled in her successes and was well pleased and satisfied by the story’s end. I will most definitely be perusing Ms. Swatman’s listings for similar gems.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Sometimes, I could feel you toying with the latch to your heart, but never once did you dare to open it.

Do you plan to dishonour us with your presence for much longer, John?

John, please, spare me your clichés! I’m thirty- three years old and I’ve been single for thirty- four of them.

Emma exuded a proud, confident elegance. She had always been like this: imbued with a flawless balance between strength and fragility, conviction and doubt, the woman she became and the girl she would forever be.

My Review:

I was captivated by this cleverly woven tale. The storytelling was brilliant, easy to follow, emotive, and cunningly paced with storylines populated by unique yet knowable and authentic inhabitants. Despite the loathsomeness of the main character I had a hard time putting my Kindle down as I was curious as to where his path was going to take him.

John Fisher was as an absolute ogre of an individual, so any change in his behavior could only be an improvement. I enjoyed his journey and the powerful epiphanies that rocked his world during his forced leave of absence. I was delighted by the conclusion and found the reading experience fully satisfying. Richard Plourde is crafty scribbler with undeniably strong word voodoo.

My Rating:

My Review: 

I rarely read paranormal stories but I was intrigued by the blurb and fell right into this tale shortly after starting page one. The characters and storylines were complicated, multi-layered, and difficult to get a bead on, causing the little pea in my brain to rattle non-stop. I was a willing victim to Ms. Merriman’s addictive storytelling and tumbled into an oddly disconcerting vortex that sucked me deeper and deeper into a misty plain of lost and/or helpful spirits.

The writing was so absorbing and easy to follow, that I felt I was as if I were fully present alongside the restless Rylan as she interacted with the living and departed. Despite diving into the series with the third installment, I felt no confusion or difficulties, but rather an intense yen to gather the two previous books for my reading enjoyment as well as to slate my curiosity about her previous adventures that led to her current state of affairs.