October Round-Up

The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams. I’d heard of this series but the cover seemed pretty bland to me so I never picked it up. However, I needed a new ebook to read and this was available, so I gave it a try. I’m so glad I did! I love the depth and diversity of the characters and how their friendship began to form. I liked the mystery as well, and though I don’t typically like books that end on a blatant cliffhanger, I’ll allow it this time because I’m definitely going to keep reading it.

The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent. This was a Kindle Unlimited read that kept me turning pages and had an interesting premise, but overall, it felt too… happy and light for a thriller. Everything was going well until the “twist” - I guess it’s possible for a woman to have such a traumatic birth that she forgets about it, and forgets her baby was kidnapped? I was rolling my eyes reading it but if it happened to someone, I won’t invalidate them. It was just too convenient in this book though, and completely glossed over. You’d think that would open up even more trauma, but Nicollette totally rallied and it was only an issue for like… three pages? Also the two isolated teens that she took in totally adjusted and there was no struggle with integrating them into her house, etc. I just didn’t buy it once those storylines converged. I think there was potential to make it interesting and thrilling but this didn’t deliver.

The Whispered Word by Ellery Adams. I’m loving this series! Each mystery is so interesting and has great twists that I don’t think of but don’t seem hokey or manufactured.

Things We Never Say by Caitlin Weaver. This book was interesting and well-written. Each POV felt different to me, and I feel like I got to know the characters. The ending seemed pretty rushed though.

Graphic Rage by Aubrey Hirsch. I was so excited to read this book! It’s like doomscrolling but fact-based, and it’s a book instead of a screen! So while it did make me angry because of the subject matter of feminism and politics, I love the illustrations and how everything has a source.

Such a Good Family by Caitlin Weaver. After reading the author’s other book, I was expecting an interesting story and good writing. But a lot of these sentences seemed grammatically incorrect (in the ebook anyway, hopefully it was a transcription/formatting issue??) and the story was pretty bland. It was too similar to her other book so I kept getting the characters mixed up. As with the other book, the ending here was really rushed and glossed over.

Sandwich by Catherine Newman. This book made me laugh out loud in some places, so I appreciate that. But it felt like it meandered on way too long. I was sick of Rocky about ¾ of the way through. Everything was also a bit too cutesy, quippy, and easily resolved. Then the ending dropped one bomb that was just totally glossed over in a way I feel Rocky wouldn’t, so I finished the book feeling really unsettled and unsatisfied.

Also was NOT a fan of all the flashbacks because of how it seemed crucial to know when they came in Rocky’s life, but never quite added up for me since most happened during their week at the beach (with a few fall situations to flesh it out, I suppose). Some summers Jamie is 4 and Rocky is pregnant. But another summer Jamie is four and Willa is a baby. And then there’s a fall when Jamie is five and Willa is not yet two. I guess technically Willa being not quite two could mean she was also not yet a year? But later there’s yet another summer when Jamie was four and Willa was not quite one. I kept highlighting them, determined to put together the timeline, but it’s so convoluted. The thing is, just hinting at the time period would have been enough because Rocky later tells Willa when these things happened - and that’s crystal clear. But having random sections start with the specific timing totally pulled me out of the book and made me try to calculate it myself.

Here are some of the wordings:

• When Jamie was three and I was very pregnant with Willa

• “...Jamie when he was four. I was pregnant…”

• “...a memory of Jamie at four, Willa a baby in the sling…”

• The summer Jamie was four and Willa was not yet one

• The summer Jamie was five and Willa was not yet two

• The summer Jamie was six and Willa was not yet three

As I said, I guess some of them could be possible, depending on the birthdates, but it was just so specific that I felt like I NEEDED to pay attention to it, so I did, and it didn’t really add up, pulled me out of the story, and just seemed like too much. Call me nitpicky but it is what it is.

The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams. Absolutely love the new characters introduced here, but the mystery felt a bit disjointed. Still felt cozy, though, and made me eager to read the next to ensure some of the new additions stuck around.

Ink and Shadows by Ellery Adams. This has been my least favorite installment in the series. The mystery wasn’t compelling to me and I felt like the women speaking out against “witchcraft” and banned books went silent way too easily compared to how things would have escalated in real life.

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams. I liked this a bit more than the last installment in the series but it still wasn’t my favorite. I do love McCabe and Bobbie being more active characters though.

Paper Cuts by Ellery Adams. I was glad to see some of Nora’s past coming after her in this book. After sharing the secret, then Bobbie coming into play, I thought something more would have to happen. This was a really good one, it felt a bit more dramatic and realistic than cozy, in a good way though. A series staying on the same level would get boring, so I appreciate how this mixed things up.

The Little Lost Library by Ellery Adams. This mystery was fun and made me wish I could see the little books Nora found! I also really liked the “A Rose for Emily” vibes with a twist.

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally. For being a suspense novel with a ticking bomb, this book was really slow to me. I didn’t care about either of the characters and thought the final twist, while not completely expected, didn’t really have much of an impact on the overall story for me.

The Body in the Bookstore by Ellie Alexander. I loved this one! The cute town pulled me in and the mystery festival had me hooked. I love the idea of solving her best friend’s death as a thread tying the books in the series together - definitely makes me want to read more.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney. I read this whole series as a kid and was obsessed. Re-reading it was… not the same experience. I think part of it was that the ebook was formatted strangely, but the story jumped around a lot and focused way too much on random ideas (Denim and Lace anyone?) while glossing over really major emotional moments. I can see how it would be compelling for a younger reader (since it worked for me!) but the writing isn’t up to par compared to how it was in my memory.

Secondhand Spirits by Juliet Blackwell. Read for the Cozy Mystery Book Club. It took me a bit to get into this book because the character seemed a little flat at first, but by the last third of the book, I was hooked! Definitely interested in reading more. Read more here.

Boom Town by Nic Stone. I love that Stone is writing for adults, and this is so well done. A lot of YA authors try for adult books but it’s just YA with a 27-year-old protagonist who acts 17… (Looking at you Holly Jackson, sorry). But Stone’s characters feel adult and the story was really compelling. Unfortunately, I feel like it’s a lot of build-up (excellent suspense) just to totally gloss over the critical action and the emotional beat that should have ended the book. I think even 10 extra pages - 5 for the climax and 5 for the emotional ending - would have completely elevated this book. Read more here.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick. I wanted to read this one based on the title alone, and went in blind otherwise. I like some historical fiction, and this era is one of my sweet spots. The characters made me think of my grandmother so I could really get into the story (and get outraged by a lot of the constraints that are becoming all too real once more). Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. I read this book a lot as a kid and still have my (aging, brittle) copy. My kid is reading it for school and while I remember the end, I wanted to revisit it. It always made me cry and this time was no exception. It’s still oh-so-good.

Monthly Round-Up: September 2025

Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King. This was my first Laurie R. King book and I’ve already requested more from the library. I love her writing style and this story really pulled me in. The time jumps were well done and both storylines intrigued me, which can be rare for me in a dual timeline book.

Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham. I really liked the tangled storylines in this book. I never would have guessed the ending, so that was satisfying. The twists felt earned also, not just thrown in to shock the reader. I like Willingham’s writing style and will read her others.

She's Up to No Good by Sara Goodman Confino. This was a random read thanks to a Kindle ad, but the writing style was effortless and pulled me in immediately. Evelyn’s storyline was my favorite; I found Jenna a bit frustrating in terms of her indecisiveness and lack of personality. 

Edam and Weep by Linda Reilly. These are truly cozy for me, which made the extreme overuse of the word “garbed” (like 5-6 times in the whole book, which seems excessive for a rare word, especially with 3 in the first several pages and 2 on one page!) really stab my brain. Still thought it was a good book to keep the series moving though.

Lockdown by Laurie R. King. This is my second King book and I still really like her writing style, and liked all the assorted POVs throughout the day. However, the ending really ruined it for me. This WAS written in 2017, so I’ll give it some grace considering how much more commonplace school shootings have become these days. But the idea of nothing really happening once he’s shooting AND the kids taking down the shooter just had me rolling my eyes. It’s not that I don’t believe it, necessarily, I just hope it’ll never happen that way considering how terrible it could have turned out. I know, I know - it’s fiction, but it’s too real these days so it didn’t land for me.

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham. This is my second Willingham book and I really liked it. I thought I had the twist pegged (well, down to two possibilities) but then it was something different, and then something different, and even though one of my possibilities was technically right, the way I’d thought of it was wrong, so I loved how this kept me guessing. The final image was also a beautiful ending, and I appreciate that it wasn’t a 100% happy or even satisfactory ending.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. This was a re-read for me because I want to watch the movie on Netflix but didn’t remember enough. I remembered loving it in 2015 - 5 stars, rave review, the works. But re-reading it now, after the ways the country has changed since then, raising a son and seeing how Finch acts with Violet, being so pushy… It didn’t sit right with me. I know it’s not the point of the book but the way he kept going after her, making comments about wanting to kiss her and all that, really rubbed me the wrong way. Is it supposed to be ok because of his mental illness? Or because she eventually gave in and fell in love with him? I don’t think so. I see him as manipulative and pulling her into his orbit just to leave and fuck her up even more. Sure, he’s depressed and trying to feel things, but I just can’t stomach it in the current climate. I compare the book and movie here.

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham. This seemed different from Willingham’s other books and was unbearably slow in many places for me. I felt like the flashback scenes were repetitive - each felt exactly the same and I felt like I was drowning in that swamp, too. And the current time was also really slow and seemed to reiterate the same ideas over and over. The last fourth was good though, and I was glad it didn’t wrap up in the way it seemed like it had been chugging toward the whole book.

Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox. This reminded me of Big Little Lies overall, with the unknown dead person established right away, then multiple POVs building up to what happened, with all of them being possible suspects and victims. Even the twist with one of the male characters reminded me of Big Little Lies, but I’m not mad about it. It was an interesting book that pulled me in and entertained me, so I’d read more by this author.

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one besides time travel. I saw it on a “New Releases” newsletter and wanted to give it a try. I’m glad I did. It was really interesting, the idea of memories stored in a library, plus who would want to destroy them and why. And, since it dealt with some WWII history, it seemed especially relevant today, unfortunately. I love how everything twisted together. The ending was a bit too pure for me because I think there should have been a bit more disruption based on everything that came before, but it didn’t ruin it. Full post here.

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham. This was my least favorite Willingham book. All the characters were annoying and the question of what happened wasn’t compelling enough for me to care. I pushed myself to finish it and felt like everything that happened in the last fourth of the book was just thrown together for drama.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. Re-read 9/23/2025. I read this countless times as a kid and several times as an adult and always love it. Blume effortlessly captures the tween voice. I re-read it this time because I’d just watched the movie and thought it stayed pretty true to the book, but wanted to check myself. It really did! I think it’s one of the best book-to-movie I’ve seen. Full post here.

The Perfect Boyfriend by Ava Roberts. This had a great concept and the twist made it more unique than other AI romance books I’ve read, but that’s the only good thing I can say about it. The writing was AWFUL. I was hoping the twist was that ALL the characters were AI based on how they talked and thought, but instead I’m just thinking (hoping) the book was AI-generated. It was the most bland, flat book I’ve ever read. The characters were all different versions of the same person - I genuinely couldn’t tell the mother and daughter apart. There was no emotion, no depth to any of them. Think your husband’s cheating? Eh, that barely makes an impact and is totally swept under the rug. But making a smoothie? Two paragraphs, please! There was no rhyme or reason to what concepts were expanded on and what was glossed over.

Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews. Read for the September Cozy Mystery Book Club. I love culinary cozies and have a secret dream of opening a bakery despite not being an amazing baker myself, so I loved Lyndsay’s character. I feel like a lot of things were repeated: the bakery smells, the support and closeness of the family, the suspects and their motives. I don’t think things need to be spelled out that much. And there were a lot of relatives introduced very quickly that didn’t play big roles in the story, but I do understand that might be setting things up for later in the series. Overall, the book pulled me in and gave me the clues I needed to solve the case along with Lyndsay, so I liked it and would read more of this series. (This was my initial review. After the book club discussion, I changed my tune a little. See my full post here.)

Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume. Along with Margaret, this is one of Blume’s books that I re-read most in childhood. I loved Sally because I also imagined stories and acted them out while playing and I hadn’t seen that represented in a book until I read this one. Something made me think of it recently and I wanted to re-read it. It still held up and was really engaging to me. Full post here.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay. I love a good thriller but this one didn’t quite do it for me. There was an interesting premise but the missing students were so flat that I didn’t feel the suspense of needing to find them. The focus was more on the parents’ drama (and almost all were cheating, yawn) and while that was interesting, it wasn’t the point of the book, so wrapping up the case at the end felt more like a reminder that THIS is what I should have been paying attention to. I felt like the students’ POVs inserted periodically came later when the author possibly realized the story wasn’t enough about them going missing, because they seemed really random and a bit heavy-handed about what had happened in the past to get them to this point.

The Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth. I love Hepworth’s literary fiction/early books, but her venture into thrillers hasn’t landed as strongly for me. This was a quick short story but again, I found the lack of depth keeping me at arm’s length. I didn’t care about any of the characters and while the premise is interesting, it felt more like reading a news story than a short story or novella.

Monthly Round-Up: August 2025

The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia. Interesting premise and kept me turning pages. The twist wasn’t that shocking, but I also didn’t expect it. It almost seemed a bit over the top, but overall I think it worked.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I started reading this one in the library as soon as my hold came in and finished it the next day. Full review here.

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. Interesting premise but not my favorite of Jackson’s so far. I feel like the sentence structure got really repetitive and left me skimming a bit because everything felt too in Jet’s head and the thoughts were redundant. Full review here.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson. I think A Good Girl's Guide to Murder might be it for me re: Holly Jackson because I wasn’t impressed by Not Quite Dead Yet or Five Survive. I like the premise of both, and if they were each about 200 pages max, I think they’d be amazing. Full review here.

Woman on the Verge by Kim Hooper. This book had me hooked from the beginning. I love Hooper’s writing style. I picked up on two of the POVs fairly quickly and loved how that worked out. Once the diary came into play, I spent a portion of the book 90% sure Elijah and Nicole were half-siblings. His mom was a feminist professor, her mom left to pursue education… I was actually really interested in how that would play out, so the true resolution was a letdown. It felt like a cop out, like it was all just a dream. I don't think the real cause and "solution" were handled very realistically either. Overall, the writing made this book stand out to me. The way the author addresses caring for aging and dying parents, grief, mothering, mothering a husband, etc. It was all so spot-on and made me feel really understood. I’ll seek out more from her.

The Dime Museum by Joyce Hinnefeld. The Dime Museum is one of those rare collections that somehow manages to feel both expansive and deeply intimate. Each story stands beautifully on its own, yet as the book unfolds, you realize you’re also being drawn into something much larger: an intricate mosaic of intersecting lives. Read the full review here.

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. Re-read this because I wanted it fresh on my mind as I read the second Lo Blacklock book. It wasn’t as bad as I had started thinking of it over the years (lumping it in with The Girl on the Train) but it didn’t stand out as very interesting, thrilling, or suspenseful to me on a re-read, either.

The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware. This was better than Cabin 10 in my opinion, but it took about ½ the book to make me think so. The beginning was really slow and I was worried it would just be a strange re-hashing of the first book because the same characters popped back up. Even the overall storyline seemed really similar, but since it focused on the same woman, I guess that can be excused. I wouldn’t re-read it, and I wouldn’t read a third Lo Blacklock book, but it was probably a satisfactory sequel for those who wanted it.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. I’m not a romance reader but I’ve appreciated the escape of Emily Henry books, so I figured I’d read this one and see what it was about. But oh my Taylor Jenkins Reid!! What was this??? Full review here.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. I’ve read three other Julie Clark books and loved them and, as a ghostwriter myself, I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, the best part about it was the design on the page edges. The story was boring and never grabbed me, so it seemed to slog through. The twists were somewhat revealed through other POVs before they had a chance to make a big impact, so the whole book felt rather dull to me. However, one I didn’t like compared to three I really did… I’ll definitely give her next book a chance and hope for the best.

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong. This book gave me Shannon Olson and Melissa Bank vibes. Those books that are ambling thoughts, not a truly cohesive narrative, no definite ending, but you're so glad to be along for the ride. This book was especially poignant, with strong emotions relating to family, relationships, aging parents, and just being human. Full review here.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This was recommended to me after I reviewed the Winston Breen series, which involves figuring out puzzles to solve a larger mystery. I liked the layers of mystery to this book: who was the “wrong” person, who was Barney Northrup really, who was the murderer, then the other mysteries that came up throughout the story. Full review here.

Monthly Round-Up: July 2025

I thought it would be fun to start doing monthly round-up posts. I used to do a series of the picture books we read each week but that was tough to maintain, and now, sadly, neither my child nor I read many picture books. And I try to spotlight many of the books I read each month, either because they're awesome and I want everyone to read them, or because I have problems with them and need to vent - ha! But the idea of just... sharing all my reviews here in addition to Goodreads and the StoryGraph sounded nice, so here we go...

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. As someone who is not a fan of contemporary unreliable narrators, I was eager to read a classic with an author doing it right. And what a masterclass this is! Even knowing the twist, it was such a delight to read and pulled me right in. Since I did know the twist, I also got to carefully inspect how Christie made it all happen. Dedicated post about Roger Ackroyd here!

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles. I was incredibly interested in this book when it was a family running a restaurant and how that might be embarrassing for the kids as they grow up, but once the dead child came into play, I was out. Maybe I’m just stubborn because in my MFA workshops, we were always taught to not to start with a dream and not to use dead/dying babies/children. It felt like a grab to be really emotional and powerful and just fell flat for me. It was a struggle to finish this one because I felt like the potential story just devolved into sadness and grief for this kid who was already overly cutesy and unrealistic when he was alive.

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict. Agatha Christie’s disappearance has fascinated me and I was eager to “learn” more about it through this fictional depiction. I love how it was handled with the different timelines and how that was structured, especially considering how it came together at the end.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This was a re-read for me, but I’ve thought of the series so often since I read it in April 2016. When the author recently died, I knew it was time to read it again! I loved this first book so much. It’s wild to me that I originally read it before Covid, and now we’ve been through that and are possibly on the cusp of who knows what in the world… so it was really interesting to re-read it through that lens of what we’ve been through and what’s right around the corner. Series posted about in full (original read and re-read) here.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I’d previously read this series so I had vague memories of book two, but it really took me aback on a re-read for it to be a totally different set of characters in a totally different place, but experiencing the same time period. Once I got into it, I appreciated the drastically different interpretation of what happened, and it was well-written in terms of what happened to these characters, but I still think it’s an interesting choice that the writer used the same time period for a second book, even knowing that they’d come together at a later time in the third book. I guess it was easier to write a full second book about the different characters instead of trying to cram all the backstory into the book where he meets Miranda.

The World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I liked how this one brought together the characters from the first two, and while I didn’t care for how religious the second book was, at least it fit the characters. It seemed like everyone was forcibly religious in this book, even though Miranda and her family didn’t seem that way in the first. Not a big deal, maybe just passage of time and the author’s views changing so she put them in the book more? Either way, I think this was a really logical next step for the series.

The Final Episode by Lori Roy. I found this while searching Kindle Unlimited books to read during my free trial and the synopsis caught my attention. I really loved the writing and the way the story was told. I liked that I was never completely sure if I was “watching” slightly fictionalized episodes of the show or truly living what each episode showed from the characters' POVs as it happened. It doesn’t matter either way, but I thought it was an interesting way to think about what each option might have skewed in terms of the truth.

All Fours by Miranda July. I’m still thinking about this one… definitely going to write something longer about it in my September substack once I get my thoughts around it (and turning 40).

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. Going in, this one felt too familiar, like maybe I had read it and DNF before? But I couldn’t find proof of that, so I figured it just seemed similar to other YA true crime/cold case/podcast type books. I stuck with it and got completely obsessed. I thought one of the murderers was incredibly obvious and was surprised they weren’t a suspect all along, but the other took me by surprise. The ending was perfect and definitely made me eager to read the rest of the series.

Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell. I was drawn into this book because the premise was already so twisted that I knew the end had to make it even more so. It did, and I wasn’t totally sure what was coming, so that was enjoyable.

Kill Joy by Holly Jackson. This was a cute short story but I don’t think it added much to my appreciation for what I’ve read of the series so far. Not necessary to read overall, not awful to read, just… there.

Forever… by Judy Blume. This was a re-read (for the thousandth time I’m sure) because I want to watch the Netflix show and compare and contrast them. I think this really held up and honestly, I love it even more now as an older woman and parent. I think it does a great job of showing a realistic relationship and that sex doesn’t always lead to pregnancy and that breaking up isn’t the end of the world. Dedicated post comparing the book and the show here!

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. Second books usually feel like a placeholder between the first and third of a trilogy but this one held its own. I thought it was a really good mystery and I love how it pulled in some details from the first book that hadn’t even registered for me. For a teenager solving crimes the police can’t (or won’t), I feel like this is realistically written, especially considering emotions Pip feels after all she’s been through.

As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson. I thought this was a really satisfying end. The first third or even half maybe was VERY repetitive with what Pip was thinking and feeling regarding her trauma. I get that what happened is major and will change a person but for the sake of fiction, I think it could have been cut and handled better. It felt like Jackson was trying to meet word count with those sections. However, how Pip evolved feels really natural and I think the ending was just right. Separate post about the book series and TV show coming soon!

You Must Be New Here by Katie Sise. This one was tough for me to get into. I couldn’t keep the narrators apart initially, and even later on I couldn’t really remember who was who - I kept forgetting who Clara’s kids were and some of Sloane’s history got muddy for me. Overall, it was an okay read, but I feel like the biggest twist was Ben and Harper being siblings instead of married. The whodunnit was pretty obvious from the start.

The Last Pebble by Alex Horne. I love Alex Horne, the Horne Section, his adult books, what I’ve seen of Taskmaster, and this book came highly recommended from a friend. It was an interesting concept for sure, but I think it would have worked better as a novella instead of being as long as it was. It got a bit wordy and I think some children would lose interest with the wordiness and slow pace, then several major reveals all crammed in at the end. I would definitely read another children’s book by him, though.