

Book 3 in Det. Elouise Norton series.
Pretty good story, but tough subject - missing and murdered middle school girls.
Book 3 in Det. Elouise Norton series.
Pretty good story, but tough subject - missing and murdered middle school girls.
Good. Dragged a bit in the middle, but that might have been my issue not the book's. I also got annoyed with the main character being slow to pick up on things. Lots of action and drama.
Jasper the cat is taking a break from his life of crime to pose for a picture 😸
I read most of this, but skipped some parts that didn't interest me. Attempts to provide some diversity, but still mainly British/American/European writers covered.
I think cozy mysteries are losing their charm for me. This one was okay. I skimmed a lot because I got tired of all the over-explaining and unnecessary details.
Mystery/thriller about missing and murdered indigenous women. There's one element that would maybe put this in the horror category, but it seemed more like a mystery to me.
Teen mystery. Pretty good, but there was one thing that I'm not sure if it's supposed to be ambiguous or if I'm misinterpreting. I also had trouble distinguishing between the 2 female narrators and got confused as to which pov I was hearing.
I usually love Lippman's books, but this one was slow and lackluster until the end, but then the ending seemed rushed. Maybe I just missed something along the way.
I can't say that I "enjoyed" this, as Edith Wilson wasn't a likeable person, but now I know more than I did before.
The author's story of her experience being very successful in an MLM is interesting and it's important for stories like this to be heard in order to expose the toxic, predatory nature of MLMs. I stopped listening close to the end because I wasn't interested in a rehash of the pandemic and politics. I was also disappointed that even after she saw the MLM for what it is, she continued to collect a HUGE paycheck off the backs of her downline.
I'm sad that this is the last book in the series. I highly recommend this middle grade mystery series set in the 1930s - called Wells & Wong in the U.S. (not all the books have been published here yet) and Murder Most Unladylike in the UK.
This was good, although not quite my kind of book. The historical part interested me more than the horror.
A complex mystery bogged down by mundane details making it slow-paced and boring.
I liked the characters but it was a pretty long book for having a thin plot and not much mystery. The disjointed narrative didn't work for me either.
Teen historical fiction. A few details didn't quite feel historically accurate. The main character kept doing really dumb things and was a bad judge of character. Most of the characters were jerks who were scamming others.
Weak pick. Not my favorite by SMG but also not my least favorite. I liked the story but the language seemed clunky and awkward.
Hated this one. Read for bookclub, otherwise never would have. Slow start, then interesting for bit wondering why Eddie ghosted, but then too many big dramatic moments, too many traumatized characters, and "twists" were just author withholding info in a way that didn't serve the purpose or structure of the story.
Decent story full of suspense and twists. I was surprised by some of the insensitive language used for a book published in 1992 because I forget what things were like back then. Vietnam is an important part of the plot & it blows my mind to think that 1992 was closer to the Vietnam era than we are now to 1992. The 90s were just yesterday, right?
Cute book - cozy, witchy, some romance. Similar vibes as House in the Cerulean Sea, but not quite as good.
I don't know what to say about this book. It's weird, the main characters are not likeable, it's set in a library, and there's murder. That all sounds good to me, but I think I just didn't understand what motivated the obsession between the two characters or what exactly was going on with one of the characters.
Intense teen book. Sadie's drug-addicted mom abandoned Sadie and her younger sister after subjecting them to a string of bad boyfriends, one of whom abused the girls. Sadie's sister is murdered and Sadie goes after the killer. The story is partly told through podcast episodes and interviews.
The Sinister-Winterbottom kids get dropped at their aunt's for the summer. She is beyond odd and they didn't know she even existed until now. She drops them off every day at a bizarre goth waterpark where things are not quite right. A little Scooby Doo, a little Lemony Snicket, and a good start to a middle grade mystery series.
I read this about a decade ago, but decided to read it again and continue the series. I didn't remember much of anything from my first read, so all the twists surprised me. A good, complex mystery. I would have gone right on to book 2 but there's a waiting list on Libby.
After a slow start, this was a quick easy read that was suspenseful. The solution to the mystery was kind of unrealistic.
Good mystery/thriller, but tough subject (kidnapped kids, pedophilia).
This was good near the end when the pace picked up, but most of the book kind of dragged. It should have been about half the length, and as with most dual timeline books, I found one story more interesting and unfortunately in this book it was the story that less of the book was devoted to. I hope someday this dual timeline trend will die off.
Interesting. Examines the language that cults and other groups use.
There was some good, helpful info in this, but the author's definition(s?) of perfectionism is trying to be too many things. Sometimes it seems that "perfectionist" = Type A personality, other times it seemed that it was just existing as a woman in today's society. Often perfectionist characteristics are generalized in a way that isn't true for me (maybe I'm just a super well-adjusted perfectionist ?). Needed more focus but still beneficial.
Liked it, didn't love it. Good writing, but maybe it was the two timelines/nonlinear structure or it was just too long that made it a bit of a struggle to finish. Even so, I don't regret reading it.
So-so is generous. I have fond memories of loving MHC's books when I was a teenager. I pick one up now and then because I love the suspenseful stories. I never expect great writing, but this one was especially bad. The most annoying thing was that all the exposition happened in characters' internal monologues and some action in the current timeline was conveyed by characters thinking back on the events after they happened.
This is the first Riley Sagar book I've read and I really liked it! Good mystery, love the 1983 setting, and love the 80s style cover.
A look at several women from mythology, how they've been portrayed from ancient times to modern, and which versions of their stories have endured. I enjoyed the author's wry, sardonic commentary.
Hilarious teen mystery in which period products feature prominently. It's absurd and over the top and lots of fun. Be prepared for lots of discussion of periods, period products, and private body parts.
I finished this on the porch, enjoying the sunny not too hot day, but forgot to take a picture. Now it's raining, so it's an indoor picture with cat.
I liked this one. It's pretty typical Beatriz Williams. Two timelines set only 7 years apart, in the years following WWII.
I liked some aspects of this story, but I guess I just didn't fully get out of it what I was supposed to.
Fun, light read with a little rom com on the side. I think it needed a little more action or suspense and the humor turned up a notch, but it was enjoyable and I would read another book of this type from this author.
Science and adventure! In the 1930s, two women botanists and their crew braved the dangerous Colorado River in order to document the plants in the Grand Canyon.
Book 3 in Roxane Weary mystery series. Good mystery that kept me guessing. This series is set in Columbus, Ohio, so that's another point of interest for me because I live near there.
Book 3 in cute middle grade graphic novel series about cats, superheroes, and friendship.
Enjoyable, diverse historical romance. I liked the characters and the bits of science and Mexican history. Beautiful cover.
Re-read for book club. Still good the second time around, but also a tragic story.
It was interesting to learn more about this tragedy, but there are no good guys in this story, which is depressing. A manipulative cult leader doing terrible things to followers plus the severely incompetent ATF led to this massive disaster.
I liked the first half of this, but the rest was terrible. Unrealistic motives and reactions, cardboard characters, bad writing, and inaccurate details about small town/rural setting.
I'm giving up on this series. I've tried to get into these books because everyone loves them, but they don't work for me. This is book 4 and was particularly boring.
#audiopuzzling with Stanley the cat 😸
Good thriller with lots of twists (somewhat predictable but still compelling)
A middle grade homage to The Shining. Karma joins her dad and his documentary film crew on a ghost hunting mission at a Colorado hotel. Karma and her best friend are very into the paranormal and are pretty gullible. Not too scary (in spite of references to The Shining and Poltergeist), and pretty fun.