This book began as a fun Hallmarkish (must be a word, right🤣) story as the hand of one bff displays 2 lifelines while the hand of the other bares a single extinguishing line. The story soon became something more complex than what Hallmark resolves in the last 4-minutes of their HEAs - and not only that, Meg/Lana left LA for location in Ireland 🇮🇪

The writing was very good and the author maintained her comedic style from beginning to end, but I guess dark-comedy aging serial killer stories just aren‘t my thing this weekend. I was expecting this to be more cozy murder mystery, but Lottie‘s murdering ways stopped being funny for me long before she reached her last effort. It‘s me, such a mood reader here😛

The epistolary telling here was such a great way to absorb the essence of septuagenarian Sybil Van Antwerp. I loved her confidence in writing to anyone in which she had interest (from young and old, bffs, family, authors, customer service, those who needed her, those she maligned, and even a next door neighbor). How the author kept all of this going through letters (some email too) was just so good. Well worth my months long library wait!

I don‘t think this book would be everyone‘s cup of tea. It‘s a slow roll when three grown sisters come together to celebrate their mother‘s 70th birthday and a near tragedy has the sisters and parents considering if one child in particular had been the favorite child all along. I liked it. I have siblings and there have been moments where that ‘daddy always loved you best‘ has reared its ugly hat - fortunately not for long, but it happened.

I may have shed tears on my physical copy of this one. This is a slow-burn hug of two love stories - man/woman and parent/child, 1925 and 1936. There was no excitement or mystery to anxiously finish a chapter, but there was this weight of undeniable love holding me in my comfy chair and crushing on Lawrence Weston.

Sept #BookSpin Category: Across an ocean @TheAromaofBooks

I placed a hold on this book strictly based on the cover. It‘s very YA and requires you wrap up in whatever makes you feel so high school in order to remember that time in September when fall festivals, football,homecoming dances, and senior year might change the course for the rest of your life.

This story started so slow that I wasn‘t sure if I would stick with it, but now I can‘t believe I even considered giving up on the story. I fell into these characters, Felix and Margaret, Cal and Becky, Skip and Tom, and oh my goodness, Everett. He paints a vivid picture of two families in a small Midwestern town moving through mid 20th century America. It‘s a beautiful story.

Three solid A‘s (4.75⭐️) in this grid, but I chose the tagged because of my comfort in just settling in with this translated story.

5 ⭐️= Loved It, would recommend to others. A+
4 ⭐️= Liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3.5 ⭐️ = Close to either pick or so-so
3 ⭐️= Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2 ⭐️=Nope D
1 ⭐️=DNF F

This speaks to so many WWII death camp survivors who couldn‘t reclaim their previous lives and instead overcame nightmares to create their lives anew. The world is better because survivors had children and grandchildren who pieced together the fragments of those years and honor them for generations to come. Props to this author for penning a story inspired by her mother and grandparents.

I was mildly entertained with this book then 2/3 in a fun twist happens. Now I was invested because I had to find out if there was going to be another twist. I‘m glad I kept reading 🤣😜

Based on the title, I was expecting the husbands to be the main characters, but wait this is a Chandler Baker story, so how‘s that going to go down!? Suspending disbelief for several key elements, this was an entertaining read. September #DoubleSpin Category: Marriage
@TheAromaofBooks

This begins as a slow role of a book, and I stuck with it enjoying the translation from Italian. But soon I was completely wrapped up in the lives of Honor, her husband, Carlo, Carlos‘s brother Antonio, the extended family, and the impact that one generational secret had From 1934 to 1961.

This was fine. I lost a bit of interest in the depth of the deception, but I blame my mood for that. It does have me pondering the process loved ones move through to accept closure for a death when no body is found.

Ohhh, this story was hard to read. Winter had such an unfairly difficult life. And yet she reminds us there is always hope. But her mom, yea no, she‘s just a rotten person.

Introducing the August 2025 entries toward my #indexcard collection.

This is an intelligent romance where I rooted for both FMC and MMC the entire time. It‘s written in such a way that as the reader I wasn‘t sure if the HEA would end in everlasting love or two great characters figuring out who they are on their own. The supporting characters are also well written, and I expect Reese‘s production team already has the rights to this story.

A possible bit of woo woo inner feelings just does not make for great a gothic novel. I thought this was okay though - it‘s a Scottaline ‘ish story, but perhaps more forgettable than memorable than some of her other works.

Hmmmm, what to read, what to read📚📖

#BookSpinBingo September 2025 @TheAromaofBooks

Slow pick here for this genre busting story while I enjoyed much of it other parts never quite came together for me with some characters making little difference to the book‘s ending. There‘s an intriguing touch of magical realism and I get the author stretching that over each aspect of Iris‘ life but concentrating on fewer aspects would have brought more to the best parts of the story.

I tend to be opinionated about details in a thriller so it‘s always fun for me when a thriller wins the tag for my grid!

5 ⭐️= Loved It, would recommend to others. A+
4 ⭐️= Liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3.5 ⭐️ = Close to either pick or so-so
3 ⭐️= Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2 ⭐️=Nope D
1 ⭐️=DNF F

I wasn‘t sure if I would like this - expecting some aging professor unable to resist the allure of young impressionable college student clinging to their every action. But it wasn‘t that, at all and the author could have written married couple Simone and Ethan into a myriad of professional settings and still tell a similar story. It was more about what keeps a couple coupled when their world around them offers temptations.

Eva was the discarded middle child and negative experiences compound her adult views of self. She needed her own therapy. And no, a meeting with your potential boyfriend and his longtime therapist is not couple‘s therapy (and not recommended IRL)! Eva finds the intestinal fortitude to bring rise her inner badassness but it didn‘t convince me her issues were resolved.

This is a quick read at 240 pages but boy does it pack a punch. It was visceral that small southern town feeling where the power is at the pulpit and family reputation is everything - until it unravels.

This was not on my radar but I‘m so happy my attention was diverted to it because it was fun - even after finding the resolution complicated for a cozy little murder mystery🤣 I loved Mrs. B and the tenants in her six units making up this sweet Santa Barbara cottage. If this is the first in a series of neighboring supportive sleuths, count me in.

Despite some dragging chapters in this story, the overall plot was interesting I thought I knew how the story would resolve until a twist reminded me about assumptions. Then I was curious if the twist was just for that reminder or if it would alter where I thought the story would go. This story brings up this sort of hierarchy within the East Asian immigrant community to which I was unaware.

The cast of characters were few so I trusted Lo to not be among the guilty. Lo makes decisions so bad that her character could easily star in a Hallmark mystery movie series. It was all so hokey but that didn‘t stop me from wanting to know the resolution. It was okay - another author I just can‘t quit.

Think casting for My Big Fat Greek Wedding but Italian - in a village where the young no longer desire to reside, and hope lies with a white truffle and recent reading of a fortune teller. It had way too many characters (with great Italian names) for me to track but each added to the humor - as did the donkey, Mauritzio 🫏. Slow pick but I think I‘d have enjoyed it more had I slowed down and absorbed the quirkiness of each character.

Knowing this was the first book in the series, I decided to prioritize characters and their relationships vs the actual mystery to be solved. That was working fine until we got to 12 years later in the story and all of a sudden the mystery became every bit as interesting as the characters. I can‘t wait to continue on with this series.

I read the EH books in random order and this was my penultimate book in her Nantucket canon. It turned out to be a great choice to save as my last physical copy of her books as it‘s a compliation of prequels, sequels, dropped chapters, and reimagined endings of other books. I must say the notes on backside of my index cards helped in enjoying this one.

Aug #BookSpin Cat:pub 2022-23. @TheAromaofBooks

This grid offers a virtual tie between favorites but the tag goes to the book with a first chapter I believe I‘ll clearly recall for years to come😳

5 ⭐️= Loved It, would recommend to others. A+
4 ⭐️= Liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3.5 ⭐️ =Hard decision of pick or so-so. 3 ⭐️= Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2 ⭐️=Nope D
1 ⭐️=DNF F

I noticed Marianne‘s newest book as I was tracking my reread of 100 years of Lenni and Margot. This book is adorable. We should all be so lucky to have an Eddie as our best friend, and if this author chooses to create her stories based on characters whose lives are richer when they befriend someone generations older/younger I will happily keep reading her.

Well the first chapter grabbed me and I liked how the story resolved. But oh my goodness Jett‘s head is held together with wire mesh, she has no chance of survival, and my ability to suspend disbelief exploded (oh wait, I think I just punned my post🤣) soon after she woke from a coma. But you do you Jett and go all Colombo and everything 🧐. And yet, I had fun in all my disbelief!

A teenaged girl is kidnapped in the 1990s and in a matter of weeks sides with her terrorists. To use this storyline I believe significant research into Stockholm Syndrome was needed so the reader understands and fears for and with the FMC. I liked the 2013 aspect but my frustration with the 90s prevailed.

This was an interesting storyline of two women discovering they‘re twins - one is institutionalized and the other researching her twin‘s guilt or innocence. As intrigued as I was in the plot and where the story was going, I wish I‘d been a bit more interested in the sister themselves.

Well, this was a strange Mrs. Robinson‘ish story. Mikala really does need better friends. I kept reading but didn‘t enjoy it. It was kind of icky. I‘m glad I didn‘t read EH‘s Nantucket books in publication order as this is Book 2 and I might have given up on the author with this effort. I have two more books to read before I can call the EH Nantucket series complete!

I was a graduate of a small college where many students (including me) had legacy reasons to travel afar to experience a place often discussed in childhood. It also means I‘m drawn to books with that small college setting. I even had tunnels connecting all the buildings. Lucky for me me neither fires nor hazing happened within those walls - but we did know the late night path to a freezer filled with sugary goods in the motherhouse 🤣😇

OMG 😱
The first chapter WTF 😳
It‘s the narrator for me. 🤯

I love this title and just can‘t quit this series. My interest here was in the characters with problematic situations looking inward to consider who they were and what they could have / should have done to make a situation better. My favorite story here was that of the estranged father and daughter.

August #DoubleSpin Category:Pub 2024 @TheAromaofBooks

You know those times when you just want to read about a lovely dead woman and how the seemingly loving people in her life were creepy AF and everyone is suspect. All this so you can say - Damn girl, you might have all that but I pick way better people than you. Well then, this is a book for you! … I do wonder if we‘ll read more of Detective Jane Salter, I hope so.

This was a decent enough grid with a few I‘ll likely forget about. Interesting to me that my opinion vastly differed on my two AI specific reads. Tagged my favorite.

5 ⭐️= Loved It, would recommend to others. A+
4 ⭐️= Liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3.5 ⭐️ =Hard decision of pick or so-so 3 ⭐️= Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2 ⭐️=Nope D
1 ⭐️=DNF F

I liked the FMC (mostly) and MMC. However, I wanted to rewrite the way the author portrayed Nadia and her lupus diagnosis because one of my best friends has lived with lupus for 35 years and she does everything for everyone. I live in awe of her spirit. But here‘s the thing, add depression to a chronic illness and it becomes magnitudes more difficult to manage.

There‘s a mystery to resolve here which accounts for the set up of an 1840s woman surviving a ship wreck and forging life anew. But my interest was the current day story and the relationship between Audrey and her beautiful, acerbic, alcoholic, fiscally irresponsible academy-award winning actress mother, Meredith. They were a hoot.

I seldom get through this many books in a month. I guess my #indexcard collection is my distraction from heat.

A failed date turned insta-friends that comes full circle with, of course, the required conflict of an HEA romance. This was a good read.

This style of writing didn‘t quite work for me. The nameless MC goes through a lot but seemed emotionally detached from the experiences she recounts- blindsided by infidelity, cancer. Thank god for best friends🥰 …My sincere wish for anyone facing divorce is they are no longer in love with their spouse.

This was a cute predictable romance that and I liked the main and side characters. I wish there were more ways to get to the HEA without an intelligent FMC finding her heart and head twisted amuck as she falls for the one who is obviously Mr Right. But does it stop me from reading romance HEAs? No. No it does not 😁

I‘m that mom - as excited as my kids when a new movie was released in the Toy Story or Night at the Museum franchises. I also love to stare at paintings in an art museum. So count me in on a grown-up version of inanimate characters coming to life at night. …I liked the idea of what this story might be more than what it was. The characters aren‘t particularly memorable and the Covid aspect also threw me off.. 👇

Without video it‘s hard to see the success of our many hours of board book dominos, but hopefully this pic provides proof of the fun

August 2025 #BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I read this series in 2-3-1 order. I liked this book because I read B2&B3 first. Here MC Jules,37, has died at the onset, and we read her non corporeal summer hovering Fire Island. I wished it remained focused on her grieving husband but he shared equal pages with a pile of secondary characters. As an initial read this would bore me, but as the series last it provided backstory on characters showing up prominently in later installments.

I‘ve not given AI attention so I decided to read two new novels on the subject. I didn‘t give this book justice reading it on the heels of Culpability. This one focuses on AI in healthcare but the story got too big - the tech stuff too techy, the bad are really bad, the results are devastating, and good lord don‘t let the AI‘s grow a pair (arms and legs, I mean😳). Also, the character conversations were stilted and poorly written.👇