Bit of a Halloween break from my practically-endless string of rom-coms, Jennifer McMahon’s The Drowning Kind is the kind of creepy, atmospheric thriller that I actually do like, especially when it’s this well-written. October is kind of a painful month to be a non-horror-reading book blogger. All the reviews are of horror books, and all… Continue reading Week Fifteen: The Drowning Kind

Before I get too deeply into this, I want to say two things. One, I have never wanted a 4.5 star rating on Goodreads as much as I want one for this book. I mean, Jeff Bezos was able to launch himself into freaking SPACE but half-star reviews are just too complicated to program? Ludicrous,… Continue reading Week Fourteen: The Holdout

I had so many plans for this week, y’all. I was going to review the Graham Moore book The Holdout, but then I got approved for an arc and they want that review October 1, so I had to put Graham on the back burner for a minute. And then LIFE interfered as well, and… Continue reading Week Twelve: Well Met

I struggled with what to review this week. I read four books that qualified, and they were all so different that I just couldn’t choose. I usually write these reviews on the weekend before, but here I sit at 8:00 on Tuesday night, dithering. I could have reviewed There You’ll Find Me (grade: D) by… Continue reading Week Eleven: Zero Sum Game

I love a lot of things in this world, but few the way I love a mystery series. I love your Spensers and your Elvises and your Myrons, and I am always on the lookout for a new series, even though discovering a series early does mean that the wait in between books is INTERMINABLE.… Continue reading Week Ten: Good Day for Chardonnay

I’ve been talking about Lucy Score to anyone who will listen to me since I fell across Riley Thorne and the Dead Guy Next Door, which is the better, less annoying version of the Stephanie Plum books. So, I’m already on the Lucy Score bandwagon. Most of what she writes are straight-up romance novels, but… Continue reading Week Nine: Rock Bottom Girl

I was looking for a new mystery series to read, back at the end of 2015, and my buddy Mary Ann suggested that I give Louise Penny’s Three Pines, AKA the Armand Gamache series, a try. I’m not gonna lie. For most of the first 100 pages of that first book, I wondered what the… Continue reading Week Eight: The Madness of Crowds

I was looking forward to this with just a hint of trepidation. I loved The Martian so much, and then Artemis was such a disappointment that I thought that maybe Andy was a first-book only sort of guy. I was so wrong. This book is great. Maybe not quite as good as The Martian, but… Continue reading Week Seven: Project Hail Mary

The first half of this book was charming. The last 20% was riveting. But that part in the middle…well, that is where things are most likely to go wrong. Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century… Continue reading Week Six: Truly Devious

Imma be honest with y’all. I’ve put this review off for days because I’m not really sure what to say about this oddly-charming book. I’ve read what a lot of other people have to say about it, looking for inspiration, but I don’t *quite* agree with any of them. So. I guess I will ramble… Continue reading Week Five: Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts