A Bonanza of Bookish Bits!

I know it’s been a minute (or more!) since I did book reviews, so here is the bonanza list of everything I’ve been reading for the last month or so – let’s do this!

–Marissa

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears was just… heartbreaking. Not great literature, no, but told in her voice and took me down memory lane on SOOO many things (I had Google at the ready to look up outfits, videos, exes, and more!) and made me so sad for her life for the last 13 years. Come for the nostalgia, stay for the sad.

An Inconvenient Scandal by Jacquelyn Mitchard is a family drama featuring former besties who are both pregnant… except that the father of Ariel’s baby is none other than Frankie’s own father. We have past family rifts, current dramas, an atmospheric setting (Cape Cod) and all told in confident prose. I enjoyed it while I read it, but the storyline didn’t stick with me after a few days.

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney was an audiobook listen, and Feeney is always a good one to bet on for entertaining suspense, weird and wacky twists, and a pat ending, and this one delivered on all counts. We have a missing baby, a woman murdered in a nursing home, and a host of ways these two things may be connected through a set of specific players. Hard to describe the plot of this one, but it kept me entertained!

Where Are the Children Now by Alafair Burke and Mary Higgins Clark was an attempted audiobook, and I hung in there for a while before I just… gave up. Sometimes you do!

The Manor House by Gilly MacMillan kept me engrossed from start to finish, excellent news for my recent reading slump! Tom and Nicole took their lottery winnings and built a beautiful home in the English countryside, but when Tom is found dead in their pool, Nicole is shattered… and was it murder? Their neighbors in the nearby Manor House are… not all they seem, but how? I tore through this one and really enjoyed the cat-and-mouse-ness of it all, the setting, and the speedy plot. Recommended!

Everyone But Myself by Julie Chavez is a slim memoir that takes on Julie’s sudden panic attack and then unraveling all that led to it… middle age, family, kids, anxiety, depression… and how we have to work to get ourselves back out of the dark hole. I had so much empathy – and agreement – with what Julie was experiencing, and admired her honesty and willingness to go there and “do the work”.

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey was at first giving PS I Love You vibes, but settled into its own story, and I zipped right through it. Kate is a young widow, having lost Cameron only two years before and trying to hold it together with her job (and prickly boss), solo parenting, and being pushed to start dating again. Kate and her boss are on a flight that makes an emergency landing and strands them away from home for a week, giving Kate time to reassess her life, her marriage, and what she wants next. This was warm and sad and swoony and gave me Katherine Center vibes, and I was here for it. Recommended!

Grief is For People by Sloane Crosley was a one-night memoir read where Sloane tells twin tales… the theft of precious items from her apartment and then a month later, the unexpected suicide of one of her closest friends and mentors. This was straightforward and yet, filled with empathy and understanding (and misunderstanding) and dark humor at times. I’m glad I spent an evening with this one.

Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos was an audiobook listen, and I’ve always loved de los Santos’ way with prose and storytelling. This time, we have present-day Cornelia, rushing to her mother’s side after an accident that leaves her mother with periods of delirium, and sending Cornelia back in time to her mother’s childhood and young adulthood, and the aunt she never knew she had. This was an absorbing tale of the bonds of sisters, family secrets, hope, forgiveness and love.

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson was a romance I wanted to love way more than I actually did. Maggie lives in the Tower of London and develops a crush on one of the guards. While I wanted to root for them, for this story, I found the couple had no chemistry, the writing a bit wooden (if I’m being kind), the plot a bit muddled, and nothing really exciting or thrilling happening. It was eh at best.

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose is the sequel to the fabulous novel The Maid, and returns us to the Regency Grand Hotel and… quirky head maid Molly. When a famous author keels over at the beginning of his talk in the hotel, everything is thrown into uproar, and perhaps only Molly has the clues to solve the mystery. This was just as quirky and charming and cozy as the first novel – recommended!

The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak is a spy novel for those who love spy novels. CIA agent Amanda learns of an assassination plot against a US Senator, but after the attack, learns that the senator has information that may implicate her own father – also a former CIA agent. This is twisting plots, present and past timelines, spycraft, globetrotting and father and daughter relationships all rolled into one. It was slow going for me to get through for some reason, but overall I enjoyed it.

One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall pulled me in from page one, and I could NOT put it down! I don’t want to try and summarize it for fear of giving anything way, but let’s start with Cole, a nice guy who has moved to the seaside after he and his wife separate. He’s still reeling and trying to understand what went wrong after being the perfect husband he could be, so when he meets Leonora and they bond as friends, he hopes life is on an upswing. I’ll say no more! This novel was twisty as hell, dark, original, fast-paced, surprising and impossible to put down!

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen was an audiobook listen (narrated by Kate Mara), and I was invested throughout as mother Ruth confounded daughter Katherine with her sudden onset of dementia-like symptoms, just as Katherine was about to move away. From there, more and more secrets and lies spill out between mother and daughter, and much is revealed about why their life has been the way it is (constant moves, no father figure, etc.). I was intrigued by this one, and it kept me guessing throughout!

Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger is a Christmas novella that was an quick audiobook of suspense. Madeline has never forgotten the murder of her best friend and disappearance of two others when she was in high school, so when podcast legend Harley Granger shows up stirring up things again, she’s on the defensive. But, by book’s end, we’ve solved the crime, resolved some loose ends, and celebrated Christmas. Entertaining, and not a typical Christmas book!