I Found You

Fiction by Lisa Jewell

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Alice, a single mother of three, lives by the beach in seaside town in North Britain. She gets by, selling her artwork online and taking in lodgers for extra money. She has a best friend and three dogs, and a maybe too-trusting nature.

Then she sees a man on the beach who doesn't seem to have the sense to come in out of the rain, and she gets entangled in a mystery over twenty years old.

This was a good story. I enjoyed the characters and the plot had a few surprises.

I also read by this author: The Girls in the Garden

Where All Light Tends to Go

Fiction by David Joy

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

I can't even with this book.

It's about an eighteen-year-old boy called Jacob who lives in a crap rural area in the mountains somewhere who feels trapped into a criminal lifestyle because, he says, it's in his blood. His dad sells drugs, his mom takes drugs, and he dropped our of school so he could work with his dad, running drugs, laundering money, and occasionally roughing people up. It's a crap lifestyle but he can't seem to leave it.

I kept reading because I started to like Jacob a bit, and it seemed like he might actually be able to drag himself out from under his self-inflicted death sentence; maybe he could break away from his dad and leave the mountains for a different life, but...

SPOILER ALERT!

He can't. Nope. No help for this guy.

Thanks, David Joy, for getting me to care about this character and then ruining him completely. Ugh.

No Exit

Fiction by Taylor Adams

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Now THIS is a thriller novel.

A college student called Darby is driving through the mountains to go home for Christmas break, and she finds herself trapped by a snowstorm at a rest area with four strangers, ONE OF WHOM IS A KIDNAPPER.

Such an exciting story with unexpected twists!

Strangers on a Train

Fiction by Patricia Highsmith

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This novel is the original story that the classic 1951 Alfred Hitchcock film was based on.

I'm sorry to say that I have not seen that movie, although I've heard of it, most notably in the 1987 film Throw Momma From the Train. From that information I know that it's about two guys who both want someone in their life dead, and swap murders so that they won't be suspected.

The book version of this story is very atmospheric and classy, but kind of too long for me. I can see why it caught Hitchcock's attention though; it's a great plot idea.

The Clairvoyant Countess/ Kaleidoscope

Fiction by Dorothy Gilman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com https://www.barnesandnoble.com
These two books read almost like a series of short stories, although there is a definite connection between them. The whole thing is about a psychic lady who helps people and sometimes solves crimes. It is very lighthearted. This would make a fun TV series I think.

They are fun and easy reads!

I also read recently by this author: A Nun in the Closet

The Lies We Told

Fiction by Diane Chamberlain

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story centers on a pair of sisters who are both doctors, but they have very different personalities. When Maya was 14 and Rebecca 18, both their parents were killed in front of them, and although this tragic event shapes them both, they never discuss it directly.

Almost twenty years later, the sisters are each at a personal crisis point in their lives, and both are forced to decide what is really important.

This story started off a little slow but became very exciting later on. It was very good!

I also read recently by this author: Necessary Lies

The Restoration Chronicles

Fiction by Lynn Austin.
A three-book series: Return to Me, Keepers of the Covenant,and On This Foundation

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/https://www.barnesandnoble.com/https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is a three-book series based on the return of the Hebrew people to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon, beginning around 538 B.C.

These are great books that make the story come alive for the reader while staying true to the Biblical account of actual events. I really recommend the whole series!

I also read recently by this author: Where We Belong

In Everything Give Thanks

Fiction by Terry Barnes.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is about a teenaged boy called Matt and is set in 1963. At the beginning of the book, we learn that Matt's father has just been unexpectedly killed, and that Matt is having a really hard time dealing with it. In particular, Matt struggles with the idea of how God could possibly allow such a thing to happen, especially since Matt's dad was such a good Christian. He turns his back on God and develops a bad attitude, and things are not made better when a new neighbor moves in, seeming to cause him even more grief.

This was a good story, a kind of coming-of-age type of book. I'm not sure that the title really fits; it's kind of about learning to give thanks when things are bad, I guess.