The Warsaw Orphan

 Fiction by Kelly Rimmer

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1942, Warsaw was not a good place for any Polish citizen, but of course it was much worse for a Jewish Pole. This story follows two teens: Roman Gorka, a Jewish boy trapped in the Warsaw ghetto, and Elzbieta Rabinek, a Catholic girl living just outside the ghetto walls. Their paths are destined to cross when Elzbieta makes a decision to help her neighbor Sara, a public health nurse who uses her job to rescue Jewish children.

This was a touching and inspiring novel. I will look for more by this author.

Lessons in Chemistry

 Fiction by Bonnie Garmus

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, first and foremost. But it's 1965, she's a single mother, and she can get a much better-paying job as... a TV cooking-show host? 

This was a fun story that didn't go where I expected. The characters were enjoyable and believable.

To Paradise

 Fiction by Hanya Yanagihara

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Clocking in at just over seven hundred pages, this book was not really one novel. It had three parts set in three different times, none of which ever really connected to the other ones, except that different people had the same names. Indeed, Parts Two and Three actually had two parts in each!

This author really makes you believe in and care about her characters, and it was that which which kept me reading, although the disconnectedness of the stories was off-putting. Each part would draw me in and I'd want to keep reading and find out what happened to this particular guy named David Bingham (yeah, there were at least five different ones). Alas, each time the story would abruptly stop at a climactic point and begin again with a different person in a different time.

I don't know whether to recommend this book or not, to be honest. I actually read a few reviews and they were mostly on the positive side. But nobody mentioned the fact that the author never told you the end of anyone's story!! To me, the answer to the question "What happened?" is the most important reason to read a book. And I don't know what happened to ANY of these guys!

If this sounds like an unpleasant reading experience to you, you're not wrong. But the overall effect was thought-provoking. And, as I said, the characters were so compelling... 

I also read by this author: A Little Life

Travel by Bullet

 Audible Original Fiction by John Scalzi

https://www.audible.com

In the world of this book, if someone kills you, you get to come back. If you die any other way (disease, accident, suicide), you stay dead. This gives rise to a strange new profession, and our protagonist Tony becomes a "dispatcher." That is, he's a guy who will kill you to save you from dying. Weird premise, huh?

This was an interesting short novel, and although it was apparently book THREE is a series, it didn't give me too much of a sense I was missing the backstory.

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Last One to Leave

Her Last Affair

 Fiction by John Searles

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a convoluted and dark story about some unpleasant people. There's Skyla, a retired nurse who is bitter over her late husband's betrayal and lamenting the loss of her career; there's Linelle, an ex-art teacher who is mourning her empty nest and feeling increasingly estranged from her husband; there's Jeremy, a tortured loser who longs for love but keeps sabotaging relationships with his violent temper; and there's Teddy, a handsome guy with a British accent and some not-inconsiderable secrets.

The plot was good, and the end was surprising, but I just didn't like any of these characters much.

Sky's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Six-year-old Sky and her fourteen-year-old sister Avril have grown up with parents who believe in fighting authority at all costs. Their house and yard are full of rotting junk (just to annoy the housing authority, it seems) and they never go to school. Their mother actually films the social worker trying to help, calls her a trespasser, and post the video online.

As expected, the girls end up with foster carer Louise Allen. But what happens next is a surprise!

I also read recently by this author: Jacob's Story

Joan is Okay

 Fiction by Weike Wang

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I did not love this book. I liked the character of Joan, but the story was...how can I put this?... NOTHING HAPPENED. Nothing happened in this story. 

I did like Joan enough to keep reading, in the hopes of something happening, so it's not a complete thumbs-down, I guess.

I also read by this author: Chemistry

Girl, Forgotten

 Fiction by Karin Slaughter

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the sequel to Pieces of Her, and the story follows Andrea, the daughter, who has decided after the traumatic events on that story to become a US Marshall. Andrea's first assignment is protecting a federal judge, but she is also secretly trying to find out who killed the judge's daughter forty years ago.

This was a good story but not nearly as good as its predecessor.

I also read recently by this author: Kisscut

Cut and Run

 Fiction by Mary Burton

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Twin sisters, separated at birth, are at the center of this story. Medical examiner Faith McIntyre knows she was adopted, but her (now dead) parents had never wanted to discuss it, like a shameful secret. Macy Crow, on the other hand, didn't consider her origins a secret; as she was a pale blonde child with two dark-skinned parents, her own adoption had always been obvious. When these two women find each other and realize that they look identical, secrets will finally be revealed.

This was a good-enough story, but I think I would have liked it better in print than on audiobook. 

What Happened to the Bennetts

 Fiction by Lisa Scottoline

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Jason Bennett and his family are driving home from his daughter's soccer game when an attempted car-jacking sets off a crazy chain of events that land the family in FBI custody, under witness protection. But can you really hide an entire family? And will the Bennetts be safe?

This was a real thriller with several surprises!

I also read recently by this author: Exposed

The Maid

 Fiction by Nita Prose

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Molly takes pride in her efficiency when she cleans at the Regency hotel, and tries to ignore the other employees who call her  "Roomba, the robot maid,"  because their own work standards are lacking in comparison. But when she finds a dead man in one of her suites, it's not a mess that's easily cleared up...

This was a fun story with a surprise ending!

Three Days Missing

 Fiction by Kimberly Belle

https://www.barnesandnoble.com  

When Kat Jenkins sends her son Ethan on an overnight field trip with his class, his teacher Miss Emma promises he'll be safe. But then he vanishes from his cabin in the middle of the night! Was he kidnapped or did he just wander off? Is Kat's estranged husband to blame?

This was an exciting story with a surprise ending.

I also read recently by this author: The Marriage Lie

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

 Fiction by Grady Hendrix

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

As you might guess from the title, this was a strange book.

In the early nineties, Patricia Campbell is a nice Southern lady in a book club with other nice Southern ladies. But when the children of her town are threatened, it might be time to not be so nice....

Even though I'd never read anything by this author before, I got it on audiobook because there was a narrator I love, Bahni Turpin (see Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection.) But it was a little to descriptive and slow-moving to be a good listen; I think I would have liked it better in print. Also, it gave me a bad case of "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome"** in the middle. Still, it was an interesting book with some surprises.

** Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome

(See The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine)

That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.

The Marriage Lie

 Fiction by Kimberly Belle

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Iris and Will Griffith have a perfect marriage in chapter one of this book. Except the reader knows that can't be true, given the title of the novel. Right?

When Will's plane goes down in a field on its way to Seattle, Iris is left devastated. She had thought he was flying to Orlando? Then she discovers other things he may have lied about....

This was a good story with some real surprises. I didn't like the very last bit of the ending, but I can't say why without spoilers. I'm pretending the last paragraph didn't happen.

I also read recently by this author: Dear Wife

The Club

 Fiction by Ellery Lloyd

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The Home Club is exclusive and expensive, a place for celebrities other "cool" rich people to gather and relax, while having the staff cater to their every whim. Club owner Ned Groom and his brother Adam operate several resorts around the world, where the ultra rich can party without fear of the prying eyes of the press, or regular people. 

Now Ned Groom is opening his biggest Home Club ever: Island Home, an entire island off the coast of England accessible only by a narrow road at low tide, or private helicopter. The opening weekend begins, and the huge staff must be ready for the carefully-chosen members coming to launch this new Club. But not everyone will survive the weekend...

This was an exciting novel with several surprises. Almost all the characters were kind of terrible people, though; it was hard to find someone to root for.

Jacob's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

When the local government was alerted to a case of animal neglect on a remote farm in England, an investigator was sent out. Along with all the sick and half-starved horses and dogs found at and removed from the place, the investigator also found a little boy, tiny and frail, unable to walk or speak, curled under the table in a dog bed. 

Named "Dog Boy" by the press, this child was Jacob, five years old but the size of a toddler. This story is about the efforts of his social worker and foster carers to help him. It was a really interesting book.

I also read recently by this author: Eden's Story

Disaster Inc

 Fiction by Caimh McDonnell

https://www.amazon.com

At the beginning of this novel there is a New York diner with a motley late-night crowd. In addition to the cook and waitress, there's a half-asleep homeless man, a terrified-looking Hispanic woman with a young son, an Irishman who has lost his wallet, and a young woman who keeps checking the door as if she's expecting a date. Then a pair of gunmen burst into the scene, but it's not robbery they're really after. Can the reader guess which of these people are they here to capture or kill? And what craziness will get set in motion this night?

This was a fun little caper story by an Irish author I hadn't heard of before. I will look for more of his books.

This is How I Lied

 Fiction by Heather Gudenkauf

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In December of 1995 a fifteen-year-old girl called Eve was murdered in the small town of Grotto, Ohio. No killer was ever charged, although there were several suspects, and the police worked tirelessly to solve the mystery. Now, twenty-five years later, a new clue has emerged, and retired police chief O'Keefe's daughter Maggie, now a police officer herself, wants to reopen the case and find the killer. After all, Eve had been her best childhood friend. But is Maggie too close to the case to be able to investigate well?

I usually love Heather Gudenkauf's books, but this one was not as enjoyable for me. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't like a lot of the characters? My favorite person was probably Eve, and she was dead on page one.

A weird nitpicky problem I had was the setting of the "present day" being stated as June 2020. The book's publishing date was 5/12/2020, so it must have been written well before then and planned so that the "present" would really be that date when it came out. I know authors do this all the time, and that's great... unless the year you plan to release is 2020. 

Because in the real June of 2020 everyone was going Covid-crazy and nobody would have been able to reopen a cold case and walk around a bunch of public buildings investigating it. I couldn't have even walked into the public library and checked out this book in June of 2020; they were still making me call ahead, park in the designated space, and open my car trunk. Then someone in a mask could come out and deposit books into the back of my car without touching anything or getting near me. They were still Lysol-ing the books I returned and quarantining them for a few days to make sure the BOOKS weren't carrying germs. It was insane.

Anyways, I know that's a silly detail but it bugged me.

I also read recently by this author: Before She Was Found

Murder on the Orient Express

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.audible.com

This is an Agatha Christie classic that has been recently made into a movie and therefore re-recorded for audio by actor Kenneth Branagh.

I thought Mr. Branagh did a great job with the reading, and the story is a masterpiece. However, I didn't personally enjoy listening to this one as much as I usually do with Mrs. Christie's mysteries, for the simple reason that I remembered the solution too well. But that's no ones' fault but mine.

I also read recently by this author: Dead Man's Folly

Eden's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Ashley became a mother before she was twenty, and soon was stuck alone with baby Eden all day. Soon she was looking for some excitement in her life, and she found it when she met Baz at a nightclub. But he wasn't a very nice man, and soon Ashley was in over her head and Eden was sent to foster care. Can Eden be reunited with her mummy? 

This story is from foster carer Louise Allen, and truthfully it's stretching the definition of nonfiction in the details offered about Eden's early life with Ashley. But it does make the story interesting to read.

I also read recently by this author: Abby's Story

The Perfect Son

 Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Freida McFadden

https://www.amazon.com

Erika Cass has two teenagers. Her son Liam gets good grades and is always polite and pleasant, while her daughter Hannah struggles in school and has a bad attitude; therefore it's no surprise that Liam is her favorite. But even though she loves him, Erika knows that there is something wrong with Liam. She took him to a counselor after a disturbing incident with a little girl in kindergarten, but it didn't seem to help. And now that he's in high school, and a girl he likes is missing, Erika fears the worst....

This was an exciting story with a little twist at the end. It was a little formulaic but still interesting.

I also read recently by this author: The Locked Door

I also read recently by Amazon Prime Kindle: The Second Mrs. Astor

Our Missing Hearts

 Fiction by Celeste Ng

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

What if America's economic crisis got really bad, and then it got worse? And then what if it got even worse, to the point where things were even more difficult than in the Great Depression? And THEN what if the US government chose to blame the whole thing on China, and lawfully declared everything Asian to be un-patriotic? 

I labeled this story both "futuristic" and "contemporary" fiction, because it's kind of both. I liked the characters and the plot, but it was a sad world for them to live in. It was hard to read.

I also read recently by this author: Little Fires Everywhere

Abby's Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Abby is born, premature and underweight, to a thirteen-year old mother who has been hiding her pregnancy and self-medicating with alcohol. But the terrible start she gets in life isn't the end of poor Abby's trouble; she will be rejected by her adoptive parents as well as her birth mother. Can foster carer Louise Allen help this little girl?

This was a sad story but interesting to read. 

I also read recently by this author: Stella's Story

Fairy Tale

 Fiction by Stephen King

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The title of this book is both fitting and confusing. For one thing, if the reader is expecting fairies he will be disappointed. On audio, this novel clocks in at over twenty-four hours of narration, and the first one-third or so of it is squarely in the real, mundane world, before any "magic" happens. But the characters are so compelling!

I really liked this book, both writing and narration. I can see how it's not necessarily for the regular Stephen King reader, however. But I loved the complex hero Charlie Reade and his adventure.

I also read recently by this author: Lisey's Story

The Second Mrs. Astor

 Fiction by Shana Abe

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story begins with Madeline Astor recounting to her newborn son the events that made her a billionaire's widow. Short version: she married man older than her father -- but NOT for his money, of course!-- and took a trip with him on the Titanic.

I couldn't get interested in this story for some reason. I feel bad about it, but there it is. At least I got the book free with prime reading!

I also read recently by Amazon Prime Kindle: The Locked Door