The Stranger in Her House

Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.audible.com

This was a very exciting story that kept making turns I didn't expect. Most of the characters were rather terrible people but you couldn't help being sympathetic to some of them anyways.

I also read by this author: You Killed Me First

All The Lies

 Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Nicola Sanders

https://www.amazon.com

Amy used to be a dance teacher, but now she is only Jason's wife. Since their marriage, Jason has taken control of every aspect of Amy's life, watching her every minute and trying to catch her deceiving him. She had foolishly signed over all of her money to him to "invest" for her; now she has no resources and no way out. Even her mother takes Jason's side in their arguments, refusing to believe that Amy is being abused.

When her mother offers her a ticket to a cruise ship vacation, Amy is desperate to take it and try to get away. Her mother means for the trip to be for both Amy and Jason, but Amy tells her husband that she'll be traveling with her mom and is relieved when he believes her. Or does he? 

This was an exciting story with several surprises! (And one over-the-top twist at the end that I don't 100% buy.)

I also read by this author: Don't Let Her Stay

I also read (FREE!) from Amazon Prime Kindle: The Sideways Life of Denny Voss

Statistically Speaking

 Fiction by Debbie Johnson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a fun little story about a British woman who gave up a baby as a teenager and still longs to find the child eighteen years later. 

Milo’s Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

This is the eleventh book in Louise Allen's "Thrown Away Children Series," which I had almost given up on after the terrible ending of the last book (see below). That's the problem with nonfiction, though. Real life doesn't offer tidily happy endings.

This book was better, in that it didn't end absolutely horribly, and that it was interesting. I did really enjoy reading Milo's story. That said, I do feel like the author takes a lot of liberties with the category of nonfiction, almost veering into "based on a true story" novelization rather often. Still, that makes it more fun to read, so I shouldn't complain. More troubling is the lecture mode she slips into too often.

So I liked the book but didn't love it.

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

The Snakes

 Fiction by Sadie Jones

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Bea Adamson and her husband Dan are a young married couple who decide to leave their home in England for a few months to travel in Europe, subletting their flat and using their small savings. The plan is for Bea (who loves her job) to take a leave of absence and for Dan (who loathes his job) to quit and find a new job when they return. 

But first they stop in France to see the hotel that Bea's brother Alex is running, and right away there is a problem. The hotel is still "under renovation," and Alex is clearly incapable of managing it. It's literally just a property that Alex's father has purchased to keep Alex occupied. And so Dan begins to realize the extent of his wife's family's wealth: they are the kind of rich people who can buy a hotel in France for their son to play around with. 

The fact of the Adamson's extreme wealth boggles Dan's mind and puts Bea on the defensive. She has always refused to accept any money from her father, whom she sees at best as corrupt (and at worst as a criminal), and maintains that her family's financial status has nothing to do with herself and Dan. Still the fact that the money exists begins to drive a wedge between the two of them. And then tragedy strikes.

This was an interesting story with great characters that gives the reader a lot to think about. The ending was terrible, however.

Circle of Days

 Fiction by Ken Follett

https://www.audible.com

Ken Follet began writing about British history with the book The Pillars of the Earth, (set in 12th century) and continued in the rest of the Kingsbridge series to explore several other eras. Now he's going WAY back, to the time of Stonehenge.

It is a testament to this author's genius that he can write a story about primitive humans and make the characters just as compelling and real as modern people. This book is amazingly good.

I also read recently by this author: The Armor of Light

You Killed Me First

 Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an exciting thriller but it definitely stretched the limits of believability almost to breaking, and was populated with believable but unlikeable characters. 

It begins with a woman literally trapped under the village bonfire on Guy Fawkes Day with a voice in her ear saying, "You killed me first..."

I also read recently by this author: The Family Experiment

The Family Experiment

 Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.audible.com

In a futuristic Britain, the divide between rich and poor becomes ever-wider, and government control over individuals grows stronger and stronger, as the line between private corporations and public entities blurs. In this installment of the story, couples who can't have biological children compete on reality TV for the opportunity to have AI kids.

Wait, what? Just accept the premise. It's the dystopian future!

This book is listed as #3 in the "Dark Future Series," which includes The One, The Marriage Act, The Passengers, and The Minders. I have read all of these and I think they have the order wrong; this one is more like number four or five. But that's not important, I guess.

The important thing is that this book was really good, especially in audiobook form with the different narrators.

The Flatshare

 Fiction by Beth O'Leary

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Tiffany Moore is desperate to find a new place to live in order to get away from her terrible ex-boyfriend, but she really doesn’t have enough money for anything decent, especially in London. She ends up signing on to a strange flat sharing agreement with a man called Leon, wherein she gets the flat’s single bedroom on nights and weekends, and he occupies it on weekdays from eight am to six pm. 

Theoretically the two of them will never see each other. But the reader can guess that they definitely will…

This was a lovely little straight romance with great characters. I will look for more by this author!

Postern of Fate

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this book a pair of over-seventy-year-olds try to solve a mystery almost as old as they are. They take a long time to do it, and the journey is not very interesting. It is probably the worst Agatha Christie book I have read. Still, Mrs. Christie's books are usually so good that I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

I also read recently by this author: By the Pricking of My Thumbs

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story, starring recurring characters Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (see The Secret Adversary and N or M?) was not as engrossing as most of Agatha Christie's stories. Still, there was a good mystery and a surprising ending.

I also read recently by this author: At Bertram's Hotel

The Secret Book of Flora Lea

 Fiction by Patti Callahan Henry

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1939 London, war is raging and bombs are falling. Parents are strongly encouraged by the British government to send their children away from the city where they will be safe. Hazel and Flora, ages fourteen and five, are sent to Oxfordshire, where they are well-treated by the Aberdeen family but still miss their mum terribly. For comfort, Hazel invents a fairytale story of the magical world of Whisperwood. Together, the girls play a secret make-believe game where they visit Whisperwood and have adventures. 

But one day Flora is left alone by the river and disappears! Hazel blames herself, and the police blame the Aberdeens, but eventually everyone concludes that poor Flora must have drowned. Twenty years later, Hazel is working in a book shop and discovers that a woman in America has published a children's book all about the magical land of Whisperwood! Could Flora be alive after all?

This was a good story with lovely characters. I didn't love it as much as I wanted to though.

I also read by this author: Once Upon a Wardrobe

The Au Pair

 Fiction by Emma Rous

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Seraphine and Danny are called the Summerbourne twins, because they were born in the summer of 1992 and also because they were born on the old Summerbourne estate on the English countryside. But the village locals say that the estate is cursed by sprites who have decreed that twins can never survive there. Indeed there were two other sets of twins in the family’s recent past of whom only two ne survived past early childhood.

Although Seraphine and Danny have indeed lived to the age of twenty-five, the rumor is that this is because they aren’t the real Summerbourne twins. Their mother killed herself on the very day of their birth, after she’d delivered at home alone. There are no pictures from the first six months of their lives.

When their father dies unexpectedly, Seraphine finds a lone picture from the day she and Danny were born, showing their mother and father smiling with only one newborn baby. She can’t tell whether the baby is herself or her brother, but viewing the picture reminds her of all the rumors she’s heard during her life: that she or Danny was a changeling child and not a Summerbourne twin at all….

Seraphine decides to go looking for the one person alive who might know what really happened on the day of her birth: the au pair girl Laura who had been living with her family at the time. Maybe Laura can tell her the truth, she thinks.

This is a long and convoluted explanation of this book’s premise, and the eventual conclusion of the story was also confusing and difficult. It was interesting, but too over-the-top complicated. 

At Bertram's Hotel

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.audible.com

Bertram's Hotel in London is a respectable place where British aristocracy and American tourists alike can get a taste of Old England luxury, for a price. But when Miss Marple visits, she thinks it all looks too good to be true...

This story had good characters and a good-enough mystery, but it's not quite as excellent as Agatha Christie's normal standards demand. Still, it's a solid story.

I also read recently by this author: Third Girl

The Marriage Act

 Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.audible.com

This story, set in the same futuristic Britain the author created in Passengers and The One, explores the idea of a national "Sanctity of Marriage" Act. The Act gives tax advantages and other financial incentives to married couples who participate in a national program called "smart marriage." Smart marriage is ostensibly designed to ensure stable family relationships through keeping legally married couples (both gay and straight) happily together with the the help of AI monitoring. But is that really the goal of the Act, and more importantly, is that goal even achievable?

This was an exciting story with several twists, The narration was also really good!

I also read recently by this author:  The Minders

Third Girl

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

http://audible.com

Norma Resterek is a Third Girl; she lives with two other girls in a London flat, sharing expenses. But Norma is a little odd. She forgets things. In fact, she is concerned that she may have forgotten committing a murder!

Norma goes to the famed detective Hercule Poirot with her story of possible forgotten murder, but then changed her mind before telling it. M. Poirot takes the case anyways, but his first question is ths: Is Norma indeed a murderer, or is she a victim?

I also read recently by this author: The Clocks

The Clocks

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.audible.com

At the beginning of this story, discovered in the front room of a blind woman's house, we have: a shorthand typist,  several stopped clocks set to exactly 4:13, and a murdered man. The woman herself has no idea how any of those things arrived. They certainly weren't there before she went out shopping that afternoon.

This book is listed at the 34th Hercule Poirot mystery, which is an amazingly high number! However, the famed detective is not a prominent character this time; he shows up in time to solve the case, but mostly stays out of the action. (This is a good thing in my opinion; I like his solutions but he can be a tiresome character.)

I also read recently by this author: Appointment With Death

Appointment with Death

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

http://www.audible.com

This story begins when someone says, "You, see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" Hercule Poirot overhears this remark one night in Jerusalem and doesn't think it particularly significant. However, when he later encounters the speaker in Petra, and when someone subsequently IS killed, he must reconsider...

This was a great story with really good characters, and a surprise at the end.

I also read recently by this author: A Caribbean Mystery

Willow’s Story

 Nonfiction by Louise Allen

https://www.amazon.com

Foster carer Louise Allen takes in a thirteen-year-old girl called Willow in this story. Willow has been in the sole care of her mentally-challenged father for most of her life, and something is going wrong. It's up to Louise to figure out what exactly has happened, and how to help Willow. 

(POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!)

But then it turns out that Louise will not be permitted to help, and instead she has to watch Child Services screw the child up further.

This book was terribly upsetting, and it makes it so much worse to know it's true. I may not be able to read any more of Louise's books; they are getting progressively more depressing...

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

A Carribean Mystery

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.audible.com

At the beginning of this book, a retired British Army Major is telling Miss Marple a lot of boring stories while they relax at a resort in the Caribbean. The next day the Major is dead. Is his death suspicious? Miss Marple thinks maybe so…

This was a very good mystery story!

TWO THUMBS UP

I also read recently by this author: The Mirror Crack'd