Nonfiction by Emi Nietfeld
This was a really interesting memoir about a girl with seriously messed-up parents who saw an Ivy League education as her way out.
About the title: Emi's goal is college acceptance while every psychiatrist and social worker tell her that she must accept her limitations.
I for one am very glad she didn't listen to the nay-sayers and instead made education her goal. Still, she doesn't sugarcoat the struggles she still faces and the fallout from her past.
Fiction by Mike Omer
Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Charlie Donlea
Rory Moore is a forensic reconstructionist; she can solve cold case murders that have baffled police detectives. She's also an antique doll restorer and a nominal partner in her father's law firm, but mostly she's a person who doesn't really like people.
Angela Miller was another such person; she suffered from acute social anxiety and could barely tolerate the presence of others, but she too had a talent for seeing patterns and was trying to solve the mystery of a serial killer in Chicago.
This book follows both Angela in 1979 and Rory in 2019 as separate stories that the reader knows will somehow intersect. It was a good mystery with some surprises.
Fiction by Cammie McGovern
Jemma Phillips has always defined herself in relation to her older sister Rozzie. Jemma seems to be in her sister's shadow, especially after Rozzie becomes a famous movie actress. But then Rozzie goes blind and needs Jemma's help.
This was a really good character story about the bonds between sisters. I liked it a lot.
I also read by this author: Neighborhood Watch
Fiction by Charlie Donlea.
At the beginning of this story, an intruder breaks into a home in the middle of the night and shoots a sleeping couple in their bed. Then the pair's young son is awakened and startles the killer, who shoots him as well. The house is left with only one survivor, teenaged Alexandra Quinlan, sitting in terrified shock with a shotgun in her lap as the cops swarm the place.
The authorities assume that Alexandra herself is the killer and arrest her immediately. As the poor traumatized girl is loaded into the back of a police car, news cameras are already rolling and her image is soon broadcasted everywhere. "Look at those empty eyes," a reporter says, and Alexandra's fate is sealed. Although she is eventually cleared of the crime, and indeed wins a defamation suit against the state prosecutor, the public will now never believe in Alexandra's innocence. Perhaps worse, the person who really killed her family is still at large.
This is just the beginning of an exciting story that I received from Amazon Prime's "First Reads" on Kindle. I recommend it!
Fiction by Diane Chamberlain
This book is the sequel to Before the Storm, although the cover doesn't identify it as such. DEFINITELY read that book first, because this one gives away the ending to that one.
In this story, seventeen-year-old Keith Weston is still struggling to recover from multiple injuries caused by a church fire over a year ago. Then his mother disappears on the same day the person responsible for the fire is released from prison.
This was a very exciting story with some surprises.
Fiction by Dean Koontz
This story begins with a mysterious package, sent from Florida to California, from an old man to a young one. When 23-year-old Benny Catspaw receives the package, it's identified as a "blessing that will transform your life," coming from an uncle he never realized he had. The uncle's message tells him, cryptically, "There is no reason to be afraid, though there may seem to be...."
Then some strange things start to happen!
This was an interesting a fun story. It's less creepy than one expects from Dean Koontz but still weird.
