Everyone is Watching

 Fiction by Heather Gudenkauf

https://www.audible.com

Five people are competing in a reality show called "One Lucky Winner," each hoping to win a prize of ten million dollars. But this competition is long on hype and short on details; no one knows what exactly the competitors will be required to do or how they have been chosen. And the challenges will be streamed live at unexpected times, not recorded and aired on a schedule. 

Supposedly these things are meant to make the show different and exciting, but also they serve to keep everyone guessing and the contestants off-balance. But it quickly becomes clear that there is something strange going on behind the scenes....

This was a fast-paced an exciting story, but the plot was WAY over the top. I couldn't help but think it stretched the reader's willing suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. And I felt like the characters were less likeable and believable than they could have been. Still, it was pretty fun to read.

I also read by this author: This is How I Lied

The Unsinkable Greta James

 Fiction by Jennifer E. Smith

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Greta James is a successful independent rock artist with one hit album and another due to come out soon, but the death of her mother several months ago has put her into a bit of a tailspin. Now her brother Travis is urging her to go on an Alaskan cruise, of all things, in order to accompany her dad. It was supposed to have been an anniversary trip for her parents and their couple friends, and Travis thinks it's a bad idea to let their father go alone. Although Greta has never had the greatest relationship with her dad, she agrees to go, hoping they can learn to get along without Mom as buffer.

This was a sweet story about mending old relationships and maybe forging new ones.

I also read by this author: Fun for the Whole Family

That Summer

 Fiction by Jennifer Weiner

https://www.audible.com

When Diana was fifteen she went to spend the summer on Cape Cod as a mother's helper for a professor her parents knew at home in Boston. She had hoped to have fun and maybe even find love, but she came back broken and depressed, refusing to tell her parents what had happened to change her.

More than twenty-five years later another woman named Diana, this one nicknamed Daisy, is navigating a particularly difficult stretch of motherhood with her own fifteen-year-old daughter and wondering why she feels dissatisfied with life. Then she meets the other Diana, and discovers that maybe what she really needs is a friend.

But the reader can tell that there is something else going on under the surface of the friendship between these two women, and eventually a secret will explode to the surface.

This was a good story with great characters and I liked the realistic nature of the plot and resolution. Still it got a little heavy-handed and Big-Issue driven at times.

I also read by this author: Big Summer

Never

 Fiction by Ken Follett

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book took over a week to read, which is a long time for me. It's pretty dense prose and complicated; every word needs to be understood with no skimming. I've read other books by this author, mostly historical fiction, and those were all good enough for me to devote the time to this one.

In this novel, the author takes the events that led to The Great War, or World War One as it became called, and modernized them into a slowly escalating world crisis that ends up making war inevitable. But in modern times, we have nuclear options available, and World War Three doesn't end well for anyone.

This was a good story with great characters, but it was chillingly easy to see how the USA and China, in particular, could be maneuvered into war even with moderate and decent people in change, which in general we never have...

I also read by this author: Circle of Days

The Survivor

 Fiction by Gregg Hurwitz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, Nate Overbay has climbed to the eleventh floor of a bank building and is preparing to jump off a ledge when he sees a robbery in progress through the window. Will he give up on his suicide plan and try to intervene? So begins an exciting thriller with lots of surprises...

I also read by this author: Tell No Lies

Fun for the Whole Family

 Fiction by Jennifer E. Smith

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The four Endicott siblings grew up together more or less normally, until Gemma, the oldest, was 12. At that point their mother Frankie disappeared from their lives to pursue Art, leaving them with a dad who worked all the time and only reappearing for summer visits. For the next seven summers, Frankie would take them on a whirlwind road trip, darting randomly around the country with the vague goal of eventually visiting all fifty states.

As adults the siblings remained close until a big fight blew a hole in their relationship. Then Jude, the youngest of the kids, makes a big effort to get everyone back together in North Dakota of all places. Secrets will soon come out...

This was a really well-written bunch of characters. I really liked this book.

The Color of Light

 Fiction by Karen White

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I had some trouble getting interested in this story; I'm not sure why.