Secret Admirer

Fiction by Patricia MacDonald

 Image from amazon.com

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Laura is a happily-married and successful children's-book author at the beginning of this story, but you know that can't last. (It's a Patricia MacDonald story! Bad stuff is bound to happen!) Then Laura's husband is murdered, and you just can't tell WHO did it! Could it even have been Laura herself?

This was an exciting thriller!

[Because I've read a lot of this author's books and I like them all, I'm going to add this extraneous paragraph: I enjoyed this story, although I'm not sure about the title. For one thing, there are about a thousand books with this same title, apparently; also, I felt like it gave away that there WAS a secret admirer in the story when it should have been a surprise for later in the book. But this is nitpicking, of course. Also there is a less-than-nice review from Publisher's Weekly that calls the writing in this book "mediocre" and says the writing "almost sinks the story." I don't agree with that; although the writing may not be as polished as some of her later books, I think it was perfectly fine here. I'd put this one in the middle of my list of her books, which is quite respectable.]

This gets a solid thumb and a half.

I also read recently by this author: No Way Home

The Girl With Seven Names

Subtitled: A North Korean Defector's Story
Nonfiction by Hyeonseo Lee

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

My aunt recommended this book to me when we were talking about "True Harrowing Ordeal" stories. (I recommended The Sound of Gravel to her.)

In this book, the author herself is "the girl with seven names," because she had to change her name several times while escaping North Korea, which is indeed a terrible place. It was very interesting to read about, although difficult and sad of course. Ms. Lee now works to support human rights, and seems like an amazing person.

This was a very good story.

Death on the Nile

Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Beautiful and rich, twenty-year-old Lynette Ridgeway has everything, and anythings he doesn't have she knows how to get. But she has made some enemies in her life, and one (or more!) of them follows her all the way to Egypt.

This is an exciting mystery.

I also read recently by this author: Cards on the Table.

Science Fair

Juvenile Fiction by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Subversives from an unpronounceable foreign country are threatening to overthrow America using... a middle school science fair? Can a few clever but less-than-popular kids save the nation?

I thought this book was hilarious, but my kid did NOT get it.

Cards on the Table

Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this book, a man called Mr. Shaitana decides to show off for Hercule Poirot. (One can guess right off the bat that this is a bad idea.) Mr. Shaitana says that he knows people who have gotten away with murder, and he throws a dinner party to display them. Obviously, he does not survive said party. But which of the alleged murders got him?

An exciting mystery to keep you guessing!

I also read recently by this author: Murder in Mesopotamia

Class Mom

Fiction by Laurie Gelman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Jen reluctantly agreed to be come class mom for her son's kindergarten class as a favor to her friend Nina, the school PTA president. But that doesn't mean she's going to tome down her fun personality, even if some of the parents don't understand and report her amusing emails to the principal.

This was SUCH a funny book! I loved it!

One Year After

Fiction by William Forteschen

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This is the sequel to One Second After, which I liked better than this book. This one was mostly about war tactics, which can be interesting, but I'm usually more interested in the people. There is one more book in this series, but I'm not sure if I'll get it.

Transcription

Fiction by Kate Atkinson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This story is about a young woman called Juliet who works for MI5 in Britain during World War 2. The book does a good job of capturing the real feeling for that kind of work, I think; spying sounds cool but is mostly just as boring as any other government job. Except when something happens...

I really liked the characters in this novel, and the plot was pretty good. Some of it was strange, and I wasn't sure about the ending, but overall it was a good book.

I also read by this author: Life After Life

The Secret She Kept

Fiction by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lance Kingston fell hard for Tia Giles and married her as quickly as he could, but he didn't take enough time to find out all about her... and THE SECRET SHE KEPT...

Obviously this was a mistake on Lance's part, and you can tell from the get-go of this book that our girl Tia has some serious issues. But will she and Lance stay together? Or should he go back to his old girlfriend Crystal? It's an exciting and fun read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the vocal performance of Patricia Floyd, the actress who read the book to me on audible.com.

I recommend this one, especially as an audiobook.

Gallimore

Fiction by Michelle Greip

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Summary: A modern woman named Jessica visits an English castle ruin and finds true love.

This is a time-travel romance story. It was all right, but I had some trouble with the believabity of it. I'm not averse to this genre, but I do like to have the time-travelling business explained in a satisfactory manner, which I didn't feel like this book did.

Still, the characters were good and the story held my attention.

No Way Home

Fiction by Patricia MacDonald

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This was an exciting murder mystery about a teenage girl murdered in a small Tennessee town. It had a surprising ending.

I also read recently by this author: Married to a Stranger