Accidents of Marriage

 Fiction by Randy Susan Meyers

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book starts out with Maddy and Ben, who have three children and a rather contentious relationship. It is told from both their viewpoints, and I figured it would be just a story about their marriage and how it either stood or fell. But something I did not expect happened.

This was a really good character story that made me believe in and root for both Maddy and Ben. It was also kind of sad, and made me think.

I also read by this author: The Murderer's Daughters

When I Found You

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1960 Nathan McCann goes duck hunting with his dog Sadie and finds a newborn baby abandoned in the woods. This story is about Nathan and the baby and how their lives are entwined in an unexpected way.

This was a really good book.

I also read recently by this author: Have You Seen Luis Velez?

The Good Samaritan

 Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an exciting thriller about a woman who works at a suicide hotline, where she actually ENCOURAGES people to kill themselves instead of trying to talk them out of it. What?!

Yeah. It's pretty dark. But it's REALLY interesting!

I also read recently by this author:  The One

Faerie Winter and Faerie After

 Books 2 and 3 of the Bones of Faerie Trilogy

Fiction by Janni Lee Simmer

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/https://www.barnesandnoble.com

These books complete the trilogy begun with the book Bones of Faerie.

The story had seemed complete with the first book; however, these books really took it further. I enjoyed the whole series.

The Family Next Door

 Fiction by Sally Hepworth

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Essie, Ange, and Fran are all mothers who live on Pleasant Court, and all of them have something they'd like to hide. Then Isabel moves in, and they all wonder what she might be hiding. But it turns out that Isabel is looking for a missing child, and she thinks may have found that child on Pleasant Court.

This was a really exciting story.

I also read recently by this author: The Mother in Law

The Grace Year

 Fiction by Kim Liggett

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is set in a dystopian-society of the misogynistic variety, in the tradition of  The Handmaid's Tale or Gather the Daughters, where the entire point of their community's organization seems to be keeping the women under strict control.

The people in this novel believe that girls are born with "magic" that must be "purified" out of them at age sixteen, after which time they can settle into the community to become good little wives and mothers like they should. They send the girls of that age into the wilderness to force them to release their magic, and about half of them die out there. 

This is obviously a pretty dark story. It was exciting, but in kind of a terrible way. I'm still not sure if I liked it, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt here.

The Forgetting Time

 Fiction by Sharon Guskin

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an absorbing novel that did not go where I expected it to. I was unsure how to label it; it's not exactly Fantasy, because it does take place in our real world; however, some fantastic things happen.

The story centers on Janie, a single woman who unexpectedly becomes a mother at age forty, and her unusual son Noah. There is also Dr. Jerry Anderson, who is facing an ignominious end to his scientific life's work. I really enjoyed these characters and this book.

The Priory of the Orange Tree

 Fiction by Samantha Shannon

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The story begins with Tane', a young woman who aspires to attain one of the highest positions in her society: to be a dragon rider. She has completed all the requirements when, on the night before her Choosing Ceremony, she sees a stranger emerging from the sea.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a young woman called Ead has been assigned to protect Queen Sabran of the West, whose bloodline is, according to prophecy, the only thing preventing the rise of the evil Nameless One, who had once almost destroyed the world.

This 800-plus-page behemoth took me a while to read, especially because it kept switching characters. It was still good, though. I liked that it was female-centered, unlike most fantasy novels.

Climbing Out of the Wreck

 Nonfiction by Christine Stein

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Here is another memoir of the Harrowing Childhood variety; I seem to be reading a lot of these recently. This was not as good as The Pale Faced Lie or A Piece of Cake, (and neither of them was as good as The Glass Castle), but still, it was pretty interesting.

The One

 Fiction by John Marrs.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Is there such a thing as a "soulmate"? Do you think there is one person in the world who is DESTINED to be your mate? Do you believe there a certain someone who is THE ONE for you?

I don't actually. Not in the real world. But what if it were so? What if, for everyone, there was one person somewhere in the world who is their pre-destined match? And what if there was a scientific way to FIND this person?  This book explores that idea, in all its amazing possibilities and pitfalls.

This is a FABULOUS thriller. You won't believe what happens!

I also read recently by this author: The Passengers

I Do Not Consent

Subtitled: My Fight Against Medical Cancel Culture 

Nonfiction by Simone Gold.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is written by a California emergency room doctor who had some success treating COVID-19 patients with HCQ until she was apparently ordered by her supervisors to stop prescribing it, with no real reason given. Basically, she maintains, once President Trump advocated HCQ use, it was political suicide to ever prescribe it. Dr. Gold went to Washington DC with some other doctors to try to stop politics from infiltrating medicine, with not much success. Politics have a way of leaching into everything. The problem was not solved at the end of this book, and Dr. Gold is no longer practicing medicine.

She has some interesting things to say, although not necessarily a whole book's worth. Fortunately the book was less than 90 pages, although I thought it still belabored the point too much. To be fair, most nonfiction seems to repeat itself too much for me. 

So, this book was informative but not much fun. (Not that it was supposed to be, of course.)

Have You Seen Luis Velez?

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Sixteen-year-old Raymond is heading to school one morning when an old lady in his apartment building asks a question: "Have you seen Luis Velez?" Raymond doesn't know who she is talking about, and he's late for school, but he doesn't want to be rude, so he talks to her for just a moment. He rushes away quickly, but he keeps thinking of her the rest of the day, and wonders what has happened to her, and if maybe he should try to help.

This is the beginning of a really lovely character story. I liked it so much I didn't even mind reading it on my phone screen.

They Do It With Mirrors

 Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Miss Marple goes to check on Carrie Louise, an old friend from her school days, at the urging of Carrie Louise's sister, Ruth. Ruth says that she feels there is something wrong in her sister's household, something she just can't put her finger on.

The reader will be unsurprised to find that someone will be murdered not long after Miss Marple's arrival. After all, it is an Agatha Christie mystery! However, one certainly does hope it isn't the the sweet Carrie Louise who ends up dead, and that Miss Marple will find the real killer quickly!

I also read recently by this author: Mrs McGinty's Dead

Bones of Faerie

 Fiction by Janni Lee Simner.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

What if you took a dystopian future story and put magic into it? That's what this unusual book does; it's sort-of The Hobbit meets the Hunger Games.

The characters are good and the story is interesting. It was short but seemed complete to me; however, it appears that there is a trilogy, according to the cover version above. I think I will have to get the next book!!