The Accidental Alchemist

 Audible Original Fiction by Gigi Pandian. 

https://www.amazon.com

Zoe Faust is an alchemist, and she is older than she appears. She has just bought a new (to her) historic home in Portland and plans to take some time fixing it up while continuing to run the online business she’s been operating for years out of her motor home. But when she opens the first crate of her belongings sent from storage she gets a surprise visitor! Then the handyman she hired to help with home repairs ends up dead on her doorstep. 

This book was trying to be both a murder mystery and a sci-fi fantasy story, but it didn’t really work. It was an okay book but not great and the characters didn’t catch my interest. 

Eerie

 Fiction by Jordan Crouch and Blake Crouch 

https://m.barnesandnoble.com

After losing their parents at a young age and relying on each other throughout childhood, siblings Alex and Claire should be close as adults. However, Alex is working as a police officer in Seattle and hasn't seen his sister for years, after his intervention had failed to get her off drugs. Then a random lead in a missing-persons case helps him find Claire again, and Alex vows to help her now, no matter what the cost.

The book starts out really well with this setup, and then it takes a turn down Weird Street. WAY down weird street...

I liked the story, but the ending did not work for me. Still, it was a suspenseful thriller.

I also read by (one of) these authors: Desert Places

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

Fiction by Kelli Estes


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is a story told from two perspectives: a modern white woman and a nineteenth-century Chinese woman. Both women are in Seattle and the surrounding waters.

I really liked the story of Mei Lien in the past, but the modern story was much less compelling. The book is definitely worth reading for the historical information, however. The facts are altered a bit to suit the author's setting, but the essential history told of Chinese immigrant persecution is true.