

Review of The Traitor (Alias Emma #2) by Ava Glass
Emma Makepeace returns with new enemies in her sights--but this time she must work undercover on a Russian oligarch's yacht without MI6...
Sep 20, 2023


Review of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird
Isabella Bird's nonfiction account of her 1873 travels through the rugged, wondrous American West is full of her irresistible...
Aug 31, 2023


Review of A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) by Deanna Raybourn
In the third book in the irresistible Veronica Speedwell series, we learn more about Stoker's past, secrets, heartbreak, and motivations;...
Aug 9, 2023


Review of A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America by Timothy Egan
In this narrative nonfiction, Egan explores the Klan's explosive growth and power in the 1920s in states like Indiana and beyond, while...
Aug 8, 2023


Review of A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
This second book in Raybourn's historical fiction mystery series, set in Victorian London, hooked me even more fully into Veronica and...
Aug 2, 2023


Review of Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
In the second installment in Leigh Bardugo's Alex Stern series, Alex is as brave, scowling, and unapologetic as ever--and Darlington will...
Jul 26, 2023


Review of Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo
ICYMI: When tough, stubborn Alex Stern is offered a new start after surviving a mysterious multiple homicide, she becomes an unlikely...
Jul 25, 2023


Review of What Remains by Wendy Walker
Wendy Walker's thriller focuses on a detective, her stalker, and the lengths both will go to to try to get what they want. This is a...
Jul 13, 2023


Review of Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens
Claudia Cravens's story of a young brothel worker in late nineteenth-century Dodge City, Kansas, offers up a tough young heroine who...
Jun 29, 2023


Review of Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1) by Tracy Deonn
The first in the series sets up a strong young Black heroine who bucks tradition as she explores her own heritage, flexes her newfound...
Jun 8, 2023


Review of Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1) by Alexandra Bracken
Alternative Arthurian legends twist through this first in a young adult fantasy series, but what hooked me was the fearless, hardened,...
May 30, 2023


Review of VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
VenCo offers feminist, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed witches bound together by mysterious forces who undergo a quest to secure their...
Apr 4, 2023


Review of American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
This story within a story is playful and satirical while providing deep issues to contemplate. It's different and captivating and silly...
Mar 28, 2023


Review of Uncultured: A Memoir by Daniella Mestyanek Young
Young offers a brutally honest behind-the-scenes look at the systematic abuse she suffered in The Children of God cult and a front-row...
Jan 26, 2023


Review of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
ICYMI: Geraldine Brooks crafts a historical fiction story of 1666, a year in which disease, fear, and loss make way for redemption,...
Nov 15, 2022


Review of The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
I was interested in both of Martin's World War II storylines. The author's historical fiction romance-writing is evident here, in...
Nov 9, 2022


Review of Harrow the Ninth (Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir
Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, is a complex, fascinating, gruesome story full of action and shifts in...
Oct 6, 2022


Review of The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin
This World War II-set novel is a love letter to books, to looking out for others, to forming friends-like-family connections, and to...
Aug 25, 2022


Review of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Garmus's debut is witty and smart, heartbreaking, infuriating, and lovely. Lessons in Chemistry explores deep issues, conflict, and dark...
Aug 23, 2022


Review of Alias Emma (Alias Emma #1) by Ava Glass
Alias Emma is a fast-paced cat-and-mouse chase across hidden London, led by Emma Makepeace, a resourceful, tough, new spy determined to...
Aug 9, 2022