

Review of Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy
David Joy's mystery, Those We Thought We Knew, set in the North Carolina mountains, explores issues of racism, corruption, generational...
Aug 10, 2023


Review of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
I couldn't get past the holes in the premise of this lighthearted, romantic, zany rom-com long enough to buy into the story of an artist...
Jul 27, 2023


Review of Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Adjei-Brenyah's novel explores in disturbing detail a version of a society that may feel familiar: a corrupt, greedy prison system; the...
Jul 12, 2023


Review of Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine
Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a gothic story set in 1700s Venice in which two young women's lives and destinies become...
Jul 6, 2023


Review of Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Ali Hazelwood's light fiction novel is wonderfully immersed in science, offering a forbidden relationship and an enemies-to-lovers...
Jul 5, 2023


Review of Daughter of the Pirate King (Daughter of the Pirate King #1) by Tricia Levenseller
The fun first book in Tricia Levenseller's trilogy about a teenage female pirate captain sets up a long game toward obtaining a key...
Jun 27, 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 The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
White's twisty mystery is set against the backdrop of an unforgiving winter on an Australian island, with two women attempting to piece...
May 10, 2023


Review of Burst by Mary Otis
Mary Otis's debut novel explores the complicated mother-daughter relationship between alcoholic, erratic Charlotte and rigid,...
Apr 26, 2023


Review of Happy Place by Emily Henry
Six longtime friends gather for one last Maine vacation--but each of them has been keeping secrets that impact their relationships. The...
Apr 19, 2023


Review of The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee
I love a novel set in India, and the details of the sparkling promise and darker underpinnings of the city of Hrishipur were a standout...
Mar 29, 2023


Review of The Levee by William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger's writing is beautiful, and J.D. Jackson reads the audiobook wonderfully, but I felt impatient with the focus on...
Mar 23, 2023


Review of This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Harding bases his slim historical fiction novel This Other Eden on a real-life, racially integrated island off the coast of Maine,...
Mar 14, 2023


Review of Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Kapoor's gritty New Delhi-set novel explores brutal violence and cruelties in an exploration of class divides and the destructive power...
Feb 14, 2023