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Showing posts from February, 2022

Book Review: Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi

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Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi  was published on March 11, 2025 by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Bantam. It opens with Claire finding out that her fiancé, Noah, isn't working where he said he was and is now ghosting her. Claire must find out why. Book Review: Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Bantam for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Claire Darling by Callie Kazumi for free in exchange for my honest review. I was absolutely thrilled when my request for a copy was approved because the synopsis was so good. From the beginning, I absolutely loved the main character of Claire and her work friend named Sukhi. Throughout the novel, we learn about Claire's past and how terrible her mother was towards her. I kept hoping that somehow we would learn who Claire's father was and would eventually connect with him. It's really no wonder Claire had no self confidence as an ad...

Book Review: Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2) by L.E. Blair

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Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2) by L.E. Blair opens with Katie Campbell skating with her friends at the ice skating rink and thinking about how her father taught her how to skate and play hockey . . . and realizing how much she misses it. Tired of being the perfect daughter, Katie quits the flag team and tries out for the boys hockey team. This particular book took me back to my childhood. There were so many situations that were realistic such as the girl's talking about bras in the locker room after flag practice. I remember overhearing conversations about bras in the locker room when I was in middle school, so I could totally relate to this particular scene in Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2) . Other realistic examples were how the girls acted around the boys they liked and how the kids acted at the restaurant & cafeteria. I loved the fact that the game Girl Talk was played during the sleepover. I had completely forgotten about those little red stickers that the players had to put on th...

Book Review: Haunted (Fear Street, #7) by R.L. Stine

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The Fear Street Prowler has every one on edge in Shadyside, especially Melissa, who wakes up screaming due to a tapping on her window. Strange things start happening to her like her new car veering into oncoming traffic, her presents being ripped open by an unknown entity, and something or someone trying to push Melissa out her bedroom window. Is it Melissa's imagination or the Fear Street Prowler. Find out in R.L. Stine's Haunted (Fear Street, #7) . The Fear Street book series by R.L. Stine was one of my favorite Young Adult Horror series when I was a tween and teen. I still had most of the books from them, so I decided to reread them, in the order they were published, as an adult to see if they still were as scary to me as they were back then. I didn't have a copy of Haunted , so I ordered a used copy through ThriftBooks.com. As an adult, this was a super easy read and only took a couple hours for me to finish. It was a creepy read that was perfect for a rainy night. Whe...

Book Review: Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #27) by Joanne Fluke

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With Easter fast approaching, Hannah Swensen is overwhelmed with all the catering orders coming into her bakery and all the dinner parties she's attending. To make matters worse, her sister, Andrea, gets into a fight with Mayor Bascomb, who is found murdered later that night. Will Hannah be able to clear Andrea as the prime suspect in Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #27) by Joanne Fluke? Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #27) by Joanne Fluke is the first book I've read by this particular author. I received the ebook for free from Goodreads.com in exchange for my honest review, and I was excited to give this series a try as I've heard good things about it. Overall, I enjoyed the book and thought the concept was a great one. Of course, Andrea is going to be the prime suspect in the murder of the mayor since she was last seen fighting with him, but I knew that she wouldn't end up being the murderer. As the book progressed, there were...

Book Review: Turkey Day Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #7) by Leslie Meier

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The small town of Tinker's Cove has a plethora of holiday traditions during the Thanksgiving holiday, including visits to the Brown Farm to see Tom Tom the turkey, attending the annual parade, and watching the annual high school football game. However, the celebrations go awry when Curt Nolan, a Native American activist, is found murdered in Turkey Day Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #7) by Leslie Meier. As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed this edition in the Lucy Stone book series by Leslie Meier. Although I read this particular book in February, it's the perfect book to read in November to get into the holiday spirit. I'm not sure if there really is a Metinnicut Tribe or not, but it definitely makes me want to learn more about the Native American history in the United States because most of what I learned about this was during elementary school. I found that many of the situations were very believable, including how late Toby and his friends arrived and didn't bother calli...

Book Review: Look Alive Twenty-Five (Stephanie Plum, #25) by Janet Evanovich

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Look Alive Twenty-Five (Stephanie Plum, #25) by Janet Evanovich opens with Stephanie Plum and Lula being assigned as the manager and assistant manager at the Red River Deli in Trenton, NJ because the managers keep disappearing. The only clue is that they leave one show behind. Police have no leads, and Lula thinks it alien abduction. One of the things I love about the Stephanie Plum book series is that it follows the same formula each time and that it doesn't have any cliffhangers. I know this is a big complaint of many long time readers, but it doesn't really bother me too much because sometimes I just need to read something that I don't have to think about too hard. This particular book made me laugh out loud in several places, and I didn't try to figure out the culprit or motive behind the disappearances, so I didn't really see the ending coming. However, it did reuse the reality television show angle again that we saw in a previous book so that was a bit disa...