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...
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Book Review: Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) by Janet Evanovich

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Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) by Janet Evanovich opens with Grandma Mazur planning a funeral for her second husband, gangster Jimmy Rosolli. Although she's receiving a lot of attention as a widow, not all attention is the same. Jimmy's business partners are emphatic that Grandma Mazur has his keys and won't stop until they get them from her. Stephanie Plum, Grandma Mazur's bounty hunter granddaughter, is sure she'll have no trouble finding Jimmy's keys, but instead, she finds herself in deep trouble.

Like the majority of the other books in the Stephanie Plum book series, I found Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) to be very entertaining and fun to read, even with it following the same formula as all the others in the series. However, it seemed as though this particular book was possibly ghost written, and there are a few reasons that made me think so. 

Usually, Stephanie has issues with apprehending her fugitives, but right off the bat, she nabs two or three of them without incident or assistance from Ranger and his men. Stephanie also is seriously unhappy with her career as a bounty hunter and asks Ranger his thoughts on her changing careers. She also is seriously considering being in a committed relationship and getting married.  Another thing that threw me for a loop was that Stephanie had a Mac computer, and those tend to be a bit expensive, so I was surprised she'd have an Apple product with her funds being so limited. On top of that, Grandma Mazur's personality is a bit off in this book along with Ranger's because he actually eats some sweets.

With that being said, I actually liked that Stephanie was much better at her job and seemed a bit more mature. Both Joe Morelli and Ranger seemed more developed and not so two dimensional, which was refreshing. There were moments while reading Twisted Twenty-Six that I found myself laughing out loud, and I loved the fact that this edition had a small cliffhanger at the end.

All in all, I really enjoyed Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum, #26) by Janet Evanovich, and I gave it four out of five stars.  I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

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