Book Review: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

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Mad Mabel  by Sally Hepworth  is a domestic thriller about the youngest person convicted of murder in Australia, Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick. Now 81 years old, Elsie is living on Kenny Lane and has been for the past sixty years. When a mother named Roxanne moves into Mabel's neighborhood with her seven year old daughter, an unlikely friendship forms between Elsie and the seven year old child named Persephone. As Elsie's secrets come to light, her world comes crashing down.  Having read quite a few novels by Sally Hepworth, I requested an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Mad Mabel  without reading the synopsis of the story. I was thrilled when NetGalley and St. Martin's Press approved my request. The expected publication date of the book is April 21, 2026. Not knowing anything about the storyline before I started reading Mad Mabel  made the story much more interesting to me as I had no preconceived ideas. The tale was told from Mabel's perspective in alternating timeli...
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Book Review: Going Rogue, Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine (Stephanie Plum, #29) by Janet Evanovich

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Book Review of Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine (Stephanie Plum, #29) by Janet Evanovich
Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine (Stephanie Plum, #29) by Janet Evanovich was published on November 1, 2022.  The novel opens with Stephanie Plum arriving at the bonds office on a Monday morning, and office manager Connie Rosolli isn't there.  When Stephanie finally gets into the office, the file room has been tossed.  Then comes the ransom call, which sends Stephanie on the hunt for a mysterious coin that she needs to get Connie released.

The Stephanie Plum book series is one that I've come to love and enjoy when I need a light read that will give me some laughs.  Right off the start, this edition has yet again made me think it's now being ghost written because Lula is asking if one of the people bonded out by Vinnie is Joe Morelli's grandmother.  Lula already know who she is, so this is what made me think that it's ghost written.  If the author just wanted to reintroduce Bella, there had to be a better way to do this.

With that being said, I absolutely loved this latest edition and felt like the writing was a bit more mature than some of the previous books in the series.  The storyline was an interesting one, and I loved that we got to know Bella as more than an afterthought.  I actually found myself liking her, and I hope she comes around to liking Stephanie . . . although, it does seem like she is on that trajectory.  Another great thing is that Vinnie had a larger part in Going Rogue:  Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine.  He didn't seem quite so weasely  this time around.

Stephanie seems a bit more mature, and I like to see characters have some progression.  There is even a bit of marriage discussion between her and another character . . . you'll have to read the story to see who she's talking about it with.  All in all, I had a blast reading Going Rogue:  Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine (Stephanie Plum, #29) by Janet Evanovich, and I give it five out of five stars.

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