The Running Bibliophile

The Reunion Dinner (Busybodies Collection, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto is the second book in the Busybodies Collection on Amazon Prime. It opens to an Asian American family gathering to celebrate the Chinese New Year when one of the guest unexpectedly dies. The cops are called, and the family matriarch is trying to figure out who committed murder. I enjoyed the first short story in this series so much that I decided to read the next in the series. These are all stand alone stories by different authors and are available to borrow for free or purchase from Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this installment as the first one as I didn't care for the characters as much, and the main character seemed a little overbearing. However, I did like learning a little about the Chinese New Year, some of the food served, and a tradition or two.  What kept me from rating this story higher is that I absolutely hated the ending of the story. I won't say more as I don't want to g

The Witch is Back (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries, #6)  by Angela M. Sanders opens with Josie and the rest of the town receiving poison pen letters. On top of that her mom is in town and wants a divorce. Can Josie investigate who wrote these letters while convincing her mom not to get a divorce? Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) for approving my request as I couldn't wait to find out what happens in this installment. I received a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. From the very beginning, I was drawn into the story and didn't want to put the book down. That takes some talent in my opinion. I absolutely love the characters of this series . . . they feel like they're part of my family and friend group! With that being said, there are some that get on your nerves at times, but it's like that in real life with real people. Although I figured out who the culprit was behind the poisoned pen letters, I didn't figure out who

Staged (Busybodies Collection, #1)   by Elle Cosimano is the first book in a short story collection and is available to borrow through Prime Reading. With only forty-three pages, it is considered a one hour read by Amazon. Lyda, a broker, has roped her friend Dani into helping her stage a Victorian house to sell. When the landscaper is found dead inside the house, Lyda and Dani take it upon themselves to investigate the crime. I thoroughly enjoyed this story because I loved that it was about fixing up a house and is a mystery. It reminds me of several shows that I like to watch on HGTV.  Since it's such a quick read, there's not a lot of time to really get too deep into character development, but there was enough there to get a flavor of each character's personality. I'd say there was an equal mix of likeable and unlikeable characters. I wouldn't mind this particular story being turned into it's own full length series. Additionally, there were lots o

If You Can Hear This  by Faith Gardner is a Young Adult Mystery & Thriller novel about a high school AV Club and the search of their teacher who is missing. The expected publication date of this book is November 19, 2024. I'd like to thank NetGalley for sending me an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.   Overall, I can say that I really enjoyed the storyline. It reminded me of the Point Horror Books of the 1980's and 1990's and followed a similar formula. There were plenty of suspects and motives throughout but was a bit predictable. Additionally, I liked that the author had a diverse group of characters in the book, including two or three from the LGTBQ+ community, a couple that were people of color, and one that had a mental illness. I think it's important to include a diverse group of characters so that everyone has a book to read that depicts someone like them as well as educating others on people who are different

The Party by Natasha Preston opens with Bessie and her boarding school friends preparing to sneak out for Spring Break to throw a huge party in a rundown castle. Things start to go awry when a huge storm hits and keeps them secluded in the remote castle and the friends begin to be killed. Who is doing this and why? A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of The Party  for free in exchange for my honest review. I was excited to be approved for this book because I enjoyed The Island , at least until the ending, and thought The Dare  was just okay, and I wanted to be able to compare her latest novel to the ones I had already read. Preston did a fantastic job of having a lot of diverse characters. Despite there being quite a few characters, it wasn't too hard keeping them straight. However, I did have trouble remembering who Raif was at one point because he hadn't been mentioned in a while. Additionally, the characters weren'