Andrea Ward

In some ways this is a kid who finds out they are special and need to save the world. The use of Hispanic legends and Spanish words makes it feel different. Charlie doesn't feel sure about himself and he learns to lean in to who he is. I thought that part was well done. I also really grew to like the characters who were helping him. I will definitely be reading the next one to see what happens next.

I just love this family! The kids are taking time to recognize all the great things in their neighborhood. They are trying to good mostly and learning to love people. This is a sweet book and I'm so glad there are more in the series.

I love Whitney and her family! Her ambition, determination, and hard work set her apart from other cozy sleuths. The suspects in this one are realistic in their anger and avarice. I liked the way Detective Flynn tried to keep Whitney out of his investigation. And the house feel very special. Wonderful book 1!

The setting is very strong and I like that. It is easy to see where the plot is going and some of the characters are a little flat. I like that they are confronting this piece of history and I like that they focus on women. It is odd that Jim Crow isn't confronted anymore than it is. So that took me out of the story often.
If you want to read a book with a strong setting, read this one. If you want strong characters or great history, you might be a little disappointed with this one.

I randomly picked this book off the bookshelf at my local library. Then I judged it by the cover and checked it out. The premise was interesting and l love a potentially haunted house book. This book did not disappoint on that account. Goldenrod is a wonderful house and Trina is a fabulous character. I was pleasantly surprised by the small town atmosphere of New Royal. The people are cold at first, but they grew on me and I came to genuinely enjoy them.
The ending was a little abrupt, but that is the only complaint I have.
I think Goldenrod and the people of New Royal will stick with me for awhile.

There were parts of this that were interesting, but other parts seemed repetitive. It was a little all over the place as she often mentioned a topic and then said there would be more about that in another chapter. Sometimes it was hard to tell how dangerous she thought these groups were on a scale from Jonestown to boutique excercise studio. There were some sections that were more political that seemed necessary. Then there were other sections that were very interesting and she made connections that I wouldn't have thought of. So it was interesting, but not as deep as I had hoped for.

This is the first book of the series that I have read. I might not have started with the best one. I have heard that the others in the series are funny. This one wasn't really that funny. I sort of liked the why of the mystery. The how of the mystery was interesting. I like Lana and Adam's relationship. I like the people that work at the restaurant. Discovering and arresting the murderer happened quickly, so I didn't like that part. The investigating was a little narrow minded and clunky. The family issues with her mom and aunt was a little distracting. I will probably read another one from this series as I enjoyed several characters and the setting.

I loved the characters and the found family feeling. I love the way it is valuing those that look different. I love the characters fighting for the right thing. I liked the way the awful things were dealt with gently.
The ending came about a little abruptly, but I liked the way it all worked out.

I loved visiting Maratea again. I liked all the details about the wind farms and the machinations with it. I liked the characters more by the end than I did at the beginning.

I liked that the narrator was a reformed forger. I liked the way he talked about forging and the beauty he gave it. The romance and protection angle was okay. I guess I just wasn't sure what to expect when I started this one, so I think that affected the way I read it.

I loved the small town atmosphere. I loved how Ivy came around on living in the ‘Christmas house'. I loved how she put herself out there and met new people. I loved how she helped her new friends to grow and have a better life. This was a happy book!

Who knew there was so much history in or under a chicken coop! I love a cozy mystery that is solving an old case, so this series is a favorite. I like all the sources that Paisley and her crew were using to find out the historical information. I like the reasons for secrecy and the stories that were discovered. I like that this didn't follow the typical cozy tropes, so it kept me guessing.
A couple nit picky things that took me out of the story are the amount of time Paisley did not spend at her store and some of the reason why from the bad guy was a little rushed.
I loved the way that we see the relationships around Paisley deepening. And of course I love that Paisley uncovered more stories of people in history fighting for the good of humanity.

This book was a mixture of cozy mystery, family drama, and romance. I liked the royal family and the robbery part of the story line. I was very skeptical of the Tillie storyline and the Art and Avery storyline, but in the end those turned out good. I didn't love the amount of time we spent on those storylines. The dad storyline was enough without taking over the story.
The murder must part wasn't investigated much. The solution made sense, but it didn't come about because of investigation. There was a lot of other stuff going on in this book. It could make it easy to have more investigation heavy books in the future or it could be an indication that this will be a cozy series with lots of other stuff going on.
Final note- Art does curse like 3 or 4 times. Some people wouldn't even consider it a curse, but others might. So if you are extra sensitive to that, I want you to be prepared for that.

The Pros:
The writing was beautiful. I loved the setting of southern Indiana. It is an under utilized setting. There was a lot of character work and reflection. The characters are flawed, but not totally awful. I liked the complicated characters.
The Cons:
The timeline was a little weird and the characters slipped into memories easily. So sometimes that was hard for me to follow. There was a lot of character work, but I wanted a little more action.
I didn't like some of the words used, but I understand the need for them in the story. It goes to some of the character development and helps define the characters. I should have expected it going into the book.
Overall:
If you like a book with lots of description and character development in a different setting, you will like this one.

I liked the setting and the creepy house. I liked the complication of Eleanor not recognizing faces. The solution was fairly reasonable. I figured out about half of the solution really quickly. I did feel like some of the character's action didn't make sense. The different time periods and perspectives were just okay.
Overall, I think I need to read thrillers every so often. This was probably better than I am giving it credit for.

It is easy to do the “quirky socially awkward” girl poorly. This feels like a book that needed a hook to make it popular, so she made the main character “quirky and socially awkward” without saying she is in the spectrum. And since the author just randomly assigned that to make her book popular, it is not done well. It reads like a list from Google of symptoms of autism. There is no depth or nuance to the character. It feels like the author is making fun of her like her coworkers do. I really hate that so many people will read this and think that is what autism is.

Time travel is not normally my thing, so I was skeptical about this book. The time travel is a part of the mystery, so it is more of a detective novel with time travel instead of a science fiction book with a detective. There are a range of characters that are well rounded. There is a lot of emotional work being done while the mystery is being investigated. I liked the details about time travel and the varying amounts of information that characters understand about time travel. The setting of this special hotel made it feel like a locked room mystery as well.
There was a part of the conclusion that I didn't completely understand, so that did take away from my enjoyment. So this is probably more like 4.5 stars.
Overall this was a great mystery in a special setting with some deep emotions involved.

I didn't expect to love this book, but I do. I love to hear the way that the narrator code switches when Jane is trying to convince the people of Summerland that she is ‘safe'. I love the way she was able to do the right thing even when ‘she wasn't allowed'. There were not a ton of zobmies or shamblers as they were called in the story, but I liked the amount that was there. I can't say that zombie fiction is my favorite thing.
Overall, the world building in this book is amazing and the characters are well constructed. This is a wonderful book with lots of little lessons if you are looking.

Grant does an exceptional job making us care about these 4 teenage investigators right at the beginning. So when they get to Spindrift we get nervous for them. We get answers about the house and there are still a few details that kept me thinning after I finished the book. But that strength of character follows through the whole book. So by the end I was full of warring emotions. Grant is becoming a favorite author.

I was hesitant to read this because Lord of the Flies is not a favorite, but it is not a retelling of Lord of the Flies, but like Lord of the Flies mixed with body horror sci-fi. So I enjoyed it. The ending felt incomplete, so I was expecting to see a sequel, but I didn't. So the ending was a little disappointing, but it fits. I liked the interaction between the girls. I liked seeing from Byatt and Hetty's perpective. The body horror was not too gory, so the body mutations were ineteresting and added well to the story. There some things that weren't directly answered, but you can guess what the answers are.
I guess overall I wasn't ready to leave yet. I want to see more with these girls.

This wasn't exactly what I expected, but it wasn't bad. This book is very short, so there are going to be some things that feel like they are missing. In this case, it felt like some character development was missing. However, the lack of character development made it easier for me to put myself in the character's place. And that might have been the point.
The horror parts are very creepy and are the strength of the novella. Knowing a little bit about Japanese folklore would increase your enjoyment and the creepiness of the book. There are definitely scenes that I will remember long after reading the book.
If you are looking for a creepy urban legend type book, this will be a book that you will enjoy.

This was a beautiful novel in letters. We see the growth of a friendship as well as the growth of the women. All the food discussions were gorgeous and really made me appreciate the foods that we now have available at the grocery store. I really feel like these were two real women and I am glad I got to know them.

I really appreciated the author note at the beginning of the book. It let me know that Lila would be struggling in this book. So when I got annoyed with her, I knew I was supposed to be annoyed like the other people in her life. There was character growth in the side characters and eventually with Lila herself.
The mystery is pretty good. There are plenty of red herrings. I did eventually figure it out, but only a little bit before Lila did.
The setting of the pageant was done much better than I expected. It was dramatic, but also a good way to get to know lots of people and the wider community of Shady Palms.
The food was top notch! I was so hungry reading this. I liked the way that Lila put her own Filipino spin on typical coffee house foods.
This was an amazing follow up to Arsenic and Adobo. This is shaping up to be a fabulous series!

We all know that we are a little different around different people. The people in this book take that human tendency to an extreme. Anna is trying to develop herself for herself and therefore goes in search of her father. She finds two seemingly different people, a before and after, in the man who is her father.
I appreciated the lack of angst in Anna's search. There are emotions, but they are not overly stretched. In the end, there seems to be an uneasy peace made between the different sides of Anna as well as her father. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending though. I guess it is complicated just like people are complicated.

I think this is listed as humorous thriller. I think it would be better to think of it as a farce. Most of the men are ridiculous and their actions improbable. The last names of the men often indicate something about their character. The women are capable and intelligent. However since we mostly see through the eyes of men, that isn't recognized or valued. By the end of the book, some men grow and start seeing the women as intelligent, capable, and their equal. I don't think the book is intentionally making statements about gender and assumptions, but it is easy to read it that way.
While Lenny is a linguist and he often wanders off mentally down a linguistic trail, it isn't really about lingusitics much. There are a lot university politics in the book though.
Now having said all of that, I didn't expect to love any of the characters. However by the end of the book, I did love some of the characters and was a little worried about them. But good news, it ends happily.
So I would probably give this book a 3.5 becasue some of the farce elements were so ridiculous as to be distracting and some of the men's attitudes were frustrating. But by the end of the story, I was enjoying it.