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Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose by Martha Beck My rating: 5 of 5 stars There's something about Beck's ability to read her own books that resonates with me and also her no-nonsense attitude and clear articulation of her ideas. Combine that with the fact that so many of the things I am looking into and learning about right now like IFS and Byron Katie all culminate in this book. And most importantly, this completely and totally explains why I paint for 1-4 hours every single day now. Love this book. View all my reviews

Is She Really Going Out with Him? by Sophie Cousens My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars Cute, sweet book. I loved reading this one. It was exactly what I needed. View all my reviews

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars on this one. I feel like the first story was the most exciting one by a long distance. Book two and book three were both interesting and I thought this book was the conclusion so I read it but now I am not sure it was the end? I still liked my time with it. View all my reviews

Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon My rating: 4 of 5 stars I seem to be on a historical fiction path lately and I am really enjoying every one of these stories. Lawhon is such an excellent writer and I am so glad that this exceptional woman was memorialized in this fantastic book. View all my reviews

The Favorites by Layne Fargo My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed this fast-paced and well-developed story. It had a very similar feel and style to Daisy Jones & The Six. But it also completely held its own and was able to deliver a well-told story in a similar style. I enjoyed every moment I spent with this story. View all my reviews

The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Gareth Brown clearly knows how to write books that I love. I love love loved his previous book so I was so excited to find out that he had a new one coming out. Magical books were awesome, magical objects turned out to be completely awesome, too. And I loved the references back to the first book in a way that was not disruptive to those who never read the first book but felt like an insider's gift to those who did! Like his first book, this story is full of imagination, joy, a true joy for your senses, especially visually. Of course all the good must be balanced by evil, so evil is there too. Some very interesting choices for evil in this book. All the characters are unique and jump off the page. It is clear to me I will forever read anything Brown writes, I just hope he writes fast so I can keep reading more and more of his wonderful stories. with gratitude to netgalley a...

The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Skye My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have read every book that Evelyn Skye has written and I am incredibly lucky to call her my friend. So this review might feel biased, but here's what I am going to tell you: if you haven't read any books by Syke or even if you have this is the one you want to read. This book is magic. Each of Skye's books, while varying widely across genres, has her signature writing style which is visual, painterly and has elements of magic and whimsy. They all have memorable characters. But one, this one is a gift. You can read the blurb so I won't repeat the plot but here's what matters most: this book will make you feel warm and happy and hopeful for the world. You will fall in love with Chloe and her ability to hold on to herself and her optimism in a world that is always trying to change us or improve us. Chloe's sense of self is strong, unyielding and makes it impo...

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another historical fiction. I loved this one too but I might now need a little break. These books, while fun to read, are soooo long that by the end I feel like I've spend way too much time in their world. View all my reviews

How the Light Gets In by Joyce Maynard My rating: 5 of 5 stars Oh MY. I can spend another six books with these characters. Yes there was a lot of repetition but I truly don't care. I love this family, I love this story, I love these books so so much. View all my reviews

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars. This book took forever for me to get into. It was confusing and didn't come together until the last third of the book when I finally found myself somewhat invested. In the end I liked it but it was so much work. View all my reviews

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable My rating: 4 of 5 stars I know there are mixed reviews on this but I absolutely loved it. I appear to be on a historical fiction kick lately and am enjoying all these stories so much. View all my reviews

The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars. Heart wrenching. Grief and regret we carry can completely destroy our lives. View all my reviews

Colored Television by Danzy Senna My rating: 4 of 5 stars I would never have read this if it weren't for my friend Lauren even though I read and liked Senna's previous book. The reviews were too mixed. But I liked it quite a lot and enjoyed how LA it was and the tone was just about right for me. I totally didn't see the twist coming for some reason. View all my reviews

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino My rating: 4 of 5 stars What an interesting book! The Japanese stories always seem to have a slightly different cadence. Both the plot and the characters in this story were unlike anything I’ve read. Still thinking about it…. View all my reviews

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another excellent read for 2025. If you like character-driven novels you will absolutely cherish this story of Martha Ballard who is the most kick ass midwife you will ever read about. Well written, and wonderfully narrated, this story was a complete joy to read and will stay with me for a long while. View all my reviews

Where the Darkness Goes by Kiersten Modglin My rating: 3 of 5 stars Even though I read this novel in one single swallow, I think it was mediocre. Besides their obsessive love for each other, we knew nothing about either character. It was a romance without the depth and a mystery without the depth. It was still eminently readable as with all of Modglin's novels so I swallowed it up in one day. View all my reviews

Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard My rating: 5 of 5 stars What an excellent, excellent start to the new year. I don't know why I hadn't heard of this book and I haven't read enough of Maynard to seek all her stories but maybe I should because this multi-generational family story was one of the best books I've read in a while. I love character-driven stories and this one gave me characters in heaps. I loved every single moment I spent with it. View all my reviews