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The Girls Trip by Ally Condie My rating: 3 of 5 stars this was okay. not as terrible as many seem to make it sound and also not amazing. convoluted but also entertaining. View all my reviews

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot My rating: 4 of 5 stars I knew this would be a hard book to read. Not sure why I decided to read it. Maybe because I think it's important we don't look the other way. Maybe it's all a part of shame changing sides. View all my reviews

Love by the Book by Jessica George My rating: 3 of 5 stars This one started slow for me but I grew into it as I kept reading. I loved the way friendship is depicted in this story. What a joyful, lovely book. View all my reviews

Sylvia's Second Act by Hillary Yablon My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a fun book. If you're looking for something light and fun with a heart about older women and friendship and taking back your life, this is your book. View all my reviews

Into the Blue by Emma Brodie My rating: 3 of 5 stars I loved this story but it was too long. It could have been half as long as still beautiful and impactful. I feel like it went on long enough that it lost some of its magic. View all my reviews

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke My rating: 1 of 5 stars I just finished this book and I am so mad. I want all my time back. I kept thinking I should put it down and I am so mad I did not. I found the main character super annoying and over the top, I found the "twist" so dumb. Ugh ugh ugh. View all my reviews

The Fountain by Casey Scieszka My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars fast, interesting read exploring immortality, family, belonging, science, wealth. what would it mean to live if you never died or if your injuries healed right away? What sounds like a gift at first may not be so at a deeper look. Also what would be your obligations to the community if you were one of the few people who was immortal while others are not? interesting to think about. View all my reviews

The Take by Kelly Yang My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars. Fast read. Weird and interesting concept with characters that aren't likable. It's about youth or wealth. but also about feeling entitled and also about being an artist and wanting validation. and also about being a woman. interesting read. View all my reviews

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars This was ok. Interesting but not as much as I thought it would be and got to be a little over the top for me. The way in which it criticized the publishing industry felt a little too on the nose for me. I enjoyed it but not as much as I'd hoped I would. View all my reviews

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout My rating: 5 of 5 stars I love Elizabeth Strout. Her quiet characters and writing always speaks right to my soul and this book is no exception. I also, so much of the time, wish people would say the quiet part out loud. View all my reviews

Good Joy, Bad Joy by Mikki Brammer My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a complete gift of a book. I love reading character-driven stories and lately I find myself really enjoying characters that are older women and this fulfills all my categories. It's sweet and kind and generous of spirit without being cloying. It's almost impossible not to fall in love with several of the characters in this book. Not just Joy, who is one of a kind but also Hazel and all the others we get to see through Joy's eyes and heart. What a gift this book is and a reminder that it's never too late to change and you impact more people's lives than you think you do and we need each other. An absolute joy to listen to on audio where you get to truly get lost in Joy's world. It's like she's having tea with you the whole time. with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review View all my rev...

Seek Immediate Shelter by Vincent Yu My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was one of my favorite reads in a long while. I loved the concept and have actually read a different book with the same premise last year but this was was so so well-executed. I didn't even realize it was inter-connected short stories until I started it but that was the best structure for a book like this and each time I discovered a connection between the stories, I'd find myself smiling. Even though most of the stories are sad (some even devastating) I found myself completely captivated story after story. An excellent, excellent debut! Would also make a fantastic discussion book. And the audio was also absolutely fantastic, highly recommended. with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. View all my reviews

The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang My rating: 3 of 5 stars I tried to read this several times and even though it was short and well narrated and the concepts were interesting, i felt that something that allowed the story to be held together was missing. Even though I did like the concept and I love language and linguistics, I couldn't get connected to the story enough no matter how hard I tried. with gratitude to netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. View all my reviews

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe My rating: 4 of 5 stars Keefe is truly excellent. His writing is impeccable, his story telling is excellent and you can't help but get wrapped up in it. How our kids can become true strangers to us... You won't want to miss this one. View all my reviews

American Fantasy by Emma Straub My rating: 3 of 5 stars this is more than what it seems. It's light and fun but also covers aging, belonging, divorce and has some pithy sections i loved. View all my reviews

American Fantasy by Emma Straub My rating: 3 of 5 stars this is more than what it seems. It's light and fun but also covers aging, belonging, divorce and has some pithy sections i loved. View all my reviews

The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn My rating: 3 of 5 stars romance but also covers a lot of heavier topics around family, belonging, trauma, and more. View all my reviews

One & Only by Maurene Goo My rating: 3 of 5 stars cute and sweet if you're looking for something light. View all my reviews

The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez My rating: 5 of 5 stars I just adore Abby Jimenez and find that her books are perfect on audio for me. Once I started this today I didn't want to do anything else. I just wanted to listen and listen and listen. So I did. All the way to the end. And it didn't disappoint for one minute. View all my reviews

The Will of the Many by James Islington My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a long long long audiobook. I started and stopped it a few times but for some reason i decided this was the week to really sink my teeth into it. And I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed it, especially the class/school parts and could have listened for a while more. Not sure if I will read the next one but glad I read this one! View all my reviews

A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz My rating: 4 of 5 stars ok rounding this one up from 3.5 stars as it wasn't my favorite of the Hawtorne novels but I still loved it and didn't see some of the twists coming. I also really liked the hints in this one that gave us a bit more sneak peek into Hawthorne's own past. Curious to see if that will come fully in a future story. Love Horowitz so much! View all my reviews

The Half-Hearted Queen by Charlie N. Holmberg My rating: 4 of 5 stars I didn't love this one as much as the first since there was a bunch more yearning but it was still fun and easy read and kept my interest the whole time and ended the story in a satisfactory way. This was a fun duology. View all my reviews

Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was not prepared for how sad this book is. There are three sections in this book and they are all sad in their own way. Despite being able to guess some of the twists, I kept waiting for more horrible things to happen because Picoult has conditioned me to always assume the worst. Thankfully it didn't go where I was most worried it would. But especially as a mom and as someone who lived in NYC during 9/11 this was a hard book to read. View all my reviews

Winter Song: A Novel by Rebeca Lee Morales My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a short and sad story about a man who has served time and is released from prison, consistently insisting that he hasn't committed the crime. And a policeman who finally decides to get curious. It has so much sadness. It shows how hard it can be to start over again, even when you have support, even when some people believe you. And how your own belief in yourself can both help and hurt. And how sometimes it's best to just move on and not look backward no matter what. with gratitude to netgalley and Ecco for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. View all my reviews

Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wish there were more romance books like this. I loved how this book took its time diving deeper into each of the characters and showing us their insecurities and enough of their backgrounds that you couldn't help but root for them. I also love how it's about how media doesn't always help matters by sensationalizing things and people also don't help by taking sides without information. Projecting our own ideas of right and wrong into a "reel" online without knowing any of the real details behind the people and even the story. And how people and careers and publishing can all be so fragile. How we are always trying to prove something to our parents, to ourselves, to the people we don't know. How words can have so much power. And how through the lens of time and experience everything can change shape. And how we are never one thing. with gratitude to netgalley and St...