Fiction

Surfacing by Tiffany Manchester

3.5 stars rounded up

This book is hard to describe, but I enjoyed it. It reads like part fiction, part spiritual guide, and part self-help book. The story is told in first person, which isn’t my favorite, but as I got into the story, my irritation went away. Zoe is a professional surfer on the World Surf League. Two years ago she was a champion, but for the last two years she’s been flailing. Now at the end of the tour, she realizes she needs to make a change, which includes breaking up with her long-term boyfriend. In a funk, she returns to Australia to stay with her best friend’s family. Zoe has lost her confidence and wonders if her career is over. She decides she needs to do some deep soul searching to figure out what is wrong and make some important decisions about her career and life.

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January 19, 2023 0

Musical Games (Kinloch, #4) by Evie Alexander

This is a fun, flirty contemporary romantic comedy set in Scotland. This is book four of the Kinloch series, but can be read as a stand-alone. Sam lives in London and is an actress on a popular soap opera. She is on the brink of becoming a big star — all she needs is one lucky break. But when she drops everything for the chance to meet Hollywood’s biggest star, she blows it by blurting out a lie.
Now she’s got to write an entire album in ten days.

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January 16, 2023 0

The Club by Ellery Lloyd

This is a fun and twisty mystery/thriller set in the glamorous world of an exclusive club for celebrities run by brothers Ned and Adam. The clubs are set up so that the celebrities can behave however they want inside them, with the assurance that nothing will ever get leaked to the press. The book is set over one weekend during the grand opening of the brother’s latest club located on an island off the coast of England.

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January 15, 2023 0

The Other Merlin (Emry Merlin, #1) by Robyn Schneider

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This is a fun YA Fantasy re-telling of Camelot. Arthur is an intelligent bookworm that isn’t much of a fighter. Lancelot is a gay castle guard that was demoted from a page (on track to becoming a knight) after a misunderstanding. Both we content bumbling along until Arthur accidentally pulls the sword from the stone, and now everyone thinks he’s some kind of hero. Emry Merlin poses as her twin brother at court to learn magic and serve Arthur. It’s supposed to be temporary, but nothing goes to plan and she’s there permanently. Princess Guinevere is betrothed to Arthur, but neither wants to marry the other.

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January 8, 2023 0

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This was a pretty good mystery/thriller that involves two best friends and their summer at a high-end holiday home in a small town in Italy. Emily is a successful author of a cozy mystery series going through a painful and expensive divorce. She has recently recovered from a mysterious illness and is going through a bad case of writer’s block. Her best friend Chess is a successful self-help author and influencer.

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January 2, 2023 0

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

This is a very good contemporary fiction/mystery/thriller set in India. Geeta’s dead-beat husband left her five years ago. She didn’t kill him, but everyone thinks she did. Since then, she’s taken out her nose ring (become a widow) and made a life for herself selling hand-made jewelry. The inhabitants of her small village scorn Geeta, gossip about her, and the children are afraid of her. While this would make some women sad, Geeta relishes in her freedom.

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January 2, 2023 0

Queen of Nothing (Reina del Cartel, #1) by Santana Knox

This is a good first book in the reverse harem, enemies to lovers, dark romance series. I haven’t read many dark romance books, or any cartel books, so this is all new to me. I enjoyed the author’s world building which made it easier for me to understand the setting and circumstances of the characters.

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December 30, 2022 0

Sabiha’s Dilemma by Amra Pajalic

This is a touching coming of age story about Sabiha, a 16 year old girl living in Australia with her mom. They moved to Australia from Bosnia and lived a typical life there until her grandfather joined them from Bosnia. After that, Sabiha’s mother decides to become a dutiful Muslim daughter and fit back into the Bosnian community and wants Sabiha to do the same. Sabiha doesn’t want to do that, and can’t understand why things can’t stay the same. At the beginning of the book Sabiha is a typical spoiled, rude, self-absorbed teenager and isn’t very likeable. She is struggling with the changing friendship with the best friend from her former school, fitting into a new school, her first crush, trying to care for her mother, and deal with her interfering family.

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December 30, 2022 0

The Stranded (Stranded #1) by Sarah Daniels

This is a good YA Dystopian Sci/Fi Thriller set on the Arcadia, a luxury liner that set sail 40 years ago after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Since that time, it’s been a refugee camp anchored off the coast of the Federated States. The story centers on Esther a loyal citizen, working to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land, and Nik, a rebel planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and the oppressors of the refugees acts despicably toward them, requiring the rebels to alter their plans.

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December 29, 2022 0