The story opens on Gawthorpe Hall with Fleetwood Shuttleworth pregnant and extremely upset. She’s found a letter to her husband from a doctor saying she would not survive another pregnancy. While she’s in the woods near the home she runs into a trespasser, Alice Gray. Alice is a young midwife and Fleetwood quickly hires her to help her have a healthy pregnancy that doesn’t end in death. At the same time in the area are women being outed as witches and they will stand trial. Quickly Alice’s name is added to the list and Fleetwood must figure out how to save her.

I’ve heard of the Salem witch trials, but I didn’t realize something similar happened in England. I thought going into the book that it would be more of a paranormal book, but it was more historical fiction. Once I realized that I set in and enjoyed the book. I felt that the author stuck to historical details that rang true. The book was well written and I quickly read it trying to find out what would happen to Fleetwood and Alice.

The story opens with Fiona, Dottie, and Viv on board the Queen Elizabeth heading to England as part of the Red Cross Clubmobile girls in the summer of 1944. You quickly find out why Fiona wanted to volunteer. Her fiancée, Danny is missing in action. She volunteered to try and find out what happened to him. Her two best friends also volunteered because they weren’t going to leave her alone. I had never heard of the Clubmobile during the war and reading this book sent me down a Google rabbit hole. The story itself is engaging and interesting. There are details on the training and inner workings of the Red Cross Clubmobile. You went from England to the front lines and felt that you were with the girls every step of the way. I both laughed and cried during the book. It was well written and even though part of it was hard to read I was sad when the book ended.

Great suspenseful read!!! I’ve read a lot of Kelley Armstrong’s books and this one did not disappoint.

I was hoping this would be on the scale of Bad Blood. However, it was more informative about Bitcoin and how the Winklevoss twins became it's biggest advocates. The book was short and I felt missing some details that would add to the juicy gossip feel that Bad Blood had. Overall though, I am glad I read it and learned a lot about the early days of Bitcoin.

Great suspense building!!! Slightly unbelievable ending. I think as more psychological thrillers are written more and more are relying on unrealistic elements. Would I read another Riley Sager??? Yes, even knowing the books have crazy twists the story is that good.

Who doesn't love a cozy mystery? In the third book of the Noodle Shop series, Lana is back at it once again. Cleveland's Best Noodle Contest has come to Asia Village. After coming in 2nd place last year, Ho-Lee Noodle House is looking for a win. Norman Pan a local food critic receives a strange fortune cookie at the first event and then is found face down in a plate of noodles. Of course, Lana (along with her best friend Megan) decides she has to investigate because this murder happened at the plaza. What starts at asking a few question could end up with Lana being a target for murder once again.....

Lana Lee is adorable. I love that she wants to protect those around her and that she feels so much loyalty Asia Village. The interactions with her maybe boyfriend Adam Trudeau are great. I am already anticipating the next book and can't wait to read it.

Loved it!! Alternating between two sisters Laura and Rosie I thought would be confusing, but instead was really great. Fast paced plot and interesting characters. ,Multiple twists that keep you guessing the whole time. This is definitely worth the read. It would be a great beach read this summer.

Honestly, I just want Helen Ellis to be my new best friend. So much of what she wrote was not only funny, but made me wish I was there when it happened. . I'm so glad to know there are more books by her that I haven't read yet. I can't wait to see what else she has to say.

I loved the premise, but I hated that I figured it out early on.

I’m not sure what I expected from this book. I think in my mind it was going to be a dystopian book similar to The Handmaid’s Tale. Instead, it’s about surrogates and paying women to have stranger’s babies. Honestly, I liked the book a lot. I loved Reagan and Jane. I worried about Amalia while Jane was away. I was disappointed that the bad things about Golden Oaks that were alluded to never materialized, but overall enjoyed the book.

What a great read!! I loved how the relationships in this book develop and change. At times I found myself cringing and others laughing out loud. Overall I'd recommend this to everyone.

Effie and Henry are in Cape May for their honeymoon. What begins as a sweet story about a newlywed couple discovering each other becomes something entirely different. After a few days virtually alone the house down the street is having a party. Clara, someone that once bullied Effie when she was younger, is throwing a party for her brother. Effie and Henry stay and hang out and then when the party is over Clara, Max, and Alma stay a little longer. The five begin to drink, swim, and hang out for days. Then there's all the sex. I think that's what surprised me the most about the book. It was hard to remember this was set in the late 1950s with all the sex. By the end of the book I literally hated every single character. Overall though the book was well written, but all the graphic sex was just unexpected for me.

240 pages of boring and 160 of good.

“One ought never burden others with one’s sorrows. One ought keep them to oneself.”

The Milton’s of Crockett Island appear to be put together and one happy family. However, appearances can be deceiving. And Kitty Milton lived her life by appearances. A family that has appears happy but has secrets. Wealthy enough for islands, but house on the island is crumbling. Sons and daughters trying to understand their parents. Outsiders trying to become part of the crowd instead of outside looking in.

This story broke my heart in different places. In the very beginning with an open window. In the 1930s with a request from one mother to another. In the late 1950s with love. And even in the 2000s with a daughter missing her mother’s story.

I felt like the story did take some time to get going. It was really driven by the characters and slowly you see where they are taking you. The storyline goes between Kitty, Joan, and Evie. A mother, daughter and grand-daughter respectively. In the present Evie is struggling with the loss of her mother Joan. In the past, Kitty is trying to keep up appearances and Joan is finding herself a woman in the world. And then there is Moss. The heir apparent in the late 1950s to keep the Milton name going. In the beginning it was hard for me to keep everyone straight, but once I got in the flow of the book, I really wanted to stay with the Milton family for as long as possible. The story is touching, sweet, and sad. It lets you see that even if you show more are taught not to share you sorrows sometimes it will really help you heal. show less

Swipe left or swipe right?? Fluttr is the latest and greatest dating app. In seconds you decide if you want to match with someone or not. Mel Strickland has had a batch of bad dates and too many bad messages from the app to count. She may work a helpdesk fixing tech “geniuses” computers at Hatch, but she in fact can code herself. In a weekend she comes up with Jerkalert (.biz not .com) after one too many dick pics. This is a forum for women to post reviews on the men they met on Fluttr. It sounds like a great idea, but it quickly turns her life upside down.
Thankfully Mel had her girlfriends with her every step of the way. I loved how much they supported her throughout the entire story. And Mel…..she had depth. I hated her subway ride. I wanted to punch people at her work. I also wanted to sit her down and tell her to figure things out. She was just so human and so sweet.
I loved this book. From the beginning I really wanted to know how it ended but forced myself to not peek at the ending. It reminds me of Christina Lauren (Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating) or Sally Thorne (The Hating Game). Not only was it fully of heart, but also great characters.

This book answers the question what can happen to your life when you get proposed to at a baseball game. I loved this whole book. I read The Wedding Date and enjoyed it, but I think this book is even better. I found myself really rooting for Nik to figure her life out. I also found myself smiling a lot and laughing. It was a great read!

When Seraphine's father dies she finds a picture from when she was born which is unusual because there aren't any. The problem is she's a twin and there's only one baby in the photograph. Who is the baby? Why did her mother kill herself? She begins to try and find out answers. What I liked about the book was the current day with Seraphine and the past with Laura, the au pair. It allows you to wonder why Laura left so quickly after the birth of the twins and the death of Ruth. There is of course and old spooky house, a village full of nosy neighbors and a friend that somehow loses touch with Seraphine's father. Though I kind of figured out what was going to happen I really enjoyed the book and the way everything unfolded.

Going to an intense 2 week island retreat to save your marriage may seem extreme, but the couples coming to see Drs. Miles and Grace Markell it seems worth it. Johanna and Ben haven't been together that many years, but after an incident at her work they decide to go resort. There there is Colin and Shell. He's a workaholic and she has her own issues. They are at the resort, but neither seems all that into it. You quickly find that there are secrets everywhere. From the couples to the therapists. Everyone has something to hide and something to fight for.

The book had a great pace. I liked how the chapters began with a therapist talking to a patient. You don't know who the patient is until late in the book, but I spent a lot of time speculating. Then you have the different story lines that all ultimately converge. Though pieces of the book seemed a little unreal I found that I wanted to see how it ended. Overall it was a great read and I really enjoyed it.

This is my second book by Katharine Center. I'm so glad she's written more because it won't be my last. I read this book in 2 days. Only pausing because I have to work, eat, and sleep. It was such a good story. Cassie is a fire fighter in Texas with a distinguished career. Something happens that makes her need to either apologize or lie low for a while. At the same time her estranged mom calls from Massachusetts needing help. So Cassie moves and starts work at the Lillian Fire Department where she's the first woman. The story looks at what happened to Cassie at 16 and how that changed her. Along with trying to be accepted at her new job. Then there's the rookie who starts the same day. The story made me want to call my mom and tell her I love her. It also made me feel so sad for a young Cassie and root for her to figure her life out in Massachusetts. Overall I give this book 4.5 stars. It was full of love and hope and made me happy.

I’m not sure why this is the first novel I’ve read by Sally Hepworth. It brings you in from the start and it was hard to put down. The relationship Lucy has with her mother-in-law, Diana, is one a lot of married women can understand. The story is told going from the present and the past as well as from Lucy and Diana’s perspectives. This was a little confusing at first, but after the first few chapters it was incredibly interesting to see where the book was going to go. In the present, Lucy and Ollie are being told that Diana has been found dead and it’s a possible suicide. And in the past, you see all the disfunction in the family and problems that either bring them together or tear them apart. After finishing the book, I’m glad there is a backlist of books for me to read by the author. The story was engaging, kept me reading until late into the night and the ending tied up the loose ends so I’m not left wondering what happened. I highly recommend this book. It’s worth the read.

What starts as an accident getting a check for an expense report after the charges are reversed becomes a chain of events leading to the assistants at a major corporation taking a little of the company's money for themselves. The book seemed short and rushed. I liked the book overall, but it felt like a domino of events and then suddenly the book was over.

After reading [b:Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating|40189670|Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating|Christina Lauren|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526941489s/40189670.jpg|60023585] I saw this at the bookstore and really wanted to read it. I'm so glad I did. While I didn't want to be Millie's best friend like I did Hazel I still was hoping for her to figure herself out. The premise was really great when Millie and her guy friends all need dates to an event they decide to try online dating. Except Millie has a half-night stand with one of the guys (Reid) right after the pact was made. Millie ends up creating a second profile on the site because the first had a bunch of creepers and as Catherine (her middle name) she's matched with Reid. I loved the two aspects Millie in real life and Millie answering messages as Catherine. She really was funny and sweet and her guy friends knew this, but then she wouldn't be vulnerable and let anyone in. I kept hoping she would grow as a person and start letting people in like she could as Catherine. But I loved her journey and really want to know what she's doing now. I hate when I feel like a character is real and then I can't be their friend in real life. I feel like this with the books I've read by Christina and Lauren.

This book reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale. Women and girls are allowed only 100 words a day. The bracelet they wear will shock them if they go over. The more you go over the worse the pain and injury to you. I was hoping for more out of this book. I felt like even though there were flashbacks to kind of explain how they got there I felt like there was a ton of missing details. I felt like some of the storyline with Jean wasn't exactly believable. Though I gave the book 3 stars I just found it ok. It wasn't bad, but it could have definitely been better.

The Gold children have heard about a woman that can tell them the date that they will die. So of course they must find her and find out when that will be. What should be just a fun adventure becomes something more that rules how they end up living their lives. Simon and Klara seek adventure and want to make the most of their lives. Daniel and Varya are more conservative just trying to make sure they make it as long as they are supposed to. I spent so much time while reading this book wondering what I would do if I knew the date I would die. The other thing is as a child or teenager would I have put stock in what a mysterious woman tells me. Would I have told my parents? Would I have told my friends? The weight they put with her words and the way it resonated throughout their lives was interesting, exciting, and sad. Some of the stories like Simon and Klara I raced through and was sad to see end. While Varya I mainly got angry at for how she chose to make her life as an adult. What I loved about the book though was the family aspect and how superstitions our parents have can continue in us and when we finally have the courage to examine it we might realize we shouldn't have been thinking like that all along.

I loved this book! It was fun and funny. I couldn't put it down and read it basically in a day. From their awkward first meeting to the end I loved both Josh and Hazel. It begins with Hazel at a new school with her best friend Emily's husband Dave as her principal. Turns out Josh is Emily's brother. Hazel and Josh have an awkward past from college, but don't worry Hazel will make him her best friend. What I loved was that Hazel just was Hazel and so was her mom. I kept rooting for Hazel on all the bad blind dates to find someone that just LOVED HER for her. She was so much fun and enthusiastic and I wanted to be her best friend. Then Josh, I loved how he was her polar opposite yet let her into his life. I also loved that their families were strong parts of the book. Josh's mom making Hazel food and the awkward dinners at Emily's house. Those kind of things made the book extra special.

This book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. A lot of the history he presented on both Democrats and Republicans was interesting. Most of the book points out that the elites in this country are leaving out the average American. He discusses most of the hot topics you hear on the news from war to wages. Some I found I agreed on and others I didn't. I felt like he was laying out his facts and data more than saying if you didn't agree with him you are wrong which I liked.

I've heard Grace Killelea speak before and really got a lot from the session. I thought I would get even more from the book, but I found it hard to get through.

This was a great beginner's guide to investing. I had wanted to learn more about the stock market and this was right up my alley. It covered more than I thought it would for such a short book.

The Fifth Petal goes back to Salem, MA and stories of witches. It has some of the same characters from previous books by the author. It was nice to revisit the same people years later. In this book, there is a murder in present day Salem that has ties to murders from 1989. Callie was only 5 years old in 1989 and only has some memories from the time. Rose Whelan has never been the same since the 1989 murders and has long said it was not a human. The story is intriguing and there is a lot of mystery to it. I read the book in just a few days because it had a good pace.

I love Repairman Jack. This is the first of the series. At first I wasn't sure what was going on. It seemed like there was too much for me to keep track of, but in the end it was awesome!