According to Goodreads, I’m pretty much on-pace with my 2024 goal of finishing 40 books. Here’s what I picked up in the last throes of spring and early summer.
Where You End by Abbott Kahler • ★★★☆☆
I try not to critique books (or TV or movies or whatever) for what they aren’t or for what I thought they should have been.
But like with Mister Magic, the premise of Where You End was so intriguing yet the story wasn’t what I hoped for. In Where You End, Kat awakes from a coma with no memories. Her identical twin sister Jude fills her in on what she’s forgotten—or does she?
What Kat has forgotten is the time she and her sister spent in a new age-y cult. It sounds great, but I was underwhelmed.
A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley • ★★★☆☆
A witchy read in the middle of spring? Sometimes you just can’t control when your number at the library is going to be called.
A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon was better than I though considering how absolutely daft the title sounds. Like many other witchy rom-coms, the main character, Mariel, struggles with her magic. Is she the worst-ever witch or is she just good at some very niche spells?
Throughout the book, Mariel begins to find out, even if it means accidentally summoning and falling in love (real or not) with a demon.
This book was charming, but nothing I insist that you pick up—particularly outside of witchy reading season.
In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper • ★★★☆☆
This is the fourth installation in The Witches of Thistle Grove series. I enjoyed the first three books, but I’ll say that I really didn’t care for this one.
Delilah, the protagonist in In Charm’s Way was sympathetic and I really enjoyed how Harper picked up her story from the previous book and gave her a monumental challenge to overcome.
What I didn’t care for was the love interest in this story. Or rather—SPOILER—how this terrible love interest returned and managed a second chance. Ick.
The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan • ★★★★☆
I never know what to expect with domestic thrillers. Sometimes they’re un-put-down-able. Other times I know why they were a $1.99 Kindle deal or always available at the library.
The Manor House delivered in a big way for me. I ripped through this one in about four days.
Why was it so good? An English couple wins the lottery and moves into their dream home packed with fancy smart features, big windows and a pool. They live near some very fancy neighbors with their own live-in housekeeper. Their new life has them almost forgetting all about their weird friend who keeps asking for more money and random hikers that keep hiking through their yard.
But then the husband is found dead in the pool. And of course it’s great because there are plenty of feasible suspects. And his drowning might not even be the only mystery! And smart home features are scary! (Don’t tell my Nest thermostat which I fully believe has a mind of its own.)
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden • ★★★☆☆
A governess flees her hometown after the death of her husband to take a new post for a mysterious family at a dilapidated manor far from home? Sign me up.
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall has almost all the gothic elements you could ever want. Not enough ghosts for me, but still a nice read. Yes, I’m deducting a star for lack of ghosts.
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware • 🎧 • ★★★★☆
I love a good Ruth Ware read. In a Dark, Dark Wood and One by One are such good snowy thrillers, and I was thrilled to find that her latest outing was set somewhere tropical.
One Perfect Couple hits on a lot of really great tropes in terms of summer reading and page-turning thrillers: a reality TV show, mismatched couples, shipwrecks, remote islands, and DRAMA.
I won’t share more because if you like Ruth Ware’s work or any of the tropes above, you’ll be in good hands with this one. I’d also recommend One Perfect Couple if you liked Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins.
Keep up with what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.
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