A Discovery of Witches

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1)

Deborah Harkness

Viking Penguin: 2011, 579 pages

Audiobook length: 24 hours and 2 minutes

Read by Jennifer Ikeda

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Diana Bishop comes from a long line of witches (think back to Salem, Massachusetts) but refuses to give into her magical heritage.  She focuses instead on her work as a historian, spending the year in Oxford for her latest research.  When she unknowingly comes across a magical manuscript thought long lost for centuries, the creature world becomes abuzz with excitement.  Soon there are witches, vampires, and daemons coming into the Bodleian Library in droves, including one Matthew Clairmont, a very old and very intense vampire.  They all believe Diana holds the key in unlocking the bewitched manuscript but Diana doesn't want to be a part of it, at all.  Soon events bind Diana and Matthew to work together while facing increasingly dangerous enemies.  Audiobook narrator Jennifer Ikeda does an excellent job creating a soothing voice in Diana while also managing a wide variety of accents.

Grin and Beard It

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Grin and Beard It (Winston Brothers #2)

Penny Reid

Cipher-Naught: 2016, 389 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

The second in Penny Reid's Winston Brothers series, this book focuses on oldest brother Jethro.  Jethro made some mistakes in his past but he's moved on and became a better person.  He feels like he's still making amends to his family but he knows he'll never go back to the way he was when he was trying to be a big shot in the local biker gang.  As a park ranger, Jethro finds a very lost but very beautiful woman who is part of the production company that's shooting a movie by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Jethro doesn't realize, at first, that the lost woman is Sienna Diaz, the famous A-list comedian and writer.  She's America's sweetheart who is a workaholic but can't help but be captivated by Jethro's good looks and charm.  Will they be able to date like normal people?  Will Sienna's fame and Jethro's past ruin their future?  Readers don't necessarily have to read the first book in the Winston Brothers series but it is highly recommended.

Confess

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Confess

Colleen Hoover

Atria Books: 2015, 306 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Auburn Reed still hasn’t gotten over the death of her high school sweetheart when she was 15.  She’s recently moved to Dallas and is struggling to make ends meet when she accepts a one-night gig helping out at an art gallery.  While the job may be temporary, her intense attraction to the artist Owen is so powerful that neither of them can ignore it.  While their chemistry is undeniable, Auburn wasn’t looking for love and isn’t sure that she has room in her life for Owen.  Owen’s life is also more complicated that it initially appears.  Will Owen and Auburn be able to overcome their pasts and confess their secrets?

The Winter People

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Winter People

Jennifer McMahon

Doubleday: 2014, 317 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

This story flips back and forth between various characters all in a different point of time, beginning in the early 1900s to present time.  They all are affected by goings on at West Hall, a small town in Vermont, and an area of creepy land named Devil’s Hand.  It is a captivating ghost story that keeps the reader wondering up to the end.  I found myself wishing there were photographs to go along with the book.  It was a quick and easy read that I enjoyed and look forward to more by the same author.

When in Doubt, Add Butter

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

When in Doubt, Add Butter

Beth Harbison

St. Martin's Press: 2012, 338 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Gemma is thirty-seven and over the dating scene.  She's perfectly happy with her busy life as a personal chef, working with six very different clients.  Lex and a client she calls Mr. Tuesday love comfort food, Willa needs to lose weight but is very skeptical and hates dieting, a Russian family whose patriarch may or may not be a mob boss, a typically wealthy Georgetown family, and the Van Houghtens, a family suffering hungrily because Mrs. Van Houghten claims to be allergic to anything and everything.  Cooking is predictable but that is a comfort to Gemma, whose life is becoming more and more unpredictable.  She's thrown for a major curve and will have to rely on her friends, her strength, and her food to keep her head above water.

The Forgotten Garden

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton

Pan Books: 2008, 648 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

This story takes place over three generations and each chapter alternates between them.  It revolves around the mystery of the birth of Nell and her mother's life and her granddaughter's quest to find the truth.  The reader is taken on a journey to discover Nell's family's past and how she came to be adopted and who her true parents were.  I enjoyed the story and the many layers of secrets that were slowly uncovered between the different points in time.

Bad Monkey

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Bad Monkey

Carl Hiaasen

Knopf: 2012, 317 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Andrew Yancey is a former Key West police detective who is reassigned to Health Inspector after an unfortunate incident involving his girlfriend's husband and a handheld vacuum.  When an arm is found by a tourist on a fishing excursion, Yancey sees this as his ticket back onto the force.  The unofficial investigation takes him to Miami and the Bahamas where he encounters a poncho-clad real estate developer, a kinky medical examiner, a voodoo witch, and the titular monkey, who retired to the islands after starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.  While I'm not generally a Hiaasen fan, I think his audiobooks are ideal for road trips.  They are light and entertaining, not requiring too much of your attention, and are humorous enough to appeal to a wide-range of travel companions.  

The Light Between Oceans

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Light Between Oceans

M.L. Stedman

Scribner: 2012, 343 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

The Light Between Oceans follows the life of a lighthouse keeper, his relationship with his wife, the solitude of living remotely, and their desire for a child.  It is a feel good story, and I don't want to give it away at all, but I liked the writing style and would recommend it, although the premise was a bit far fetched.  I suppose it could happen, but it's doubtful.  I think it will make a great movie and look forward to its release later this year.

Brooklyn

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Brooklyn

Colm Tóibín

Scribner: 2009, 262 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

Eilis Lacey changes her life in the 1950s by leaving her family in a small town in Ireland for work in America.  This coming of age story is set in Brooklyn, New York, and allows the reader to follow Eilis's struggle to fit into society with other immigrants and Americans.  She struggles through being homesick, through her first love, and her friendships with other women.  She makes choices, sometimes that she comes to second guess, but she is strong and lives with her decisions.

The Hangman's Daughter

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Hangman's Daughter

Oliver Pötzsch

Ullstein Taschenbuchvlg: 2008, 448 pages

English version published by AmazonCrossing in 2010

Reviewed by Jessie Park

The first in the Hangman's Daughter series, the historical fiction novel is set in Germany in 1659.  Jakob Kuisl comes from a long line of executioners; he himself is the current hangman in the town of Schongau.  When a young boy is fished out of the river, dying not from drowning but from a brutal attack, the people notice a crude tattoo on his shoulder.  The townspeople are convinced that it is a witch's mark and that the local midwife murdered him.  Jakob is not convinced and neither is the young physician Simon or Magdalena, Jakob's headstrong daughter.  As more children are found slaughtered with the same mark on their shoulders, the main characters race against the clock in order to save the midwife and save the town from the hysteria that will surly bring a bloodbath if it is not stopped.  Readers should be aware that there is violence, including scenes of torture but it is not excessively gory.

Girl Waits with Gun

Cover Retrieved from Goodreads

Girl Waits with Gun

Amy Stewart

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2015, 416 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

For the three Kopp sisters, Constance, Norma, and Fleurette, a trip to town has serious consequences after their buggy is struck by a vehicle driven by local silk factory owner Henry Kaufman.  When Constance attempts to collect $50 from Kaufman to pay for the damages, the situation quickly escalates.  Before long, the Kopp sister are receiving threats from Kaufman and his shady associates by "brick mail" (a brick thrown through their window) threatening to kidnap Fleurette.  In addition to providing the Kopp sisters with surveillance and pistols, the local sheriff also enlists Constance's help in bringing the men involved to justice, a task few women would have dared in 1914.

Happily Ever Ninja

Cover Retrieved from Goodreads

Happily Ever Ninja (Knitting in the City #5)

Penny Reid

Caped Publishing: 2016, 376 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Penny Reid's Knitting in the City series is set in present day Chicago and revolves around seven women who meet once a week to drink wine and knit.  Each book in the series focuses on a particular member of the group.  They are can be read as a stand alone but there are little novellas that are recommended, especially #4.75 Ninja at First Sight which tells the backstory of our two main characters.

Fiona and Greg have been married for fourteen years and have two young children.  Husband Greg is often away months at a time for work and Fiona manages...perhaps a little too well.  She's bogging herself down but never shows any weakness and Greg feels like he's not needed when she feels the exact opposite.  When an emergency strikes the family and pushes Fiona into a more leading role, Greg is unsure of how to handle it.  This is a story about how difficult marriage can be, even if both people are still desperately in love with one another.  While that sounds dramatic, the book is actually quite humorous and a bit action-y as well!

Orphan Train

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Orphan Train

Christina Baker Kline

William Morrow Paperbacks: 2013, 278 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

This book skips back and forth between the first-person narrative of Niamh and the third-person narrative of Molly.  Niamh is a young Irish immigrant who boards an orphan train to find a new family in the Midwest after she is orphaned in New York City around 1930.  Molly is a foster kid in modern day Maine.  In order to fulfill a community service requirement, she begins helping 91-year-old Vivian clean out her attic.  As Vivian and Molly spend more time together, they discover that they have more in common than either suspected.  

Go Set a Watchman

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee

HarperCollins: 2015, 278 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Go Set a Watchman follows Jean Louise "Scout" Finch as she returns to Macomb, Alabama, for her annual two week vacation from her life in New York.  A lot has changed since her childhood.  Most significantly, her father's steadfast morality seems, in Jean Louise's opinion, to have begun to waver.  Atticus was her touchstone, the one thing in her life that she could always count on, and viewing him as a flawed man, like any other, shakes her to her very core. 

Nature Girl

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Nature Girl

Carl Hiaasen

Alfred A. Knopf: 2006, 306 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Nature Girl is a satire set in Florida that features a comical cast of bizarre characters.  After being interrupted at her dinner table by a sales call one too many times, Honey Santana goes to extreme lengths to teach the uncouth telemarketer, Boyd Shreave, a lesson.  Certainly her obsession has nothing to do with the fact that she's off her meds.  Meanwhile, Sammy Tigertail, a one-half Seminole Indian, is on the lam after a tourist dies of a heart attack while on Sammy's airboat tour of the Everglades.  Add in Honey's stalker, Louis Piejack, and her ex-husband, Perry Skinner, set the whole thing on a remote Everglades island, and you've got the makings of a standard Hiaasen story.  While the story was definitely over the top at times, it was entertaining, and I will definitely keep the author in mind next time I'm looking for a light beach read.

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Miniaturist

Jessie Burton

Ecco: 2014, 400 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Nella knows that she is in for a culture shock when she leaves her family's farm and arrives on the doorstep of her new husband's home in Amsterdam.  Living in the seventeenth century, 18 year old Nella's future was bleak when her father died, leaving her family penniless.  When a wealthy Amsterdam trader asks for her hand in marriage, she fantasizes about her glamorous new life in the city.  However, the reality proves quite different when she arrives at her new home and finds a husband who has virtually no interest in her, a sister-in-law who runs the household with an iron fist, and household servants who take too many liberties for Nella's taste.  While the prosperous trader seems like the model Amsterdamer, Nella soon discovers that each of the house's inhabitants has dangerous secrets that threaten them all.

The Billionaire Takes a Bride

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Billionaire Takes a Bride (Billionaires and Bridesmaids #3) 

Jessica Clare

Intermix: 2015, 256 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

While this book is the third in the Billionaires and Bridesmaids series (which itself is a spin-off series from her Billionaire Boys Club series), readers do not have to read the books in order.  This story focuses on Sebastian Cabral, a billionaire whose family is obsessed with being famous and filming everything for their reality show, The Cabral Empire.  Sebastian wants nothing to do with it and needs a way out of it.  Chelsea is a soap-making roller derby gal who has suffered a severe trauma in her past.  She hates being alone and now her best friend is moving away.  Chance throws them together but Sebastian and Chelsea agree to enter into a marriage of convenience in order to help them both.  But as time passes, Sebastian and Chelsea both wonder whether their sham marriage is more real than fake.  Normally Clare's books are fun, sexy (note: there is strong sexual content) reads but this one is a little different.  Readers should be aware that certain conversations could be possible triggers for those who have experienced sexual assault but there is more humor than sadness in the book.  

Landline

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Landline

Rainbow Rowell

St. Martin's Press: 2014, 310 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Georgie and Neal's relationship was never easy.  While they loved each other deeply, her career as a writer for television comedies was always at odds with Neal's more reclusive nature.  But when Georgie had to forgo the family's annual Christmas visit to Neal's parents in Nebraska to focus on a new pilot she was pitching, she was devastated when Neal packed up their two daughters and went without her.  While spending the holidays at her mom's house in her childhood bedroom, Georgie discovers an unexpected way to reflect on the Christmas many years ago when Neal had proposed to her, and she wonders if maybe Neal wouldn't have been better off if it had never happened.  Landline provides an honest and genuine look at how relationships (and the people in them) change while still remaining the same.

My Cousin Rachel

Cover retrieved from Wikipedia

My Cousin Rachel

Daphne du Maurier

Doubleday: 1951, 352 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

**Warning - this review contains spoilers!

Philip Ashley is heir to his older cousin, Ambrose.  They both live simple lives until Ambrose marries an Italian woman named Rachel.  He dies suddenly and Philip is set to inherit his estate when he turns 25, in less than a year.  Philip had received mysterious notes from his cousin and had went to check on him in Florence.  He was too late and Rachel was gone as well.  Upon his return to England, Rachel came to his house.  No arrangements had been made for her to have any property or money.  She stays with Philip and over time, he falls in love with her and eventually gives her everything, but she does not return his affection.  The story had the reader wondering if she is sincere or if she possibly murdered Ambrose and is money-hungry.  The question is never fully answered as she has an accident in the end, and dies, and all the property and money revert back to Philip.  I enjoyed the thrill of the book, but did feel that it dragged on and the story could have been told in much less time.

The Girl on the Train

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Riverhead Books: 2015, 336 pages

Reviewed by Ellen Dickman

Many people compared this book to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I found the character development of the three female characters to be very engaging.  My sister said that when she was reading this book she felt "sick."  Indeed, the characters are flawed.  However, this is why the book was enjoyable because one could relate to the characters.  The fragile mind of Rachel was particularly compelling and so was the author's examination of how one can easily confuse reality and fantasy.