Top Ten Tuesday – My Next 10 Reads Randomly Grabbed from My Bookshelves
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf. I tweaked this topic a little by only pulling from my unread shelves. I decided to use this as kind of a “TBR jar” moment, where whatever ten books I pulled would be the next ten books I already own that I’ll be reading. This obviously doesn’t include ARCs, which I’ll still be reading, but these are the next ten I’m tackling in my ongoing challenge to read books I’ve bought and ignored over the years. Full disclosure – I did cheat in one instance. I actually did pull a different book from the Outlander series but since I want to keep reading them in order, I put that one back in favor of the one that is next in the series for me. I’m actually pretty excited to get to most of these, especially Wolfsong, By a Thread, and Maame.
* * * * *
My Next 10 Reads Randomly Grabbed from My Bookshelves
3. GROWN by Tiffany D. Jackson
4. TRUE COLORS by Kristin Hannah
5. DRUMS OF AUTUMN by Diana Gabaldon
6. THE FINAL GAMBIT by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
7. THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET by Catriona Ward
9. TERMS AND CONDITIONS by Lauren Asher
10. MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
* * * * *
Have you read any of these?
Reviews: BEAR WITH ME NOW & JASMINE AND JAKE ROCK THE BOAT
Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. It was gloomy and rainy here all weekend so I spent most of it napping and reading. Today I’m back to share my thoughts on two April releases from Berkley Romance. One is a solid debut, while the other is another entertaining read from an author I’ve been enjoying the past couple of years.
Bear With Me Now Goodreads Author: Katie Shepard
Publication Date: April 25, 2023
Publisher: Berkley Romance
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Bear With Me Now is Katie Shepard’s debut novel. and it’s one wild ride!
When we first meet Teagan, he has just been released from the hospital after suffering a severe panic attack. His sister Sloane thinks some quality time out in nature is just the thing to help Teagan clear his head and so takes him to a wilderness retreat in Montana. Teagan immediately decides he isn’t comfortable with group therapy and instead decides to wander off and enjoy a solitary hike. It is here where he is nearly eaten by a bear and where he is saved from this fate by the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, who just happens to be the retreat’s handywoman, Darcy.
Darcy and Teagan hit it off right away and he starts spending most of his time working out in nature on the grounds with her. There are lots of rom-com worthy moments as they get to know each other better, including plenty of witty banter that often had me laughing out loud.
The novel has plenty of serious moments too though as it explores Teagan’s panic disorder, including what is causing his panic attacks as well as the embarrassment he feels about them. Somehow everyone at the retreat thinks Teagan is in rehab for alcoholism, for example, and instead of setting the record straight, he instead decides to hide the truth from them all, including Darcy. The lie spirals to the extent that he actually hires Darcy to come home to NYC with him as his sober companion. While their personal relationship heats up here, it becomes clear that Teagan’s lie is unsustainable. I was not a big fan of the deception anyway so I was rooting for him to come clean to Darcy before he wrecked everything between them.
Both Teagan and Darcy are immensely likeable characters, and I liked how Shepard allowed their vulnerabilities to shine through, making them all the more realistic and relatable. While Teagan is struggling with his mental health, Darcy is also struggling to get her life on track, thanks to her parents wrecking her credit, her ex stealing her car, and most importantly, thanks to dyslexia making it nearly impossible for her to finish her college degree and land her dream job as a park ranger. I loved that the bond Teagan and Darcy forged was strong enough that they each were more focused on helping the other in spite of their own problems.
With its blend of heartfelt and hilarious moments, Bear With Me Now is a fantastic debut and I look forward to reading more from Katie Shepard. 3.5 STARS
Jasmine and Jake Rock the Boat Goodreads
Author: Sonya Lalli
Publication Date: April 18, 2023
Publisher: Berkley Romance
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I’m always in the mood for a good enemies to lovers story and Sonya Lalli did not let me down with her latest contemporary romance, Jasmine and Jake Rock the Boat.
When we first meet Jasmine, her life is kind of a mess. She has just broken up with her loser boyfriend for the third time and has moved in with a friend. She has a good job but somehow still has no money, and as much as she would love to have a close relationship with her parents, that situation is a mess too. Her parents, as well as most of their South Asian community, view Jasmine as a bad girl and openly criticize her life choices and her “old maid” status since she is over 30 and has yet to land a husband. In what can only have been a moment of insanity, Jasmine agrees to go on an Alaskan cruise with her parents and dozens of others from their community, not realizing that it’s actually a cruise for seniors and that she’ll be surrounded by meddling Aunties and Uncles at every turn. The only other person even close to her age on the trip is Jake, a handsome but arrogant young man who is traveling with his dad.
Lalli gets me invested in this couple immediately by revealing that Jake and Jasmine have history. Jasmine actually used to babysit Jake when they were younger. Now Jake is all grown up and he is clearly attracted to his former babysitter. Reverse age gap romance anyone? Jasmine finds Jake to be incredibly annoying and tries to avoid him as much as possible at first, but being stuck on a ship, their paths cross way more than she would like. Although they are initially reluctant to hang out, they soon realize that they enjoy each other’s company and have more in common than they thought. I thought their scenes together were really sweet and that they made a pretty great team.
What I really enjoyed about this story is that even though it’s technically a romance, there’s still a pretty major personal journey for Jasmine. While Jasmine can admit that she really is attracted to Jake, she fights the idea of getting into a relationship with him. She has too much going on in her own life and really needs to sort herself out rather than just jump from one man to the next. Jasmine’s journey on this cruise is more about finding herself and redefining her relationship with her parents and her community than it is about finding love, and I loved the growth she experienced throughout the story.
Full of heart, wonderful character development, and a sweet slow burn enemies to lovers romance, Jasmine and Jake Rock the Boat makes for a delightful read. 4 STARS
Thriller Thursday Reviews: The Maid’s Diary & The Suspect
Hi Everyone! It’s me Sharon, I hope everyone is doing well. I know it has been a while since I posted Thriller Thursday reviews, I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago and then it took another week for my brain to come back from vacation mode. 😀 But I am back and happy to share my thoughts on a couple of psychological thrillers I have read; Loreth Anne White’s, The Maid’s Diary and Kathryn Croft’s, The Suspect.
The Maid's Diary Goodreads Author: Loreth Anne White
Publication Date: March 1, 2023
Publisher: Montlake
I have loved all the books I have read by Loreth Anne White and I am happy to report that her newest book, The Maid’s Diary, was right up there with all her others.
Kit Darling is a maid with a snooping addiction. She cleans the homes of the wealthy and the wealthy always have something to hide and Kit loves finding their secrets. It’s a harmless addiction really, that is, until Kit starts cleaning the house of new clients Daisy and Jon Rittenberg. Kit uncovers a very dark secret they are keeping, and this makes Kit dangerous to them. It also makes Daisy and Jon dangerous to Kit as well. Someone is willing to kill to keep this secret.
Homicide detective Mallory “Mal” Van Alst is called to a luxury home known as the Glass House, where she finds evidence of a violent attack. There is so much blood at the scene there is no way the victim can still be alive. The only problem is there is no body, the owners of the house are gone, and their maid is missing. The only witness is an elderly woman who lives across the street. She was woken up by the screams coming from the Glass House and she saw two people carrying a rug rolled up with what looked like a body in it. As Mal starts her investigation, she uncovers the secrets of everyone involved and she soon realizes that nothing is quite as it seems.
The story is told from the POVs of Daisy, Jon, Mal, and Kit via pages from “The Maid’s Diary.” There is not a lot I can say about this book without giving anything away and I think it is best to go into this story blind.
The book starts from the POV of an unknown female who has been drugged and is in the backseat of a car. We then get alternating timeline chapters. Mal’s chapters take place in the present as she works on the investigation and tries to solve the mystery of what happened at the Glass House. Daisy and Jon’s chapters start two weeks prior and are titled “XX days before the murder” and progress up to the night at the Glass House. In between we get pages of Kit’s maid’s diary. I love how White presented the story this way. Each chapter gradually connected the main characters, as well as throwing in twists and turns as secrets were revealed.
Mal was my favorite character and I loved following the evidence as she uncovered it. I thought I knew where things were going to go and then something new was uncovered that took things in a new direction. I also loved finding out the secrets of Daisy, Jon, and Kit, and oh, what secrets they were!
If you are looking for a psychological thriller full of twists and turns and that will keep you guessing until the end, then I recommend The Maid’s Diary. 4 stars
The Suspect Goodreads Author: Kathryn Croft
Publication Date: February 6, 2023
Publisher: Bookouture
Kathryn Croft’s newest psychological thriller, The Suspect, follows one woman’s determination to uncover the truth of her mother’s murder.
When Jess was two years old, her mother Lori was murdered while they were in the park. Jess has no memory of who killed her mother. The police had a suspect, Nathan French, but there was not enough evidence to convict him. Now twenty-eight years later, Nathan approaches Jess in the street and tells her that he did not kill her mother and has proof of who did. Nathan wants to meet up again with Jess and give her the proof, but before they can meet again, Nathan is murdered. Jess does not know what to believe now. Could the man that she thought killed her mother really be innocent? When Jess searches for answers, she starts to uncover information that changes everything she thought she knew, and she realizes that the person that murdered her mother is closer to home than she imagined.
This book is told from the POV of Jess and Lori in alternating timelines. Lori’s POV starts the year before she was murdered and Jess’ POV is in the present as she searches for answers to who killed her mother. I really liked having the story presented this way, as each timeline brings us closer to solving the mystery of who killed Lori. I also enjoyed both of the timelines equally.
The story opens with the day Lori died. Right from the beginning I liked Lori and as the book progressed and I learned more about her, my love for her grew. Lori’s mother and sister were not all that loving with her. Lori had been her father’s favorite and her sister resented her for that, so their relationship was very strained. Lori loved Jess’ father, Danny, and they had a great relationship, until Lori found out a secret he was keeping. When Lori found out his secret she broke things off with him and was planning on moving away. I loved how even though everyone seemed to be against her, Lori still pushed forward and was determined to make a great life for Jess. She was a great mother to Jess and it broke my heart knowing that as I was reading she was getting closer to being killed.
Jess had the same determination as her mother did. When she met Nathan in the street, it opened up all the emotions about her mother’s murder that she tried to keep at bay. I loved how she was determined to find out what really happened to her mother no matter where it took her.
As the story progresses, the suspect pool grew. I was all over the place on who I thought killed Lori. I loved all of the twists and turns The Suspect had. I think Kathryn Croft did an excellent job of weaving a great mystery, with an ending that I did not see coming. 4 stars