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4 Stars • "The Change" by Kirsten Miller follows three women in their late forties—Nessa, Harriett, and Jo—who gain unique powers in midlife. In Mattauk, Long Island, they unite to solve a teenage girl‘s murder, ignored by police, uncovering a dark network of privilege. Part mystery, part fantasy, it‘s a fierce tale of justice and empowerment.

#TheChange #KirstenMiller #Bookish

One of those books where I want to say “why did I wait so long to read this” but I actually read it at the exact right time. I read this to revisit an #AuldLangSpine list from a couple years ago. 3 women of menopausal age have powers and give some terrible men their comeuppance. Nonviolence is a strong value of mine but this just felt good to read, especially this last week.

#12booksof2024 @Andrew65

I loved this! 3 women come into their "powers" as they enter menopause. Harriet discovers her power with nature & plants and turns her suburban home into a witch's garden. Jo's rage & hot flashes give her unusual physical strength. Nessa sees & hear ghosts of murdered young girls looking for someone to avenge them. These women join forces to find & punish the murderer of young girls in their small, afluent community. Empowering and entertaining!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ After reading, and loving Lula Dean‘s Little Library of Banned Books, I needed more from Miller. In a small town, three women on the cusp, or in the midst, of menopause, are brought together by their new strengths. This, I loved. So powerful and creative. I was not, however, a fan of the missing girls plot point. There was just too much going on.

Jo (the one with muscle), Nessa (the one with intel), and Harriet (the one with secret weapons) won't back down when local officials refuse to believe a string of deaths of young women are anything more than drug overdoses, so they take on the task of looking into it themselves.
#LitsyLoveReads
#ReadAway2024 #MarvellousMarch Readathon @Andrew65

Very good! #readyourkindle @CBee

Love love love! I loved the characters, I loved the story, and I loved everything about this book. I had to annotate this book because of how many things went straight into my heart. I love women empowerment. I love that it's saying women can talk about bad things men have done to them without saying every man is bad. We know that. But, we're still allowed to say the bad things that were done to us by men. And, so much more. 5/5!

Thank you so much for the birthday gifts Amy! I'm really looking forward to reading this book, and I love the notecards! Thank you so much for thinking of me, my sweet friend! @AmyG

I picked up this book based on the eye catching cover. A quick breeze through the synopsis told me I'd probably enjoy it or should at least give it a shot. So I did and even after a few chapters I still wasn't 100% certain if I was going to really like it enough to stick with it til the end. But I did and I did that too, and boy oh boy am I ever glad! ⤵️

💜💜💜

How to tell your eyes are tired and you should probably stop reading? You read this chapter title not 1x, not 2x, but 3x before you read it correctly. According to the author the chapter is titled "The Purification of Harriett Osborne". However, were you to have asked me a few moments ago I would have told you unequivocally that it was infact titled "The Putrification of Harriett Osborne". ? I kept thinking something didn't sound quite right. ?

1. Aside from going to work, I pretty much just sit at home since Jon died last year. However, I actually have tentative plans with one of our friends for a drink later this week which would be nice because I haven't seen any friends since August. 😞🤞

2. Tagged.

3. Quiet and Empathetic

#MotivationalMonday @Cupcake12

I find it ironic that when I was reading Rock Paper Scissors earlier today "schadenfreude" was a word used by the author. It's a word I've heard before, but by no means common (in my experience anyways). Hence my surprise to stumble across it again just now, for the second time today, in my current [tagged] read. ??

Keep seeing this one pop up, and it sounds intriguing. So... Here goes nothing. 😸

@Andrew65 #weekendreading #kindleunlimited #currentread

Harriett is basically a witch, her gardening a superpower; Jo's strength is powered by red-hot rage; Nessa has the sight and can commune with the dead. All in their late 40s, these women team up to solve the murders of nameless teen girls, despite indifference and opposition from the local authorities. Light in tone but dealing with some dark subject matter, this book resonated deeply with me, a 50-year-old chaos gardener. Good stuff.

"No one had seen the woman who lived at 256 Woodland Drive since early November."

This one looks like it's going to be a lot of fun!

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

If you want a book that speaks to "older" women, female empowerment, a bit of herbalism and magic, and a murder mystery thrown in this is the book for you!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ There were things about this fantastical feminist revenge novel that I liked, but about 2/3 through it sort of jumped the shark for me. Bodies kept piling up and it went from fantastical to sort of ridiculous and got a little too heavy handed in making its points. Somewhere between a soft Pick and a So-So.

We wrapped up Christmas yesterday and it was delightfully bookish! I am so excited for the Aardvark gift membership that was in my stocking! Plus, a gorgeous edition of P&P with recipes from Martha Stewart!

Also, I do not know how to feel that my husband got me a book about women gaining powers when they hit perimenopause.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
This was so much fun!
It is about terrible things, but these three women are kick ass vigilantes. Sometimes revenge is very cathartic to read.
And Harriet is the best.
🚬 🐝 🪴 🐳 👻
#bookspin

Such an empowering book! A group of women discover they have powers once they are middle aged, find out that there are quite a few girls that have gone missing in their town. They band together to find who is at fault. I loved these strong female characters! Such badasses. Very inspirational story that I will recommend especially to women 40+.

My Halloween read.

This was a book of magic mixed with feminism, three woman each with different gifts come together to solve disturbing disappearances of young girls in a beach town, definitely some trigger warnings for violence, but overall a good book
I had planned different books for #outstandingoctober but this was a audio so it worked , two books read !

This was such an amazing book, honestly. I loved these badass women. Especially Harriett. I want Harriett to adopt me. I love her 😭♥️

#ScarathlonphotoChallenge

I just finished a funeral scene in my current audiobook (on my #Scarathlon TBR) & there was discussion about the cardboard coffin they used & bodies going back to the earth. One of characters insisted on it before planting a very poisonous Angel‘s Trumpet “tree” above the grave. (BTW these women are not messing around!) ⚰️🌱

+6 points for Team #SpookyGhostClub 🖤👻🖤

October #bookspin is The Change and the #doublespin is a creature feature book.
@thearomaofbooks

#ReadingBracket2023

Well, not the best month- The Change wasn‘t a five ⭐️ read, but was the best of the bunch for September. Oh, and I hope I‘m not the only one that has a hard time getting the book pic to be that teeny tiny!

3 women - approaching mid-life and all feeling unmoored for different reasons - form a friendship founded on a tragic death and their sheer rage at where they find themselves. When I say rage it‘s roaring off these pages and I enjoyed every minute of it! Only complaints - it‘s too long, some of the thriller elements caused a definite eye roll and it‘s the second book I‘ve read recently littered with mistakes, which, I admit, gives me the rage!

This was an excellent story with STRONG female characters. If you love Naomi Alderman's The Power, you will love this. I couldn't put it down!

Ended up loving this one! At about the halfway point I thought it was getting long, but I really ended up enjoying it. I have to love a book where something wonderful comes out of menopause!

Started this yesterday. I‘m about halfway and it‘s starting to feel a bit long. I am loving the idea of menopausal women becoming empowered and kicking some ass, but here and there a lecture is inserted that pulls me out of the story. These women are awesome, although Harriet is my favorite! Back to my book…..

Well then! All your fantasies of retribution and burning down the sick rich pricks are right here in The Change. Women over 40 doing what needs to be done, as we do, executing justice when the legal system fails because... patriarchy.

Some parts teetered on cliche but I didn't mind. The second I felt an eye roll, the next scene hit all the points every one of us over 40 has dealt with in some form and delivered a satisfying heck yeah moment.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Oh. My. Goodness. This book. Top 5 books I‘ve read. FANTASTIC.
•
Menopause means metamorphosis for Nessa, Jo, and Harriett. Nessa hears the voices of the dead; Jo‘s rage can be channeled into energy and Harriett‘s green thumb is more powerful than the average gardener‘s. When the body of a young girl shows up, the three must use their powers to solve the case. Gives a hard look at society and what people of power can get away with.

OMG THIS BOOK. Things I love:
•commentary on women‘s status in society
•strong female friendships
•NO FEAR in sharing their gifts/powers with each other

This book isn‘t about the acquisition of powers, but how Jo, Nessa, and Harriet use them to solve three murders.

If you like strong, female characters, a little magic, and true crime. I 1000% suggest it.

While I enjoyed the premise - women coming into powers at middle age and kicking ass- the book felt way too long.

I loved this book! Murder mystery, awful men, bad-ass middle-aged women with powers, revenge…perfection.

Three women come into their own during midlife, all for a greater cause in this female-empowered mystery novel. Though I did enjoy the “out there” plot/characters and appreciate the female-centric storytelling, there was a large focus on men. Horrible men. Which took away from the celebration of women, a bit. Also, this felt like a mix between the Jeffry Epstein debacle and the book Lost Girls (tagged👇) solved by vengeful women with powers.

Wow. Poor effort by me this month. Only 6. No bingos. But I did finish my #bookspin and #doublespin. And I read 3/4 of Zero Fail. On to a more productive April! (I hope 🤞)

I loved this book about strong women with a bit of a mystical side. The writing was excellent and the story was captivating with plenty of twists and suspense. I did feel like it was a little long and could have been cut down a bit. But, beneath the mystery was a powerful story about friendship and strength and I think this was beautiful in a lot of ways.

“No one had seen the woman who lived at 246 Woodland Drive since early November.” #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

I didn‘t love-love this as so many others have, but I can‘t put my finger on why it was a softer pick than I thought it would be. 🤔 I found myself interested, but not always eager to know what was coming next in the plot. Still, as revenge scenarios go this is a doozie and I enjoyed the ride!

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Fabulous!!!!

@LaraReads What an amazing box of goodies! You really spoiled me! I love everything. The books, the coffee, the tea (so fun) the tote (I love a tote!), the cookies (can‘t wait to dig in). The mug is perfect. There‘s so much I could barely get it all in the picture. Thank you so much! #muglove23

Thank you for organizing such a fun swap @Cinfhen and @TheKidUpstairs

Many thanks to @monalyisha for hosting #AuldLangSpine it was great fun! I love your list too and would pick the tagged book!

Thanks for this opportunity @monalyisha I really enjoy #auldlangspine
I've been intrigued by The Change and almost added to my #botm box yesterday but didn't!

Strong start to my #12bookchallenge! Easily a 5 star book! ✨Murder mystery meets feminist revenge plot with a side of magic realism (my fave!) Absolutely loved it, loved the characters, loved the twists! Could see this being turned into a badass tv series, the dialogue was super witty and realistic.