3-22-23: My 31st finished book of 2023! LOVED this clever story! Ernest Cunningham is our narrator and star of this mystery set at a mountain retreat in Australia with his murderous family. Funny and surprising at every turn this story takes you on a wild ride as people start dying and Ernest plays detective to figure it out. Everyone has something to hide here. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣3️⃣1️⃣

3-20-23: My 30th book of 2023! Four friends, living in a retirement community, like to look at old cold case files and try to solve them. Then a local developer winds up dead and The Thursday Murder Club finally has their first live case. The four friends are great characters-Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrihim, and the twists come at you at full speed. There is much to solve and with their help the police don‘t have to work as hard.

3–17-23: My 29th finished book of 2023! I highly recommend reading the first book in the series right before this one since it picks up where the first leaves off. Unfortunately, I read the first book, Ninth House, in April of 2020 so I didn‘t remember a ton of what happened. Darlington is gone to another realm and Alex, Dawes and Turner must figure out how to breach this realm to retrieve him. Enter demons and vampires set in Yale University.

3-10-23: My 28th finished book of 2023! As usual, Ellis has written a long and drawn out sexually explicit and violent story. Using himself as the main character, Bret, a senior at the Buckley school in LA, tells the story of his final year of school in 1981/82, and the serial killer who hunted girls and tortured his friends. Well written as always but very difficult to read without cringing. Some of it is true just not sure which parts.

3-4-23: My 27th finished book of 2023! Best friends, Emily and Chess embark on a summer holiday in Italy at Villa Aestas in Orvieto. Back in 1974, the villa was the site of a murder during the time a famous rockstar and his friends Pierce, Mari, Lara and Johnnie were staying. Now, Emily, trying to write her next novel, starts to dig into that murder, finding the book written by Mari during that stay. Secrets come to light now and in 1974. ⬇️

3-2-23: My 26th finished book of 2023! Jake Hayes is missing after a fight with his wife Nina. Lily Scott a friend of Nina‘s, thinks she is the last person to see Jake before he went missing. She tells her husband Christian about their encounter and he decides that they have to remain silent about this information. The story is told from Nina and Christian‘s point of views. Nina is searching for the truth and Christian is hiding it.

2-28-23: My February Book Wrap Up! 13 books! Really enjoyed all of these but my favorite was They‘re Going to Love You. That got 5 stars! ⭐️📖🎊🥰

2-28-23: My 25th finished book of 2023! Not my favorite of his but I still made it through. Louise has learned her parents are dead. She travels back to Charleston to help her brother, Mark, set up the funeral and sell the house. Problem is, she and Mark don‘t get along. And the house doesn‘t seem right. There are too many dolls and puppets cluttering it‘s rooms. Mark and Louise have to agree on how to manage the strangeness. Creepy and violent.

2-25-23: My 24th finished book of 2023! I loved this one! Carlisle, a ballet dancer from a family of ballet dancers, it too tall to make it even though she has a beautiful facility about her. Set in 2016 but reverting back to the 80s and the AIDS crisis time period, Carlisle will spend her summers with her father and his partner James at the Banks Street apartment in NYC. When James asks Carlisle for a huge favor it will backfire ⬇️

2-24-23: My 23rd finished book of 2023! Book 2 in the It Ends With Us series. In book 1 we meet Lily who falls for Ryle but Lily has a serious past with Atlas. Book 2 picks up where 1 left off. Lily and Atlas are finally reconnecting but Ryle is going to be a problem. Don‘t want to give anything away but I will say it was nice to revisit these characters and get to see them get the closure they deserve. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣2️⃣3️⃣

2-22-23: My 22nd finished book of 2023! What a bizarre and graphic story. Trigger warning: suicide. Ralph and Abby move in with Ralph‘s mom, Laura, to help her through a deep depression. When things don‘t work out and Laura passes, Ralph becomes certain she is haunting him. Abby must save Ralph from spiraling into a similar depression and get out from under Laura‘s ghost while trying to start a family of her own. Very well written. Love the cover.

2-21-23: My 21st finished book of 2023! I loved this story. Two timelines, England 1898-1907 and California 2006-2007. In 1898, Evelyn embarks on a happy marriage to William Aubrey but things turn sour quickly. And Evelyn must find a way out. In 2006, Abigail, who lost her mother at 14, finds a picture that changes her whole life‘s trajectory and sends her on a fact finding mission to England to learn of her ancestry.

2-18-23: My 20th finished book of 2023! Beautifully written story about a woman named Joan Egan who reconnects with the daughter she gave up 30 years ago. Emma needs her Mom‘s help so she reaches out and this creates a ripple effect in Joan‘s family. This takes place in Dublin in 1996 and in flashback to 1966. Joan and Emma finally meet against the wishes of Joan‘s family and it changes everything she has known. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣2️⃣0️⃣

2-16-23: My 19th finished book of 2023! Queen Elizabeth is at it again. The murder of an art conservator turned housekeeper at Buckingham Palace has the Queen and her assistant personal secretary, Rozie, trying to find out whodunit. Book 2 in the Her Majesty Investigates series is just as fun as book 1. The Queen keeps everyone on their toes throughout and always stays one step ahead. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣9️⃣

2-13-23: My 18th finished book of 2023! A look into the lives of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, both female poets active in the 50s and 60s. Both suffered from mental illness and died by their own hand. This book travels through time to their upbringings, marriages and families, writing years and finally their deaths and shows the similarities and differences between these two talented writers. Very interesting and sad. I am a fan of both.

2-11-23: My 17th finished book of 2023! 1993 in Manhattan‘s East Village. A young man named Jonathan who plays bass in a punk band called The Shits, and has recently changed his name to Jack Shit, is searching for his missing bass, stolen by his band mate and frontman Earl, who happens to be a heroin addict. While trying to get ready for what might be their last show, Jack and his mates search for Earl and find he is in serious trouble. Chaotic.

2-9-23: My 16th finished book of 2023! Book 2 in the Ash McKenna series. Ash, an amateur PI has left NYC and landed in Portland where he is the unofficial bouncer of a strip club called Naturals. When one of the dancers, Crystal, asks for his help to find her missing daughter Rose, Ash gets pulled into a series of situations that include a man with a chicken mask, a heroin addict, a drug cartel, a Congressman plus a little romance. Good series.

2-8-23: My 15th finished book of 2023! It‘s February 1954 and the Korean War has ended but those that live in Seoul are still reeling from the devastation. A young translator named Alice J. Kim is tasked with helping Marilyn Monroe when she comes to visit and perform for the American soldiers. Alice is tormented by things that happened during the war and those she has lost but the approachable Marilyn offers her kindness and saves her.

2-7-23: My 14th finished book of 2023! Family saga about triplets born via IVF in the 80s to a mother who just wants everyone to love one another and a father so racked with guilt from an accident that occurred in college that he retreats into the world of art for solace. Spanning from 1972 through 2017, we follow the lives of the triplets who can‘t stand one another, and get introduced to the “latecomer” who brings it all together.

2-2-23: My 13th finished book of 2023! Loved the whole idea of this book. Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie & Helen have been working together for 40 years for an organization called The Museum. They were trained as deadly assassins in the late 70s and were a force to be reckoned with. Now they are 60 and being forced to retire. At an all expense paid cruise to celebrate retirement they realize they are the marks this time. Women kicking ass is fun!

1-31-23: January Book Wrap Up! This photo is missing the last two books I read, the tagged book Sign Here and Our Missing Hearts. Loved both just didn‘t have room in the collage. I‘ll work on that for next month. 📖🎉#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣ books read. 🙌🏼

1-31-23: My 12th finished book of 2023! This was a fast, solid read. Peyote Trip works in the Deals Department on the 5th floor of Hell. He is waiting for one more Harrison soul to make a complete set. The Harrison family is on their yearly summer retreat at their lake house where a traded occurred 17 years ago, something no one can ever forget. While Pey patiently waits to be called the Harrison‘s start to fall apart. Surprising and touching.

1-29-23: My 11th finished book of 2023! Leslie wrote so freely about his life it was easy to read this in less than 24 hours. A lot of his personal stories about his life were surprising. Growing up as a gay man in Chattanooga, Tennessee sounded difficult but he loved his parents and it seems like they accepted him which is so nice to hear. He does dish on some fun stuff in the entertainment world, as well, and he is very funny while doing it.

1-28-23: Great start! Poor Leslie…gone way too soon. 😢

1-28-23: My 10th finished book of 2023! Bird lives a quiet life with his father but he misses his mother. She had to leave because for the last decade their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of the Crisis which was a violent movement against people of Asian origin, and she is an Asian American poet whose words have started their own movement. She left to save Bird now he must find her.

1-24-23: My 9th finished book of 2023! I feel conflicted about this one. Former piano prodigy, Saskia Kreis returns to her home, the Elf House, after her mother‘s sudden death. The house is her birthright but her mother has bequeathed the estate to Patrick Kintner, an older man that Saskia has a troubled past with. It‘s a well written story but some things happen that don‘t seem realistic and the ending felt abrupt. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣9️⃣

1-21-23: My 8th finished book of 2023! Book 2 in the Arthur Less saga. Arthur, a moderately accomplished novelist is in a steady relationship with Freddy, living in San Francisco. After the death of an old lover occurs, Arthur finds out his home is in peril so he takes on a bunch of literary gigs to help him financially. These gigs take him from the west to the south and back to his birthplace of Delaware while he faces his personal demons.

1-19-23: My 7th finished book of 2023! I adore Mel Brooks. I was raised watching his movies, especially Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and Robin Hood. Reading his story from the beginning was fascinating. How he got into writing as a young man and just climbed that ladder of success. The love story of him and his wife Anne Bancroft is equally compelling. He‘s a funny story teller and a lover of life. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣7️⃣

1-16-23: My 6th finished book of 2023! The Radleys, Peter and Helen, seem to be a normal husband and wife. However, along with their two children, Rowen and Clara, they have one flaw. They happen to be abstaining vampires! The kids don‘t know why they never feel well until one day after a bizarre event, they are finally told. When their uncle comes to town things take a turn and the family has to come to terms with their choices. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣6️⃣

1-13-23: My 5th finished book of 2023! Wow, this book was deeply disturbing. Vera Crowder has been called back to her childhood home, the house her father built, by her dying mother. She is tasked with getting the house in order before her mother dies. In flashback, we learn that a young Vera saw things she shouldn‘t have, things her father did to others. We also learn that Vera‘s mother, Daphne, never loved her. Very creepy and uncomfortable.

1-11-23: My 4th finished book of 2023! I just loved this. I‘m a big fan of Odenkirk. I loved him in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and look forward to seeing him in the new TV show , Lucky Hank on AMC. This memoir was down to earth and very honest about the downfalls of working in the TV/Film industry but he is very humble and funny about his work thus far. Highly recommend if you are into that world. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣4️⃣

1-9-23: My 3rd finished book of 2023! What a lovely story! Lilian is a single mother of 2 daughters having lost her husband in a terrible car accident 4 years earlier. She is an illustrator who has been signed up for a gardening class by her boss to get a feel for vegetables. She attends with her sister and 2 daughters and becomes friends with the class especially Edward the teacher from Amsterdam. Up lifting and funny. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣3️⃣

1-6-23: My 2nd finished book of 2023! A lovely story about a chance meeting on the 88 bus that turns into a search. Frank rides the 88 bus every day for the last 60 years looking for a red headed artist he met one time. When he meets Libby a woman in crisis and looking to change her life around. Once she hears of this search, she jumps in to help Frank and his carer, Dylan find the woman. This is definitely a story about hope. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣2️⃣

1-4-23: My 1st finished book of 2023! What a sad, disturbing book. Jennette was my daughter‘s favorite actress when she was younger. We watched iCarly and Sam & Cat all the time. To know she was so unhappy, forced into acting by a domineering mother who also forced her into an eating disorder, was hard to read. She seems to be on the upswing but the years of her anorexia and bulimia took a devastating toll on her. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣

1-1-23: My 2022 goal was 135 but 128 is not too shabby! Hope everyone had a great year of reading. Here‘s to 2023!!📖🎊

12-31-22: My December Book Wrap Up! Only 9 this month because Fairy Tale was over 900 pages!! 📖🎊

12-28-22: Starting this on my plane ride to Philly! ✈️📖💖

12-27-22: My 128th finished book of 2022! Vivian is a dedicated lawyer who advocates for her mentally I‘ll patients at a NYC psychiatric hospital. Privately, she contends with the aftereffects of her rough childhood. She lives in a constant state of fear that makes every day activities almost impossible. She self medicates with men, alcohol and weed until a family reunion prompts Vivian to make a bold move and she unravels. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣8️⃣

12-25-22: Merry Christmas to all my littens!! I hope you all are having a wonderful day and received many books!! 📖🎄⭐️💖

12-24-22: Merry Christmas Eve!🎄💖⭐️

12-23-22: My 127th finished book of 2022! I wanted to like this more than I did. It‘s a cute concept. There is a murder at Windsor Castle and the Queen, Elizabeth II, decides she can solve it before the police can. While the police are bungling the job, the Queen, along with her assistant private secretary Rozie, are on the case behind the scenes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣7️⃣

12-21-22: My 126th finished book of 2022! While well written, as usual, this book took me forever to finish! It was 968 pages due to it being large print! Great story. Charlie meets and helps out his neighbor, Mr. Bowditch, after a nasty fall. While nursing him back to health and falling in love with his dog, Raydar,Charlie finds out what‘s in the shed. Eventually, he will be tasked with a trip to another world he has to save⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣6️⃣

12-14-22: My 125th finished book of 2022! Tough material. Ray Lennox, a policeman from Scotland, finds himself in Florida, with his fiancé, trying to decompress after a harrowing case of child molestation/murder. Through a series of bad choices, Ray becomes ensnared in another child endangerment situation and takes off with the 10 year old to save her life and redeem his own. ⭐️⭐️⭐️?#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣5️⃣

12-10-22: My 124th book of 2022! I will read anything about New York! Ash McKenna is an amateur PI living a rough life among the denizens of the East Village. Having lost his father on 9/11, Ash has a chip on his shoulder he can‘t shake. Enter Chell, the girl he loves who doesn‘t love him back. When something heinous happens to her he makes it his mission to solve the crime. It was a violent story but there is a lot of heart too. Book 1 in series

12-8-22: My 123rd finished book of 2022! As a child she was in the Resistance in Italy with her father fighting against fascism. She became a journalist covering the entertainment world and then when she became bored she started interviewing international political figures. She was also a war correspondent showing up on the front lines. Beyond that she was an Italian woman who fought hard for her position and never backed down.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣

12-6-22: Starting a new one. I named my oldest daughter Oriana after this fascinating woman. My Mom had wanted to name me Oriana but my Dad prevailed and named me Maria after his Mom. I promised my Mom I would name my daughter Oriana one day. I‘m glad she lived long enough to see it. She had such a special bond with my daughter. 💖

12-6-22: My 122nd finished book of 2022! Carrie Fisher is a beautiful writer. This book was not as funny as I had hoped but I still enjoyed it. Cora is a screenwriter with a large group of friends, who meets Ray and has an intimate relationship which results in a pregnancy. She writes letters to her unborn child while trying to learn what it means to be a mother. It skipped around a bit but in the end came together. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣2️⃣

12-4-22: My 121st finished book of 2022! This was a soft story about finding out who you are. Clementine Jasper seemingly has it all. Living in LA, daughter to a major recording artist, Clem doesn‘t know what she wants to do with her life. When her famous father passes away suddenly, Clem is left with a series of letters that take her on a journey through California to learn about her Dad‘s life and find herself in the process.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣1️⃣

12-3-22: Starting #121 📖

12-2-22: My 120th finished book of 2022! Johanna Morrigan has decided she needs to be someone else. She is over being herself. Out comes Dolly Wilde, a black wearing, eye liner painting, top hat donning music critic for a publication called D&ME out of London. And all at 17. Coming from a poor family, her goal‘s to help them out while being a Lady Sex Adventurer. There is a lot of sex talk some of it off putting since she is a teen. Overall ok.