Audiobook Review: Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz

Sleep No More
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Series: The Lost Night Files (Book 1)
Publication: Recorded Books (January 3, 2023)
Length: 9 hours and 20 minutes

Description: New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz returns with the first novel of the Lost Night Files, an exciting new romantic suspense trilogy about a night that changed three women forever—but that none of them can remember.

Seven months ago, Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers were strangers, until their fateful stay at the Lucent Springs Hotel. An earthquake and a fire partially destroyed the hotel, but the women have no memory of their time there. Now close friends, the three women co-host a podcast called the Lost Night Files, where they investigate cold cases and hope to connect with others who may have had a similar experience to theirs—an experience that has somehow enhanced the psychic abilities already present in each woman.

After receiving a tip for their podcast, Pallas travels to the small college town of Carnelian, California, to explore an abandoned asylum. Shaken by the dark energy she feels in the building, she is rushing out when she’s stopped by a dark figure—who turns out to be the women's mysterious tipster.

Ambrose Drake is certain he’s a witness to a murder, but without a body, everyone thinks he’s having delusions caused by extreme sleep deprivation. But Ambrose is positive something terrible happened at the Carnelian Sleep Institute the night he was there. Unable to find proof on his own, he approaches Pallas for help, only for her to realize that Ambrose, too, has a lost night that he can’t remember—one that may be connected to Pallas. Pallas and Ambrose conduct their investigation using the podcast as a cover, and while the townsfolk are eager to share what they know, it turns out there are others who are not so happy about their questions—and someone is willing to kill to keep the truth from coming out.

My Thoughts: This is the first book in the Lost Night trilogy. Pallas Llewellyn is an interior designer who has a gift for design that is a psychic talent. After a night she doesn't remember, her gift is greatly enhanced. She and the two other women who were with her when the lost night happened also had their psychic gifts enhanced. They started a podcast to try to discover what happened to them.

A tip to the podcast leads Pallas to a small college town to explore an abandoned asylum. The tipster is Ambrose Drake who is sure that he saw a body being hauled out of the building where he was undergoing tests for sleep deprivation. It turns out that he had a lost night too. He'd always had a talent for aura reading but now he's begun sleepwalking. The only way to avoid it is to not sleep which has led to his extreme sleep deprivation. 

Under the guise of making a podcast, Pallas and Ambrose who writes thrillers when he isn't sleep deprived begin to investigate to see if Ambrose's memory is correct. They find a shady doctor and shady college administrators. They also find drug runners. What they don't find is any indication that a woman died the night Ambrose underwent his testing. 

I liked the characters and the setting of this story. I liked that Pallas was coming to terms with her newly enhanced psychic gifts and was able to help Ambrose deal with his sleepwalking. I liked the banter between the two main characters. I also liked the romance that developed between the two of them. 

Eva Kaminsky does a good job is choosing voices which distinguish each character.

I bought this one April 26. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberle

If Books Could Kill
Author: Kate Eberle
Publication: Penguin (July 21, 2026)

Description: A NOVEL LOVE STORY meets LOVE IN THE TIME OF SERIAL KILLERS in this rom-com following Roxie Mitchell, an adventure-loving romance reader who finds herself trapped in a meet-cute turned murderous

When Roxie makes a tongue-in-cheek wish to live out the plot of her favorite author’s next novel, she has romance in mind—namely, the sweet, safe, swoon-worthy storylines Anna Matthews is known for. It should be a dream come true when her wish is granted and she finds herself swept into a first date with a handsome stranger who seems designed to take her breath away.

Except for one little hiccup: That handsome stranger tries to take her breath away. Literally. With a knife. The thing is, Roxie may be the new Anna Matthews protagonist—but this time, Anna is writing a crime thriller.

Thrown into a perilous genre she’s never read, Roxie is desperate for help. So when her escape takes her straight into the path of Grant Hoffman, an anxious English professor with a convenient love of crime novels, she decides that kidnapping a grown man is a small price to pay for her own survival. Together, Roxie and Grant navigate a madcap story in which the lines between fiction and reality blur. They’ll find out if they have what it takes to make it to The End—or maybe even Happily Ever After.

My Thoughts: Roxie Mitchell loves romance books for escape but not so much in real life. She's a daredevil who works as a temp to fund her various adventures. When she idly wishes to be the heroine in an Anna Matthews romance, her wish is granted. Roxie doesn't know that Anna has decided to change things up and write a thriller.

Roxie finds herself dropped into the plot of a genre she doesn't read, but all is not lost. To escape her killer, she hijacks an Uber only to discover that quiet, college instructor Grant Hoffman is in the backseat. Luckily, he has read lots of thrillers but has never wanted to take part in one. 

What follows is on over-the-top adventure as the pair tries to find their way out of the story. They travel to London to try to find Anna and convince her to write another story, but they need to battle a variety of odd villains along the way. Also, along the way, they fall in love which is the one experience that really frightens Roxie. 

This was a great story. I enjoyed the romance and loved the adventures. I also enjoyed the humor and the heart of the story. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 13, 2026)

 It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Want to See What I Added to My Stack? links to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.

Other Than Reading...

Still another quiet week. The high temperatures have landed here in Duluth, and the Air Show is sending very loud airplanes over my house. It is Sunday morning. The temperature already 83 with a feels like temperature of 89 and with 93 as the forecast high. Monday and Tuesday are also forecast for highs in the 90s. Good thing our air conditioning is working.

I'll be watching my Braves play baseball this afternoon. They aren't doing too well lately. Their big lead has evaporated. Since this week is the All-Star Break, maybe they can rest up and find their game again when the second half of the season begins.

I have no appointments this week and plan to keep reading mainly review books. I have 44 on my review stack and would like to get it under thirty by the end of July. Of course, a lot of that depends on how many new ones get added to the stack. I do have four requests at NetGalley that I haven't heard about yet and usually get at least two offers from publicists in my email each week. Lately most of those have been for books I already have on the Review stack. 

I am getting ahead on my audiobooks. I try to listen to and review two a week along with four other books. Some weeks I need all six spots on my calendar for review books, but I still want to listen to audiobooks. That also means that I might look for audiobook versions of some books for which I already have the Kindle copy on the calendar. I do have five Audible credits available, but really like saving them for books I know I'll read more than once. 

Read Last Week

• Vendetta in Death by J. D. Robb (Audiobook reread)
• Death on the Books by Victoria Gilbert (Review, August 4) -- Cozy mystery in the Blue Ridge Library series. My review will be posted on July 29.
• A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Review, August 4) -- Fantasy mystery with great worldbuilding. My review will be posted on July 28.

• Bad Scene by Max Tomlinson (Audiobook, Mine since July 3) -- Colleen Hayes mystery set in 1978 San Francisco. My review will be posted on August 7.
• Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz (Audiobook, Mine since May 13) -- Contemporary romantic suspense in the Arcane Society story arc. My review will be posted on August 11.
• Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty (Review, August 4) -- There is time travel, but the more important thing is people answering questions about their lives. My review will be posted on July 30. 

• (Mostly) Human Resources by Grace Viall (Review, August 4) -- Romantic fantasy much stronger on the fantasy than on the romance. My review will be posted on July 31.
• Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner (Kindle & Audiobook, mine since April 16) -- Twisty thriller starring Tessa Leoni with an appearance by D. D. Warren. My review will be posted on August 13.

Currently

• Murder in Blackfriars by Jennifer Ashley (Review, August 11)
• The Ruling Class by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Audiobook, Mine since May 11)

Next Week

• Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly (Review, August 11)
• The Matchmaker's Cottage by Kat Sloane (Review, August 11)
• Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan (Review, August 11)

• Murder on Charity Lane by Jo Nichols (Review, August 18)
• Homeward for a Spell by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos (Review, August 18)
• For Services Rendered by Will Thomas (Review, August 18)

Reviews Posted

• Killer Vibes by Jack Friday (Review copy)
• The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews (Audiobook)
• Unpredictable Magic by Faith Hunter (Review copy)

• The Cloak and Dagger Club by Jackie McMahon (Review copy)
• Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead (Review copy)
• Dog Eat Dog by David Rosenfelt (Audiobook)

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

Review:

• Roundabout by Jeff Rake & Rob Hart (Review, January 19, 2027)

Bought:

• The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer (BookBub, $1.99) -- Read the Review copy, loved it. Wanted it for my Keeper collection but was waiting for a sale. 
• The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (Kindle Deal, $2.99)

What was your week like?

Audiobook Review: The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews

The Falcon Always Wings Twice
Author: Donna Andrews

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Series: Meg Langslow (Book 27)
Publication: Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio (August 4, 2020)

Length: 10 hours and 30 minutes

Description: A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Terns of Endearment.

When Meg's grandmother Cordelia hosts a Renaissance Faire at her craft center, the whole family is put to work: Meg handles the blacksmithing, Michael and the boys will be performing, and no one misses the opportunity to dress up in full regalia.

More exciting to Grandfather is the pair of rare falcons he discovers breeding at the fairgrounds. Concerned for their well-being amid all the activity, he appoints himself their protector.

When one of the actors performing at the fair is found dead—an actor suspected of mistreating one of the falcons, among other sins—Grandfather is a prime suspect.

Donna Andrews’s long-running Meg Langslow series continues to be beloved by its fans, who loyally read every new installment.

The Falcon Always Wings Twice is a perfect new addition, full of laughter, adventure, and Andrews's wonderful cast of wacky characters.

My Thoughts: Meg, Michael and their twins are spending the summer helping her grandmother Caroline run a Renaissance Faire at her crafts center. Michael is in charge of the various actors who roam the faire doing scenes while Meg does blacksmithing demonstrations and helps Caroline manage the faire. 

Things are going pretty well except for an actor named Terence who delights in causing trouble including sometimes dangerous pranks and sexual harassment of one of the young actresses. Caroline has been documenting all the times she has needed to talk to him about his antics, and his next prank will be his last. But before he can stray again someone decides that a dagger in the chest would solve the problem. 

So many people wanted Terence dead that Meg doesn't know where to start in her investigation. Even her fellow blacksmith and good friend has a motive. One of Terence's pranks caused her friend's husband to lose his job which means no health insurance to cover her friend's much needed heart surgery. 

Other suspects include a stage director who had cast Terence into a role in his production of Hamlet in Washington, DC. He comes and begins throwing his weight around and wandering where he shouldn't be. Michael had worked with him before and resolved never to work with him again. He is angry with the director who had promised the same role in his production to two of the actors working with Michael at the faire. 

This was another engaging and humorous mystery. Meg's family is always good for comic relief. This time her grandfather stars as he throws himself into the role of a wizard while spending most of his time with the falcons and their keeper. 

Fans of the series will enjoy this episode. 

I bought the Kindle copy November 21, 2024, and the audiobook June 5, 2026. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Dog Eat Dog by David Rosenfelt

Dog Eat Dog
Author: David Rosenfelt

Narrator: Grover Gardner
Series: Andy Carpenter (Book 23)
Publication: Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio (July 6, 2021)

Length: 6 hours and 30 minutes

Description: Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, work to free a man who risked it all to help a dog in need

Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, enjoy walking their dogs, Tara and Sebastian. By this point in their marriage, it’s routine. When out for one of their strolls, their simple ritual isn’t so simple anymore. Across the street, a man is mistreating his dog. Three things happen at once: Andy yells, Laurie runs to stop the abuse, and so does a closer passerby, who so thoroughly beats the owner that both are arrested when the cops arrive.

Andy scoops up the dog and takes him to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. Meanwhile, at the police station, the passerby is identified as Matthew Jantzen, and he’s wanted for murder. Andy and Laurie are struck by the fact that Jantzen, a man on the run, would nevertheless intervene to help a dog, and decide to find out more.

Dog Eat Dog, the twenty-second installment in the Andy Carpenter series, features the charming cast of characters - old and new - that David Rosenfelt is known for and the dogs that accompany them.

My Thoughts: Andy's next case comes to him when he and Laurie are out walking their dogs and see a man attack another who is abusing a dog. The man is Matthew Jantzen who is subsequently arrested for murder and extradited to Maine where he is accused of a home invasion murder of two people. 

Andy agrees to be with him when he makes his plea but then intends to find a local lawyer to defend him. The baffling piece of evidence in this case is that Matthew's DNA was found under the fingernails of the male victim. Matt insists that he didn't know either person. He had no idea how his blood could get under the man's nails. 

Andy's investigation uncovers a potential terrorist plot but doesn't give him a way to connect it to the murder investigation until a brainstorm in court provides the answer for him. 

This is the twenty-second in the Andy Carpenter series and is filled with the usual witty dialog and cute dogs. Andy is a snarky character that I would definitely want on my side if I were ever accused of murder. 

I bought the Kindle copy November 7, 2023, and the audiobook June 5, 2023. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead

Hot Girl Murder Club
Author: Ashley Winstead
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 14, 2026)

Description: From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice…by any means necessary.

What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?

Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.

But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build―including the justice she wants for Georgia―will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.

Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood―an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.

My Thoughts: HOT GIRL MURDER CLUB hits all the tropes in a fascinating and compelling story of women's power, ambition, and murder. It is told from multiple viewpoints including excerpts from a PhD dissertation about a group of young women known as Our Ladies of the Dark.

Grey Holloway is a LAPD detective whose father was fired for his obsession that someone at the LAPD sabotaged his investigation into his daughter's disappearance. Grey's older sister Alice disappeared ten years earlier while working one night at the Serpent Room, a club that was popular with the in-crowd then and still attracts the current in-crowd. Grey is determined to solve her sister's case and moonlights herself as a bottle girl at the Serpent Room. 

Grey's current case is investigating the murder of a woman who looks just like her. Elizabeth Drake had worked for a number of Hollywood movers and shakers. There is a quotation written on the wall in her blood which turns out to be an excerpt from the lyrics of a song written by Scout Sage.

Scout Sage and her best friend Isabel came from New Jersey to become stars. Scout's sister Georgia came a year later to attend UCLA. In a flashback from ten years ago, we see Scout, Isabel, and Georgia attending a party at an influential man's home. They were looking for contacts and maybe a break, but when Georgia was found murdered, Scout and Isabel have a new goal. They need to find her killer. 

Over the ten years, Scout gains some minor fame as a musician and Isabel becomes her assistant. But their real purpose is to find Georgia's killer and help other young women who are being done wrong by men. They have gathered a posse of influential women that they have helped over the years but have come no closer to finding Georgia's killer. 

However, in the present storyline things are finally breaking open. 

I enjoyed this twisty story with all its various themes. I liked all of the viewpoint characters and the way their lives intertwined. It was an intriguing story filled with memorable characters. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Cloak and Dagger Club by Jackie McMahon

The Cloak and Dagger Club
Author: Jackie McMahon
Series: A Cloak and Dagger Club Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Berkley (July 14, 2026)

Description: Inspired by Agatha Christie's real-life Detection Club, a murder among a group of golden age mystery writers meets a second chance romance in this debut novel from author Jackie McMahon.

London, 1930. Lucy Hubbard is on the cusp of achieving her dreams. With her first mystery novel debuting with strong sales and glowing reviews, she's been invited by Horace Hazelmoor, the king of crime fiction, to join his elite group of writers—the Cloak and Dagger Club.

Thrilled at the opportunity, Lucy finds herself swept up into Horace's glamorous world at the Ritz hotel. She's even willing to put up with the inconvenient presence of her former fiancé, Frank Murray, the club's rising star who is on track to eclipse Horace as Britain's most popular crime writer.

But when Horace is found with a knife in his back, Frank is the police's prime suspect. Despite their complicated history, Lucy knows he's not capable of murder. With suspects galore and the danger rising, these two mystery writers must race to solve the crime—and fight their lingering feelings for each other—before the murderer strikes again.

My Thoughts: Lucy Hubbard who has recently published her first mystery to great acclaim is invited by best-selling author Horace Hazelmoor to join the prestigious Cloak and Dagger Club. She's intrigued but rather reluctant because her former fiancé Frank Murray is also a member. 

The first meeting doesn't go well because Hazelmoor is illuminated as a drunk and as a man who is mercurial. He is also eager for any opportunity to prove his superiority in writing despite the fact that his last mystery didn't do well. Blows are exchanged and he's escorted to his suite where he is discovered dead 36 hours later. 

When Frank becomes the prime suspect, Lucy is determined to discover who really killed Horace Hazelmoor. She needs to uncover the secrets of the other members of the club if she wants to clear Frank's name. And all the other members do have their secrets.

Frank and Lucy's romance is rekindled but they need to battle both external enemies and themselves before they find their way to a happy ending. 

I enjoyed this historical mystery and the intriguing cast of characters who inhabit it. I enjoyed the period details.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.