ARC Review: No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams

No Rest for the Wicked
Author: Rachel Louise Adams
Publication: Minotaur Books (September 16, 2025)

Description: With an expert hand, Rachel Louise Adams’s debut No Rest for the Wicked reads like an edge of your seat, heart-pounding scary movie.

In one Halloween obsessed Midwestern town, everyone’s on red alert after a local politician goes missing. Little do they know it’s only the beginning.

It’s been close to twenty years since forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne left her hometown of Little Horton, Wisconsin. The town is famous for its Halloween celebrations, but also its history of violent deaths linked to the holiday. To Dolores, it’s the place she fled, family, bad memories, and all. Until the FBI calls to tell her that her father--the former mayor turned US Senator--is missing under mysterious circumstances.

Some people count to ten to wake up from a nightmare. Dolores always counts the bones of her head instead: sphenoid, frontal, lacrimal. But no matter how many times she counts them, it doesn’t change the fact that her father is missing, that his final words of warning to her were to trust no one, and that now, the rest of her family is giving Dolores a chilling welcome. With Halloween fast approaching, Dolores must face the past she left behind before it’s too late.

My Thoughts: Forensic pathologist Dolores Diaz is called home to Little Horton, Wisconsin, when her father goes missing. She left town at eighteen and hasn't been back or communicated with her family for about 16 years. She left because of an incident that she has blocked from her memory and isn't eager to uncover what she has forgotten.

Dolores' father left a note telling her not to trust anyone and the FBI in the persons of FBI Special Agents Wyatt Holt and Paul Turner want to know why. Dolores has to face the past she left behind and uncover long-buried memories to survive because her father's death is just the first. 

I enjoyed this twisty mystery with an intriguing main character who counts skull bones rather than to ten when she needs to regain control. I liked the flashbacks to 2003 where the cause of her memory lapse begins. 

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

ARC Review: If It Makes You Happy by Julia Olivia

If It Makes You Happy
Author: Julia Olivia
Publication: Berkley (September 2, 2025)

Description: Grab your favorite fall candle, cuddle into a comfy blanket, and travel back in time to 1997 in this cozy, slow-burn romance set in the autumn glow of small-town Vermont.

Now with exclusive bonus content!

My new next-door neighbor seems to have everything figured out. Small town golden boy? Check. Single dad extraordinaire? Check. Hot baker forearms? I didn’t notice them, I swear.

I, on the other hand, don’t–at all–have anything figured out. Trust me, I didn’t think taking over my mom’s dream bed and breakfast in Copper Run Vermont was going to be easy. It should be a good place to heal after my divorce. But apparently my scones belong in the garbage with my small talk skills. As pointed out by none other than Cliff.

Cliff is inescapable. He knows exactly what people need–always. His charm, the way he wears flannel, and even his pastries, make not wanting to be friends with Cliff and his daughters pretty hard.

Friends? I can make friends. That’s safe. Except I’m leaving in three months to pass the inn off to my little sister and get the promotion in Seattle I’ve been working towards. So ask me why I’m thinking about kissing my hot neighbor.

My Thoughts: IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY was a nice romance. Goal-driven Michelle travels from her fast-paced life in Seattle after her mother's sudden death to take over the bed & breakfast that was her mother's life dream. 

The timing isn't perfect. Even if the time running the inn is only a couple of months, it will mess up her fast track in her advertising career. But the trip will give her a chance to come to terms with her divorce from Allen. 

She isn't really prepared for what she is going to find in a small town in Vermont. Least of all is she prepared to meet Cliff, the divorced guy who lives next door with his two daughters. But Cliff is a friendly sort who had promised Shell's mother that he'd be around to help. His friendly manner and delicious baked goods and wacky sense of humor all appeal to Shell.

But can two very different people find a way to make things work? With her in town only until her younger sister finishes college and takes over the inn and him content to live and work in the small town forever, they have lots of things to work out. 

The story had a great cast of characters including Rocket the dog Michelle gained custody of in the divorce. Cliff's daughters were great characters too. And the assorted friends who want to help add to the interest. Even Cliff's ex-wife had her role to play.

Fans of romances with grown-up characters with busy lives will enjoy this story.

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

ARC Review: A Lonesome Place for Murder by Nolan Chase

A Lonesome Place for Murder
Author: Nolan Chase
Series: Ethan Brand Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Crooked Lane (August 26, 2025)

Description: In this dark mystery, perfect for fans of C. J. Box, one wrong step leads Ethan Brand to the most dangerous case of his career...and the most personal.

Hoping to surprise his sons, Ethan Brand, the chief of police of a small town in northern Washington state, is contemplating buying a horse. But when the horse literally stumbles upon an abandoned smuggling tunnel, Ethan and his lead investigator Brenda Lee Page discover a dead body connected to a decade-old mystery.

Ten years ago, Tyler Rash, a troubled friend of Ethan’s, vanished without a trace. The body in the tunnel has Tyler’s ID and personal effects.

As Ethan and Brenda Lee investigate Tyler’s disappearance, they follow a trail that leads them to a cross-border smuggling operation connected to the town’s notorious family of smugglers. And when a bomb is sent to Ethan’s own house, the case takes a deadly and personal turn. A killer is stalking Ethan Brand–a killer he’ll have to face if he wants to see his family again.

My Thoughts: The second Ethan Brand mystery has Ethan taking a look at his past. When he is looking at a horse to buy for his sons, the horse stumbles into a tunnel built on an isolated ranch. Exploring the tunnel leads to a body with a wallet giving the name of Tyler Rash.

Tyler had been taken in by Ethan's family when he was a boy. Ethan's dad Jack really bonded with Tyler since they were both outdoorsmen and survivalists. Finding what looks to be his body, Ethan is faced with his relationship with his father who disappeared into the wilderness when Ethan was a teenager.

But, when Chief Deputy Brenda Lee discovers that the body is not Tyler's, the mystery deepens. It makes Ethan wonder if Tyler is still alive out there somewhere. A visiting DEA Agent is also wondering if Tyler is still out there since the tunnel mirrors other smuggler's tunnels that she has investigated. 

Ethan is also involved in the local race for mayor since he has had a bad relationship with the current mayor since firing his corrupt nephew and admires the woman who is running against him. Stolen campaign signs and harassment of the candidate opposing the mayor takes up some of his time too.

When a letter bomb is delivered to Ethan's house, he knows he's getting close to something but isn't sure exactly what. 

This was an intriguing mystery. I really like Ethan Brand's character. He's a Vet who came home from Afghanistan with a prosthetic and oxy addiction but managed to straighten up to become the Sheriff. He's dealing with the fact that his wife left him and took his sons to Boston. He's had some relationships including one with a married woman who decided to go back to her husband. And he has a sort of relationship with Sissy McCandless who is running the biggest crime family in the area. 

I liked the story and look forward to more in the series. 

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

ARC Review: The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan

The Witch's Orchard
Author: Archer Sullivan
Publication: Minotaur (August 12, 2025)

Description: A ninth generation Appalachian herself, Archer Sullivan brings the mountains of North Carolina to life in The Witch’s Orchard, a wonderfully atmospheric novel that introduces private investigator Annie Gore.

Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.

Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their tiny mountain town. While one was returned, the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire an outsider, and he wants Annie. While she may not be from his town, she gets mountain towns. Mountain people. Driving back into the hills for a case this old―it might be a fool’s errand. But Annie needs to put money in the bank and she can’t turn down a case. Not even one that dredges up her own painful past.

In the shadow of the Blue Ridge, Annie begins to track the truth, navigating a decade’s worth of secrets, folklore of witches and crows, and a whole town that prefers to forget. But while the case may have been buried, echoes of the past linger. And Annie’s arrival stirs someone into action.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed THE WITCH'S ORCHARD. Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore became a private investigator after leaving the service. She is just holding on to that career. When a young man from rural North Carolina comes to her with a case, she wants to help him out (and get his fee so that she can get her watch out of hock.)

Returning to the sort of rural life she joined the Air Force to get out of brings up memories of her own past as she investigates the disappearance of three young girls from one small mountain town. Ten years earlier, three girls disappeared over the course of a couple of months. One, an autistic child, was returned after being gone a couple of weeks. The other two were never found. 

Annie describes her job as asking questions until she stirs things up. That's what she does as she reinterviews those who were around at the time of the disappearances. Circling through her investigation is an old mountain story about a witch and her apple garden. She asks most of the people she interviews to tell her their version of the story which helps Annie understand them.

This was an engaging story with a great main character. I liked the way Annie engaged with her suspects and ferreted out long buried secrets. 

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

ARC Review: The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos

The Blue Horse
Author: Bruce Borgos 
Series: Porter Beck (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 8, 2025)

Description: A controversial wild horse round-up in the high desert of Nevada results in two murders and too many suspects for Sheriff Porter Beck to deal with.

A helicopter driving a controversial round-up of wild horses suddenly crashes and the pilot is found to have been shot. Then the person coordinating the round-up for the Bureau of Land Management is savagely murdered, buried up to her neck and then trampled to death by the very same wild horses. And there's no lack of suspects―with the wild horse advocacy group having sworn to protect the horse At Any Cost! Now the state and federal agencies are showing up looking for answers or at least a scapegoat.

Sheriff Porter Beck has had better days.

Porter Beck's new girlfriend, Detective Charlie Blue Horse, arrives to help with the investigation, which leads them to Canadian Lithium mining operation near the round-up area that sets off Beck's mental alarm bells. Brinley, Beck's sister, is leading a group of troubled kids in a wilderness program, when one of them, Rafa, bolts one night. When Brinley catches up to him, they're just outside the mine―in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

With his personal life in turmoil, too many suspects and too many secrets, the feds pushing for a quick resolution, and his impetuous (if skilled) sister in the mix, one wrong step could be deadly for Porter Beck.

My Thoughts: The third Porter Beck mystery begins with the death of a helicopter pilot who is rounding up wild horses. Sheriff Porter Beck is in his last weeks as sheriff before he takes a state-wide post in criminal investigation. 

But the murder of the pilot is only the first death. A video is put up showing the death of the BLM manager involved in the round-up. What doesn't show is that one of truck drivers is also murdered. The FBI comes in after her death because she was a federal employee. The FBI would like a fast resolution to the case, but Beck isn't convinced that the obvious suspects weren't set up to take the blame.

Covid is making itself felt in his county despite it being both very rural and sparsely populated. His chief deputy, who is supposed to take his place as sheriff, comes down with a case of it the is severe enough to require her to spend time on a respirator. His already stretched department is stretched even more with people going out sick. 

Meanwhile, Porter is dealing with his night blindness and the prospects of becoming totally blind in the relatively near future. He's also dealing with his girlfriend Charlie Blue Horse's shifting moods and secrets. And his sister Brin disappears when she's volunteering with a group of troubled teens on a wilderness camping trip. 

The story is packed with action and very engaging. 

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

Book Review: The Sea House by Louise Douglas

The Sea House
Author: Louise Douglas
Publication: Boldwood Books (November 5, 2024)

Description: A mysterious bequest and the legacy of a tragic love – only one person can unravel the hidden secrets of the past before it’s too late…

When Elisabeth Quemener dies she leaves a small parcel with the instructions that it must only be opened by Astrid Oake. The trouble is, no one knows who Astrid Oake is…

Elisabeth’s family turn to Touissants detective agency for help but, when Mila Shepherd and Carter Jackson try to track Astrid down, their frustration soon mounts. Their only clue is a photo of two young women holding the hands of a tiny child. The women are smiling but Mila is haunted by the sadness in their eyes. Is this Astrid and Elisabeth and if so, who is the child? And why are there signs everywhere in Elisabeth’s home that the old woman was frightened despite her living a quiet life with no known enemies?

As Elisabeth and Astrid’s story slowly unfolds, Mila feels the walls of her home The Sea House closing in. And as the secrets finally begin to reveal themselves, she is ever more determined to carry out Elisabeth’s final wishes. Because what is inside that unprepossessing parcel might just save a life…

My Thoughts: THE SEA HOUSE was an interesting mystery. Mila Shepherd works for the Touissants detective agency. It is run by a former stepmother of hers since her father is prone to marriage. She was mostly raised in England by her very bitter mother who revels in holding on to the bitterness of a long-ago marriage. She lived for the six weeks she spent every summer in Brittany with her stepmother and stepsister Sophie who became her best friend.

Two years before this story begins, Sophie and her husband Charlie were lost at sea in a storm leaving a fourteen-year-old daughter Ani. Mila drops everything in England including her police detective fiance to move to France to take care of Ani. While Sophie's body was found after the accident, Charlie's was not until the events of the current time period.

While dealing with her own and Ani's uncertainty and grief, the detective agency is hired to find a woman who was mentioned in the will of Elisabeth Quemener. She left a sealed package to be delivered to Astrid Oake. The only problem is that no one knows who Astrid Oake is or where she might be found. The only clue is a photo likely taken in the 1980s that shows Elisabeth, Astrid, and a small child presumed to be Elisabeth's daughter Manon. 

The investigation starts on Facebook as Mila tries to find someone who might know Astrid and proceeds through newspaper clippings to a family tragedy. A trip to England's midlands brings Mila to more secrets at Astrid's family home. 

This was an entertaining story with complex characters and situations. I enjoyed the mysteries. Astrid's story is complete. However, Charlie's and Sophie's are left unresolved in a cliffhanger ending and a rather abrupt ending to the book. 

I bought this one for $.99 January 8, 2025. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong

Cold as Hell
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Haven's Rock (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur Books (February 18, 2025)

Description: New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Haven’s Rock in Cold as Hell as Casey Duncan hunts down a dangerous killer during a deadly blizzard.

Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock.

When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust―and who they can't―in their seemingly safe haven.

My Thoughts: With meticulously vetted residents and Casey and Eric's supervision, serial killers aren't supposed to be able to sneak into Haven's Rock. It looks like one has managed it though.

When a resident is attacked and barely escapes, Casey who is eight months into a difficult pregnancy sees a gap in their security. With less than 100 residents, Haven's Rock should have to worry about roofies and date rape. At first, that is the conclusion that Casey and Eric come to. 

But when Lynn disappears during a blizzard and is found staked out on the lake when the weather breaks, it becomes clear that a murderer has made it into Haven's Rock. An unknown murder that is. Haven's Rock is a refuge for a couple of people, including Casey, who have committed murder. 

With Casey nearing the end of her pregnancy and suffering from potential complications, it becomes necessary to leave the investigation and fly out to Whitehorse to be nearer to medical help. Casey is tron between the needs of her unborn child and the needs of the investigation. 

This was another excellent addition to the Haven's Rock series. I like the way Eric and Casey are growing their relationship. I also like catching up with some of my favorite residents including Mathias and Sebastian. The story was very suspenseful. 

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

Friday Memes: Lavender's Blue by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 was hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

On a cold April day, thanks to an awful card my awful Aunt ML had set me, I was driving down Route 52 along the Ohio River toward my hometown for the first time in fifteen years. 

Friday 56:

JB's Bar is a very old bar -- since 1912 it says on the old mirror above the row of bottles on the old mirror above the row of bottles on the back shelf -- located on the main street of Burney next to the Red Box on the corner. The two places were the center of the town. Drink and food, what more do you need?

This week I am spotlighting Lavender's Blue by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer. I bought this one when it was a BookBub daily deal last January. I added on the audiobook for $1.99. Here is the description from Amazon:

From the NY Times Bestselling duo that wrote Agnes and the Hitman, the first book in the Liz Danger series.

Liz Danger has returned home after fifteen years to deliver a giant teddy bear for her mother’s birthday (color: Guilt Red) when a cop with a great ass picks her up for speeding, fixes the missing lug nuts on her back wheel, pulls her out of a ditch, doesn’t give her a ticket, and helps her avoid her family. This is a man with real potential. The rest of the day goes downhill, starting with her finding out that the only man she’s ever loved is getting married to Lavender Blue, the most beautiful woman in southern Ohio. Really, the best thing in her day is that cop with the lug nuts.

Vince Cooper still isn't sure about being a cop in Burney, Ohio, a place he just moved to six months ago, since Burney is full of some fairly odd people spaced between long stretches of boredom. Still, considering the dangerous, difficult life he had before Burney as an Army Ranger and New York City cop, boredom is good. Then he picks up Liz Danger for speeding and life gets a lot more interesting. And when he picks her up again in the local bar the next night, he starts to realize that “interesting” doesn’t begin to describe what’s going to happen to him if he pulls Liz into his arms and his life.

As Liz navigates her dysfunctional family, her flamboyant boss phoning in from Chicago, her still-interested ex, her bridesmaid dress from hell, a dachshund with issues, a disaster of a wedding, assault, murder, and three hundred and ninety-three teddy bears, Vince shows up to get her through, even though he knows that the real peril for him in Burney is the one who came with her own warning label, Liz Danger.

LAVENDER’S BLUE: Would it kill you to go home and see your mother?

Book Review: Summer of the Dragon by Elizabeth Peters

Summer of the Dragon
Author: Elizabeth Peters
Publication: William Morrow; Reissue edition (October 13, 2009)

Description: A good salary and an all-expenses-paid summer spent a sprawling Arizona ranch is too good a deal for fledgling anthropologist D.J. Abbott to turn down. What does it matter that her rich new employer/benefactor, Hank Hunnicutt, is a certified oddball who is presently funding all manner of off-beat projects, from alien conspiracy studies to a hunt for dragon bones? There's even talk of treasure buried in the nearby mountains, but D.J. isn't going to allow loose speculation -- or the considerable charms of handsome professional treasure hunter Jesse Franklin -- to sidetrack her. Until Hunnicutt suffers a mysterious accident and then vanishes, leaving the weirdos gathered at his spread to eye each other with frightened suspicion. But on a high desert search for the missing millionaire, D.J. is learning things that may not be healthy for her to know. For the game someone is playing here goes far beyond the rational universe -- and it could leave D.J. legitimately dead.

My Thoughts: Grad student in anthropology, D. J. Abbott takes a job with Hank Hunnicutt, millionaire and eccentric, in order to get away from her family for the summer. Hank has a job for her but he's reluctant to tell her about it. 

While D. J. is waiting, she gets a chance to get to know the various hangers-on who live at Hank's Arizona compound. She isn't at all reluctant to let them know that she finds their various theories about Atlantic and aliens way off base. There are a few relatively normal people among the guests including a brother-sister team of anthropologists digging at a local site and the treasure hunter filled with stories about the Lost Dutchman mine and the Seven Cities of Cibola. And Hank's secretary Tom De Karsky is relatively normal though he seems to have taken a dislike to D. J.

But a series of suspicious accidents and the kidnapping of Hank mean that D.J. can't just sit back and enjoy the eccentrics. At least she can't if she wants to survive.

The story is told in the first person by D. J. who is prone to going off on tangents. It has a lot of information about the various weird theories of the guests at Hank's ranch since D. J. decides she needs to study up before arriving at her summer job. 

I thought it was a fun romantic suspense story. 

Favorite Quote:

De Karsky let out a muffled sound that might have been a laugh if it had lived to grow up. 

I bought this one July 24, 2024, when it was a BookBub $1.99 deal. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Booked for Murder by P. J. Nelson

Booked for Murder
Author: P. J. Nelson
Series: An Old Juniper Bookstore Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Minotaur Books (December 10, 2024)

Description: In this atmospheric southern cozy debut, Madeline Brimley returns to the bookstore she inherited, discovering that small towns hold deadly secrets.

Madeline Brimley left small town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. Her dramatic escapades are many but success has eluded her, leaving her at loose ends. But then she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she's left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. But when she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore, and restart her life, Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges. The gazebo in the back yard is set ablaze and a late night caller threatens to burn the whole store down if she doesn't leave immediately.

But Madeline Brimley, not one to be intimidated, ignores the threats and soldiers on. Until there's another fire and a murder in the store itself. Now with a cloud of suspicion falling over her, it's up to Madeline to untangle the skein of secrets and find the killer before she herself is the next victim.

My Thoughts: Madeline Brimley left tiny Enigma, Georgia, for college and an acting career. Now, after a less than successful career and the death of her eccentric aunt Rose, Madeline has come back. She's inherited her aunt's bookstore which is housed in the old Victorian house where she lived. 

However, someone doesn't want her there. Just moments after arriving in her beat-up old Fiat, someone torches the 100-year-old gazebo in her backyard. A visit from the fire department comes next as does suspicion from the new fire chief that she might have started the fire herself. Add to that a threatening phone call in the early hours of the morning and you have a character who wants to leave town even though she has nowhere to go.

Her aunt's lawyer tells her that her aunt had a codicil to her will saying that Madeline has to stay six months before the property became hers. Now, Madeline is stuck in a place where someone wants her gone. She's not alone though. Her aunt's good friend psychology professor Philomena Waldrop and new Anglican priest Gloria Coleman quickly rally around her. 

Things get worse before they get better. There is a second fire. This time it is the front door of the bookstore, and a new young friend of Madeline's is murdered. Madeline, Philomena and Gloria are determined to find out who murdered Tandy Fletcher and who wants Madeline gone.

Lacking faith in the local police since Madeline babysat him before she left town, the three women begin their own investigations and find all sorts of suspicious characters. 

This was an enjoyable start to a new series. I liked the characters of all three women and thought they were all interesting people. I liked the possibility of a romantic interest in David Marshall who has had a very interesting set of life experiences. I liked the setting and Madeline's observations about it. 

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

ARC Review: Strange Folk by Alli Dyer

Strange Folk
Author: Alli Dyer
Publication: Atria Books (August 6, 2024)

Description: A woman returns to her estranged, magical family in Appalachia, where a conjuring meant to protect the community may have summoned something sinister in this lush, shimmering, and wildly imaginative debut novel, perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Addison Allen.

Lee left Craw Valley at eighteen without a backward glance. She wanted no part of the generations of her family who tapped into the power of the land to heal and help their community. But when she abandons her new life in California and has nowhere else to go, Lee returns to Craw Valley with her children in tow to live with her grandmother, Belva.

Lee vows to stay far away from Belva’s world of magic, but when the target of one of her grandmother’s spells is discovered dead, Lee fears that Belva’s magic may have conjured something far more sinister.

As she and her family search for answers, Lee travels down a rabbit hole of strange phenomena and family secrets that force her to reckon with herself and rediscover her power in order to protect her family and the town she couldn’t leave behind.

My Thoughts: After her marriage implodes, Lee brings her children with her to the one place she thought she'd never go back to: home. Craw Valley is in Appalachia. Lee fled at eighteen to get away from a bad home situation and to get away from her magical heritage. 

She is staying with her grandmother Belva who is the local healer until she decides what to do with her life. She still isn't interested in the magic that runs through her family but her fifteen-year-old daughter Meredith is. When her mother refuses to let her great-grandmother teach her about the family magic, she goes to the grandmother her mother doesn't talk about. Redbud says she'll teach Meredith but has her own agenda.

Meanwhile, Lee is getting to know her childhood friends again. Dreama has turned into a yuppie pod person and Kimmie is still the wild child she always was only the wildness is more frantic. She also reconnects with Otis who might have been her boyfriend if she hadn't already decided in school to leave the place behind. 

When Lee's favorite high school teacher is found dead, Belva is blamed. He was the local pedophile and Belva's group had cast a spell on him. Then the local drug dealer is found dead with more ties linking him to Belva. 

Lee has to investigate if she wants to free her grandmother from suspicions. The investigation will not only need to be about current events but will also require looking into the past and into family secrets.

This was an engaging debut novel filled with real people with real people problems in an environment where magic is real. I enjoyed the storytelling. 

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

ARC Review: Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Agony Hill
Author: Sarah Stewart Taylor

Series: Franklin Warren (Book 1)
Publication: Minotaur Books (August 6, 2024)

Description: Set in rural Vermont in the volatile 1960s, Agony Hill is the first novel in a new historical series full of vivid New England atmosphere and the deeply drawn characters that are Sarah Stewart Taylor's trademark.

In the hot summer of 1965, Bostonian Franklin Warren arrives in Bethany, Vermont, to take a position as a detective with the state police. Warren's new home is on the verge of monumental change; the interstates under construction will bring new people, new opportunities, and new problems to Vermont, and the Cold War and protests against the war in Vietnam have finally reached the dirt roads and rolling pastures of Bethany.

Warren has barely unpacked when he's called up to a remote farm on Agony Hill. Former New Yorker and Back-to-the-Lander Hugh Weber seems to have set fire to his barn and himself, with the door barred from the inside, but things aren’t adding up for Warren. The people of Bethany―from Weber’s enigmatic wife to Warren's neighbor, widow and amateur detective Alice Bellows ― clearly have secrets they’d like to keep, but Warren can’t tell if the truth about Weber’s death is one of them. As he gets to know his new home and grapples with the tragedy that brought him there, Warren is drawn to the people and traditions of small town Vermont, even as he finds darkness amidst the beauty.

My Thoughts: This historical mystery, set in Vermont in 1965, concerns the death of a farmer in what looks like an apparent suicide. 

Franklin Warren is on his first day on the job as an investigator for the State Police of Vermont when he is called to the scene of a fire. Arriving at Agony Hill, he discovers the burned body of Hugh Weber in his locked-from-the-inside barn. 

As Warren looks into the case, he gets to know Sylvie Weber and her four sons and he also gets to know the people who might have wanted Hugh Weber dead. Hugh was an angry man who managed to alienate most of his neighbors and the town people of Bethany, Vermont. 

Hugh had come from New York with the intention of leading a simple life as a farmer. He married a much younger woman from a farm background. He was especially irritated that the interstate highway system was coming to Vermont. He was a frequent author of letters to the editor of the local newspaper. He was also a jealous man who resented any interest shown in his wife and her writing talent. 

Warren finds himself quicky getting to know other people in the town as he investigates. He finds his new next-door-neighbor Alice Bellows to be especially helpful for her insights into other town people. She is also an amateur detective and a woman with secrets who hasn't managed to outrun them. Warren is also helped by his young police assistant Pinky who has lots of local knowledge.

This was an engaging story about the near past when the Vietnam war is looming over everything. Draft dodgers and others opposed to the war contrast with patriotic parades on the village green. And, at least in Alice's case, remnants of World War II are also lingering. 

I enjoyed this historical mystery for its intriguing characters and interesting setting. 

Favorite Quote:

"He was one of those people who woke up every morning thinking of himself as a victim of a great conspiracy by everyone around him to thwart his desires. Do you know what I mean?"

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

ARC Review: Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos

Shades of Mercy
Author: Bruce Borgos
Series: Porter Beck (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 16, 2024)

Description: In the usually quiet high desert of Nevada, Sheriff Porter Beck faces one of his greatest challenges―a series of unlikely, disturbing and increasingly deadly events of unknown origins.

Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, doing the same lawman's job his father once did now that he's returned home after decades away. With his twelve person department, they cover a large area that is usually very quiet, but not of late. One childhood friend is the latest to succumb to a new wave of particularly strong illegal opioids, another childhood friend―now an enormously successful rancher―is targeted by a military drone, hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. The hacker is apparently local―local enough to call out Beck by name―and that means they are Beck's problem.

Beck's investigation leads him to Mercy Vaughn, the one known hacker in the area. The problem is that she's a teenager, locked up with no computer access at the secure juvenile detention center. But there's something Mercy that doesn't sit quite right with Beck. But when Mercy disappears, Beck understands that she's in danger and time is running out for all of them.

My Thoughts: The second Porter Beck thriller is packed with action and has a really twisty plot. 

Porter Beck is a sheriff in Nevada, in a country with more cacti than people, but big city problems are creeping in. One of his childhood friends has just died of a fentanyl overdose and others are in danger from that drug. 

Also, when a prize bull on another childhood friend's ranch is hit with a missile which was snatched from the Air Force's control by an unknown hacker, his county is invaded by the alphabets - FBI, NSA, etc. as they are searching for the hacker. 

Beck has received an email from the hacker asking him to be alert because they might need some help from him. Beck comes to believe that the hacker is a sixteen-year-old girl who is being held at a camp for juvenile offenders after a variety of computer crimes including stealing $80 million from a Federal Bank. 

Learning this the friend who lost his bull is also involved with Mexican drug cartels adds another group who want something or someone from his county. And a Chinese spy trying to recover his sleeper agent who has gone AWOL adds more complexity. 

I really enjoyed this thriller. I couldn't put it down. 

Favorite Quote:

Beck gazed at the screen once again. Hello, Lisa1957. He clicked on the message. It was brief: And so it begins, Sheriff. I hope this note finds you well. I have done a lot of homework on you, and I hope my instincts about you prove true because I have a feeling I am going to need your help very soon.

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

Audiobook Review: Thornyhold by Mary Stewart

Thornyhold
Author: Mary Stewart
Narrator: Jilly Bond
Publication: Hodder & Stoughton (November 7, 2019)
Length: 7 hours and 16 minutes

Description: Mary Stewart's storytelling is as spellbinding as ever in her 12th novel, a Gothic romance featuring sparkling prose, delightful characterization and classic intrigue.

The rambling house called Thornyhold is like something out of a fairy tale. Left to Gilly Ramsey by the cousin whose occasional visits brightened her childhood, the cottage, set deep in a wild wood, has come just in time to save her from a bleak future. With its reputation for magic and its resident black cat, Thornyhold offers Gilly more than just a new home. It offers her a chance to start over.

The old house, with its tufts of rosy houseleek and the spreading gilt of the lichens, was beautiful. Even the prisoning hedges were beautiful, protective with their rusty thorns, their bastions of holly and juniper, and at the corners, like towers, their thick columns of yews.

My Thoughts: This romance takes place in England around the time of World War II. Gilly Ramsey is a preacher's daughter raised in coal towns of England. It is a dreary life brightened only by a few brief visits from her mother's cousin Geillis. Geillis teaches her about nature and magic and pays for her schooling. Geillis is a herbalist who can also see a bit into the future.

When Gilly grows up and after she nurses her parents through their last illnesses, she received word that her cousin has died leaving her a house named Thornyhold. Having no home now that her father - a minister - has died, she travels to her new home.

Thornyhold is a lovely old house with a reputation for being the home of a long line of witches. Gilly feels at home immediately despite her interfering neighbor Mrs. Trapp who apparently wants something from the house and keeps dropping in. 

Gilly also meets a young boy named William who was used to helping her cousin with many things including tending to her garden. And through William, she meets and instantly falls in love with his widowed father John Christopher. But Mrs. Trapp has also set her eye on John Christopher and is willing to use her magic to try to claim him. 

The story was filled with lush descriptions of the land and plants of that part of England. It was also infused with magic. The language was lush and lyrical. The narration by Jilly Bond was excellent.

I bought this one at Chirp. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen

Hard Rain
Author: Samantha Jayne Allen
Series: Annie McIntyre Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (April 18, 2023)

Description: From the Tony Hillerman Prize-winning author of Pay Dirt Road comes Hard Rain, Samantha Jayne Allen's mesmerizing next novel set in a hardscrabble Texas town dealing with disaster.

In shock and found clinging to a tree branch, Bethany Richter is pulled from thrashing floodwaters that have decimated the town of Garnett, Texas and killed a dozen others.

Six months after solving the murder of a local waitress, Annie McIntyre is working as an apprentice P.I. when she's handed her first solo case: uncover the identity of the man who rescued Bethany before he was swept downriver.

When Annie's search turns up a different victim—shot dead, not drowned—Annie questions if the hero they seek is actually a killer.

Flexing her new skills while relying on the wisdom of her eccentric, ex-cop grandfather, the case leads Annie into a web of drug dealers, preachers, and wayward drifters trying to make sense of life after a disaster. Annie's own convictions are put to the ultimate test as long-held secrets, corruption, and violence are exposed like the ruin that lies beneath receding waters.

My Thoughts: Flash floods have decimated the town of Garnett, Texas, and Bethany Richter was found clinging to a tree branch. A dozen people were killed and property was destroyed. Annie McIntyre just managed to get to her apartment building when the floods came and spent three days marooned in her third-floor apartment.

A couple of weeks later, Bethany, a childhood acquaintance who was a friend of Annie's cousin Nikki, comes to Annie because she wants to hire her to find the man who rescued her during the flood and who has disappeared.

Searching for the missing man will be Annie's first independent case as a partner in the private investigations firm started by her now retired grandfather and his business partner. Naturally, she goes to her grandfather for advice. He suggests going back to the scene of Bethany's rescue to get a feel for the area.

While Annie is at the scene she discovers the body of a woman in her own pickup. However, Jacinda did not drown, she was shot to death. Annie wonders if the shot woman and the missing man are connected. She finds that both have ties to the local megachurch where Bethany's husband is the son of the founder and an assistant preacher.

As Annie looks into things, she finds herself discovering drug running and financial misdealing on her way to discovering a murderer.

This was another excellent mystery with intriguing characters. 

Favorite Quote:

People like to say that nothing ever happens around here, but it's not true. What they really meant was it wasn't getting better. The changes that had come to Garnett were like erosion -- of occupied houses, open businesses, maintained lawns -- and the courthouse, the square, and the nice parts fanning out from it like an island losing land mass.

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

Book Review: Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen

Pay Dirt Road
Author: Samantha Jayne Allen 
Series: Annie McIntyre Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Minotaur Books (April 19, 2022)

Description: Friday Night Lights meets Mare of Easttown in this small-town mystery about an unlikely private investigator searching for a missing waitress. Pay Dirt Road is the mesmerizing debut from the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Samantha Jayne Allen.

Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas.

Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan’s misgivings.

When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past—failed romances, a disturbing experience she’d rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself—if she wants to survive this homecoming.

My Thoughts: Annie McIntyre is back home in Garnett, Texas, after graduating from college. She's working at the local diner and wondering what she's going to do with the rest of her life. When one of her fellow waitresses is found murdered, Annie wants to find out how it happened and who is responsible.

Luckily, her soon-to-be-retired grandfather and his partner run a private investigations firm. Being a PI wasn't first on Annie's list of career options, but she's lured into the business as she tries to find the killer. 

This was an engaging thriller told from the point of view of twenty-four-year-old Annie with all of her philosophizing about her life and choices and all of her self-doubts. We even get a chance to look at the things that she regrets as she finds herself identifying more and more with the murder victim and the choices she made.

The setting is an important character in this story. Rural Texas in a hard scrabble town with limited possibilities is an important part of Annie and those she investigates. The characters including her high functioning alcoholic grandfather and his lesbian business partner and a variety of Annie's contemporaries who are also back home add lots of color to the story. 

I enjoyed this story.

Favorite Quote:

You can do everything wrong or everything right and somehow it doesn't matter. The realization is both stunning in its freedom and stifling in its unfairness. It is a primal scream and it is a death rattle. 

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

Friday Memes: Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

At night we rode up to the old railroad tracks on the west side of town, turned the headlights off, and waited for the dead to appear. 

Friday 56:

I scrambled out of the booth. "They'll want to eat," I said to Wyatt just as the bell on the door jangled. He nodded and opened his textbook, sticking his nose in it with mock seriousness. I went to the counter to fill some water glasses and Fernando sidled up beside me. 

This week I am spotlighting Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen. It is the first in the Annie McIntyre mystery series. It also won the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize. I chose this book because I have the third in the series on my review stack. Here is the description from Amazon:

Friday Night Lights meet Mare of Easttown in this small-town mystery about an unlikely private investigator searching for a missing waitress. Pay Dirt Road is the mesmerizing debut from the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Samantha Jayne Allen.

Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas.

Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan’s misgivings.

When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past—failed romances, a disturbing experience she’d rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself—if she wants to survive this homecoming.

ARC Review: A Lonesome Place for Dying by Nolan Chase

A Lonesome Place for Dying
Author: Nolan Chase
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (May 7, 2024)

Description: Perfect for fans of C. J. Box and William Kent Krueger, a sleepy town is rocked to its core when a dead body is found in this debut novel.

In the quiet seaside town of Blaine, Washington, the most serious police work involves dealing with stray coyotes or ticketing speeders along the I-5. But on Ethan Brand's first day as the town's chief of police, he finds a threat on his porch, along with a gruesome souvenir, a bloody animal heart.

There are plenty of people who are upset about Ethan replacing the last Chief, but when a body shows up on the railroad tracks, Ethan has to turn his focus from the threats against him to the first homicide case the town has seen in years. Blaine's population is only five thousand, but eight million vehicles pass through its railroad crossing every year. It’s the perfect site for drug smuggling, human trafficking, larceny, and murder.

Ethan begins to realize that the small town has many more secrets than its quiet surface suggests. With no one to trust, his job already on the line, and the threats getting bolder and more reckless, Ethan Brand must find the killers and bring them to justice before anyone else winds up dead.

My Thoughts: Ethan Brand is on his first day as sheriff for Blaine, Washington, and his first case is a murder. Ethan is an Afghan war vet who came home with a partial prosthetic foot which he has managed to keep quiet. He's separated from his wife who took their two boys back to Boston to live. He has recently had an affair with the wife of the local big land developer. But she's gone back to her husband to give their marriage another try. 

Ethan was the first choice for sheriff in his mentor's - the previous sheriff's - eyes but a female lead deputy with similar experience also wanted the job and was courting members of the city council to get it. Ethan also has to deal with the mayor's nephew who was one of his deputies until he deliberately lost evidence when a local committed suicide. The previous sheriff left firing him to Ethan knowing that firing him with put him on the outs with the mayor. 

Besides the turmoil in the small sheriff's department, a murder will really stretch their resources. It is only the third murder in Ethan's years as a deputy on the force. The body of the young woman was found near the train tracks. She was stabbed to death. With the possibility that she jumped or fell from the train, the investigation needs to widen to include the train and its passengers. 

But, once identified, there are local suspects to investigate too. The local crime family, well known for smuggling into and out of Canada, is somewhat diminished with the eldest son in prison and the daughter going straight as a travel agent, but the youngest son is determined to carry on the family legacy of crime. 

And while investigating Ethan has to deal with threats that indicate that someone wants him gone - or dead. A threatening note, an elk's heart left at his front door, and potshots taken at his truck keep Ethan on his toes and a little distracted from the investigation into the young woman's death.

This was an engaging and entertaining debut mystery. I liked Ethan and liked that he was coming to terms with his new life as a single man and sheriff. The setting was interesting too. 

Favorite Quote:

"What a speech, Ethan. Really dazzled the hell out of them."

"That bad?" Ethan said.

"I'll put it like this. If you spoke like that trying to get out of a ticket, you'd end up serving twenty to life in Clallam Bay."

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

ARC Review: Next of Kin by Samantha Jayne Allen

Next of Kin
Author: Samantha Jayne Allen

Series: Annie McIntyre Mysteries (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur Books (April 23, 2024)

Description: From Tony Hillerman Prize-winning author Samantha Jayne Allen comes Next of Kin, a mesmerizing novel set in a hardscrabble Texas town, where the past is never far away.

At a gathering for her cousin’s wedding party, newly-licensed PI Annie McIntyre gets asked an age-old question: what really makes us who we are, nature or nurture? Clint Marshall, an up-and-coming musician and an adoptee at a personal crossroads, wants to hire Annie to find his biological parents, and that question is on his mind. Annie accepts his case, not knowing then that she, too, must decide if she really believes what she tells him that night―in essence, that people are in charge of their destinies. That people can change.

When Annie discovers her client's father is a bank robber who her granddad, Leroy, arrested back when he was sheriff, reverberations sound between the past and the present, igniting old flames and rivalries. When the brother of her client dies suddenly, his death ruled a suicide, Annie questions whether or not it was in fact homicide―and who in this family of outlaws would rather some secrets stay buried.

As Annie sets out to find who killed the brother―and stays out of sight lest she be next―she finds herself searching abandoned, overgrown fields, scouring pool halls and roadside motels, wondering if she will ever escape the sense that her world in Garnett, TX expands and contracts in off-kilter ways, growing smaller and yet still more confounding. Fearing that in a place where everyone knows everyone, your enemy is always closer than you think.

My Thoughts: The third Annie McIntyre mystery has Annie having her new private investigators license and working with her grandfather Leroy's old partner in their investigations firm. Annie is also involved in her cousin Nikki's wedding. Her next case comes to her when the best man, Sonny's adopted brother, hires Annie to track down his birth parents.

Locating Clint Marshall's mother and siblings doesn't turn out to be hard but opens a real can of worms for both Annie and Clint. It turns out Clint's birth father was a bank robber who is in prison. Annie's grandfather Leroy was instrumental in capturing him and his adoptive mother was one of the bank tellers when the bank was robbed. 

Going to talk to Clint's birth mother is difficult as she blames Leroy for lots of the problems in her life. But her son Cody is more receptive to having a brother. Annie also runs afoul of the next-door neighbor whose daughter disappeared at the same time as the bank robbery. She feels that the police didn't do enough to find her missing daughter whose bones were discovered some ten years after her disappearance.

Then Cody dies in an apparent suicide which Annie really doubts and Clint disappears just before the wedding. Annie is kept busy trying to discover who killed Cody and where Clint is and finds herself digging into secrets from her family's past. 

This was quite a twisty mystery with so many connections between all the characters which raised more questions for Annie than providing answers to her inquiries. I liked the setting which was described very well. I thought the characters were well-developed too. 

Favorite Quote:

"You want to be the hero. Then folks deal with you, and you're just this regular old dope. They realize you're less there to save the day than you are to just make sure the day don't get worse. Law and order's not the same as justice--I wish I'd have been able to do more just work.

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

ARC Review: At the Edge of the Woods by Victoria Houston

At the Edge of the Woods
Author: Victoria Houston
Series: Lew Ferris (Book 3)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (April 23, 2024)

Description: Someone is murdering pickleball players in Loon Lake and Sheriff Ferris is on the hunt for their killer in Victoria Houston’s third nail-biting Lew Ferris mystery, perfect for fans of Marc Cameron and Nevada Barr.

When a local pickleball player is shot in the head while practicing at an abandoned tennis court with his partner-slash-lover, Sheriff Lew Ferris suspects that the bullet was a stray shot from hunters in the area. It’s not until a second player–the first victim’s mistress and pickleball partner–is killed that Sheriff Ferris realizes this is no hunting accident. Someone is hunting people, and it’s up to her to find out who.

With the first victim’s crazed widow breathing down Lew’s neck, there’s no room to breathe, let alone to find time to appreciate the beautiful Loon Lake fall and go fishing. Adding to Sheriff Ferris’ difficulties are three pickleball players convinced someone has targeted them, someone who will do anything, even murder, to frighten them away from the courts where they play – but why?

Who is really at risk? The pickleball players, or Lew and the people close to her?

My Thoughts: This is the third book in the Lew Ferris mystery series. I chose it, despite not having read the first two books, because I was interested in the Northern Wisconsin setting. Lew is the sheriff. She was elected after some years as police chief of Loon Lake. And while being a sheriff is her job, her real love is fly fishing. She is an expert and an excellent teacher.

When a local dentist is shot while playing pickleball at a court he built at on old summer camp, Lew has a mystery to solve. She is of the opinion that the gunshot the killed him was an accident since deer season is coming up and lots of hunters are sighting in their guns and some aren't too concerned with safety. But there are a fair number of people who could have wanted the dentist dead including his wife and daughter. 

Lew begins her investigation with lots of help from the local rumor mill. When the dentist's pickleball partner and the woman he planned to marry after divorcing his wife is also killed, Lew doesn't suspect a second accident. 

I liked all the talk about fishing that was woven into the story. I thought the characters were interesting. I didn't really like the abrupt resolution to the mystery and felt that it was overshadowed by other parts of the plot. 

Fans of the series will enjoy this one as well as fans of Northern Wisconsin. 

Favorite Quote:

"Can I tell you what I like about Lewellyn Ferris besides her fishing?

"Careful," said Bruce with a smile in his voice. "I might be too young to hear this..."

"She listens," said Osborne, emphasizing his last word. "She has a good heart. She's kind and she listens. You can't ask for more."

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