lisak09
Well-Known Member
I just started reading Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez. I haven't read any of her stuff before but it seems really popular so I decided to try it.
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Reader’s Corner
- Thread starter k8einwdw
- Start date
Some recent reads:
“I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman - This is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel about a group of 40 women who were locked in an underground bunker for years, narrated by the youngest of the women, who was a child when they were imprisoned. This one was interesting - there are no chapters, it’s just one long story.
“I Hope This Finds You Well” by Natalie Sue - I needed a palate cleanser after the last book, and I ended up enjoying it more than I expected! This one is a workplace comedy about a woman who is accidentally given access to the emails of all of her coworkers. She tries to use this to her advantage to fit in and get ahead at work, but of course the truth always comes out in the end.
“Nora Goes Off Script” by Annabel Monaghan - I devoured this book in 48 hours! It’s about a screenwriter who typically writes cheesy made-for-tv romance movies. She writes a movie inspired by her divorce, and it gets picked up by a major studio. They film a portion of the movie at her house, and she accidentally falls in love with the male lead.
“The Story She Left Behind” by Patti Callahan Henry - this one is about an author who disappears one day, leaving behind a husband, an eight-year-old daughter, and a sequel to her bestselling novel that no one can translate, because it’s written in her secret language. 25 years later, the daughter gets a call from a man in London, who says he has an envelope that may contain answers about her mother. She sets off to England, and when she’s there, finds much more than she ever expected.
“I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman - This is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel about a group of 40 women who were locked in an underground bunker for years, narrated by the youngest of the women, who was a child when they were imprisoned. This one was interesting - there are no chapters, it’s just one long story.
“I Hope This Finds You Well” by Natalie Sue - I needed a palate cleanser after the last book, and I ended up enjoying it more than I expected! This one is a workplace comedy about a woman who is accidentally given access to the emails of all of her coworkers. She tries to use this to her advantage to fit in and get ahead at work, but of course the truth always comes out in the end.
“Nora Goes Off Script” by Annabel Monaghan - I devoured this book in 48 hours! It’s about a screenwriter who typically writes cheesy made-for-tv romance movies. She writes a movie inspired by her divorce, and it gets picked up by a major studio. They film a portion of the movie at her house, and she accidentally falls in love with the male lead.
“The Story She Left Behind” by Patti Callahan Henry - this one is about an author who disappears one day, leaving behind a husband, an eight-year-old daughter, and a sequel to her bestselling novel that no one can translate, because it’s written in her secret language. 25 years later, the daughter gets a call from a man in London, who says he has an envelope that may contain answers about her mother. She sets off to England, and when she’s there, finds much more than she ever expected.
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Tiki Traveler
Well-Known Member
How cool to see a book about Deborah Samson! And I just read she earned a full military pension!
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
The first one I read of hers was "Just for the Summer" and after reading all of her books that is my favorite. I know that there are other books in the series before it but it can work as a stand alone too.
lisak09
Well-Known Member
My last couple of reads. I really enjoyed the Ali Hazelwood one and liked the little cameo of the characters from the previous book.
The Little Paris Patisserie was OK, maybe not as good as the other books I've read in the series but I'll probably still continue reading them(I've actually already bought the next two so I don't know why I'm saying probably!)
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I just finished The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. It was cute, if one can say that about a murder mystery. It's kind of a light-hearted murder mystery. Three women just kind of get pulled into a murder investigation and end up solving the case in a rather dramatic way and end up becoming very good friends in the process. It's a whole series and I just found out there's a TV series, but I haven't watched any of it because I want to read the books first so I don't get spoiled. I actually read the third book, The Queen of Poisons first not knowing it was part of a series, so now I had to read the first one, and we needed a book for book club and we all thought it sounded fun. We all like a light-hearted murder mystery. We all really liked The Otherwhere Post by Emily Taylor, and we usually don't all agree, so I don't expect this one will be a unanimous hit, but I liked it.
www.goodreads.com
The Marlow Murder Club (Marlow Murder Club, #1)
To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible h…
lisak09
Well-Known Member
My last few reads. I enjoyed them all. The Northern Lights Lodge was I think the fourth in the series which are set in different cities, they're fun reads.
The Linwood Barclay one was a good thriller about a school teacher who averts a bombing in the school.
Yours Truly is the second in a series which I'm really enjoying. I like how characters from the previous books show up. Each book seems to get a little better than the previous one. I'm currently reading the third one and hoping there's more to come in the series!
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
Abby Jimenez is one of my favorite authors. She is from the Minneapolis, Minnesota area which is close to me. So then things are set in Minnesota most of the time they are real places. Whenever she mentions Nadia Cakes that is her real cupcake store and I've had them (before I even read her books) and they are delicious cupcakes.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I made it through all the Marlow Murder Club books that are out. They are fun, but was ready for something different. I just read Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I really liked it. It was not at ALL what I was expecting, but in a good way. I was thinking it would be more like How to Kill Men and Get Away With It.....a young woman who murders men who have wronged her, which went a little bit over the top by the end and I didn't really like it. But it was about her trying to SOLVE a murder. Now I need to get the other books in the series.
NiarrNDisney
Well-Known Member
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I just finished beta reading a friend's short mystery. It was good, but needs some tweaking before she publishes. I want to read the sequel to Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but I don't have it yet....so I'm trying to figure out what to read next. Does anyone else have a problem with that? I have an extensive to-be-read collection, but it's hard to decide what I'm most in the mood for. This isn't just me, right? Other people go through this?
Northern Lights is my second favourite in the Julie Caplin series (the Irish one being the most favourite). Others are the Copenhagen Cafe and Swiss ski chalet. I agree that Brooklyn was cute and Paris just ok. If (when?) you get to #11, Villa with a View, that one is borderline silly.
I must look out for more Abby Jimenez, I really enjoyed the one book of hers that I read.
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
Which book by Abby did you read? I love her books.
lisak09
Well-Known Member
I've since finished "Just for the Summer" by Abby Jimenez which I really enjoyed. I know there's a short story next in the series about Doug which I haven't read yet but I'll get to it eventually I think. I'm hoping there will be more books in the series.
I also read "The secret cove in Croatia " by Julie Caplin, also enjoyable but so far I'm in agreement with you on the best ones in the series. I haven't gotten to The Swiss Chalet one yet....
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I read The Baby Dragon Cafe by A.T. Qureshi. It was SOOOO poorly written I almost DFNd it. The writing is like a 6th grader wrote it, and the interactions also seemed VERY young, like ones I had in 6th-8th grade. If you took out the one spicy scene and a couple little references, it would make a great book for a 5th grader. The story is cute, and it involves baby dragons that are basically like puppies. And in removing those few little things, it would also make the book more manageable. Some things were repeated multiple times, like a fully grown dragon belonging to one of the side characters was introduced 2 or 3 times. We are told what kind of a dragon it is and who it belongs to, and that that type of dragon is a more rare breed and thus often stolen. Some of the information is spoonfed to the reader in a very basic way. It was just not fun to read. As my daughter said, there's a whole market now for books geared toward twenty-somethings who aren't really readers. They like the erotica or the really simple books, and won't read anything over about 300 pages because they consider it too long. I think this is more targeted for that audience. People who really aren't used to reading actual good writing and more complex plots, so they don't realize how poorly it's written. After Chapter 2, I googled it because I wanted to see if anyone else had mentioned the poor writing in reviews, and that's pretty much all it was. Review after Review about how bad the writing is and a ton of people who didn't bother to finish it because they couldn't stand it. There were just a few great reviews from people who seem to fit into that book-tok demographic who don't really read anything but this type of book, and the rest were all about how terrible it is. So I really don't recommend it.
www.goodreads.com
Then I read Good Girl, Bad Blood, by Holly Jackson. It's the 2nd book in the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. I really liked it a lot. I think I liked it better than the first one. It seemed easier to follow, less convoluted. The first one had SO many characters that she was interviewing and sometimes I couldn't remember who a very minor character was, but this one had very few NEW characters, so it made it easier to remember who everyone was. It was also easier to remember details because you didn't first have to remember who was who. It was pretty captivating and I had a hard time not playing "One more chapter". I've got the third book in the series now, but I haven't started it.
www.goodreads.com
The Baby Dragon Café (The Baby Dragon, #1)
The perfect cozy, romantic fantasy BESTSELLER for fans …
Then I read Good Girl, Bad Blood, by Holly Jackson. It's the 2nd book in the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. I really liked it a lot. I think I liked it better than the first one. It seemed easier to follow, less convoluted. The first one had SO many characters that she was interviewing and sometimes I couldn't remember who a very minor character was, but this one had very few NEW characters, so it made it easier to remember who everyone was. It was also easier to remember details because you didn't first have to remember who was who. It was pretty captivating and I had a hard time not playing "One more chapter". I've got the third book in the series now, but I haven't started it.
Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #2…
Pip is not a detective anymore. With the help of Ravi …
In the spirit of seasonal reading, here are my most recent reads.
I enjoyed all three of these by Kate Johnson.
I didn't really care for this one. The plot was decent, but the story fairly coarse, if that makes any sense. The "inspirations" that the author names in her dedication (Jude Devereaux, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, Amanda Quick) are all tremendous favorites of mine, but there was nothing reminiscent of any of them in her writing.
I enjoyed all three of these by Kate Johnson.
I didn't really care for this one. The plot was decent, but the story fairly coarse, if that makes any sense. The "inspirations" that the author names in her dedication (Jude Devereaux, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, Amanda Quick) are all tremendous favorites of mine, but there was nothing reminiscent of any of them in her writing.