Some Favorite Books This Week!

I’ve been having a tough time keeping up with both the reading AND posting here. While I get it all sorted out, I thought I could at least post the reviews here to Amazon, so you can read them there!

By the way, the first book on the top line above is my own book, published in April to help restaurants through the pandemic. Know any restaurateurs, restaurant managers, or head chefs? Let them know about the book! It could save their business!

Note: I am listing reviews as I do them each day. Sometimes, Amazon takes days or even a week or more to approve these reviews, so you will see a lag between when I list reviews and when a link is available. The longest I had to wait was 3.5 weeks!

Note about Goodreads and BookBub Reviews Linked Below

Sometimes, you’ll see me link to my review at Goodreads or BookBub. That’s usually because I’m having some sort of issue with Amazon: they’re taking waaaaay too long to post the review or they’ve rejected the review because they say it isn’t up to “community standards.” They are never specific… and just ask me to review the community standards page. I wish they would be specific… so I can avoid whatever it is they don’t like. Most “rejected” reviews are rather tame; some are even 5 stars. I’ve noted that some words seem to trigger it, like boring or transitioning. Hey, sometimes things just ARE boring, and it is much more succinct to say that than “visually unappealing” when talking backgrounds in children’s activity books! Others completely leave me scratching my head about what might be “wrong” with the review.

Hope that life becomes a little more sane so I can post my full reviews here soon!

Fiction

Historical Romance

Frida: Claimed by Kaitlynn Clarkson
Capturing the Captain by C. K. Brooke
Bitter Autumn by Loretta C. Rogers
To Seduce a Rogue by Tracy Sumner
Josephine’s Truth by Joyce Alec
Severed Knot by Cryssa Bazos

Contemporary Romance

Conflicted Hearts by Elle Linder
The Wrong Date by Sienna Waters
Their Delayed Connection by Kari Shuey (part of a multi-author collection called Love Under Lockdown)
Abandoned Hearts by Lisa Stanbridge
The Things I Know by Amanda Prowse
Love and Other Responsibilities by Lexxie Couper
Heart Beat by multiple authors (5 very quick-read medical romances; profits going to the CDC’s Emergency Fund)

Mysteries, Suspense, and Thrillers

Murder in the Daytime by Blythe Baker
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Interference by Brad Parks (gripping sci-fi thriller with a missing man and elements of a medical thriller)
Girl Gone Mad by Avery Bishop (some story elements OK, but profanity and racism offensive)
Deadly Waters by Dot Hutchison (just baaaad; a book of extremes veering toward man-hating)
Aged for Murder by Fiona Grace (one of those positive reviews rejected by Amazon!)

Speculative Fiction

Haunted by Shari Nichols
The Girl Who Loved Caravaggio by Belle Ami
Typo Squad, Book II: The Return of the Wordmonger by Stephen Lomer
Typo Squad, Book III: The Typo Alliance by Stephen Lomer
A Damsel in Shiny Armor by Barbara Russell
Druid’s Dance by Theophilus Monroe

Historical Fiction

The Spark of Resistance by Kit Sergeant
Red Mistress by Elizabeth Blackwell
The Young Survivors by Debra Barnes (harrowing tale of orphaned Jewish children during WWII, based on the author’s grandmother’s story)
The Copper Road by Richard Buxton
The Woman in the Moonlight by Patricia Morrisroe

Chick Lit / Women’s Literature

The Peacock Room by Merryn Corcoran
Writing Her Future by Lilith Cervus
The Geometry of Holding Hands by Alexander McCall Smith
Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor (elements of romance, suspense, female friendships [some long term], and a little mystery with a dual timeline)

Children’s Fiction