Worm runs one of the best lost and found offices in the world. He has a rare ability to find things. Lost umbrella? Missing keys? Misplaced toy? If it is lost, then Worm can find it. But then the unthinkable happens: Worm can’t find his hat!
Worm’s absent-minded friend Seal is always losing things. But can she help Worm find his beloved hat? Seal has the perfect solution: look left, look right, then . . . make pancakes? Can Seal’s silly solution actually help Worm find his favorite cap?
In Jule Wellerdiek’s first book with NorthSouth she finds a humorous way to deal with things that are lost, and celebrates the joy that comes with finding things when you least expect it.
My Thoughts & Opinions
Worm’s Lost & Found is a cute picture book with a fun story. I loved the soft colors and adorable characters. They all made reading the book enjoyable and entertaining.
There really isn’t a life lesson to be learned from the book. Except for maybe that some lost items will turn up eventually when we least expect them.
And since I’m a sucker for seek and find activities in any book, Worm’s Lost & Found has a seek and find game that will challenge any preschooler to find objects within the pages of the book. Five fun stars.
I received a DRC from NorthSouth Books through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.
Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are hot for a historical property that has just come on the market—a fire station in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood that was built nearly a century ago.
The cousins have just begun the interior demolition work at the fire station when Joanna Hartzell, who lives in a townhouse around the corner, comes by with a plea for help. Joanna owns the right half of her building, which she proudly maintains in perfect condition, while the left side falls into disrepair: the seven adult children who inherited it years ago refuse to lift a finger on repairs. Never one to turn down a challenge, Whitney and Buck manage to acquire the rundown townhouse—though it turns out Joanna is only one of the many neighbors interested in buying the property once they’ve worked their magic.
Then Joanna shows up at the fire station confused and rambling, then collapses, never to recover. Alarm bells go off for Whitney: she suspects something—and someone—evil could be the real cause. Can she and Collin put the clues together and smoke out a killer?
My Thoughts & Opinions
Four-Alarm Homicide is the sixth novel in the House-Flipper Mystery series, but it is the first novel that I’ve read from this author. That being said, I had no problem reading Four-Alarm as a standalone.
The story unfolds through the lens of the main character, Whitney Whitaker, a carpenter by trade and house-flipper with her cousin, Buck. There’s a few cameo appearances from Whitney’s cat, Sawdust. But I didn’t see the point of including a cat’s point of view as it didn’t add anything to the narrative.
The pacing of the novel was significantly slower than what I’m accustomed to as the murder doesn’t occur until I was at least 40% vested into the novel. I would normally give up at a little past 33%, but what kept me going were the science-based theories, and the house-flipping operations. Patience paid off in the end as the finale was unexpected and a surprise.
Being that the novel is the sixth in the series, I was pleasantly surprised that all of the characters were well developed and didn’t lose any of their attributes through the prior novels. I loved all of the characters. But dear to my heart was the crotchety old neighbor, Gideon. And then, of course, there was Whitney’s cousin, Buck.
Like most cozy mystery novels, there are a few recipes at the end which was a bonus in my book. Four stars.
I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.
While strolling through the park, Franz Kafka hears the cry of a young girl named Saskia sitting with her mother. When Franz learns that the child has lost her beloved doll, Christiana, Franz reassures her that her doll is traveling the world. Upon their next fortuitous meetings, Franz presents Saskia and her mother with postcards from the lost doll—one from Paris, another from Venice, and finally one from Egypt. When Saskia insists that her doll Christiana come home from her travels, Franz is distraught until he finds a vintage doll in a secondhand shop. Saskia is skeptical—the doll looks old. But when Franz reminds her that we all age from our amazing journeys through life, her heart bursts with joy at their being reunited.
Inspired by a famous story, this moving account of generosity highlights the power of imagination and offers a window into the enigmatic life of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.
My Thoughts & Opinions
Wish You Were Here is a cute and heartwarming picture book perfect for a bedtime story. The illustrations reflect a muted color scheme that will have a calming effect after an activity filled day.
The story evokes lessons revolving around kindness and generosity that will provide an ideal teaching opportunity. The story is sweet, but I didn’t get the ending. Did Franz pass away or move? But I guess that will be up to the reader to decide and explain to the young ones. Four stars.
I was invited to read a DRC from NorthSouth Books through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers about her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success―until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.
For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone―why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.
My Thoughts & Opinions:
I typically enjoy biographies and memoirs. And while I did enjoy the beginnings of The Manicurist’s Daughter, my interest waned after 54% I still managed to skim the remainder of the memoir and I don’t think I missed anything noteworthy.
As a reader that has a tendency to “mouth” foreign words and phrases, the constant barrage of Vietnamese names and phrases became a detriment to my ready enjoyment. I lost track of people and/or relatives, especially when there were only Vietnamese names involved. As such I probably would have enjoyed listening to an audiobook version so I wouldn’t have to fumble over pronunciations.
The memoir wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought the book would delve more into the body image/malpractice angle of her mother as well as the effects of the interratial marriage between her and her Korean husband. But, I just got smatterings of them.
The Manicurist’s Daughter wasn’t the best memoir that I’ve read. But it wasn’t the worst, either. Two okay stars.
I won an ARC from Celadon Books through the Bookish First raffle. I was also invited to read the DRC from Celadon Books through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
A missing baby. A fraught friendship. A secret that can never be told.
On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It’s her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she’s just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering—with a jolt of fear—that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie’s world.
So begins the story of Billie and Cassie’s friendship–both in recent weeks, and since they met twenty-three years ago, in their small Hudson Valley hometown the summer before seventh grade. Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, including a traumatic, unspeakable incident in high school, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, has recently become a mother, and is building a following as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind–including Billie, who is single and childless, and no longer fits into her world. Hurt and rejected by Cassie’s new priorities, Billie will do anything to restore their friendship, even as she hides the truth about what really happened the night the baby was taken.
Told in alternating perspectives in Lovering’s signature suspenseful style, Bye Baby confronts the myriad ways friendships change and evolve over time, the lingering echoes of childhood trauma, and the impact of women’s choices on their lifelong relationships.
My Thoughts & Opinions
Bye, Baby is the second novel that I’ve read by Carola Lovering. While I did enjoy the novel, I feel that Lovering has potential to be more.
The novel is touted as a mystery/thriller. But I found it to be more in line with women’s fiction with a touch of domestic suspense.
The story follows best friends Billie and Cassie through high school and adulthood. Told through dual points of view over dual timelines (past and present,) I was taken on a journey through an every evolving friendship between besties that over time morphed into an unrecognizable relationship. Proving that people can and do outgrow each other, especially when social status, marriage, and parenthood are added to the mix.
The novel should be read at face and entertainment value. I say that because there are some scenes in the narrative that may raise a few questions — especially for those readers that are fans of crime scene and investigative thrillers.
The characters are well developed, and I enjoyed how Lovering captured all of the characters’ personalities through high school and beyond. It just highlights the author’s ability to flesh out her characters and bring them to life on the written page.
Overall, Bye, Baby was a very good suspenseful read worthy of four stars.
I received a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
In the months after Cam and Blair broke their small hometown’s legendary missing-girl story and catapulted to accidental fame, they vowed never to do it again. No more mysteries, no more podcasts, and no more sticking their heads where they don’t belong.
Until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, shows up on their doorstep, begging Cam and Blair for help. Mattie’s sister Lola disappeared mysteriously five years ago. No trace of her was ever found. Now, she’s back–but Mattie is convinced the girl who returned is an impostor. Nobody believes Mattie’s wild story–not Mattie’s brother, not Mattie’s mother, and not even Cam and Blair. But something is definitely wrong in the Brosillard family. And Blair has her own reasons for wanting to know what really happened to Lola while she was gone.
With Cam and Blair still struggling with the aftermath of their first mystery―and with new secrets swirling between them―the stakes are higher than ever in this can’t-miss sequel to Missing Clarissa.
My Thoughts & Opinions
Because I really enjoyed Jones’ previous novel, Missing Clarissa, I was more than excited for the opportunity to read The Other Lola. With so many references to the mystery in Missing Clarissa, I don’t think that The Other Lola can be read as a standalone.
Unlike Missing Clarissa, The Other Lola is a slow read. Lacking plot twists and cliffhangers for a majority of the novel, it took a lot of patiences to get past the 51% point. But by then I figured out the finale. Skimming the rest of the novel till 86%, my suspicions on the perpetrator(s) were validated. It’s only because the novel closely mimics an episode of Law and Order SVU that I watched fairly recently. If it weren’t for the similarity to the TV episode, I probably would have enjoyed the novel a lot more.
The main characters are a carryover from the previous novel and because of that, they weren’t as fully fleshed out. Too bad since new readers will probably find the characters uninteresting and pretty vanilla. Some of the newer characters included a non-binary person and a few lesbians. I just don’t get why just about all authors seem to jump on the LGBTQ+ bandwagon and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that just about every book I’ve read recently either has a non-binary characters, or a lesbian/gay characters built into the narrative. And it can get a little confusing with the “they/them” pronouns.
In any event, The Other Lola turned out to be a decent read. Not the best, and not the worst. Three stars.
I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.
Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.
But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
My Thoughts & Opinions
Initially, I didn’t quite understand the narrative and I got a bit confused at the ending. Then, in the middle of the night after mulling over the finale, that “Aha” moment happened. What started out to be a four star review has now evolved into something much better.
There are quite a number of characters. And in true Hawkins’ style, her characters are enigmatic and engaging. I did get a little lost on the relationships between the characters, but that confusion disipated as soon as I put some added thought into the family tree. Having done that, the novel became an immersive read.
The story unfolds through multiple points of view and dual timelines. Full of plot twists and mini cliffhangers between chapters, the narrative kept me on my toes and guessing till the end. The Heiress was a complex novel as it involved multiple characters, timelines, and plot lines. But after pondering the finale and encountering that “aha” moment, The Heiress became a rewarding mystery worthy of five solid stars.
I received a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
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