I had a weird feeling about this book as soon as one character saw a boy bleeding to death in a field and decided it was appropriate and normal to refer to him as the "beautiful boy." I kept going, and this book was just not entirely what I thought it was going to be. The expectation here would have been that this book was about finding whoever was responsible for hurting Karel, the boy left to die in the field, but that's really not the point at all. This is more a coming of age story about the three children who found him. Matthew is dealing with his new realization that the world has darkness and is unfair, and that sometimes finding answers doesn't bring you the closure you wanted in life. Zoe has just found out that one of her parents is involved in an affair that she can tell no one about, unless she wants to risk breaking apart her family. On the same vein, she's exploring the idea of love figuring out who she wants to be. Duncan, the youngest, has taken the trauma of finding a dying boy in a new direction - he has realization that, being adopted, now is the time for him to seek out his first mother, before something happens to her.

This book was about a human who found himself trapped in the world of Minecraft. It was a fun and exciting book filled to the brim with action and suspense. This book also contained precisely 36 life lessons.

I love this book so much!

This book tells the story of the generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean after WW2. Powerful story with many first-hand accounts. It helped me gain a sense of the Afro-Caribbean community in Britain decade by decade. Also gives the historical background to the Windrush Scandal that broke in 2018.

At first I thought this book would have everything I was looking for. I like Lisa Jewell's writing style, and this one started out with all the ingredients for a great domestic thriller. But then nothing happened. The happy family wasn't really happy, the socially awkward 33 year old man wasn't a criminal and the missing girl wasn't missing. I didn't find any of the characters to be sympathetic or likable, and the story was slow and ultimately sort of boring.

I chose this book because it was free on Amazon Prime Reading. It was pretty good. Jane has lost pretty much everything, her friend Otis offers her a job tutoring his boss's daughter at a beautiful cottage with a fantastic view. Evan Rochester has been accused of murdering his wife. Will Jane be able to feel comfortable with him and his daughter? Jane hears things at night! Is it the Ghost of Evan's wife? It was an interesting read, not my typical type of read but good nonetheless.

In this book, Henry's parents went to the Sweetheart Dance. Henry and Mudge went to stay at Mrs. Hopper's house. While they were there they played with all her costumes. Henry dressed up like a man and Mudge was a poodle. They had so much fun. Henry's parents came back and were surprised to see them dressed up!

Love ignores rules! The build up for this romance was really well done. The characters had great chemistry when they were falling in love but the ending seemed to fall apart - rushed and jumbled a bit. The set-up to the end could have been expanded

Set in a world where Slasher films really did happen, Lynnette is a member of what's known as the "The Final Girls Club." The club is made up of women who meet a very specific criteria - they all were the only survivors of two massacres, and they all killed the person responsible. They meet once a month to support each other and work towards moving on with their lives - until one day one of the members doesn't show up on time. Her monster has come back to kill her. Now, Lynnette is on a race to not only keep herself alive, but to keep the members of her club alive as well. This probably would have worked pretty well as a movie, honestly, but as a book it didn't quite work for me. First, Lynnette as a narrator was awful. She's unreliable from the start, so I found myself utterly distracted the entire book because I was always trying to figure out if I should believe what was happening. I know a lot of books use the unreliable narrator trope now, but it was a difficult sell in this book. I would have much preferred if a different narrator (Heather?) was responsible for telling us what was going on. Or if Lynette's character was tweaked a little. Second, the plot twists were not really plot twists. It was really easy to figure out who was going to be responsible for the killings happening, so that was disappointing. The twists didn't leave me going "oh wow!" so much as "ugh, finally, we got there." My third issue is that it seems like Grad Hendrix either didn't keep track of everything, didn't want to explain everything, or thought that no one would pay attention. For example, at one point a character is mentioned to have a cell phone that they are going to use to keep track of Amber Alerts and to check in with every five hours. Three sentences later, they say that they're going to keep the phone turned off and only have it on for the check in times. How...how are you checking for Amber Alerts? Why did you make a big deal about checking for Amber Alerts, only to then say you're turning the phone off and not getting them anyway? In another scene, Lynnette is dictating a message for someone to send. She claims that it was a difficult process, and that she had to spell out a lot of the words. The example given is using "p as in Paul which is fascinating, because the only words with "p" in her message are purchased, photos, people, and peace. Am I really supposed to believe that someone couldn't spell one of those words without help? Really? I could go on and on, but honestly? I had high hopes for this book. The summary sounded great, and I was really excited to read it. I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. The writing is just not good.

Another great Verity Kent mystery. This time, Verity and Sidney head to Aunt's to solve the mystery of three murders and whether or not they are connected. A fun, Downton Abbey-esque read, albeit a little wordy in parts. Overall, an enjoyable book.