Welcome to Litsy!

Two broken women meet in a small library. Both are running from their past lives. Jane fled her nursing career just ahead of being arrested as an “”angel of death.” She has recreated herself as Margo, a library aide. Patricia has run away from a failed writing career, reinventing herself as a reference librarian. Crossing paths, their compulsions are reignited, but Jane/Margo doesn‘t want her secrets told. The dread increases with each page.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
This one was just OK to me…like the storyline but the writing was kind of boring and I scanned through some of it.🫣

The problem with this is that it can‘t go on forever; books end 📚🔥

Lyrical prose, murder, insanity, potential psychopathy and human obsession all set in an aged library with quirky patrons. A quick read and a gentle thrill.

A disgraced nurse and a failed writer work together at a small town library where they develop an uneasy friendship. Things get weird, especially after the #death of an annoying patron.

I don‘t know what I expected, but this wasn‘t it. There were some interesting moments, but I didn‘t particularly enjoy it. The cover is intriguing, though.

#autumnplease

Hockey season begins...

Fun audiobook. Extra points for having one of the main characters discover the amazingness of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

I thought this was great! The library setting, creepy/disturbed/delightfully detestable main character, interesting side characters and relationships, and engaging audio narration made this a very effective mini-slump buster for me. The ending...was what it was. But overall this was a fun read that flew by fast, which suited me fine (even though I would have enjoyed more time with Margo! 😬).

Okay, I really liked this book! It's so quiet and understated, which makes it all the more chilling. It's about control---of narratives, of situations, of other people, of ourselves---and about interpretation. I suspect that some of the best books are written with the idea in mind that each individual character is the hero of their own story, as it is in life. Sims accomplishes this quite well.

The library setting-loved
The repetition-obnoxious
The viscous/sinister mind of the killer-entertaining and creepy
The portrayal of library patrons-pretty accurate
The motives for the killer-didn‘t find it believable

I‘m so torn on this one! The audio is quick and entertaining and I can‘t NOT give it a pick, it‘s just so perfectly library-centric! But unbelievable and so convenient, and felt forced at the end.

I‘m in the minority again. This one definitely made me cringe and feel disgusted at times! It started off intriguing , but very anticlimactic and ended the same. I did like the library setting 🤷🏻‍♀️ Tux agrees!! 🖤

#Adayinthelifeoftux

#LitsyLoveReads

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Murderous nurse turned suspicious librarian? I‘ve read too many thrillers lately, and while this was certainly more unique than most, suspending belief is tricky for me. I know the should focus on entertainment value, but I‘m set in my (almost) 42-yr-old ways. I did appreciate how Margo is both likable and horrible. That‘s nearly impossible to pull off! Dual POV and audio narration were fab as well. Fans of the genre should pick this up.

I guess it‘s been a long day for Tux 😹😹

#ADayinthelifeoftux
#Catsoflitsy

Picking this one back up tonight. My daughter brought me some apricot wine 🍷 and it‘s fine!!

I‘m only on page 36, but this one kinda makes my skin crawl…

This sounds interesting! A nurse turned librarian with a mysterious past! Yes please 📚🩸🩺💊🧪✅

Greenway #audiowalk with the best boy. 🎧🐾

#Champ #dogsoflitsy

Margo works at the circulation desk at the Carlisle Public Library. Margo has a very dark secret. Margo begins to unravel when Patricia is hired at the library. Told from both characters‘ perspectives, this is a deliciously creepy novel. I could understand library frustrations as detailed by Margo and Patricia. This was so good. Comparable to Mona Awad‘s books & Phil Hogan‘s A Pleasure & a Calling.

Audio is amazing! Loved Margo‘s voice!

#TitlesandTunes I would say this book would go beautifully with 'Pardon Me' by 311. This song just seems fitting.

I really loved this book. It was dark and twisty, but all the while I was rooting for Margo in spite of her neurosis lol. Margo fled her former life, under suspicious circumstances, 2 years ago and has been happily working as a library assistant since. Everything is carrying on quite well until a new reference librarian is hired at the library where Margo works. Then things start getting really interesting. ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

I actually really liked this a lot. It's a creepy nurse story but the setting is a library. So that's unusual.

#BookSpin @TheAromaofBooks

#Aardvark

This was a great recommendation from @Cinfhen for #dramaqueen and #titlesandtunes this month! I listened to the whole thing on flights and snatches of time during a wonderful girls weekend in North Carolina. I‘d suggest song Devil Woman, a Yacht Rock classic by Cliff Richards - cause Margo sure was. Excellent Rec!

A creepy, little page-turner in which a game of cat and mouse is played out in a small town library setting. Be careful the next time your books are overdue!
#SummerEndReadathon @TheSpineView

Book and bonfire.
#SummerEndReadathon @TheSpineView

Yay! My last read of the month was SOOOO GOOD! I absolutely LOVED this one! After a bit of a reading slump this audio just hooked me instantly! I couldn‘t stop listening 😊❣️Margo is living a quiet existence since she began working in a small town library but her past is about to catch up to her. It‘s a game of cat and mouse and I was ALL IN! Dual audio narration was excellent - really raising the intensity and fury of librarian Margo.

After a bunch of lackluster books, i FINALLY found one I‘m LOVING !!! Audio is SO GOOD 🤩 and twice already the term #DramaQueen has been used … #TitlesAndTunes September ideas 💡
Here‘s a look at the beginnings of our Spotify playlist https://spotify.link/dIu6Y8u0HCb

This was really good. I couldn't put this one down. Such a creepy main character too. 😳

Loved it

Right as she‘s about to get caught killing patients, nurse Jane flees and reinvents herself as Margo, small town librarian. It‘s now 2 years later and a new hire shakes things up with Margo. I love the premise and this book started strong, but I felt like it fell a little flat and petered out by the end, which I didn‘t buy.

Could not put the book down!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

What a weird, dark, and creepy little thriller! This was really engaging (and also very unsettling), and if life would have allowed, I could have read it in one sitting. I would have loved for the backstories and the ending to have been more fleshed out. #Aardvark #AardvarkBookClub

I don't know what to say about this book. It's weird, the main characters are not likeable, it's set in a library, and there's murder. That all sounds good to me, but I think I just didn't understand what motivated the obsession between the two characters or what exactly was going on with one of the characters.

Idk, nothing seems to be sticking lately and I‘m having a hard time staying with a book. I don‘t mind an unlikable narrator and I used to be a librarian, so this should be right up my alley. Regardless, I‘m pausing and hopefully I‘m on to something else by this afternoon. 😕

Am I currently reading a book about a murderous librarian? 😱 Yes. Yes, I am! 😂💕📚

3.75⭐
I have to say, lately, when so many books go with one narrator for all of their POVs…they did not skimp on this one, the narration was perfection. This was a great slow-burn type of thriller. A quick, effortless listen with building dread, and cat & mouse antics…but she forgot to stick the landing. The ending was lackluster and felt like she took the easy way out.

And somehow I picked 2 #aardvark books this month. Despite having read one of the 5. I picked neither of these for the cover but I do appreciate the hot pink.

@AardvarkBookClub

What did I just read?!

Jane is an angel of death, a serial killer nurse, who skips town when suspicion lands on her, changes her name to Margo, and becomes a librarian.
Patricia is a failed writer turned research librarian who forms a morbid fascination with Margo that gets stronger when she realizes Margo is actually Jane.
Neither were particularly likable or sympathetic characters.

I really wanted to like this one 😫 and a lot of people are still probably going to like this. But, me personally, this book did the one thing I can not stand in books. 2 main characters, switching POV, and recounting the same exact things. You would get a long chapter about the first main character, then switch to the second person and read the whole thing again through their perspective. Personally, 1/5

#HowCanIHelpYou #LauraSims #BookSpinBingo #SeriesLove2023

No one knows Margo‘s real name. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo‘s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully.

Starting this ARC today. This one is about a serial murderer who was a nurse, but is now hiding out as Margo, a pleasant library clerk. I'm intrigued.