What happens in a pandemic when everyone who‘s not immune or doesn‘t get the limited supply of vaccine is dead? We send off genetically engineered babies out with robot mothers programmed with the mother code to keep them safe & preserve the human race. But when it‘s time to bring them all back in, how do we get past the mothers, whose primary directive is to protect the children? An interesting sci-fi story for this particular time for sure.

I‘m not big into epic sci-fi/fantasy sagas—I like a good space premise with interesting characters and aliens on an exciting adventure—like a Star Trek episode. And this book fell right into my wheelhouse. The characters were quirky and fun, the adventures were exciting, the space scenarios and settings were captivating and not hard to imagine. I‘m looking forward to diving into the rest of this series! All 8 books are free on Kindle Unlimited.

Full of laughs and a few tears, A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane is a hilarious look at the life of a personal assistant to a Hollywood icon. Written by Carrie Fischer‘s former personal assistant, the premise of the book makes it seem more like a memoir but he claims what takes place in the book is pure fiction. Whatever the case may be, the characters are all very entertaining and endearing. This was a welcome break from the horror of 2020.

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be “disturbing.” So disturbing. I liked the growing suspicion on all the characters and hints about past events throughout the book, but when the big reveal finally came it was so disturbing and horrific that I was too distraught to really enjoy all the final twists and turns that came from the rest of the revelations of the reveal. Did not sleep well thanks to this book. Read at your own risk.

In a time & place where saying something like “coloreds” is normal (shudder), a girl is slowly abandoned by every person in her family until she is forced to survive completely alone in a shack in a marsh. The first half is all about isolation, abandonment, & abuse. Then it gets better with a murder trial. Yay murder! Something less depressing. Then a rambling conclusion & a little surprise. It was well written but the story was not for me. Bleh.

I loved this twisty thriller! Three self-absorbed siblings on a horrendous road trip across the country, a grandfather‘s multi-million dollar inheritance at stake, hillbilly stalkers, and soooo many secrets and lies revealed along the way. And wow! What an ending! The last chapter is like a fireworks show with reveals and possible endings going off on every page. Plus, Karissa Vacker did an excellent job narrating the audiobook.

Bleh. Chloe‘s face says it all. We tried really hard to get into this book but the characters were just so selfish and annoying. The dialog was hideous. They kept repeating themselves over and over again—I guess in an effort to draw out the suspense? Instead we just kept screaming at them to “GET TO THE &$!%ing POINT ALREADY!” Almost every character was the suspected killer at some point so it just dragged on and on and on...

Jane Hawk is an FBI agent and major bad ass out to avenge her husband‘s death, protect her son from kidnappers, and save the world from sociopaths hellbent on enslaving the country with mind-control technology. This 5-book series is fast-paced, inventive, and full of compelling characters. We thoroughly enjoyed all five books.

WE LOVED THIS BOOK! Two women are living lives they shouldn‘t be stuck in. They take one desperate chance to save themselves, to escape the raw deal fate has dealt them. They swap flights at the last minute so when they arrive at each others‘ destinations, they can start new lives. A completely fresh start. But nothing is ever as easy as all that, is it? We were captivated from the first page and knocked it out in two days. Fast, fun read!

A great psychological thriller! What we liked best is how the two main characters are so damaged & demented but also strong enough to stick up for themselves. They don‘t wallow in self-pity, they use their sad circumstances to their advantage. They‘re psycho—no doubt about that—but at least they‘re not whiny & pathetic when things go wrong. They get done what their crazy little heads tell them to do and they do it! Hahaha! We really enjoyed it!

I‘m wondering if the author purposely made all the women in this story self-centered, selfish, and egotistical on purpose—if so then bravo! I really disliked all four of them and only stuck around in hopes of seeing them supremely crushed. Also, I think the ending was supposed to be a shocker but by that time I was just left going “Wait, what? Eh, whatever.” It wasn‘t bad overall but I just really couldn‘t connect with any of the characters.

Little Secrets started out good — a celebrity stylist‘s perfect life is shattered after her son is kidnapped when she looks away for just a few seconds. What could be worse, right? In comes the psychological torture and her trying to keep it together. OK, good, we‘re set up for those little secrets to come out. Gimme! 🤗 Meh. 🥱 There are twists & revelations but it‘s just so convoluted and not believable. I didn‘t hate it but I expected more.

Looking for a chilling mystery but don‘t want to get too grossed out? This creeper had enough ghost power to raise some hairs but didn‘t get too gory or have any disturbing sex stuff to keep you up at night. Safely scary. 👻👍 I listened to the audiobook on this one, which was excellently narrated by The Ninth Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston (I love that British accent!). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Passengers of a mysterious plane crash fight for survival only to discover that something very wrong is happening in the world beyond the crash site. It‘s now up to five key passengers to save or destroy mankind forever. Feeling the chills yet? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A genetically enhanced pack of dogs who can communicate on a telepathic network sets out to save the world from an out of control evil mastermind with the help of an autistic boy, the only human in the world who can interact directly with the canine network. Devoted by Dean Koontz is an action-packed thriller dog lovers will enjoy, I certainly did!

Chloe rates this thriller “excellent”!! I had this downloaded for years but some of Koontz‘s other stuff turned me off. This one is really super good though! Hopefully the rest of the books in the series will keep up.

Awesome spy thriller! Blew our faces off.

Read/listened to these books on a Christmas cruise though Australia & New Zealand. I wish we didn‘t have to post on a book title, but since we do, I chose Santa Cruise because it fit my theme and was the book I most looked forward to reading but was the one I hated the most. Oh well, the rest of the books were great as was my trip. Pray for Australia! It‘s a beautiful country with beautiful people and I hope those fires get under control soon!

What a surprise! I downloaded this one mainly because I wanted to listen to a British accent while on an Australian cruise (I‘m American, it all sounds the same to me 🤡) and ended up loving the characters and the story. Can‘t wait for the next book in this series about her sister Dani!

Was looking forward to reading this Christmas-themed whodunnit on my own Christmas cruise, but eh, so lame. My first and last Carol Higgins Clark book. Disliked all of the characters. Dialog and storyline is straight out of a Hallmark channel made-for-tv movie starring every over-the-hill D-list celebrity you can think of.

Downloaded this one to listen to while on a Christmas cruise through Australia and New Zealand since it was about a mother out to destroy Christmas and narrated by an Australian. Under those circumstances it was good entertainment, but overall it was a little over the top but at least not boring. I‘ve suffered through worse.

Hot sex with aliens on a chase across the galaxy? What‘s not to like? The perfect treat when you‘re on vacation!

I usually don‘t like stories that happen before the ‘80s, especially when the norm is to diss women and minorities but this one wasn‘t too bad probably because of the space storyline. Was a little slow though. I thought it was going to be more sci-fi-ish but it was OK. Probably won‘t read the sequel.

Great sequel! Worth re-reading The Shining as well.

Came up as a free Kindle Unlimited read. I started a few pages just to check it out and ended up finishing it like a bag of potato chips.

A fun sexy sci-fi fling!

Cute little romcom. Not going to win any awards but a fun quick read. Good comfort food on a lazy Sunday.

Much better than the first book in this series. Nice fast-paced ending! Chloe couldn‘t get enough. 😸

Terrible, slow, stupid story that takes a gruesome turn. When body parts start disappearing off people who are too dim to complain or fight back, you have to really fight hard to finish this stupid book so you can write a scathing review.

My favorite Lisa Jewell book so far. Riveting story about a family that at first seems so totally normal and loving and then just gets all kinds of messed up and then messed up some more! Really good. Couldn‘t put it down!

Chloe and I really enjoyed this cute romcom spy mystery and are looking forward to reading more in this series!

WTF is this shit?? I loved all three of the Wayfarers books but this piece of crap was a total snooze fest! She just droned on and on about I don‘t even remember. What a massive disappointment! I‘m so glad I borrowed it from the Libby app and didn‘t waste a cent on this crapola.

Read most of this yesterday and just finished tonight. Another wild ride from one of my all-time favorite authors—#HarlanCoben. His mysteries are just so damn good and interesting and intense!

This is what my July looked like. #julyreads #julywrapup

This big boy is chock full of action! A whole lot of 💩 goes down! 👍👍👍

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I think this was probably a better audiobook than book. The four main characters were narrated by four separate actors including #JohnSlattery from Mad Men. Two terrible couples on vacation in Italy. The travel references were very nice—felt like I was on vacation.

Starts out a little slow but hang in there. Once the characters are built and their history starts to take shape — WHAM! Everything takes off at once and doesn‘t stop until it‘s over!

Decent whodunnit starting private investigator Kenny Gabriel. Available with audio on #KindleUnlimited. British narrator Simon Vance does a nice job with the voices. Whipped right through it over the weekend.

Kyle and Reggie both recommend the final book in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Available on Kindle Unlimited as a digital book with audio, which we love!! Makes it easy to switch between listening and reading, and you can quickly reference the copy in the book if you‘re not sure what the narrator just said. Teri Schnaubelt does an excellent job narrating.

My first David Bell book and I liked it a lot. Got a little annoyed at all the mini cliffhangers at the end of chapters so you have to wait a chapter or two to get back to where he left you hanging but overall the story and the characters were good.

Loved all the intrigue and double-crossing! The story slipped back and forth on the timeline a little too much though. Was hard to follow in the audiobook, maybe it was more clear in the book. Was a great story though. Wish I had read this before #TheParisDiversion but c‘est la vie.

A real mystery and a thriller! Although a quarter of the way through it became painfully obvious that this was a sequel to something—The Expats. Ugh. The Libby app usually points out if a book is part of a series and this one had no indication of that. Oh well. Reading The Expats now. Love all the spy and intrigue and Parisian setting.

Phoebe approves my reading list for my next 6 reads.

My #top6reads of 2019 so far with What Alice Forgot as my #1.

Sweet little romantic comedy. Nice break from serial killers and foreign espionage.

Appropriate title for this fourth twisty thriller with handsome hero Kyle Achilles. This one features a proposal, an extreme prepper hideout, kidnappings, and terrorists.

Where does he come up with this stuff?? So good!! 👍