I really liked the beginning and the end but I found myself slogging through the middle. It could just be the holidays interrupted my flow.

I really liked the first part where we were following the story in real time. I lost some interest in the descriptions of what other people thought happened in the following 50 years.

I liked this dark retelling of The Nutcracker. I really liked the ending.

Warning, this book is heavy. Every character is dealing with the loss of a loved one. I didn't know that when I started reading it and several scenes brought up my own recent loss. It does have happy moments and everyone finds what they need in the end.

I love stories of survival and death in extreme environments and this book collected several plus added the stories of the loved ones back home. Some of the writing is so beautiful and haunting I keep reading pieces out loud to anyone who will listen.

I was excited because I loved Water for Elephants, the other novel by this author, and I thought the premise of a young woman looking for the Loch Ness monster was interesting, but it was just a love story with some perfectly timed plot points to deliver a happy and predictable ending.

I liked this. It is a family drama, which is a bit over done these days, but there is enough actual spy stuff to keep me interested.

I devoured this book. And even though I thought I had it figured out, there were two twists at the end that I didn't see coming at all.

I just couldn't get into plot with the very low stakes of someone being mad at someone else and their play being canceled. I honestly couldn't find a single redeemable thing about Pip.

I liked the setting, felt very much like the Mummy or Indiana Jones. But so much stuff happened in the last 50 pages and it confused me why that was rushed after hundreds of pages of slower plot development. Speaking of confused... there's a huge cliffhanger at the end. I see others are saying it's the start of a series. If I had known, I might not have read this.

I got this as a little pick me up and overall it did the job. The good: it manages to be about a generational family in Paris without being about hidden secrets or either of the world wars, an uncommon and commendable feat. The not so good: the Lisette doesn't need two saviors at the end, and another near abandonment of her principles. The priest could have just stepped in and they moved on from there.

If you want a love story, then this is probably a good one. Unfortunately, I wanted a vampire story which is really less than 10% of this book, so I was disappointed.

It is a lot of build up before the action but I liked all the twists at the end.

Amazing, heartbreaking, beautifully written but so very very real and true.

Jazz age mystery with some BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ characters. I like the setting but I found myself reading just to get to the end instead of living in the world. I felt like I could put the characters in modern day NY and it wouldn't change too much. Perhaps the follow up will capture my imagination more.

The ending was perfect and made me super sentimental. But a lot of the book lacked the flair of the original series.

I am always drawn to books set in Boston so I took a risk on another mild thriller. I have to say I liked that the main characters were women and that it was law heavy instead of spies. Overall, nice, quick read with good ending.

If you like David Sedaris, you will like this book. Trauma stories of growing up and coming out with an evangelical family told in a way that makes you chuckle. A good dose of dry humor to help the medicine go down.

I like the Gothic revival and the additional info in the back felt like a little college course in the genre which was neat!

I need a book club to talk to about this book. I can't figure out how I am supposed to feel about the main character.

I didn't expect the love story aspect and that took me out of it a little bit.

It is pretty good. I figured it out way too early and there is way too much wrap up for me. Felt like the last 30% was a slog, but it was great fun before that.

I really liked the first part but the second just wrapped up too quickly and cleanly for me.

I really liked the premise of this book and got really excited when I learned it is based on a true story of a woman passing while creating a huge personal library for J.P. Morgan. But the writing itself felt more like a list of historical events with most of the major action for the character being told in cast off way. I wish I had been able to be more absorbed by the world of this interesting woman.

I love her characters and scene setting. This one was particularly fun because it had several adult character storylines that overlapped but were not combined. It was fun to see their individual stories.

A must must must read for everyone. This shows how the way we talk about history and even current events needs to be better informed by the truth of enslaved people in our country and the world

I liked the book pretty much. I felt like the end kind of lost me a little bit but it was a fun new magical premise to read.

Very interesting story of a guy who tried to climb everest solo.

Not really a mystery, still a beach read that just has a murder investigation as the method for unfolding the plot. I like this author for fun, summer reads.

I loved the characters. I was disappointed that it turned into a WWII story, as those are very common in my reading list, but there is so much heart, it was worth it.

You have to believe in aliens and demons living in the same story simultaneously, but if you can get with that, this is a great story about food, violin music, being trans, immigrants, families and finding your own music.

I like the characters but I wanted more story and more world building.

Blah.I so loved the author's first book (7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) and this was a big disappointment. It read like a drawn out Agatha Christi. I love her, but she is certainly of a place and doesn't take up 450 pages only to have the killers confess. Meh and boo

I kept hearing about this book and this author. Great narrative history style and a story I hadn't encountered before.

So so so good. This book made me cry so hard. Beautifully written and engrossing.

Read this book. Read it with friends so you have someone to share the inside jokes with!

This is a great memoir from a 10 year veteran security guard at the Met. It is about art, his personal life and the lives of other guards he befriends along the way. Touching and uplifting, a must read.

New tile is Melissa. Fast read, perhaps meant for a younger audience. Great look at transgender people through the main character. Just a little too neat and tidy for my taste.

Three Vanishing Half meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I loved the first 2/3rds of this book. The final third felt rushed with all the major conflict coming and resolving in a single scene. Much of the resolution was told, rather than shown for a lot of the numerous characters in this book. The plot might have been over complicated, creating no way to logically resolve it.

The old bait and switch where the prologue sucks you into the action but then the chapters back up to years before and most of the book is not about the main event. It is disappointing, especially since the author even says in the text that the goal was to set the record straight about the event itself, and yet it gets the fewest pages.

There was a lot of hype around this book and series, so I wanted to love it. I did enjoy the world building and the way everything is described in a nice pace, but I struggled with the familiar beauty and beast archetypes.

I liked the characters and the premise. I think it could have been even darker, instead of a string of accidents, an intentional unaliving would have been really juicy.

I really liked this narrative historical book. I only wish there were pictures.

Very "cheeky" narration with breaks in the third wall as another narrator interjects. Just not my cup of tea right now even though the idea is cute.

If this had been longer, I might have finished it but I found it hard to enjoy the alternate world without any world building. Faries and only females in a world that might be doomed... cool but I didn't connect enough with it.

Intense story about the survival of 4 men that had nothing in common. The story goes beyond the incident and rescue and follows the survivors' lives years after they were rescued.

I wanted more sweeping family epic tales. This is more just women in a modern, dysfunctional family with a little history and magic thrown in.

Like Pirates of the Caribbean where Jack Sparrow is a 6 foot tall middle-aged woman. I love the adventure plot and fun characters. There is magic and lore mixed into a realistic setting.

I loved hearing the story of this woman's life as if it is being told to her grandchild. I actually wanted much much more of the story. It starts in two year segments and then jumps dozens of years and ends quickly.

Loved this story of a post endemic world where society is completely different. The handling of the pandemic is masterful as it is more of a set piece than the story itself. Character driven piece.