#gretchensbooks2026 - February

 

The social media memories that pop up are constantly teasing me because what do you mean I'd read nearly 40 books by this time in 2022? Anyway. I did manage to listen to two audiobooks this month, and I tried another but pretty quickly DNF'd it. I do however know just about everything there is to know about the Nancy Guthrie investigation. #WhereIsNancy? But seriously I haven't been this chronically online since Hannah Kobayashi took a missing persons vakay to Mexico. WHERE IS NANCY?

Book 9 of 2026 🎧 Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano (4/5⭐️)

Finlay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet . . . but at least there's not a body in her backyard.

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case―or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.

However, when the focus of the investigation widens to include Finlay’s ex-husband, Steven, Finlay and Vero are left with little choice but to get closer to Mrs. Haggerty and uncover her secrets . . . before the police start digging up theirs. But who will solve the mystery first?

I've enjoyed this whole series, but this may be my favorite book so far. The development of the relationships between the characters was exquisite. The cliffhanger this book ended in has be anxiously awaiting book 6 to come out next month. Also, I just realized there is a short story (book 3.5) about Veronica that I definitely need to see if Libby has. These are quick, fun reads that constantly have me busting out laughing.

FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

Book 10 of 2026 🎧 Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight (4/5⭐️)

When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.

But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control” emotions and “unsafe” behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.

Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. She’s damn good at it, too. Growing up in a dangerous group home taught her how to think fast, stay calm under pressure, and recognize a real threat when she sees one. And in the days leading up her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past—all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo . . .

Like Mother, Like Daughter is a thrilling novel of emotional suspense that questions the damaging fictions we cling to and the hard truths we avoid. Above all, it’s a love story between a mother and a daughter, each determined to save the other before it’s too late.

I really liked the style of this story. It was told in both the mother and daughter's perspectives. It was told from the mother's perspective before she went missing, and the daughter's perspective after, but both perspectives were interwoven together until they meet in the resolution of the story. I'm not sure if this is meant to be YA or not, but I think the story covers a wide-range of audience. 

Book 11 of 2026 📖 The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (4/5⭐️)

France, 1939 - In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France … but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can … completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

This book was frequently highly recommended, and after loving Hannah’s The Women (which I expected to not interest me) I knew I wanted to give this one a go. I’d been a little hesitant because I’ve read A LOT of WWII historical fiction and got kind of burned out on it. The book was slow to start for me. I’m about to start I mean at least the first half. I part on and then did not want to put it down in the second half. And 100 pages to go when we had a two hour delay and it took every ounce of willpower not to pick this book up because I knew I wouldn’t finish it in time and then I would just be thinking about it all day long.

If you have not read this book yet, stop now reading my thoughts now. There will probably be mild spoilers to follow. Kristen Hannah. How could you do this to me?? The ending!! I kept my emotions in check the whole book till the very end and then I sobbed like a little baby. 😭 

Book 12 of 2026 🎧 Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank by Elle Cosimano (3.5/5⭐️)

Veronica Ruiz is on the run for the first time in her life—though certainly not the last. After being falsely accused of stealing money from her college sorority, she packs up and heads to her cousin Ramón's apartment, planning to change her name and start over, away from backstabbing girls and university drama (and far, far away from her arrest warrant in Maryland).

At the local bank on the first morning of her new life, it occurs to Vero that she'd be a better bank teller than most of the current employees; she may not have much money, but what little she does have, she knows how to manage. Unfortunately, the only available position is a cleaning job and so, desperate for a fresh start, she takes the bank manager’s offer.

But nothing in Vero's world has ever been simple so of course, shortly after she begins work, she overhears a conversation between her new boss and a security guard: someone who works there has been stealing. Seeing a window of opportunity, Vero sets out to find the identity of the thief, present the evidence, and then push for the perfect job. All of which would be easier if her irresistibly infuriating childhood crush Javi wasn’t living in the same damn town.

I am a big Vero fan, so I'm not sure why I hadn't listened to this one yet. My only complete is I wish it were a full book rather than a short story! I would love more books from Vero's perspective.

Book 13 of 2026 📖 The Housemaid's Wedding by Freida McFadden (4/5⭐️)

Today is supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

I'm engaged to the man of my dreams, and in a few short hours, I'm going to stand before a judge, who will declare us husband and wife, till death does us part. Despite some bumps in the road, this day is everything I dreamed it would be.

There's only one problem:

Someone out there doesn't want me to live long enough to say my vows.

And if I'm not careful, they may very well get their wish.

I'm not usually a lover of short stories, because I like more meat in my books, but this was one I enjoyed! 

FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

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(Summaries are from Amazon, but all thoughts about them are my own!)

Reading Challenge: 8/52 physical books read in 2026

Total Books Read in 2026: 13

You can find previous book reviews here and add me on Goodreads here! Also, if you use StoryGraph, you can add me here! Also, I am on Fable here!

#gretchensbooks2026 - January

I thought about stopping these posts after last year, because it started to feel more like something I needed to do than something I wanted to do. But then I realized how much I actually go back and reference my book thoughts and I knew I'd regret not continuing. In that conscious thought I went back to my instagram and came to the realization that I've been tracking my reading there since #gretchensbooks2015, so that was a fun trip down memory lane.

Anyway, my "reading goal" is more specific this year - to read 52+ physical books. Not because I don't think audio or ebooks count, but because I have a bajillion books and I will never stop buying more because staring at my overflowing bookshelves brings me too much joy and so I need to get to reading more of them! Also, I've essentially run out of audiobooks to listen to. I mean I know there are a quadrillion that I've not listened to, but other than the handful I'm holding for, most of the books on my TBR aren't available with my Libby account and I only like to pay for books I can hold in my hands, not ones that come digitally.

Book 1 of 2026 📖 The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy by James Patterson & Vicky Ward (3.5/5⭐️)

The murders of four innocent college students attending the University of Idaho left us all with so many questions. Now, after more than 300 interviews, James Patterson and prize-winning journalist Vicky Ward finally have the answers.

We know what it was like to live in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022, the day of the cold-blooded killings. We know what the local police and FBI did right. And what they did wrong. We’ve learned so much about the four heartbroken families—the Mogens, Goncalveses, Kernodles, and Chapins. And we have the backstory for Bryan Kohberger, brilliant grad student, loner, apparent incel.

Now you are the jury. The evidence is in.

I was hesitant to read this book for a couple reasons. I worried that it would be exploitative to the families of the victims, and also I knew that it was published before BK was even scheduled to go to trial, which meant that it would be missing a lot of information important to the closure of the case.

That being said, I was surprised at how the story was written in the information gleaned from it. The authors seemed to have a lot of insight into what everyone involved in this situation was going through. I liked that it had the histories of the victims, and a little bit about the suspect‘s background. It told the story of how the investigators found the perpetrator, and the steps they took to gather evidence. I thought I knew a lot about this case, but I did feel like this book gave particular insight into things I didn’t know.

There were a couple things that I didn’t like.

The talk of the church felt very irrelevant. I understand that this whole tragedy was utilized as a tool for the pastor guy, but it had nothing to do with the four lives lost and felt disrespectful to even bring up. Also pastor guy was completely making a situation that had nothing to do with him all about him. Additionally, I felt like all the stuff with the Facebook group administrators was pointless. I understand that the group had a small part in this case, but the backgrounds and drama of the admins was irrelevant to the story.

Now that I’ve finished the book, and I also know how the case turned out in real life (so far, anyway), my thoughts are still similar to what they were before I cracked open the cover. I think it was silly to publish this book before the case had fully closed. If it would have actually gone to trial, there would’ve been a lot more information that would have been important to the story. And even knowing that he plead out, I think that how it ended up playing out would also have been important to have in the story. The book ended, but without the actual resolution, which makes it feel incomplete and like it was being rushed to be published as a money grab before somebody else could publish one.

This was an easy read, and didn’t have a lot of the technical stuff that true crime books often do.

Book 2 of 2026 🎧 Missing Half by Ashley Flowers (4/5⭐️)

Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.

On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold.

Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.

I’d seen this book recommended frequently, and the name Ashley Flowers has come up frequently in the true crime world, so I thought I’d give it a go.

This was so good! I thought I would predict the twists but then I was thrown when something changed. I found the FML likeable, even though she was clearly struggling with terrible life choices and never seemed to learn her lesson.

Book 3 of 2026 📖 The Widow by John Grisham (4.5/5⭐️)

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer….

Ugh. So good. Though I may be biased as I don’t think I’ve ever thought a John Grisham novel wasn’t good. Like most Grisham books, The Widow was a slow burn, until the end when everything seemed to resolve at once. I was rooting for the MC, even knowing he got himself into the mess by being greedy.

Book 4 of 2026 📖 The Hitchhikers by Chevy Stevens (3/5⭐️)

Desperation is a dark road…

It’s the summer of 1976. Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal after a devastating tragedy.

They’ve planned the trip perfectly, every detail accounted for. Then they meet two young hitchhikers and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren’t what they seem. They’ve left a trail of blood, destruction, and madness behind them.

Now Alice and Tom are prisoners in a deadly game with nowhere to turn. As the tension builds, the lines blur, and the question becomes:

In whose heart does evil truly lie? What secrets are Jenny and Simon hiding? And who will live another day?

I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it. If I ranked Chevy Stevens’s books this one would be at the bottom of- it was just meh. The storyline felt repetitive and predictable. 

I was hoping for a specific resolution to maybe redeem the story, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. The actual resolution was fine, I just wanted more. Though I guess that more was technically given (IYKYK).

Book 5 of 2026 📖 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (5/5🌟)

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

I’ve attempted 3 TJR books before, but only actually finished one. Everyone seems to love her stories though, and I figured if anything of hers is going to hook me, it will be the story about space!

Oh my word. I loved this.

I nerded out this whole book. I could never make it as an astronaut, but gosh I wish I could. Even the training sounds fascinating. Meanwhile I’m snuggled up on the couch and it’s negative degrees outside wishing I was in a field with a telescope staring at the stars.

The ending of this made me sob. I have no words. What a beautiful story.

Book 6 of 2026 📖 Happy Place by Emily Henry (4/5⭐️)

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?

Ugh. I need to stop reading books that make me sob. Emily Henry is a fairly new author for me to be reading; I think this was my third book by her. Though I found the male main character to be kind of bland, I did really like the female main character. The premise of this book, and probably the resolution as well, are fairly unrealistic, But I still thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Book 7 of 2026 📖 The Intruder by Freida McFadden (3.5/5⭐️)

Who knows what the storm will blow in…

Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.

She's young. She's alone. And she's covered in blood.

The girl won't explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.

The girl has a dark secret. One she'll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

After my last two reads, I needed a book that wasn’t going to make me bawl my eyes out. I knew I did not have to worry about that with Freida McFadden!

I’ve read all her books (except a couple of the medical ones, I think) and you’d think I’d have her figured out by now. I mean I do figure it out, but probably at the same time every other reader figures it out 😅

This was a good book, though not the most suspenseful from her. I did like the characters, but I didn’t love them.

FREE on Kindle Unlimited, $15 for the hardcover with the sprayed edges 😝

Book 8 of 2026 🎧 We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart (3/5⭐️)

The invitation arrives out of the blue. 

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood. 

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary. 

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater. 

And everyone here is lying.

I have to keep in mind while thinking about how I felt about this book that it is a YA novel. I LOVED We Were Liars - which I read 8 years ago…much closer to a YA audience age. All that to say I didn't love this one, but I didn't dislike it either. I'm definitely past the target audience, so if any more books come out in this series I won't read them. 

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means when you purchase something through that link, you're helping support this blog (and my reading addiction!) at no additional cost to you!*

(Summaries are from Amazon, but all thoughts about them are my own!)

Reading Challenge: 6/52 physical books read in 2026

Total Books Read in 2026: 8

You can find previous book reviews here and add me on Goodreads here! Also, if you use StoryGraph, you can add me here! Also, I am on Fable here!