This is quite possibly the first month where I had more physical books read than audiobooks! Thankful for time to rest (and read!) I did DNF an audio and an ebook this month. That’s typically hard for me to do, but I was so close of meeting my goal of 120 books this year and I didn’t want to meet it on books I wasn’t enjoying.
Book 104 of 2024 🎧 The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave (3/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 17 September 2024
Liam Noone was many things to many people. To the public, he was an exacting, self-made hotel magnate fleeing his past. To his three ex-wives, he was a loving albeit distant family man who kept his finances flush and his families carefully separated. To Nora, he was a father who often loved her from afar—notably, a cliffside cottage perched on the California coast from which he fell to his death.
The authorities rule the death accidental, but Nora and her estranged brother Sam have other ideas. As Nora and Sam form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father's past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.
This wasn’t my favorite Laura Dave novel. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t very exciting either. The storyline was interesting enough, but it didn’t feel suspenseful. It is very slow paced, casual read and felt more like a drama than a thriller.
Book 105 of 2024 🎧 The Gift by Freida McFadden (3/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 4 December 2022
She is so broke that despite working two jobs, she can’t even afford a present for her husband on their first Christmas as man and wife. But then a mysterious storekeeper at a pawn shop offers Stella an intriguing trade.
Stella wants more than anything to buy her husband the Christmas gift of his dreams. But will it come at a terrible price?
This was a short story that I did not realize was a short story until I bought it on Audible. It was… interesting. I thought it was going to go in one direction, which would’ve had a pretty happy ending and a lesson learned, but that was definitely not what happened. I’m not usually a short story person because I like more substance to my story, but this one was kind of interesting.
FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
Book 106 of 2024 📖 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling (MinaLima Edition) (5/5🌟)
📚GENRE: Fantasy
🗓PUBLISHED: 26 October 2021
Prepare to be dazzled by this new edition of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, designed and illustrated by MinaLima. With over 150 full-color illustrations and eight exclusive, interactive paper craft elements, readers will travel via the Floo Network, watch out for the Whomping Willow, reveal the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office, pull Mandrakes from their pots, and more.
Again, I rate this purely on the magic of the MinaLima illustrations/interactive elements. So beautiful! As an aside, it’s always been frustrating that the movies don’t contain all of the elements of the books (as per usual), but as I re-read the books again, there are changes (mostly dialogue) that I like better in the movies because they’re so juvenile in the books (though I recognize the intended audience of this series was children).
Book 107 of 2024 🎧 The Ex by Freida McFadden (3.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 18 February 2019
Cassie thinks she has met the perfect man.
Joel is sweet, handsome, romantic, and best of all, he’s crazy about Cassie. She thinks she’s found the guy she’ll spend the rest of her life with. Have children with. Grow old with.
Yes, she knows about his perfect ex-girlfriend, Francesca. The beautiful, brilliant chef, beloved by all his friends. But she thinks Francesca is out of the picture. She thinks Francesca is gone for good.
Think again, Cassie.
This one had some good twists in it! It’s hard to say too much without giving the ending away. I did find one of the twists utterly unbelievable, and felt like maybe there were some unanswered bits (like the homeless woman??) But I did like how the story wrapped up in the end!
FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
Book 108 of 2024 🎧 Brain Damage by Freida McFadden (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 28 April 2016
After years of hard work, Dr. Charly McKenna finally has it all. Prosperous career as a dermatologist? Check. Spacious apartment overlooking Central Park? Check. Handsome lawyer husband? Double check.
Then one night, a bullet rips through the right side of her skull and she loses everything.
As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her... before he finishes the job he started.
With a little apprehensive of how I was going to like this book. I felt like the person who shot the main character was really obvious which made the storyline seem kind of stupid. I also felt like there was a distractor that had it been that person would also make the storyline kind of stupid. Having said that, the story definitely turned in a way I didn’t see coming and made the things that I thought would be stupid, not stupid.
Book 109 of 2024 📖 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (MinaLima Edition) (5/5🌟)
📚GENRE: Fantasy
🗓PUBLISHED: 3 October 2023
The third book in the Harry Potter series, illustrated in brilliant full color by MinaLima and featuring eight exclusive interactive elements, including the Marauder’s Map and more!
Return to Hogwarts in this stunning edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. J.K. Rowling’s complete and unabridged text is accompanied by full-color illustrations on nearly every page and eight paper-engineered interactive elements: Readers will explore the Knight Bus, reveal the Grim in a teacup, spin the Time-Turner, and more.
Again, just rating the edition! This is one of my favorite books like the series because Sirius is one of my favorite characters and this is where he gets his introduction. I’m so sad that MinaLima won’t be finishing their editions of this series - Scholastic really messed up on that decision.
Book 110 of 2024 🎧 The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster by Kevin Cook (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Non-Fiction
🗓PUBLISHED: 8 June 2021
On January 28, 1986, NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Christa McAuliffe, America's "Teacher in Space", was instantly killed, along with the other six members of the mission. At least that's what most of us remember.
Kevin Cook tells us what really happened on that ill-fated, unforgettable day. He traces the pressures - leading from NASA to the White House - that triggered the fatal order to launch on an ice-cold Florida morning. Cook takes listeners inside the shuttle for the agonizing minutes after the explosion, which the astronauts did indeed survive. He uncovers the errors and corner-cutting that led an overconfident space agency to launch a crew that had no chance to escape.
But this is more than a corrective to a now-dimming memory. Centering on McAuliffe, a charmingly down-to-earth civilian on the cusp of history, The Burning Blue animates a colorful cast of characters: a pair of red-hot flyers at the shuttle's controls, the second female and first Jewish astronaut, the second Black astronaut, and the first Asian American and Buddhist in space. Drawing vivid portraits of Christa and the astronauts, Cook makes listeners forget the fate they're hurtling toward.
I found this to be a very good account of not specifically the Challenger disaster, but Christa McAuliffe and her journey to becoming the teacher in space. I listened to a book about her journey previously, but it was a lot shorter and therefore a lot less thorough. Still good, but I appreciated this one even more. It was interesting to hear about the process that led to her actually going up in the Challenger - from her life as a teacher to the application and astronaut training.
FREE with an Audible subscription!
Book 111 of 2024 📱 Teacher Misery: Helicopter Parents, Special Snowflakes, and Other Bullsh*t by Jane Morris (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Non-Fiction
🗓PUBLISHED: 5 May 2016
Teacher Misery perfectly encapsulates the comical misery that has become the teaching profession. Morris’ strange, funny, and sometimes unbelievable teaching experiences are told through a collection of short stories, essays and artifacts including real emails from parents, students and administrators. From the parents who blame their son’s act of arson on the teacher for causing him low self-esteem, to the student who offers to teach the teacher how to sell drugs so she can pay her bills, to the administrator whose best advice is to “treat kids like sacks of shit,” one story is more shocking than the next. An important read for teachers and non-teachers alike-- Teacher Misery paints an amusing and thoroughly entertaining picture of what has become of our education system, without detracting from the overall point that what teachers have to put up with today is complete, utter, unacceptable insanity.
I will say, this book makes me glad I don’t teach high school! Don’t get me wrong, I have many stories that could be in a book like this from elementary, but I think the disrespect from high school age would be so much more frustrating. As a teacher, I 100% can believe these stories are accurate, though it is interesting to read reviews from non-teachers at their disgust of a teacher sharing these stories. Honestly, some people just don’t get it! The classroom can be a scary place to work. I’m thankful I’ve found one that does not have me in a constant state of stress!
Book 112 of 2024 📖 The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Contemporary Romance
🗓PUBLISHED: 10 October 2024
Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good.
Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor trying to take a break from both his life and his constant desire to fix things.
But somehow fate finds Ben trapped by a blanket of snow at Kira’s farm, and, despite her Grinchiest first impressions, with the glow of the fairy lights twinkling in the trees, and the promise of a warming hot chocolate, maybe, just maybe, these two lost souls will have a Christmas they’ll remember forever…
Just another Hallmark movie in book form! I think this is my favorite in the series so far. I really like the main characters and their love story was heart-warming to me. Now I’m just bummed I have to wait until March and then September for the next two books in the series!
Book 113 of 2024 🎧 The Arrangement by Robyn Harding (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 30 July 2019
Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy—a wealthy, older man who will pay her for dates and even give her a monthly allowance? Lots of girls do it, Nat learns. All that’s required is to look pretty and hang on his every word. Sexual favors are optional.
Though more than thirty years her senior, Gabe, a handsome corporate finance attorney, seems like the perfect candidate, and within a month, they are madly in love. At least, Nat is…Gabe already has a family, whom he has no intention of leaving.
So when he abruptly ends things, Nat can’t let go. But Gabe’s not about to let his sugar baby destroy his perfect life. What was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement devolves into a nightmare of deception, obsession, and, when a body is found near Gabe’s posh Upper East Side apartment, murder.
This book was recommended to be by a friend, and I ended up using an Audible credit on it because it wasn’t coming out on Libby. I’ve always enjoyed books written by Harding, so I figured this would be no different. This story was captivating, and I like how it started out with a chapter from the end of the storyline to get you interested. I thought I was going to be disappointed in the resolution, but Harding twisted it in a way that made me happy!
Book 114 of 2024📖 What Have You Done? by Shari Lapena (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 30 July 2024
Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. But this morning that will change. And one innocent question could be deadly. What have you done?
The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked.
But Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer.
How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia.
Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.
When going to pick up my next book off my shelf to read, I was super excited to see a Shari Lapena one that hadn’t been read yet! I bought it shortly after publishing date, and then put it on my shelf and forgot about it. I always love her books, so this was a nice surprise!
I pretty much predicted who did it, but I wasn’t super sold on it. There was a certain number of characters who could’ve been the murderer, and because of that I felt like it was obvious who actually did the crime. I’m being said, and this is probably a spoiler, I don’t feel like she put enough into the character who was the murderer for him to actually have done the crime.
Book 115 of 2024 📖 The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden (4/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 1 October 2024
She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim.
Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She's seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.
Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.
Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.
Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can't shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn't get to the truth, she'll be the killer's next victim...
Me: *twist happens* “I knew it!” *twist gets even more twisty* “oh. I guess I did not know it.”
The thing I love about McFadden’s stories is that she keeps you guessing until the very end, even though you’re *sure* you know what happens. This book was no different! I was excited to finish it because I wanted to know the resolution, but also I was sad it was over because I love her books!
FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
Book 116 of 2024 🎧 If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen (3.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Non-Fiction
🗓PUBLISHED: 1 December 2019
TW: abuse
After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.
For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor’s story of absolute evil―and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today―loving, loved, and moving on.
This story was absolutely horrid. Not the writing, the actual lived experiences that made up this book. I can’t even imagine. I don’t want to imagine! It’s so horrific that this abuse happened for so long and no one did anything to stop it. How? HOW?! My heart hurts for the victims. It was a bit repetitive which made it a little longer than needed, but otherwise it was a fascinating read (though I don’t mean fascinating in a happy way).
FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
Book 117 of 2024 📖 College Girl, Missing by Shawn Cohen (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Non- Fiction
🗓PUBLISHED: 1 December 2019
She visited friends. She walked to a bar. She was right there... until she was gone.
College student Lauren Spierer was pursuing her dreams, joining her boyfriend at a party school eight hundred miles from home. Social and gregarious, studying fashion and rooming with friends, Lauren embraced her new adventure with the zeal of a young woman who suddenly had everything she desired.
But there was a dark side that she and her inner circle kept secret. And one warm June evening, after heading out with friends, she seemingly vanished. When investigators retraced Lauren's last steps using eyewitness accounts and security camera footage, the evidence ended at the doorstep of a group of wealthy, well-connected male students.
With original reporting including new testimony witnesses never shared with police, College Girl, Missing takes readers back to that fateful night and dives into the disappearance that captured front-page headlines around the world. Investigative journalist Shawn Cohen breaks more than a decade of silence as he pursues the truth: what really happened to Lauren Spierer?
Oof. This book was absolutely captivating. I don’t think it was a case I was aware of until reading this book, though that’s not to say I hadn’t listened to a podcast episode covering it and just forgot. An Instagram friend shared the book as she lives in the area where the girl went missing from, and it sounded like something that would interest me. I don’t want to say it was a good story, because nothing about this case was good, but it is very interesting. Enough so that I’d like to search out more info on it via podcasts or whatever. Not sure I’d find more info, however, and this book was pretty thorough. I did not look up whether she was found to not prior to reading, so if you don’t want to know the ending until you’ve read the book, stop reading here. It was disappointing to find they hadn’t found her yet, and didn’t know what happened to her. I was hoping that since a book was published there was finally resolution for the family. No such luck. It’s infuriating, really, because someone DOES know something. In fact I suspect more than one someone knows something, and it’s terrible that they can’t do the right thing and come forward.
Book 118 of 2024 📖 The Housemaid (The Housemaid #1) by Freida McFadden (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 26 April 22
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of…
This ended up being a very quick read! It helps that the chapters are short, but also, I couldn’t put it down. I can see why this is one of her most popular books, and I’m very excited for the movie now. I thought the structure of the story was perfect, and it really kept the suspense up!
FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
Book 119 of 2024 📖 The Housemaid’s Secret (The Housemaid #2) by Freida McFadden (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 20 February 2023
As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can't risk losing this job - not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . . It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything.... That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go....
My first thoughts on this book were that I thought it was interesting where McFadden decided to pick the story up from. She finished the first book in a way that seemed like the second would pick up right from there, but that wasn’t the case.
At first I liked the book. Then, I didn’t like it. Well not that I didn’t like it, but it made me furious, which I guess is a side effect of good writing. I did enjoy the ending, though I didn’t see it coming! I do feel like it concluded too quickly, however.
Book 120 of 2024 📖 The Housemaid’s Watching (The Housemaid #3) by Freida McFadden (4.5/5⭐️)
📚GENRE: Thriller
🗓PUBLISHED: 11 June 2024
I used to clean other people's houses―now, I can't believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.
Even though I'm wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it's our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it's like to be in her shoes. But her cold stare gives me chills…
The Lowells' maid isn't the only strange thing on our street. I'm sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors.
Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?
I thought I'd left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?
I am so glad I waited for this book to be published before reading all of them. I thought it was interesting how McFadden spaced out the timeline between the books. It was unexpected, but I ended up liking that aspect. This was probably my least favorite of the three, but I still very much enjoyed it. I feel like the final resolution was a little unbelievable, but not enough that it negatively impacted the book for me.
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(Summaries are from Amazon, but all thoughts about them are my own!)
Reading Challenge: 120/120 books read in 2024
You can find previous book reviews here and add me on Goodreads here! Also, if you use StoryGraph, you can add me here! (I haven't downloaded Fable yet, but perhaps in the new year...)
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