Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: February 6, 2024
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis.
Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…
Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….
Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she’s ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.
Bride is Ali Hazelwood’s first foray into paranormal romance. I was skeptical going in – not because I didn’t think she’d do a good job, but because I haven’t read paranormal romance in so long, I didn’t know if I would still like it. Turns out, I do!
Bride follows Misery, a Vampyre who has been passing as human and living in the human world for the past few years. Her father, who is head of the Vampyre council, calls her home and tells her she has to marry Lowe Moreland, the Alpha Were. She will live with him in Were territory and another Were will marry a Vampyre and live in Vampyre territory. This arrangement is supposed to ensure peace between the two factions, as a betrayal by the Vampyres would get Misery killed and vice versa. It’s mutually assured destruction.
Of course, an attraction forms between Misery and Lowe but it’s complicated. Their marriage was supposed to be all business – Weres and Vampyres do not get romantically involved. And how would the physical aspect even work? The interspecies intimacy was a little weird but still very spicy and well-written.
I thoroughly enjoyed Bride. Misery has the same dry sense of humor that her female protagonists are known for, and I loved the banter between her and Lowe. Lowe has a younger sister that Misery, to her chagrin, grows to like, and their relationship is cute.
A sequel to Bride called Mate is due out in October. I can’t wait! Highly recommended.
Other books by Ali Hazelwood I’ve reviewed:
The Love Hypothosis
Love, Theoretically
Check & Mate
Not In Love
April 23rd, 2025 in
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The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: January 7, 2025
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.
As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.
Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.”
For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.” No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.
Shari Franke is the oldest child of Ruby Franke, a mommy vlogger whose YouTube channel 8 Passengers had more than two million followers at its peak.
Ruby, who has six kids in total, filmed almost every moment of their lives for content, editing videos in such a way to make her look like a great mom with a happy family. In reality, she was a cold and distant mom who emotionally abused her children.
Once Ruby met Jodi Hildebrant, things became even worse. Jodi was basically a one-woman cult, touting herself as an expert family counselor, even though her license had been revoked. She charged her clients exorbitant fees for her services and lived in a mansion complete with a safe room.
Ruby soon bought Jodi’s bs hook, line and sinker. Her children’s lives became hell, to the point that her YouTube fans were concerned. She filmed a video about not bringing her small child her forgotten lunch at school and telling the teacher not to give her any food at all so that she would be hungry. In another one, her oldest son Chad let it slip that he was forced to sleep on a bean bag for seven months.
Eventually, she and Jodi started torturing her two youngest children. They were found out when one of them escaped from being chained up in Jodi’s house.
Shari is fiercely protective of her four youngest siblings and does not name them or go into any specifics about what the police found when they raided Jodi’s house. All of that it easily found on the Internet, and I think Shari assumes that anyone reading this book has heard the story on the news and has the details. She does name Chad because he is over 18 now.
Because of her respect her four youngest sibling privacy, this book is entirely her story. She went to college around the time Ruby met Jodi, but she was still severely emotionally abused by Ruby as a child and then later by both Ruby and Jodi. Her father did not actually abuse her, but he toed the line and didn’t go against Ruby or Jodi to protect his children.
I went down a Ruby Franke rabbit hole while I was reading this book. If you’re interested in learning more after reading this book – or before for that matter, you can find the 911 call from when her son escaped, as well as body cam footage of Ruby’s arrest. It’s chilling, she shows no emotion at all. There are also several documentaries about Ruby, Jodi and the Franke family.
This was a hard book to read but it was very well-done. Shari is unflinchingly honest about her life and what she shares. I chose this book because I wanted more insight into how a popular mommy vlogger could turn into a monster and my curiosity was satisfied.
Recommended.
April 9th, 2025 in
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Barely Visible: Mothering a Son Through His Misunderstood Autism by Kathleen Somers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kathleen Somers’s son Jack was diagnosed with Asperger’s in elementary school. That was almost twenty years ago – Asperger’s is no longer a diagnosis. It’s been rolled into the autism classification now. Someone who would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s back them is now would be called high functioning or level one autistic.
Somers is unflinchingly honest about her journey with her son, who’s in his 20s now. She and her ex-husband were in denial about Jack’s situation for quite a long time. It seems that in some ways she’s still a little in denial. In the epilogue she mentions that at some level she hopes that Jack outgrows his autism even though she knows that this is impossible.
I think that this book would be helpful for someone whose child was recently diagnosed with autism and that is still in the denial/anger phase. Barely Visible is somewhat of a cautionary tale of what not to do at that stage. I think Sommers would agree. I think this book would also be helpful for people who have younger autistic children, even if they’ve had the diagnosis for a while – like me. My autistic son is five years-old and he was diagnosed level one at three. I know that even though we’ve adjusted fairly well for now, middle school and high school will present new challenges. I got an idea of what those years could look like from reading Jack’s story.
I also think that people who are not a parent of an autistic child but have one in their lives could benefit from this book. It will help them see that autistic behavior is not a disciple problem. Our kids don’t act the way they do because they are spoiled or we’re not hard enough on them.
If your life is affected by autism, this is a book worth checking out.
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April 4th, 2025 in
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And They Had a Great Fall: A Novel by Shelby Saville
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication Date: March 11, 2025)
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
If Jake Laurent is the “human equivalent of Friday,” Kat Green is “Monday.” Nevertheless, the two shared a secret (if casual) affair during the pandemic, and now, almost exactly one year later, they’ve reunited in Copenhagen, the “city of fairy tales.” Only neither one of them is living a fairy tale.
Jake is a young actor who’s cracking under the public pressure that comes with rising celebrity. Kat is a single mother at the top of her career who believes she’s holding it all together but is barely living. Each one is a simple escape for the other—until the security Kat has worked so hard to build for her tiny family comes under threat, and Jake has to decide if he can keep Kat a secret even if it’s at the expense of his own fame.
And They Had a Great Fall is the story of two people who are going through the motions in life—until they finally look inside themselves to figure out what it takes to find a happily ever after.
Jack and Kat hooked up during the pandemic when they were the part of the same pod. Kat lives next door to Jake’s parents and he came home to shelter in place with them. Jack is a famous 25 year-old movie star and Kat is a high-powered corporate executive and a single mom in her thirties. More than a year after they last spoke, Jack calls Kat from Copenhagen, where he is shooting on location. Things are not going well with the movie and he wants Kat to come there and help him cope with the pressure. She happens to have work for her corporation she could attend to while she’s there, so she joins him. She also needs help, although she doesn’t realize it. She’s still grieving the loss of her husband, who died of cancer five years ago when their daughter was a baby.
Jake and Kat rekindle their affair once Kat arrives in Copenhagen, but Kat insists that they keep their relationship a secret. She fears that if she and Jake go public, the leadership at her company will see her as a frivolous woman for dating a movie star. She’s also worried about her daughter’s safety if she’s in the public eye. Is it possible to keep things a secret and what will they do if they can’t?
And They Had a Great Fall deals with some serious issues in an authentic way. I liked that it wasn’t afraid to deviate a bit from the traditional romance formula in order to tackle those issues. This book would be a great beach read this summer.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
Good Time Girl by Heather Gay
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: December 3, 2024
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
In the “confident debut” (The Daily Beast) Bad Mormon, Heather Gay pulled back the veil on her orthodox adolescence and marriage in the Mormon Church, and the painful process of leaving it all behind. Becoming a successful business owner and reality TV star gave the single mom of three a second lease on life. After years of living in an insular bubble, Heather emerged bright-eyed, eager to take on the world…no matter how ill-equipped her upbringing might have left her.
Now, in this provocative and laugh-out-loud funny follow-up, the mother of three proves that she isn’t just a Bad Mormon—she’s also a Good Time Girl.
With her “thoughtful, smart, and funny” (Kirkus Reviews) writing, Heather recounts the humorous trysts, mishaps, and serendipitous success she’s found as a life-long reveler in all things indulgent. From illicit high school trips to Tijuana and awkward dates set up by her overzealous costars, Good Time Girl is a charming and intimate meditation on community, love, independence, womanhood, and—most importantly—second chances.
Good Time Girl is Heather Gay’s follow up to her first book, Bad Mormon. I haven’t read that book yet so I can’t say how they compare. Heather is a cast member on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. In the first season, her castmate Lisa Barlow told some of the other women that she heard Heather was known as a “good-time girl” at BYU. At the time, Heather was pissed but she reclaimed the label for her book.
Good Time Girl is a collection of times that Heather was a good time girl, which is usually ironic. She thought at the time she was being wild because of her strict Mormon upbringing but what she did was not that bad. Or in some cases it was really embarrassing. I had major secondhand embarrassment when she tried to hit on her college professor.
The last section of the book is about the fourth season of RHOSL and Monica. If you’ve watched the show, you know who I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you’re probably not going to read this book anyway! Heather goes through a way more thorough.
timeline of Monica’s craziness than what was shown on TV. Monica is basically a sociopath who stalked Jen for years, to the point of installing secret security cameras in Jen’s house to spy on her. She was obsessed with getting cast on RHOSL.
The book as a whole is good, but it is a MUST for fans of RHOSL, simply for the section on what happened with Monica. You will not be disappointed!
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: March 4, 2025
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
Beth, a teenager who lives in a small country town, is taking a walk when Gabriel sees her and tells her to get off his land. Even though Gabriel, a rich boy home from college, is extremely rude to Beth at that first meeting, they soon start up a passionate love affair. They try to keep it going after Gabriel goes back to college but eventually Gabriel breaks Beth’s heart.
Fast forward to present day, which in Broken Country is the late 1960s, and Beth, her husband Frank and her brother in-law Jimmy are tending sheep when a dog runs up and starts killing the lambs. Jimmy shoots and kills the dog to save anymore sheep from being slaughtered. The dog belongs to Gabriel, who is back in town after several years away. This shot starts a series of events that no one could have imagined.
I loved Broken Country even though I didn’t necessarily love Beth all the time. She made some very bad decisions. At the beginning of the book, I thought I knew where the story was going but I was totally surprised and completely wrong. I don’t want to say anymore and risk spoiling it. Broken Country kept me up until 3am because once I got to a certain point, I couldn’t tear myself away from it.
Highly recommended.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
March 27th, 2025 in
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Kinda Korean: Stories from an American Life by Joan Sung
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication Date: February 25, 2025
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
In this courageous memoir of parental love, intergenerational trauma, and perseverance, Joan Sung breaks the generational silence that curses her family. By intentionally overcoming the stereotype that all Asians are quiet, Sung tells her stories of coming-of-age with a Tiger Mom who did not understand American society.
Torn between her two identities as a Korean woman and a first generation American, Sung bares her struggles in an honest and bare confessional. Sifting through her experiences with microaggressions to the over fetishization of Asian women, Sung connects the COVID pandemic with the decades of violence and racism experienced by Asian American communities.
Kinda Korean is Joan Sung’s memoir of growing up the daughter of Korean immigrants and navigating her identity as both Korean and American. Her mom was a domineering Tiger Mom who held on to the ways of Korea and did not want to assimilate into American culture. She didn’t learn to speak English very well and Sung didn’t speak Korean very well, adding to their disconnect. Sung is unflinchingly honest about her traumatic childhood, both inside and outside of her home.
She’s faced microaggressions throughout her life. After she joined the Air Force, the intersectionality of being Asian and a woman made her time in the service especially hard. Throughout the book, she dispels the myth of the model minority and how it not helpful and actually hurts Asian Americans. Asian women are also fetishized by white men because of they believe Asian women are exotic and submissive. Asian hate has grown exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic. She writes about the presumption of many people that Asians aren’t doing anything to fight against this when in actuality they are.
I enjoyed Sung’s memoir and how she weaved what is going on in society as a whole into her own personal experience as a first generation Korean American. Her bravery in telling her story was amazing. Highly recommended.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
The Sable Cloak by Gail Milissa Grant
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: February 4, 2025)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Jordan Sable, a prosperous undertaker turned political boss, has controlled the Black vote in St. Louis for decades. Sara, his equally formidable wife, runs the renowned funeral establishment that put the Sable name on the map. Together they have pushed through obstacles in order to create a legacy for their children. When tragedy bursts their carefully constructed empire of dignity and safety, the family rallies around an unconventional solution. But at what cost?
Set in the Midwest in the 1940s, The Sable Cloak is a rarely seen portrait of an upper middle class, African American family in the pre-Civil Rights era. This deeply personal novel inspired by the author’s own family history delves into legacy and the stories we tell ourselves, and celebrates a largely self-sustaining, culturally rich Missouri community that most Americans may not be aware of.
The Sable Cloak is an autobiographical novel based closely on the author’s family history. It follows two upper-middle class Black families. Jordan Sable runs a well-known funeral home in St. Louis. Jordan is also a powerful political boss, controlling the Black vote in St. Louis. The Franklin family are landowners in South Carolina. The also a successful store called Madame Sarah’s Emporium.
When Jordan comes to South Carolina looking for a safe haven to escape his enemies, he meets and marries, Sarah, the youngest of the Franklin daughters. When they move back to St. Louis, Jordan is even more powerful with his wife by his side. When a horrible tragedy happens, the families must join together to find a solution.
I enjoyed The Sable Cloak. It’s not often that I come across historical fiction centering around upper middle class Black people and their community. One of the characters goes off to college at Northwestern and faces discrimination of the kind she never has before because the Black community she grew up kept her insulated. She had hardly ever even been around white people. The author spends quite a bit of time on the background of the two families and what their communities were like before the tragic event happened, which I appreciated.
Grant has a memoir that was published in 2008 called At the Elbows of My Elders that I’d like to read. She writes in the author’s note that The Sable Cloak was born from that book. Unfortunately, she passed away before the publication of The Sable Cloak.
Recommended.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
February 27th, 2025 in
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Narrator: Elijah Woods
First published in 1885
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I think most everyone knows generally what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about even if they haven’t read it. Huck runs away to get away from his abusive, alcoholic father. He encounters Jim, a slave who escapes when he overhears his owner talking about possibly selling him. They team up and have many adventures trying to get to freedom. I wanted to read Huck Finn first before I read James by Percival Everett, which is a retelling of the story from Jim’s side.
I can’t decide if this book is racist or not. From what I read about the book after I finished it, I’m not the only one. As the book goes on, Huck starts to rethink the morality of slavery, but he doesn’t go as far to outright condemn it. Jim is portrayed as not very smart and the way Twain writes his speech is almost incomprehensible. That’s one of the reasons I switched to the audio book – I couldn’t understand most of Jim’s dialogue. I have a hard time believing slaves really spoke that way but of course, I didn’t live way back then. I can see that Huck’s views on slavery were probably progressive for that time period, but they aren’t by today’s standards.
I’m glad I read Huck Finn because I think it enhanced my experience reading James. (Review to come soon.) I would recommend reading it if you plan to read James, although it’s not strictly necessary. If you plan on reading it, I highly recommend the audiobook version that’s narrated by Elijah Woods.
February 17th, 2025 in
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You Never Know: A Memoir by Tom Selleck
Publisher: Harper Audio
Release Date: November 19, 2024
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time, the highly personal story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from the Dating Game to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West and escorting her to black-tie social functions). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose authenticity and ease in front of the camera connected with audiences worldwide while embodying and also redefining the clichés of onscreen manhood.
In You Never Know, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of The Rockford Files, who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges. He also more than tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer.
Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In You Never Know, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm and talent and self-deprecating humor, Selleck’s memoir reveals an American icon who has reached remarkable heights by always insisting on being himself.
I think most everyone is familiar with Tom Selleck’s work. He’s most known for playing Magnum on Magnum PI. His memoir starts with a brief overview of his early years. He played basketball for USC, which I didn’t know. Then he was in a couple of Westerns and a lot of failed pilots before he was finally offered Magnum PI, which he calls Magnum because he thinks the PI part is dumb and fought against it being part of the title.
He then goes into agonizing detail about what seemed like every episode of Magnum PI. I slogged through that, eager to get to the part where he discusses playing Monica’s boyfriend on Friends. It never came! There is a little bit about Three Men and a Baby, which he filmed during his time on Magnum and then it jumps ahead to the epilogue, which is about him working on his ranch and briefly mentions Blue Bloods, his current show, which has been on for 14 seasons. Thank God he didn’t go into an episode-by-episode recap of that.
He’s a very private person and there is almost nothing about his personal life in the book, which is okay. I love tell-alls but I’m happy to read about the entertainment industry and how it works. Which is why I wanted know what it was like when he was on Friends!
I would only recommend this book to a die-hard Magnum PI fan. If you’re not, this book is a little tedious and boring. Sorry Tom!
February 11th, 2025 in
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