mystery

The Twists of Behind Her Eyes: Expectations vs. Reality

by Stefani

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Published: January 31, 2017 by Flatiron Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.

Rating:

Review:

This book came highly recommended. Several friends of mine read it recently and absolutely raved about it. The ending left them floored, they said. It was spectacular, they said. You’ll never guess the ending, they told me. They were right, I never would have guessed the ending. Because it was utterly nonsensical.

Everything about this book was great all the way up until the end. Louise was a little boring. I couldn’t understand what David saw in her because I found her very dull. But I was drawn into the story and the mystery. Was David an abuser? Was Adele mentally unstable? What exactly is going on with this couple?

Then we got to the ending. It came out of nowhere but not in a good way. All of a sudden this typical domestic thriller threw in a paranormal element that had never been hinted at previously. It was bizarre. While other people really loved it as a “twist”, I found it jarring. It made no sense in the context of the book. It made no sense in the context of this world. Don’t worry about missing this “hidden gem”, you’re not missing anything.

Meet Me at the Crossroads: A Journey Beyond the Doors

by Stefani

Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings

Published: June 3, 2025 by Amistad

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.

Ayanna and Olivia, two Black Midwestern teens—and twin sisters—have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? And when one of them goes missing, will the other find solace of her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?

Rating:

Review:

Based on the synopsis I wanted to love this book. It had all the makings of a book that was right up my alley. And in the first portion of the book, it seemed hopeful. I was absolutely riveted by the description of the doors and how various portions of humanity interacted with these doors.

It all came to a halt once Ayanna and Olivia went through the door. Initially it got very confusing. I read a few chapters several times in a row because I couldn’t figure out what had happened and where I missed it, I never found the missing piece. And then the plot just stopped. No more mention of the doors. The only thing that happened after that point was Ayanna navel gazing about her all consuming grief.

In the end I gave up about halfway through. Nothing was happened and I have other things to do and other books to read.

The Masks We Wear: Six Days in Bombay review

by Stefani

Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

Published: April 15, 2025 by MIRA

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

When renouned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she’s expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity, even if that’s where their similarities end. Sona is enraptured by Mira’s stories of her travels, and shocked by accounts of the many lovers she’s left scattered through Europe. Over the course of a week, Mira befriends Sona, seeing in her something bigger than the small life she’s living with her mother. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party with all of Bombay society. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion.

Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn’t know she was going to die? The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings—the first to Petra, Mira’s childhood friend and first love in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira’s history, she learns that the charming facade she’d come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself?

Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history and the English father who deserted her and her mother in India so many years ago. In the end, she’ll discover that we are all made up of pieces, and only by seeing the world do we learn to see ourselves.

Rating:

Review:

This book was just extraordinary! Truly I find myself at a loss for words to describe it. Historical fiction is sometimes a hit or miss for me, but this one knocked it out of the park. The first third of the book is spent on building the character of Sona and her relationship with Mira. But also giving us a very good background in what it was like to be half-Indian, half-English in 1937 India. A time when India is having a reckoning of the colonialism that they want to be free from and are starting to take back the power to cast out the English. But where does that leave people who have spent their entire lives in India, are half Indian and love India with all their hearts. This was absolutely fascinating and frankly I would have read an entire book about that topic alone.

After that primer on this time period in India, we are launched across the world with Sona. On a mission to deliver paintings and letters on behalf of her dear friend Mira. And along the way she realized that she didn’t know as much about Mira as she thought she had. Sona discovers that Mira was a different person to everyone she met. Everyone had a different memory of her and experience with her. Along the way Sona also learns a lot about herself and the English father who had abandoned her and her mother.

This book is exactly the kind of historical fiction that I love. This one will likely be on my short list for best book of the year.

Exploring Magic and Mystery: The Otherwhere Post Reviewed

by Stefani

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor

Published: February 25, 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis: Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

Rating:

Review:

This book was an interesting journey. The world building and magic system was a 10 out of 10. It was fantastic and magical. I loved learning about these worlds and how the magic worked. And I loved that we had a mystery wrapped up in this beautiful fantasy world. When this book was good it was spectacular, when it wasn’t then I honestly wanted to stop reading. In total, a bit of a mixed bag.

Maeve was pretty boring if I’m going to be honest. I wanted to be able to root for her so badly. But she just didn’t interest me at all. I understand that she separated herself from other people because she was treated badly nd the stigma that her name carries but she just didn’t do anything particularly interesting. Even when she was searching for the truth about her father I just couldn’t get invested in her.

I also was really confused about exactly what her father did?? It must have been something pretty terrible for people to verbally, emotionally and physically torture his daughter for it….right? The actual incident of what happened is only ever discussed in vague detail and euphemism. They’ve given the event a name and we get vague references to roots and trees and people dying. But that’s about it. We learn almost nothing else about it. I found that frustrating. Everyone else might already know what happened but I don’t! I need someone to tell me and I didn’t get that. Every time they vaguely mentioned the “crime” I just found myself screaming in my head, “BUT WHAT DID HE DO??!!!”

Tristan as a young adult love interest was so refreshing. He is kind, quiet, patient and melancholy. He’s very gifted but he prefers not to draw attention to himself and he identifies with Maeve in all the right ways. More importantly, he listens to her and lets her decide what the best decision is for her. And he’s there to comfort her and help her if it doesn’t work out. That is such a nice change from the usual male love interest in young adult books.

In the end it was a beautiful book that won’t be the most memorable for me.

Progress Updates: May 30, 2025

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Progress: 338 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

This book has such a different feeling and tension in it than the first one did. I am starting to see a vicious plot start to come to fruition and I am on the edge of my seat to see how it ends up. I did get a lagging feeling a bit in the middle of this one, it was a transition moment in the plot that just slowed everything way down. It picked back up though and I’m breezing along now.

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J Taylor

Progress: 6 hours, 11 minutes of 11 hours, 22 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

How it’s going:

I am torn on this one so far. Loving the magic system and the other dimensions. Love the scriptomancy university. Maeve is incredibly boring so far and hasn’t really done much of anything except worry. And why have they might told me what her father’s crime is? We talk about it in very vague, euphemistic ways that don’t actually tell me anything. Whatever he did was bad enough for a young girl to abandon her name and live in hiding but….what was it? It’s getting annoying.

The God of the Woods: Why do people love this?

by Stefani

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Published: July 2, 2024 by Riverhead Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Review:

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow,

Rating:

Review:

This book was one of the biggest examples of “everyone loved it but me” that I have ever seen. EVERYONE loves this book. It feels like everyone on the planet has rated this one five stars. And I hated it. I stopped about 40% of the way through because I just couldn’t wait for something to happen anymore.

I would tell you what happened in this book but I can’t. Because nothing actually happened. There are 1, 001 characters and we get to hear all of their POVs. And some of them even have multiple names, oh joy! I was so confused. All of the characters seemed exactly the same and I had no idea who was who. I hoped that we’d get past the constantly shifting POV to some actual story but alas, all that happened was to add in another timeline too. I had the most difficult time following along of any other book I’ve ever read. And there’s a lot of meandering in this plot that doesn’t accomplish anything.

After about 8 hours of nonsense I asked myself if I was willing to listen to this for 10 more hours. And I quickly decided that I was not willing to do that. So, I Googled the ending. It didn’t get better, but I saved myself a bunch of time.

Podcast Confessions: A Deep Dive into Tell Me What You Did

by Stefani

Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson

Published: January 28, 2025 by Poisoned Pen Press

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Review:

She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…

Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her “guests,” but her show grants simultaneous anonymity and instant fame—a potent combination that’s proven difficult to resist. After an episode recording, Poe usually erases both criminal and crime from her mind.

But when a strange and oddly familiar man appears on her show, Poe is forced to take a second look. Not only because he claims to be her mother’s murderer from years ago, but because Poe knows something no one else does. Her mother’s murderer is dead.

Poe killed him.

Rating:

Review:

This book was perfect for an audiobook. I liked having two voice actors, especially when it came to the chapters that were transcripts of the livestream podcast. It created a lot of great tension because it actually felt like a conversation, not just reading a conversation. I love that. And the male voice actor had a perfect voice to sound arrogantly menacing.

The pacing on this book was literally perfect. In one narrative we are following Poe, who had an odd encounter with a man who claims to be her mother’s murderer. She ends the podcasts recording immediately, upset by the interaction because she knows that her mother’s murderer is dead. But, Ian doesn’t go away. He wants to do another podcast together. He wants to tell his story. But he wants to do it live, not pre-recorded. And it needs to be two parts. This narrative is interspersed with transcripts of the livestream show that Poe and Ian are doing together. But, the podcast portions never spoil the good parts. They tease the good parts, which creates a wonderful tension as the plot moves forward. You know that this interaction isn’t going to go well, but you also need Poe to figure out the answers before any else horrifying happens!

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t stop listening to it, I wanted to know how it ended. The ending was rather weak, much to my dismay. Poe was a very smart character who inexplicably decides to just stop using her brain for the ending. That was frustrating. And the “twist” was not very twisty. In hindsight it was rather predictable and I would have preferred that the author go a different direction. But, lackluster ending aside, this was a fun ride.

The Berry Pickers Review: A Heartbreaking Tale

by Stefani

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Published: October 31, 2023 by Catapult

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

Rating:

Review:

I was interested in this one because it got a lot of buzz last year. I saw it win a bunch of awards and was talked about all over the book stratosphere. So I picked it up as my audiobook of the week. Though, truth be told, I have been so busy with work and children that audiobooks are about the only thing I have had time to read lately. Anyway, on to the book.

This book was so wonderfully written. It was striking and beautiful. The plot immediately introduces us to Ruthie and her family. They are an Indigenous family from Nova Scotia who travel to Maine every year to assist with harvesting blueberries. Except this year, Ruthie disappeared. They saw her sitting on a rock near the edge of the field and then she was gone. One second she was there and the next second she wasn’t. The police are called and searches commence but it doesn’t last long. They’re migrant workers, Indigenous, no one really cares. The police tells them that maybe their daughter just wandered off, they’ll likely never find her and she’s gone. The property owner sympathizes with their desperation to find her but reminds them that he has work to be done, he can’t afford for them to be searching the woods for Ruthie anymore. It’s heartbreaking and also very realistic, particularly for the timeframe. She is a girl who is easily forgotten.

We are also introduced to Norma. She grew up with a very exacting and manipulative mother. Her mother was a bit paranoid. Norma was rarely allowed to leave the house and definitely not to talk to other people. Honestly, it wasn’t hard to connect the pieces of the story here. I am not entirely sure it was supposed to be a mystery. The real story is how the truth comes to light.

I absolutely loved this book. It might make the short list of one of my favorite books ever. My only complaint was that it got a little too wordy in the middle. I started to lose interest because Norma just wasn’t really that interesting until later in the story. But despite the laggy middle it recovered quickly into a heartbreaking ending. I was left in tears for hours. I still feel a little weepy thinking about the ending of the book again. This is a wonderful book, I highly recommend it.

“Over the decades, the walls of this house have been torn down and built again in different places and painted in different colors, but a closet still holds a very old pair of girl’s boots with the head of a doll sticking out of one of them on the top shelf,” – The Berry Pickers

Found Family and Fortune Telling: A Review of Julie Leong’s Debut

by Stefani

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

Published: November 5, 2024 by Ace

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.

Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells “small” fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…

Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.

Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.

Rating:

Review:

This book was one of my most anticipated books last year. The cover is lovely, the synopsis is intriguing, it sounded like a perfect mix of a fantasy and a cozy mystery. But, is it possible that a cozy book can be TOO cozy? After reading it I believe the answer is yes, yes it can.

One of the best things about this book was the heavy theme of “found family”. The characters in this book either had terrible families or they were separated from their families by circumstance. And through a series of events in the book they are brought together. They come to rely on one another and trust one another. Eventually they realize that they have become a family. That was a really beautiful story and frankly one of the only reasons this didn’t get one star.

When I think of a cozy mystery, I think of a book that feels warm and inviting with loveable characters. But a book that has a compelling mystery too, to guide all these warm elements along the path of the narrative. This book has plenty of warm, fuzzy and inviting people and stories. Unfortunately the story is not at all compelling. Literally almost nothing happens in this book. What we get is a meandering story of a group of friends who travel from place to place, completing little side quests along the way, but otherwise have no actual goal. Seemingly the goal is to find one of the friend’s missing daughter. We don’t seem to accomplish anything toward this end. Everything is just rather dull.

In the end I got a lot of fuzzy feelings but not a lot of actual content.

The Hitchcock Hotel: A Suspenseful Reunion Gone Wrong

by Stefani

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

Published: September 24, 2024 by Berkley

Buy this book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

A Hitchcock fanatic with an agenda invites old friends for a weekend stay at his secluded themed hotel in this fiendishly clever, suspenseful new novel.

Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.

To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.

But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it.

After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.

Rating:

Review:

I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am about this book. I went into this book with high expectations. After I thoroughly enjoyed Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel (review found here), I was really excited to read this one. Once I reached the end however it was….meh. I can’t say anything too great about it. Nor can I saw anything too bad about it. It was just mediocre.

The idea of the hotel was a great once. I am a fan of Hitchcock and so the ambiance and reference to his films was perfect. I loved the setting. It felt like a Hitchcock film. The characters were very Hithcockian, the setting, the plot, the intrigue. It was all lining up to be an absolute joy to read!

The setup to the murder and the beginning of the reveal of the story was wonderfully done too. I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat to see where things went after the great set up. Unfortunately that’s also where this story took a downturn for me.

Alfred does so much monologuing. So much. He monologues to us as the audience, he monologues to his friends, he monologues to the housekeeper. Honestly, at a certain point I had decided that whatever his former friends did to him in college was probably deserved. He was just insufferable after awhile. But, his former friends weren’t much better. They were equally as unsufferable. But, unlike with the author’s previous book, these were not bad people that you could feel a bit of sympathy for. They were just bad people. And then I was certain that whatever Alfred did to them was entirely deserved also. This entire story was a story of insufferable people getting what’s coming to them.

After the initial set up of the mystery, things got a bit too predictable in my opinion. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on, the only question was who the culprit was. And once the villain was revealed I expected some fireworks, a grand finale, a final ah-ha! But alas, the villain monologued too. The entire last quarter of the book was one big monologue. And it was so desperately boring.

I liked Darling Rose Gold enough to give Stephanie Wrobel a shot in the future, but this one was a miss. And I couldn’t be more upset that it was. I really wanted this one to be a home run.