The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave

Started: 1/27/2026

Finished: 1/28/2026

Year: 2026

Pages: 268

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book, continuing the series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Five years after her husband, Owen, disappeared, Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter, Bailey, have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together, they’ve forged a relationship with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas and are putting the past behind them.

"But when Owen shows up at Hannah’s new exhibition, she knows that she and Bailey are in danger again.

"Hannah and Bailey are forced to go on the run in a relentless race to keep their past from catching up with them. As a thrilling drama unfolds, Hannah risks everything to get Bailey to safety—and finds there just might be a way back to Owen and their long-awaited second chance."

Opinion: Should read this soon after the first one-felt that I lost a lot of what had happened from the first book.

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

Started: 1/25/2026

Finished: 1/26/2026

Year: 2023

Pages: 312

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second whodunnit. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

"The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

"the debut writer (me!)

"the forensic science writer

"the blockbuster writer

"the legal thriller writer

"the literary writer

"the psychological suspense writer

"But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

"Of course, we should also know how to commit one."

Opinion: Lots of characters to be considered for murder and whodunit

A Ferry Merry Christmas by Debbie Macomber

Started: 1/24/2026

Finished: 1/24/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 254

Genre: romance

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Avery and Reed Bond grew up sharing a close-knit relationship, weathering life’s storms side by side. Even so, Avery often finds herself exasperated by her brother’s relentless matchmaking, while Reed can’t resist teasing his sister—after all, isn’t that what siblings do?

"Facing their first Christmas without their beloved Grams, the woman who lovingly raised them, Reed and Avery decide to spend the holiday together at Reed’s home. However, their plans take an unexpected turn when the ferry Avery’s traveling on stalls in the middle of Puget Sound, stranding its passengers and leaving Reed waiting a now undetermined length of time for her arrival. What is at first an inconvenience threatens to ruin the plans of a number of commuters, but Avery and Reed soon discover that this unforeseen delay might end up being be a perfectly timed blessing in disguise.

"While stuck on the ferry, Avery meets a handsome sailor and witnesses a Christmas miracle that reignites her belief in the holiday spirit. Meanwhile, Reed runs into a coworker who’s also waiting for a family member to arrive, and sparks a surprising and delightful connection.

"In this tale of holiday magic, the Bond siblings find themselves taking a chance on love, proving that sometimes the best moments in life come when we least expect them."

Opinion: What we need in today's time-people coming together. Sweet romance. No smut.

Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell

Started: 1/20/2026

Finished: 1/23/2026

Year: 1993

Pages: 273

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "'Killing me won't kill the beast' are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they can't explain how Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds Waddell's fingerprints on another crime scene -- after she'd performed his autopsy. If this is some sort of game, Scarpetta seems to be the target. And if the next victim is someone she knows, the punishment will be cruel and unusual..."

Opinion: Interesting twists and turns and internal sabatage.

Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

Started: 1/20/2026

Finished: DNF

Year: 2025

Pages: 357

Genre: mystery

Grade: F

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Nina Swann is intrigued when she received a condolence card from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband’s unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick’s past. What she finds is more than unsettling…

"Martha is a florist living in a neighboring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband, Alistair. But lately, Alistair has been traveling more and more frequently for work, disappearing for days at a time. When Martha questions him about his frequent absences, he always has a legitimate explanation, but Martha can’t share the feeling that something isn’t right.

"Nina, Martha, and Ash are on a collision course with a shocking truth that is far darker than anyone could have imagined. And all three are about to wish they had heeded the same warning: Don’t let him in."

Opinion: The writing style did not appeal to me-so much so that I stopped reading. 

Epilogue to a Christmas Murder by Lauren Elliott

Started: 1/18/2026

Finished: 1/20/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 360

Genre: cozy mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "There’s no place like the seaside Massachusetts town of Greyborne Harbor for the holidays, and there’s no better feeling for Addie than donating to the lighthouse museum’s Twelve Days of Christmas charity fundraiser. Of the dozen books she’ll be offering as prizes from her Beyond the Page Books and Curios shop, the most special volume is a first edition of The Gift of the Magi imported from England—signed by O. Henry! Addie receives an unexpected Christmas bonus when the book is hand delivered by visiting Detective Inspector Noah Parker, whom she met in England, and has been daydreaming about ever since.

"But on the night Addie delivers the book to the museum, someone posing as one of Santa’s Little Helpers swipes it—and the rest of the charity gifts. As if the theft wasn’t bad enough, a body is found on the rocks outside the lighthouse, believed to be murdered. Now, it’s up to Addie to connect the clues, find stolen goods, and catch a killer—in order to usher in a Happy New Year . . ."

Opinion: Much better now that Addie is back home. Murderer was predictable-motive was not. Decent.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

Started: 1/16/2026

Finished: 1/17/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 165

Genre: literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

"But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past."

Opinion: Um...ok....an everyday wedding weekend....about people I didn't really care about.

Burning Boy by Paul Auster

Started: 1/15/2026

Finished: DNF

Year: 2021

Pages: 738

Genre: biography

Grade: D

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age twenty-eight.

"Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next: A controversial article written at twenty disrupts the course of the 1892 presidential campaign, a public battle with the New York police department over the false arrest of a prostitute effectively exiles him from the city, a star-crossed love affair with an unhappily married uptown girl tortures him, a common-law marriage to the proprietress of Jacksonville’s most elegant bawdyhouse endures, a shipwreck results in his near drowning, he withstands enemy fire to send dispatches from the Spanish-American War, and then he relocates to England, where Joseph Conrad becomes his closest friend and Henry James weeps over his tragic, early death."

Opinion: Auster seems a little bit obsessed with Crane's life and writings. I, like most people my age and older, read "The Red Badge of Courage" in highschool or middle school. I don't remember much of it but I know that I didn't hate it like so many others have over the years. Just too long of a biography.

The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware

Started: 1/12/2026

Finished: 1/16/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 384

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book, sequel

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

"The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy."

Opinion: Definitely need to read the previous book to understand the character dynamics. Was a tad too long.

Hounded by David Rosenfelt

Started: 12/16/2025

Finished: 1/14/2026

Year: 2014

Pages: 313

Reason for reading: TBR pile, continuing with series

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Andy Carpenter isn't sure what to think when he gets a mysterious phone call from a good friend, policeman Pete Stanton, asking him to drop everything, drive to an unfamiliar address, and bring his girlfriend, Laurie Collins. He certainly isn't expecting to show up at a crime scene. But that's exactly where he arrives―at the house where Pete has just discovered the body of ex-convict Danny Diza. Upstairs are Danny's now orphaned eight-year-old son and basset hound. And that, Andy discovers, is why he and Laurie were called to the scene―Pete wants them to take care of the boy and the dog so they won't get thrown into the "system." This is already asking a lot, but soon Pete needs another big favor from Andy. Pete himself has come under suspicion for Danny's murder, and he needs defense attorney Andy to represent him…and to find out what really happened in Danny's house that day."

Opinion: Interesting case. Good personal story for Andy.

The Guest Cottage by Lori Foster

Started: 1/11/2026

Finished: 1/12/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 298

Genre: romance/fiction

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Marlow Heddings is starting over. She’s carried the outrage of her husband Dylan’s affair with a younger woman—and the expectations of his family’s powerful Chicago holdings company—long enough. Now, after another devastating twist of fate, she’s unapologetically moving on.

"Arriving in tiny Bramble, Kentucky, Marlow revels in her freedom, swapping her executive suits for sundresses . . . and scouting places to open her dream boutique. Best of all is her new residence, an adorable cottage with gorgeous lake views—and a breathtaking landlord, former Marine Cort Easton. Soon they’re sharing dockside morning coffee and nighttime firefly gazing. Marlow’s new life feels like a dream.

"Then Pixie Nolan arrives on her doorstep. With a shocking secret.

"To Marlow’s astonishment, Dylan’s “other woman” is a desperate girl of nineteen, destitute, exhausted, and disowned by her family. Defying her manipulative in-laws’ demands, and surprising even herself, Marlow vows to lay down roots in Bramble and help Pixie get on her feet. Then they’ll part ways. But empathy has a way of forging bonds. As Marlow grows close to the hard-working, devoted young woman, she becomes something of a big sister to Pixie.

"Now, with each sunrise, Marlow awakens to the life she was truly meant to live, one filled with deepening connections, supportive friendship . . . and even a second chance at love."

Opinion: A sweet story about a second chance at love and forgiving the past-not sure if I could be as forgiving as Marlow but it's an important lesson.

Death at the Door by Olivia Blacke

Started: 1/8/2026

Finished: 1/11/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 336

Genre: mystery

Grade; B-

Reason for reading; library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Ruby Young is slowly adjusting to her new life in Boston. A big part of that is her unexpected roommate―the ghost of the woman who lived there before. For Cordelia Graves, she may no longer be breathing, but it’s still her apartment and Ruby is the somewhat unwanted houseguest. They’re both happy they’ve managed to become friends, which is a miracle considering they struggle to communicate with each other. Cordelia even set Ruby up with her old job.

"When Ruby discovers the body of a delivery guy at work, the new life she’s been building hangs in the balance. The last time Cordelia dragged Ruby into a murder investigation, it was almost two ghosts living in the apartment, not one. Determined to protect Ruby, Cordelia tries to shield her from the investigation, but Ruby has other ideas. It will take both of them working together to navigate the fine line between the dead and the living to bring a killer to light."

Opinio: Decent second book. Ending leads up to a third. Reasoning for the murder seemed quickly put together.

Murderland by Caroline Fraser

Started: 1/7/2026

Finished: DNF

Year: 2025

Pages: 398

Genre: true crime

Grade: D

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?

"As Murderland indelibly maps the lives and careers of Bundy and his infamous peers in mayhem—the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalker, the Hillside Strangler, even Charles Manson—Fraser’s Northwestern death trip begins to uncover a deeper mystery and an overlapping pattern of environmental destruction. At ground zero in Ted Bundy’s Tacoma stood one of the most poisonous lead, copper, and arsenic smelters in the world, but it was hardly unique in the West. As Fraser’s investigation inexorably proceeds, evidence mounts that the plumes of these smelters not only sickened and blighted millions of lives but also warped young minds, including some who grew up to become serial killers."

Opinion: A lot of research for repetitive chapters-just different years. Nature vs nurture...how much nature played a role in the PNW.

Evil Bones by Kathy Reichs

Started: 1/6/2026

Finished: 1/7/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 271

Genre: mystery/thriller

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Small creatures—a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel—have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in a bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Ruthie, she’s diverted by a disturbing call. The perp is upping the ante. This find could be human.

"Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone’s pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty abhorrent, Tempe agrees to help apprehend the person responsible, and she acquires an equally outraged ally in semi-retired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell. Needing a better understanding of possible motives, Tempe seeks input from a forensic psychologist. The doctor has no definitive answer but offers several possibilities, warning that the escalating pattern of aggression suggests even more macabre discoveries—and a shift in the perp’s focus to humans.

"And then it happens. A woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the animal killings. Subsequently, people Tempe cares about begin to go missing until it becomes clear she is being taunted, the target in a sick game that has her and Slidell racing against a ticking clock and facing a terrifying question: “What is pure evil?”"

Opinion: Interesting twist at the end. Interesting concepts of what exactly is evil.

Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada

Started: 1/4/2026

Finished: 1/5/2026

Year: 2023

Pages: 311

Genre: Literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "All Otaha Higuchi wants to do is work with books. However, the exhausting nature of her work at a chain bookstore, combined with her paltry salary and irritating manager quickly bring reality crashing down around her. She is on the verge of quitting when she receives a message from somebody anonymous, inviting her to apply for a job at ‘"The Night Library." The hours are from seven o’clock to midnight. The library exclusively stores books by deceased authors, and none of them can be checked out – instead, they’re put on public display to be revered and celebrated by the library’s visitors, making it akin to a book museum.

"There, Otoha meets the other staff, a group of likeminded literary misfits, including a legendary chef who prepares incredible meals for the library’s employees at the end of each day. Night after night, she bonds with her colleagues over meals in the café, each of which are inspired by the literature on the shelves.

"But as strange occurrences start happening around the library that may bring the threat of its closure, Otaha and her friends fear that the peace they have found there will forever be lost to them. Will their faith in the value of books strong enough to save it? And what will remain if it isn’t?"

Opinion: A book museum-interesting concept. Not sure how much was lost in translation but felt that it was decent.

Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Started: 1/3/2026

Finished: 1/4/2026

Year: 2008

Pages: 321

Genre: cozy mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing the series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate, baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar. But she'll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who's preparing for a big family reunion. Everyone is delighted when Lisa's long-lost uncle makes a surprise appearance. No one has heard from Gus in twenty-five years.

"Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion. He's almost as popular as Hannah's scrumptious carrot cake. But the next morning, as the whole family gathers for the group photo, one person is missing. Hannah offers to track down Uncle Gus, but her search leads to a shocking find. Over by the bar at the pavilion, she spots two slices of her infamous carrot cake, frosting-side down on the floor--and Gus's corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest!

"A little snooping reveals that not everyone was celebrating Gus's return. And when Hannah unearths secrets from Gus's past, she discovers many more people with an axe to grind. Now Hannah's got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer--even if it could mean a recipe for her own demise..."

Opinion: Decent mystery. Recipes were more non cookies

Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker

Started: 1/2/2026

Finished: DNF

Year: 2025

Pages: 321

Genre: literature

Grade: F

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "It’s 2011, and twenty-three-year-old Joan West is not like the rest of her liberal peers in Austin, nor is she quite like her Tea Party Republican, God-loving family. Sure, she listens to conservative talk radio on her way to and from her internship at the Capitol. But she was once an America-hating leftist who kissed girls at parties, refused to shave, and had plenty of emotionless sex with jazz school friends—that is until a drug-induced mania forced her to return to her senses.  

"But above all Joan is a writer, an artist, or at least she desperately wants to be. Always in search of inspiration for her novel, she catalogs every detail of her relationships with men—including with her former muse slash current arch nemesis Roberto—and mines her very dysfunctional family for material. But when her beloved, credit card debt–racked cousin Wyatt finds himself in crisis, Joan’s worldview is cracked open and everything comes crashing down."

Opinion: Joan is such an awful character and I just could not get past her and her family's limited worldview.

Exiles by Jane Harper

Started: 12/30/2025

Finished: 1/2/2026

Year: 2022

Pages: 354

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend's baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation.

"This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie's disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim's older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can't leave the case alone.

"As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?"

Opinion: More heartwarming than expected. Decent main and mini mystery. Not sure about Falk's character development