"A Bookshop in Berlin" by Francoise Frenkel

A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel tells the true story about owning and running a bookstore.  It became a popular place until Hitler and his police took over in Berlin.  Her shop was destroyed and she had to take off to save herself.  This was fairly short and was pretty good but had some dull spots.
(Gerard's review, 3.5 stars)

Teaser from page 14:  Hide newspapers?  Keep them under the counter?  "Distribution of prohibited newspapers," that would have had me sent to a concentration camp.

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"Wolf Pack" by C. J. Box

In Wolf Pack by C. J. Box, two game wardens want to go after the person who is causing deer and elk to stampeed and some are getting killed, but they are told to stand down!  For the good of national interest or else!  Why is this person being protected?

This is good stuff!  The story and action kept me turning pages.  The ending part ws very good to say the least!
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)

Teaser from page 48 (large print version):  Joe felt a tremor wash through him.  He couldn't help but think the wolf was sending him a warning of some kind.

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"Three Things I Know Are True" by Betty Culley

In Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley, Jonah and Clay are friends who live across the street from each other.  One day when they are together, a gun shot goes out.  Both boys' lives will never be the same again!  I thought this book was very good.  I was into it from page 1.  The story flowed along quickly and I especially enjoyed all the teen characters.  It is hard to believe this is the author's first book!  Job very well done and written in verse!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Teaser from page 10:  It's only afterward that we know it was THAT shot--not Clay's dad's weekend target shooting in their backyard.

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"Child's Play" by Danielle Steel is between a Hallmark Movie and a Lifetime Movie

In Child's Play by Danielle Steel, Kate Morgan is a senior partner at a big law firm in New York.  She had to overcome the death of her husband when she was in her 30s having to raise three children--2 girls, 1 boy.  It was tough, but she did it and she is proud of them.  Life is good, but life has a way of changing as Kate is going to discover!  This book was like a mix between a Hallmark movie and a Lifetime flick.  I enjoyed all the characters, especially Kate's mother.  I does not take much brain power to figure how all this is going to play out, but I enjoyed it anyway.
(Gerard's review, 5 stars) 

Teaser from page 30:  Kate knew that was true.  She believed that you had to set the bar high.  They were al successful in their chosen fields, no one had made any terrible mistakes, and Kate liked it that way.

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"Recursion" by Blake Crouch is Wild!

Recursion by Blake Crouch is quite a book!  Imagine living in a world where people have vivid memories of something except those memories are false!  How does one figure out which memories are true?  It is enough to drive people mad.  This is a wild book to say the least. To me, this book started out slow, but when I got into it, I can see why it was one of the most popular books of 2019!  The two main characters are Barry, a cop, and Helena Smith, a neuroscientist.  The second half of this book is filled with action that more than makes up for the start.
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)

Teaser from page 151:  "If memory is unreliable, if the past and the present can simply change without warning, then fact and truth will cease to exist.  How do we live in a world like that?  This is why we're seeing an epidemic of suicides."

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"The Passengers" by John Marrs was a Page Turner for Me

Imagine being in a car that you have no control of.  That is what happens in The Passengers by John Marrs!  This is what a few people in this novel face and they are told that the end of their ride will probably end very badly for them.  The mystery is Who is doing this and why were these people chosen?

I greatly enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down.  There is plenty of good action and enough twists that I did not know what bombshell was going to drop!  I enjoyed all the characters and the writing made this book fly by!  This is my first "Must Read" recommendation of 2020.
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Karen's review:
The Passengers by John Marrs is about automated driverless cars and six hostages in cars that took over control. This is one thriller I did not care for at all.  I read it because my husband enjoyed it so much and said it was a "must read" but we do not agree on this one.  I did not like the writing style nor the way the story was told. It dragged along for me and I was glad when I finally finished it. I was caught by surprised at the ending, but even that wasn’t enough to make me recommend this to someone. I plowed through it, but did not enjoy it. This is one my husband and I had opposite views on. (2 stars)

Teaser from page 9:  "Neither of those things matter right now," the voice replied.  "The only thing you need to know at this point is that two hours and thirty minutes from now, it is highly likely that you will be dead."

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"The End and Other Beginnings" by Veronica Roth was Disappointing

The End and Other Beginnings by Veronica Roth is a collection of six short stories. The first one and the third one were okay, the other four, not so much. The writing was not very good at all.
(Gerard's review, 3 stars) 

Teaser from page 3 of (Inertia):  I didn't want to share a consciousness with Matt.  I didn't even want to be in the same room as him.

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Loved "Keeping Lucy" by T. Greenwood

Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood is based on a true story.  Ginny gives birth to a baby girl and names her Lucy.  At birth, the doctor tells her that her daughter is going to be a special needs child.  Her husband's father is a very rich and influential person.  He finds a way to keep Lucy out of sight and hopefully out of mind for Ginny.  But, things get out of control and Ginny goes to get her child back--this time for keeps! 

I was into this book from page 1.  This book rang true to me.  The story flowed along well and I enjoyed Ginny very much!  LOVED IT!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Teaser from page 9:  "This is all a terrible mistake," she said, yanking her hand from his and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed to get up.  Her head felt swimmy and she could still taste the acrid vomit at the back of her throat.

Happy Reading!

"A Mrs. Miracle Christmas" by Debbie Macomber

In A Mrs. Miracle Christmas by Debbie Macomber, Laura is worried about her grandmother, Helen, getting Dementia.  She doesn't want to leave her alone so hires a home-care provider, Mrs. Miracle, from Caring Angels.  Laura and Zach can't have children so tried to adopt but were devastated when it didn't work out.  Laura is thrilled her Nana and Mrs. Miracle hit it off and has seen improvement in Nana's behavior and attitude since she hired Mrs. Miracle.  When Helen tells Laura that Mrs. Miracle is a real angel, Laura begins to worry again. 

This is a delightful, entertaining read that reminded me of the show, Touched by an Angel.  If you liked that show, I would highly recommend this book to you.  My favorite characters are Helen and Mrs. Miracle.  It's a fun, light read.  It could easily be a Hallmark Christmas movie in my opinion.
(Karen's review, 4 stars)

Teaser from page 30:  That Mrs. Miracle knew this shouldn't have surprised Helen, if indeed she was an angel.  But it sure seemed to Helen that this woman was privy to a lot of personal information, angel or not.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

"Fallen Land" by Taylor Brown (Historical Fiction)

Fallen Land by Taylor Brown takes place in the final year of the Civil War.  Ava and Callum are on the run because a band of marauders are after a bounty that is on Callum, a seasoned horse thief from Ireland.  Reiver, thier horse, must carry Ava and Callum to safety.

I enjoyed this book and its two main characters very much.  It is like a western which I haven't read in a long time so a nice change of pace for me.  This is the author's first book!  This is the second time I've read this one--I liked it when I read it in 2016 too.
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)

Teaser from page 24:  The boy staggered along behind, finding his legs.  He was still disoriented, his boots tripping along the ground.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

Books We Loved in 2019

This video is made up of three parts:  the first is books we both loved, the second is ten more that Gerard loved in addition to the first nine, and the third is ten more that Karen loved in addition to the first nine.  For links to reviews of the first nine, see previous post.  To find our reviews, just enter the title of the book in the search box at upper left of our blog.

Books Read in 2019 That We Both Loved and Highly Recommend

It's that time of year to review what we read last year and give you our top recommendations.  All year I keep a Word document of the books we read with our reviews printed so at the end of the year, we can just go through the list and circle our favorites.  I also have a photo album of the pictures of our favorite reads for each year which helps a lot when doing this blog post!  We use the library.  I read 81 books in 2019 and Gerard beat me again with 91.  Below is the list of nine books that we both loved including the links to our reviews of them for your convenience.

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer (Fantasy)

Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst (Third book in Queens of Renthia Series)  (Fantasy)

The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst (Fantasy/romance)

The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Thriller/Mystery)

  

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin (Thriller/Mystery)

No Exit by Taylor Adams (Thriller)

We, the Jury by Robert Rotstein  (Mystery)

The Institute by Stephen King (Horror)

The Pale-Faced Lie by David Crow (Autobiography--child abuse)

The way we review books is totally subjective.  We strictly go by how much it draws us in and makes us want to get back to it.  As you can see, we read different genres.  The fact that we have only 9 books that we both loved out of 172 proves we have fairly different tastes when it comes to books.  We don't always read the same books though, so be sure to see our other posts we do coming soon that gives you each of our individual top 10 reads besides these.  

Happy Reading in the New Year!