Tag Archive: mystery



How Could It Be?How Could It Be? by Xiomara Rodriguez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“A senior FBI agent being shot in the precinct’s parking lot is only the first shock in Lieutenant Jane Sparks’s day. The second is Senior Agent Fran Morris is a mirror image of Sparks, an identical twin. After an awkward and confrontational meeting at the hospital while Agent Morris is in recovery, they decide to put their brilliant minds together to not only determine who shot Agent Morris and why but also how they were separated at birth.

How Could It Be? is a fast-paced mystery crime novel filled with lies, deception, and intrigue, and how it all affects a budding relationship between long-lost sisters.”

What better way to explain the story than the blurb from Amazon? I met the author briefly a decade ago, but I see her in the church meetings I Zoom. She doesn’t know me, but I am still proud of her for writing a series!

For a first book, I think this has a lot of promise. The author’s career experience verifies the world the main characters inhabit.

This is a short book—I read it in one sitting—but it was full of promise and intrigue. I can’t wait to read Xiomara Rodriguez’s other books.

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What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile #1)What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First of all, I never learned what the river knows. Second, I didn’t like any of the characters. It’s supposed to be a Young Adult, and I am three or four times the age of the prescribed reader. Still, I usually like YA books, so…

It is supposed to be about magick and fantasy, but it is not consistent or completely helpful. The history is enough that it might bring a young person to Google Cleopatra, Egypt, or Argentina. There is a smattering of very elementary Spanish, making a language student feel smart. But honestly, I felt I wasted time getting to an unsatisfying cliff. It didn’t make me want to continue.

Okay, it could be me. OR it could be that I listened to Text-to-Speech, and I could have used a live narrator who could read all the languages presented.

I hope others will read it and like it. It seems promising, but I don’t plan to read the next part of the series. Still, I’m grateful to Libby for the borrow of the Kindle version.

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The Lost BookshopThe Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The blurb pulled me into a wonderful, amazing world. Here’s the one from GoodReads:

‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

I love a book about books and bookstores and the magic that can occur. It can get confusing if you have to listen and not read the words. I would get lost as to whose point of view I was looking through. But after a while, I got it and was charmed.

Avena Mansergh-Wallace (Narrator), Olivia Mace (Narrator), and Nick Biadon (Narrator) made Evie Woods’ story come to life.

If you get the chance, read or listen to this one. It is charming!

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Squeeze MeSqueeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Curiosity. That is why this book got all of two stars. I wanted to know what was going to happen, where the plot was going to take us.

Sadly, I never enjoyed it and nearly quit reading often. I like my fiction to be enjoyable or intriguing. This was neither. Even without the political leaning, I don’t think I would have liked it. I didn’t like any of the characters except the snake, I guess.

This author is pretty popular, but I should have known I wouldn’t like this. I read Skinny Dip and found it equally boring. And not as annoying. Nor did I like the narrator, Scott Brick. Another male who made women sound like he despised them.

If you like Mr. Hiaasen’s writing, you might like this. Otherwise, go find something you might not feel you’ve wasted time reading.

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The Psychology of Time TravelThe Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Below is a previous review of Kate Mascarenhas’s The Psychology of Time Travel. It was with Kindle text-to-speech. I have to admit that this Audible version rates the same. Ellie Heydon (Narrator) doesn’t vary her voice enough to help the listener tell the differences between characters, places, emotions, or times. One difference was one character sounded like they had a cold, but other than that, it was all the same, and I couldn’t figure out why the nasal voice belonged to who it belonged to.

Even so, it was a fun read with time travel rules bent a little differently than other books of this nature. I think it is worth the read, and maybe, in this case, just a paper or visual read.
~~~

A friend recommended this to me. She knew I loved reading about the concept of time travel. And she was not wrong. This was very interesting and even brought up ideas I hadn’t considered before. A lot of time travel science is included in the book, but I loved the story. I loved reading about all the different women who invented the time machines.

I borrowed this Kindle edition from the library. And for a lot of books, the text-to-speech works quite well. But for this book, it made it more challenging. All the voices are the same one, no matter the time or area the person was from; it was the same voice with no emotion. So I got pretty mixed up with who was who. So I have ordered the Audible version to try again later. I am concerned as there are so many characters I may have to take notes to keep it all straight.

Still, even as it was, I found it engaging every single night. I never wanted to quit reading, even when confused.

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Worst Case ScenarioWorst Case Scenario by T.J. Newman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

T.J. Newman wrote a fantastic disaster movie, I mean a disaster book. Joe Morton (Narrator) brought the writing to life. Joe was able to make each character show up. I never felt like he was being demeaning to women or children, as many male narrators seem to do.

The title says it all. And you know, going in, it is going to get rough and may not get better. Don’t make this your gentle-yourself-to-sleep read. Take it from me: it won’t work. But every waking hour I could, I had the audiobook reading to me.

Here’s the blurb from GoodReads:
When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner filled with passengers crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small town of Waketa, Minnesota, which becomes ground zero for a catastrophic national crisis with global implications.

The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now.

In this heart-stopping thriller, ordinary people—power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors, and friends— are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity, and determination of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the fate of humanity at large.

~~~
If you’re looking for a fast scary ride, read this one.

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EruptionEruption by Michael Crichton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Scott Brick’s overacted narration kind of ruined this experience for me. BUT I could see this as a movie!

This is the kind of story you expect from Michael Crichton. The research on volcanoes was evident without being preachy or pedantic. As expected, the story kept me on edge, worried about the characters and the island.

May I say I hope this never happens to anyone. It is a scary concept. But it’s a super book and hopefully a great disaster movie.

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The Recovery Agent (Gabriella Rose, #1)The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another fun road trip read (listen).

Lorelei King (Reader) gave Janet Evanovich’s usual fun writing a reality that might not be present as eyes scan a page. She has that acting ability to give each character a different voice. The listener doesn’t get lost between the many people in the book.

I have read other fun books by Janet Evanovich, so I was open to this new character, Gabriella Rose. The adventure was tense yet light and humorous for our ride. We were cracking up as we enjoyed the forest or water scenes we passed in real life—the best combination for a long drive.

Now that I’ve read/heard the first book, I will seek out book two and maybe go back and reread the Stephanie Plum books.

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Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, #7)Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aren’t long road trips the best? I just got back from a lovely long ride. Listening to music can make one hoarse, but a good story can help the time go quickly. My friend and I got to listen to this charmer on our trip. She had started reading (listening) before she picked me up. But two things made it easy for me to start listening in the middle of the story without feeling lost. I have read other Dresden File books, and, well, who doesn’t love Spike to read a story to them? Yes, James Marsters was the narrator.

I think my biggest problem with Dresden Files is the misogynistic attitudes that were less apparent in decades past but now spoil the story. Other than those issues, it is fun to watch our hero go from bad to worse situations and know his Columbo-type personality will get him by.

Even though I started in the middle, I felt I heard enough that I didn’t need to go back and check out the book to reread it. I might want to start the series again, though. Each book is a fun adventure to get lost in.

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In Want of a Knife (Vampire Book Club #5)In Want of a Knife by Nancy Warren
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m so sorry. I found this to be the most boring of all the series. I guess even Nancy Warren has to have a bad few days of writing.

Hollis McCarthy (the Narrator) made it sound pompous and unrelatable. I couldn’t stay awake to it even while playing my games. So, the shortest book took me twice as long to read.

Worst of all, the murder wasn’t even brought up until near the end of the book. The story was about how our main character was trying to figure out why the producer was in town to make a porno of Jane Eyre. And how this witch doesn’t get arrested for murder in any of these books amazes me. She is always there when it happens or nearly so.

And I still can’t figure out how the lady with the watch was electrocuted. I listened to that part a couple of times. I just had to know that it happened, and there is the whole case. Bah!

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