Reading Recap

Y'all.  I have a bold statement to make and I'm not making it lightly.  I think that The Rose Code might be my favorite book of all time. I listened to it on audible and I couldn't get enough.  It had everything that I love...two timelines, remarkable women, historical accuracy mixed with fun fictional parts, etc.  I had no idea about what went on at Bletchley Park during WWII and I felt like I learned so much.  The women in the book were real and endearing and raw and I laughed and cried multiple times.  I loved that this book highlighted the "boths" in life... how there can be both heartbreak and joy simultaneously and at the end of the book I kept thinking how this generation really was the best.  I know that this book is LONG and lots of people have "given up" on it and to that I'd say LISTEN ON AUDIBLE!!! It was read beautifully and really brought the women to life and so if you tried reading it and couldn't get into it just TRY the audiobook.  

"1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of East-End London poverty, works the legendary code-breaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter—the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger—and their true enemy..."

 Great Big Beautiful Life was "classic" Emily Henry for me.  It was sweet and sappy and predictable but also kind of unpredictable - hahaha. I felt like there was more "plot" than her typical book which I LOVED and the "story in a story" aspect was right up my alley.  It was cute and quick and if you like Emily Henry you'll love this.

"Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it."

First Lie Wins kept me guessing pretty much from start to finish which was a win.  There were lots of story threads interweaving the entire time and wasn't your typical cat and mouse.  I always struggle with reviewing "thriller" type books because I don't want to give too much away but this was a win!

"Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . "

I went on a Freida McFadden a couple of summers ago with the Housemaid and then The House Maids Secret and I LOVED both of them so my expectations were high when I decided to give her book, The Tenant, a try.  To my pleasant surprise it lived up to my hype and was twisty, dark, and had an awesome ending.  It felt very much like her other novels so if that's your vibe give this a try.

"There’s no place like home…

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he's desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake's looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets...

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set."

Things You Save In A Fire popped up in my audible account as a recommended listen and I gave it a shot and LOVED IT.  I'm not sure why but I cried TWICE in this book (which is random for me for a more "mushy" kind of book) - I think it's because it all felt fairly real and not uber-far-fetched.  The characters were all likable, there was a bit of angst/suspense to make it not feel overly-chick-lit, and I absolutely adored the ending.

"Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she's seen her fair share of them, and she's excellent at dealing with other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it's an emergency of a kind Cassie never anticipated.

The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie's old job as it could possibly be. Hazing, a lack of funding, and poor facilities mean that the firemen aren't exactly thrilled to have a "lady" on the crew, even one as competent and smart as Cassie. Except for the handsome rookie, who doesn't seem to mind having Cassie around. But she can't think about that. Because she doesn't fall in love. And because of the advice her old captain gave her: don't date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping...but will she jeopardize her place in a career where she's worked so hard to be taken seriously?"

The Girl Who Was Taken was my first Charlie Donlea book and I immediately ordered two more.  I LOVE a book with quick chapters and this book threw my suspicions all over the place throughout.  I honestly didn't see the ending coming AT ALL.  It dragged a teeny bit in the middle for me but the beginning and end made up for it.  

"Two abducted girls—one who returns, one who doesn’t.

 

The night they go missing, high school seniors Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are at a beach party in their small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina. Police launch a massive search, but hope is almost lost—until Megan escapes from a bunker deep in the woods. . . . A year later, the bestselling account of her ordeal has made Megan a celebrity. It’s a triumphant story, except for one inconvenient Nicole is still missing.

 

Nicole’s older sister, Livia, a fellow in forensic pathology, expects that one day soon Nicole’s body will be found and her sister’s fate determined. Instead, the first clue comes from another body—that of a young man connected to Nicole’s past. Livia reaches out to Megan to learn more about that fateful night. Other girls have disappeared, and she’s increasingly sure the cases are connected.

 

Megan knows more than she revealed in her book. Flashes of memory are pointing to something more monstrous than she described. And the deeper she and Livia dig, the more they realize that sometimes true terror lies in finding exactly what you’ve been looking for . . ."