Author: Jeff

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#BookReview: Hooked On The Heart by Maddie Evans

Solid Maddie Evans Clean Romance. I’ve been reading Evans’ books for a few years now, and this first entrant in a new series is a perfect exemplar of her style… with references (and a few cameos) to what I think was the first series I read from her (the Brighthead Running Club). And yes, if you like what you see here, that series offers several great books to read while you wait for this trilogy to complete out over the next couple of months. 🙂

What you get here is a small town romance where everyone knows everyone… except when they don’t, because suddenly there is a new guy in town. Foodies will absolutely love all of the restaurant details in this book, and knitters/ crocheters will love all of the yarn talk herein (by an author who is an avid knitter and crocheter herself. Seriously, wait until you see the author’s note at the end here. :D)

Those looking for anything more spicy than a warm glass of milk will be disappointed here, but “spice” and “Maddie Evans” have never really gone together. There are other authors that offer that, but Evans always manages to create a compelling romance that does not shy away from the fact that her characters would *like* to go there… without ever actually going there. So in this book, for example, there is some heavy kissing… and that is as far as anything actually goes. Seriously, my 10yo niece has seen more in the TV shows she watches these days.

There *is* one common romance element employed here that turns some off, but revealing it feels a touch spoilery so I’ll simply note that it is so common that it is used across every trope I’m aware of, which is why I refer to it as an ‘element’ rather than a ‘trope’. So those that are hyper sensitive to this particular one can probably guess what I’m referring to here, but this should note *should* be vague enough that it doesn’t actually spoil anything. 🙂

With the epilogue both closing out this story and blatantly setting the next one in motion, this is absolutely going to be one series where you’ll be glad that the next book is just a few weeks away. (Indeed, I was sent ARCs of all three books at once, so I can personally verify that all three are at least ready enough to release to ARC readers, which is a significant step to making them fully ready. :D)

Again, truly a solid romance full of the joy of creating and arts that will make you fall in love with both these characters and this world, thus serving as an almost “Iron Man” level tale. (Ok, I’m a dude. I had to get *something* in here to save at least a modicum of my man card! :D)

Very much recommended.

This review of Hooked On Love by Maddie Evans was originally written on August 17, 2025.

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#BookReview: Good Grief by Sara Goodman Confino

Appropriately Weighty Look At Life After Loss. This historical fiction novel set in 1960s era Maryland – which plays a role in both some of the story and in some of the things that happen herein, and thus why it is worth mentioning – really does a rather terrific job of giving an appropriate amount of weight to moving on after the death of a spouse. It has its moments of comedy, as all life should, but it is far from a comedy book. It has its moments of utter despair, as life truly does, but it isn’t a super heavy book either.

Instead, Confino finds that near perfect balance between the two and uses both to show how life sucks at times – but there is also hope and joy to be found. There is peace. Moving on is *so* hard – but it *is* doable, and ultimately must be done.

As seems common across Confino’s books (now having read this one and 2024’s Behind Every Good Man), bigotry towards Jews in that era and their experiences coming out of not just Germany but also Russia and Eastern Europe in the years not-then-distant, do in fact play a role here, and Confino does an excellent job making these situations realistic without going into preachy territory. Similarly, once again this book is a celebration of all things Jewish as they relate to the time and place at hand in all its shades of good and not so great, from celebrating various cultural practices to discussions of the then-still-happening creation of suburbia and its implications for this specific cultural community.

But ultimately the true heart of this tale is family – a very specifically and intentionally Jewish family, yet still a family that anyone can relate to on that level. And it absolutely works. Most adults are going to have living parents that sometimes exasperate them. They’re going to have at least one in-law that can sometimes be difficult or meddling. (For what its worth, I got particularly lucky there. Seriously, my mother in law is damn near a saint, and my father in law is a fellow tech geek that I can nerd out with about tech any time. 🙂 ) They’re going to have kids that have their own lives and needs and wants – and grandparents that spoil them and have their own attitudes about how said kids should be raised. They’re going to have friends and pets and neighbors and people they know by sight because they’re always in the school pick up line or the grocery store or what have you at the same time. They’re going to have work colleagues that are amazing and work colleagues that are… let’s go with “not so amazing” ;). And all of this is here, making this book have that much more life and making it feel that much more real.

And when we get into the endgame here… well, it aint “Avengers! Assemble.”, but instead hits more along the lines of “My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I *am* the President.”. (An ancient reference and yet a damn fine movie with several excellent points in its climactic speech even ignoring the more explicitly partisan and plot based points.) In other words, you may be tempted to cheer out loud. I encourage you to do so, even in a library. If the librarian shushes you, tell them that this reviewer told them to shush, that this book needed that at that moment and that more importantly, you needed to do it in that moment. And yet, in the end, for all the bombast and comedy, it really is the quieter moments that really make this book everything that it is.

Very much recommended.

This review of Good Grief by Sara Goodman Confino was originally written on August 16, 2025.

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#BookReview: Rope by Tim Queeney

Solid Examination Of The Topic. This is a book written by a sailor that goes deep into all things rope, including its earliest known histories through to its future uses as currently known and planned. We get a *lot* of history from eras from prehistory through Egypt and the Greeks through the Age of Exploration (and even some about the Chinese exploration expeditions) through rope’s uses in executions both sanctioned by governments and not all the way into bleeding edge rope tech taking us into the future of humanity. Through this narrative, I guarantee you that you are going to learn at least something you didn’t previously know – I know I did. I appreciated that the chapter titles were themed to the idea of individual strands in a piece of rope, as that was both perfect theming and a great way of organizing and thinking about the overall history being presented.

Ultimately, this book had two weaknesses for me, though only one worthy of a star deduction. The other, simply a discussion here in the review – a warning, really, to other readers who may be less prepared for it.

The warning is that Queeney *is* a sailor and *really* knows his rope – and knots. He can get quite technical, particularly when he’s talking about how to rig ropes for sailing – which is a significant topic in the book. Through these sections, I recommend the literary/ reading equivalent of the social “nod and ‘uh huh'” when someone is talking about some passion that you’re interested in, but clearly nowhere near as interested in as they are. Read every word – don’t skim it – but allow yourself to not focus on “I must remember every detail of this!”.

Outside of these hyper detailed sections though (and even within them, really), the book really is quite well written and very fascinating indeed in all that it reveals. I’m not joking whatsoever when I mentioned above that even I learned from this book. I really did. Quite a bit that I had never even considered previously. So absolutely go into this book preparing to learn more about this particular subject than at any time since you left formal schooling, whenever that may have been for you.

The star deduction is for the dearth of a bibliography, coming in at 12% or so of the text – still over 30 pages of documented sources in a book of this length, to be clear – which falls just short of even my relaxed-ish standard of 15% and further short of the 20-30% documentation I had been expecting earlier in my reviewing efforts several years ago.

So… that’s it. That’s the review. Go read this book, even if you had never considered the topic and don’t necessarily want to learn anything new. Because this book may be hyper focused, but that actually *increases* its overall quality and ultimately usefulness.

Very much recommended.

This review of Rope by Tim Queeney was originally written on August 12, 2025.

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#BlogTour: I Know How This Ends by Holly Smale

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid romance with an interesting and atypical use of time. For this blog tour, we’re looking at I Know How This Ends by Holly Smale.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Interesting And Atypical Use Of Time. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a “glimpse” based story. What makes this one stand out is that instead of spending an extended period of time in the alternate world and coming back to some realization or another, here our main character jumps sporadically and uncontrollably somewhat similar to The Time Traveller’s Wife, and just like in that tale, it turns out she *is* seeing at least one possible future. Unlike Time Traveller’s Wife, the expansions really are just a few moments at a time before the “snap back” to the actual reality/ timeline. So it presents a very interesting dynamic and storytelling choice.

As to the overall tale itself, kind of a Gilmore Girls/ Hallmarkie type mashup where you’ve got a woman with an interesting yet quirky (by the time we encounter her) career in a seemingly small ish town with a single dad parent with a tragic backstory of his own that is full of family and banter. There’s a lot here that hits a lot of solid notes for many readers, and I do think most readers will enjoy this book.

One thing to note is that there are a few moments throughout where the room gets a bit dusty, or perhaps a few onions are being cut in the middle of the page. If the light to moderate dust/ onions don’t get to you, be prepared for quite a bit more in a much more concentrated dose in the Author’s Note after the end of the tale. Seriously, if the tale itself doesn’t break you, the Author’s Note *will*.

Overall a solid romantic drama more than anything, with enough comedy to keep it from being too heavy. Perfect for a late summer release (and it is, in the middle of August), as it hits those “beginning to get more serious” notes quite well while still having just enough light “there’s still fun to be had” after notes.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: I Know How This Ends by Holly Smale”

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#BookReview: The Secret Librarian by Soraya M. Lane

Tight-Set Story Packs Hefty Punches. This is one of those tight set stories where it isn’t a locked room, but the overall setting for much of the story isn’t more than a handful of buildings/ places seemingly separated by as many blocks – in other words, a lot tighter than many of Lane’s other historical fiction (always WWII based) stories, many of which span countries. Yes, a few scenes – notably in the beginning and ending of the tale – are set in other areas, but the vast bulk of the story takes place along a few key streets in Lisbon over a period of just a few weeks or so, thus using the location and time as an effective way to increase both the tension and the suspense of the tale.

Yet again, Lane takes great care to craft fictional yet also all too realistic characters with all too common backstories and motivations, place them in very real situations within WWII, and allow us, her readers, the chance to see how these situations very likely played out in all-too-real manners for our parents/ grandparents/ great grandparents. (Yes, it is hard to believe that that era is now great and in some cases even great-great grandparents, but that is the nature of time. 😉 )

While not as harrowing as some of Lane’s more recent historical fiction novels and by no means a spy-thriller ala Ludlum’s Bourne books, this is also a solid spy drama showcasing intelligence gathering by atypical people in completely typical situations, and Lane does a solid job of showing just how much people of this era were willing to and ultimately did sacrifice for the good of all.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Secret Librarian by Soraya M. Lane was originally written on August 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen

Solid Family/ Psychological Drama/ Suspense. This tale takes the concept of twins – always interesting to me given that my grandfather was a twin and two of my nieces are twins – and spins a solid psychological/ suspense family drama in and around them in ways that are unfortunately all too realistic in at least some circles in the Southern US.

This is a richly complex tale with a lot going on, even as it has only a few central character and only two primary viewpoints – that of both of the twins. One twin is written in a manner that reads a touch unusually, which can be a problem for some readers, but I thought that view written in that manner actually worked quite well for the story being presented here. The other twin uses a more standard writing style and should pose little difficulty for most readers.

Overall one of the more rare and inventive ways to tell this type of tale I’ve come across, both io the use of twins and in the overall setting involved – the titular locked ward. Pekkanen easily has a solid hit here – I’m not sure that I would quite call it a home run, particularly given the struggles some will have reading the one twin, but I would absolutely call this a solid stand up double. (A baseball analogy, in case it wasn’t clear from the “home run” bit. What can I say, I *am* a dude. :D)

Very much recommended.

This review of The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen was originally written on August 4, 2025.

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#BookReview: Well Actually by Mazey Eddings

Some Will Love It, Some Will Hate It, Nothing Objectively Wrong. This is one of those hyper-“progressive” Gen Z TikTok obsessed romances where how you identify with the characterization of the book itself earlier in this sentence largely tells you how much you’re going to enjoy this book, at a very broad, general level at least. Obviously everyone is different and even those generally inclined to love this book may actually hate it or vice versa, but at a review level to give you, the reader of my review, an idea of what you’re considering getting yourself into… I think it is a completely fair generalization here.

The author has “content warning” spoilers at the beginning of the book – always a mistake to my mind, as to me, they should be available on the author’s website with a message in that spot to look there. This is at least in part because these spoilers are impossible to avoid on eReaders in this location in particular, and I and at least some other readers prefer to go into books unspoiled. Now, even if one wants to try to argue back at me “but aren’t you doing exactly that in this very review”… 1) It isn’t at the front of the book at hand. No matter where you are reading this review, you actively came here away from the book. You’re not reading it immediately before reading the actual text of the story. 2) I’m also not being anywhere near as specific in my warnings as the author did, intentionally to avoid spoilers while also allowing readers of this review a chance to better determine if this book may or may not be something they are interested in spending their money and time (but I repeat myself) on.

For what it is, it works reasonably well. There’s lots of (progressive/ Gen Z/ TikTok style) banter, there’s habanero level “spice”, there’s a fair amount of “coarse language” yet also a metric shit ton of “therapy speak”, there’s some literal laugh out loud level comedy, and there is ostensibly a romance in here that will hit harder for some than for others – same as pretty well any romance book out there. In short, if you can withstand the biases and worldview of the story itself (or even actively agree with them), you’re probably going to like this romcom as much as you do a “generic romcom”. There’s nothing wrong here – but the only things that make it stick out from the pack at all are also the divisive elements that will attract some readers and repulse others, so those elements come out as a wash to my mind as an overall judgement.

Because my “subtractive method” of rating, wherein every book starts at five stars and I need specific, describable, and *preferably objective-ish* reasons to remove stars explicitly states that star removals need to be based on something resembling objective criteria, I have nothing to hang a star removal on here. Again, all flaws here are incredibly subjective and utterly dependent on the reader’s worldviews and even moods at the time of reading this book. Some will see no flaws at all, others will want to defenestrate the book almost from page 1. I hope I’ve done enough here to give you an idea which you may be, and if so I think I’ve done my job as a reviewer.

If you do choose to read this review, please do also leave a review of it in the same place you’re reading this one. I’d love to see what you thought of it, and all reviews help the author sell books – and help the author *not* sell books to those who might not enjoy the book, thus helping the author to avoid further negative reviews where possible. No matter what you think of the book and no matter how you write your review, *someone* will think you’re an idiot and buy the book to spite you and your review, and *someone* will think the author is an idiot and choose not to pick the book up to begin with. Yes, that even includes people reading this review and concluding that *I* am the idiot in question. 😉

So hey, if you’re all about the progressive/ Gen Z / Tiktok / therapy talk vibe… absolutely pick this book up, I really do think you’ll enjoy it. If you’re not completely opposed to those things, pick this book up and give it a try. I think it is at least plausible that you’ll like it. If you’re more solidly/ completely opposed to those things… maybe just skip this one and avoid the headache. There are other books out there more your style, and I can help you find some of those too. 🙂

Recommended.

This review of Well Actually by Mazey Eddings was originally written on August 3, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Last Letter Of Rachel Ellsworth

Strong Travel/ Foodie / Found Family Drama Shoots Itself In The Foot. This is one of those books where everyone is flawed – and it tells a remarkable story *because* of this, not in spite of it. So if you’re a reader where at least one character has to be some level of perfect for you to enjoy the book…. I tell you here and now you’re not going to like this one. So save O’Neal yet another 2 star or lower review because you’ve been warned right here, right now that this isn’t your kind of tale.

For the rest of us flawed humans, this is actually a remarkable tale of picking yourself back up – and finding some fortuitous help along the way to help you do that. And yes, those people are going to be flawed too, and you may actually get a chance to help them even as they help you… hey! isn’t that how friendships and families are *supposed* to work? Have so many of us been so damaged by modern life that we’ve forgotten this? Or is it the idealized world of booklandia that is just too perfect? Regardless, O’Neal ignores the perfection of people in pursuit of the perfection of story, and she does a truly remarkable job here. One of her books, The Art Of Inheriting Secrets, was the first Advance Review Copy review I posted on my then brand new blog when I started it all the way back in July 2018, and it has been a true pleasure reading her most every year since. Of those I’ve read in that time, this is easily in the upper half in terms of depth of emotion evoked and pure joy of reading.

As a foodie and travel romp, this story also works quite well. While we don’t get the steaks or *ahem* Rocky Mountain oysters *ahem* of Colorado, once the story starts traveling beyond the US, we wind up in a few different countries and a few different cafes within each, and the food honestly sounds phenomenal. I hope O’Neal had recipes for these fictional dishes, because I absolutely want my wife to try to make some of them for me. No, I’m not joking about this at all. That is how lovely and visceral O’Neal makes these scenes. Also the traveling itself, at times making deliberate choices within the story to slow down and not just jet-set all over the place, to take the time and really embrace the place you’re in (or, more accurately, where we find the characters in that scene… warts and all.

But I did mention that for all the praise I’ve heaped on this book – deservedly – it shot itself in the foot too, right? Well, to discuss that part absolutely goes into spoiler territory, and since the various places I post these reviews don’t always have good spoiler tags, let’s play it this way, shall we?

And now… the spoilers. DO NOT READ BELOW HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Giving.
People.
Who.
Don’t.
Want.
To.
Be.
Spoiled.
Time.
To.
Leave.

Ok, at this point I’ve given everyone’s eyes a chance to leave before you read what I say next, so HERE COME THE SPOILERS.

The blatant mistake O’Neal makes is that she allows her utter disdain for one particular type of tool to come through the page of the text here as much as her love of food and travel does. She didn’t need to use a mass shooting to achieve the character dynamics she has here, *many* other things would have worked just as well or perhaps even better. Not even that ‘perhaps’, as using this particular vehicle and using it the particular way O’Neal does will actively turn people off across the political spectrum for a variety of reasons, and many particularly pro-gun people will likely want to defenestrate the book from the highest available window. (But don’t. Read the book anyway, because it *is* a particularly strong tale even with this – it could simply have been *so much more* without it.)

Also, she kills a dog. Come on. That is a *complete* throwaway that was 100% an unforced error, and *nobody* likes killing dogs – at least nobody that most of society wants anything to do with. Again, there were other ways to achieve the same results as far as characterizations. You didn’t have to kill the dog.

Yet neither of these are truly objective criticisms – there are many who don’t like guns and will share O’Neal’s disdain for them, who will thus praise her for using them the way she did, and like I mentioned, *some* absolute idiots don’t mind killing dogs. But is that *really* a crowd you want to *market into*???? Still, because they weren’t even approaching objective criticism, I couldn’t really allow myself to deduct one or even multiple stars for it – yet it *did* need to be mentioned in this review, if deep within a spoiler coded section.

And.
Now.
We.
Come.
Back.
Out.
Of.
The.
Spoilers.

Ultimately, this was a fun, if deep and emotional as well, book that did a lot of things right… and then shot itself in the foot. Maybe even both feet.

But you, oh reader of my review, give it a read yourself, then let us know your own thoughts wherever you are reading mine. I’d love to see what you think, even if it is just a few words. Reviews don’t need to be long – really only about as many words as the first sentence of this paragraph – and can truly just be “I did (not, if applicable) like this book because (insert a reason here).” You only need 24 words to be accepted everywhere I currently know of, and I just gave you 6 of them (or 7 if you didn’t like it). *Anyone* can come up with an additional 18 words. Particularly if you’ve just finished reading a near 400 page book. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Last Letter Of Rachel Ellsworth by Barbara O’Neal was originally written on August 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: Fair Warning by John Sneeden

Fun, Light-Ish, Fast – A Solid Cozy Mystery. For me, the ideal cozy mystery is mostly fun, mostly light-ish, a fast read, and maybe a touch quirky. Solid friend dynamics are always a great thing too. Here, in Sneeden’s first cozy… that is pretty well exactly what we get. It is a murder mystery, so it isn’t *completely* light – someone was murdered, after all – but the overall story isn’t weighed down by the dark and depressing, instead giving over to more banter and quips between friends as they try to solve the mystery at hand together. Oh, and one of them just found that her cat can talk. Which as I’ve told my own cat is a billion dollar idea if he would just learn to speak English in addition to Cat, so hey, maybe Sneeden is about to make his character a sudden billionaire. 😉

At a touch under 200 pages, this is also a very fast read, perfect for those times when you don’t have much time to read but need a fun diversion. Maybe the kids are in the last days of summer break as this book releases (oh, they *are*, well… sounds like you need this book 😉 ). Maybe it is later in the year and you’re frazzled getting ready for the holidays and all the cooking and travelling and just need a few minutes. Maybe it is Every. Sunday. Morning. trying to get ready for church and the kids are a *nightmare* every freaking week and you just need a few minutes to yourself to lighten you mood so you can handle them more effectively. Maybe you’ve just had a break from a community you thought you could call your own and need a chance to decompress and heal a bit. Wherever life finds you, whenever you need a quick break for whatever reason… this book is perfect *right there*. (Also, for readers who track their reading and are behind in their goals… quick, easy read. :D)

Ultimately, I can’t stress enough just how much of a fun, easy read this is – and how perfect that is in at least certain situations. Absolutely a book to have on hand for when you may need something exactly like that.

Very much recommended.

This review of Fair Warning by John Sneeden was originally written on July 31, 2025.

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#BookReview: Beyond Control by Jacob Sullum

Strong Refutation of Gun and Drug Laws. At least in American politics, the political right loves to demand total freedom re: guns (and has a particularly strong textual Constitutional case for exactly that) yet also demand exceedingly harsh punishments for even minor issues wherein a person is using, possessing, or even being anywhere near some substance the government has decided it doesn’t like. In American politics, the political left is the opposite – demanding near total freedom re: substances (despite, to be clear, a clear Constitutional case protecting access there) while demanding ever more draconian punishments for any issue they don’t like involving certain tools they don’t like.

In this text, reasonably well researched with a bibliography clocking in at around 23% of the overall text, Reason Magazine editor Jacob Sullum finally writes a book about the two issues he has spent a career writing for the magazine about: gun control and drug control, and how both have remarkably similar histories and even current arguments.

Sullum shows how both ultimately come from racist and classist origins and actively have racist and classist causes and effects even in today’s society. He quotes the oft-cited Michelle Alexander’s New Jim Crow, while pointing to some of its shortcomings. He cites others across the ideological spectrum, showing the strengths and weaknesses of several different ideas through the course of both early American history up through history as recent as 2024.

Ultimately, this is not even that arguably the strongest take down of both regulatory schemes I’ve yet encountered in book form – and the fact that Sullum did it with *two* topics (and shows how closely they are linked, despite “both” American Political Parties handling each very differently) at once shows just how much of a master logician he is. I mean, I consider myself reasonably well versed in various forms of debate, but here Sullum may as well be Neo upon discovering that he really is The One, effortlessly slicing through counter arguments as if they were no more substantive than the hot air coming out both sides of Joe Biden’s mouth. (And yes, yet again another libertarian-based book, and another book were former US Senator and now former President Joe Biden is cited – and showing how wrong he was – seemingly more often than any other US President, including the current one as I write this review just over a month before publication of this book. The other similar book being Radley Balko’s excellent 2013 book Rise Of The Warrior Cop.)

If you’re at all interested in gun control or drug legalization in the US, from any position and any angle… you need to read this book. Even if just for opposition research. Because even if I didn’t agree with Sullum’s positions (and I don’t… maybe 5% of the time here 😉 ) this truly is a very solidly reasoned and examined argument against government regulation of either object, at least as regulations of either currently stand or are largely even thought of at all, and even if you are 100% opposed to Sullum’s stances here, you’ll do yourself a favor by examining his arguments if only to try to find a way to counter them.

Truly well done, truly well organized narratively, and absolutely…

Very much recommended.

This review of Beyond Control by Jacob Sullum was originally written on July 31, 2025.