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#BookReview: Our Perfect Family by Nicola Marsh

Lots Of Moving Parts Combine For One Explosive Thriller. This is one of those books where you know from Page 1 that little is going to actually be as it seems… and yet Marsh is going to keep you guessing and keep the reveals coming all the way until almost literally the very last words of this just-shy-of-300 page tale.

This is one where pretty well every character has some dark secret they are trying to protect, which is where most of the tension throughout the text comes to bear. Everyone thinks they know everyone and everyone thinks this is a titular “perfect family”, except we know as readers that this is far from what is actually going on.

This does all happen in Australia, and apparently the narrators thus use Australian accents in their reading. I actually explicitly chose an Australian voice on my Text To Speech reader for this book because of the setting and Marsh herself being Australian, and it absolutely worked well for me.

There is also quite a bit of teen/ new adult drama to be had here, including one scene in particular that while some may find distasteful also is and has been far too common. Marsh actually plays the scene well both in what she chooses to actively show – and not – and in how she shows its impact throughout our “perfect” family, which drives a large portion of the narrative here.

Overall truly a fun, twisty family suspense/ thriller with oh so much going on on so many different levels, this really is a great end of summer/ start of the new school year read, and is thus fairly well positioned for its print release on the day after US Labor Day, when even Yankee schools start back. Southern US schools have generally been back for at least a few weeks already by this point, and indeed all of my nephew and nieces started school nearly a full month before the Kindle edition release of this book.)

Very much recommended.

This review of Our Perfect Family by Nicola Marsh was originally written on August 25, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Invention Of Rum by Jordan B. Smith

Solid Examination Of The Topic. I’ve read books before where when you read the publisher’s description of the book and then read the book, you wonder what whoever within the publisher actually wrote that description was smoking… and if you can get your hands on some of that clearly mind altering stuff.

This book is *not* that. Instead, here the publisher’s description as I write this review nearly three weeks before publication is truly spot on exactly what you’re getting here – all the way down to the fact that this is very clearly a 2020s Academia level book both in styling and in what it emphasizes.

The overall writing here is a touch dry and absolutely more dense than the casual reader will likely prefer, and yet it is still a very readable tome in the same way that fruitcake is technically edible and lead is great for many applications… and not so great for others.

Thus, if you’re interested in a detailed history of exactly how this particular spirit came to be and how it became such a sought-after commodity in its era (and how it helped actively create markets in said era, along with spawning at least a few idioms known even today), this is absolutely going to be a book to pick up. You’re going to learn a *lot*, and you may be a hit at Rum Trivia.

If you’re a more casual reader looking for a history of an alcohol related topic to perhaps read while sipping your favorite refreshment at the beach (because here in Florida, we truly have (nearly) Endless Summer) or perhaps while overlooking the changing fall colors (as this book will be published in mid September, when if I remember correctly some leaves in more northern areas start to turn) from your porch with a fire burning in the fireplace… this book may be a touch too dense, but certainly close enough to at least use the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon to get an idea of how the prose works for your own tastes.

Overall truly a solid and well documented (roughly 29% of the Advance Review Copy edition I read, right around the upper range of what I consider normal in that regard) look at the liquor, its history, and its impact on history, with just a few brief mentions of anything beyond the 19th century in the closing notes of the epilogue. Well worth the read for anyone, even as realistically I know it will mostly be read by actual historians and academics or perhaps others with strong professional interests or perhaps hyper-fixations on the topic.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Invention Of Rum by Jordan B. Smith was originally written on August 24, 2025.

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#BookReview: Stones Still Speak by Amanda Hope Haley

The Publisher Used The Perfect Review Tagline! I’m not joking on that headline either. As I write this review just over a month before this book publishes, the very first line of the current description of this book says “Untangling the Sunday School Stories You Learned from the Biblical History You Haven’t”. And dammit, had they not used that line, *I WOULD HAVE!*.

That book is the singular **PERFECT** way to describe this book in a succinct manner. It really is exactly what you’re getting here.

In this book, an actual field archaeologist goes through the Bible nearly cover to cover showing what the field of archaeology has discovered… and what it hasn’t. Written from an unequivocally Christian perspective, this is a book that doesn’t try to destroy faith – and yet also actively debunks claims that the evidence simply can’t support, even while fully acknowledging and even actively embracing the supernatural in instances where there is wiggle room. (Absence of evidence not being evidence of absence and all that jazz. 😉 )

In many of my reviews of Christian books I’ve deducted a star for prooftexting, and while Haley does in fact cite Bible verses frequently throughout this text… she never actually engages in that practice. Indeed, she cites the verse specifically to place it *within* its context both Biblically and historically and archaeologically. Thus, she’s actually doing quite the *opposite* of prooftexting, even while employing a similar mechanism.

No, the star deduction here is simply the dearth of the bibliography, clocking in at just 8% or so of the text I have in my Advance Review Copy – vs the roughly double that that would be an acceptable (ish) minimum per the documentation standards of other nonfiction books I’ve read over the years. (And indeed, many of the remaining nonfiction ARCs I have clock in at or north of 30% documentation, a few even hitting the 40% and above mark!)

Overall though, this really is a particularly strong book that may potentially be controversial for the hyper religious (both Christians and those who oppose anything remotely related to Christianity), but is well within the Overton Window for most readers. The writing style is very approachable, far from the dense and dusty academy-speak one might fear they would be getting into here, and thus truly very much approachable for most any reader capable of reading chapter books at all.

Very much recommended.

This review of Stones Still Speak by Amanda Hope Haley was originally written on August 22, 2025.

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#BlogTour: All The Ways You Save Me by Melissa Wiesner

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a strong, emotional romance that packs quite a punch. For this blog tour, we’re looking at All The Ways You Save Me by Melissa Wiesner.

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

Strong Tale Packs A Punch – And Leaves Enough Left For An Exciting Followup. This is one of those books that packs *such* an emotional weight that I think the best comparison I can make goes back nearly a decade now – to Laurie Breton’s Coming Home, which I read circa 2017 or so and was the first book I ever used the term “tour de force” to describe.

This one doesn’t hit *quite* as hard as that one, but it’ll still land a few haymakers. Maybe Mike Tyson vs George Foreman when both were in their primes. In other words, “mere mortal”, prepare for an emotional beatdown with this book… in the best possible ways.

Seriously, this has “summer romance that can go so much further” written *all* over it, and thus its release window – just before Labor Day in the US, after at least some kids (including my nieces and nephew) have started back to school already but right there as college Fall Semester is starting up and summer is coming to a close – is damn near perfect for exactly this story. Even now literally 20 yrs post college and having been married for the vast majority of that time (18 yrs this Fall vs graduating 20 yrs ago this past May), I don’t know, for some reason this season of the year just evokes those kinds of emotions for me, and always has.

There isn’t really any comedy here, so the levity is more in the fact that we’re not in the middle of an emotional scene and are thus riding the swell to the next one (ha! a surfing metaphor, in a book that *does* include some surfing!). And yet the book works perfectly well *because* of this, rather than in spite of the lack of comedy. Not all tales need to be romcoms, and this one in particular is well served by keeping the comedy out. It allows the emotions to have the heft and also the breathing room they need to really work well.

Some may argue that in at least one somewhere between jalapeno and habanero scene that “they’re only 17!!!!”. A valid point, in that exact scene. But it also reflects *reality* going back essentially as long as humanity itself, and that scene helps give the overall tale the weight it needs for what happens later in the timeline. (I don’t remember where this exact scene is in the actual storytelling.) If you’re going to 1 or 2 star this book over that scene, it really says more about you than Wiesner, her storytelling abilities, or this tale in particular, and now that I’ve told you the scene is there, it really is on you, the reader of my review, to just avoid this book if that truly is a dealbreaker for you. I’ll tell you right now you’re depriving yourself of one of the more emotional romance tales I’ve read in my life – maybe even beating out Nicholas Sparks on the emotional side – but that is completely on you, and you do what you need to do. Just don’t be unfair to this book when I specifically made you aware of the existence of this issue here. 😀

Overall, again, truly one of the more emotional and thus stronger overall romances I’ve read in quite some time, and even though it leaves a few threads unanswered, it does so in ways that make it clear that they will be explored in Book 2… which I am very excited to get in my hands ASAP. Per Wiesner herself on social media gearing up for the release of this book, that one is titled All The Ways You Break Me and releases in February 2026 – roughly six months from now. I tell you now that unless Bookouture (the publisher) or Wiesner prevent me from doing so, I will be reviewing that book and on its blog tour as well. I *wish* it were already in my hands. And you’re very likely going to say that last sentence yourself if you read this book near release date, as hopefully you see this review in time to do. 🙂

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: All The Ways You Save Me by Melissa Wiesner”

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#BookReview: Island Endgame by Rebecca Hodge

Action Packed Island Adventure With Heart. This is one of those books that is going to be great for damn near any reader. If you’re more a women’s fiction type… well, there’s a lot of aspects of that happening here between one of our main characters coming to the island specifically over some trauma she is trying to heal from and one of our other main characters and the reasons she lives on the island permanently. Both of which play central roles in this tale.

Then for the action/ adventure/ mystery crowd, suddenly the tale spins and becomes much more action/ suspense/ mystery based, with unexpected newcomers threatening to kill everyone currently on the island. Through this section – much of the rest of the book, with the relationship drama folded into this new survival/ action pacing – we get a near Atomfall / early Tomb Raider/ Lara Croft type tale wherein the islanders have to evade their captors and sneak their way around as they work to find some way back to safety.

Both sides of the storytelling work well with each other, with richly detailed main characters providing a lot of the heart even as their various and conflicting motivations also lead to some of the difficulties being faced here.

The Pacific Northwest island setting also plays a strong role here and Hodge describes it so wonderfully that you’ll likely want to consider vacationing out there yourself… without the drama and survival tale taking place within the setting of this particular tale. 😀

Truly an excellently written tale that works superbly on many different levels.

Very much recommended.

This review of Island Endgame by Rebecca Hodge was originally written on August 18, 2025.

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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.