Tag: amreading

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#BookReview: The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees

Solid Nonpartisan Examination Of The Psychology Of Nazism – And All The More Terrifying For It. This is one of those *detailed* looks at the full history of Nazism, all the way back into its origins in the 19th century, that uses different psychological concepts as the focus of each chapter and shows how both the leaders of the Party and even the German laypeople fell under its spell.

Even with most chapters being a detailed history of the Nazi period of Germany and with only the final “Twelve Warnings” chapter having really anything to do directly with life a century later, the parallels to political life now – on *all* sides – become quite clear, even without Rees having to explicitly detail them. Whether it be the anti-immigrant MAGA or the anti-white “Woke” Left, the parallels to the various psychological foibles of Nazism are quite clear in Rees’ history here – which makes it all the more utterly terrifying.

Because no matter what modern society wants to think, and as a great grandson of an American soldier who was a German POW during WWI and a grandson of two survivors of the Battle of the Bulge on the American side (one of whom earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for this actions in that particular battle) of WWII, I think I have some space to talk here: Nazis did utterly horrific things, this is clear. Things that would drive those who even witnessed them – even as liberators – to lifelong alcoholism after the war, and that was among the *better* effects. But Nazis were *not* some mythical monster. They were utterly, completely, 100% human – and we and our society – *any* of us – could fall into their depravities much easier than we like to think in the 2020s. Rees’ history here makes this all too clear, and should serve as a clarion call to *ALL* of us, no matter our political beliefs or reasonings.

Read this book. Apply it to your political enemies – that’s the easy part. Then critically look at those closest to you politically… and apply it to them as well. That’s hard. Then critically look into your own mind, seriously examine your own thought processes and how you believe what you believe, and apply this book to that as well. That’s the hardest part of all. Yet it may indeed be our only way of truly preventing the horrors of the past from becoming a prophecy of a future that could come again.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees was originally written on April 25, 2025.

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#BookReview: Life Is Fighting by Kevin Robert Kesar aka WWE’s Karrion Kross

On Par With Foley and Jericho RE: Best Written Wrestling Memoirs. Admittedly, my favorite memory involving Kross as a wrestling fan, one I actually repeat occassionally, was actually something his opponent said to him a few years ago. He was in a feud in NXT as the NXT Champion with the former NXT Champiom, Adam Cole (now working for rival promotion AEW) when Cole said to Kross “This brand has done everything in their power to make *you* feel special. You got the cool music, you got the lights, you got the fog machine, you got the girl. You know what they do to make Adam Cole feel special? They ring the freakin’ bell.” This was during the COVID, “Thunderdome” era of WWE/ NXT, when Kross had a shaved head and was tearing through any and all competitors – a period he does in fact discuss over the course of this book.

I actually read the book on Wrestlemania 41 weekend in April 2025, specifically on Wrestlemania Sunday – when Kross wasn’t on the card, but would ultimately have a “run-in” during the AJ Styles/ Logan Paul match… and then go on to cut what is likely the defining promo of his main roster career after the event, in a 3 minute video that has already gone viral this week with many calling for now WWE Hall of Famer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Head of Creative for WWE, to give Kross a push the likes of which he hasn’t really seen since that run he was on when Cole made the comment above.

I mean, I already had the memoir of a current WWE Superstar in my hand on Wrestlemania Weekend, I needed something to do before the show started up Sunday night, this book is sub-300 pages and thus a relatively quick read… so… yeah.

And y’all, it really was an excellent look into the life of Kevin Kesar, both long before the Kross character ever came into being – and even a fair amount of how Kesar created Kross – and at least some about his new career as Killer/ Karrion Kross. Indeed, most of the text is actually spent on his pre-WWE days – while there is *some* discussion of his WWE colleagues, the singular most common one discussed is his now-wife, known by her government name of Elizabeth but known to wrestling fans as the character Scarlett, a witch who both empowers and is powered by Kross’ brutal warrior.

Those looking for a lot of behind the scenes name dropping are going to be sorely disappointed. Kesar keeps the book focused on himself, even when discussing Elizabeth/ Scarlett. Even when others are in the scene, such as when he is meeting Elizabeth those first few times before they really started dating, or when he finally gets the call from WWE, or even when he and Elizabeth get married on an Alaskan glacier after having both been recently “let go” from WWE (and before they were both ultimately brought back), throughout the tale we see much more of Kesar than anyone else… as s memoir should be, to an extent, but also not as perhaps some fans reading wrestling memoirs specificlaly would necessarily like as much.

Instead we get all of Kesar – at least as much as he is willing to discuss publicly, even/ especially in book form. We see his early days as a kid watching wrestling and knowing even then that he wanted to do that “someday”. We see his beginnings in what turned out to be a very “unsanctioned” dive bar bare knuckle fight. We see his first career as a bouncer and later professional bodyguard, in Vegas and beyond – again, without any name dropping and with quite a bit of channeling Patrick Swayze in Road House, specifically as it relates to professionalism, treating people well, and “being nice”.

And then… a scene that ultimately reads much as the church scene from the original Kingsmen movie played out. I don’t want to go into too many details and spoil the scene, but this scene will very likely be one of the most memorable scenes in the entire book for readers, perhaps even above and beyond even his wedding (which, as he mentioned in the text, he did put pictures of on Instagram, and they truly were absolutely stunning) or anything he has done to date (as of the writing of the book) in WWE. This scene is *BEYOND* bonkers, and it really shows Kesar in all of his abilities outside of WWE.

Overall a very easily read and very approachable book about a guy that even guys that consider themselves dangerous likely would at minimum pay extra attention to if they saw him on the street, and yet the text shows that Kesar’s mind is at least as skillful as anything he can make his large, muscular body do. A guy who is much more easily approached here, at the standoff distance of a book, than he ever is staring into a camera with that fire in his eyes. Kesar takes pains to make sure the reader understands that he knows 100% that Kross is a character, and that outside of WWE work, Kross prefers to be known as “Kevin” – even among friends he works with. Yet he also does a damn good job of showing that while Kross may be borderline (or even well beyond borderline) psychotic, Kevin is a very sane – yet also still quite dangerous, when he needs to be – man. One who is, despite his appearances (both intentional and not, at times), as much a philosopher as a fighter – and thus proves to be as adept at writing as he is at fighting… and breaking bats. (Check his Instagram for that last. 😉 )

Very much recommended.

This review of Life Is Fighting by Kevin Robert Kesar was originally written on April 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Whack Job by Rachel McCarthy James

Short, Accessible Primer On The Field. While a lot of the 2* reviews criticize this book claiming that the author “never defined ‘axe murder'” and that the overall narrative “lacks cohesion” and/ or “doesn’t show enough murder”, I feel like these reviewers are being perhaps too pendantic and/ or legalistic. Instead, the author makes clear – repeatedly – that this book is about the evolution of both the axe and its use as a mechanism of killing humans – regardless of whatever government decrees at the time may or may not excuse certain individuals (particularly those working for said governments) for killing their fellow humans. For those of us who feel that *any* killing of *any* human for *any* reason is murder… this book is absolutely a primer on the history of axe murder, in all of its varying forms over the expanse of human existence.

The book begins with the earliest axes and the among the earliest proto-humans, showing that injuries above the “hat line” of the head are generally considered “intentional acts” (ie, murder) rather than accidental, as that particular region of the head is apparently difficult to injure accidentally, at least according to the text here. There is apparently at least one example of just such an injury in an early protohuman that seems to have been caused by one of the earliest, flint-knapped, hand-held axes, before handles were later added to axes, and this history is the core of the beginning of the book.

The book then goes through the evolution of the axe and its uses as tool for clearing land – and in warfare and government-sanctioned executions, particularly during the reign of Henry VIII of England – all the way up to the 2020s in showing how homeless people will often carry an axe (or its smaller form, a hatchet) as a basic tool of survival in the streets, both for clearing debris and, when needed, for personal defense. And yes, Lizzie Borden is discussed along the way.

Indeed, the one area the book is lacking, the reason for the star deduction – and the reason one *should* be at least somewhat skeptical of the author’s perhaps more fantastical claims, including those about modern era homeless people, is that at just 13% documentation, this book falls short of even my more relaxed standards of 15% documentation, much less my older, more stringent need to see at least 20% documentation. Carl Sagan had it right in proclaiming his standard of “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”, and sadly, this book is simply lacking – if by not much – in this regard. A more complete bibliography could have landed this in the 5* territory, it simply wasn’ present in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read.

Overall this really is a short, well written, approachable and understandable primer on the general topic of humans killing other humans (ie, humans committing murder) with a particular tool (the axe, in all of its various forms) over the course of human evolution. Yes, it is missing many key details and events, but in its brevity it is clear that it is meant to be more a primer of the topic than any extensive discussion thereof, and as a primer it works remarkably well to encourage people to do their own research into the topic, should they be so inclined.

Very much recommended.

This review of Whack Job by Rachel McCarthy James was originally written on April 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Murder Machine by Heather Graham

SHE DID THE JOKE!!!! One of my favorite jokes EVER, one that I literally laugh out loud every time I see it, goes like this: “My wife asked me why I carry a gun in the house. I said ‘Decepticons’. She laughed. I laughed. The toaster laughed. I shot the toaster. It was a good day.”

Ladies and gentlemen, a minor spoiler: Deep in the heart of this book about AI tools controlling our machines and how these tools could be used for murder, there is a line:

“If I’m going to need to shoot anything, he thought dryly, it would need to be the appliances.”

YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHE DID THE JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That alone MADE this book for me. That one line guaranteed a 5* review. Because it referenced my favorite joke ever. 🙂

Now, the rest of the story, taking place largely in the area I currently live (Jacksonville/ St Augustine, FL) with a few trips to some areas I’ve visited over the years (Tennessee), was a fun one just because of the personal connections… and the well told story. This is one that could have gone a T2: The Future War (an excellent book from earlier this Millenium, the conclusion of a trilogy that picks up immediately after T2: Judgement Day and tells a better conclusion to the Terminator story than anything put on screen since T2) route, given its basic premise… and yet chooses to make everything more more human focused.

Which makes it absolutely more terrifying.

Overall a well told story that could seemingly work as a series starter – and it would be very interesting to see where such a series goes.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Murder Machine by Heather Graham was originally written on April 22, 2025.

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#BookReview: My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner

Tries Too Hard To Be ‘Edgy’. Having read both Mistakes Were Made and Cleat Cute, it seems that the issues that really seem to have begun in Cleat Cute, where I wrote in my review that “this is one of those stories where there are a LOT of valid issues that people may have with the book, but ultimately pretty well all of them are matters of taste and not something truly concretely objectively *wrong*” have gone even further here, and now there are things that while still arguably not *objectively* wrong, there is a fair amount here that gets much closer to that line, at least in some readers’ eyes.

Specifically, while none of the following really get up there to a star deduction on their own, there is enough that I’m about to detail that I felt the star deduction was warranted due to the accumulation. First, there is the more than once yet also not *pervasive* bigotries against anything non-queer, including one character getting quite preachy when a server refers to both characters as “Ladies”, even though one of the characters is a female but claims “non-binary”. Then there is the oral period sex. Yes, you read that right, and yes, I know it is a (minor) spoiler. But it is one that I feel people will want to be aware of when deciding to read or skip this book, so I feel justified mentioning it here. It is also one that many that decry explicit lack of use of condoms during sex *should* decry as even more unsafe than condomless penetrative sex can ever be, yet I’ve seen no such condemnations as I write this review less than two weeks before publication. To be fair, I also don’t track reviewers who explicitly comment about such things in other books, so it is quite possible that *someone* has in fact called this out and I am simply unaware of it. Then there is the degrading talk during sex, but to be fair to Wilsner this *was* specifically done with a discussion of safe words just before this and explicit instruction to use them if the partner was uncomfortable with such speech. Finally, there are the barely-there and almost caricature level supporting characters – indeed, it almost seems as though the aforementioned server was included specifically so the preaching could be “excused”. Even relatives of the characters felt like stereotypes at best, rather than fully (or even really partially) fleshed out and understood characters. As I noted previously in this review, none of this (possibly with the exception of the oral period sex) is objectively *wrong*, but it also all adds up to Wilsner just seeming to try to hard, particularly as the sex scenes take up seemingly 20% of the book – and the entire middle section of it. Thus, the star deduction. If you don’t like that I deducted a star for this, maybe read the book and write your own review. Feel free to crucify me when you do, should you feel the need.

Beyond these issues though, Wilsner actually manages to create a plausible enough, if in a “queer Hallmarkie” kind of vibe, story that works well enough. Yes, things happen *fast* in actual shown-time, but at the same time, again in a “queer Hallmarkie” kind of mindset… meh, I for one didn’t really have a problem there. Particularly given that these two had known each other for decades before the events of this book, again, meh, plausible enough that one day long-guarded truths are exposed and different paths emerge.

And then there is the titular honeymoon. The Caribbean setting was done well enough, though as it largely takes place inside that middle damn-near-erotica section of the book… maybe it could have been done even better, but that is likely a quibble that some will agree with and others will think it was done quite well indeed. For me, it was absolutely enough to show the beauty of the setting, almost in a Couples Retreat (the 2009 Vince Vaughn movie) way. They’re there, they spend quite a bit of time in their mostly private hut over the water (as honeymooning couples would do, obviously, even though this couple isn’t actually on their honeymoon and hasn’t even admitted their feelings to each other at the time they arrive), but they also get out and explore a decent amount as well (which is where the server scene above happens, among other locations around the resort they explore). Like I said, it works well enough, could arguably have been done a touch better, but nothing really to *actually* complain about there.

Overall this was a book that many won’t want to read for many perfectly valid reasons, but also many *will* want to read for equally perfectly valid reasons, and as with Cleat Cute in particular, it absolutely is one Your Mileage May Vary on. If what I’ve described above is close enough to something that interests you and you don’t really have any major issues with those things, this is likely a book you should at least try to read and see if you enjoy. If you’re more adamantly opposed to any of the things I describe above, you’re likely better off skipping this one and sparing yourself the wasted time and the author the potentially far more harsh review than what I hope I’ve done a relatively balanced job with here. If you do choose to read it though, please leave a review on Hardcover dot app, BookHype dot com, PageBound dot co, or whatever your preferred book review platform may be.

Recommended.

This review of My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner was originally written on April 16, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve

More Women’s Fiction Than Science Fiction. Seven years ago, in 2018’s The Space Between, Meserve managed to take a quasi-science/ science fiction concept of a NASA scientist discovering an asteroid behind the sun and spin an electric missing person tale around it – and did so quite well.

Here, she again delves into the “science fiction” element… without ever writing a convincing science fiction book. Yes, it has elements of scifi – the main thrust of the plot is that it is now possible to “time travel” into your own memories and there is now tech to do exactly this. But that is where the science fiction begins and ends here, and other than a (brief) realistic look at the price of such groundbreaking tech and how it would spread to even remotely common use, there really isn’t an actual “scifi” bent to this particular tale.

Now, if one approaches this from more of a “women’s fiction” tale with a few nods to scifi… it actually works a LOT better and is actually quite a strong story… that just needed those nods to scifi to make it work. As a women’s fiction tale of a mother devastated over her son’s death and another mother devastated over something she did that can never be forgiven, both seeking to understand what happened and both desperate to have even a few more minutes of their lives before said events… this is a truly compelling tale.

Meserve manages to weave all four central characters’ stories together seamlessly, though the fact that all use the same tenses and even the same verbal stylings *can* make it a bit hard to distinguish which character you’re reading, particularly in the beginning bits of a hand-off. And still, you can almost see TV/ film producer Meserve – her “day job” when she’s not writing – thinking of camera angles to show viewers certain elements of certain scenes that the characters themselves won’t necessarily realize at the time. Which is actually a cool effect that she brings to the page quite effectively.

Overall I think opinions will likely be divided on this tale based on which side of it you give more weight, which is why I’m trying to caution you in this review. If you come into this book expecting a science fiction book… if you’re familiar with/ enjoy science fiction before this book, you’re going to be disappointed at the science fiction within it. If you’re coming from a more women’s fiction world and perhaps this is (somehow) your first brush with scifi… the scifi may well work for you here. On the other hand, if you’re coming into this book expecting more of a women’s fiction tale with scifi elements to make it work… congratulations, that is *exactly* what you’ve found.

If you’re more of that first more scifi-oriented crowd that is perhaps looking to branch out but need something somewhat close to your scifi preference in order to take a baby step outside of that space to just test the waters… this really is a strong women’s fiction tale that will allow you to do just that, and you’ll likely find something you genuinely enjoy here. So take the chance.

Either way, maybe you think *I’m* the idiot here and that I have no clue what I’m talking about regarding this book. PLEASE, read the book, write your own review – and feel free to call me out as the idiot you think I am, should you feel the need. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: In The Beautiful Dark by Melissa Payne

Beautiful Execution Of LGBT / Elderly Story Wrapped In Murder Mystery. This was an excellent and beautiful story of several different types of people who don’t often play lead roles in stories coming together to create a particularly powerful one.

You’ve got women loving women – in 1972. You’ve got a whole group of elderly people living in a retirement community in 2024… along with a much younger recluse living in an RV she parks near the community. And yes, you’ve even got both cameo and more expansive scenes with different dogs and even a cat.

Payne handles all aspects of this tale with remarkable care and a particular penchant for showing that no matter our backgrounds or where we find ourselves, we all strive for community and family… and often times, we can be our own worst enemies in having them if we aren’t careful.

The fact that she was able to bring so much near psychological horror level tension into the tale, and even a brief sprint of (somewhat comedic, though this may have been unintentional) action late in the tale truly shows just how well Payne knows her craft, as everything was done pretty damn close to perfectly.

Yes, this is a slow tale – it moves along at about the pace of the elderly people using walkers that so many of the characters are. But it is also a particularly beautiful one in both the characters it chooses to use and the story being told here.

For those looking for more elderly people in books or more naturally LGBT – without feeling forced or preachy at all – this is absolutely a book you should check out, and I genuinely believe you’ll enjoy. If you’re a reader that, for whatever reason, *doesn’t* want to read about either of those types of characters… eh, this really isn’t your book. Just move on in peace rather than one starring it because it has such characters.

Ultimately this really was yet another strong tale from Payne, who has done a phenomenal job throughout her career of creating just such tales.

Very much recommended.

This review of In The Beautiful Dark by Melissa Payne was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Secrets Of The Killing State by Corinna Barrett Lain

Utterly Horrific. The crimes of Josef Mengele (Auschwitz) and Shiro Ishii (Unit 731) during WWII will (hopefully) live on in infamy throughout human history as among the worst things governments have ever done. Sadly, even since then, humanity has shown its horrific side more times than any of us care to really think about, be it genocides in Myanmar and Rwanda, the continual sex trafficking that despite efforts has never been eradicated, the child sex scandals that have rocked so many once-trusted professions, and many, many other ways.

While none of the above should be downplayed in any way whatsoever, they *do* set the stage for the horrors of this particular tale in that we know that most of those involved in the above were the bad guys. They were monsters clothed in scrubs or robes or wearing ties. Here, the monster is… well, the government itself and the sheer ineptitude of its bureaucracies and even legislative and executive leadership – not to mention the judicial leaders that are *supposed* to alleviate some of the worst excesses of the legislative and executive branches, but as Barrett Lain shows here, rarely do when it comes to the mechanisms of putting condemned criminals to death via lethal injection in the United States.

What Barrett Lain lays bare here in this very well documented (29% of the overall text) expose are the true horrors of lethal injection – the very execution method *specifically created* to give the *illusion* (as Barrett Lain makes clear) of a “humane” murder. Except that, as noted often within this text, the particular mechanisms of how this is done in humans are actually so barbaric and horrific that they are actively outlawed for use in animals!

No matter your position on capital punishment, no matter how much you may think a particular convicted criminal (or even, as is so often the case in social media, people merely accused of various crimes and yet so many still clamor for their execution before even a criminal conviction, without any form of legal due process as guaranteed for all persons – not just citizens – in the US Constitution) “deserves” to die… you NEED to read this book.

Read this book, and consider your own conscience. Can you honestly say after reading this book that this particular method is truly reasonable in its actual application today? Can you honestly say after reading this book that you are 100% comfortable with your own loved one going through this exact process? Because as others have noted in so many other works about the other problems with the American retribution system, there are next to no actual guarantees that you or your own loved ones won’t face this fate at some point, no matter how good and righteous you may feel you are – there are simply far too many laws – even laws with felony penalties! – within the US now, to the point that *no one* can truly know when they are not running afoul of at least one of them in any given moment or action. Read this book, examine your own conscience, and truly ask yourself if you could do this job or ask your best friend to do it. Read this book, examine your own conscience, and ask yourself if you could bear to allow your children to witness this process.

Read this book, examine your own conscience, and write your own review.

As SCOTUS has decreed, as documented by Barrett Lain here, that the condemned must offer an alternative to lethal injection for their challenges to have even a possibility of even being heard, let me state clearly here now that I would vastly prefer a firing squad to the inhumane and downright barbaric practice of lethal injection. As for me, while I’ve been an advocate of permanently ending the death penalty in favor of life without parole for many years now, even I hadn’t been fully aware of just how utterly horrific this particular execution method – posed to the US public as the more “humane” option – truly is, and I for one now count as one calling for the end of this particular method even if capital punishment must be allowed to continue.

Read this book, examine your own conscience, and let the world know in your own review whether you agree with me or not.

Very much recommended.

This review of Secrets Of The Killing State by Corinna Barrett Lain was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Girls In The Basement by Steena Holmes

Dark Tale Well Told From An Interesting Perspective. First, I gotta give props to Holmes for the way she handled the trigger warning in this book. I personally prefer them to be on the author’s website so those (like me) who prefer not to have any spoilers at all going into the book can have that experience, yet those who need/ want trigger warnings can still find that information as well. (Also, to be clear, Kindles automatically begin just after the table of contents in a book, so if a trigger warning is included at that spot, it *cannot* be easily skipped.) This noted, if you as an author are going to put one at the front of the book… maybe use a version of the one Holmes used here. 😉

As to the actual story here, it is one of those slower psychological thrillers where you *know* some *dark* stuff is going on largely behind the scenes… and even get the occassional glimpse of it from other characters… yet getting our main character to the point of seeing that which she has spent a lifetime not seeing…. takes some time.

One good thing that Holmes chooses here that keeps the book from going even more into the darkness is that while *some* aspects of the behind-the-pages darkness make it onto the page – enough to get a glimpse of all that is happening – that particular element isn’t shown as much as perhaps some readers may want. Instead, Holmes focuses much more on the views of the wife who thinks her family is finally safe and can live a normal life… except that she keeps catching her husband having hushed conversations about… something. This, to me, is the far stronger storyline as it is one of the *less explored* stories in the genre generally.

There are a lot of characters here, absolutely, and while it can get a touch tough to track them all in the beginning, as the story plays out it does become much more clear who is doing what and when, particularly in the rather explosive climax.

For those who prefer their stories ended in nice little bows that wrap up every single thread… yeah, this aint that. And is actually a stronger tale because of it… and, perhaps, one that means that Holmes intends to come back to this world. Time will tell. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of The Girls In The Basement by Steena Holmes was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Desperate Deadly Widows by Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie

Less Romp. More GirlBoss. Set in the aftermath of Young Rich Widows (though with curious timing, as that book was supposed to take place in 1986, this one is supposed to take place in 1987, and yet at least one character has had events happen that would mean this book would need to be in 1988 at minimum), this is less of the borderline comedic romp Young Rich was and far more GirlBoss now as the titular Widows all find themselves in various positions of power and influence themselves. Oh, and there is a complex murder mystery here with even more twists and turns – of more serious, if less life threatening, natures – than the first book.

And this is actually a good thing, as it shows a great deal of growth of our four lead characters even from the first time they show up in this book all the way through the end. The friendships they managed to create through the first book are going to be put to the test in several different ways here, and while there is a decent amount of comedy still left to be had… it is almost more of a Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants / Crossroads (the 2002 movie with Britney Spears) type tale here (and indeed, Spears’ last line in Crossroads could well be the ending line here).

Ultimately this really was quite good and a remarkable follow up to Young Rich Widows… specifically *because* it didn’t follow the exact same type of tale and instead went the direction of showing growth in all aspects, even as it remained true to the core of the tale and stylings of the book that came before. This noted, much like say a Big Fat Greek Wedding or a Mamma Mia, while a second tale works much better than one might expect given where the first tale ended… maybe the series ends here. Or maybe Belle, Fargo, Holahan, and Lillie find a way to continue it one more time that makes sense without being a blatant cash grab. But for me at least, this really does work as a finale to these characters and this world, so we’ll see what happens going forward.

Very much recommended.

This review of Desperate Deadly Widows by Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie, and Layne Fargo was originally written on April 8, 2025.