Tag: womensfiction

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#BookReview: Handle With Care by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Don’t You Forget About Me. Yes, the title is a Breakfast Club reference… because at its heart, this is essentially a Breakfast Club tale for adults – of a type, at least. A group of strangers forced together all day, all with secrets of how they found themselves there at that moment. An emotional tale of what happens over those several hours.

And, in a bit of irony, other than the “it has cussing!!!!” one star review, literally every complaint in every existing one star review on Goodreads as I write this review nearly 10 days after publication of this book (despite having had it as an Advance Review Copy for several months!) is actually addressed either by realizing that this is a Breakfast Club type tale or even directly within the tale itself as things are wrapping up.

This one hit hard in a few different ways for me. One character has a situation where they made a similar choice to one I made over 20 yrs ago that continues to haunt me at times. Another faced an impossible situation that I’ve faced with far lower stakes more than once. Another sheds some light on some of the things that almost had to have been happening in those involved in the real life situation I mentioned moments ago that continues to haunt me.

But even without those direct personal connections – connections that are almost so common as to be universal, which was one of the things that, again, made Breakfast Club itself so beloved – this really is one that if you have a heart at all, it is going to feel the pull in these words. At some point, which may be different for each reader, the room is *going* to become very dusty indeed. Whalen just has a way of doing that, and this book is no different there.

Indeed, the *one* thing I can find to fault at all is a particular bit in the author’s note at the end that will leave a sour tinge of an aftertaste to many readers – but that is literally the author’s note after the story itself is completed. The story itself is truly an emotional successor to Breakfast Club for those with a bit more “life experience” since that era, and absolutely *nails* this particular vibe.

Very much recommended.

This review of Handle With Care by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen was originally written on April 23, 2026.

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#BookReview: Silverleaf by Kellie Coates Gilbert

Solid Southern Royalty Family Drama. We don’t have actual royalty in the United States, but in different areas of the country we do have very rich families – sometimes rich going back many generations, sometimes (particularly over the last century) much newer (ala The Great Gatsby). This is a modern tale of one such family, and Gilbert really does a great job of bringing us – even those of us who themselves rose from “trailer park trash” to having “respectable” jobs and titles like I have – into this world in a stunningly vivid manner that will truly transport you to the hills of western Appalachian horse country from no matter where you may actually live in the world.

Having grown up just miles away from a prominent horse racing facility and event – the Atlanta Steeplechase at Kingston Downs in Kingston, GA – and rubbing elbows with some of the elite of my home County on the borderlands of southern Appalachia and Atlanta due to… well, I never actually knew why and the one thing I was aware of seems a bit too self aggrandizing to proclaim in this review… I actually have enough experience at the fringes of the type of family Gilbert creates in this book to truly say that at least from my perspective, this entire tale was simply all too real.

Yes, including the… let’s say “family dynamics”… at play here. Some of which are a lot more universal than just the Southern Elite “royalty” type families, and at least some of which I’ve seen play out across family, friends, and associates no matter their “status” in “society”. Here, Gilbert really manages to bring these elements out as just as real and powerful as the setting she puts the family in, and the two sides of the tale combine rather spectacularly.

One thing that I appreciated that others may not find as appealing is how Gilbert managed to craft a mildly Christian tale here but keep it more muted and more “this exists in this world” level rather than any remotely preachy aspect to it – even the actual prayers in the text are simple meal-based “grace” prayers that are legitimately common throughout the region and not really sectarian at all. More formalized than the joke “Good food, Good meat, Good God let’s eat!” prayer you’ll hear at some Southern meals, but really at about the same theological depth, at least in the content of the prayers shown in this text. To flip it around a touch, it is really more akin to having an LGBT couple in the tale that everyone simply accepts as they are without making any real fuss about it and without it truly playing a role in the tale. Again, truly just a “this exists and now we’re moving on” level. Which will still be too much for some readers, for the same reasons the LGBT couple’s presence would be too much for other readers, and hey, you do you. You’ll find no judgement from me on that point, but I do appreciate when authors are able to integrate these types of things into their stories – either direction – in this exact manner, and Gilbert truly does an excellent job of this from the Christian side here.

This is Book 1 to a new series, and it does in fact show – we get a fully fleshed out world, one complete tale here (with enough room to follow it going forward without it continuing to be the main focus), and a lot of side stories such that clearly some of them will get their own stories, while seemingly others may be a bit of a running plotline of sorts perhaps through the entire series. It will be interesting to see how Gilbert plays these lines in particular, and one great thing to note is that even as I write this review the day before this book actually releases to the public, Book 2 is actually coming in just a couple of weeks! I for one am very excited about that for several reasons, chief among them being I won’t have read over 100 books between books in a series for a change! 😀 But seriously, this is absolutely a tremendous setup for a series that we’re going to want to come back into this world at least a few times, and I’m truly glad the first of those is very soon.

Very much recommended.

This review of Silverleaf by Kellie Coates Gilbert was originally written on April 15, 2026.

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#BookReview: A Spell For Saints And Sinners by Emily Carpenter

Not Southern Gothic. At All. More A Modern Day Gatsby. With Witches And Magical Realism. I’ve read at least one or two of Carpenter’s books before this one (and have a few more), and I know Carpenter knows Southern Gothic – Gothictown, her 2025 release, was spot on for that genre. But this aint that at ALL.

Yet what we *do* get is an “on trend” (re: magical realism) update to The Great Gatsby, that great work of Americana from a century ago, brought into more modern times (complete with sexting and #MeToo elements!) and with a Southern flair, moving it from New York to Savannah yet keeping a lot of the same overall look and feel… yet adding the fact that our main character is a witch and psychic. Had the description been based more on this, I do think at least some of the existing 1* reviews likely wouldn’t be there, as this is far more accurate than the current “official” one.

So yes, for those who want nothing at all to do with any form of witchcraft at all… I’m telling you now, this aint gonna be the book for you.

But for Mass Effect fans… our main character shares at least one verbal tic with one of the more popular characters in that franchise (certainly one of my own favorite non-Shepard characters), so you may want to read this book for that alone. Particularly if you love that particular verbal tic. But if you’re one that plays the drinking game of it… don’t do that with this book. You may get even more drunk than you do from playing ME3. 😉 Or maybe you’re a college student and/ or in your 20s (or later, really, but let’s face it, most of us grow too old for this shit by our 30s or so) and *want* a literary drinking game. In that case, I have a book for you! 😉 No judgement, have your fun. Just try not to land in jail, please. 😉

Gatsby is one of the Great Works Of American Literature for *reasons*, and while this book does a good or even great job of updating it and moving it several hundred miles South, it doesn’t *quite* hit *those* levels. Still, it is absolutely a solid look at how at least some of the themes explored in that book have both changed and remained the same over the last century or so, and for that alone it would do well to be studied in collegiate literature classes at minimum, perhaps even Junior/ Senior level high school classes… assuming, of course, modern high school students remain capable of such analysis and critique that was required of high school students when I was still in school 30 yrs ago.

One last personal note: I had this book for months as an Advance Review Copy before finally getting to it about a week after its release due to some personal “real life” issues that arose in mid March 2026 and are ongoing through April 2026 (and really all summer before they are fully resolved), and for whatever reason I had it listed as 288 pages long when I first entered it into my tracker when I originally downloaded it just before Halloween 2025. Finding out I was both missing the deadline *and* that the book was nearly twice as long as expected was… interesting. But that was also no fault of Carpenter or anyone involved in the publishing of this book and was entirely on me. Still, as it did come to bear on my overall experience with the book, it needed to be noted in my review. 🙂

Overall, this really was a strong book for what it actually is, and I think readers who go in with a more honest expectation of what it actually is will enjoy it quite a bit. But yes, readers who approach this book expecting Southern Gothic and finding absolutely none of that will feel disappointed, and honestly so. So approach this as the modern day update to Gatsby, moved to the South and with witches and magical realism added that it is, and I honestly think you will enjoy this book quite a bit, if that is something you’re into at all.

Very much recommended.

This review of A Spell For Saints And Sinners by Emily Carpenter was originally written on April 8, 2026.

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#BlogTour: The Last Daughter by Soraya Lane

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a truly great finale to an amazing series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Last Daughter by Soraya Lane.

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

What. A. Finale. This is the book that has had 7 books before it to hint at and build up to. The book whose story actually begins the entire event. The book that fans who have been following this series all along have been waiting for… and it absolutely delivers.

Make sure you read the seven books before this one before you read this one. They lay the groundwork and build the anticipation well in telling their own stories while revealing bits and hints of this one, and most all of the ladies from the contemporary side of those stories show up in some fashion here. Even while these stories are all ultimately romances, there are also enough women’s fiction elements to all of these stories (contemporary and historical) that there are indeed some spoilers to some of those stories within this story… which isn’t an issue if you read them first. 😉

Jeremy Robinson likes to tell people that they can read his book Prime, about the origins of one of his teams and written after several of the books featuring that team had been published, first when encountering that particular team (his “Chess Team”) for the first time. I’ve always recommended against that as one of Robinson’s oldest fans who was there when he was first coming up with the idea (and thought it wouldn’t play well… boy was I wrong!). To me, that series absolutely needs to be read in publication order so that you get the full impact of Prime when you get to it in that order.

And here is where the above story ties into Lane’s Lost Daughters: Yes, on the historical side this is *the* story that begins it all. We get a *lot* of answers on that side of it, and from that side of it you may argue that this book serves as a prequel that perhaps *should* be read first. You would be wrong… because the *contemporary* side of this novel absolutely serves as a coda to the entire series here.

Remember, this entire series is built on a fusion of the historical and the contemporary, merging Lane’s “brand names” of Soraya M. Lane (historical fiction) with her Soraya Lane (contemporary romance/ women’s fiction) “brand”. In the historical side of this tale, we get the origin story that allowed the entire rest of the series to take place. In the contemporary side of this tale, we get the ending that ties everything together in a nice little bow.

… or does it?

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Last Daughter by Soraya Lane”

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#BookReview: Once And Again by Rebecca Serle

Not The Easiest Read, For A Lot Of Reasons. Read It Anyway. This is one of those books that a lot of people are going to have a lot of problems with from a variety of angles… and yet is actually *stronger* because of all the so-called “problems” or “difficulties”.

A lot of the “problems” get deep into spoiler territory, so I’m going to cover here what I can without going there:

1) Yes, this is a time travel book where it isn’t always as crystal clear as other tales where exactly you are within the timeline. However, the characters each have a sufficiently distinct “voice” such that after a bit, you can begin to identify which of our three main ladies we are with in any given section and that alone helps make the narrative quite a bit more clear.

2) The family dynamics here are quite atypical… and yet this is actually one of the strongest points of the book. This *family* is atypical, for reasons we’ll get to momentarily, and how they each struggle to handle the thing that makes their family atypical actually works quite well to explore how different generations may interact with each other given this particular thing.

3) The magical realism is very nearly a McGuffin here. If you’re looking for a book with spells or magic on every page… this aint that. At all. But the magical realism is actually used *better* in its scarcity than it would have been had it been so prevalent in this particular tale. To the level that it is nearly a Sword of Damocles hanging over an entirely family… and the story is told with barely any mention of the sword or how it got there at all. It is absolutely used, but it is used *in service to* the story being told, and not *as* the story itself.

4) The romance/ second chance romance journey is perhaps actually the strongest element of this book… *because* of exactly how it is played and plays out. As someone who has experienced a version of this story from the guy’s side, this was one element where I could *absolutely* identify with the husband because in at least a thing or two that happens here, I’ve actually had nearly word for word conversations in real life with my own wife. So seeing how that particular relationship plays out and how Serle weaves this story in and around it is truly one of the stronger parts of the tale, because it is all too real.

5) The secrets. Every family has them, and in this case they are both used and revealed in truly stunning fashion. There were absolutely some dusty rooms at times in this tale, particularly late, and again with the “Magneto moves the satellite dish” moment from XMen: First Class, once the revelations come, it makes the story that much more powerful in so many intricately layered ways.

Overall, this truly is not an easy book. It reads like a beach read, yet it packs such a mental and emotional punch that you’re not really going to want to actually read it at a beach. And it *does* have a lot of things that a lot of readers are going to find quite challenging indeed. But this is absolutely one of the better books I’ve read so far in 2026 *specifically because* of all the things that make it so challenging and “messy”.

Very much recommended.

This review of Once And Again by Rebecca Serle was originally written on March 9, 2026.

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#BookReview: Ruby Falls by Gin Phillips

Locked Room Mystery More On Women’s Fiction End Than Horror End. Growing up at the border of Appalachia and Atlanta, halfway between Chattanooga and Atlanta, I saw the “See Rock City” signs – mostly barns – quite frequently. Have even been out there both on school field trips and with my family, and indeed my youngest brother actually proposed to his now wife on top of Lookout Mountain. In other words, I know the modern version of the mountain – and the caves – fairly well. (Though to be clear, I haven’t seen the 2020s era updates.) Thus, you, oh reader of my review, can easily see why a book about the modern origins of the tourist attraction known as Ruby Falls would entice me to read it.

The tale itself is a locked room mystery yet is more women’s fiction than horror, though those with any hint of actual claustrophobia are going to find certain scenes here (at minimum) quite difficult to read. Probably even *worse* than *that* scene in Lee Child’s Die Trying, the Reacher story that finds even Reacher crawling through a cave at one point. The use of the cave as the “locked room” is done quite excellently, as are the basic cave survival aspects, all in service to the actual story being told.

But we *are* getting a lot more relational drama than the straight up terror from a tale such as Greig Beck’s Beneath The Dark Ice, even as a murder mystery unfolds deep underground. This is the Great Depression and this is still the age of people claiming to be clairvoyant… many of whom turn out to be hucksters… but not all. The era when the caves – and the Falls – were first discovered by modern man nearly a century ago as this book is released in March 2026, and we do in fact get to hear about the moment of their discovery as part of this story.

For those looking for a women’s fiction tale with a bit more kick, or perhaps a locked room murder mystery a touch more on the relational side than the terror side, this book is going to be pretty close to exactly what you’re looking for. Those looking for a more pure survival or horror tale… not so much.

Ultimately though this is truly a great tale of its form that does great service to its real world subject even as it creates a fictional story around the real-world history. For the millions… and millions! (cheap pop!)… who have been to Ruby Falls or who live in the surrounding regions or who enjoy these types of tales, this is absolutely going to be a book you’re going to want to pick up.

Very much recommended.

This review of Ruby Falls by Gin Phillips was originally written on March 6, 2026.

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#BookReview: Where The False Gods Dwell by Denny S. Bryce

Strong (Historical) Women’s Fiction Ends As A Breathtaking Thriller. First, I got this Advance Review Copy in a somewhat unusual manner – via winning Bryce’s contest in the annual Great Big Giveaway Day 2025 hosted by the Facebook group Readers Coffeehouse, which I’ve been a member of for quite some time and actively assist the Founders (Steena Holmes, Laura Drake, Cathy Lamb, Barbara Claypole White, Kimberly Belle, and Catherine Ryan Hyde) with every year via tracking all the books and winners in all the contests along with my partner in that effort, Ann Marie McKeon Gruszkowski. This is something that I have a lot of fun with every year and find a lot of new books at every year, and I encourage all readers and authors to give it a look. On the version of this review on my blog, BookAnon.com, and my SubStack, I’ll link the document of all the participating authors and books from the 2025 contest here. So I’ve actually had this copy since September 2025, and yet because of just how many ARCs I read… I only managed to get to it the day before release. Yikes!

Now, onto the book itself: Y’all, it is *really* good. Through most of the story, it is a women’s fiction set in 1935 in the heart of the Great Depression and only shortly after Prohibition ended in the United States and it features characters that are in situations all too universally felt, allowing far too many people to relate to at least one of its central characters all too well.

Starting in both Chicago and Jamaica, this is indeed a tale with multiple character perspectives, though these are primarily just our three central characters as they begin to be set on paths that will have them meet up and then change each others’ lives forever. For those who are generally hostile towards multi-perspective dramas, this one probably won’t change your mind. Give it a shot, if you’re willing, but while this tale is done well in this style, I’m not sure that it will move the needle for those particular readers. For everyone else though, and specifically for those who *do* enjoy the multi-perspective style of storytelling, this is one tale where it is used truly effectively throughout the entire tale – including showing the same scene through different perspectives at least a couple of different times, one of which in particular was done in a manner reminiscent of the best of the Now You See Me movie sequences.

For those looking for more of a hurricane/ survival story… that comes in more at the tail end here – within the last 20% of the tale, and indeed closing out the tale before the epilogue a year later. So while it isn’t a primary focus of the book, it is foreshadowed well in a couple of places (in hindsight), and when it hits, it *hits* and is done on par with some of the best sequences I’ve ever read, particularly for women’s fiction/ historical tales to the point of the hurricane.

Now, one thing that will absolutely turn off at least some readers – to the point of defenestration likely or perhaps even imminent – is that this particular tale is *very* pro-union (the worker’s collective type, to be clear). So just know that up front, and if that is something that you just can’t handle, even in a fictional tale, eh, maybe skip this one. You’re only doing yourself a disservice there because this really is a great tale well told even with this focus, but at least if you truly have such strong opinions about that particular facet and skip it because I told you about this, maybe I can spare Bryce a scathing 1 star review because of your own hangups. 🙂

Overall truly a powerful tale solidly told, one that may well stick with some readers long after they’ve finished reading the words on these pages.

Very much recommended.

This review of Where The False Gods Dwell by Denny S. Bryce was originally written on February 24, 2026.

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#BookReview: The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross

Strong Tale of Multi-Generational Grief Marred By Preachiness On Certain Topics. First off, let’s clear the air about one thing: Harper Ross isn’t a debut author. This is “Ross” debut *under that pseudonym* and *in this specific genre* of magical realism, but Ross is actually a well established author that I’ve read and reviewed many books from over the years and we actually know each other through that level of communication and speaking about book related topics on social media a few times.

Because I know Ross, I can tell you that while those who believe her to be a debut author could think that perhaps the seriousness of certain sections of this book was new to her, I actually know that these types of discussions were actually where she had been already heading, and indeed she had had similar types of discussions in other books I had read from her.

And honestly, I thoroughly enjoy what she was attempting to pull off here and much of what she did in fact pull off. As a whole tale, this book is an *extremely* powerful look at loss and regret and parents trying to do what is best for their kids and adults seeking to navigate all of their complex relationships as best they can. Seriously, on all of these notes, this is quite likely the most depth and emotion Ross has ever achieved – which is saying quite a bit, because if I remember correctly, some of those prior books involved a few dusty rooms.

One thing that sets this book apart – beyond the obvious – is that in not having some of the guard rails and prerequisites Ross once had, she was more free to plumb real emotional depth and not be hogtied on some levels by previous requirements, and this freedom combined with Ross’ apparently innate storytelling strength really allows her to excel here in areas she wasn’t really allowed to go into before, certainly not to this level or for this long. Yes, there were some *moments* of such depth in prior works, but here the entire tale is more rich and full within these spaces than Ross has ever done before. Which was truly awesome, and knowing some of the prior books, it really does go to show just how great a storyteller she is that she can navigate from one to the other.

Where this book falls is in its heavy handed preachiness on a couple of key topics in particular. As both are spoilers since they are not in the description – and one is absolutely a spoiler since it is *the very secret the description says is in the story*, I’ll not reveal here what they are. Instead I’ll add a postscript after the ultimate recommendation with the spoilers but with several lines of warning before I speak to them for people who do not wish to see them. I will also enclose them in spoiler tags on platforms where this review appears that support such tags. That way you, the reader of my review, can choose to look for them or not. Now, Ross has gone perhaps a touch heavy on similar ish issues before – but it was never to this level. Perhaps a downside of not having those guardrails and prerequisites she was bound by in earlier efforts, or perhaps just a genuine misstep in these even more contentious times. Ross has her views on these subjects and I have mine and let’s just say that we learned long ago neither is going to change the other. Unfortunately for this tale, she just goes *so very hard* within the book for several pages on one of them in particular, and the book ultimately suffers for it. Yes, this is specifically about the secret in the description, which is revealed in the story at around the 90% ish mark.

Ultimately, I’m truly elated to see Ross writing again. I truly love her style and what she is able to do, and I think this particular tale is actually *on its whole* a great new evolution of her capabilities. I genuinely hope St. Martin’s agrees and keeps her on for quite a while, but if something every happens and she finds she must, I hope Ross is never afraid to perhaps go the Independent route to get her stories out. The world would be lesser without them. Truly. But Ross, you know I’m not going to bullshit you: Find a way to get your message across without being so heavy handed about it. Please. You can integrate those exact same topics into the story and have them not be so preachy, and you’re good enough to figure out how to do that.

Very much recommended.

And now for the spoilers.

I’m adding several lines here so that people can stop reading and not see what I’m about to write.

Or at least that is my intention.

Seriously, if you don’t want to see spoilers, STOP READING NOW.

Don’t make me warn you again. SPOILERS AHEAD.

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two topics that Ross is heavy handed on:
1) alcoholism and treatment. For most of the tale, this is actually handled *really* well. Even through most of the fallout of some of the alcoholic’s actions, Ross still does quite well with showing an emotional and powerful tale. It is specifically during the treatment section and its fallout that Ross gets particularly preachy, and it does come across as just too much. Add in that Ross highlights an unconventional (for many) path/ doesn’t highlight the most well known path (or at minimum have a throw away line about how problematic it can be itself and thus the character doesn’t want to go that route), and you’ve got something that is both preachy and contentious, and it doesn’t actually add much to the story to be this preachy and contentious here – if anything.
2) Abortion. This is the secret from the description, and pretty well everything about the entire discussion here is heavy handed and preachy. It comes across more as a semi-moderate 2020s feminist lecture about the topic (in that at least one character thinks the boyfriend should have been at least informed about the pregnancy before the abortion, while still emphasizing that it was entirely the girl’s decision) than a real heartfelt emotional scene the way Ross was clearly intending. It is also something that by its presence and in particular the way Ross chose to handle it will turn at least some segment of readers completely away. Which is a business level decision rather than a storytelling one, at least to this reviewer. I know from prior works that Ross *can* be at least slightly more balanced on contentious issues, but that prior restraint/ balance doesn’t really come through here *at all* except for the one line (ish) about wishing the boyfriend had been informed first.

This review of The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross was originally written on January 23, 2026.

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#BlogTour: The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman

For this blog tour, we’re looking at very solid penultimate book in its series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman.

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

Solid Penultimate Book In Series. This is one of those entire series where you’re going to want to read the entire series before this point – including the short story prequel that sets everything up – before you get here. Even though this one stands alone (*ish*), you really need that deep understanding of all that is going on here to fully appreciate this story, and really those prior books are just as strong as this one, so if you see this one first and are interested in it at all, you’ll be glad you read them first anyway.

For what this book – and its predecessors – actually is though, it really is quite good. We get a dual timeline with both women’s fiction and romance elements in both timelines – enough that yes, this book technically satisfies all known RWA/ RNA requirements to be “officially” classified as a romance novel – and all elements here are done remarkably well. Considering that some other authors struggle at times with one timeline or genre and Kelman here is not only juggling, but excelling in, a combined four different genre/ timeline combinations is really quite astounding, and an absolute testament to her storytelling abilities.

If you enjoy dusty rooms or cutting onions, you’re going to love this book. (To be clear here, men don’t cry. The room is either very dusty or we’re cutting a lot of onions. We. Never. Cry. (And yes, this is a joke, but a joke explaining the other joke. 😉 )) If you enjoy books that both transport you to another place *and* make you *feel* something within it, you’re going to enjoy this book. If you enjoy books that are close enough to reality that you can more easily switch your brain off and accept the one presented in front of you, you’re going to enjoy this book.

And when you get done with this book… well, you’ll be glad to know that apparently we can expect the conclusion to this series later in 2026. I’m not sure *how* public the release date of Book 5 here is -I asked the publisher directly and have a longstanding working relationship with them across dozens of reviews every few months for several years now – but I feel reasonably confident that no one will get too upset with me for saying simply “by the end of this year”. 😀 And seriously, I can’t wait. Definitely going to be one hell of a back-end-of-2026 read, just as this book was one hell of a Book 5 of 2026 read for me.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman”

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#BlogTour: Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid women’s fiction tale with a touch of romance where all four central characters are executed very well indeed. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery.

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

Solid Susan Mallery Women’s Fiction (With A Touch Of Romance). With Susan Mallery, you know pretty well exactly what you’re going to get. She basically has two styles, with a few wrinkles per style, and once you know which style and which wrinkle you’re in… well, if you enjoy reading a lot of variations on the same thing and are looking for the kinds of books that are essentially the reading equivalent of TV you can simply zone out and enjoy and know you’re not going to hit anything *too* complex or disturbing… Mallery is an author you’re going to love. Which long time fans will already know, but the above explanation was more for those newer to her or perhaps who haven’t read her books at all.

With this particular iteration, again, we’re more on the women’s fiction side, but even on this side of Mallery’s writing, romance is never far from the scene – indeed, it will always be close enough that technically the books can be (and generally are) marketed as romance tales, even when the women’s fiction side is actually more dominant in the overall story (as it is here).

Overall, I thought this was actually perhaps a touch more standout than typical Mallery, more dealing with the specifics at hand here that can’t be discussed too much without going into spoiler territory. But she absolutely nails the women’s fiction side, showing strong growth in each of her four central characters – not always easy to do with so many moving parts. So if you’re looking for a solid escape this holiday season – and have some time to invest in this near almost 370 page book – well, here’s yet another solid option.

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: Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery”