List of posts

  • Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

    Review Posted Online: August 31, 2023— My Rating: 4 Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, The StoryGraph, and NetGalley. I’ve generally enjoyed the books Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have written as a team; their collaborations have a certain snap and confidence. Pekkanen’s solo novels, including Gone Tonight, feel a bit different to…

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  • A West Hollywood Vampire Novel Book 2 – The Trouble with Hairy by Hal Bodner

    Review Posted Online: February 6, 2012— My Rating: 5-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, The StoryGraph, Reedsy/Discovery, and Amazon. Hal Bodner’s second foray into the world of metaphysical mystery, The Trouble with Hairy, is a howlingly well‑crafted tale of mayhem in WeHo. Our hero, Christopher Driscoll; his madcap Renfield; his longtime lover, Troy…

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  • You Did Nothing Wrong by C. G. Drews

    Review Posted Online: March 26, 2026— My Rating: 3-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, The StoryGraph, and NetGalley. You Did Nothing Wrong is the twisted tale of Elodie, Jude, and Brendan “Bren” January. The surname January threw me at first; I wondered what the name of a month had to do with what…

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  • The whileBlack Chronicles’ Book 1 – If Cotton Could Talk by Alvin M. Hayes

    Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026— My Rating: 4-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, and The StoryGraph without the quotes from the book. The subtitle of If Cotton Could Talk explains its purpose far better than I ever could: A Blackwashed 19th Century Pre–Civil War Fictional Story That Depicts the People, Tone, and…

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  • The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton by Jennifer N. Brown

    Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026— My Rating: 4-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, The StoryGraph, and NetGalley. The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton is a perfect read for medieval‑history buffs who study King Henry VIII and the Reformation. The story follows a dual timeline: the life of Elizabeth Barton in the sixteenth…

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  • The KGB Man: The Untold Rise of Vladimir Putin from Spy to Supreme Ruler by Justin Alex

    Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026— My Rating: 3-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads. I don’t often quote Ronald Reagan, but this book begs for “trust, but verify.” For example, there’s an anecdote in which six‑year‑old Vladimir supposedly told his mother, “I want to work for the KGB.” He may well have shown early…

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  • Artifacts by Natalie Lemle

    Review Posted Online: March 16, 2026— My Rating: 2-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, The StoryGraph, and NetGalley. When the tease is dual timeline, historical fiction, and archaeology, my first thought is the excellent book The Source by James A. Michener. For me, this is the book by which all subsequent novels of…

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  • The Homefront Sleuths Cozy Mystery Series Book 9 – Title by Anna Elliott and Charles Veley

    Review Posted Online: March 7, 2026— My Rating: 5-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, and The StoryGraph. The Saint Mary’s Cipher is a pulse‑pounding look at what people are willing to do in wartime to protect their country and their loved ones. The people may exist only as characters on a page, but…

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  • American History, Personal Development & Self Care Book 2 – Exiled in America by Gilbert M. Keith

    Review Posted Online: March 1, 2026— My Rating: 5-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, and The StoryGraph. Exiled in America is subtitled The Story of British Penal Colonies and Their Impact: Birth of a Divided Nation. Like many readers, I’ve always associated British penal colonies with Australia. When I began looking into the historical…

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  • The Pilgrim: A Tale of  the 3M Detective Agency by Thomas A. Burns, Jr.

    Review Posted Online: February 22, 2026— My Rating: 5-Stars This review was posted to Goodreads, BookBub, The StoryGraph, and Amazon. The genius of Thomas Burns’ books about Capital City is their ability to evoke any Southern capital city in the United States while portraying issues of social and political import without taking sides. In The…

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