Set on the very edge of Patagonia, there is a girl school where there had previously been a tragedy. A mysterious illness once overtook the school. It is now reopening and in 1970s Argentina with a looming military dictatorship, Mavi can’t say no to a job that’ll take her out of Buenos Aires. I’m looking forward to this!
Our mom picked this up at half price books on actual CD to listen to in the car!
I did it! I read books in 2022! Not as many as I used to, but definitely more than any other year since COVID! I am so excited! I feel like I’m back! Kind of! So, without further ado, let’s get into it. In no particular order, here are my favorites of this past year!
I really enjoyed this book. It has mobsters. It has monsters. It has people behaving exactly as we know people behave during a pandemic in a pandemic. It’s set in colonial Shanghai. It has a sequel. I hightly recommend it.
2. The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
This romance by an author who has an excellent social media presence was so satisfying. I liked the characters. I liked their romance. I liked that they both had a story arc. It was great.
3. The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
I like horror movies a lot. Like, a lot a lot. My Netflix recs are basically just baking shows, kdramas, and buckets of guts. So, this seemed right up my alley. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be, but it was so good. Based on the Okiku myth, the ghost of a girl who was murdered, and has stuck around to torment her killer… and then torment more killers. I was taken in by the story and I needed to know how it ended. I just found out it has a sequel, too!
4. The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
I thought this was an interesting premise, so I downloaded it. In it, if you die by murder, you come back okay. Dispatchers are people who work in places like hospitals just in case things go wrong. The main character, Tony Valdez, is contacted by the police because a fellow dispatcher has gone missing. It gets sucked into a mystery about where his friend is and how he ended up there. There are two more books in the series. I binged them all back to back. They were entertaining.
5. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
I started this ages ago (maybe in 2017? Like, ages ago) and then finished it this summer when I was visiting my sister. It was… I want to say beautiful? Laszlo Strange is an orphan librarian who talks himself into a position on a quest to help Weep, a place of legend, rid itself of the floating palace of slain gods. When they get to the city, he meets a woman in his dreams. The woman is a child of the slain gods and lives in the floating palace above the city. Every day they live their lives, and then at night, they meet in Laszlo’s dreams. It’s not as cheesy as I’m making it sound. There’s a little bit of mystery (Is Strange really an orphan? Where is he really from?) and a little bit of lore from the world. I really enjoyed the relationships in this book. It also has a sequel!
I picked this book because the premise sounded interesting and because I love Alisha Rai’s social media presence, but I’ve somehow never read any of her books.
This book is about Rhiannon, the founder of a dating app a little akin to bumble who, despite some obstacles, has built an amazing company and Samson; a former football star who ended his career early. They have met once before, through Rhiannon’s app. Imagine both of their surprise when Rhiannon goes to an industry event to try and meet the head of a dating website she’s keen on buying to grow her company only to meet Samson, the founder’s nephew and new website spokesperson.
Rhiannon and Samson were both very likable characters and I loved their interactions. The complicating factors were heartbreaking, but how they dealt with them separately and together was heartwarming. The romance was great. The spicy parts were nice and spicy. The resolution was the plot so very satisfying.
I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely be picking up more from Alisha Rai.
I read it as an audiobook. It is narrated by Summer Morton and Brian Pallino. Their takes on the characters were excellent. I got the book through audible. I’m almost caught up on my backlog of credits! (Although, not the backlog of books…)
This has been in my queue for a while. I’m glad I’m finally getting to it!
A third one in the series is out; so why not?
I enjoyed the Dispatcher and this is the second one in the series!
This is the second Stacey Abrams book I’ve read, but this is the first one that I’ve read under her pen name Selena Montgomery. I’m very excited to see how this thriller unfolds.
This was a fun book. There was mystery, intrigue, spiciness. Finley Borders is a professional poker player who is called home because an innocent woman has been accused of murder. She’s going to use her skills of reading people and bluffing to help uncover a criminal organization.
When home, she meets FBI agent Caleb Matthews and immediately clocks him as undercover. They both find each other intriguing and annoying and, as a reader, that’s a good time.
I liked all the characters. They were three dimensional and awesome. The spiciness was slow burn but also very hot. The mystery was detailed and believable. It was so good. I am already looking for my next Stacey Abrams writing as Selena Montgomery novel.
www.audible.com/pd
2 Women, So Many Books 