Share Your Shelf #22: What I Read in January

It's time for Share Your Shelf. This post and link up are dedicated solely to books and book reviews and it's one I look so forward to each and every month. I am always looking for new and more book ideas. Dara has offered to join me as co-host and I could not be more thrilled. Talk about a prolific reader with lots to share! 

I had a fabulous month of fun reading! Each book I picked up or listened to through Libby seemed better than the last. I love when that happens. 

1. The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis-- Told in 2 time lines this book focuses on a family that lived in the New York Public Library in the early 1900's. Laura Lions' husband is the superintendent of the library and while he's struggling to finish his own novel many of those they are taxed with keeping safe are going missing. Laura is headed to back to school for her journalism degree. The foray into journalism opens her eyes to a whole new world and she starts to question her role as wife and mother. Then in the 1990's Sadie is working at the museum putting a collection together as curator when she stumbled upon information about her grandmother Laura Lyons. Sadie's dream job turns into a nightmare as pieces start to go missing in an eerily similar copycat of what happened when her grandfather was in charge.

 2. The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson (An Agatha's mystery book #2)-- Alice and Iris are back in this second book of the series. They are attending their school's Sadie Hawkins dance when Alice stumbles upon one of her ex-friends standing over the body of another. While the police are happy to arrest and charge said friend Alice and Iris are skeptical that the case is quite so cut and dry. They decide to investigate and are surprised when so much of their investigation seems to overlap an old mysterious death that took place in their town long before their time. It was fun and had lots of great little twists and turns.  

 3. Good Grief by Sara Goodman Confino-- Oh I just LOVE Sara's books and this one was no different! I always enjoy the strong main characters and their quirky friends and family members. In this book Barbara is still getting over the shocking loss of her husband but two years of widowhood have made her feel a bit more steady on her feet, so she sends her mother back home to her father... only to find her mother in law moving into the guest room indefinitely. The two butt heads constantly and their antics often left me in stitches. It was both a fun and a really rather sweet read. 

 4. Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey (Book 1 of Big Shots)--  Wells is really stinking it up on the golf course and quits one day despite his last remaining fan encouraging him on. But when Wells shows up and asks/begs his last remaining fan to help him, Josephine agrees to becoming his caddy and coach for the rest of the tour. Josephine really needs the money to save her family's pro shop after it was hit by a hurricane since she's trying to shelter her parents from the fact that she's let both the insurance on the club and her own health insurance lapse just to pay the bills. With the money from the tour she can rebuild and add all the improvements she's been dreaming of. However, once on tour sparks fly between the two and neither one is sure they should get involved with such different end goals in mind.  It was a fun and steamy read. 

5. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner-- Told in 2 timelines; one set in 18th century London at an apothecary shop that caters to women and women's troubles sometimes even aiding in the death of men who have done them wrong. The other story line set in present day London finds Caroline spending her 10th wedding anniversary in the city alone running from the unpleasantness in her own life when she stumbles upon an old jar and dives into the possibility that it belonged to an old apothecary. It was quite a story and kept me quite entertained. 

6. The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey (Big Shots #2)-- Tallulah and Burgess meet towards the end of book one and he suggests letting her live in his Boston apartment rent-free while she goes to grad school at BU if she'll agree to be an au pair to his pre-teen daughter. Tallulah, having met and hit it off well with his daughter Lissa accepts without thinking. But Tallulah has some trauma to work through and while both Burgess and his daughter seem like the perfect ready made family for Tallulah to join she has her doubts, despite her mounting desire for her boss. Of course something happens that push the two main characters away from each other just as they're admitting their feelings for one another. But somehow a chance encounter finds them happily together by the end of the book. 

 7. How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz, Ph.D.-- A fun non-fiction I was hoping would make me LOVE winter... but that's never going to happen! LOL. I do have a pretty good attitude when it comes to dealing with winter and I've read a bunch of books on Hygge and embracing winter though so I can't say I picked up a ton of tips dealing with winter and my poor attitude towards it. I did enjoy this easy to read book and if you struggle with the dark and cold and dreariness of winter you might find a few helpful tips. 

 8. Read Between the Lies by Jesse Q. Sutanto-- I typically love Jesse Q. Sutanto's books and while I enjoyed this one it definitely wasn't a favorite. The main character Fern is finally getting her first book published and she could not be more thrilled until she "runs" into her middle and high school nemesis/bully in an online chat room for soon to be published authors. Fern immediately starts resorting back to those feelings of in inadequacy and can't stop the slow burn of anger from building as the pandemic forces everyone to isolate at home and tensions build in the online writing community. I didn't like the main character and that always make it hard for me to really love a books when the main character grates on my nerves.  But I could not put it down once I reached the 1/2 way point and finished the book in a single afternoon.

 9. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack (Book #1)- Oh this was just delightful and such a funny murder mystery. Eleanor is a best selling author on a book tour in Italy hoping to find some inspiration on how to kill off her main character, Connor, from her soon to be 10 book series. However, it appears that someone is trying to kill the real Connor in real life. Now Eleanor is being roped into figuring out who is behind the attempts on Connor's life and everyone in their party is a suspect. With lots of finger pointing, theories, and mishaps along the way I was highly entertained. And funny enough one of the adorable foot notes mentioned the book Tell Me Three Things which I was part way through listening to!  If you like the Finlay Donovan series or the Stephanie Plum series you'll enjoy these too.

10. Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum--  I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Jessie had just moved to a new state, a new town, into a new school, with a whole new family shortly after the death of her mother. She's feeling lost and angry and sad and is very intrigued when she gets a message one day from someone referring to themselves as "somebody/nobody." The two strike up an online friendship and he gives her great pointers that help her start making friends and fitting in. They often start communications by telling each other 3 things about themselves. Eventually they meet in person at the very end of the book. It was sweet. 

 11. Glorious Rivals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Grandest Game Book 2: book 7 in the Hawthorne Series)--This year the Grandest Game is set on Hawthorne Island and one of the Hawthorne brothers, Grayson, is a contestant. Paired up with latest love interest Lyra, Grayson is trying not only to win the game for/with her but also to beat the clock and find out who entered Lyra into the game and is leaving mysterious notes and clues all over the island for her. Filled with lots of puzzles and clues and lots of old, familiar characters it was a fun read. The stakes are extra high this year when Gigi is kidnapped, Rohan must win or risk losing the Devil's Mercy, and yet again someone is trying to use the games to get back at the Hawthorne family. 

 12. The Blonde Who Came In From the Cold by Ally Carter (book 2 of 2) -- Alec bought me this for Christmas and I had to make myself wait to read it until my library books were done. I had read the first book in the series quite a while ago and I was afraid I wouldn't know what was going on but I feel that the two books read fine as stand alone novels. It was absolutely delightful! Alex and King have had a tumultuous relationship since the night before they both started "spy school." Now 10 years after joining the CIA and 5 years since they've seen one another they wake up handcuffed to one another. Escaping, putting together the puzzle of how they got there, who's trying to kill them and more require them to work together; something they haven't always excelled at. It was a fun second chance romance with a bit of the enemies to lovers trope thrown in. Add in flashbacks to several of their earlier missions and you have lots of action and glamour too. I loved it.  

13. First Love by James Patterson & Emily Raymond-- a quick listen on my Libby app. It was a somewhat heart breaking story of two teens that take off on an impromptu road trip. Axi is the "good" girl who never breaks the rules but Robinson is definitely a rebel. The two met on a cancer ward at a local hospital and while Axi fell in love with her best friend she has a hard time telling him how she feels since she's afraid he won't feel the same way. However, the reader senses that time of the essence but we aren't clued into why until nearly 3/4 of the way through the book. 

 14. America The Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road most Traveled by Blythe Roberson--  A travel memoir about a woman who takes off in her step-father's Prius with a vague plan to see the national parks. At each park she sets herself the goal of obtaining a junior park ranger badge and end up meets lots of interesting people and learning a lot about herself along the way. I could have done without the man bashing and her political views though. I wish there had been more about the parks and what she saw than her own thoughts about life, the country, and gender roles but it was still pretty good.

 

 This is the time of year when just about every and any book can fit into the 52 book challenge in some way so I started that off with a bang as well!

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