Between the Pages

 Hello everyone! Here's the review for a sequel I have been awaiting for a long time: The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. SPOILER - this series is a confirmed TRILOGY. The third book is called The Final Gambit.  SUMMARY First a little recap of the first book in this Hawthorne series presented by September Hallie's review of the first one -  "One day Avery is barely making ends meet, the next she is on a plane to the Hawthorne House, the mansion and estate of Tobias Hawthorne the Texas billionaire. One day Avery doesn't have a house, the next she is the beneficiary of the late Tobias Hawthorne's fortune. The list of questions/'catches' is long. (1) Avery doesn't know and has never known a Tobias Hawthorne in her life. (2) Hawthorne's extended family is vast and each member was close to the late billionaire. Why didn't he leave his fortune to them?" Avery is back at it again with another mystery. Or, rather, the same mystery, differ...

Well, hello there! I have SO many things to write about, but NO time to write about them. Here's a post, though. Y'all, I did it! I finally read it - after months.  Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Ellie Cosimano.  SUMMARY Finlay Donovan has no stability. She is recently divorced, has two small children, and is an author with a mental block. Not only is she failing to put any words on the blank document that she sits in front of every night but she cannot even manage to keep her daughter from cutting tragically jagged bangs. Struggling to pay bills, Finlay meets with her agent at a local Panera (where else?) to discuss getting yet another advance on the book she is failing to write when an unidentified, despondent-looking woman slips a piece of paper into Finlay's diaper bag. A piece of paper that read - "I crumpled up the note and held it over the bin. But the dollar sign - and all the zeros that followed - piqued my curiosity. Who was Harris Mickler? Why did he have s...

 Hello readers! I have not posted in a while as you are all aware. Junior year is no joke. Between making time to read or making to post, I have chosen reading for the past month. I have not stopped reading/listening to audiobooks but I have not written a review in quite a while. I'm back! SUMMARY "Part The Westing Game , part We Were Liars , completely entertaining." -- Kirkus Reviews Avery lives out of her car. She is very close to her sister and is a top student, but has a strange life to an outsider looking in. With her mother dead and her father missing, Avery lives a complicated and hard, but routine life. One day Avery is barely making ends meet, the next she is on a plane to the Hawthorne House, the mansion and estate of Tobias Hawthorne the Texas billionaire. One day Avery doesn't have a house, the next she is the beneficiary of the late Tobias Hawthorne's fortune. The list of questions/'catches' is long. (1) Avery doesn't know and has never k...

Hello everyone on this lovely day! I hope you all enjoyed my halfway recap. I have since finished three more books Just Mercy , It Ends With Us, and The Inheritance Games . That makes 26 books on the year! Sorry I have been MIA lately. Things are getting BUSY. Now, for the review of the first audiobook that I listened to on my recently acquired library card. (Yes, I know I know, I should have gotten a library card sooner. BUT, I have one now!) SUMMARY Charlotte and Jamie are back! (And I have never been happier!) Charlotte thought she was finished. She thought she could leave the Holmes family behind. The "Holmes Way" of sleuthing and hyper-attention is still as stuck to Charlotte as it was at Sherringford.  Charlotte and Jamie are both taking Oxford Summer Pre-college courses to get ready for their upcoming first semester in college. Just when their shot for a "normal" experience arrives, Charlotte (and by extension Jamie) gets asked to investigate a mystery in the...

 The Minerva House gang is back! This is NOT a drill. I repeat this is NOT a drill! SUMMARY Stevie Bell is back and better than ever (literally) in The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson, but this time, with another mystery. For three books, we have been riveted by the Ellingham Academy murders. Now that Stevie has solved those, she begins the summer before her senior year working in a deli - not exactly the perfect job for a mystery-solving teenager but it is a safe job (unless you count the deli-slicer as a dangerous weapon...).  In 1978, four prominent teenagers at summer camp in Barlow Corners went into the woods together to smoke after camp curfew. Sabrina, Todd, Diane, and Eric were never seen alive again. They were seen, however, stabbed to death in the woods. 43 years later, still, no one knows why. Cold. Case. When Stevie gets an offer to solve the Box in the Woods murders, she takes it - posing to everyone (even her parents) except her friends and the camp owner as ...

SUMMARY Dr. James Sheppard is a (the) well-known doctor in a wealthy town called King's Abbott. Dr. Sheppard wakes up on this particular Friday morning to a normal day (is there really such a thing as a "normal" day in the life of a doctor?) - his sister Caroline spilling out all of her most recently acquired gossip while he sips tea or coffee over a light breakfast. But, Dr. Sheppard's day doesn't stay normal. Mrs. Ferrars - a citizen of the extremely small town - has died. Sheppard is sent to give her medical attention, but he was too late.  One of Dr. Sheppard's best friends in King's Abbott - Mr. Roger Ackroyd - was seeing Mrs. Ferrars before her ultimate demise. As the amateur sleuth he is, Sheppard goes to pay a call at the biggest house in King's Abbott: the Ackroyd residence. Upon his visit, Sheppard is immediately ushered into Ackroyd's study where he is informed that Mrs. Ferrars was being blackmailed. Perhaps Caroline was right when she ...

This one is really, really good.  SUMMARY After a tragic start to her high school career, Jill Newman is *finally* a senior. Walking into Gold Coast Prep, Jill's friend group since freshman year sits in the front row of each year's opening assembly. For the third year in a row since the death of Jill's dearest friend and most daring Player, Shaila Arnold is honored for her dazzling life before she was murdered by her boyfriend and former Player, Graham Calloway.  At this point, you should probably know what a 'Player' is. A Player is the name for a member of the most elite social group at Gold Coast Prep. Senior Players choose the fittest and coolest freshman candidates for Players every year in the fall. The freshman candidates must prove their worth by performing 'pops' - near impossible challenges issued by the seniors to freshmen. The Players are an elite and tight-knit friend group (which is why the murder of Shaila Arnnold still rings in the group'...

     I'm back again with another Holly Jackson (LOVE) mystery! Good Girl, Bad Blood is an amazing novel. Often, sequels are worse than the original book; however, Holly Jackson's newest book is JUST as good as her original: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.       Pippa Fitz-Amobi is back suddenly jarred back into the crime-solving world when her friend's brother goes missing. She and her boyfriend, Ravi Singh (brother to the famously framed teenager, Sal Singh, whose name Pippa's discovery in Jackson's first novel cleared), start a podcast with the sole purpose of only having ONE season. One season to cover the Sal Singh. AGGGTM (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: the podcast) is suddenly back for round two. Unhappy for the new mystery and much to her parents' disapproval, Pip takes the case. Follow Pippa through yet another mystery.      When I tell you that I LOVE Holly Jackson, I mean it. Her books are surprisingly relatable (mystery is not ...

SUMMARY Jamie Watson. An accidental rugby star. Attractive, British high-schooler. A new student at a scenic Connecticut boarding school. The same school becomes the site of a series of crimes. Enter the dynamic, crime-solving duo - Holmes and Watson. But not Sherlock and John. Charlotte and Jamie.  Jamie Watson has always been fascinated by Charlotte Holmes. Their great-great-great grandfathers being part of the famous duo, Jamie has always hoped to recreate and rekindle the crime-solving spirit; however, Charlotte has other ideas. Charlotte Holmes doesn't need help. No vulnerability. No failure. Don't fathom weakness. Don't fathom emotion. But when Jamie Watson starts to get her to open up, what will she do? She's always been good at solving crimes because of her ability to shut down all other parts of her brain besides the analytical part. Now...she might need to listen to her...heart? Has she ever used her heart? Once...that won't happen again. Her heart...that...

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are amazing. They are my favorite short stories and my comfort reading (you all KNOW what I mean). Please read them and enjoy! Comment your favorite story below.  BTP's copy is from Barnes and Noble. Click here  for more information. 

SUMMARY  Ellingham Academy is a private boarding school in Vermont where the United States' brightest thinkers, inventors, artists, and creators come to play. Founded by one of America's richest, from-the-ground-up benefactors in the early 20th century, Ellingham Academy, while a center of learning and talent, has a storied, infamous, and twisted past. Albert Ellingham's wife, Iris, and daughter, Alice, were kidnapped soon after his school's opening. Neither returned. A taunting riddle was left for Mr. Ellingham written by the assumed criminal who used the pseudonym Truly Devious.  Decades later, Stephanie Bell steps onto Ellingham's campus with one goal: to solve the case, the crime of a lifetime. Much to her parents' chagrin, Stevie spends more time with the crime and real documents and evidence than with her anatomy class subject matter. Along the way, she enlists the help of her housemates: a novelist, Nate, an actor, Hunter, an artist with a French fetish, ...

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is an interesting and disturbing tale about mankind's dual identity and how it may be brought by science.  PLOT SUMMARY Soho, London. Victorian Era. Mr. Utterson is an upstanding lawyer who hangs out, drinks, eats, and smokes with his other upstanding lawyer and doctor friends, two being Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll.  One night, as the novel opens, Mr. Utterson walks along with his friend Mr. Enfield when they pass an old dilapidated building. The site of this erection sparks Enfield's memory, and he tells an eerie story. One night/early-morning, Enfield was out on a stroll through Soho on his way home when he sees a young girl gets knocked over and trampled on by a short, portly fellow. The man runs ahead, but Enfield and a couple others catch him by the collar and make him apologize to the girl's family and give reparations. After the encounter, the short man heads into the same dilapidated building Utters...

Dracula by Bram Stoker is truly horrifying and a classic EVERYONE should read.  Summary Johnathan Harker is off on business. He always has a plan, Except, this time he doesn't. His mysterious business associate has not given him any direction. Johnathan Harker travels to Transylvania to meet his host. Instead of a professional, businessman, Harker is greeted by a seemingly mythical, ghastly white-haired and skinned man. Count Dracula, or the Count for short, terrorizes the town below the cliffs of his lair. Throughout Harker's time at the castle, he is almost killed from scaling the castle windows' ledges, three ghost women who cackle and try to suck the blood out of the veins in his neck, and the Count himself.  Meanwhile, Harker's fiance, Mina Murray, is with her beloved friend, Lucy Westenra, in Whitby. Lucy starts having dreams and sleepwalking. One night, Lucy sleepwalks to a misty churchyard where Mina spots a ghostly figure on a bench next to an extremely pale Lu...

  The Guest List by Lucy Foley has a great concept and plot, but the wonderful story is buried by inappropriate language and sexual innuendos.  *DISCLAIMER - I knew this book was for adults before I read it. I will explain in the review part of this post. I don't think anyone below 18 years old should read this book.* Summary On a remote Irish island called Folly, Jules Keegan and Will Slater have gathered their closest friends and family. The smart, ambitious magazine publisher and the charming, witty, and handsome television star are getting married. While the sea and cell service are a little choppy, the couple and their friends won't let the setting spoil their fun. A deserted island, a huge house, plenty of alcohol, a four-tiered cake, and the perfect dress make the wedding of the century. "But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human". Jealousies and not-so-fond memories come out before the cake is even cut. Dark clouds loom overhead, physically and...

Hello everyone and welcome back. I'm sorry I have not posted in a while (and by "in a while" I mean 4 days). I have been on a very safe, masked (wear your mask!), and socially distanced vacation in a destination to which we drove. I read this book on vacation in the presence of the river and trees with ominous, mossy overhangs. Please enjoy. While The Man in the Brown Suit is a Christie, it is painfully obvious that it is one of her earlier published. Summary Anne Beddingfield is standing waiting for her train at the tube station when she sees a man who smells overwhelmingly of mothballs. Suddenly, the man looks at the her and then just behind her and goes stark white. He stumbles backwards, from fear, and trips over the side of the platform. He lands on the tracks. A couple passersby help Anne get the man back on to the platform. A man in a brown suit rushes past Anne and claims to be a doctor. The brown suited man pronounces dead, but Anne notices he does not handle the...

Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder  is the summer thriller you NEED! Summary Pippa, or Pip, Fitz-Amobi is good at school. She has always been, but she doesn't know who she truly is when she isn't working on a project, doing homework, or studying for a test. For her senior capstone project, Pip decides she will solve a murder. Drastic, I know, but she has to find out what really happened five years ago. She has to find out what happened to her friend Sal. When Sal Singh was a senior in highschool, his girlfriend, Andie Bell, disappeared. Sal Singh was found a couple days later, after texting his father that he kidnapped and killed Andie, dead - suicide with sleeping pills. Pippa knows that's not the whole story.  The only condition on her capstone project is that she does not interview any members of the Bell or Singh families. This is the first rule Pippa breaks, a concept that she is not used to. Pip enlists the help of Ravi Singh (Sal's younger brot...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle delivers a truly chilling Holmes and Watson tale. This book is the literary embodiment of Halloween. The setting is the most important and well written part of the story.  Summary The Hound of the Baskervilles  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a truly harrowing tale. It has the best setting of any mystery novel I have ever read. It is almost horror because of the setting. The Moor and the Grimpen Mire are described with death and dark imagery.  Holmes and Watson meet Sir Henry Baskerville, the next in the line of inheritance for the famous Baskerville estate. The land is not famous for its beauty, however. Every Baskerville that has ever lived on it has perished by the infamous Hound of the Baskervilles. The baronet does not think the Hound really exists, but enlists the help of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson after receiving threat letters and being followed through London before he was to take abode on the estate. Mysteriously, without telling his inte...

Agatha Christie does it again! This murder mystery is a true tangled web of mystery after mystery after mystery. It reminds me of an old version of the movie "Knives Out".  Summary Hercule Poirot is back for another mystery. Captain Hastings, Poirot's sidekick, has gotten off the train he took from Paris to Calais and rushes to the flat he shares with Poirot to tell him of a mysterious, acrobat "woman of the stage" who tells Hastings her name is Cinderella. Upon Hasting's arrival at the flat, Poirot receives a letter from a Mr. Renauld that beckons the detective's come with a desperate last line of the letter scrawled hurriedly at the bottom - "For God's sake, come!".  Poirot and Hastings head to Merlinville-sur-Mer where Renauld's sprawling Villa Genevieve is located. Upon arrival, though, the maid reports to the gentlemen that Renauld was murdered the night before/early that morning. Even in his surprise, Poirot takes the case. He beg...

     Agatha Christie's The A.B.C. Murders  is a suspenseful chase complete with Hercule Poirot's wit and wisdom.  Summary A lice A scher is beaten to death in her small newspaper and cigar shop in A ndover. Just as Poirot and his earnest sidekick Captain Hastings dip their toes in, Elizabeth " B etty" B arnard is murdered on the beach in B exhill, strangled with her own b elt. Poirot only begins to gather witnesses and people involved in any way when Sir C armichael C larke's skull is c rushed on a walk in C hurston. At the scene of each crime, an A.B.C. railway guide is left as an omen, a warning, a mark of A.B.C.'s (the murder's) territory. Before a crime an anonymous, tantalizing, mocking note is sent to Poirot and Captain Hastings. As the letters of the alphabet fly by, A.B.C. starts making fatal mistakes and Poirot and his crew get closer and closer to unmasking the letter-obsessed killer.  Review I love mystery, suspense, and murder when I read books...

PLOT SUMMARY Bronwyn is Yale bound. Hardworking and dedicated, she never breaks the rules. Maybe not never, but almost never…I guess. She did what she had to do. She got it done. Chemistry was hard, what can she say? What was she supposed to do: fail? And put her Yale acceptance in jeopardy? No way. Addy is beautiful. Tethered since freshman year to Jake, the football star and Addy make the picture perfect, popular high school couple. She would never do anything to tear that picture because that is who she is, her identity. No, she would never. Maybe not intentionally. Nate is a criminal. He’s on parole, he’s sells drugs: he’s literally done it all. His mother left and came back, then left and came back again. His father is an alcoholic. Nate is mysterious, but he’s into Bronwyn…what? Cooper is an athlete. A southern boy at heart, he’s popular too, but all he does is baseball. Driven by his helicopter father, Cooper is pushed to be the best. Keely, his girlfriend...