March Reading Wrap Up|| Bookshelf



March was a fairly good reading month for me. I didn’t read a ton of books but I really enjoyed everything I ended up reading!

I’ve started adding more independent and self-published authors to my TBR pile. In March I read three books by two indie authors, a romance by Tasha L. Harrison and two books in a cozy mystery series by Mairi Chong.

In Her Closet by Tasha L. Harrison, was the only 3-star read of the month. It’s a very spicy romance about a sex blogger, Yves Santiago, struggling to let go of some pretty heavy baggage from a previous relationship while attempting to write a book based on her blog. It was a quick read and overall, I was satisfied with it. However, the story felt a little bit dated with good reason. It was published in 2010.

I read the first two books, Death by Appointment and Murder & Malpractice, in the Dr. Moreland Mystery series by Mairi Chong. Dr. Moreland is a Scottish GP recently released from a mental health facility. She settles back into her practice and solves two murders while dealing with her hospitalization’s consequences on her professional reputation. I gave both of the books 4 stars. I enjoyed the mysteries of each of them. But, I enjoyed that Chong is writing a complex female main character.

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard is a contemporary thriller set in Ireland. It’s also the first book I’ve read that has Covid and the resulting lockdown written into the story. We met Oliver and Ciara who meet just before Covid becomes the new normal. They decide to move in together as the shutdown forces people into “pods” to try to figure out if they can make their new attraction into something more. The timeline jumps as we get glimpses of their meeting, how the relationship progresses through lockdown, and when the police are ultimately called to the apartment when a decaying body is discovered. Can they figure out exactly what happened or has quarantine provided the killer with the perfect plan for murder? I initially gave the book three stars but as I found myself thinking about it for weeks after, I bumped it up to four! I know some authors have been reluctant to write about the pandemic because we’re still in the midst of it, but I think it worked well as a framing device for a thriller.

My favorite book this month was Finley Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano. This is the second book in a cozy mystery series. Finley Donovan is a recently divorced romance author. She is mistakenly hired as a hitman to kill a shitty husband in book one. She teams up with her nanny/BFF Vero to get to the bottom of the who and the why. The second book picks up right where the first one left off. It’s a face-paced, funny mystery with strong female characters and two potential love interests for Finley. I’m already looking forward to the third book!

Finally, I listened to the audiobook, The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. Foley is the new locked room mystery queen. I loved her first two books, The Hunting Party and The Guest List. I liked this one too. However, the first half of the book was really slow. I considered shelving it at the halfway point because it just wasn’t doing it for me. I hung in there and the last half of the book is what saved it. Like her previous two books, this one has mostly unlikeable characters. All of the suspects and the victim are pretty terrible people. The protagonist, Jess, is the only likable character. She turns up on her brother’s doorstep in a glamourous Paris apartment only to find him missing. The building’s other tenants are the suspects in what she fears may be the murder of her brother. Like Foley’s other novels, the twists are twisty and the backstory of each of the suspects gives them all a compelling reason to get rid of Jess’ brother, Ben. The reveal is what bumped this up from a 3 star to a 4 star read for me.

I seem to be on a thriller/ mystery kick! I joked with my daughter that I like my characters either falling in love or killing each other! There is no in-between. What have you been reading lately?




When No One Is Watching||Well Read

“HISTORY IS FUCKING WILD.”

And with that, buckle up because Alyssa Cole takes us on a ride!

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This year I’ve read two of Alyssa Cole’s contemporary romance novels so when I heard she was publishing her first thriller, I was excited to read it!

When No One Is Watching follows Sydney, a New York native, as she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the gentrification going in Gifford Place, the Brooklyn neighborhood where she grew up. After taking a walking tour of a place that she knows like the back of her hand, Sydney, unhappy with the whitewashing of it’s history, decides to put together her own tour. She wants to focus on the black and brown people who originally settled in the area and highlight all of the achievements of the community. Theo, one of her new neighbors who arrives with the first wave of Gifford Place gentrification, volunteers to help her do more background research. Over the course of a few weeks, strange things start to occur. Sydney is struggling to put her life back together after her divorce while caring for her terminally ill mother. The heat, stress, and sleepless nights have her on edge. Is she seeing things or is something diabolical happening in Brooklyn?

I really, really enjoyed this book! I waited until I was about half finished to read any reviews and I limited them to non-spoiler ones. I believe some of the negative opinions of the book had to do more with the marketing of it than the book itself. It’s being sold as a thriller. I don’t think it’s a thriller-at least not by traditional standards. This leans more toward horror. Let me say this, I’m not a fan of horror. I don’t want to watch it. I don’t want to read it. I definitely would have had reservations about reading it if it was marketed to me as horror. I don’t know the ins and outs of publishing and which kinds of books get more sales but if I had to guess, I’d say that the thriller audience is larger and perhaps publishers were looking to get a piece of that market.

I think if you approach the book as horror or a dystopian thriller(is that a thing?)you’ll have fewer issues with how the plot unfolds. The reader needs to be able to suspend belief in a way that you don’t when reading standard thrillers.

At times this book was difficult for me to read. I’m not often triggered by books but the microaggresions and flat out racism were often hard to process. Cole’s exploration of racism and the ways gentrification impact black and brown neighborhoods feels a timely despite it’s fantastical elements. These things are a part of history and still happening across the country.

The trauma of Sydney’s abusive marriage is also woven troughout the story. Sydney is a beautiful and smart woman. It is clear that her ex husband has robbed her of self confidence. The gaslighting she endured in that relationship is one of the reasons she has doubts about the things happening around her She no longer trusts her own instincts. That part of the character resonated deeply with me.

This was a (strong) 4 star read for me! I can’t wait to read more Alyssa Cole.

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Read more about racism and redlining here

Read more about how gentrification effects black communities here and here