review: touch of red by laura griffin

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Brooke is a CSI at the Delphi Center who recently broke up with her possessive boyfriend who works in the sheriff's department. Her friends and coworkers think she needs to start dating again, but Brooke would rather focus on the murder of a woman named Samantha and the child who may have witnessed the crime. Despite the warnings of the detective on the case (who is not only in pursuit of the killer, but of Brooke as well), Brooke quickly becomes deeply entrenched in the horrific conspiracy that led to Samantha's death.

The murder conspiracy of the twelfth Tracers novel is excellent, but Touch of Red could've been a tenser drama had Laura Griffin focused more on that aspect rather than the romance. As the Tracers series has gone on, the blend of romance and suspense has shifted from suspense-heavy to romance-heavy. In this case, the romance was a bit of a turn off as Sean seemed quite possessive of Brooke which is exactly what she cited as the reason for breaking things off with her last law enforcement boyfriend. At one point Sean told Brooke in explicit detail just how attracted to her he'd been when they met at a crime scene. Griffin likely meant it as a sexy come on (the pair were already in a sexual relationship when he told her), but it came across like Sean was some creep sexually harassing a coworker.
4/5
Review copy provided by the author.

review: lucky in love by deborah coonts

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A TV dating game show has descended on the Babylon in a Lucky O'Toole novella from Deborah Coonts. Lucky isn't too thrilled about it all, but she's even less happy to have the cameras in the hotel when the contestants begin getting themselves into all sorts of trouble, which includes some Las Vegas-style debauchery since this is a Lucky story after all. This novella comes between Lucky Stiff and So Damn Lucky, so the love-themed reality show really gets under Lucky's skin as she struggles to navigate a romance with Teddie. Lucky in Love is a fun read that provides a bit more insight into Lucky's love life and how relationships will develop later in the series.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, Kate Tilton.

review: the hired girl by laura amy schlitz

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After the passing of her mother, 14 year old Joan is left responsible for all the cooking and cleaning on her family's farm. Although Joan loves school and her mother hoped Joan would be educated enough to be a teacher, Joan's father insists she stay home to work; such is life in 1911. But Joan is a rebel. She hears of workers going on strike and learns that hired girls can make $6/week, so she declares herself on strike unless her father gives her the egg money like her mother got. Joan's father won't hear of it, which leads to the Catholic Joan leaving home and finding a job as a hired girl for a wealthy Jewish family.

The differences in religion frequently come into play in Laura Amy Schlitz's The Hired Girl, which was inspired by her grandmother's journal. At first there are misunderstandings (such as the need to use different sinks) on Joan's part, but it all becomes more complicated as Joan, who has lied about her age, develops feelings for one of the Rosenbach sons (who is quite the flirt). The Hired Girl unfolds slowly with Joan initially coming across as a whiny child, but she comes into her own as learns to navigate life as a household employee. Throughout the touching epistolary novel, Joan shares her longings and her amazement at her experiences all while staying true to her forthright nature (which gets her into trouble on a number of occasions).
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Candlewick.

review: operation enough! by anita dhake

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After graduating from law school in 2009, Anita Dhake did not fall victim to the “golden handcuffs;” instead, she lived frugally in order to pay off her loans and accomplish her goal of retiring early. At just 33, Dhake did retire. She began sharing her life (including mom’s recipes!) on a blog called The Power of Thrift; portions of that entertaining and informative blog have now turned into Operation Enough, which fulfills another of Dhake’s goals—writing a book.

Dhake is not a financial advisor by trade, but that makes Operation Enough! all the more relatable. Dhake’s attitude about money was shaped early on when she read Your Money or Your Life as a teenager. Like many other Americans, Dhake took out loans for her degrees, but her early brush with that financial advice book affected how she moved forward after graduation. In Operation Enough, she explains how a bit of good fortune (her law firm offered to pay her minimum student loan payments for a year at the height of the Great Recession) and good planning (she rented an apartment within biking distance of the law firm) combined with frugality (no traveling) allowed her to pay off her student loans just two years after finishing law school. While offering anecdotes from her life, Dhake outlines how to do your own Operation Enough. She frames her tenets around five questions:
What exactly is enough?
How should I spend my money?
How do I save money?
How should I invest?
How should I not spend money?
Her advice is thoughtful, but it doesn’t feel like advice because her writing is engaging and light-hearted. My favorite bit is, “Don’t spend money on crap you personally and specifically don’t need for happiness.” Dhake recognizes that different people have different priorities—she loves to travel, but others might prefer another form of entertainment. She highlights a few things (book, music, movies, etc.) that one might spend wastefully on, then breaks down the opportunity cost. (Anecdotally, I think this can work. I'm reminded of a now-former coworker who wanted to quit smoking. Part of what kept him going while struggling to end his addiction was the knowledge that the cigarettes cost him the equivalent of a nice used car each year.) One of her hardest sections for me was on pets.

I adore my monster and think she’s worth every penny, but there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have adopted her had I known that after the Great Recession apartment complexes like mine would begin tacking on a $25 pet rent every month. That said, I'm pretty sure she is necessary for my happiness.

Reading Operation Enough!, you're likely to be inspired to do something about your finances while at the same time being amused by Dhake's clever use of various avatars.
5/5
Review copy provided by the author.

review: best day ever by kaira rouda

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On a Friday at 9am, Paul and Mia are on the road to their vacation home. Mia hasn't been feeling well lately (upset stomach and losing weight), so Paul has told her he plans to make it the best day ever. From the opening sentences though, one gets the impression that Paul is not a good person to say the least. As Best Day Ever unfolds over the course of the day (each chapter marks a different time of day), it becomes clear that Paul and Mia have very different ideas about what will make this particular Friday the "best day ever."

Best Day Ever is filled with much of the mundane conversations a married couple would have, but that mundaneness set against Paul's beastly narration increases the tension as the plot builds to its crescendo. The unfolding of the day's events is an amazing journey that takes a brilliant turn right when it matters most. Best Day Ever is a chilling tale that is one of the best psychological thrillers out there.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Graydon House.

review: the daughters of ireland by santa montefiore

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Picking up shortly after The Girl in the Castle left off, The Daughters of Ireland also reveals the reason Maggie O’Leary cursed all of the Deverill men back in 1662; and that curse continues with a vengeance. Although Kitty is now married to her former tutor, she still rendezvouses with Jack whenever she has a chance. Their happiness, however, is not to be. Kitty’s former maid also suffers much heartache as she discovers Kitty is raising her son and the child believes his mother to be dead. Bridie is so devastated that she leaves Ireland to live again in America, where she remarries and soon finds a way to get back at the Deverills. Although Kitty’s cousin had only a small role in the first book of the trilogy, Celia becomes a main character when she and her husband restore Castle Deverill in all its glory (but now with indoor plumbing and electricity!). The curse hangs over them all though and more tragedy will strike before the conclusion of The Daughters of Ireland.

With The Daughters of Ireland starting in 1925, the build to the stock market crash is slow, but suspenseful with a number of characters mentioning how well their investments are doing. When the crash finally does happen, it packs a wallop. As with the first in this trilogy, Santa Montefiore does an excellent job of incorporating real events into the lives of her fictional characters. The evolution of Celia’s character is also excellent with her becoming a strong woman in the face of great tragedy. Montefiore also wisely ends The Daughters of Ireland as she did The Girl in the Castle—a big development regarding Bridie’s twins.
5/5
Review copies provided by the publisher, William Morrow.

review: corliss [and] donna by v.c. andrews

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Corliss and Donna are both the titles of two V.C. Andrews novellas and the names of the teenage girls each respectively focuses on. The novellas serve as companions to the full-length novel Bittersweet Dreams as well as two forthcoming novellas. These novellas explain how Corliss and Donna each came to be students at Spindrift, a school for the extremely intelligent.

Corliss is a brilliant student who has trouble fitting in at her public high school. Some of the girls at her school have made her the target of their bullying. When Corliss refuses their offer of drugs during a school dance, the girls spike her drink and try to frame her as being the dealer. It’s clearly a bad situation, so her counselor presents the option of attending Spindrift.

Donna is also brilliant, but tries hard to fit in with her classmates even going with a group of them to a party at the beach. Unfortunately, a fight breaks out during the beach outing which puts one boy in the hospital. That’s when Spindrift is presented as a good school for Donna.

The plots of the two novellas are interesting, but neither felt like a whole story—these truly are just prequels to set up additional works. The backstory for both girls likely could be incorporated into a full-length novel without the need for these prequels.
2/5
Review copies provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster.