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Book Reviews: Fiction and Non- Fiction

I challenged myself to start reading again in 2019. I set a goal of one fiction and one non-fiction book per month. I’ve far surpassed that thanks to Audible and now Scribd. I read 11 books during April. I mentioned my favorite of the month yesterday in Five for Friday, but it seemed like too much for that post to go over all of them. So- here’s a review of all of my April books. Note: This post contains affiliate links. I make a small commission from your purchases through these links.

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Fiction reviews

What I’ve Done by Melinda Leigh I’ve quickly become a fan of this series. I read most of this one in March but finished it at the very beginning of April, so it’s on April’s list. I rated it three stars, even though I’m a total fan of the main characters Morgan and Lance. This one had way too many retaliations and attacks by the killers they were chasing to be believable. One good blow would have been enough, but the far fetched attacks on the characters just got to be too much. I’d still recommend it, but be aware that there are some unbelievable things. Overall, Leigh’s work is still credible and she does her homework about the law enforcement community. Some people get really hung up on things like that and frustrated when a fiction book doesn’t follow the way things are really done in real life. By the way, shows like CSI and NCIS are not true to the real world of law enforcement. Just sayin’. Further development of the character Lincoln Sharp takes place in this book too and moves along the series nicely. I read and listened on Audible.

Secrets Never Die – I jumped right into this one so I could finish this series before my Kindle trial expired in April. One of the kids Lance coaches witnesses the shooting of his stepfather and flees. The sheriff’s secures warrants for the kid and hunts him down, while Lance and Morgan search for the real killer. This one didn’t disappoint and kept my attention the entire time. I rated it five stars. I can’t wait for the next book in this series to be released. I read and listened on Audible. The narrators for this series are very good.

Match Making for Beginners- This was a fun change of pace from crime thrillers. Marnie is engaged to be married. She goes home to meet the fiance’s family and meets the groom’s older aunt Blix. Blix is a hoot with so much knowledge of life. She has an uncanny foresight to know who should be together and who shouldn’t- matchmaking. Marnie shares this intuition as well but has to learn how to use it. In an unsuspecting way Blix teaches this to Marnie after Blix passes. I don’t want to say much more for fear of spoiling it, but I highly recommend reading it for some light, feel good entertainment and some laughs from Blix. Five stars! I read and listened with Kindle. Even a month later, thinking about this story makes me smile.

The Last Mrs. Parrish- I read and listened to this one on Scribd. It is available in both ebook and audio versions. The first half is about Amber, who imposes herself in Daphne Parrish’s life so she can become Mrs. Parrish. Amber is a shallow, money hungry character and I just couldn’t understand the hype about this book while reading Amber’s part. THEN, it turns and Daphne takes over. Ha! Ha! Ha! Some reviewers didn’t like the book because no woman deserves what is going on here, but I thought it was great. No woman deserves the life either endured, BUT if you have a slight vindictive bone like I do, you will find the humor and the justice in this. Careful what you ask for. Others lives are never what they seem. I gave this four stars.

The Eighth Sister by Robert Dugoni– I read this free as a Prime reads after my Kindle Unlimited subscription expired but it’s available with either. A new release and the first time I’ve read or heard of this author but it won’t be the last. Charles Jenkins is a retired CIA agent who is called back up for what he believes to be an assignment to Moscow. He thinks he is saving lives and serving his country but nothing is what he was led to believe and he then has to fight for his life and then fight his own country for his freedom when he returns. This one will have you on the edge of your seat. Five stars.

Non- fiction

Everyday Millionaires by Chris Hogan I purchased this one on Kindle. Save your pennies and look for it at the library first. If you think it’s a keeper, then buy it. It does have some good information that I hope to put to use, but all of that could have been presented in about 20 pages. The real life stories of everyday millionaires are encouraging but after about six or eight of those, I didn’t find it necessary to make the point. It’s more about why it’s possible to be a millionaire if you believe you don’t have the resources to be, and less about how. I was more interested in the HOW, so I’m sure that contributed to my slight disappointment. 3 stars

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp I’m not sure what to say about this one. I purchased it in hard copy a year or so after it was released. It had so much hype and so many good reviews. I was following a blogger who was sharing nuggets from it and it seemed to speak to me back then. I also read Voskamp’s blog and enjoyed it, but just never got into this book. So, years later I’ve finally read the book. It survived my Kon Mari purge from the beginning of the year so I could read it and I let Kindle Unlimited lapse so I would be forced to pick up some of the books lying around the house waiting to be read. Voskamp writes in a very poetic style and there are some beautiful lines. It’s her journey to finding Christian joy in everything and in the little things. I’m very grateful for what I have but in the end this book just didn’t speak to my like I thought it would. I gave it four stars, but probably should have only given it three.

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown- This was an audible purchase. The author is the narrator and is an excellent speaker. This book is about her research on shame and vulnerability and how to be vulnerable in a good way. So insightful and so many truths here. I heard one of her TED talks on trust and plan to read or listen to all her books. Five stars!

One Hour Content Plan For my blogger friends or anyone planning to start a blog. I skimmed through this in a hurry to look through it before the Kindle Unlimited subscription expired (tired of hearing that? Sorry it was the motivation for a lot of what I read at the beginning of the month.) If you have not yet read anything on blogging or don’t have any organization to planning your content, then I’d say read this, especially if you have Kindle Unlimited and can read it for free. I didn’t learn anything new as I have already read and studied many sources on blogging, but she echoed some of my most trusted sources so I’d say it’s good and valuable information.

Decoding Your Dog I gave it four stars because it would be very helpful to someone who has never owned a dog. We already had dogs in my family when I was born, and I got my first puppy at the age of five ( a pit bull who was one of the best dogs ever and not at all like the negative press the breed receives). Given that I’ve had dogs all of my life, I didn’t really learn anything. This book gets a little repetitive too by summarizing each section at the end so beware if that sort of thing bothers you.

If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly- This must have been free at some point because I found it in my Kindle books that I already own. I’m not a millennial but interested in finances and money management. This is a really short read. The author references other books to read and tells you to come back to his book after each read to apply his suggestions. He references some of the same books and tactics as Chris Hogan, so while it wasn’t super valuable to me, it was not a total waste of time. 3 stars

I will also mention that I tried to listen to Congratulations, Who Are You Again? A Memoir by Harrison Scott Key. I though it would be interesting because he now lives in my area/region and did some of his writing after moving there. The book was recommend by Good Housekeeping. I could not finish it. I wasted an audible credit on this but thankfully they let you do a return if you absolutely hate something. This one got returned. He was funny at some points, but I found it to be a really shallow explanation of his writing career and was left feeling like I could care less.

Please tell me if you enjoyed these reviews and find them helpful. Would you like to see this on the blog as a monthly feature?

Many of these titles are now free to read on Kindle Unlimited.

If you want to read more, give Audible a try and listen while you drive or do mindless chores like folding laundry. Try Audible free for a month and get two free titles. If Mom loves to read and listen to audio books, then give her an audible gift membership.

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