BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

Reviews by Sandi W.

Power Reviewer

The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
by Liza Tully

Who did-in who? (4/25/2025)

3 stars Thank you to BookBrowse and Berkley for allowing me to read this ARC. Publishes July 2025

Many murders in this book - all done by different people. But who did-in who? And why?

Although I really don't care for books that have a lot of characters, this book did really …more

L.A. Women
by Ella Berman

never really hit the mark (4/21/2025)

2 stars Thanks to BookBrowse and Berkley for providing this ARC. Publishes August 5, 2025

I liked the premise of this book when I first read it. However I felt that it never really lived up to the hype.

Two very different female authors become friends - or do they? One is …more

The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice, and the Birth of a Movement
by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

The slow wheels of justice... (4/8/2025)

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. But I had a real problem following the story. There were so many people in this story I could not keep them straight. It got to the point that I could not even remember the names of the 4 accused - who were the whole point …more

The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton

A bit of intrigue, a bit of romance and a murder (3/21/2025)

Thank you to Berkley and BookBrowse for giving me a copy for a unbiased review. Expected publication September 30, 2025.

Life in post revolutionary Cuba, with all the challenges that so many faced, was the basis for this story. It stung together the thread connecting three …more

The Husbands: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel
by Holly Gramazio

When is 'this' husband the one? (3/12/2025)

I really enjoyed this book. Very unique premise. But you must let your imagination go and suspend real life for this story. Because once you enter the 'magic attic' nothing will be the same. It seems husbands - new husbands - pop out of the attic each time a current husband …more

One Death at a Time
by Abbi Waxman

An alcoholic starlet, prone to blackouts... (1/12/2025)

This is my second book by Waxman. I have also read The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and I must say I enjoyed that one moreso than this book. To get the cons out of the way, I felt that the book was way too long - cutting 100 pages would have been better. I also thought that …more

Fagin the Thief: A Novel
by Allison Epstein

A deeper probe of Fagin... (12/21/2024)

3.5 stars Thank you to BookBrowse and Doubleday for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Publishes Feb 25, 2025.

I am pretty skeptical about retellings. Seldom do I care for the changes that are made to the original story or characters. However with this book, it was not …more

Beast of the North Woods: Monster Hunter Mysteries #3
by Annelise Ryan

OH NO! A Hodag... (11/7/2024)

4 stars Thank you to BookBrowse and Berkley for letting me read this ARC. Publication is January 28, 2025.

A man is found dead and gutted in a field. Andy, having found the man, and it being his well known rival, is accused of the murder. He swears that he saw a Hodag and …more

We'll Prescribe You a Cat
by Syou Ishida

Up lifting, delightful and cozy... (7/28/2024)

4 stars Thank you to BookBrowse and Berkley for a copy of this book to read and review. Published March 8, 2023

Totally enjoyed this book. Five related stories and the first book of the We'll Prescribe You a Cat series. The tie between the stories is the Kokoro Clinic for …more

The Day Tripper: A Novel
by James Goodhand

What day is this????? (12/20/2023)

Thank you to BookBrowse and Mira for a copy of this ARC. Publishes March 19, 2024

Do you have trouble remembering what day it is? How would you like to wake up to a morning in 2014 one day and then a morning in 1998 the next day? Quite confusing. That is the life of Alex …more

The Witches at the End of the World
by Chelsea Iversen

Bonds of Love... (9/9/2023)

I so wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. I like books driven by characters, as in speech, or by the plot, where ever the story is going. I found this book to revolve more around the 'thoughts' of the two main characters. So between that, and the prose …more

The House of Lincoln: A Novel
by Nancy Horan

Abraham Lincoln from a new persapective... (6/8/2023)

A different take on the life of Abraham Lincoln. This story is told from the point of view of a young Portuguese refugee, Ana, who went to work for the Lincoln's as a Saturday girl. She not only looked after the children, but did some housework. As she aged she become more …more

King of the Armadillos
by Wendy Chin-Tanner

Great Debut... (6/2/2023)

4.5 stars Thanks to BookBrowse and Flatiron Books for a chance to read this ARC. Publishes July 25, 2023.

This is a great debut novel by Wendy Chin Tanner. She based the story on her own father when he spent time in Carville, Louisiana. Carville has a federal institution …more

The Gifts: A Novel
by Liz Hyder

Great Debut Book (4/23/2023)

I am usually leery of books that come from too many points of view and was therefore leery of this book. However I think the author did a great job in keeping the protagonists separated and involved in their own stories until the time to bring them all together.

You won't …more

Homestead: A Novel
by Melinda Moustakis

The Ups and Downs... (3/16/2023)

As much as I wanted to like this book I fear that I did not. Where other people read 'artistic prose' I read choppy hard to understand sentences that just felt incomplete in thought. Although by the end of the book I had gotten into the cadence of the writing, that did not …more

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley

Such a fun story. (11/17/2022)

Such a fun story. Character driven, laugh out loud funny, mystery. Put an octogenarian and a 21 year old together on a cross country road trip in an aging Jaguar, add in a decades old crime and a failed soccer career, then put a twist at the end. That sums up to one …more

River Sing Me Home
by Eleanor Shearer

From Barbados to Trinidad she walked and sailed (10/5/2022)

3.75 stars Thanks to BookBrowse and Berkley Books for the ARC and allowing me to read and review. Publishes January 31, 2023

Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. These are the names that have Rachel laying awake at night yearning. These are the five …more

The Empire of Dirt: A Novel
by Francesca Manfredi

Beliefs and superstitions (7/20/2022)

Three generation of women in the Italian countryside with varying beliefs and superstitions. The pressure put on a young girl when she reaches womanhood.

This book reads easily and is very well written. From the premise it sounds as if it could go either way - a good …more

Take My Hand
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Where is the justice... (9/28/2021)

4 stars Thank you to BookBrowse for the digital copy of this ARC. Publication is April 2022.

This story is fictional. But this story is inspired by a real life event. The year was 1973. The problem was not only racial but ethically despicable. This case ended up in federal …more

The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West
by Carrot Quinn

Carrot Quinn was running... (8/24/2021)

3.5 stars Thank you to BookBrowse for giving me this book to read and review. Published on July 6, 2021.

Carrot Quinn was running. Maybe not running from, but trying to run to.

Carrot - born Jenni - had a miserable childhood. A schizophrenic mother, a brother raised apart …more

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The Lilac People
by Milo Todd

For fans of All the Light We Cannot See, a poignant tale of a trans man’s survival in Nazi Germany and postwar Berlin.

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Praised by Parade and The New York Times Book Review, this debut features a 1960s scientist turned TV cooking star.

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Daughters of Shandong
by Eve J. Chung

Based on the author’s family story, comes an extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters’ escape from Taiwan.

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