Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Reviews by Becky H

Power Reviewer  Power Reviewer

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.
Order Reviews by:
The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins
by Antonia Hodgson
The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson (1/17/2016)
After a thrilling start, The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins takes a while before the reader truly cares about Tom, his "trull" Kitty and the other characters in the novel. But, once apprehension for Tom's life and liberty sets in, the thrill ride begins and doesn't stop.more
Front Lines
by Michael Grant
Front lines --alternative history (12/28/2015)
This novel is alternative fiction that takes place just before and during World War II. The premise is that girls as well as boys must register for the draft at age 18 and serve in combat if called up. The two female leads are both only 17, but lie about their ages and joinmore
The Same Sky
by Amanda Eyre Ward
A sad, hopeful book (12/2/2015)
What a sad, hopeful book. No, that is not an oxymoron. This really is an excruciatingly sad book full of hope and faith. A young girl, left alone to care for her even younger brother, must lead them from crushing poverty in Honduras to their illegal immigrant mother inmore
The Sound of Gravel: A Memoir
by Ruth Wariner
The Sound of Grave by Ruth Wariner (11/3/2015)
What a sad – and horrifying – life these children had foisted upon them by adults who should have cared for and loved them. It is hard to know where to start – with the father who wouldn't give his children his name, a mother so blinded by faith she puts her children inmore
Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America
by Joseph Kim, Stephan Talty
UNDER THE SAME SKY by Joseph Kim (8/31/2015)
What a harrowing tale Joseph tells in this, his story from early childhood in North Korea to young manhood in America.
His father is a mid-level party worker and his family is comfortable in the 1980’s. Kim, his father, mother and sister, Bong Sook, live with electricity, amore
We All Looked Up
by Tommy Wallach
Skip this one (7/27/2015)
Okay, maybe the teens will love this book. I didn’t. There is an awful lot of bad sex, too much drug usage, gratuitous violence, an absent society, clueless parents, messed up kids, a dying father and, oh yes, buried all the dreck is a rather sweet love story. The actualmore
The Testament
by John Grisham
Not your usual Grisham - in a good way (6/23/2015)
I started this book thinking “oh no, another bad will, lawyers fighting it out” book. I was wrong. This book is really a character study of two people: one selfless, powerless, kind, gentle, loving, astute; the other selfish, brutish, drunk, egotistical, powerful. It ismore
The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
by Jenny Nordberg
THE UNDERGROUND GIRLS OF KABUL by Jenny Nordberg (6/20/2015)
The life of girls who dress and act like boys for the benefit of their families is detailed in this well researched book. Most of the girls – called Bacha Posh – are turned into boys because the families do not have sons. Not having a son is an embarrassment to the familymore
Cinnamon and Gunpowder
by Eli Brown
CINNAMON AND GUNPOWDER by Eli Brown (6/17/2015)
Food and pirates works surprisingly well in this sometimes funny, sometimes scary, sometimes poignant tale of a kidnapped chef and the female pirate who keeps him a la Scheherazade until he can no longer make a meal that tantalizes her taste buds. Of course the problem ofmore
Orhan's Inheritance
by Aline Ohanesian
ORHAN'S INHERITANCE by Aline Ohanesian (5/28/2015)
The discord between the Turks and the Armenians comes alive in Ohanesian’s book that details three generations of those two groups that once occupied the same land. The book begins in 1990 with the reading of a will. Orhan, a Turk, has been left his family’s business, butmore
A Good Family
by Erik Fassnacht
A GOOD Family (5/16/2015)
I almost quit reading – then I got to page 58 and I was hooked. The four members of this family are damaged, damaged by each other, damaged by their past, damaged by their own actions. The characters are finely drawn, believable and you get to know them intimately. Themore
The Art of Baking Blind
by Sarah Vaughan
The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan (4/9/2015)
Vaughan has created five very likeable characters in the contestants for the “Next Mrs. Eaden, ‘ although Mike seems like the required male, an afterthought serving only as a foil for Claire’s Jay. Kathleen Eadon, who appears in back flashes, is the glue that serves tomore
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson
DEAD WAKE by Eric Larson (3/28/2015)
DEAD WAKE, the beautifully detailed history of the events leading up to and after the sinking of the Lusitania, is written in Larson’s style of presenting well-known facts and events in the manner of a well plotted mystery. Using both famous and obscure persons, Larsonmore
I Am Forbidden: A Novel
by Anouk Markovits
I AM FORBIDDEN by Anouk Markovits (3/24/2015)
Three children who survive the destruction of their orthodox Jewish communities during WWII are followed throughout their lives. One survives because his Catholic nanny hides him as her son until he is “restored” to Judaism after the war. One survives because that same boymore

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Demon of Unrest
    The Demon of Unrest
    by Erik Larson
    In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Memory Library
by Kate Storey
Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second chances are written in the margins.
Book Club Giveaway!
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

D T the B O W the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.