Recent Reader Reviews

Best Recent Reader Reviews

See also First Impressions, for member reviews of upcoming books
Power Reviewer Cloggie Downunder

Page-turner crime fiction.
The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first book in the Cormoran Strike series by best-selling British author, J K Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith. The author gathers together two interesting protagonists: an intelligent, if irreverent, ex-Army Special Investigations Branch RMP, Cormoran Strike, an Afghanistan war amputee who has set up a not-very-successful Private Detective business; and Robin Ellacott, the young woman who is, initially, his temporary secretary, resourceful, smart, enthusiastic, and showing plenty of initiative.

Their investigation into what has been deemed a celebrity suicide by the policemore
Power Reviewer Cathryn Conroy

A Provocative and Haunting Work of Literary Fiction: Dark and Devastating to Read
This is a profound book, albeit highly disturbing, about the love and conflict, addictions and deceptions that bind together families who are struggling to survive on very little money, very little education, and very few community resources. These are people who are truly on the forgotten fringes of society.

Written by American Book Award winner Ocean Vuong, this is the story of Hai (pronounced "Hi"), a 19-year-old Vietnamese-American living in the dying, post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut. It's September 2009. Hai is lost. He has lost his sense of self and rightness. His short life has beenmore
Power Reviewer Cathryn Conroy

Witty, Wise, and Wonderful: The Perfect Summer Novel
Anne Tyler is one of my all-time favorite authors. If she writes it, I read it. There is just something magical about every book she has written, and this latest book—No. 25, which is just as special as those that precede it—was published when she was 83 years old. The girl's still got it!

The book opens when the lead character, Gail Baines, a 61-year-old assistant headmistress at a posh private school in Baltimore, is summarily let go instead of being promoted after her boss, the headmistress, decides to retire. This just happens to be the day before Gail's only daughter, Debbie, is getting married. Gail fleesmore
Labmom55

Perfect for book clubs
I will admit to grabbing an advance copy of The Uproar because of that wonderful cover and understanding it was about trying to temporarily rehome a dog. Not just any dog, Judy is a 150# Bull Mastiff with numerous health concerns. Sharif and his wife Adjoua are expecting their first child who has been diagnosed with leukemia in utero. The dog can’t be in their cramped apartment while the baby is treated. Needless to say, no one agrees to take the dog. Dog parents can absolutely understand the dilemma Sharif is faced with. And he ends up making a bad decision about who to trust.
The stress that Sharif is under ismore
Power Reviewer Cloggie Downunder

another dose of brilliant crime fiction from a master of the genre.
The White Crow is the second book in the Philomena McCarthy series by award-winning, bestselling Australian author, Michael Robotham. A home invasion with a hostage held while a jeweller is forced to open his shop and safe, nets the thieves over four million pounds. Unaware of this, PC Philomena McCarthy, now four years out of Hendon and a year married to firefighter, Henry, is on a 3am food run for her colleagues at Kentish Town police station when she spots a child in pyjamas wandering the street. Five-year-old Daisy Kemp-Lowe says she can’t wake her mother, and Philomena soon learns why this is tragicallymore
Power Reviewer Anthony Conty

Now Is the Time to Panic
A VIP's kid turns up missing for her bunk early in the morning. The Counselor panics, and the Counselor-In-Training apparently "experimented" the night before. "The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore wastes no time introducing its conflict. She has various characters as the foci for the story and jumps around from the '50s to the '60s to the '70s to get us up to speed.

Quentin Tarantino has taught me that nonlinear storytelling will eventually run its course, so the multiple viewpoints, though many, did not distract me from enjoyment. The chapters end with cliffhangers, which makes you want to check in on the othermore
Power Reviewer Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews - Another GEM by Hazel Gaynor
We learn of Auntie Em's life with her sister Annie in Chicago and her life in Kansas before and after seven-year-old Dorothy came to live with Em and Henry after Annie passed away.

Em and her sister lived in Chicago until Uncle Henry swept her off her feet and took her to Kansas.

Annie stayed in Chicago and married a man Em wasn't fond of - she wasn't even sure her sister loved him. Her sister had a secret that Em wanted to reveal, and it was something that came between them.

Em loved Kansas and her life on the farm, and when she was called back to Chicago to take her niece Dorothy to live with her, Em wondered howmore
Trisha

family secrets that kept me hooked
"everyone is an unreliable narrator."

Ooooh this one was SO GOOD. It had me hooked from the start. Olivia is in a really tough spot. She's burned some bridges recently in her ghost writing career and the industry has canceled her for it. She's in a bit of a bind, financially, and is wondering if she'll work again.

When a surprise offers is extended. After leaving her father's house years ago, she's never been back, never spoke to him again. As a famous horror author, she felt he'd neglected her and she'd rather having nothing than forgive him for his mistakes. But now he's asking her to ghostwrite a story with himmore
Trisha

What a wonderfully, dark, gothic story.
"There is no saying what horrors might lurk in those black waters."

What a wonderfully, dark, gothic story. A bog, a surfacing body, an autopsy and madness. Lucy's been called to her sister's home by her sister's husband. Her twin sister, Sarah, is very unwell. But it's not a cold, Sarah is prone to bouts of "hysteria" and Lucy comes to help her out. Last time, it was when she'd lost a child. Now she comes because she wants to ensure Sarah doesn't lose her husband and house. Sarah's greatest fear is being committed.

This was a dark read and I loved it. Lucy's love for Sarah is tested again and again. She has tomore
Power Reviewer Jill

There’s no place like home.
BEFORE DOROTHY
by Hazel Gaynor

I loved Hazel Gaynor’s 2023 release, The Last Lifeboat, so I wanted to read this historical fiction read by her. From only seeing Auntie Em in the movie, The Wizard of Oz, as an older woman, it was nice to see her transformed to Emily Gale — a vibrant young woman who journeyed from Chicago to the Kansas prairie. We see her as a newlywed ready to move where Henry wanted to farm — the Great Plains. Emily had a special bond to her sister, Annie, which became strained by distance, secrets, and the paths that each chose. When tragedy strikes and Dorothy lands on Emily and Henry’smore

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Before Dorothy
    by Hazel Gaynor
    Before Oz, Aunt Em leaves Chicago for Kansas in a powerful tale of courage, change, and new beginnings by Hazel Gaynor.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Whyte Python World Tour
    by Travis Kennedy

    Rikki Thunder, drummer for '80s metal band Whyte Python, is on the verge of fame, love—and a spy mission he didn’t expect.

  • Book Jacket

    Making Friends Can Be Murder
    by Kathleen West

    Thirty-year-old Sarah Jones is drawn into a neighborhood murder mystery after befriending a deceptive con artist.

  • Book Jacket

    Ordinary Love
    by Marie Rutkoski

    A riveting story of class, ambition, and bisexuality—one woman risks everything for a second chance at first love.

Who Said...

Beware the man of one book

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

C K the C

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.