I blinked and, somehow, it's April. Oof! How did March race by so quickly? I didn't have any specific plans to read bookish books in March, but I did manage to get to four of them:

The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan—This book is a murder mystery that revolves around a mythical lost treasure. It's not super bookish, but one of the main characters is a novelist with writer's block who takes on a beachside house sitting gig in the hopes that the beautiful, peaceful surroundings will be the inspiration she needs to get her next book written. Instead, she gets caught up in trying to solve a murder. 

Murder on the Page by Daryl Wood Gerber—In this series debut, a pair of twin sisters are desperately trying to save their family's dying bookshop. Allie Catt, also a caterer, comes up with the idea of hosting mystery-themed dinners to raise needed funds. Things are going swimmingly until Allie's aunt is murdered and Allie's best friend is accused of the killing. The well-read caterer must summon all the knowledge she's gleaned from her favorite literary detectives to solve the puzzling crime and clear her BFF's name.

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—Gaynor's newest historical is about a ship carrying British children to safety in Canada during World War II that is sunk by a German U-boat. One lifeboat, carrying several children, their female attendant, and a handful of men is left floating in the ocean, forgotten. The passengers must survive, somehow, until they're rescued, but when—if ever—will that be? Books come into play because the female attendant is a big reader. She entertains the kids in the boat by telling them the story of Moby Dick from memory. 

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister—The star of this thriller, McAllister's latest, is a literary agent and her husband works as a ghostwriter. On the day she is supposed to return to work after nine months of maternity leave, she awakes to find her husband has left the house without saying goodbye, highly unusual for him. She soon learns that he is involved in a hostage situation taking place in another part of London. To her shock, her laidback, affable husband is not a victim, but the perpetrator. How can the man she loves be holding people hostage at gunpoint? Does she even know him at all?

I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading in April, honestly, but these two look promising:

The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White (available July 15, 2025)—When the Nazis begin banning books in Germany, exiled German writers start gathering in Paris, where they open a library to safeguard their books and ideas. Corinne Bastien has made the library her second home, but when Paris is overtaken by Nazis, she loses her precious escape. With the help of a reluctant German soldier, it's up to her to protect the precious library and all the secrets it hold from falling into the hands of the enemy.

The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens—A librarian in the Midwest, Hana Babic goes out of her way to live a quiet, unassuming life. Her dark past is something she is desperate to keep hidden. When her best friend is murdered, Hana's afraid the secrets she's keeping about her previous life as a Bosnian militia fighter will make her a killer's next target. With her best friend's young granddaughter now in her care, Hana must protect herself and her charge at all costs. 

I love me a seasonal TBR list, even if I never actually read any of the titles I so ambitiously place on them. Since I was feeling uninspired for last week's freebie-ish prompt, I actually started this week's topic—Top Ten Books On My Spring 2025 TBR List—early. If you want to see Part One of my list, click here or just scroll down on my blog (since TTT posts seem to be the only thing I publish lately). 

As always, this fun weekly meme is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

- Part Two - 

1. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—I've been listening to this World War II novel on audio, but it's been slow going and I finally had to turn it back in to the library since another patron had requested it. Luckily, I have an e-ARC of the book on my Kindle. I'm about 60% through the book and it's still plodding along. You'd think a story about the last survivors of a torpedoed ship struggling to stay alive would be more exciting and emotionally resonant, but it just...isn't. I'm determined to finish The Last

 Lifeboat since I'm so close. It's just a *bit* of a slog...

2. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth—Since I can't do housework without an audiobook to listen to, I checked out a new one. I read three of this Australian author's domestic thrillers last year and loved them. The Mother-in-Law is about the suspicious death of a wealthy matriarch who had complicated relationships with her two children and their spouses. Although Diana Goodwin left behind a suicide note claiming she can't bear to live with the cancer inside her, the coroner finds no signs of the disease in her body, although he does find evidence of poison and suffocation. Diana was not the warmest of women, but who hated her enough to kill her?

3. You Belong Here by Megan Miranda (available July 29, 2025)—Miranda is one of my go-to mystery/thriller writers, so I'm always stoked when she publishes a new book. I started an e-ARC of this one, her newest, yesterday before setting it aside temporarily while I finish The Last Lifeboat. It has to do with a mother returning to her hometown to drop her daughter off for her freshman year of college. Twenty years ago, Beckett left the same school following a deadly fire allegedly set by her roommate, who then vanished, never to be seen again. Already uneasy about leaving her only child in a place she never intended to return to, Beckett finds her past overlapping with her present as she contemplates what really happened the night of the fire. 

4. A Town With Half the Lights On by Page Getz (available April 22, 2025)—I like the look and sound of this heartwarming novel. It's about a family from Brooklyn who move to tiny Goodnight, Kansas, to check out the crumbling Victorian home they've inherited. Even while they search for a way to go back to New York, Sid Solvang decides on a whim to buy Goodnight's fledgling diner. As the hopeful transplants try to make a go of their new life, they find themselves wrapped up in the small-town spirit of a place that is suddenly starting to feel an awful lot like home.

5. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister—After about a month of hanging out on a library waiting list, I've finally got my hands on the newest mystery/thriller from another one of my go-to authors. This one is about a woman who is eager to go back to her job as a literary agent after being on maternity leave. She's all set to drop her baby off at daycare and go to work, but when she wakes up, her husband is mysteriously missing from their bed. Then, she hears breaking news about a hostage situation brewing in London. She's shocked to learn that her mild-mannered husband is involved—as the gunman. What has driven him to this extreme and how can she stop him from taking things any further?

6. Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King—The generous folks at Candlewick Press just sent me the first two books in this delightful-sounding middle-grade mystery series. It stars Bonnie Montgomery, aka Montgomery BonBon, a 10-year-old who just happens to be a world-famous detective (or will be someday). When a death occurs at a local museum, the intrepid investigator takes the case!

7. An Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette—I'm always on the lookout for fun cozy mysteries. This is the first installment in an older series about a woman who takes a job as a food critic for a Key West, Florida, magazine. Her new boss is the last person she wants to deal with. When the boss ends up dead, the food critic must find her killer before she ends up taking the blame for the foul deed.

8. The Midnight Estate by Kelly Rimmer (available July 22, 2025)—I've got an e-ARC of this forthcoming Gothic family secrets novel. It's about a woman who returns to her Australian hometown to restore her ancestral estate. As she works, she discovers dark secrets long buried by the family she thought she knew.

9. Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin—I made some fairly ambitious resolutions for 2025 which lasted for about, oh, 24 whole hours, if that. I've still got goals I want to work on and fulfill, but I'm in desperate need of motivation. I'm hoping this book will help.

10. Off the Map by Meika Hashimoto—Survival stories are my jam and this one sounds exciting. It's about two friends who are feeling distanced from each other, which makes going on the canoe trip their families planned together a little awkward. When the two get lost, they find themselves all alone in the Alaskan wilderness with no idea how to find their way back to civilization. Can they mend their differences and work together to save themselves?

There you go, ten more books I want to read this Spring. Have you read any of them? What did you think? What's on your Spring TBR list? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

I'm not sure how this happened exactly, but somehow we're in the last month of 2023. Crazy! Things around here start moving in fast forward once Halloween is over, making for a lot of holiday busyness. I hope you're surviving your end-of-the-year-chaos and even finding some time to relax with a good bookish book. 

My November reading was focused on books I needed to read in order to finish out my 2023 reading challenges. Surprisingly, that included these six bookish books, which I've listed in order of most liked to least liked (links will take you to my reviews on Goodreads, since I've been a complete slacker this year about posting them on my actual book blog):

  

With Thanksgiving barely behind us and Christmas looming right ahead, you'd think I'd be able to come up with something festive for today's Top Ten Tuesday. You'd be wrong. Instead, I'm going to take a more summery slant on our prompt du jour—Top Ten Books Set in X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.)—and go with the suggested boat/ship setting. Even though I get terrible motion sickness, especially on water vessels, this is a setting I actually quite enjoy in books. Something about the combination of feelings that ensues just appeals to me: the excitement of an impending voyage, the wonder and fear of what lies below in the fathomless depths of the sea, the claustrophobia of being trapped in a floating tin can with a group of strangers you don't know if you can trust, etc. This summer will find me and my husband on our first cruise, traveling to Alaska, and I don't know what to expect. Hopefully, nothing like what happens in the books on my list (most of which are mystery/thriller novels)!

If you're not aware, TTT is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Click on over and give her some love, won't you?

1. Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith—I've talked about this YA fantasy/horror novel before. It's about a group of students who are enrolled in a semester-at-sea program aboard a luxury cruise ship. Liv can't believe it when she's selected to participate. While on board, however, she discovers that she was only chosen for the trip because the girl who was supposed to be there has mysteriously disappeared. When other participants start vanishing and other strange things begin happening on the ship, Liv begins to believe in a supernatural explanation. Just what kinds of monsters lurk under the sea below her? Which type lives above?

2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann—I'm probably the last person in the book blogosphere to read this non-fiction account of the strange tale of the titular ship. The patched-together vessel floated into Brazil in 1742 carrying a crew of starving English sailors who had been shipwrecked and marooned for months. Although the men were hailed as heroes, another vessel arrived in Chile with a few more of The Wager's survivors. These men had a very different tale to tell...

3. Seven Days in May by Kim Izzo—Based on the author's own family history, this historical novel sounds intriguing. It's about two American sisters who board the Lusitania, knowingly risking the perils of traveling during World War I, but never imagining just how perilous their trip will soon become.

4. The Last One by Will Dean—This thriller has been featured on a few of my TTT lists this year. It's about a woman who embarks on a cruise with her new boyfriend. After a whirlwind night on board, she awakes to find Pete missing from their room. When she steps out of her cabin, she discovers that everyone has vanished. She is the only one aboard the ship, which is floating in the middle of the sea with no land in sight. What happened to all the passengers and crew members? How is the last one going to save herself now?

5. Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans—This social history about how women's lives were changed by their journeys aboard luxury liners during the early twentieth century sounds fascinating. It tells the stories of a number of female travelers, from celebrities in first class to immigrants in steerage to stewardesses and other crew members who bustled about the ships making sure everyone was safe and comfortable.

6. The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish—This British thriller concerns a group of people who commute to work in London via riverboat. The shared experience has created a community of riders who intermingle while cruising up and down the Thames. When one of them is murdered and another is accused of killing him, the commuters' lives are all upended. Who killed Kit and why?

7. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—The lives of two women collide on the high seas during World War II as they desperately try to save themselves and two children after their ship is torpedoed by Nazi U-boats, leaving them stranded in the last available lifeboat. This harrowing survival story is based on  real events. 

8. A Stranger On Board by Cameron Ward—I've mentioned this murder mystery before as well. It's about an ex-marine who is looking for a new start and finds it working as security on board a luxury superyacht. As they head out to open sea, someone goes missing. It doesn't take long to figure out there's a killer on board. It's up to Sarah to find them before they pick off all the other passengers one by one...

9. The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton—In 1934, two women embark on a round-trip voyage from New York to Cuba. One is posing as a wealthy heiress. The other is dead. At least that's what everyone thinks. In reality, she's very much alive and on board to get revenge on the person who wronged her. As the fates of the two women collide, they will find themselves risking everything to make sure justice is finally served.

10. Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban—Like #1, this is a YA thriller featuring a group of students enrolled in a semester-at-sea program. After being betrayed by her boyfriend and her best friend, Jade is looking forward to getting away from it all and losing herself in foreign lands and adventures. She isn't expecting the couple who ruined her life to be on board as well. As her fury at them builds, a murder occurs on the ship. Then more of the students begin to suffer similar fates. There's a killer on board, but who is it? Jade has to find out before more people end up dead.

There you are, ten books with boat/ship settings that I want to read. How do you feel about boats/ships? Which books have you enjoyed with this theme? Which are on your TBR? What setting did you pick for your list today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours. I also reply to comments left here, although I am a week behind at the moment.

(While preparing my list, I came across this one with the same theme posted by the lovely bloggers over at Beyond the Bookends. Thanks for the help and recs, ladies!)

Sometimes I have real trouble coming up with books to fit the Top Ten Tuesday topic du jour.  Then, a freebie comes along and I blank on that too! Yikes.  Since I don't want to tax my summer brain too much, I'm going to highlight more upcoming releases I'm eager to read.  I did a two-part TTT list on this topic back in March (here's Part One, here's Part Two) that focused on up-and-comers for the first part of the year.  Today's list will feature releases for the second half, although most of these titles come out this summer.    

If you want to join in the TTT fun, click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details.

(in order of release date)

1.  The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman (coming June 8, 2021)—I enjoyed Steadman's two previous thrillers, so I'm excited for her newest effort.  It concerns Mia Eliot, a British actress who comes to Hollywood for pilot season, hoping to land a lucrative, career-making job.  When a fellow actress, whom Mia met only briefly, disappears, Mia is questioned as the last person to see her.  Then, the missing woman reappears, but Mia's almost positive the two women are not the same.  Sounds intriguing!

2.  Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly deVos (coming June 29, 2021)—deVos is another author whose books I enjoy and the plot summary of her newest just makes me laugh.  It's a body-positive YA novel about a group of teens who are forced under mysterious circumstances to attend a weight-loss camp in Flagstaff, Arizona.  Nothing about the situation makes sense, especially not the other campers who seem...not quite alive.  As the teens try to uncover the camp's secrets, they find themselves in a surprising and desperate fight against rabid zombies. 

 

3.  A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe (coming July 20, 2021)—It's 1954 and Katharina Edgeworth is a wealthy, bored New York City housewife.  When she's recruited by the FBI to be an informant with the job of infiltrating the private world of a man from her past who has become a Soviet spy, it presents a tantalizing chance for Katharina to break free from her gilded cage and do something both exciting and important.

4.  Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (coming July 27, 2021)—Two estranged sisters set out on a trip across Europe to fulfill their grandmother's dying wish of delivering goodbye letters to people she once knew.  The duo must deal with their own strained relationship, confront family secrets, and travel in a time and place that feels increasingly dangerous.

5.  The Light of Luna Park by Addison Armstrong (coming August 10, 2021)—This historical novel revolves around a nurse who helps treat premature infants in 1937.  When she hears about Martin Couney's exhibit of the tiny babies at Coney Island, it changes her perspective, putting her in conflict with the doctors for whom she works.  As the mother of two babies born at 29 weeks gestation, I'm definitely interested in reading this dual-timeline novel, which sounds super interesting. 

6.  The Family Plot by Megan Collins (coming August 17, 2021)—Dahlia Lighthouse was raised on an isolated island under the strict guard of her true crime-obsessed parents.  Still haunted by the disappearance of her twin brother ten years ago, Dahlia returns to her childhood home where a gruesome discovery has been made: her brother's body has been buried in her father's plot.  How did his body end up there?  What really happened to Dahlia's brother?  Was he murdered by a serial killer or someone a lot closer to home?

7.  A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins (coming August 31, 2021)—When a man is found dead on a houseboat, three women who were close to him are investigated for murder.  There's not much of a plot summary for this one, but I like Hawkins so I'm in.

8.  Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (coming September 14, 2021)—Not gonna lie, I haven't been impressed with Moriarty's last couple novels.  I'm hoping her newest is as compelling as the older titles that I have loved by her.  Her latest is another family drama about a complicated family with some very intriguing secrets.

9.  Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan (coming October 19, 2021)—This historical novel is about a young woman who is grief-stricken over the impending death of her beloved younger brother.  George, who is captivated by a newly-published book called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is desperate to know from whence Narnia came.  Despite her timidity about approaching C.S. Lewis, George's sister does it anyway.  The answer to George's question will change her life, even if it won't save her brother's. 

10.  The Pilot's Daughter by Meredith Jaeger (coming November 2, 2021)—Inspired by a real murder, this one revolves around a would-be reporter who is desperate to find her father, a pilot who goes missing during the waning days of World War II.  When she discovers love letters from a woman who is not her mother among her father's things, she's shocked—and even more desperate to find out where he is.  Can she figure out what happened to the father she loves, but apparently doesn't really know?   

There you go, ten upcoming releases I'm excited to read.  Do any catch your eye as well?  What new releases are you looking forward to bingeing on during the rest of 2021?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

In April 1912, a group of Irish travelers from County Mayo boarded the most magnificent ship the world had ever seen.  Despite their steerage class tickets, they marveled at the grandeur and luxury of R.M.S. Titanic.  Little could any of them imagine that so many—including most of their group—would not survive their voyage aboard the great, but ill-fated ocean liner.  

One of few steerage class survivors, 17-year-old Maggie Murphy is grappling with the enormity of her loss.  Alone in a new country, her neighbors and friends buried at sea, Maggie knows she has to put the tragedy behind her and move on.  Shoving her grief into the farthest recesses of her heart, she forges ahead, vowing never to speak of the terrible, fateful night she watched Titanic—and many of her loved ones—sink into the unforgiving deep.  

Seventy years later, Maggie watches helplessly as her 21-year-old great-granddaughter flounders after losing both of her parents within a short time.  In an effort to reach out, Maggie decides to unburden herself to grieving Grace.  As the women share their secrets, both will find closure and renewed hope despite past hurts.

I find books about Titanic endlessly fascinating, so when I heard about The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor, I knew I needed to read it.  Unfortunately, the story moves along slowly, features flat characters, and meanders about without offering any twists or surprises to keep the tale exciting.  Without any real story goals to push them along, our heroines seem aimless, observing action more than creating it.  Although I do appreciate that The Girl Who Came Home is a clean, hopeful story, on the whole I found it predictable and dull.  I wanted more depth, more originality, more motivation to keep turning pages.  I did finish this book, but overall, it just didn't do a lot for me.

(Readalikes:  Other novels about Titanic, like Voyage on the Great Titanic by Ellen Emerson White; The Midnight Watch by David Dyer; The Watch That Ends the Night by Allan Wolf; Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn; etc.)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs) and scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of The Girl Who Came Home from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.