Fall Reading Recap and Mini Book Reviews 10/16/22

My fall reading recap and mini book reviews of mysteries and thrillers that have been perfect for my fall reading list.

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Last week was a loooong week, friends! If you saw my Instagram post yesterday, you’ll know it was Monday all week long. Everything in our house, including our heat and internet, broke last week…at. the. same. time. Today, things are happily restored to 90% normal. It was so chaotic, I was actually GLAD to have time to clean the bathroom (something i never look forward to).

Anyway, I’m sooo thankful for audiobooks to keep me sane through the banging and stress of this week. I did a lot of jigsaw puzzling and listening to audio to keep me sane and fill my cup. 

I’ve been working really hard on my 2022 reading challenges, primarily focusing on whittling down my TBR for my Bookshelves of Joy project and also my fall reading list of mysteries, murder and mayhem. So most of these are not new releases. I’d love to hear what you thought if yo’ve read any

Here’s what I was reading and mini book reviews for the ones I finished.

Last to Die

I finished Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen on my Kindle and I gave it 3* (liked it). I was really captivated trying to figure out the connection between three kids whose birth families AND foster families were all brutally murdered. This is part of the Rizzoli and Isles book and TV series. It was entertaining but the ending/wrap up was a bit meh for me. It was a good ride but I wouldn’t read again so donated back to my library.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Finished Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker, translated by Kevin Willarty – 5* (loved it). The Art of Hearing Heartbeats isgorgeous, breathtaking and heartbreaking all at once. I just loved the writing and being witness to this story of true love.

It’s set in Burma/Myanmar for my Travel the World in Books challenge and I will keep it on my Bookshelves of Joy. I’m going to grab it on Kindle too so I can easily highlight the quotes I want to keep and send it to my Notion database. So many I bookmarked while I listened to audio!

I don’t want to give too much away but the story begins with a woman who goes searching for her missing father. He up and left his wife and family one day and never returned. She returns to his birth country to unravel a story she never expected in her quest to find him and get to know him better.

Pretty Baby

Finished Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica 4* – for my TBR Bookshelves of Joy challenge – a good psychological thriller about a charitable mother who lost a baby and reaches out to a homeless girl with an infant in her arms. She wants to help but what unfolds is not what you’d expect! Mary Kubica is one of my favorite thriller authors. Even though I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t stop listening to the audio, I donated it because I felt like I wouldn’t likely read it again. Too many good books and not enough bookshelf space!

Local Woman Missing

Finished Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica 4* – Kubica is one of my favorite thriller authors, can you tell? As soon as I finished Pretty Baby, I grabbed her latest Local Woman Missing on audio. She’s becoming an auto-read author for me.

In Local Woman Missing, Delilah, her mother and another lady go missing from a small town. Eleven years later Deliliah escapes and trying to find what happened to the other two missing ladies.

I almost didn’t get through the part where young Delilah describes her kidnapping and mistreatment, whew! those kind of traumatic abuse stories especially dealing with kids haunt me. But I pushed through. It was a good book and I didn’t see the end coming, I guess that’s a great sign for a thriller!

The Girl With the Make Believe Husband

Finished The Girl with the Make Believe Husband by Julia Quinn – a Bridgerton prequel, Rokesby #2 – As usual, I found this Bridgerton prequel entertaining and Quinn’s romance books and character interactions/dialogue usually make me laugh out loud at some point while I’m listening. A fun escape showing the British perspective in colonial America.

In The Girl with the Make Believe Husband ,Cecilia tells a bit of a lie, that she’s the wife of an unconsicous British soldier. He’s the best friend of her missing brother and she hopes he has answers that can help. But she has to say she’s his wife or the nurses won’t let her near him. I needed something cheesy and fun and predictable after all the crazy thrillers and home stuff going on. This fit the bill and I will finish the series, Bridgerton books are my guilty reading pleasures.

Inner Circle

Currently Listening to Inner Circle By Brad Meltzer – we met Brad at an author event in 2015. He’s such a talented storyteller, and the only author that can appeal to every reading preference in our family, which is nothing short of a miracle! (Thrillers for me, Justice League graphic novels for my husband and oldest kid, the Ordinary People Save the World series for my youngest two in the pic.). You gotta read our story about meeting him,  how he graciously signed our big stack of books and how my youngest son (5 or 6 years old at the time) had his 15 minutes of Twitter fame. Plus my 3 boys are itty bitty and adorable, now 2 out of 3 are taller than me! 🙁 

I’m really enjoying this historical thriller and am about halfway through. In  Inner Circle, Beecher White is an archivist who stumbles across a well hidden artifact (a dictionary that belonged to George Washington) in the President’s secret vault in the National Archives that is not where it should be (in the leg of a chair). Minutes after they find it, his friend and coworker winds up dead.

So the story and chase begins to figure out why, who murdered his friend and how to escape the same fate. It’s really good! It’s the first book in the series and I have all of them and will be sure to finish the series.

I’ll be taking a break from nonfiction for now so I can enjoy my mysteries this month. Mysteries and thrillers is one of my favorite genres to read so it’s been fun and it’s my birthday month so I’ll read what I want! 🙂

I’m up to 31 books read/consumed out of my goal of 50. I say “consumed” cause lots of those are audio. I still count them though for my reading goal.

Wanna Build a Book Club? 

* I had the Frozen song going in my head when I asked that * 

I’ve been wanting to get a virtual/online book club going again, anyone interested in joining me? I know I’ve talked to a few people about it! Reply and let me know what you’d like to read and/or how you’d like to “meet” to discuss books! 

Other Bookish Fun

• check out my 2022 reading challenges progress 
• Fun reading challenges and bookish games to encourage reluctant and unmotivated readers
• Books you need for your personal library – productivity, fun and decluttering must reads
• 2022 readathons – Dewey’s 24 hour readathon is coming up again!

Ok that’s it for my reading update, what are you reading? Linking this post up with Book Date‘s It’s Monday, What are You Reading? Be sure to check out other book lovers’ reading update posts too!

Reply and tell me! I love to talk about good books! I’d love if you can click on the link at the bottom this email to forward it to a friend who might like it! I love encouraging people to read for fun! 

Have a great week, until next time!