bethreadsandnaps's reviews
2653 reviews

 

3.5 ⭐️

The third installment in her popular Molly the Maid series, THE MAID’S SECRET by Nita Prose, brings back a cast of favorites: Molly, Gran, Mr. Preston, Juan, and Mr. Snow. Gran’s letters to Molly feels like a little more than half of the book, and in these letters she tells her history. These letters conveniently help to solve the present day mystery involving a Faberge egg. 

➕ Gran’s letters brings Flora (Gran) to life as a young woman. Loved these chapters! 

➕ I thought the present day interspersed with Gran’s letters provided a nice balance to the novel. 

➖ The present day mystery was rather weak. It felt like there wasn’t a lot there.  

➖ Not much Molly in this one, and her personality doesn’t come through as much in prior novels in the series.

This is a very light mystery, and I think it will work best for those readers who really enjoyed Gran in the prior novels. The reader gets a lot of backstory on Gran, and it fills a lot of holes on the “why” of Gran. It does have a satisfying ending for those who are wishing the best for these characters. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes April 8, 2025. 

 

4.25 ⭐️

THIS BOOK WILL BURY ME by Ashley Winstead shows grieving main character Jane Sharp becoming immersed in the world of armchair sleuthing and a specific case at a university in Idaho. Her network of sleuths even go to Idaho from different parts of the country to investigate. 

➕ I thought this was a very engaging novel, and I wanted to pick it up at any spare moment. 

➕ The found family element was very strong. After losing her father, Jane felt lost. The other armchair detectives felt fringe for one reason or another, and I loved their interactions with one another. 

➕ Really like learning about being an armchair detective. 

➖ I was a bit disappointed in the ending.

➖ The current culture is to give attention to the victim rather than the murderer. The victims, especially in Idaho, were just names with so much more attention given to the perpetrator. 

➖ I wanted to know more about Jane. It felt like all the reader gets is that she’s grieving. 

➖ The awful title 

I felt like I was in the sweet spot target demographic of this book. I have heard of armchair detectives through Michelle McNamara’s book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, but I haven’t read much about them other than her book. I really enjoyed seeing the inner dynamics unfold. I’m sure the author dove into these forums to understand them more, and I was super pulled into these parts of the novel. 

I loved this book, but I analytically realize there were some problems with it. Still, I will remember what a propulsive reading experience it was. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmarkfor an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes March 25, 2025. 

 #thisbookwillburyme #ashleywinstead #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #bookstagram

Part writing advice, part memoir. It read quickly. I think the memoir aspect helped to round out the writing advice and bring home the stories and advice about writing. 

The advice is solid but dated. Get a book that lists agents, and write to them. 😂 Fax writing samples. 

Enjoyable read, particularly if you want to start writing. 

It was hard to see what tied together this couple Malcolm and Jess. Sure, their marriage was at a breaking point, but I thought the flashbacks would give the reader a sense of what had brought them together and kept them together for so many years. Didn’t the author want us to root for them instead of hoping Jess and her new guy went off into the sunset? 

Pieces of this were good. I was strangely fond of the bar (The Half Moon) drama. 

The relationship part I wasn’t as into.

3.25 ⭐️

SALTWATER, the sophomore novel by Katy Hays, has plenty of rich people behaving badly. Richard Lingate’s wife Sarah was found dead in the waters below the cliffs of Capri, Italy, in 1992. It’s now 2022, and the family is back in Capri. Sarah’s daughter Helen, now an adult (she was 3 years old when Sarah died), is almost held as a captive of the family. After arriving, they find the necklace Sarah was wearing when she died. The family’s employee Lorna comes with them to Capri and disappears shortly thereafter.  

It was difficult to get invested in these characters. The reason why isn’t because they aren’t likeable, per se, because that doesn’t usually bug me. It was more that I didn’t build any connection with most of them. 

Like many stories with dual or multiple timelines, I was very interested in the oldest timeline (1992, in this case). I felt most empathy for Sarah and thought the author did a very good job of giving her an interesting storyline. Renata didn’t get much space in the pages, but she intrigued me as well. The brothers Richard and Marcus seemed rather indistinguishable from one another. Freddy didn’t seem to have much of a personality. Essentially, the men got shortchanged.

The setting is decent, and I think the pictures within the novel help the setting to come even more alive. (Putting a few of those pictures in the book probably was also a nice reason for the author to write off a trip to Italy.)

I would classify this as more of a slow burn suspense. I enjoyed it well enough for what it was. This would be a good beach read, but I wouldn’t recommend going in wanting more from it than that.  

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes March 25, 2025. 

 #saltwater #katyhays #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #bookstagram 

4.25 ⭐️

I’m a sucker for an older protagonist who finds purpose…even if that is due to a mouse. Helen is 83 and moves home to England after living most of her life in Australia. She’s lost both her husband and son, and she’s reconciled with the fact that she’s going to go soon. 

 

NOWHERE, a horror debut by Allison Gunn, has a riveting and complicated protagonist in police chief Rachel Kennan. She is filled with grief over her son dying a year ago in addition to having a chip on her shoulder after separating from her violent husband and coming out as gay in a small town. I feel like there are plenty of male characters with some rage in them like Rachel, and I was disappointed when fellow reviewers found Rachel so dislikeable that it impeded their enjoyment of the novel. In contrast, I love how complicated Rachel is. 

My interest waned when it came to the disturbing crime and subsequent disappearances that affected the town. I know THAT was the main gist of the story, but I wanted to get back to the relationship dynamics between Rachel and all the other characters, especially Finn.

This novel is intense, and it could very well be that I wasn’t in the mood for intense. For the most part, this story reads like you’re watching a Blumhouse movie. You can see all the beats. What gives it more nuance is Rachel’s background, and you, like me, might want that to be explored more in a different genre like literary fiction. 

There is a very personal Author’s Note, and I think it would have worked better at the end of the story than in the beginning of the book. I don’t think I’ve read such a deeply personal Author’s Note before starting a book.  

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

 

Grady Hendrix really writes women well! Main character Neva is taken to a home for wayward girls when her parents find out she’s pregnant in 1970. There she is forced to temporarily change her name to a plant or flower (her new name is Fern), work around the maternity home under the evil headmistress, and talk amongst the other girls like Rose, Iris, Holly, and Zinnia. 

If there is an anti-food book out there, this one is it! The front half is full of food descriptions that made my stomach turn. 

Seeing the girls pull together was heartening. When they go to the library, the mysterious librarian slips them an interesting book about witchcraft, and that really sets the plot in motion. 

I thought this was a very propulsive novel that balanced what life was likely like in one of these homes with the more fantastical witchcraft element. Some of the scenes were written so well that you could picture the movie version in your head, and I totally see the movie/TV rights being purchased for this novel.

While this was an enjoyable and slightly educational read with the historical fiction aspect, it didn’t quite hit 5 ⭐️ territory for me. But I will definitely pick up the next Grady Hendrix novel.

 

THE GRIFFIN SISTERS’ GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner is a novel about two sisters who started a band in their early 20s, and their relationship fell apart for the next couple decades until one of their daughters needs help to fulfill her dreams. 

Cassie and Zoe are close-in-age sisters. Cassie is extraordinarily musically gifted, and Zoe has stars in her eyes and the determination to be famous more than actual talent. Cassie is also fat while Zoe meets the mainstream beauty standards. Zoe gets Cassie to start a band with her, but once she realizes that Cassie is getting attention for her talent, Zoe feels irrelevant and takes actions to make herself stay relevant to the band. After the band splits up, Cassie retreats to desolate Alaska while Zoe has her daughter and marries. 

This was a compelling narrative, for the most part. There is some disturbing sexual stuff between stepsiblings that I think could have been explored more because there was enough dropped that the reader felt invested, but it ultimately didn’t come to a good resolution for me. I wish the friction between the sisters wasn’t over a guy in the band and was instead over something that could have passed the Bechdel test. 

I thought Zoe was a very interesting character. She seemed wholly unlikeable for a chunk of this book, but you know what? She felt very realistic. I think many of us, including me, have acted like Zoe, especially when young. I felt invested in the plot and wanted these sisters to reunite and make music together again. I thought Zoe’s daughter Cherry was really mature for her age. 

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes April 8, 2025. 

 

RABBIT MOON by Jennifer Haigh is a unique novel mostly taking place in Shanghai that I couldn’t put down. 

Lindsey is a twenty-two year old American living in Shanghai when she is involved in a hit and run. Her divorced parents are summoned to Shanghai as she clings to life in the hospital. This story shows the perspectives of each of the four members of the Litvak family: Claire (mother), Aaron (father), Lindsey, and her younger adopted sister Grace. 

The Shanghai setting comes alive, with me wanting to visit there. Haigh’s adept writing unfurls the narrative at a good pace. The reader is intrigued and wants to know more (WHY did Lindsey choose the path that she did?), and at that moment Haigh tells you more. Even the minor characters, like Lindsey’s friend Johnny, are written with a lot of nuance. 

If there is a quibble to be had, it’s that I felt invested in the minor characters and wanted to know more from and about them. 

I have read almost everything Haigh has written, and this one knocks it out of the park as a character-driven, unique, dysfunctional family novel that I won’t soon forget.  

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Co. for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

RABBIT MOON publishes April 1, 2025.