★★★★☆ This beautifully written book opens with estranged siblings Byron and Benedetta Bennett reluctantly meeting after the death of their mother, Eleanor, to hear her final wishes. She leaves them an hour-long recording and a frozen Black Cake to eat together “when the time is right.”
Author: Flash Mama
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
★★★★★ Like many of CoHo’s romance books, this book starts with an unusual meeting between our main characters. When Tate Collins finds a drunken Miles Archer camped at her brother’s front door, she isn’t impressed.
What Never Happened by Rachel Howzell Hall
★★☆☆☆ As a child, Coco was the only survivor of a deadly home invasion that killed her entire family. She now writes obituaries for her hometown paper, owned by her college best friend. When elderly women start disappearing from Catalina, Coco begins to believe there’s a serial killer on the loose.
The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church
★★★☆☆ The Last Carolina Girl is Megan Church’s debut novel. Set in 1935, Leah Payne is living a happy, simple life in Holden Beach when tragedy strikes, making her an orphan. She is forced to leave the people and town that she loves to live with a foster family in Matthews, N.C.
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
★★★★☆ Chloe Davis is the daughter of a small-town serial killer in Louisiana. Since she was twelve, this fact has shaped so much of her life. It has affected romantic relationships, driven where she lives, and shaped every interaction with her mother and her brother.
We Love to Entertain by Sarah Strohmeyer
★★☆☆☆ I am an HGTV and reality TV fan, so when I saw this book with its striking cover and reality TV home renovation plot - I had to buy it. It’s too bad that the book wasn’t as good as its lovely cover, and the enticing back cover blurb led me to believe it would be.
Tips for Building a Creativity Habit
One of my 2023 goals has been to spend an hour every day on a creative pursuit, such as writing, blogging, or photography. Eight months into this experiment, I’ve learned some things that may inspire you to fit more creative time into your life.
As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson
★★☆☆☆ As Good as Dead is the third and final book in Holly Jackson’s best-selling young adult series, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. It was a fitting progression to the installment of a trilogy based on investigating serial killers.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
★★★★★ History was always my favorite subject in high school and college. This love for history is probably why I am a fan of historical fiction novels, especially ones that teach me about an unfamiliar part of history. This was the case with Kate Quinn’s The Alice Network, a Reese's Book Club selection based on … Continue reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
How to Level Up Your Photography Skills
One of the images I captured while taking a photo lesson with a professional landscape photographer. Three and a half years ago, I rediscovered my love for photography while standing in a Panera parking lot, watching an amazing sunset unfold. Since then, landscape photography has become a fulfilling side business, sparked this growing blog, taken … Continue reading How to Level Up Your Photography Skills