ARC Downloads, just because I liked the covers and/or titles
What are you reading this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Saturday, March 7, 2026
Chefs in Cape Cod and in Japan: Mystery/Thrillers
NetGalley ARCs are delivering quite a few books with unusual plots. Familiar tropes are being used in new ways!
Publication: July 7, 2026; Little, Brown & Company, NetGalley
Genre: mystery, thriller, adult fiction
An aspiring chef finds she has bitten off more than she can chew when her gig as a private cook to a bestselling author turns deadly
My NG review:
Brett Novak, a gutsy young chef, takes a job as a live in cook for a famous author and his wife in Cape Cod. She not only has to deal with the strained relationship between the couple, but also with a pair of gigantic pitbulls who have the run of the house and the grounds.
I liked how Brett manages to survive the demands of both husband and wife while they play their dangerous games with each other. A lot happens in less than two weeks, including a murder, getting away with murder, and an escape from an old life.
The plot is fantastical, but made entertaining reading. , The well drawn characters are intriguing personalities, including those of the two huge dogs, who add a certain drama to the suspenseful novel.
Published Feb. 3, 2026; Ballantine, NetGalley
Genre: mystery, thriller, adult fiction
Greedy is a "suspenseful poison-pen note to classism and an ode to Japanese cuisine, a horror-tinged thriller unsuitable for vegetarians."
I'm still reading this one. After seeing them crunching on the roasted bodies and bones of little sparrows on a stick, I'm a little wary of just where the characters' appetites might take them further in the novel.
And now to an unusual Paris romance
My NG review:
The book is a love story between a physician Layla and a physically disfigured man Griffin, whose serious burns came from a fire that killed one other person. Layla and Griffin first meet at the wedding of mutual friends in Paris. As this is Paris, the reader is reminded of gargoyles on top of buildings, and even of the Hunchback of Notre Dame when Griffin's incredible burns are described as disfiguring to the left side of his face and other areas of his body. Yet, Layla is immediately struck with the look of this very "handsome" man.
It was interesting that the love interest grew around their pact to ensure the successful wedding of their friends, Emily and Michael, in spite of last minute doubts by the bride, Emily.
I was surprised that the book description did not mention the very erotic love scenes in the book, or the graphic descriptions of Griffin's physical pain that lingers from his burn scars,
This seemed an unlikely but intriguing romantic development between two very different people. I took it with a grain of salt but enjoyed it nevertheless.
What are you reading this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday
Saturday, February 28, 2026
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen: Immigration Reading Challenge
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2025)
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
I enjoyed learning about the international city of Shanghai during the 1930s and after, with its European concessions in the city, the subsequent Japanese occupation, the flight of the city inhabitants, and the events in Shanghai and China after Japan's surrender at the end of WWII.
So much of history is covered during the telling of this story. I found the book to be a perfect vehicle to reveal the events in China around that time.
The main characters, Suchi and Haiwen, grow up together in the International Settlement in Shanghai. After the Japanese leave, China is still war torn, with the Nationalists fighting against the Communists for control of the country. The Nationalists eventually flee with their leader, Chiang Kai Shek, to the island of Taiwan. Haiwen has to leave Suchi and his family after joining the Nationalist army and departing for Taiwan.
Suchi spends uncertain years in Hong Kong before emigrating to the U.S., where she meets Haiwen again by chance, after sixty or more years apart. Suchi is a grandmother by then, and Haiwen a widower. They find each other in Los Angeles and make an effort to revisit Shanghai and their ailing mothers, bringing the circle of their lives to a close.
A very moving story, and an important one for another perspective and view of Shanghai and China during the war, and about two people finding a home in the U.S. after a long and harrowing life of war and displacement.
Posted for the 2026 Immigration Reading Challenge,
Currently reading The Unwilling Plus One: A Dark RomCom, by Effie Campbell. Published Feb. 1, 2026; BooksGoSocial, NetGalley
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
I enjoyed learning about the international city of Shanghai during the 1930s and after, with its European concessions in the city, the subsequent Japanese occupation, the flight of the city inhabitants, and the events in Shanghai and China after Japan's surrender at the end of WWII.
So much of history is covered during the telling of this story. I found the book to be a perfect vehicle to reveal the events in China around that time.
The main characters, Suchi and Haiwen, grow up together in the International Settlement in Shanghai. After the Japanese leave, China is still war torn, with the Nationalists fighting against the Communists for control of the country. The Nationalists eventually flee with their leader, Chiang Kai Shek, to the island of Taiwan. Haiwen has to leave Suchi and his family after joining the Nationalist army and departing for Taiwan.
Suchi spends uncertain years in Hong Kong before emigrating to the U.S., where she meets Haiwen again by chance, after sixty or more years apart. Suchi is a grandmother by then, and Haiwen a widower. They find each other in Los Angeles and make an effort to revisit Shanghai and their ailing mothers, bringing the circle of their lives to a close.
A very moving story, and an important one for another perspective and view of Shanghai and China during the war, and about two people finding a home in the U.S. after a long and harrowing life of war and displacement.
Posted for the 2026 Immigration Reading Challenge,
And now for a Rom Com
The older daughter in a family of hired assassins finds herself unable to take part in their crimes. She will, however, kidnap a handsome neighbor in order to make him her Plus One at a family dinner and to prevent her father from announcing her engagement to one of his murderous cohorts.
I wonder how she will persuade her unwilling Plus One to become a real romantic partner!
What are you reading this week?
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Bookstores and Bookshops in Rom Coms and Other Books
Literary agent meets dashing novelist, both hiding out in a town in Devon, England in Cornwall, escaping their own pasts.
My Netgalley review: I like this friends to lovers rom com set in Devon, England in Cornwall by the sea. Petra has escaped a horrendous mistake in her job as a literary agent in London, and Ross has found refuge in Devon after fleeing a controlling editor who fed on his fame and claimed his success as her own.
Ross's good looks immediately draws Petra's attention and their involvement in writing, reading and the publishing world pulls them closer together. The book's insight into the world of publishing is fascinating, from the point of view of the two characters.
Romance is fueled by Petra's desire to get Ross writing again, helping him with his new book based on Shakespeare's characters in The Tempest. And Petra, once fed up with reading, began her slow interest in books again.
I loved how the two characters fit into the smaller world of the town in Devon and became fast friends with the booksellers and the townspeople there. The setting in Cornwall, the cliffs, the ocean, the hills, add a certain mysterious Daphne du Maurier quality to the novel that I definitely liked.
An enjoyable rom com especially for lovers of Shakespeare.
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Three Reviews: Win Me Something; Liar's Dice, This Book Made Me Think of You
Three Five Star Book Reviews
Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia WuGenre: adult fiction, literary fiction OwnVoices
Liar's Dice by Juliet Faithfull
When Mathilda Nightingale lost her husband, Joe, to cancer, her grieving is soothed by the gift he left her. Alfie, the bookstore owner, was asked to give Mathilde (Tilly) a book gift each month for twelve months. The books are meant to mean something to Tilly or to send messages to her from Joe. She had, after all, lost her interest in reading since the time Joe became sick.
I loved anticipating the books that Joe gifted her each month in advance. Visiting Paris after reading a romance, trying running after a book by Murakami on the topic, trying camping in the Scottish wilds, and books on various other topics seemed to change Tilly a little bit each time, with her new experiences and travel.
It wasn't a surprise that Alfie had so much input in the choice of the books, as Joe was never much of a reader. This of course led, no surprise here, to a romance developing between Tilly and Alfie.
An interesting plot for a novel and intriguing reasons for book choices for Tilly. I enjoyed reading this, being a book lover myself.
Published Nov. 2, 2021, Tin House
This intriguing novel nevertheless left me disturbed and slightly anxious. The well written novel is about a biracial young woman who battles feelings of loneliness in New York City. Being the only child of a Taiwanese dad and a white American mother, she feels left out when her parents divorce and have new families and children. Not feeling a part of either her dad's new family or her mom's new family, her feelings of loneliness intensify.
Battling racial discrimination or misunderstandings only adds to Willa Chen's feeling of isolation and wanting to be seen as a person in her own right.
Battling racial discrimination or misunderstandings only adds to Willa Chen's feeling of isolation and wanting to be seen as a person in her own right.
Her new experiences being nanny to a well off family with a young daughter broadens her horizons a bit, but she is eventually let go when the child becomes too old for a nanny. Left again to her own devices, there is hope she can move forward into a fuller life of her own and see and accept herself for who she really is.
Liar's Dice by Juliet FaithfullPublication: April 28, 2026; Random House, NetGalley
Genre: adult fiction, lit fiction
Teenage Dolores feels the loss of her identical twin, Mita, who was sent away to live in a hospital in London because of a serious illness. Dolores learns to read with the help of a sympathetic teacher, and begins to write letters to Mita, but receives no replies. She aims to find the money to travel to London by writing love letters on the beach for eager patrons, pawning what jewelry she can find at home, even playing poker at a casino, etc.
I found that the story was not so much Mita's illness, but the separation of the twins and what it meant to the healthy one, Dolores. Dolores must eventually come to terms with her sister's situation and the solutions that her parents had found for Mita's long term car e.
The setting of the beaches and rural areas of Brazil added to the interest of the story. Dolores is a well drawn character with whom the reader sympathizes and admires for her closeness to her imperfect twin.
Teenage Dolores feels the loss of her identical twin, Mita, who was sent away to live in a hospital in London because of a serious illness. Dolores learns to read with the help of a sympathetic teacher, and begins to write letters to Mita, but receives no replies. She aims to find the money to travel to London by writing love letters on the beach for eager patrons, pawning what jewelry she can find at home, even playing poker at a casino, etc.
I found that the story was not so much Mita's illness, but the separation of the twins and what it meant to the healthy one, Dolores. Dolores must eventually come to terms with her sister's situation and the solutions that her parents had found for Mita's long term car e.
The setting of the beaches and rural areas of Brazil added to the interest of the story. Dolores is a well drawn character with whom the reader sympathizes and admires for her closeness to her imperfect twin.
Published Feb. 3, 2026, Berkley, NetGalley
Genre: adult, romance, lit fiction
When Mathilda Nightingale lost her husband, Joe, to cancer, her grieving is soothed by the gift he left her. Alfie, the bookstore owner, was asked to give Mathilde (Tilly) a book gift each month for twelve months. The books are meant to mean something to Tilly or to send messages to her from Joe. She had, after all, lost her interest in reading since the time Joe became sick.
I loved anticipating the books that Joe gifted her each month in advance. Visiting Paris after reading a romance, trying running after a book by Murakami on the topic, trying camping in the Scottish wilds, and books on various other topics seemed to change Tilly a little bit each time, with her new experiences and travel.
It wasn't a surprise that Alfie had so much input in the choice of the books, as Joe was never much of a reader. This of course led, no surprise here, to a romance developing between Tilly and Alfie.
An interesting plot for a novel and intriguing reasons for book choices for Tilly. I enjoyed reading this, being a book lover myself.
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