I had heard great things about this book and I had enjoyed one of his other books. With this one, I'm really torn. There are parts of this book that I seriously hated and I also found it fairly predictable. It's a New York story, so I liked seeing if I knew the locations he wrote about.

Great summer read. Perfect getaway.

This was a really interesting novel. I already know the story of Huck Finn, and I loved Big River, the musical that is based of it. I could not stop thinking about the musical while I enjoyed this story. It also reminded me of things I forgot when originally reading the Adventures of Huck Finn. I can see why it won the Pulitzer, and why I have been hearing about it becoming a film soon.

A woman goes to Italy to try and find out about her family's past and ends up finding herself. Excellent book - highly recommend!

This was another amazing book by Kristin Harmel. It’s a dual timeline set in the time leading up to WWII and WWII itself in Paris and 2018 in Boston. It explores an intriguing theme of moral ambiguities. What if someone is doing what’s considered immoral but for a good cause? In this book, the main character, Collette’s family is descended from the legendary Robin Hood. They have succeeded in following Robin Hood’s mission from stealing from the rich to give to the poor. At the age of 10, Collette learns the family trade of being a jewel thief. It all seems to go well for her and her mother Annabel until a tragic event that shakes the family to the core during WWII. It was a mission to steal some jewelry back for their Jewish friends who were sent away to the death camp. But, it ends up going horribly wrong and has Collette losing her mother and 4 year old sister, Liliane in one instant. Flash forward to 2018 in Boston and at 89, Collette is still a successful jewel thief, still stealing from evil people with wealth, to benefit the disadvantaged or for a mission to fund a Holocaust education center in Boston. What she didn’t expect was one of the bracelets of the dear friends her family lost in the war on that tragic night to turn up again. The same one her sister had on her person all those years ago when she disappeared. This leads to the mystery of where it came from and the story flashes between two timelines to fill in the gaps of what happened all those years ago. Like many of her other books, this was a quick read. In fact, I finished it in a day. It’s a testament to her engaging characters and compelling storytelling that tugs at your heartstrings. I highly recommend this book.

The bodies of the Pine family, mother, father, sister and little brother are found dead in their vacation home. Two sons have survived one, a college student, who couldn’t attend the trip because he had classes, and one a prisoner for the murder of his girlfriend. What happened here, and why. An intriguing story. Very suspenseful.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a fantasy/mystery. I listened to the audiobook and also enjoyed the australian narrator. The parallel story lines of Mary and Liza and Lucy and Jess were interesting and enjoyable

The book was good but I thought it was too long. I think she could have told the same story in fewer page

This is a nice non-fiction book about Abigail and John Adams. Telling the story of their lives, getting some information from letters and journals.

Elizabeth Hoyt, the very prolific author of more than 20 Recency Romance novels has written another one. Her latest, NO ORDINARY DUCHESS, is rich with characters, charm, and social settings that existed in the early part of the 1800's in Great Britain. To this is added the unique story for whatever novel. All of Hoyt's Recency Romance novels have a hero (handsome and brooding), a heroine(charming and headstrong) and , of course, a villain (ruthless and cruel). Frequently a kidnapping or blackmail is involved. So far, so good. However, this latest offering goes into great detail about the hero's problem. Rather than his problem being about money, the life of a second son, or a forced marriage - Julian Greycourt's problems are sexual. And, in a twist of roles, Lady Elspeth comes along to save him, rather than visa versa.... I'm all for gender bending stereotypes in literature (and life?) but a found this book to be more graphic than I like in Regency England.