#nottobemissed – Rosepoint Publishing

Five Blogger Favorites for 2025 – Was This Book Also One of Yours?

Blogger's Favorites of 2025 — AI graphic courtesy ChatGPT

Remember that favorite book invitation I included in my December Recap?

It’s not easy to pick out one book of all the books you loved last year, but there were a number of you who offered to answer that question.

Amazingly two favorites were for the same book. Or…as in the case where I answer on my phone it sends as “anonymous” it may have been the same person answering twice. (Could be possible.)

Links on titles are to Goodreads. Thumbnails are links to Amazon listings both US and UK if different from US cover.)

In any case, here are the results, one or more that I hope will interest you:

Julia, at Julias Bookshelves noted Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid as her “Undisputed Favorite” in her 2025 Notable Reading Highlights. (Hope it was okay that I borrowed from your blog, Julia!)

Fiction Fan at Fiction Fan’s Books Reviews said she preferred Venetian Vespers by John Banville.

Anonymous quipped, “Geesh! If pressed I guess I would pick “The Names” by Florence Knapp (and no, it was not a new genre for me). However, it was SO close to Chris Whitaker’s “All The Colors Of The Dark” that it was really to close to call…”

Anonymous

I get that Anonymous—I’ve had a few also too close to call!

Next, I got another vote for The Names by Florence Knapp. This one from Davida Chazan at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog who reported that “It beat out My Friends by Fredrik Backman by a whisker.” Thank you, Davida!

Next, I heard from Amanda Hughes (one of my favorite go-to authors), who sent me her choice, The Sultan’s Harem by Colin Falconer.

If you get a chance, might also check out Amanda’s books. I love her “Bold Women” series!

And then in my previous disclosure from my December Review Recap, I finally settled on Endurance by Alfred Lansing as I struggled to decide whether or not Shacktletons Incredible Voyage would win over The Women by Kristin Hannah.

Was one of these a favorite of yours also? Banville is always a favorite and March is coming—a great suggestion for Reading Ireland Month 2026. And for book cover lovers, quite a difference in covers for the same book, huh?

To those responding with your favs–thank you!

Happy Reading!

The Hunted by Steven Max Russo #BookReview #militarythrillers

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Ophelia Harris, a former CIA analyst who went to work for a private intelligence and security firm working in Afghanistan, has been trying hard to stay under the radar.

What seems like a lifetime ago and a world away, she disappeared from the sandbox after a raid on an insurgent money laundering operation went terribly wrong. Every operator on the team was killed save one.

Ophelia escaped. And she got away with two suitcases filled with cash.

Gerhard Mueller runs Grendel Security Group and is Ophelia’s former employer. He knows a traitor set up the ambush that killed his team and he believes he knows who that traitor is.

He wants Harris found – and he wants her dead.

Austin Medford, a former Army Ranger, is sipping a beer at an airport lounge when he runs into a woman he believes he’s seen before during his deployment overseas. A woman running from trouble.

Soon Harris and Medford find themselves being brutally hunted by forces known and unknown trying to take them off the board.

The rules of the game are simple – run, fight, or die.

His Review:

The job of a paid killer for the government has many drawbacks. One is that when you have completed your mission you are expendable.

Ophelia Harris worked in Afghanistan as an interrogator for the Central Intelligence Agency and killed one of the people she was interrogating to establish her validity. Refuse to talk and you would take all of your secrets to the grave. Once our involvement in country was completed there was a national vendetta against her.

Her boss realized that what she was doing was illegal and against US policy and punishable with death or life in prison. She was acting under his orders and he would attempt to eliminate her and do away with any threat to him. Thus’ this story illuminates the down side of working for clandestine government agencies. She moved away and established a new life after her contract with the agency was completed.

Having someone who can testify to the ruthlessness of these agencies is not in our government’s best interests. Her handler engages some of his best operatives to eliminate the threat she poses to his agency and the US government. This story will educate the reader to the underside of government service. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Well developed characters and well plotted that is rooted in suspense and builds into thriller. Eye-opening and hard to put down. Many thanks to the author for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.

Book Details:

Genre: Military Thrillers, Murder Thrillers
ASIN: B0GDMHNDYM
Print Length: 2342 pages
Publication Date: January 1, 2026
Source: Author

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

The Author: Steven Max Russo (no bio)

Midnight on the Potomac by Scott Ellsworth #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday #USCivilWarHistory

Midnight on the Potomac by Scott Ellsworth

The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the ReBirth of America

Best History

in History of the US Confederacy

Book Blurb:

From the author of The Ground Breaking, longlisted for the National Book Award, comes a riveting saga of the last year of the Civil War—and a revealing new account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Told with a page-turning pace, New York Times bestselling author and historian Scott Ellsworth has written the most compelling new book about the Civil War in years. Focusing on the last, desperate months of the war, when the outcome was far from certain, Midnight on the Potomac is a story of titanic battles, political upheaval, and the long-forgotten Confederate terror war against the loyal citizens of the North. Taking us behind the scenes in the White House, along the battlefronts in Virginia, and into the conspiracies of spies and secret agents, Lincoln walks these pages, as do Grant and Sherman. But so do common soldiers, runaway slaves, and an unknown but intrepid female war correspondent named Lois Adams. Rarely, if ever, has a book about the Civil War featured such a rich and diverse cast of characters.

Midnight on the Potomac will also shatter some long-held myths. For more than a century and a half, the Lincoln assassination has been portrayed as the sole brainchild of a disgruntled, pro-South actor. But based on both obscure contemporary accounts and decades of long-ignored scholarship, Ellsworth reveals that for nearly one year before the tragic events at Ford’s Theatre, John Wilkes Booth had been working closely with agents of the Confederate Secret Service. And the real Booth is far from the one we’ve long been presented with.

Deeply researched yet captivatingly written, Midnight on the Potomac is a new kind of book about the Civil War. In it you will read about the Confederate attempt to burn down New York City, how Lincoln almost lost the presidency, about the Rebel general who nearly captured Washington, and how thousands of enslaved African Americans freed themselves—and helped secure their nation’s survival. In an age of deep political division such as our own, Scott Ellsworth’s book is an eloquent and gripping testament to the courage, grit, and greatness of the American people.

My Review:

Well, okay, we have a book here that does its best to deliver many new stories delivered to the reader, maybe in a recliner and smoke-filled room with a small tumbler of brandy nearby. Enjoy.

Ah, the good ole boys and their stories.

So much to digest here, so many scenes and scenarios, historical figures, as well as a timeline under that bridge. Stories I’d not heard before, theories not considered (Booth’s considerable success as an actor and then his connections and clandestine meetings with Confederate sympathizers.

There is an awful lot of territory covered here, but less on a few of the larger focal points and more information on little known men and women heavily contributing to the time and effort, particularly women—and African Americans.

It is the first I’ve read on the more human details of Lincoln, his children, the battle scenes, the political scene in Washington—with the huge influx of free and escaped slaves—to the conflict within his party and the turmoil with his generals, as well as his death.

You can’t deny the evidence of a ton of research here into all the behind-the-scenes activities. Of course, I might still question some of the interpretation. I have, more than once, wondered how in the world were some of these major life-changing outcomes managed when it seemed to be handled in general chaos. There’s a military term for that.

On the whole, it was interesting and kept the pace moving, even at the point of slight confusion when it switched topics. It was well written but in this particular instance, I might have enjoyed it more if I’d read it rather than listened to the audiobook, as the voice came across a bit monotone, giving it more a “text” than story sound.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: US Civil War History, American Civil War Biographies, American Civil War
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B0DNKWBJN1
Listening Length: 9 hrs 51 mins
Narrator: Scott Ellsworth
Publication Date: July 15, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Scott Ellsworth is an American writer and the author of four books.

DEATH IN A PROMISED LAND was the first comprehensive history of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. “This splendid book belongs in any library serving readers in American history,” Library Journal.

“A historian with the soul of a poet” is how Booklist described the author of THE SECRET GAME. Winner of the 2016 PEN/ESPN Book Award for Literary Sportswriting, it is a riveting account of a clandestine, integrated college basketball game that took place in North Carolina in 1944–and of a nation on the verge of historic change.

THE WORLD BENEATH THEIR FEET resurrects the Great Himalayan Race of the 1930s, when mountain climbers from Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the United States vied to become the first to summit the great peaks of the Himalayas. ‘It works brilliantly,” The Sunday Times.

In THE GROUND BREAKING, Scott returns to the Tulsa massacre and its legacy. Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction. “This eloquent, deeply moving history isn’t to be missed,” Publishers Weekly.

Scott’s next book, MIDNIGHT ON THE POTOMAC: THE LAST YEAR OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THE REBIRTH OF AMERICA, will come out in 2025.

©V Williams

#ThrowbackThursday

The Last Post:The Knocknashee Series – Book 7 by Jean Grainer #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog – #historicalfiction

The Knocknashee Story

in Historical Irish Fiction

Book Blurb:

As the dark clouds of war finally begin to break, Grace Fitzgerald and Richard Lewis glimpse the possibility of a future together after years of turmoil. Their hard-won love has withstood so much already.

Now, as the Allies launch their final assault on the European continent—determined to rid the world of Nazi terror at whatever cost—Grace must say goodbye once again. Richard has a dual mission: to witness and report on the invasion that will decide the world’s fate, and to fulfil a promise to find someone who vanished without a trace.

But in Richard’s absence, Grace faces her own reckoning. Drawn back to an old adversary, she must fight one final battle. Will their love survive not just the war, but the ghosts of their past?

My Review:

Hard to believe the journey that began with the toss of a bottle by distraught Grace Fitzgerald. Then the bottle with the note in it was found by the dog belonging to an equally disquieted Richard Lewis on one of his solitary walks along the coast.

Tis a long journey that belonged to the pen pals of nations across the pond from each other, one the victim of childhood polio in a small Irish village in Ireland, the other a man of family means and money.

The Last Post by Jean Grainger — The Knocknashee Story – Book 7

It’s only the spellbinding Irish storytelling pen of the author that the following years would be chronicled in a tale that would see Grace outliving her tyrannical older sister to find the strong, intelligent, and resourceful woman she becomes. Richard with his own pen, along with his Jewish buddy and rabid photographer, finds redemption as well as life-shattering journalistic experiences during the horrors of WWII.

It’s in this installment that Grace and Richard finally manage a short-celebrated wedding when he’s called immediately back to France to fulfill his last life-threatening assignment. There is egregious loss. The war conditions and the evil incarnate that Hitler ascribed to especially near the end when it became apparent of the German loss of the war painted gruesome scenes in the mind.

Grace, hampered by the mores of the time and the church, has learned how to deal with the church and Canon Rafferty specifically to achieve the safe custody of another victim. (The country and continent may change, but it’s remarkable how the people confront the same issues.)

The novel beautifully describes both locations, Savannah, Georgia, and the little town of Knocknashee—so like any little town in the US with the varied characters from scalawags to saintly. The characters are engaging and getting to know them a joy. It’s a deeply emotional narrative, pulling all the strings.

Can Richard safely return to Knocknashee? Can they ever settle into a real married life? What becomes of your favorite support characters? Can there be a happy ever after here?

Many thanks to the author for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical British & Irish Literature, Historical Irish Fiction, #Women’s Historical Fiction
ASIN: B0FQ8SJL1R
Print Length: 290 pages
Publication Date: January 6, 2026
Source: Author

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

The Author: Jean Grainger is a USA Today bestselling author with over 100,000 5* reviews of historical and contemporary Irish fiction. She is acclaimed for her authentic portrayal of Irish life and history. Born in Cork, she draws from her experience as a history lecturer, teacher, and tour guide to craft characters that feel like friends, and sometimes foes. Grainger’s works span multiple series and standalone novels, covering significant periods in recent Irish history, but told from the perspective of families, the humans behind the headlines. Her stories often intertwine historical events with personal journeys, exploring themes of family, friendship, and human resilience. Grainger’s writing style, characterized by its warmth and authenticity, has earned her comparisons to renowned Irish authors like Maeve Binchy. Her dedication to research and character development has resulted in a loyal readership who feel deeply connected to her stories and characters.

The Widow by John Grisham #AudiobookReview #legalthrillers

Amazon Charts #7 this week

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2025)

Book Blurb:

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer….

My Review:

What? A dyed-in-the-wool devotee of legal thrillers and I haven’t read a John Grisham book lately? Is it because I equated too closely a Grisham novel with another (which shall remain unnamed) author? I suspect that might be it, but I’m certainly glad I broke down and listened to this one.

The Widow by John Grisham — The Widow cover – US

I do love me a good legal thriller (witness how many David Rosenfelt books I’ve read/listened to with his Andy Carpenter series). Even discounting a good Carpenter legal thriller, I love the courtroom scenes. The rules of the courtroom, details of the law, and the nonsense that has to be plowed through with resulting massive losses of valuable time.

Being an attorney is not all that profitable or glamorous. Just ask Simon Latch, scraping by with his one office assistant, personal life with his marriage in ruins, and a small but significant gambling problem on the side.

Just when he’s wondering how much longer he can keep the door open on bankruptcies (BORING!), in walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly woman looking to have her will re-written.

I have to admit that at first I took umbrage to that same old gravely, imperious, and high-pitched grating voice and dialogue always attributable to anyone over 65. But Simon’s boredom vanishes immediately when she appears to present as a wealthy widow—whose miserly husband stashed millions in stocks prior to his untimely death.

OMG, I couldn’t believe the way Eleanor plays Simon. And Simon, always keeping his eye on the carrot, hangs in there, using his own money to play along, betting on the come. He’s supposed to be smart, but so many stupid decisions have me wondering how he ever passed the bar.

Still, as the plot turned dark, my earlier judgment of Eleanor turned to one of antipathy while that same feeling regarding Simon turned to one of empathy.

As a result of many of his faulty decisions and the suspicious timing of her death, he is brought to trial and once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the courtroom scenes and the character of his attorney. Grisham can develop a character down to the southern accent and off-hand sense of humor.

The courtroom tap dance, however, in this case doesn’t work and now he’s in seriously hot water. He must, absolutely must, find the real killer if he is to be exonerated.

So, yeah, it might begin as a slightly slow burn, hover a bit long in the honeymoon period with Eleanor’s perceived millions, but overall, it’s a strongly engaging storyline. The pacing is over-shadowed by the development of the characters, the scenes, and the twists that catch off guard.

The tension escalates toward the reveal. I loved the combination of both the legal thriller and the whodunit. Michael Beck does an excellent job of narrating and I’d recommend the audiobook.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Legal Thrillers, Suspense Thrillers
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0F1BGY2PF
Listening Length: 14 hrs 23 mins
Narrator: Michael Beck
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: John Grisham is the author of more than fifty consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Boys From Biloxi, The Judge’s List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.

Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.

When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.

John lives on a farm in central Virginia.

Happy Thursday

Before She Was Helen by Caroline B Cooney #AudiobookReview #DomesticThrillers

Book Blurb:

Her life didn’t turn out the way she expected―so she made herself a new one

When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable neighbor Dom, he isn’t there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?

And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body. . . in a place where Clemmie wasn’t supposed to be, and where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly, the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present.

From international bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline B. Cooney comes Before She Was Helen, an absorbing mystery that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when the lie you’ve been living falls apart and you’re forced to confront the truth.

My Review:

Well, this is an unexpected treat. It appears to start as a cozy mystery, but no, it proves to be a multi-layered mystery, only part of which you’re introduced to. It might begin with a whimper, but it’ll finish with a bang…and a chuckle.

I enjoyed the good-natured pick at the seniors and the descriptions of the agers populating this tale.

Helen is living in a villa in Sun City in South Carolina. Sun City’s are rather exclusive. They are lovely senior communities. The one we lived near in Surprise, Arizona, was a great source of lovely furnishings at the consignment store where I found pieces to fill the apartment I’d found upon selling our RV.

I’m aware that senior communities tend to be much like represented in the novel. When we visited my mother in her senior mobilehome community, the news (gossip) was more about the people in the park rather than any world news.

So this narrative provides a few chuckles—some close to guffaws—and many hit close to home.

Clemmie is the feisty, sharp senior who can take charge of the situation until it comes to her own. In this case, the unwitting share of a piece in a neighbor’s home where she shouldn’t have been. And in this day and age of the internet, didn’t take long to get way out of hand. Especially when the police find the neighbor deceased.

I love it when the main character is taken back some decades ago—back before she was Helen. Clemmie has quite the history! The characters past and present drive the mystery and the plot becomes complex. Solving one thread may only lead to the next.

Will the two versions of Helen collide? This is one of those stories that becomes a delightful round of entertainment while assessing the next possible twist you won’t see coming. There are references to the 50s most seniors will identify with, which may bore the socks off the younger generations. For us, just pleasant memories.

A nicely paced, engaging, and well-plotted storyline. Fun audiobook! Recommended to me and I’m happy to recommend it to you. (You’re welcome!)

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Domestic Thrillers, Women Sleuth Mysteries, Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B085K92P1N
Listening Length: 11 hrs 13 mins
Narrator: Kimberly Farr
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Caroline B. Cooney is the bestselling author of teen suspense, mystery, and romance novels that have sold over 15,000,000 copies and are published in several languages. Of all her books, she is best known for the young adult novel The Face on the Milk Carton that has sold over 3,000,000 copies and was made into a television movie.

Caroline grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and spent most of her life on the shoreline of that state. She currently resides in South Carolina. She enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, playing piano, walking near her home, pottery, jewelry-making, and, of course, reading.

Find Ms Cooney at http://carolinebcooneybooks.com/

#TuesdayBookBlog

The Bone Garden: A Novel by Tess Gerritsen #AudiobookReview #FlashbackFriday #HistoricalMystery

Book Blurb:

Unknown bones, untold secrets, and unsolved crimes from the distant past cast ominous shadows on the present in the dazzling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . .

Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.

To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city–from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power–on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.

With unflagging suspense and pitch-perfect period detail, The Bone Garden deftly interweaves the thrilling narratives of its nineteenth- and twenty-first century protagonists, tracing the dark mystery at its heart across time and place to a finale as ingeniously conceived as it is shocking. Bold, bloody, and brilliant, this is Tess Gerritsen’s finest achievement to date.

My Review:

Not my first rodeo with Tess Gerritsen as my last foray into her popular books was Die Again (part of her popular Rizzoli and Isles series) last year. I learned to quickly appreciate her writing style and obvious personal knowledge of the human body, having been an active physician herself. Oh my stars, can she hook the interest and then run rampant over it!

This standalone narrative runs a timeline between 1830s Boston and the present day with Julia Hamill, although the real main character proves to be Rose Connolly, a seamstress. Julia has bought an old fixer-upper and working in her garden discovers a body that is discovered to have been buried more than a century before. The lucky lady gets to meet an aging relative of the owner of the home and together they begin the task of discovering to whom the body might have belonged.

Yes, once again, I find myself bonding with the earlier MC rather than the current one, although you have to give Julia some points for doggedly working on the mystery as well as plowing through all the stories of the ancient residence.

Rose is Irish and living and working under horrid conditions when she watches her older sister die of childbirth fever. The baby is saved but then must be saved again as she is destined to be whisked off to an orphanage for eventual adoption.

The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen — The Bone Garden cover – UK

Rose is fast. Smart. She pays a wet nurse to care for the baby safely. In the meantime, she meets a medical student attending the birth sympathetic to her situation. But his situation is almost as precarious as hers. It’s good he has trusted friends.

I listened to the audiobook and couldn’t wait to shop for groceries, start breakfast or dinner, so I could listen to more of the book. The pace goes frenetic at times, there are medical accounts of the time that has you gasping with shock and a growing romantic thread that even I could enjoy. The thirst for cadavers in medical universities created a cottage industry best not known about.

Loved the characters brought to life by the author’s skillful descriptive craft and the plot, although the climax was a surprise and a bit difficult.

Thoroughly enjoyed and totally recommended. Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Mystery, Historical Mysteries, Suspense
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B000W7E5FM
Listening Length: 12 hrs 56 minutes
Narrator: Susan Denaker
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction and in 1987, her first novel, Call After Midnight, was published. It was just the first of 32 suspense novels that she’s written over a 36-year writing career. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift,” which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess’s 1996 medical thriller, Harvest, marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list and her novels have hit bestseller lists around the world ever since. Among her titles are Gravity, The Surgeon, Vanish, Listen to Me, and her upcoming spy thriller, The Spy Coast, which has just been optioned by Amazon Studios for a television series. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world.

Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles,” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

She lives in Maine.

For more information on Tess Gerritsen and her novels, visit her website: http://www.tessgerritsen.com or http://www.tessgerritsen.co.uk.

Welcome to 2026

How to Age Disgracefully: A Novel by Clare Pooley #AudiobookReview #FlashbackFriday

Book Blurb:

A senior citizens’ center and a daycare collide with hilarious results in the new ensemble comedy from New York Times-bestselling author Clare Pooley

When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.

The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.

When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.

My Review:

I caught the title from a buddy bookblogger and had to check it out! Literally—from my local library. That pink cover might be off-putting, but it has a dog on it. How bad can it be?

Oh my goodness. Where does this Yankee start? Is there much difference between aging in the UK or the US if both are well seasoned and busy trying to find what mischief to get into next? I think not.

It’s Daphne’s 70^th birthday, the youngster, and she’s thinking of maybe getting back out into society after lying low for some time. She’s looking at the 70s and feeling a bit lonely. It’s that colorful background, you see.

So she finds a senior social club at the local community center and quietly sets out to get some online dating experience at the same time. I spent some time at the beginning of the book wondering where this thing was going and if it would be worth it. But the writing style? Got me. I kept reading.

I enjoyed the dialogue, the sense of humor, the intelligence, and the life going on with these supposed aging citizens. Okay, maybe retired doesn’t mean dead from either the waist up or down.

Then, a plot begins to manifest, as well as glimpses of Daphne’s life experience and the support characters are beginning to develop into real people. The descriptions paint a picture of seniors as they might see themselves, absent facial lines and thinning hair: vibrant, driven, determined to save their community center.

AH! So at this point, you’re thinking BOORING!…not so! This is written with such heart, emotions. It is pure entertainment.

Is it a mystery? Yes. (well, sorta)

Sassy, snarky? Yes.

Is there a bit of romance? (Don’t groan!) Yes.

Is a dog involved? Yes

It’s sweet and it’s fun. And it hits many topical themes, aging of course, but loneliness, abuse, and teen pregnancy. The characters are memorable and I loved that little zinger at the end.

The narrator does a terrific job of mastering those voices. Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Friendship Fiction, Humorous Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B0CKKNS75X
Listening Length: 8 hrs 11 mins
Narrator: Clare Corbett
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Clare Pooley graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge and spent twenty years in the heady world of advertising before becoming a full-time writer.

Clare’s memoir – The Sober Diaries – has helped thousands of people worldwide to quit drinking.

Clare’s first novel – The Authenticity Project – was a BBC Radio 2 Bookclub pick, a New York Times Bestseller and the winner of the RNA debut novel award. It has been translated into 30 languages. Her second novel, The People on Platform 5 (titled Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting in the USA) was published in 2022, and How to Age Disgracefully is out in June 2024.

Clare lives in London and Cornwall with her long-suffering husband, three children and two border terriers. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her cooking, at the theatre, walking the South-West cliff path or wild swimming on the North Cornish coast.

happy holidays