#PeterPulaskiMustPay – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Reviews – September Recap – Four #Audiobooks You’ll Love!

Rosepoint Reviews - September Recap

We got lucky with September weather, pretty temporate, comfortable, and enough heat to harken back lazy summer days. I really love September now, as after the kiddies go back to school and we are past Labor Day here in the US, families are home and prices on the road drop.

After we had all the cucumber juices (with cantaloupe juice) I could manage from our handy dandy juicer, and the yearly trial with dried or dehydrated cherry tomatoes (dried tomato candy), we started in on tomato juice from our neighbors garden. SOOO delish!

Then we had the opportunity to link up with our old Navy buddies and met them in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri (Osage Beach) at a lovely Airbnb along with our daughter who will shortly be celebrating a big birthday. Perfect location, the middle of everything, handy, beautifully decorated and the best screened in porch I’ve ever seen making for some delightful evenings of happy hour, chatting, and watching the sun go down.

Osage Beach MO, Airbnb boat dock — The pic of the sunset taken by our daughter, Shannon.

We checked out HAHA Tonka State Park, Stark Caverns, Bignell Dam, and rented a tritoon to do some fishing. The boat was fun—but there were no bites.

Last year came home with lots of trout—but that was in Arkansas. In Lake of the Ozarks—it’s bass.

Well, so I have a good reason why I flaked on posts in September. The tablet I bought to take with me so I could work on vacation is less than useless. Still, it was a great trip, got to be with our friends again and celebrate our daughter’s birthday.

We reviewed ten books in September—four of those in audiobook form, the CE contributing two and a half (?) He gave up half way into Mark Twain, an almost 1200 page biography. The source of the books is our library, NetGalley, author and publisher requests. As always, the links on titles are to our reviews that include purchase information.

#RosepointReviews,#SeptemberRecap,

Solid Gold Murder by Ellen Byron (audiobook)
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (CE review-DNF)
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
News of the World by Paulette Jiles (audiobook-Book Club)
A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci (audiobook)
Peter Pulaski Must Pay by Jen Lancaster
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware (audiobook)
Ain’t Nobody’s Fool by Martha Ackmann (CE review-5 stars -biography)
The Tenth Trail Mark by Joe Looby (CE review-5 stars-NG)
Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

Favorite Book of the Month

Perhaps predictably, except for the Mark Twain book, the CE favored his two September reads with five stars. When asked which he’d choose for a September favorite, he said, “no question, The Tenth Trail Mark.” So there you have it:

Favorite for September – The Tenth Trail Mark

My Reading Challenges page…Vacation month. What can I say? Definitely more talking and sight-seeing than reading.

The Goodreads landing page shows 143 of a goal of 150 or 95%. I have three yet to post for books read in September. I suspect I’m doing okay in the audiobook challenge as well, not so sure about NetGalley.

I always appreciate your visits and comments. Keeps those likes and comments coming—and thank you for all of them!

Goodbye September — Graphic design courtesy Canva

Peter Pulaski Must Pay: A Novel by Jen Lancaster #BookReview #WomensHumorousFiction #TuesdayBookBlog #

Book Blurb:

In this twisty, hilarious novel, New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster explores what happens when a marriage, friendship, revenge, and the human capacity for deception collide.

Call to order the Friday Night Doom Crew.

They’re an eclectic group of true-crime enthusiasts—a forensic psychologist, historian, and popular Instagram presence among them—dedicated to sleuthing out nefarious offenders and doing whatever it takes to set things right. But when dark secrets threaten one of their own, the Doom Crew grapples with how far they are willing to go to protect her.

Diana Pulaski is the crew’s meticulously organized beating heart whose physician husband, Peter, is secretly a swindler behind an illegal pill mill, not to mention a loathsome cheater involved in an online romance. When they discover the truth, the amateur vigilantes have a plan to make Peter pay. Unfortunately, the closer Diana’s friends are to hunting Peter down, the closer they get to discovering a secret Diana has been hiding.

As the fumbling Doom Crew’s wild ride of vengeance goes awry, they must navigate the consequences of their actions. And Diana, forced to confront the past, must decide to whom she will remain loyal—no matter the cost.

My Review:

I’m not sure what to think or say about this one. And reading many of the reviews, apparently those who’ve read her before are not sure about this one either. It’s supposed to be funny—hilarious even. A suspense mystery? Kinda like the Thursday Murder Club, except that this one is the Friday Night Doom Crew.

I guess the author has a solid, loyal following, but reading those reviews leads me to believe I’m not the only one excited about a premise with promise only to discover that Pulaski plummeted.

Basically, it’s a disparate group of individuals who met on Reddit, clicked, and eventually formed a physical group of true crime enthusiasts. Okay, I’m good so far. But these people start talking or thinking in first person, and although the chapter heading tells me who is speaking, it starts becoming blurry. Who is speaking in this chapter? They each have a deeply developed background and there are some distinctions between characters. There is a wide range of experiences and ages, but I began to get antsy waiting for something, anything to happen.

“…people use the word “irregardless” all the time, “irregardless” of it being incorrect. In which case it’s so commonly misused that it’s kind of okay, like how “whoa” is so commonly misspelled as “woah” that people totally use it now and it’s fine.”

The culture, generations previous to mine, got a bit weary with all the snark, sarcasm, references, and acronyms. The focus gradually points to Diana (within their own group), married to Peter, who is found to be the type of criminal in which they craft a just dessert. Diana is supposed to be a sympathetic character, but I was ready to slap her up side the head more than once. She has a daughter, Lilly, who will not be following in mom’s footsteps—thank heaven.

“…adore my daughter, despite the fact that she is a bona fide energy vampire.”

“…it’s never the wife’s fault but always her problem.”

It gets to be too much:

Sarcasm disguised as humor,
Clichés,
Negative energy,
Slower pace owing to over-descriptive flashbacks,
Age-shaming,
Twisted but stupid plot device,
Juvenile ending in disbelief…really?!

Don’t ask me why I hung in there—desperate for something to read and too busy to look for another book? I guess there is that curious tickle, gotta see where it’s going?

My first novel by this author. Interesting writing style I’m sure many younger readers might enjoy. It’s just not for me.

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

Rosepoint Rating: Two point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Women’s Humorous Fiction, General Humorous Fiction, Amateur Sleuths
Publisher: Little A
ISBN: 978-1662530715
ASIN: B0DTJBS579
Print Length: 311 pages
Publication Date: September 2, 2025
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Jen Lancaster is a New York Times bestselling author who has sold well over a million books. From Bitter Is the New Black to The Tao of Martha, Jen has made a career out of documenting her attempts to shape up, grow up, and have it all – sometimes with disastrous results. Her NYT bestselling novel Here I Go Again received three starred reviews (Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly). Her memoir I Regret Nothing was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year, and she’s regularly a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards. She loves bad TV, terrible wine, and will die before she gives up her Oxford comma.

Jen can often be seen on The Today Show, as well as CBS This Morning, Fox News, NPR All Things Considered, among others. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and her many ill-behaved dogs and cats. Visit her website: jenlancaster.com, Twitter: @altgeldshrugged, Instagram: @jennsylvania, or Facebook.com/authorjenlancaster.

Hear the stories behind Jen’s books on The Stories We’d Tell in Bars podcast, available on iTunes, Podbean, Spreaker, GooglePlay, and iHeartRadio, among other entities.

#TuesdayBookBlog