What I read & recommend: February 2025

The first half is all the books I read & recommend.

The second half are books I started reading / read but do not think highly enough of to recommend (although some I had to finish simply because I got too invested in what was happening and needed to know the ending).

No book links because I thoroughly encourage you to use a library or a local, independent bookseller and absolutely by all means possible, avoid Indigo/Chapters, and Amazon.

If you need one that delivers in Canada, I very much like McNally Robinson. They can order any book you like.

WHAT I RECOMMEND

Where are you, Echo Blue?: Hayley Krischer

The search for an elusive, mysterious child celebrity. There are so many that are very similar to this type of actor/actress in real life (Lindsay Lohan comes to mind as an example), but this focuses on a girl who grew up obsessed with her, and comes to the realization that her own life is not as bad as it seems, and the celeb life was not as good as it seemed. Quite an interesting book, perfect for if you want to turn introspective and examine your own life. Not everything you hear or see, is the truth of what happens, and this book was a great reminder of that.

Elizabeth of East Hampton: Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding

I love this series. The first one was Emma of 83rd Street which I read last month, and this one is clearly Pride & Prejudice, remodernized! I loved it. I would absolutely reread this, and Emma again. I am waiting with bated breath for the next instalment in this series.

Ruinous Love Trilogy: Brynne Weaver

Butcher & Blackbird + Leather & Lark + Third one TBD

This is a love story between serial killers. That is basically the entire plot of this rather twisted, dark humoured take on chicklit. I will warn you, I did turn green in some places and if you are REALLY not OK with very descriptive paragraphs about mutilating body parts or cannibalism, give this one a pass. I was REALLY not okay with those topics, but the book and the stories, and their lives were so compelling that I girded my stomach lining and read through the gory bits (literally) anyway. The worst for me was cannibalism, and I am someone who reads a lot of crime / horror. You have been warned. The sex scenes are also extremely graphic. Like beyond what I have ever read in any other book except maybe in the ACOTAR series which seems tame to this by comparison.

Happy Place: Emily Henry

Obviously after the last two books on serial killer gore, I needed something more palatable, and this hit the spot. No pun intended. It is about two people deeply in love, and how they grew apart and came back together again, realizing they are two different people from when they first started their relationship, and how they have to grow as individuals to evolve their relationship as well. Breaking out of the expectations of others was a big theme in this book and I loved it. Not a lot of hot and bothered scenes, because the book is more about growing as individuals.

Summer Fridays: Suzanne Rindell

Another fantastic book about relationships. This one starts off quite oddly, where the boyfriend/girlfriend of the couple, ends up meeting at a dinner, and their relationship evolves. The two people in the book for me, aren’t that likeable to be honest (I prefer stronger characters, and less prickly ones), but I liked them together and they worked as characters in the book. The ending is so satisfying, honestly, I wish there was a bit more of an epilogue, but I loved how the whole book wrapped up, without being true to the generic chick-lit recipe.

The Lost Story: Meg Shaffer

A fantastic book that is perfectly described as the modernized Lion, Witch & The Wardrobe story. I absolutely loved the characters, the slow unfolding of the relationships, and the magical world that was created. Plot is about a girl trying to find her older sister who was lost many years ago, and she enlists the help of a guy who was also lost in the same forest many years ago. The ending was also satisfying and quite perfect, though I think it is begging for a sequel because I would like to know what happens (they sort of hint at more adventures to come at the end).

The Co-worker: Frieda McFadden

Never disappoints. She is like the easy-to-read convenience store author of the mental thriller kingdom. Her plots are realistic yet also believable, and I never really know what is happening though I can somewhat guess or have an idea about 5 chapters into any of her books, who the culprit may be. I like picking up her books and just reading them in an afternoon.

The Henna Artist: Alka Joshi

A truly rich, beautiful book that introduced me to new words in Hindi that I did not know of previously (I love it when books do this). The storytelling is rich, the environment is so full of descriptions that I felt like I was actually there. The storyline itself was a plot about a woman making her way through the world and let me tell you, even though I have never been in her fictional shoes, it made me feel as though I really knew what it would be like / feels like. Truly an excellent book to read, I savoured every word.

A Special Place for Women: Laura Hankin

An incredible book that has a plot about a secret society for women, a club of sorts to uplift other members. I really enjoyed the plot, the storyline and I liked the subtle intricacy that she wove around having multiple love interests (so to speak), while not making it the central part of the book. The book is about the women in it… and women with power, so to speak. I won’t give away the surprise twist to the plot halfway through. I am still wondering if it added anything, but it is what Hankin wanted, so I followed along nicely.

Emily Giffin: Meant to Be

A glorious book. Honestly, she writes so beautifully without it being cliché. I loved following along the lives of both of them (I like it when the author writes from both sides – the guy & the girl), and seeing how she navigated a rather clichéd storyline of Rich Boy Meets Poor But Beautiful Girl. I liked it, and loved the ending. Wish (again) there was an epilogue.

Brazillionaires: Alex Cuadros

A non-fiction book, finally! I came up for air. LOL … this one covers the life of Eike Batista, and digs deep into the Brazilian culture, the whole country and its tenuous grip on the balance between being rich and poor.

The inequality is out of control there, to the point where the super rich have helicopters to take them from home to work and back, and they don’t even go into public in fear of being kidnapped, tortured and held for ransom.

I am seeing a lot of parallels between what is unfolding these days, so it was quite an engrossing read. It also made me say out loud in frustration: What the fk is the point of having all of this fking money if your fellow citizens are unhappy, unsafe and struggling to make ends meet???

I think I would be a terrible billionaire, honestly… which is likely why I would never become one.

THINGS WE NEVER GOT OVER: LUCY SCORE

This is a rather interesting chick-lit book. It wasn’t expected at all (twin sisters! one had a secret child!), but the whole story was rather charming in its way. I would say it lacks a certain finesse and nuance that you find in superlative authors like Abby Jimenez, but it was a pleasant enough diversion, and better than most attempts. I very much liked the protaganist, which is probably why I enjoyed the book more.

DONE & DUSTED: LYLA SAGE

This is a TikTok sensation apparently. So I read it, and liked it. The same way I liked the previous book above. It was a good diversion, fun to read, a little funny, and I am excited enough to want to read the rest of the series. It just isn’t that kind of book where I scream – OH MY GOODNESS EVERYONE MUST READ THIS – but it is good enough for a light read to take your mind off things without having to puzzle out what happened. Sometimes books are overly complicated and this one is not, although it took a while for them to get to the point.

The Ex: Frieda McFadden

She seriously never misses…. but this book though I would not call it a miss, was a real mind twist. Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep or something but I had to pause 2/3 to the end, and think about everything I had read previously to realign them into different buckets and contexts.

I really liked it though, it was a riveting book. As usual.

The Surrogate Mother: Frieda McFadden

As per usual, an excellent book. I was hesitant reading the title (anything with babies and children makes me extremely nervous and sensitive), but luckily the emotional and painful aspects are minimized in favour of the actual mystery surrounding what happened. Another good diversion, before you know it, the book is over!

Want more book recommendations?

All of my previous book recommendations are here.

DO NOT READ

The Last Romantics: Tara Conklin – Dear god this was a long-winded drag out to the first 5 chapters, by which I threw in the towel and skipped to the end to know the ending to the mystery because I couldn’t take it any longer.

Bride: Ali Hazelwood – It started off promising and then she lost me at ‘@sian flu’ as a reference in her book. WTF? Who in TF uses that seriously in a book? Totally tone deaf, and offensive, racist. Goodbye.

All the ways we said Goodbye: Beatriz Williams – I was slogging through this book, dreading the next page until I realized I was an adult who could choose to put down boring, awful books that have zero interest for me. My goodness this book as painful, 1 chapter in, but I am such a fan of Beatriz Williams, that I wanted to give it more time.

Dark Places: Gillian Flynn – I get that this is a book that is part mystery, part family and loyalty, but it was just so DAMN long and dragged on interminably without any action or life in the plot. I also skipped to the end to learn the mystery so I could rest my brain in peace. I guess if you like that kind of rambling, rather pointless narrative with various interactions from characters, this would be a good book.

The Night We Lost Him: Laura Dave – JFC I read this to the end and wished I didn’t. What an awful book. Rambling, ambitious with a complicated conspiracy plot that jumps back and forth between timelines with no context, or any sort of grounding to help you along. I needed a user manual to map the chapters out. I just wanted to know WTF happened but I got to the end and was still puzzled. Awful. I can’t believe it won any awards or made it to anyone’s list to read.

The Behavior Gap: Carl Richards – Another insufferable white Boomer male preaching the same stuff as everyone else. I read one chapter and passed. To put it into perspective, when you read a paragraph that basically says:

I started as a ditch digger with an undeclared major, and my wife thought I should do something more. We saw a job that said ‘securities’ and thought it meant security guard or to keep something safe. Turns out, it was to be a financial advisor. I went to the interview, and it came down to two guys. The other guy got the job but then declined, so I got it by default…

The amount of whyt privilege in this paragraph was making my eyes roll so hard to the back of my head, I almost went blind. He is clearly a whyt guy, and to be able to just ‘get’ a job as a securities financial advisor, out of a pool of OTHER white guys, with no credentials, schooling or idea wtf a security was… just boggles my mind.

This is what people say when they say that boomers are out of touch, because you could literally have a job as a ditch digger and provide for a family, likely buy a home, etc, and then they turn around and say – I DID IT BY MYSELF, WHY CAN’T YOU? and all that other BS about having to work hard to make it in life. What kind of work did he do to be born a whyt male, I ask you?

Eyeroll. This is a discussion for another day, but that is why I couldn’t read any more.