January 2024 Reads
I’ve read 6 books in the month of January. *Pats self in the back* Out of all the 6 books that I’ve read, I highly recommend The Stone Secret by Amanda McKinney. If I could rate it more than 5 stars I would. It is THAT good. Amanda McKinney is now one of my favorite authors and looking forward to reading more of her novels.
So, what have you read thus far? How many books did your pledge in your 2024 GoodReads challenge? I pledge 40 this year. Good luck in yours and I hope you’re making progress in your reading pile list. Bibliophiles Unite! 📚🔖
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder.
None of them had ever met the elderly woman.
The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane?
When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing.
But it isn’t the only menace Gamache is facing.
The investigation into what happened six months ago—the events that led to his suspension—has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception. (SOURCE)
The Ghost’s Call by K.C. Adams(ebook version): 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Single parent Niamh desperately doesn’t want her daughter Edie to go into the ghost hunting business like she did. But when Edie receives an important message from a ghost, she may not have a choice.
Their hometown is haunted. With the town’s rich history, it could be anyone. And they could be anywhere.
When a ghost arrives on the doorstep of family friends, Niamh and Edie must race against time to protect the people love. (SOURCE)
Dawn Girl by Leslie Wolfe: 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Her blue eyes wide open, glossed over. A few specks of sand clung to her long, dark lashes. Her beautiful face, immobile, covered in sparkling flecks of sand. Her lips slightly parted as if to let a last breath escape.
Who is the beautiful girl found at dawn, on a deserted stretch of white sand beach? What is her secret?
FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for answers relentlessly. With each step, each new finding, she uncovers unsettling facts leading to a single possible conclusion: Dawn Girl is not the only victim. Her killer has killed before.
Hiding a terrible secret of her own, Special Agent Tess Winnett faces her inmost fears, in a heart-stopping race to catch a killer who’s getting ready to end yet another life. Will she find the killer in time? Will she be able to stop him? At what cost? (SOURCE)
My Paper Heart by Magan Vernon: 3 ⭐⭐⭐
One piece of paper can change everything. After my parents received the letter I failed out of college, they didn’t ask questions. They just sent me to work for my great aunt in rural Louisiana.
I’d spent the last year dealing with a cheating boyfriend and backstabbing sorority sisters, so I figured I could handle the swamp.
Enter the most infuriating and gorgeous guys I’d ever met, Blaine Crabtree. But as the bayou heat starts gathering, so do my feelings for the southern charmer. If only things weren’t so complicated. (SOURCE)
The Stone Secret by Amanda McKinney: 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I will give it 10 Stars!!!)
He spent twenty years in prison.
She spent twenty years living a lie.
At 2:00 a.m. Sylvia Stone awakens to a letter on her doorstep suggesting the handsome carpenter who was convicted of murdering her mother twenty years earlier is innocent. The anonymous letters continue, each one revealing details only the true killer would know, making Sylvia question her testimony so many years ago.
Newly released from prison, Rhett Cohen has spent the last two decades with only one thing on his Find the man who framed him for killing Marjorie Stone, and kill him. Rhett will do anything to get his revenge, including manipulating the late woman’s daughter.
But suddenly, Sylvia disappears. (SOURCE)
Queen of the Universe: A Novel: Love, Truth, Beauty by Pia Wurtzbach: 3 ⭐⭐⭐
What happens when climbing the ladder of success means compromising everything you believe in…including yourself?
This debut novel by an actress and pageant title holder gives a window into the hidden rungs of that ladder, and on the pain that comes with slipping and falling.
Cleo is young, beautiful, talented and–until lately–lucky in love. But in the cut-throat world of international beauty competitions, she has to make the biggest decision of her life. She passionately wants to see how far she can go and what she can achieve. And to prove her estranged film director father that his family has done better than just survive without him. Her road is riddled with frustrations, dashed hopes and the age-old question– what is the price of fame and fortune? (SOURCE)
