The Litertarian

Book Review:: The Seven O’Clock Club | Amelia Ireland

What does it take to earn a five-star rating? Is it simply capturing and holding your attention? Is it making you feel things down deep in the depths of your soul? Is it creating a world/character/story that will linger in your mind for years to come? If your answer is yes to any of the above, The Seven O’Clock Club makes the list without even trying.

The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland Book Cover

This is a book about grief – possibly the most complex of human emotions. Four people are selected to be a part of an experimental project, led by a woman named Geniveve. Each of them has a pain so deep and vivid they can’t face it, it’s ruining what is left of their lives. Geniveve brings them together once a week at seven o’clock for a gently led support-group style meeting. Slowly they are asked to introduce themselves: who they are, how they’ve changed, and eventually, what it was that happened to bring them to the group.

Each of them has a story, each of them a pain so great it fundamentally changed them. And together, they find community. Friendship. Family.

I knew early on this book was going to be a profound experience. The characters opening themselves up and pouring out their pain was so powerful. Chills were had. Tears were shed. My own heart broke a little bit for every one of them.

These characters and their situations were so well-realized, and when the twist came I was skeptical at first, but it allowed for the themes to resound even more powerfully and left me with a lot to ponder once the story ended.

I am so grateful I got the opportunity to read this book early through netgalley after being one of the chosen ones by Berkley for this title. This is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Amelia Ireland!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Seven O’Clock Club
Author:: Amelia Ireland
Genre:: General Fiction/Fantasy
Publisher:: Berkley
Length:: 368 pages
Audio Length:: 12h
Audiobook Publisher:: Penguin Audio
Published:: April 15th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

Linky Links!!

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Book Review:: Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame | Olivia Ford

Bake off, but make it bookish!

Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame is the cozy adventure of a lithe septuagenarian ready to take a little piece of the world for herself for the very first time.

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford Book Cover

Jenny Quinn bakes every day. She uses antique scales to weigh her ingredients, and recipes passed down to her from the women in her family. Recipes tell their own stories, you know, of the women who wrote them down, and the time they recorded them. One day on a whim, she decides to enter a televised baking competition, but she’s so unsure of herself (and specifically her bread baking skills) that she keeps her application a secret from her beloved husband. It’s only the second time she’s kept something from Bernard, and the guilt starts to rise like her nemesis: yeasted dough. Remarkably, she gets through to audition after audition and eventually, she can’t hide it any longer, and she realizes she doesn’t want to keep her other secret anymore either. She’s just not sure how to tell it.

Okay seriously, this book gives all the cozy feel-good vibes of Bake Off. Jenny is patient and kind and so sincere it hurts a little bit, but in a good way…? Somehow Olivia Ford has really captured the essence of that British baking competition and infused it into this story perfectly.

Some of the book focuses on some flashbacks to a young Jenny, who finds herself in a very difficult situation. The world was different in those days, especially for women, and I found that storyline so heartbreaking and emotional.

The writing was so engaging and compelling it was easy to connect to the story. A delight all the way through. Like a hug in a book!

5 stars, no notes.

Details

Title:: Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame
Author:: Olivia Ford
Genre:: Cozy General Fiction
Publisher:: Pamela Dorman Books
Length:: 384 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 12m
Audiobook Narrator:: Melanie Crawley
Published:: January 30th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

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Book Review:: Eight Hundred Grapes | Laura Dave

Timing is everything, and who knows that better than a wine maker? I’m learning that lesson again from Eight Hundred Grapes. I read it once before in 2022 and rated it 3 stars. Rereading again in 2025 it has earned 5.

I suppose for me it was an acquired taste.

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave Book Cover

Georgia flees town in her wedding dress, taking refuge back home in Sonoma county, at the bar her brothers own together. She’s been away awhile, and returns to find things not at all how she left them, but in just as complicated a mess as she finds her own self in. The foundations of her family she always believed to be unshakable have been shooketh, and she’s scrambling to make sense of the new reality taking shape around her.

I’m struggling to understand why a version of myself from three years ago didn’t find anything to connect with in this novel. I must not have, to have rated it three stars. The me of today sees a young woman coming to terms with a rite of passage that was thrust upon her all at once instead of coming to it on her own: the dissolution of her folks turning from ‘parents’ into ‘people’. This coming on the heels of a revelation that her fiancé has been hiding the biggest imaginable secret, and that her brothers are tangled up in something she doesn’t understand. All of these things are reinforcing the idea that people, no matter how good their intentions are, or how otherwise ‘good’ they may be, can and will make decisions that can hurt you. Decisions you may not understand. Decisions that will cause ripple effects far beyond what might have been expected.

This book is about coming to terms with the humanity and imperfections of your family, about the impermanence of some things and the imprinting of others upon the very fabric of your being. About holding onto and letting go of childhood. It’s about potential. It’s about building cultivating the soil and knowing when to give up, and more importantly, when not to. It’s about taking control of your own destiny, and accepting the fallibility of others, as we are fallible ourselves. But really it’s a story of a family in crisis, and who can’t relate to that at some level?

Laura Dave, I’m sorry I did not see or understand the brilliance of this novel the first time around. I’m just glad I picked it up again and saw its true worth this time. Thank you, for such an incredible story.

Details

Title:: Eight Hundred Grapes
Author:: Laura Dave
Genre:: Contemporary/General Fiction
Publisher:: Simon & Schuster
Length:: 274 pages
Audio Length:: 8h 6m
Audiobook Narrator:: Joy Osmanski
Published:: February 1st, 2022
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

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Book Review:: Any Trope But You | Victoria Levine

Oh tragic personal crisis – Oh handsome brawny hunk in the woods who can right any wrong with his handsome brawny-ness! Any Trope But You is a mostly lightweight romantic comedy that will walk you through the set up for The Next Great American Romance, because despite trying to run away from romance novels entirely, the main character Margot is literally walking into one.

Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine Book Cover

It’s a cute story, yes, and if you really love romantic comedies, you’ll probably like this one. It just wasn’t my favorite.

The one thing I do applaud here is the inclusion of characters with disabilities and chronic pain, characters who need full-time carers and have unpredictable health patterns. Both of the main characters have family members they feel responsible for, and I think the topic is handled very well (without one of the characters actually being one of the disabled themselves…somehow the lead characters are always the normies).

That being said, I think my main complaint here is that given the sincerity of the themes implied by those circumstances, this novel leans far too heavily in the almost-stupid romantic comedy hijinks. Of course, we’re expecting to go through a long list of cliched tropes (hey-it’s in the title), but I think it was the air-headedness required for Margot to fall into all of them that bugged me. Was it her actual personality? Eh. The two sides of her just didn’t seem to match up very well for me.

The romance, however, seemed quite genuine once it got going (given that the first of the tropes was dumbfounding-attraction at first sight), and by the end I didn’t need any further convincing that it had legs to stand on once they got into the ‘real world’. Also, the spicy scenes in this book were particularly good, in my personal estimation.

The themes, as well, are valuable. Throw yourself into new experiences, pick yourself back up when the world knocks you down, don’t erase yourself within the needs of others, and, of course, you’ll always find your true love once you hit rock bottom and decide to take a spontaneous trip to Alaska in hopes of rearranging your entire life!

I wish I could give this book a higher rating, but with issues previously discussed and some elements of the ending that also felt a little too convenient in a way that put a bad taste in my mouth, this is sitting at three stars from me.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Any Trope But You
Author:: Victoria Lavine
Genre:: Romantic Comedy
Publisher:: Atria Books
Length:: 336 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 17m
Audiobook Narrator:: Tim Paige & Jesse Vilinsky
Audiobook Publisher:: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published:: April 1st, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 3-Stars

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Book Review:: Nobody’s Fool | Harlan Coben

Nobody’s Fool is my first Harlan Coben novel, and wow – color me impressed! This is the second book in the series led by main character Sami Kierce, and I’m going back to read the origin story that left him off the police force as soon as possible, which is where he finds himself at the beginning of this novel.

Nobody's Fool by Harlan Coben Book Cover

Speaking of origin stories, in a way, this novel is really the exploration of Sami’s. After college, he had a fling with a beautiful woman in Spain, and was ready to give up everything for her, until he woke up beside her bloody body, knife in his hand. He fled, and it was the series of events set off by this experience that led him to becoming a cop in the first place. Now, he sees a woman he knows is her, alive and well and here, and it changes everything.

Not only is this case from Sami’s past coming back to haunt him, but the murderer of his former fiance is being released early from prison, and he’s determined to get justice from that case, too. He has a new baby, and a wife he loves, and though he’s no longer officially a cop, he teaches a criminal justice class that fulfills him. In short, a lot to lose.

What a skillfully written novel! This one had me questioning everything, fully engaged and wondering where the heck it was going to lead next. There are so many moving pieces and so many corners for spooky things to jump out from behind, it was entertaining as hell. If this is the level of mystery and suspense I can expect from Harlan Coben, I’m adding his entire backlist to my TBR! What more can you ask for from a thriller? That feeling is what you search for in this genre, and Nobody’s Fool absolutely delivers!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Nobody’s Fool (Detective Sami Kierce #2)
Author:: Harlan Coben
Genre:: Mystery/Thriller
Publisher:: Grand Central Publishing
Length:: 352 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 17m
Audiobook Narrator:: Vikas Adam
Published:: March 25th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

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Book Review:: Murder at Gulls Nest | Jess Kidd

A quaint coastal town. A missing person. A silent little girl who sees everything. A former nun who won’t let it go. Murder at Gulls Nest is a historical cozy mystery set just after the World Wars with suspects a-plenty, and secrets everywhere.

Murder at Gull's Nest by Jess Kidd Book Cover

I wanted to read this book in part because I don’t have much experience with what is colloquially referred to as a ‘cozy mystery’. I get it now. It’s essentially equivalent to an old episode of Murder She Wrote. It doesn’t mean that there is not death, or even gruesome things that happen or are described. It’s more of a slow methodical approach to solving a mystery by moving through each logical piece of the investigation. The absence of the ‘thrill’ element that makes a thriller. That’s what ‘they’ mean by low-stakes. The protagonist is not necessarily in direct line of danger. They just have a stake in finding out the answer to the mystery.

Our POV character is a nun who has left the cloister in order to track down her friend, also a former nun, whose letters have mysteriously stopped after implying in one of her letters that the people around her had everything to hide. Nora poses as an innocent guest in a board house with no knowledge of the place or agenda and tries to find out everything she can about the mysteriously missing woman who used to stay in the room there.

If she was trying to be subtle about her investigation, she failed. She wandered around that city asking direct questions that could only have raised red flags to someone trying to hide something. It was a full-fledged amateur investigation, but when a dead body turns up, the real authorities become involved as well.

While I enjoyed the story, I didn’t find myself very invested in the drama. There is plenty of mystery to go around, and I found a lot of the historical elements to be intriguing and interesting, but I didn’t feel engrossed. I think I would have enjoyed a more emotional experience. It almost reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes style novel, if that’s your thing. If you like finding clues and analyzing people, trying to crack the mystery before the characters, you’re going to love it.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this early reader’s copy from the publisher and netgalley, and I will be interested to read the next installment of this new mystery series by Jess Kidd.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Murder at Gulls Nest (Nora Breen Investigates #1)
Author:: Jess Kidd
Genre:: Cozy Historical Mystery
Publisher:: Atria Books
Length:: 336 pages
Audio Length:: 9h 30m
Audiobook Narrator:: Siobhan McSweeney
Audiobook Publisher:: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published:: April 8th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

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Book Review:: Saltwater | Katy Hays

Lifestyles of the ungodly rich might seem aspirational, but they’re also highly secretive. You’re either behind the curtain, or you’re not, and they want as few people behind it as possible. Sometimes they even leave their own children unenlightened…until their hand is forced.

The Lingate’s traditional summer holiday is to the Italian island of Capri. It’s beautiful, but the coastline is almost completely hard, jagged cliff-facing. Dangerous – which they know better than most, since one of their own tumbled to her death there in the 90s. 30 years later they haven’t stopped their annual pilgrimage, and neither have the questions about Sarah’s untimely death. Money can buy a lot, but can it get away with murder?

This novel isn’t as quickly paced as a typical thriller, but it is suspenseful, mysterious, twisted, and tangled. There is generational drama and several potential suspects. It turns into a curiosity about one crime and turns into an investigation into another. And what a spectacular, picturesque setting!

The characters in this book aren’t exactly likeable, but they do inspire curiosity. What motivates people as powerful as these? Where are their weaknesses? Why have they made the decisions they’ve done, and what might compel them to reveal the truth of what happened 30 years ago?

I found myself very engaged with this story. I wasn’t sure where it was going, but there was enough intrigue from the first pages to keep me studying all the information presented, ready for anything. There are several characters with motivations to find out more about Sarah’s death, and just as many prepared to guard their secrets about her. It was really skillfully executed, and I wasn’t expecting quite as many twists as were revealed by the end.

Saltwater would make a great vacation read, an engrossing sick-day or weekend read, or it might just add some intrigue into your regular reading lineup. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Saltwater
Author:: Katy Hays
Genre:: Contemporary Suspense Thriller
Publisher:: Ballantine Books
Length:: 336 pages
Audio Length:: 11h
Audiobook Narrator:: TBA
Audiobook Publisher:: Random House Audio
Published:: March 25th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

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Book Review:: The Matchmaker | Aisha Saeed

Nura Khan is the best matchmaker in town, and everyone knows it. She’s taken the family business and made it bloom. She doesn’t just help her clients find love, she helps them become the type of people who can sustain love, then matches them with their perfect partners. It’s not a service for everyone, and she turns down a lot of clients. Sometimes, they’re not so happy about it.

The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed Book Cover

When strange and dangerous things begin to happen surrounding her and her business, and disgruntled potential clients begin coming out of the woodwork, Nura and her closest friends must work to piece together who could be behind the attacks.

Did I mention she’s also in love with her fake fiancé slash best friend in the world?

The Matchmaker is a fast-paced thriller surrounded by and fueled by the darker side of romance, the part where things don’t always work out the way you plan. Sometimes the pursuit of love brings out the worst in people instead of the best.

The stakes rise quickly in this book. It is one incident after another and is immediately clear that someone is out to get Nura and her company. It gets quite intense and follows a thriller arc closely. I was personally hoping for a little more romance because that’s what I’m the biggest sucker for, but it is a pretty solid storyline. True feelings are always revealed when one, or both parties are in mortal peril.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but it didn’t draw me in as much as I like to be. While I was interested in the story, I wasn’t held in a grip with emotion for these characters. For me it was a solid three stars.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Matchmaker
Author:: Aisha Saeed
Genre:: Romantic Suspense Thriller
Publisher:: Bantam
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 8h
Audiobook Narrator:: TBA
Published:: April 8th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 3-Stars

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Book Review:: Done and Dusted | Lyla Sage

Sometimes when life knocks you down, the best place for you to go is home. And sometimes the person you least suspect is the key to find yourself again.

Emmy Ryder shows up at her family’s ranch in Wyoming after years of being distant, pursuing her barrel racing dreams – but after she has a bad fall, the same thing that killed her mother, she also has a breakdown and heads back home. Her trip home was unannounced so her father and two older brothers are surprised to see her, but no one is more surprised than Luke Brooks, her brother’s best friend, when she walks in looking like a smoke show he can’t take his eyes off of. Luke teaches riding lessons at the ranch, and Emmy needs to learn to be comfortable on the back of a horse again.

This is a really sweet and spicy romance. Luke is a yearning, protective love interest we love to see. He’s also a no-good good-for-nothing, at least in his harrowed past, and as Emmy gets to know him, she sees how he’s worked hard to separate himself from that, and why he was that way to begin with.

There is just enough depth to the characters to get you engaged with the story, but not so much that we forget why we’re there – to watch two hot young people fall in love, despite it all.

The covers for this series are amazing…like an old time classy western, but what lies inside is a modern spicy romance full of tropey goodness you won’t want to put down.

Details

Title:: Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch #1)
Author:: Lyla Sage
Genre:: Cowboy Romance
Publisher:: Dial Press
Length:: 356 pages
Audio Length:: 6h 51m
Audiobook Narrator:: Aaron Shedlock, Stella Hunter
Audiobook Publisher:: Random House Audio
Published:: June 6th, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

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Book Review:: Here One Moment | Liane Moriarty

Cause of death, age of death. Would you want to know?

For some on one fateful domestic flight between Hobart and Sydney the prediction from one of the other passengers was a comfort. Long, healthy, full lives. For others, their predictions were not as lucky.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty Book Cover

“I expect intimate partner homicide. Age twenty-five,” she tells a newlywed. “I expect drowning. Age seven.” “I expect self-harm.” “Assault.” How might you react hearing someone say this to you completely unprompted? A woman walked down the aisle of the airplane, pointing one at a time, cursing each person as she went with the knowledge of their manor and age of inevitable death.

Then again, how seriously could they take it? No one there knew about her mother’s past as a psychic. They didn’t know her from Eve. Just an eccentric older lady having some kind of episode, so far as they knew.

Until the first death happened, exactly how she predicted.

I am a great fan of Liane Moriarty. Her novels explore topics that are often uncomfortable, and always intriguing. This novel explored a great many avenues of thought to consider and leaves quite a bit of room for interpretation.

In her typical form, the points of view are plentiful. Between chapters of how ‘the death lady‘ arrived at that fateful moment are sprinkled narratives of various passengers from the flight in the months afterward. Some of them brush it off. Some of them can’t do much but wait for something they cannot control like an accident or a scary diagnosis. Still others are as proactive as they can be. The mother of the son destined to drown gets him into more swimming lessons than is probably healthy. Loved ones rally, social media pages are created, and time passes…more predictions come true.

If the topic of psychics, mediums, and the everyday supernatural appeal to you in any way, and even if they don’t particularly, this novel is a wonderful read. A lot is left up to your own interpretation of what may have happened that day on the plane. For that reason alone, this would make an excellent book club read. I also found the real human stories to be engrossing and sometimes quite powerful. Another hit from Down Under!

I have more to say about this book, but it contains spoilers. Click at your own risk 🙂

Spoilers/Discussion

My favorite part of the novel is how, even when all is said and done, we still don’t have any incontrovertible truth that what Cherry experiences on that plane isn’t a divine intervention or prediction. A true supernatural gift.

It was not lost on me that Cherry’s mother’s gifts were not developed until after she lost the love of her life. And now that Cherry has lost hers, this happens. It makes you wonder…and I love that.

Either way, it is hard to deny her mother’s own predictions for her. The little girl, the castle, the notebooks? Those are not random things that would apply to just anyone, as Cherry commonly believes about her mother’s readings. I believe she had the gift. Some kind of gift (maybe not all the time). But it is clear that Cherry (and her mathematical brain) is a die-hard skeptic to the point she denies her own possible inclination toward it.

Details

Title:: Here One Moment
Author:: Liane Moriarty
Genre:: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher:: Crown
Length:: 512 pages
Audio Length:: 15h 53m
Audiobook Narrator:: Caroline Lee & Geraldine Hakewill
Audiobook Publisher:: Random House Audio
Published:: September 10th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars