Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

I can't remember why I put this on my TBR list. It's fine (telling you how to better organize your self and your life by using technology). However, I feel like this is one of a number of books that was probably a 10 minute speech that someone enjoyed and had the author try and build it into a larger book.
While none of Forte's ideas are particularly new, they actually acknowledge that by talking about where they got their ideas from.

Three stars

This book came out August 2, 2022

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

The Dead Letter Delivery by C.J. Archer

At the end of the last book, Sylvia found a clue to her mother's past. Fairly soon into this book, we have confirmation of her link to Marianne Folgate. Sylvia also gets a link to her grandparents in the form of letters that arrived after they were killed. The first several that she reads are bills but then come several, asking for her mother's hand in marriage. It seems that her mother had magic and word had gotten around. 

There is one man, Reid, who writes first to ask for Marianne to be married to his son, then three years later asking if they know where the is son is. Could it be that Marianne and Robin's disappearances are related?

This line of questioning will take them around London and to an old sanitarium. It's still in use for the soldiers coming back from the war but does it have any connections to the past?

Three and a half stars

This book came out March 5, 2024

Glass Library #4

Follows The Untitled Books

Followed by Secrets of the Lost Ledgers

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

I Did Something Bad by Pyae Moe Thet War

Khin Haymar is ecstatic to learn that she's being offered a story about Tyler Tun. She's excited for the job opportunity. The fact that Tyler is Hollywood's current Hottest movie star doesn't hurt. 

Three stars

This book came out October 8, 2024

ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Blood on the Banisters by Benedict Brown

It's finally time for Christopher's brother to be married to the lovely Cassandra. We've seen them both in previous books in the series so it's an exciting time. At least, for most of them. His brother, Albert, is a bit nervous because there is a tradition on the bride's side that the groom sleeps at her family home the night before the wedding. Cassandra, of course, will be sleeping at his parents' house. Albert is especially nervous because he hasn't yet met her brothers and they will be a feature of their wedding night. 

Oddly, Cassandra's mother, the Duchess of Hinwick, stays at their house rather than sleeping with the other women. And it soon becomes obvious that she is the ruler of their family. Not only that, all of her family members resent her for keeping them on such short leashes. So, it will not be a surprise to the reader to discover that the woman is murdered. What is surprising is that Albert is the one who is discovered to have blood on his hands even though there are many people at the house who have much higher motives for murder. This even includes Cassandra's ex-fiancé who shows up for some of the festivities. 

The ending of this book came as a pretty big shock. The author leaves a note that he has been seeding this ending for awhile but I am not so sure that this ending falls under "fair play." I will, however, be interested to see where the series goes next.

Three stars

This book came out June 16, 2023

Lord Edgington Investigates #10

Follows What the Vicar Saw

Followed by A Killer in the Wings

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle

Opinions are my own

Misery Hates Company by Elizabeth Hobbs

Though Marigold Manners family is an old one, she is not surprised to learn upon her parents deaths that they have left her nothing. So her lawyer sends out letters to the furthest reaches of her family and a letter comes back from her mother's cousin, Sophronia, inviting Marigold to Great Misery, an island near Salem. Once she arrives though, things start to become eerie. Almost everyone she meets on the way out to the island tells her she shouldn't want to go there. And she immediately starts to wonder when she gets there. There are arguments and talks of a curse. And something in the ocean that looks like a woman. It very well may have been a woman because it seems like there have been many dead young women washing up on the shore. 

With a family that is as antagonistic as they are "not right," Marigold has a hard road to climb. 

This story was set up as a mystery and it was more of a thriller. Marigold and the atmosphere were both well-developed but other characters felt a bit thin. The ending was a bit out of left field for me but I overall liked the book more than not and think later books by Hobbs may be more enjoyable. 

Three stars

This book comes out November 5, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Untitled Books by C.J. Archer

Apparently, books that have never been published might be called "untitled." We're told that a few times in this book. We are also reminded, a lot, that the Glass Library has books about magic, not magic books. It's a small thing but this book isn't that long, was the author afraid that we were going to forget?
It's that point that becomes important when Lady Stanhope comes to the library wanting to know if the books she's just acquired are magical books. She is obsessed with magic and paid quite a bit of money for the set. Of course, neither Sylvia nor the professor are sure though both are intrigued by the books which seem to have been written by an author who was popular many years before for a treacly sweet children's book.
Normally, Sylvia wouldn't care but Gabe and Alex have been pulled into the murder of a bookbinder, the same bookbinder Lady Stanhope bought the books from. Could it be that the books are what the killer was looking for?

Three stars

This book came out September 5, 2023

The Glass Library #3

Follows The Medici Manuscript

Followed by The Dead Letter Delivery

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Third Gilmore Girl Kelly Bishop

Has Kelly Bishop been in everything? No. But she sure has done a lot. From starring in the opening of "A Chorus Line" to starring in the seminal "Dirty Dancing" to the namesake of her book's title, "Gilmore Girls." We get to see a lot of the behind the scenes to the production of each of these as well as many more. While she does seem a little blasé about some things (working with Woody Allen) and glosses over other (totally her perogative), even if this book was written by a ghostwriter, you really do get the sense that tone is hers. 

Definitely get this as an audiobook if possible because it is great to hear her words in her voice.

Four and a half stars

This book came out September 17, 2024

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own