The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer, Tamara Moss

Sierra Angelos is back on the set of "The Escape Game." Season four will be particularly fraught as last season, her sister Alicia was killed and a number of people presume that she committed the crime. This year, she's back to try and figure out what happened. But the teams change every year so she's paired with new people with the book being told in third person point of view from each of the team.

Sierra, Beck, Carter, and Adi are competing against other teams to be the fastest to escape various rooms. And, like Sierra, they each carry their own baggage. 

Of course, as these books go, they will band together to overcome. The ending got a little bit convoluted, but I generally enjoyed this book and am excited to read the next in the series. 

Four stars

This book comes out April 7, 2026

ARC kindly provided by Penguin Random House and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews

stars

This book came out March 31, 2026

ARC kindly provided by Macmillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Let's Call Her Barbie by Renée Rosen

This isn't a story about Barbie, despite what the title's implications. This is, instead, a tale about the people who were instrumental in creating both the doll and her mystique. Often, people will refer to Ruth Handler but this book also covers her husband, Elliot and her children as well as coworkers Jack Ryan  (enineer), and Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein (fashion designers.)

The story revolves around each, a third person narrator who flips past each person, letting us know what each is thinking and feeling as the idea of an adult doll sparks, then builds, feels like failure, and then skyrockets. Then, as the partnerships start to fall apart.

This is very much a fiction story but reads like narrative nonfiction. An interesting look at the history of all of these people with a lot of research put into it.

Four stars

This book came out January 21, 2025

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

March 2026

As always, opinions are my own

The Nightingale before Christmas by Donna Andrews 

Three and a half stars

This book came out October 21, 2014

Meg Langslow #18

Follows The Good, the Bad, and the Emus

Followed by Lord of the Wings

Audiobook from Audible

Lord of the Wings by Donna Andrews

Four stars

This book came out August 4, 2015

Meg Langslow #19

Follows The Nightingale Before Christmas

Followed by Die Like an Eagle

Audiobook from Audible

Die Like an Eagle by Donna Andrews

Four stars
This book came out August 2, 2016

Meg Langlsow #20

Follows Lord of the Wings
Followed by Gone Gull

Audiobook from Audible

Gone Gull by Donna Andrews

Three and a half stars
This book comes out August 1, 2017

Meg Langslow #21
Follows Die Like an Eagle
Followed by How the Finch Stole Christmas

How the Finch Stole Christmas! by Donna Andrews

Three stars

This book came out October 24, 2017

Meg Langslow #22

Follows Gone Gull

Followed by Toucan Keep a Secret

Toucan Keep a Secret by Donna Andrews

Four stars

This book came August 7th, 2018

Meg Langslow #23

Follows How the Finch Stole Christmas!
Followed by Lark! The Herald Angels Sing

Book from Audible

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson

stars

This book comes out March 31, 2026

ARC kindly provided by Viking Penguin and Netgalley

Opinions are my own

Vengeance in Venice by Erica Ruth Neubauer

 Jane and Redvers are on their honeymoon and enjoying their time alone. Except they're not as alone as they used to be since Aunt Millie has not only found them in Italy, she's insisting that they attend a party with her. 

The soiree is being thrown by Clara, an heiress to the Morton salt company. She's eccentric and rude and Jane is stymied as to how she is a friend of Millie's. It's equally strange that this particular get-together includes a murder, that of Clara's second ex-husband, an Italian poet. The police immediately latch onto Clara's secretary, a woman Jane has met before. 

The search for the killer will introduce Jane to a new kind of detective (inspettore) and cause her to question whether she is at good at reading people as she thinks she is. 

Four stars

Jane Wunderly #5

This book comes out March 31, 2026

Follows Homicide in the Indian Hills

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

This Will Be Interesting by E. B. Asher

Most people would be grateful to be brought back from the dead. And, while Galwell the Great's circumstances ARE fairly unique, he still feels like he should be grateful. He's trying very hard to be. But, for the rest of the world it's been ten years while for him it's the blink of an eye. His life just gets even weirder when an assasin tries to take him out.

River kills for the council. This one is weird, though. She's gotten instructions on who to kill but not why. And she always gets the why. She encounters Clara, a journalist who is also an old friend. Seeing her again is one of the reasons River decides to figure out what is going on. 

I had no idea how Asher was going to follow the first book. How do you deal withsomeone whose death united a nation, but now the man has returned. I quite enjoyed it. 

Four stars

This book comes out March 24, 2026

Follows This Will Be Fun

ARC kindly provided by Avon and Harper Voyage, and NetGalley

Opinions are my own