Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Oh Susan Elizabeth Phillips, you do make me smile. In this book, Dean Robillard, quarterback for the Chicago Stars, picks up a woman on the side of the road dressed in a beaver suit. Blue Bailey hsd been dumped by her boyfriend and had her accounts cleaned out by her humanitarian mother, her car died and the woman who was supposed to pick her up from her recent roadside advertising gig never showed up. Instead, she gets picked up by a gorgeous man whose perfect body is splashed over billboards all around town. The two are not immediately attracted but definitely intrigued. Dean needs relief from boredom and Blue needs a ride to Nashville. She agrees to ride with him to his farm where he's resting up for the next football season. What neither of them knows is that Dean's estranged mother has been masquerading as a housekeeper in order to fix the house up for him. When his half-sister and estranged father also show up, a family special it is not. 

Love the book. Made me laugh. Witty banter and real family problems kept me interested. Will definitely read again (and again, and again...)

I wrote this in 2010 and have, indeed, read it again and again. Don't love it as much as I did in the beginning but still enjoyable.

Four stars

Chicago Stars #7

Follows Match Me if You Can

Followed by First Star I See Tonight

This book came out February 6, 2007

Hard copy I own

Opinions are my own

Says Us! Scripts and Quips from Says You! Vol. 2: The Words Spread by Richard Sher

Such a fun way to consume one of my favorite radio shows. It's even better to listen to them but this wasn't bad. Twenty games of six rounds each, consisting of games like defining words, guessing the best definition, and terrible (-y good?) puns. 

Best consumed slowly. 

Five stars

This book came out in October 2012

Hard copy I kept

Opinions are my own

May 2026 Monthly Reread

Connections in Death by J.D. Robb

Three and a half stars

In Death #48

Follows Leverage in Death

Followed by Vendetta in Death

This book came out February 5, 2019

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Vendetta in Death by J. D. Robb

Three stars

In Death #49

Follows Connections in Death

Followed by Golden in Death

This book came out September 3, 2019

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Golden in Death by J. D. Robb

Three stars

In Death #50

Follows Vendetta in Death
Followed by Shadows in Death
This book came out February 4, 2020

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Shadows in Death by J. D. Robb

In Death #51

Follows Golden in Death

Followed by Faithless in Death

This book comes out September 8, 2020

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Faithless in Death by J.D.Robb

In Death #52

Follows Shadows in Death

Followed by Abandoned in Death

This book came out February 2, 2021

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Forgotten in Death by J.D. Robb

In Death #53

Four stars

Follows Faithless in Death

Followed by Abandoned in Death

This book came out September 7, 2021

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Abandoned in Death by J.D. Robb

In Death #54

Follows Forgotten in Death

Followed by Desperation in Death
This book came out February 8, 2022

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Forgotten in Death by J.D. Robb

In Death #55

Follows Abandoned in Death

Followed by Encore in Death

This book came out September 6, 2022

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Encore in Death by J.D. Robb

Four stars

In Death #56

Follows Desperation in Death

Followed by Payback in Death

This book came out February 7, 2023

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Payback in Death by J. D. Robb

Four stars

In Death #57

Follows Encore in Death

Followed by Random in Death

This book comes out September 5, 2023

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Random in Death by J. D. Robb

Four stars

In Death #58

Follows Payback in Death

Followed by Passions in Death

This book came out January 23, 2024

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Passions in Death by J. D. Robb

Four stars

In Death #59

Follows Random in Death

Followed by Bonded in Death

This book came out September 3, 2024

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Garfield at Large by Jim Davis

The Garfield origin stories. He looked a little different in the beginning, but his love of lasagna has been around since then. So has his fear of baths. And his laziness.

We also get to see when Odie is introduced. While their relationship eventually mellows, it was more than a bit contentious at first.

Four stars

Garfield #1

Followed by Garfield Gains Weight 

This book came out in 1980

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House by Joanna Davidson Politano

Sydney Forrester has never known her mother. But little did she know that a search for the woman would lead her to a new life. While more or less happy in London, Sydney is given the chance to change her life at Blakely House when she learns that she's the sole inheritor of the place. She assumes it's a small cottage but instead, it is a large house on a small island and it is feared by the neighbors.
She arrives with her cat, Micah, in the middle of a storm. She is saved (?) by a one-armed Frenchman but finally makes it into the house where she is immediately charmed by all of the movement, then immediatley after scared by the servants. It's then that she finds out that she is not actually the sole inheritor but one of four. Now it's up to her to figure out not only the machinations in the house, but in person.
The ending to the main story was a little overwrought but an overall okay story.

Three and a half stars

This book came out Aprill 15, 2025

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Apprentice in Death by J.D. Robb

The book opens with two people entering a hotel room. They have a direct line of sight to a nearby park, the place where their target is ice skating. By the end of the prologue, three people are dead, the target and two more.
It's up to Eve and her team to work on discovering who the LDSK (long distance serial killer) is/are and what the thread is among the people they've murdered.
It was really interesting to me that Eve seems to pick up almost immediately on the fact that this isn't just random killings, that someone seems to be targeted. I was also a little bummed that we didn't get much character movement in this novel. It was pretty much the same team without much except Bella's birthday going on behind the scenes. Not like the last book where we got a nice glimpse of the Miras, especially Dennis.

Four stars

In Death #43

Follows Brotherhood in Death

Followed by Echoes in Death

This book came out September 6, 2016

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Replaceable You by Mary Roach

I usually read Roach's books in hard copy but the audiobook was available sooner. I'm not sure if that contributed to my not enjoying this book as much as usual. Like in most of her books, Roach does a deep dive into a particular topic, this time in the ways that we enhance and recreate our own bodies. Some are practical ways like new hearts or intubation but there are also skin grafts, hair transplants, and plastic surgery that she explores. A lot of it was matter-of-fact but I was surprised to hear that one person told Roach that being intubated was a relief as it allowed her to breathe for the first time in awhile. 

Three stars

This book came out September 16, 2025

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own