My Goodreads

You’ve read books based on the aftermath of zombies, pandemics, and electromagnetic pulses. But what if the country came to the brink after an economic collapse? That’s the basis for this book, and in general, it’s not a bad read. Be for...

Teenage pregnancy. Infidelity. Teen romance. This story had all the potential to get dragged in clichés. It did not, nor did it hover on one principle. It takes family drama and draws it out in a contemplative manner I found thought-prov...

Sometimes genre authors should not be confined by the genre where they gained their fame. This is one of those books where Stephen King could have dumped the supernatural element and gone for the straight narrative of a wife escaping an ...

I’d heard people complain about the emotional manipulation going on in books like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. But I, being a dumb male, didn’t fully understand the fuss. And then I read this book, and I’m not sure I can properly d...

I’d forgotten I’d previously reviewed the first book in this trilogy. I think I was a bit harsh back then, but then I came across the second installment and remembered why I struggled to like it. I wish Forstchen would have stuck to har...

I was not really in the mood to read this book. I told myself “one more chapter, one more chapter...” And then I got to that point where you’re like, “well, damn. I’ve made it this far...” It’s an interesting take on ... well, I’m not en...

I’ve never read a celebrity’s memoir. I enjoyed this one though. If possible, pick up the audio version with the actress reading the book herself. I’m giving it three stars because portions of her life felt glossed over. With memoirs, I ...

This is quite possibly one of the best books I read in 2019. You will absolutely be torn on whether to hate the protagonist more than the husband. Hate? Yes, there is no middle ground here. The book inspires raw emotions. This is a good,...

The impossible became possible! I finally found a Stephen King book that generally disappointed me. Please bring back Early Stephen King? Honestly, if you take the first part of the book and remove the portions dealing with the institut...

What would you do if you discovered your family wasn’t really yours? It was interesting to have reread this book as a grown adult. Honestly, I had no idea the book had turned into something of a series. At the time I figured the first b...

Sometimes when you read these book summaries, you’re like, damn, where has this book been all my life? You have to admire the summary writers as much as the author of the story itself, but truly, the sensational summary lives up to the h...

How does the war on drugs actually play out on the streets? A good friend of mine recommended this book series. Each book is one of those voluminous installments you hope will be good, because otherwise, you will have wasted more than t...

What would you do if your best friend wound up falling in love with the person you’d met first? I would not have read this book had a friend not recommended it. I feared it would be a little too ... bubble gum romance? But actually, it ...

How does a casual encounter in a bookstore unravel into a compelling psychological thriller? This book reminded me of Lionel Shriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” The initial draw felt lukewarm. I can’t exactly pinpoint the spot wher...

This was a fair psychological thriller. The elements for a good plot were there, but the characters did not pop for me the way I expect of a compelling story. Everything from the last name of the English professor felt a little cliché. T...

Great young adult romance story tackling big issues like abuse, drugs, and mourning the passing of a loved one. In fact, when I read back on it, the book may have been trying to take too large of a bite, but on the whole, the author care...

Don’t pick up this book because you think it’s going to be a neatly packaged hiking expedition gone wrong. The story is good, but not great. Rather, pick it up because the book does a pretty nice job of delivering key life messages about...

Sometimes the people around us seem so garsh darn perfect. The thought of anything bad going on in their private lives is unthinkable. Well, the older you get, the more you realize everyone has a struggle, but the struggle for this happy...

For a book that takes about four and a half hours to consume, it manages to cram quite a bit into its pages. Here’s a tip: Do not read this book if you are already depressed or generally feeling sad. This book will just push you closer ...

The first taste of this book feels very promising. A guy is running for the senate. His wife and son are out doing an appearance for a fundraising event. There’s an accident, and... Well, I’m not going to give you all the details, but th...

I’m still relatively new to psychological suspense. When I came across this title, I thought it might be promising, but it felt more geared toward female readers. I know, that’s a terrible assumption on my part, but as the book progresse...

This was a wonderfully bizarre book. It fits neatly into the horror genre, but it’s not supernatural. We’re talking a psychotic personality, but how the story unfolds is what makes it noteworthy. I don’t know that the ending completely c...

I didn’t know much about the bipolar condition prior to picking up this book. I don’t know how to write this without sounding awkward, but learning about it through a fictional account made it easier to learn. I thought the story was gen...

I’m not big into the mystery genre. I picked this one up on a whim and generally liked it. Actually, there were a few points when I just wanted to give up on it, but I kept moving forward because the intrigue was a constant simmer. The l...

I really wanted to give this one 4 stars. Yet, though I still appreciate the authentic writing in the series, the plot failed to grab me. Linda finds herself in unrealistic positions ahead of the police. Her husband is first cast one way...

I’m still not convinced Harrison is a great storyteller. Yet, there is something authentic about the way she writes. The best way I can describe it is that she makes you feel as though you are reading the protagonist’s journal. The plot ...

It’d been a couple years since I’d finished reading the second book in this series. I went back, reread the first and second, found them to be the five stars I’d originally assigned them, and was very much looking forward to the third co...

As an active LDS member, it was nice to pick up something that makes references to familiar church concepts. I don’t know that I always felt swept away by the fiction writing itself. At times it seemed as though Harrison wanted badly to ...

Zara is sent to Maine following the death of her stepfather. It's supposed to help her regroup, reenergize, but instead, she finds herself catching glimpses of a tall, dark stranger who apparently followed her up from Charleston. The sto...

After a slew of “serious” books, I fell back to lighter reading. My lighter reading is also my young adult guilty pleasure, but this one may top them all. A book about a nerdy cheerleader finding herself while she creates schemes to lan...

What shameful secret could turn your life upside down? The stranger is about to tell you. He could pop up on the stool next to you at a bar, intercept you on a random parking lot or elbow you at your son’s ball game. The secrets? They’re...

Texas seceding from the States? Unthinkable! Only, there has always been a group of dedicated advocates in favor of the idea, and this novel provides an interesting take on how it could happen. I knocked off a star because the beginning...

At a glance it looks as though it would have a gripping plot, from the opening snow storm and everything. Yet, one bloody scene tumbles into another. People you expect will become the protagonists wind up dead, making the story very haph...

Would you betray your loved one to save the world? Would your opinion be swayed if you knew your sacrifice would keep children from dying of a fierce plague? That’s the central theme in this installment to Goodkind’s epic struggle, and a...

Legal thrillers usually get an automatic bump in my book. Thank Grisham for that, and this one is generally on par with the kind of attorney tale I enjoy reading. The author took some freedoms I would have preferred he kept in check. Th...

He's a successful geek about to file an IPO that will turn him into a billionaire. She's the savvy attorney everyone fears. Together, they are a power couple to be reckoned with, but their world is about to be rocked by an echo from thei...

It's a small-town with old ways. Well, maybe "old ways" is putting it mildly. "Gruesome traditions" is probably closer to the truth, and the ideal new start this family is hoping for is not going to shape up quite the way they were hopin...

It's broot survival without the zombies, and that's okay because humans are ever so much craftier. In Book 2 of this series we're no closer to learning what led to the total loss of power. It's just day-to-day conflict ranging from the i...

Normally a series starts to wobble in the third book. That was my experience with The Dark Tower and A Song of Ice and Fire, but Goodkind somehow keeps up the momentum in this third whirlwind of good and evil, magic and sword play, and e...

The epic fantasy battle only gets better in this second installment. There are witches, dark woods, demon-like fighters, plenty of sword play and a lot of interesting plot twists brought on by good intentions. It’s at this point in the s...

The world is on the brink of annihilation at the hands of a powerful dark wizard, but this is no Harry Potter frickity wickity brand of control. Voldemort could learn a thing or two from the feared House of Rahl. This is raw obsession fo...

How does one escape from the government’s most secure military prison? We’ve known John’s older brother, Robert, has been incarcerated for some time, but the details surrounding that sentence have always been sketchy. Now things are abou...

Can you survive a societal collapse? It’s one thing to think of the walking dead eating their way through our sense of normalcy, but it’s quite a different matter when our reliance on creature comforts is completely stripped away. Was i...

Having just returned from The Seeing Eye for training with my second guide dog, I found this book especially instructional in the history of the school. One would not expect there to be so much about a guide dog school that warrants its ...

Did you ever wonder what happened to the creatures that came back from Stephen King's Pet Cemetery? Well, it's like DiLouie had the same curiosity and set out to find an answer for us. And, no need to travel to an Indian burial ground in...

How far would you go for beauty, love, and jealousy? That's Goodreads' own hook, and it's a fitting one because it all comes down to pushing the envelope in this high school drama of surprising twists. The splash of acid against Nicole's...

Andy Prescott’s life as a laid-back traffic attorney in Austin is about to take a wild turn. Think Grisham’s Rainmaker meets Grisham’s, well, just about any book that follows the rags to riches with a price routine. It was good. Yet, I ...

Sean’s decided to sign up for the Marines, but before he ships off, he has to survive his senior year in high school and the assorted drama that comes packaged between two girls, an anal supervisor and a dysfunctional family. It was lig...

Is the woman condemned to die for witchcraft really responsible for the evil deeds in the small colonial town? We have a very long book to try to figure out that not all is what it seems. Apparently McCammon took time off from writing, ...

This is a flight experience you never knew between the obligatory announcements. From the hilarious to the disgusting, this book is bound to keep you casually entertained, perfect reading material for when you happen to be waiting on you...