Dangerous Obsession (Security Specialists #3)
By: Jessica R. Patch

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book by my auto-read author’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

“She was at war for her life with a stalker. She didn’t need to be at war for her heart with her boss.”

Book covers don’t always sway me when it comes to reading a book or not. But then there are times when a book cover really makes me drag my feet to pick it up. This is one of those books. It’s partly the style of image, but it’s also the banner at the top that says ‘love inspired suspense’ in flowery lettering.

There is a whole genre and website dedicated to ‘love-inspired suspense’ and so I’m sure there is some continuity with the book cover designs and all that and an audience who eats it up!

Personally, that’s not my favorite kind of book. I don’t mind a romance subplot but I generally prefer it to be paired with historical fiction, fantasy, humor, or even science fiction. Not thrillers.

I don’t know why. Perhaps it feels like a distraction from the action, and usually an unrealistic distraction.

All that to say: I didn’t read this book because I loved the cover or because I love ‘love-inspired suspense’— I don’t really like either— I read it because I have loved Jessica Patch’s thrillers (The Garden Girls, The Other Sister, and The Girl Upstairs) and I wanted to read more of her writing.

Dangerous Obsession begins immediately with romantic tension between the two main characters— Cosette and Wilder— and that largely occupies the first half of the book with some mystery build-up sprinkled throughout. They clearly love each other but he’s the boss, she’s the employee, and they both have kept secrets from each other; it could never work out.

“If Cosette knew the deep secrets he harbored, she’d lose all respect for him. All trust.”

I thought the second half of the book was better than the first and that’s when the suspense and action ratcheted up.

I definitely saw Patch’s skill in keeping you on the edge of your seat during that part of the book. She is also great at bringing in twists and surprising you. This book was no exception in that regard either! Because I knew she was good at twists, every time I thought I knew who the culprit was, I assumed I must be wrong because Patch wouldn’t make it that easy on me!

The main plot of the book is that Cosette is in Atlanta, distancing herself and hiding from her previous boyfriend, a manipulative-stalker-psychiatrist. Herself a psychologist, she now works with Covenant Crisis Management, a security specialist company, a place to use her therapeutic knowledge and skills.

When Cosette starts to receive anonymous gifts and notes, she is forced to reveal her past to Wilder and the team so they can help protect her from her stalker who found her or whoever is sending these things to her. The danger escalates when people associated with her are murdered.

So the suspense is the mysterious stalker-murderer-person and the love-inspired part is that Cosette’s eventual abduction forces Wilder to be honest with himself and with Cosette that he loves her and he wants to always be her protector.

Patch also adds another layer to the romance with exploration of ‘belonging.’ What is the healthy ‘belonging’ that comes with a relationship and marriage and when does it become an unhealthy ‘belonging’ where a person is controlling and possessive? Because of Cosette’s past, she is having a hard time discerning between the manipulation she’s experienced in the past from men and the protection from Wilder who, as a “six-foot-three former Navy SEAL” is an alpha male in his own right.

“Men in her life abused and manipulated, all the way back to her father… she wasn’t going to be another man’s possession ever again.”

As I mentioned, I’m not super big into romance entangled with a thriller, but it also probably didn’t help that I just finished reading a rom-com so 1) I guess I wasn’t ready for another romance back to back, and 2) it felt a little heavy-handed. Bosses don’t tuck hair behind ears of employees, put their arms around them, share a spoon, or call them darlin’. So the romance was not subtle, or built up, it’s just immediately there at full blast.

I eventually warmed up to their relationship and I do like when the man is a protector, but I think it just felt like too much back and forth of ‘I like him. But I shouldn’t. I won’t share my feelings. I’ll pretend I hate him. But I also I like him. But I shouldn’t, etc.’ and vice versa.

I think I would have had a better initial impression if I hadn’t just read another romance and been comparing it to that because they were very different styles/stories.

A couple other notes:

• This book is number three in a series. I think it can be read as a stand-alone, but the first two books tell the stories of a few of the other members of the CCM team so it would probably help you understand the relational dynamics and team history better if you read them in order, but not ultra necessary.

• After reading some other reviews just now, Wilder’s story seems to be the long-awaited one, so maybe it would be best to read the others first.

• This is a Christian fiction book so there are some faith elements but I didn’t find them overbearing or out of place. It’s a fictional book about Christian characters not a Christian book about fictional characters if that makes sense. Their faith is just part of their character development and experience but not the overarching drive of the book.

Recommendation

If you have already dabbled in love-inspired suspense and enjoy it, you will have no problem enjoying this book as well!

If you don’t mind mixing romance and thrills I think you will find Patch’s writing really compelling and should definitely give it a try.

If you are like me and are hesitant about love/thrill combos, I will not say ‘don’t read this’, because even though I found the first half a little slow, I still really liked the second part. I think if you go into it with the right expectation and read it when you’re interested in switching up your reading genres for a minute, you’ll be able to enjoy it more.

I think the only reason you wouldn’t want to read this is if you really don’t want any romance mixed with your thrillers. And if that is the case, then let me direct you back to some of Jessica Patch’s other books as linked above because those are very much thrillers and I highly recommend them!

[Content Advisory: no swearing; no sexual content other than flirting and some kissing]

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

The Shippers
By: Katherine Center

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book that takes place on a boat’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“‘I’ve always been on your team, Joey. Since day one.’”

It only took one sentence into the author’s note at the beginning of this book to know I would like The Shippers.

Because Katherine Center and I are cut from the same cloth: we want happy endings. She says (and I concur): “I only want a story that gives me something that matters to look forward to.”

She then argues that love is the best thing to write about.

“Love’s the best thing humans ever invented. It’s our crowning achievement as a species… I believe in every cell of my body that love is good for you… we all know, deep down, from the day we’re born, that love is nourishing. We need love to flourish— like we need air, and food, and water.”

Now, I’m pretty sure we, as a species, cannot take credit for ‘inventing love.’ But I think Katherine hits the nail on the head that love is essential for living. And that’s by design. Our Creator is love and we’re created in His image, thus we were created for love. What’s cool about marital love is that it’s a tangible picture and representation of God’s love and faithfulness towards us!

And that’s what I like to see in love stories: faithfulness, showing up even in the hard times, and forgiveness, and just the bliss of being with someone who loves the imperfect you.

I don’t know Katherine’s faith journey at all and she certainly didn’t write this book intending to point to any Christian truths, but The Shippers still reflects some of these principles.

It is a childhood-friends-to-lovers story which is one of my favorite tropes, honestly. It’s the sweetest and most satisfying connection. There’s no pretending, you’re already comfortable with the reality of each other and know each other so well.

And just as the Lord knows even the worst about us, yet is there waiting for us to come to accept his love, so is Cooper, waiting for JoJo to come to her senses and realize he’s been there the whole time— they were meant for each other.

That’s my kind of love story.

“After letting myself fall in love with him, for the first time in my life, I understood how love is not just an underlying structure holding our human universe together, but also a glimpse of something divine. Something awe-inspiring and infinite. Not the kind of infinite that’s out there far away, like the stars, but the kind of infinite that’s embedded in us— and between us.”

But of course there is a whole story to read between the first pages of Cooper stopping JoJo’s wedding to Pearce and the last pages of Cooper and JoJo sailing into the sunset.

There is some main character ridiculousness we must overcome first.

It’s a rom-com so humor is the theme and one of the main ways to get humor is exaggeration and over-the-top scenarios.

In The Shippers JoJo’s psychologist sister, Ashley, convinces her that the reason she has had commitment issues in her love life is because she imprinted on the subject of her first kiss— Finn— on a day her dad ‘abandoned’ her. To break the curse of that imprint, she must ‘woo’ that boy (now man) so she can move on.

The plan: use Ashley’s cruise-ship wedding and festivities (“eight-day cruise… accompanied by eighty of our dearest friends, lifelong neighbors, and weirdest relatives”) to get Finn to kiss her again. (He’s recently divorced so availability is not a problem)

“‘You just need to show him that you’re not just a scrappy little pain-in-the-butt neighborhood kid spying on him from that oak tree anymore. He needs to understand that you’ve grown up into an irresistible, obsession-worthy love sorceress.’”

We all know how great of an idea it is to change your entire personality and lifestyle to force someone to fall in love with you.

JoJo recruits Cooper to be her wingman in all of her cringey efforts as part of Operation Conquest; he acts as the sane guardian over her foolish shenanigans. But what we love most about Cooper is that he is willing to humiliate himself if it means JoJo isn’t humiliated alone. That’s true love folks.

Probably the biggest exaggeration of all (other than the fact that a school would have a kissing booth) is JoJo’s mini golf skills. First, how does one go from middle school to mid-twenties without playing mini golf?! Second, there is no way someone could possibly be that bad at mini golf. My five year olds shoot way better than she did. I just can’t imagine a world where an adult with full use of their body gets 23 on one hole. But I digress. In a rom-com, exaggeration gets a pass.

So why haven’t Cooper and JoJo already gotten together? To explain that we have to utilize the miscommunication trope and some suspension of belief. JoJo seems blind to the real purpose for Cooper showing up to stop her wedding or showing up for Ashley’s wedding because she’s convinced Cooper doesn’t like her like that. After all, when she got engaged he moved to London and ghosted her for four years. (Yes, the engagement lasted four years.)

Usually I hate the miscommunication trope. There’s no way I’m letting someone run off before I say the most vital information they need even if I have to shout it down a hallway. But it’s a little less frustrating in a book about love than a thriller with life or death scenarios so again, I’ll allow it.

Plus, knowing the miscommunication doesn’t wreck everything because there is a happy ending helps.

Though I get the exaggeration of a rom-com, I will say that I had to keep blinding myself to the immaturity of JoJo. I would have pegged her more as acting like a teenager than a gal in her late twenties. Even though she’s apparently a math whiz, her love life IQ is far lower.

When she regales the reader with her narratives of past events in her life, we just smile bemusedly thinking— Oh, child. You need a little lesson about how the world works.

For this reason, I did have a hard time visualizing her because these characteristics seemed too at odds with one another.

Lucky for us, her self-absorption subsides, she develops a little self-awareness, and eventually opens her eyes to the obvious.

When I think back on other rom-com books or movies, the main characters act immaturely in pretty much every one. Stupid is funny. That’s how it works. It’s harder to showcase intelligence and humor at the same time and no one has written a story about my life yet so we just haven’t seen it much.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable read. I laughed. I did little love-squealies (in my head). And I even got to have warm fuzzies about her parents finding love again!

I also liked the cruise setting. Our family just cruised this past summer so it was familiar territory (but without Mickey Mouse). I would have to agree on the elevators too— always take the stairs, the elevators are traps.

To give you a glimpse into the humor and the voice of JoJo, here are some quotes:

“… the loosest, puffiest, most sad-prom, princess-fantasy, pumpkin-skirted getup in history. It was like a parody of a wedding dress.”

“I don’t know what color joy is, but it sure as hell isn’t beige.”

“Somewhere, in a distant land, an ancient lady named Mrs. Allen was waiting for me to start my bridal procession.”

“Did this guy somehow make all the dudes in flip-flops and sweatpants look like total amateurs? You bet your life jacket he did.”

“‘Don’t call her Sock Girl… Her name is Bridesmaid Two!’”

As for a spice rating, I would give it a 2 out of 5. Probably a Honey BBQ or a Chipotle BBQ if you were picking out wings at B-dubs. Generally pretty mild. It is more innuendo than actual sex scenes. There is the drawn out scene where JoJo demands Cooper give her a hickey to make her more interesting. Compared to a lot of romance books out there, it was pretty closed door. The love was more about the relationship and emotional connection than the physical connection, though that wasn’t completely absent.

Comparatively speaking, I would say it’s a cleaner book than the Emily Henry or Ali Hazelwood ones I’ve read.

Recommendation

If you’re into rom-coms or are looking for a sweet romance with some witty banter, humor, and a happy ending, this is a great option that I would definitely recommend.

I had not read Katherine Center’s books before, but I think when I’m in the mood for a rom-com, I will be re-visiting her collection now.

I’m trying to think of why you wouldn’t read this book and I think the only reason you would pass on this one would be if you don’t find exaggeration or absurdity funny or if you want to avoid any spice altogether.

[Content Advisory: 1 f-words, 8 s-words; as mentioned: innuendo and a hickey scene but fairly mild on sexual content]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Strangers in Time
By: David Baldacci

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book with a clock on the cover’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]

[This book was nominated for the ‘Best Historical Fiction’ category of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge ]

“This was their story. Three people standing together against all the world could hurl at them.”

Why did I think this was a book about time travel?! I think the title is a little misleading, but I tried to come up with a better one and the best I could come up with was ‘The Warden and the Orphans’ and I’m not sure people are going to be grabbing that off the shelves.

Anyway, there is no time traveling in this novel other than the fact that it takes place back in WWII…………………... Back in time. There it is.

Strangers in Time is quite the perilous and tragic story. It follows three characters— Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius Oliver— and their varied lives in London during all the Nazi bombing.

If you guessed that Ignatius Oliver was a book keeper, you would be correct. To the surprise of no one. Actually he took it over from his late wife Imogen, but I’m pretty sure with a name like that, it was always his destiny.

Charlie (14) is the East End young chap with the Cockney accent forced into Robin Hooding for himself and his grandma because his parents and grandfather all died during the war and they are barely scraping by.

Molly (15) was sent to the country at the beginning of the war (like the Pevensies but without the magical wardrobe) and returned to her West End home to find only her childhood nanny there— both parents are gone, but not necessarily dead.

My tone thus far in this review has been somewhat casual (for no apparent reason) but the book is anything but. This story is not really about the war as much as it is about what carries us through hardship.

As soon as we meet all three characters we see they have all lost something or someone. But it’s the way that they continue to lose, chapter after chapter, that has you wondering— is there any hope to be found in this book? Every time you think we’re turning the corner, the corner is blown to bits.

But even though Baldacci provided no shortage of tragedies, he somehow managed to still fashion a story that makes you feel good— granted, it takes a bit to see it— but you realize, the goodness is in the people, not the circumstances.

“while the war years had tried their best to rob him of it, Charlie was still resolutely in possession of a heart.”

That might be one of my favorite descriptions of a character and I think it fits Charlie pretty well. Even though he steals, we discover the lines he won’t cross even when it puts himself at risk.

He questions whether he should be called the ‘Honorable Charles’ as his identification tag reads, but the fact that he feels he doesn’t deserve it tells you his character is developing, he indeed has a heart. Ignatius Oliver calls him Honorable “because he has the potential to be… As do we all.”

And that’s Ignatius for you. He sees the good. He’s the fatherly figure that Molly and Charlie both desperately need. Ignatius would never have considered himself that, but when people land on your doorstep, you rise to the occasion. Ignatius does have a shroud of mystery around his character because he is up to something secret and Charlie and Molly do get pulled into the danger, so Ignatius is more than what meets the eye.

As for Molly, she is a person of action and childlike faith. She may have had the means of an idyllic life in the West End, but she doesn’t live an entitled life. If anything, she lives as if everyone is entitled to the life she had. And when she loses it she doesn’t let the loss of that drive her into despair. She stands up to help. She is always on the verge of ‘doing something.’

“‘Young people are capable of a great deal if the need is there,’ she replied with spirit.”

She is not one to wait something out. Say she won’t do it. She will. And she’ll do it right now.

Yet “still the bombs fell and clusters of waterproof fire ignited the landscape, and all the darkness and evil of hell was forcefully and cruelly visited upon the earth.”

Having read many books set in WWII and having visited the Churchill War Rooms in London, much of what Baldacci describes of this time was not new to me, but the bombings are really the only part of the war that shows up in this book (well… and a small hint of espionage) so you are very immersed in the descriptions, imagining the fear, the unpredictability of the predictable, the race to the bomb shelters, the sifting through the rubble, not knowing when it will all be over.

To zero in on three different people from different walks of life experiencing the same hardship in their varying spheres really made it come alive. And I did learn some things that I had not known before which was interesting, though sad.

(Like Doodlebugs. Perhaps it held a more ominous tone during the war, but this innocuous nickname for such a deadly missile is quite the juxtaposition.)

What I liked most about this book was the message of community. That the brave thing was to keep showing up for each other. Being there. Doing the right thing. Serving others. Even if it costs us something. Because we need each other.

Consider these quotes from the book:

“‘We all have each lost a great deal in this terrible war. But amidst all this destruction and despair, we managed to find one another. As a mathematician I can tell you the odds of that happening are staggeringly long. But here we are, together. As though it were somehow preordained. Now, I want you both to know that so long as I am here, you will always have a home.’”

“together they had confronted a collective hardship that, at times, seemed beyond anyone’s capacity. It spoke well indeed of the resilience of the human spirit when one had friends with whom to share the sometimes calamitous burden of existence.”

“We all need someone at certain times in our lives. It makes the inevitable pain lessened and the periods of happiness exalted.”

Preordained is right. It is a reminder to open our eyes to the people God has placed in our path wherever we are. Who knows if we are there for such a time as that. Community bolstering human resilience in the calamitous times is a feature, not a bug, of our existence.

God created us to be in relationship with him, but also with other image-bearers. And I believe that perhaps some of the ‘why’ behind disasters is to remind us of that.

I can’t help but think of the isolation forced upon us by the Covid pandemic and the effect that had on people all over the world. In times of fear, of war, of uncertainty, of collective hardship, the power of community is great. To have community taken away is detrimental to everyone.

And the reason for that is because our Creator is love and love must be done outside of oneself.

Some other quotes I liked:

• “‘We must make the best of what we have. To seek out something different merely because it is perceived better by standards laid out by people we may not even know? I would say that is the height of self-deceit.’”

• “Humans make poor gods. We’re just not up for it.”

• “Books filled with truth, turned to ash, and turning minds the same in their absence.”

• “For there is good news yet to hear, and fine things to be seen, Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.” — G.K. Chesterton

My only critique was that I wish we would have gotten some sort of epilogue chapter or even paragraph told from Charlie’s point of view. I understand Molly’s story wrapped up last and I was glad to see what came of her, but I wanted another ‘matured’ look at the inner life of Charlie post-war and we only got an external perspective of that.

Recommendation

Baldacci writes a good thriller, to be sure, but he also did a great job with this historical fiction novel as well. It’s impressive the way authors can write completely different writing styles/tones to match the story and the setting.

I was a little disappointed that there was no time travel, but the disappointment dims when I think about the message of community and resilience and bravery herein that comes with showing up for others, even strangers in time.

I would definitely recommend this book.

[Content Advisory: 0 f-words, 1 s-words; no sexual content; mention of a rape; there is a decent amount of death and hardship described]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley** (again… I waited too long to read this…)

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World
By: Jen Wilkin

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“The false story of anti-aging says: outward decline signals loss of identity and fear of suffering and death. To age is to diminish. The true story of aging says: outward decline yields inward growth of spiritual, and resurrection hope. To age is to deepen.”

I was very intrigued when I saw Jen Wilkin’s latest book coming out on anti-aging as I don’t see much about that from a biblical perspective. I am on the cusp of midlife and I was just having a conversation with a friend about how I don’t have a skin care routine and it seemed like something someone my age probably should have figured out by now.

I tend to avoid most trends (or ‘routines’) so I figured I would be on board with what Wilkins was going to say in her book, but more than that I wanted to consider a biblical view of aging as I know I will continue to feel the pressure to conform to the world’s view of how I should look and I want God’s truth to be my truth.

Wilkins does offer her comments on all of that later on in the book, but she begins by looking at the chiasm of life. A chiasm is a literary device with the main point being in the middle with points leading up to it and reversing back down. Here is a snapshot of how she lays it out in her book:

“If life is a chiasm, and if chiasms teach, what might the chiasm of life teach us? I suspect that God in his kindness designed it to be such that we might gain a heart of wisdom… Realizing that seasons follow a patterned order helps us recognize and inhabit the season we are in and discern how to live that particular season out of God’s true story. It can also help us prioritize how to use the time we are given.”

Her hope for the book is to grow our wisdom when it comes to “self-awareness, submission to God, and service to others” in the particular space of aging.

I really liked looking at it through this poetic lens. In a world that treasures self-sufficiency and independence, it’s always good to be reminded of God’s counter-cultural standard of interdependence and community.

God has designed life from beginning to end to include weakness and require us to depend on others and ultimately on him. We were never made to be self-sufficient creatures. We don’t always see it this way, but it is a mercy and a blessing that God allows us weakness. Not only because we need him but because it allows us a looser grip on this earthly life as we prepare for something better.

The verse Jen kept coming back to was Psalm 90:12 that admonishes us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

How do we number our days? That is the question she seeks to answer with each chapter at each stage of life. Numbering our days requires us to confront the reality of death and illness, but also to recognize the joys and the growth that comes from hardship.

A mantra she uses in the book is ‘Bodies decline, people develop.’ Even if our bodies are wasting away, our minds and our souls are being shaped to look more and more like Christ. Numbering our days means looking at the development of our character and the way we use whatever bodies we have to worship God and serve others.

“Those older than us are not still valuable. Our elders in age and experience are not clinging to an eroding value. In a culture that fetishizes youth and views aging as a journey into irrelevance and uselessness, God’s family takes the view that our elders possess an ever-developing value, one that renders their contributions essential and indispensable— with increasing relevance not irrelevance.”

I have lived 13, 345 days. If I live until the age of 80 I have 15, 864 more. What will I do with those days?

Another thing I loved about how Jen laid things out in her book was the continual exposing of the false story of anti-aging and discovering the true story of aging. This is how discernment works; we look at what story is being told and we hold it up to God’s truth to see if it aligns.

Wilkins takes us all the way to beginning:

“Ever since Genesis 3, humanity has been wooed toward the lure of false stories and away from the one true, beautiful story. The sin of Eden was essentially a choice by Adam and Eve to reject God‘s true story and live in a false story. It’s a false story about the character of God (God withholds what I need), the nature of image bearing (I should aspire to be like God in ways I am not meant to be), and the nature of our relationships with one another (I should invite others into the false story I have chosen).”

There are all kinds of false stories touted by our culture that skew the way we see God, ourselves, and others, and not just in the realm of aging.

Some of the false stories she exposes are the ones that say: the earlier years matter more than the later years; don’t be a burden to your family; aging only leads to irrelevance; it’s not wrong to want what doesn’t belong to you and make it your own; the choices you make about your body don’t affect anyone else; nothing good comes from aging.

None of these are true.

Another mantra Wilkins uses in her book is ‘as you wish.’ Meaning— treat others as you would wish them to treat you. How would I want my family to treat me when I am in my last years? Her last pages detail her personal wishes for herself and her family and she encourages readers to make their ‘wish’ lists as well.

“I wish to age gracefully, not as the world does but as someone who understands grace as unmerited favor. I wish to use the unmerited favor of good health and long years in service to others. I wish to treat my body as worthy of honor, but not as ultimate. I wish to pass along the generational wealth of wisdom and experience that is being passed along to me. I wish to practice self-forgetfulness versus self-absorption… I wish to live the true story.”

One other thing that resonated with me was when Jen thought about the ‘cost’ of living the false story of anti-aging. In a ‘my body, my choice’ world, we are told to not consider anyone else when we make choices, but there is always an impact, a cost somewhere.

She says,

“Is it possible that God, in his kindness, intends for our souls and the souls of those around us to develop as we face the very real challenges to our bodies that the gift of aging brings?…

What might it cost a marriage to rob a husband of the opportunity to grow in wisdom and gratitude as he watches his wife’s body change? What might it cost the watching children in the home whom we steadfastly assure we love them just as they are? What might it cost our unbelieving next-door neighbor who is searching our life for signs of the true story of the world?”

Our choices send a message. And they can rob others of opportunities to grow or to see us develop through our own challenges.

She says, “Thankfully, we believe in a storyline bigger than our lifetime.”

Our lives and our choices matter, but we’re also just a few pieces in the bigger story that God is weaving about himself and his plan to redeem a dying people. We are not the main characters. But what a joy to embrace weakness and dependence if it points others to his glory!

I don’t know what aging will look like for me or how many years I even have left, but I pray that I can live the true story of aging during whatever time I have left.

Recommendation

“To seek to eradicate death by human means is, while perhaps well-intended, an act of defiance.”

Anti-aging tells a false story that rejects God’s design and treats this earthly life as the end-all, be-all. While death is unnatural and a penalty for sin, God’s solution for this is not a serum, a cream, or a gene-editing program. It’s a heart transformation, and trusting in the One who wants to bring us into a place of true restoration and life eternal.

Dust to Dust is a convicting but encouraging book that should bring us out of the clouds of death and aging avoidance and give us a better lens to view the expanse of our lives. It should help alleviate the fears of aging and inspire you to see caregiving as a way to honor others, not treat them as a burden or a problem to solve.

The pressure will continue to increase for us as new technologies develop and many around us buy into the narrative that old age is a disease to cure, so I hope that this book can help my future self and others remember the true story.

**Received a copy via Crossway**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

The Memory Collectors
By: Dete Meserve

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book about memories’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]

[This book was nominated for the ‘Best Science Fiction’ category of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge ]

“I’ve been trapped in grief for so long I’ve forgotten what hope feels like. But here it is. There’s a chance. A real chance to stop this. We can save Sam. We can save ourselves.”

So I’m reading this book, and I’m not even 6% of the way through and it is pulling on every heartstring stretched across this mother body. I imagine the melody to sound like Sarah McLachlan’s song ‘I Will Remember You.’ But in the way it was intended, not a poor dog way. (Right? She didn’t write that song for animals, right?)

But then I remember— this is a science fiction novel. That usually means we’re looking at the dark side of tech so I need to kick the Kleenex box to the curb and be ready to hate those bad guys trying to erase the entire human population, etc.

The Memory Collectors have to be these ominous people that trick you into giving them your memories that they then use for nefarious purposes like creating clones of you that live in an alternate universes or they change switch your memories with someone else’s to cover up crimes and whatnot. You know the drill.

Well, if you were looking for an adventurous, dangerous, dystopian story or a book exposing or describing society as a whole in a futuristic world, or anything I speculated about in the last paragraph, you will not find that here. That’s not a spoiler, that’s just helping you approach the book without feeling like it was a bait and switch which I did a little bit.

This is more of a fiction novel while using the device of time travel and adding in a little mystery. I think it was a good comparison for Goodreads to relate it to Wrong Place Wrong Time.

So keep the tissues if you need to, emotions might run high with this one.

“Don’t let your life pass you by
weep not for the memories”

This story is all about four people whose lives are intertwined— specifically on August 25, 2025— when disaster strikes for all of them in different ways.

It’s been three years since that night that changed their lives forever, and now, thanks to a new type of time travel technology, people can go back in time and spend one hour in their past.

All four of these people are somehow time jumping on the same day and find themselves back in Ventura, California on August 23, two days before the tragedy. But instead of the promised sixty minutes, they are not extracted back to the present. For days.

Even though they’ve been told they can’t change the future with anything they do in these jumps, they all decide they have to use this borrowed time to try and create a different outcome for August 25th.

“‘If you could spend an hour in your past, what would you do?’ This is the first question on the Aeon Expeditions application.” The most common answer is that they want to spend a little more time with someone they lost.

“I had no idea back then that once you love something— anything— all you can ever be sure is that you’re going to lose it someday.”

So here’s our cast of characters and the thing or person they lost:

Elizabeth- (this is the one that got me the most) Her adult son, Sam, was hit by a car and killed on August 25th. She has no idea why he was even there. — Sidenote: her husband is the creator of the tech

“I know that being his mom always will be the greatest honor of my life.”

Andy- He met the love of his life, Kate, shortly before August 25th but then she ghosted him and he can’t stop thinking about her.

“I’d always find myself wondering if I’d done something different, would we still be together?”

Logan- He was also hit by the same car as Sam. He survived, but he became paralyzed from the waist down. He grieves the loss of his mobility and visibility, feeling like he is now invisible to people. His mobility was also what was keeping him sober.

“I was training to rid myself of the demons that had control of my life.”

Brooke- She was the one driving the car that hit Sam and Logan. Her guilt and shame eat away at her and have influenced her relationships with everyone, including her husband and daughter.

“All I want is one hour of relief. One hour where I can escape the pain and the guilt and numbness of being me.”

The real mystery of the story is what happened on August 25th. Why did the accident happen?

Typically I would have preferred a standard, dark-tech sci-fi type of book that has good guys and bad guys and questions about how technology can be used in harmful ways. I don’t usually gravitate towards emotional books about regrets and if-only’s and primarily focuses on character development.

But every now and then I stumble into something of that sort, and I realize I like it. This was one of these cases.

It’s probably because the book immediately begins with Elizabeth in the past with Sam as a toddler and I just sent my youngest kids off to kindergarten.

Elizabeth thinks:

“In this moment, I am the one transformed. I’m free from all the worth that I wasn’t the best mother when he was little; that I was always too tired or not paying enough attention or never enough fun. I bring into this moment that this toddler stage in his life will end all too quickly. That I won’t be forever worn and weary and wondering what I did wrong or if I could’ve done better. And that’s when I see the beauty of it all. The joy of his giggles and his love for me that knows no bounds. The littleness of his body that once exhausted me, but now I desperately cling to… Then he will be forever gone, his future erased in a senseless accident.”

So many feels. This is why I usually grab thrillers over emotional fiction— I can’t subject myself to constant nostalgia and sadness about how our kids aren’t little anymore or even the fears of what could happen to our children or thinking about losing our loved ones. Every once in awhile they are good reminders. Like this— to see the beauty of it, the joy of it. But I can’t live here in the past. Book after book.

So anyway— I was immediately invested in Elizabeth’s story, in her grief and her confusion.

I liked the other characters too, but even if they weren’t there, I would have still been motivated to finish it just for Elizabeth’s part.

The book is divided into three parts— the first part sets the scene of going back in time, the second part focuses on them re-living August 25th specifically, and the third part is what happens after they return.

The chapters rotate POVs of all four of the characters.

Without giving away too much I will say that I really liked how Meserve handled the return. The way being in the past changed their perspective of their present was really good. That’s what made this a good book for me— the messaging, the self-discovery, the hope, the healing.

I also really liked that Elizabeth and Mark (her ex-husband) are given a second chance. That Elizabeth was able to have a conversation with Mark in the past to help her see what could be in the present.

“So, this is me asking you to marry me again. In the future.”

“Everything good begins with a maybe.”

<3

If they had done counseling, they probably could have seen it that way too, but hey, if you have the luxury of communicating to your past selves, take what you can get.

“I’ve been believing that every bad thing that happens has an easily identifiable cause. A perpetrator and a victim. Guilty and innocent. I’d believed the outcome of everything is within our control and when things don’t happen the way we think they should, someone must be to blame. But I see that’s not always how it is.”

Recommendation

I thought this was a really engaging read. The mystery helped connect all of the characters together keeping it a cohesive and intriguing story, but the character development is what took it to the next level. I think it gives readers some thought-provoking considerations to take into their own griefs, despairs, guilts, and hardships about agency and choices and second chances.

So yes, would recommend.

However, if you are looking for a science fiction-y novel, I’m not sure if this will scratch that itch. The only thing that makes it sci-fi is that there is some time travel, but that is just a vehicle to promote the plot, it’s not the plot itself. There is no time spent on how the tech works, why it went wrong, how it could be used differently because of what happened, or anything like that.

If you like this book or like this concept, I will reiterate that Wrong Place Wrong Time would be another book to try!

[Content Advisory: 2 f-words, 9 s-words; no sexual content that I can remember]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley** — I know… I read this super late…

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

The Only One Left
By: Riley Sager

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book with a direction in the title’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[This book was nominated for the ‘Best Mystery/Thriller’ category of the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge ]

“If she wants to tell me what happened, I’m willing to listen. Even though I suspect most of it will be lies. Or, worse, the complete, terrifying truth.”

**shocked face**

What in the 80’s murder fest just happened?

Somehow I missed this gem when it released in 2023, but lucky for me I got to it this year!

This was wild. Not many books have twists that have me feverishly flipping back pages to see what signs I missed, but this one delivered. Sager got me good. And I loved it! I’m not a gasper, but if I was, there were at least two times where I would have physically gasped.

The Only One Left is Verity meets Mad Mabel meets The Girl Upstairs.

It has Verity’s mysterious immobile person with dark secrets we can’t trust and a written (typed) confession that reveals all.

It has Mad Mabel’s old lady with a reputation for having murdered her rich family but never enough evidence to prove it.

And it has The Girl Upstairs’ haunted house on the cliffs of Maine in October with a ‘ghost’ from the past seeking justice.

This one had me reading long into the night. There really wasn’t a lot of action, but the suspense of what actually happened all those years ago and the atmospheric slow burn reveals were done really well.

It was interesting to have this book set in the 80’s because it meant the tech wasn’t there to have ‘solved’ some of the problems. It made the characters at the house feel more isolated from reality and help.

That setting also pushed the ‘back then’ chapters to the 1920’s which is also an atmospheric era that added to the Gothic vibe.

Our main character is Kit McDeere— a caregiver coming off of her own work-scandal (having lost a patient to her own negligence). She has run out of employment options and forced to take the job of in-home care for Lenora Hope. Now in her seventies, Lenora has lived a recluse life in her family home— a deteriorating mansion on the cliffs— with the reputation of having killed her parents and sister back when she was seventeen. There was never enough evidence to prove it but that didn’t stop schoolyard chants to be created and sung decade after decade:

“‘It wasn’t me,’ Lenora said,
But she’s the only one not dead.”

Kit battles back and forth with wanting to believe Lenora is innocent because she knows what it’s like to be wrongly accused, but she’s also unsure if she can trust Lenora. Certain things feel off in the house, she hears noises and sees shadows from Lenora’s room that have her questioning reality.

When Kit discovers Lenora can type on a typewriter with her one good hand, over the course of several days Lenora ends up detailing to Kit what really happened that fateful night all those years ago.

But then Kit finds out that the caregiver before her was possibly pushed off the terrace to her death. The truth might be too dangerous for her to know.

Is it worth the risk to find out the truth about Lenora or will Kit be the next one to go over the edge?

I will add that it was a little strange to read this book while I am also in the middle of Jen Wilkin’s book called Dust to Dust which talks about aging and caring for those who are aging. Wilkin’s book doesn’t quite prepare you for caring for a potential murderer so I think I had a little subconscious conflict while going back and forth thinking— Jen… but WHAT IF you don’t know what these shady elderly folk did in their past?? Ah. But I digress.

One other random thought because I like to notice when the wildly different books I read close together have odd similarities. Other than the caregiving connection, there was a line in this book: “Go to Paris and fall in love, then write all about it.” I just found that ironic having recently read Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel which is pretty much that exact scenario.

Recommendation

Yes. I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a suspenseful psychological thriller that will shock the eyelashes right off your blinking eyes.

[Content Advisory: 6 f-words, 10 s-words, 5 b-words; there are a few sexual affairs that take place, most aren’t detailed except for a couple situations with the father and a couple of the servants]

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

The Hidden City (Charles Lenox #12)
By: Charles Finch

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book with a city on the cover’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]

I’m not sure I’ve quite done this series justice because of all the jumping around I’ve done, but I did find this particular book in this series pretty anti-climactic.

I read book 11— An Extravagant Death— five years ago, not realizing it was that far along in the series. I liked it a lot so I decided to start back at the beginning. So later that year I read the first book— A Beautiful Blue Death. Then I didn’t read the second one— The September Society— until two years after that. And now here I am three years later reading book twelve.

I don’t necessarily think that the large gaps in reading is what caused my disappointment in this book.

This book takes place right after Lenox returns from America having solved the crime in Newport and now recovering from his stab wounds. There were not really any other ties plot-wise that you would need to know to understand the book.

Characters and history might feel a little ambiguous if you’re only starting with this one, though, so I would start as far back as you can to truly get to know the main character and his circle of people.

What caused my disappointment was just the lack of plot in general.

There are a few threads we follow in The Hidden City.

First, we have Lenox’s relatives coming to live with them from India. His cousin died and his two daughters (well, one is basically adopted) made the journey back. I thought there was going to be something mysterious about their dealings once they got back but I guess this was just part of developing the home-life of Lenox and Jane.

Second, to give something for Jane to be up to we have her participating in the suffrage movement, protesting for the woman’s vote. I thought that was an interesting piece to include in their story, but Finch got the slogans wrong for this era. ‘Our Bodies, Our Minds’ was more second wave feminism in the 60s than in the 1800s.

Third, the primary crime was someone continuously attempting to break into the house of his old housekeeper. The previous owner of the house (several years prior) had been murdered. Lenox has to figure out who is trying to break in and why— did it have to do with the previous murder?

Well, he kinda figures that out halfway through the book. And at that point, I still didn’t understand what that had to do with a hidden city. What were we going to do with the rest of the book?!

Things continue to come to light because of Lenox’s curiosity and we discover the hidden city has something to do with a string of murders.

I won’t give away how it’s all connected but there really isn’t any big solve (the culprit reveals themself to Lenox) or capture (people escape from jail or just run away and that’s that) or justice for either ‘mystery.’ It all just kinda ends like- ‘Welp. Now we know who it was.’

I was surprised by the catalyst for everything and it’s sad and in a weird way there was justice, but overall, it all seemed rather dull.

I do like the 1800s Victorian London setting and the Sherlock type vibes, but this one just didn’t have enough going on for me. It is definitely a forgettable novel. One you could probably just skip over if you’re reading the whole series.

The only thing you need to know from this book is that now Angela and Sari are there, Jane is a suffragist, and Lenox is healed.

I also think the title and blurb of the book are misleading. Goodreads says Lenox is investigating “a mystery hidden in the architecture of the city itself” which sounds very intriguing— a little like a National Treasure story or a Dan Brown type of book, but the only thing ‘hidden’ in the architecture is just a weird symbol carved on the step of several buildings. That’s it. There’s no clue-finding or treasure hunt around the city, no secret passages or historical narrative that connects everything in the way you might expect with a description like that.

Some reviewers called this book gripping— that seems like a rather generous word.

For me, the most compelling part of the book was the last chapters where the ‘culprit’ told Lenox the story of everything. While that was engaging, I prefer books that engage me throughout the book with the action, not with one character’s verbal explanation.

I think ‘immersive’ may be an appropriate word. It was a slow and anti-climactic but you definitely get a picture of life during that time for the various classes and what some of the seedier sectors entailed.

If I had to pick a favorite part of this book I think I would pick Lord Carbury: “twenty years old and rather handsome. Also the most dramatically ill-informed person Lenox knew.” I found his character to be the most entertaining and always enjoyed when he was part of the scene. Lenox’s interactions and opinion of him were pretty funny.

Random questions:

• At one point in the story the girls play “a complicated rummy-like card game called Monopoly Deal” and I looked it up because that felt wrong— isn’t Monopoly Deal a modern game?? Google couldn’t give me any information about this. Was this a typo (I’m reading an ARC) or is there really a game from the 1800s called Monopoly Deal?

• Angela says adamantly that she will NEVER marry. I don’t think we ever got an reason behind this declaration. Is that coming in the next one? Because she gets a suitor in this book and seems serious about it so not sure what changed her mind.

Recommendation

While I do recommend this Charles Lenox series as a whole— especially for those who enjoy Victorian mysteries— I think this book can just be skipped. It’s not that interesting, the solving of the mystery is dull and incomplete, and the title and description is misleading.

Book 13— Midnight in the House of Commons— is releasing in a couple months and that one looks like it will be better and will fit the more normal type of story you get with a Charles Lenox Mystery.

Although—Sidenote— I am a bit confused because The Hidden City made it seem like the next book was going to take place in the Western United States when Lenox goes with Graham on an assignment. We’re just going to skip over that part? The next book is in London. That seems disappointing; why end this book with that revelation if that’s not where we’re going next. Was Charles Finch ill when he wrote this book?!

At some point I still need to read the other 8 books in the series I haven’t read yet but I’ll probably read the newest one first.

They are fairly short reads which I think is the right length for this type of mystery.

[Content Advisory: no swearing or violence; the only sexual content is the reference to buggering which I realized I had no idea what that word meant in this era]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Who Am I and What Am I Doing with My Life?: Finding Stability and Purpose in Jesus
By: Justin N. Poythress

“Sometimes the open-endedness of life can feel like opportunity, but other times it feels like self-doubt and missing out.”

This is not the first book I’ve read on identity, but definitely one that should stay in the conversation.

I’m entering a new phase of life with my kids all going to school and I’ve been pondering what I do with my time now. I haven’t stopped being a mom, but my daily duties will be different during the school year. I wondered if this book might speak into that for me and help direct what I do with my life.

I was a little wrong about the direction this book was going to go, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It takes a more broad approach to the ‘doing’ part and hones in more on the ‘Who am I?’ part. Which actually does help because what we do flows from who we are.

I think Poythress does a great job of understanding our cultural moment and the ways we tend to fashion our identities. He explains them and then looks at how Scripture has a better way.

So the two strengths of his book are 1) identifying how the world’s ways of forming identity are unsatisfying and 2) explaining what ‘finding our identity in Christ’ actually means.

It’s possible you’ve never really given much thought to what your identity is, or maybe you feel like everyone is always talking about identity and you’ve just been tuning it out at this point. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, I think this book would be a valuable read for you, especially if you’ve ever commented on wanting to be ‘the best version of yourself’, you’ve attempted to ‘manifest’ the kind of person you want to be, you’ve struggled with authenticity, you’ve wondered how you could ever truly feel free, or you’ve wondered what story your life is telling. At the very least, it may reveal to you some idols you have in your life or things or identities that are shaping the person you’re becoming without you even realizing it.

Overall, I think Poythress’s book will bring you clarity, confidence, and peace.

Poythress offers this helpful definition of identity and the internal struggle we face as we seek to know ourselves:

“Identity discussions are a push-pull between understanding who you are as a product of the past and who you wish to be in the future…. You are both being and becoming… You long to feel that parts of you are stable and good and valuable—these are the things that make you who you are. And yet you want to be growing and maturing, open to change and development.”

Though I’ve read many books that discuss identity, I’m not sure I’ve heard it put quite like that and it makes total sense. There is a relationship between what he calls the ‘givens’ (being) of who we are, but also the reality that we are always changing and transforming (becoming).

He has a helpful diagram of a hierarchy of identities made up of identities of origin (nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, past life choices), identities of role (vocation, relationships, hobbies, responsibilities), and identities of affinity (values, passions). These layers all culminate at the top with our ‘Master Identity’ — one identity to rule them all! It’s the interpretative lens you see all your other identities through: “A master identity is like the CEO running the company of your self. It promotes one sub-identity and fires another.”

This was good to visualize how we should rightly understand all the pieces that contribute to who we are.

I like how he references Romans 8:29 as God’s identity plan for us: “To be conformed to the image of his Son.”

The becoming, the transformation, is our purpose. The big Bible word for that is sanctification.

The easy answer for how we become who we were meant to be is by “beholding the glory of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

“Your master identity is formed by what you love. And what you love is what you behold. And what you behold will shape you. It will shape who you spend time with, what you do, what you say, and how you say it. It will inform all your other identities.”

It’s hard because we keep failing to do it, but it’s easy because just the one thing— being focused on God, loving him, worshiping him— has such a major impact on the people we become. We can’t help but become like him if we are focused on him.

So: the confusion we feel when we’re told ‘No one else can tell you who you are but you. Look deep enough inside yourself and discover your true self’ and then we try so hard and we can’t figure it out or it doesn’t last; the addictions or the habits that we can’t seem to shake and seem to be consuming us; the internal war we experience as we wonder if we’re being authentic; the fear we feel as we wonder if we’re being manipulated or controlled by nefarious third parties… all of these things fade away if we are beholding Christ.

If we are beholding Christ, we don’t have to have the burden of determining our true selves:

“Out of all the givens that make up your struggles, your background, your giftings and deficiencies, and your environment, there are some that you do not like and would not have chosen. But if there’s anyone you can trust to tell you what to do with those givens, and how to become your best self, it’s the God who created all those givens in the first place.”

We can explain our internal war with ourselves and find confidence that fighting isn’t failing:

“In its honest teaching about our sinful nature, then, the Bible gives you hope. It gives you a way to see, love, and be proud of an authentic version of your self, while hating and fighting against the other authentic, but sinful version of your self.”

We find peace that we can trust the One who is in control, that his boundaries and restrictions offer us freedom to be who we are supposed to be:

“Realize that you will always have a master of some kind, so to become your best self, you need to find the best master. That’s God. (Mt 11:28-30)… even when you’re getting it wrong, there is someone looking out for you who is getting it right. He can take even your worst failings and fold them into his plan to make you into your best self.”

Another thing I loved that Poythress points out in his book is the necessity of community. We don’t need to try to isolate or block out everyone so we can be alone to find ourselves, we actually NEED others to help be who we are supposed to be. We were made to live in community.

“Our culture has set up a trap. You either feel inauthentic— that you’re being shaped by someone else— or you end up lonely and still uncertain because you won’t trust anyone else to test your conclusions… Your true self is always connected to other people. In the absence of real, known-and-knowing community, people wander into thin, transient digital communities that are cultivated by brands and celebrities.”

(More on that if you read Scrolling Ourselves to Death)

The way we relate to other people shapes us, but we also need people to help us see our own blindspots.

One of the last chapters of his book Poythress goes through three red herrings— things that seem really important but, though powerful, are false clues to who we are: work, sexuality, and politics.

He did a great job of showing how God’s good gifts can be twisted into idols that take his place as our Master Identity.

My husband is a financial advisor so Poythress’s last analogy resonated with me in terms of how we see our master identity and God’s role in being in charge of who we are:

“Think of your multiple identities like an investment portfolio. When you make Jesus your master identity, it’s like signing up for an expertly managed index fund. Jesus will perfectly balance all the other parts of your identity to serve the one goal of becoming more of who he’s made you to be— your Jesus-self. The trouble with these three red herrings of identity is that they produce an unbalanced life. They overconcentrate your identity in one stock, so to speak. You’re subsequently exposed to high levels of risk, violent fluctuations, and ultimately bankruptcy.”

Beholding Christ puts God in charge to balance all the pieces of what makes us who we are. He can manage our being and becoming if we trust him. If we try to do it ourselves, we will make bad investments that will leave us with volatility and anxiety.

“If you immerse your mind in beholding Jesus, you will have a stable context, a stable vision, and therefore a stable identity— even as you continue to grow.”

Recommendation

I definitely recommend this book for those who feel unstable and unsure of who they are or how they’re supposed to decide/discover who they are. I recommend it for people who believe that their work, their sexuality, or their politics are the core of their being and the blueprint for their becoming.

I also recommend it for people who know that their identity should be in Christ but don’t really know what that means. For those feeling unsure if they’re being authentic or ‘doing it right.’

I can see this being a vital resource for teenagers and young adults, especially, who are under the most pressure to fashion identity and also most influenced by the culture’s methods for doing so.

It’s a really easy to read, casual but profound book that will give you clarity, confidence, and peace as you think about who you are and who you want to become.

**Received a copy via The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Falling
By: T.J. Newman

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book you picked by browsing library shelves’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

“When the shoe dropped into her lap the foot was still in it.”

How’s that for a first sentence of a book?!

There was no build up to the action and tension in this thriller— it dropped in our laps quite literally— and it stayed at mach speed for the duration of the book.

It actually felt like I was watching a movie and when my kids interrupted my reading I almost felt like I needed to say— ‘I’m watching something, just wait til I’m done!’ The whole book takes place in the course of one day and with under 300 pages, you probably could read it in one dedicated sitting if you didn’t have any other responsibilities.

With the basic premise of a terrorist hijacking a plane, the 24 vibes were strong— except our Jack Bauer character was probably split between the pilot, Bill, and the FBI agent, Theo.

It’s a book about bravery and heroism. About putting humans in worst case scenarios and seeing both the worst humanity has to offer, but also the best. There will always be people who self-preserve to the detriment of others and those who rise up, inspired to self-sacrifice for the good of others.

(If you’re thinking that you don’t want to read about severed feet, don’t worry, the first chapter is a dream and it’s not like that the whole book. You could just skip that part and you won’t miss anything.)

The choice at the heart of this book is one we all hope we will never have to make— do I choose to save my family or a whole bunch of other people?

In Falling, Bill is a pilot whose family (wife and son, 10, daughter, 10 months) are kidnapped.

“You will crash your plane or I will kill your family.”

The target of the plane crash is undisclosed. He is also tasked with releasing a poisonous gas into the cabin with all the passengers. A backup plan is in place, we’ll know if you tell the police, yada yada, all the things in place to tie his hands. It’s an impossible choice with seemingly no good outcome.

I was actually kinda shocked with how quickly we get into it; I wondered how we were going to have enough material for the rest of the book if we already know the main conflict?

But it all worked. Nothing dragged.

There was nothing superfluous in this story.

Well, that’s probably not entirely true… there were some flashback moments for some of the characters that revealed what memories were behind their actions or choices. Some reviewers didn’t like those parts, but I didn’t mind getting more context in short snippets.

Because it all happens in one day it’s not like there’s a lot of room for character development and with all the action I would have been annoyed to have entire chapters of ‘flashbacks’ breaking up the flow. I think Newman did it right.

We have chapters that follow Bill in the cockpit, ones covering Carrie (his wife) and the kidnapper/terrorist, and then we have chapters for Jo (the main flight attendant and friend to Bill) and Jo’s nephew, Theo, who works for the FBI. So four main settings we jump around to with each chapter ending on a cliffhanger.

For a debut novel I was impressed with Newman’s ability to maintain suspense, introduce new problems, and find ways for the characters to solve them. Her previous career as a flight attendant obviously gave her a lot of personal experience to work with in terms of the operations of a flight. I took no issue with the writing style, dialogue, or flow.

Sure, the flawless internet connection Bill and the on-ground terrorist maintained feels pretttttty unbelievable, but at the same time I would also totally buy that there’s magical domestic flight internet that crew members are able to access that they keep from everyone else on board.

Some reviewers complained that it was just a standard hijacked plane story, that it wasn’t innovative and everything was stereotypical.

Are those the kind of people who prefer to watch the critically acclaimed, Academy Award winning movies? Because I’m all about that summer blockbuster action movie even though it’s probably just like all those other action movies! Unless there’s too many car chase scenes, I’m usually thoroughly entertained.

To me, Falling is a summer blockbuster. It’s not going to change your life. You might not even remember it next year, but you really enjoyed it while it was happening. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

Stereotypes and cliches? I mean… what’s the stereotype of a flight attendant; how would you even subvert that? Also, if ‘courageous hero’ is a stereotype I will take it every day of the week. I don’t want to read about cowards. I’ll take the unrealistically brave. We want to be inspired! We like heroes!

The only stereotype I could see people taking a legitimate issue with is that the terrorist is from the Middle East. But… at the same time. I don’t really see a lot of terrorist acts being committed in America by other groups. Newman used a historical reality between the Kurds and the US to act as the catalyst so it doesn’t seem like an unfair choice. And really it was individuals planning an attack, not a group or organization or even a religion so it didn’t feel like Newman was painting with broad strokes at all when she chose ‘the bad guys.’

A Deeper Conversation

If we are going to move beyond just appreciating the book as a blockbuster (which it quite literally is in the works with Universal to be that) then we can have a conversation around this: What tragedies around the globe are people reasonably responsible for trying to help with or fix?

The terrorists lay some pretty heavy accusations against Bill (and Americans at large) for not caring at all about the Kurdish villages being gassed by the Turks when Reagan withdrew American troops from their territories (which really happened). They throw his ‘privilege’ at him because he was just going about his life while people were dying and he didn’t even care.

Bill expresses empathy and makes a commitment to do better and do the work to try to help and learn more about it, etc, etc.

I’m not bringing this up because I necessarily have answers. But I think it’s a really interesting conversation to consider.

Before the age of internet and especially social media, people were largely oblivious to crises happening on the other side of the world, or even the country. Now that we can know in real time what’s going on, how much can we mentally, emotionally, or physically take upon ourselves? And if we don’t, does that make us apathetic, selfish, and uncaring?

I definitely think people should care in general, but I can’t fathom having the mental and emotional capacity to think about all the tragedies and deaths occurring across the globe. It would be impossible to learn about all of it. It would consume you. And what could you realistically offer?

When the camp in Texas was flooded last year and so many little girls were killed, I could have just sat there and cried for days. It made me so sad. But I still had four children to take care of. I couldn’t let it distract me from my responsibilities as a parent. I had to stop watching the videos or it would consume my thoughts and my ability to show up for my family.

I’ve thought often about God’s command to love our neighbors. We have to ask— who are our neighbors? Not that we ignore people who need help on the other side of the world, but I do think our local context matters. We have the ability to really serve and love the people we encounter in our daily lives and that’s not nothing. It’s something we CAN do. Spending too much time learning about global crises and conversing online to ‘increase awareness’ at the expense of actually doing something tangible seems like the selfish, privileged thing to do.

So yeah, I do think it’s an important conversation. I don’t think there are clear lines or answers, and I’m definitely not over here doing it right, but I have found these types of questions good for pondering and pondering with others.

Recommendation

If you love a good summer blockbuster movie and enjoy being entertained with lots of action and bravery and heroism, this is your book. It’s a standard, fast-paced, good thriller. I don’t know what else to tell ya.

If you do not like action, planes, or courage, or you prefer (or at least prefer right now) books with really long sentences, big words, and a complicated plot, you might want to pass on this one.

Not that I need more airplane fiasco scenarios to fill my imagination before my next flight, but I do plan to read her next book called Drowning because many reviewers claim it to be even better than this one.

[Content Advisory: 14 f-words, 21 s-words; no sexual content; some violence and a severed foot but there’s more tension than violence]

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Meet Me in Paris
By: Kristin Harmel

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“‘Take some chances! Life isn’t just about making all the smart, safe moves.’”

Well dang.

Unpopular opinion: these are not good love stories.

I have loved every historical fiction of Harmel that I have read. Apparently she’s been itching to write a book like Love, Actually and finally did with Meet Me in Paris, but it was highly disappointing.

First of all, haven’t we all seen Taken?! (which happened in Paris, mind you…) A mom does not tell her 23-year-old daughter to go out and find that waiter she thought was attractive and have some fun in the city and to just wake her up whenever she gets home. And if a guy keeps watching you leave your house and finally asks you if he can paint you, no, you do not do this. You don’t go with him to places he does not divulge and only says, ‘just trust me.’

This book is full of red flags.

Yes, of course these men you just met are all very sweet and look at you like you’re the only one in the room and make you feel special and say all the things you want them to say… they want something from you.

I think the whole take some chances thing and not always do the safe thing means try a new career, unfriend-zone your best guy friend because you do love him and it’s okay to risk the friendship if he could be your husband, move to a new country to learn a new culture, be vulnerable and share the new song or book you wrote and have been afraid to. It doesn’t mean go be alone with strange men in a foreign country because maybe in a perfect world you could marry them and everything will work out!

Harmel loves Paris and the summer she spent there changed the trajectory of her life, but, man, she just went alllll in on the whole ‘city of love’ stereotype of Paris.

All these people from all walks of life are in Paris to find someone to sleep with… I mean fall in love with.

Logically, sex is either a base instinct, a hunger that needs to be satiated, or it’s a cherished intimate connection we were made to have between two committed people. You can’t do both. Harmel tried and it’s a mess.

It felt like Harmel’s primary objectives while writing this book were as follows: 1) make it like Love Actually, 2) put it in Paris, 3) check as many diversity boxes as I can, 4) did I mention it should be in Paris?

Some people hated all the different storylines and characters to keep track of. I didn’t even mind that. I get the concept. But I only vaguely cared about two of the stories and even then they both had pieces I didn’t like.

She usually writes such good stories that capture the time period and engage a whole range of emotions, but there just wasn’t much here. It just felt sad. In a non-romantic way.

It basically felt like the theme was: forget about your past relationships, there’s something new and better in Paris!

“Something about Paris brought love to the surface, made people open their hearts in ways they never had before, made lovers out of strangers.”

Sure, two of the characters’ relationships involved affairs, so yeah, those might be worth moving on from. But couldn’t Harmel give us even ONE relationship that involved a husband and a wife that were drifting apart but rekindled their love in Paris? No. She could not. No redeemed love. Just out with the old, in with the new.

We get:

Henry and Celeste- Henry is 100 and his wife died years ago, but it has ALWAYS been Celeste for him (the woman he fell in love with back in WWII) who actually didn’t die back then like he thought and even though she has dementia she will for sure still be in love with him too

Melanie (Henry’s grandaughter) and Gilles- Gilles has a mistress (because I guess French people just expect that?) and Melanie has to decide if she will give him another chance

Amandine (the mistress)- I don’t know why we get chapters from her POV because we never circle back to her in any significant way… what was the point of that?

Julia and Jackson Quick- Julia got divorced (obviously) and is dying from cancer so she’s taking one last trip with her 23-year-old daughter, Piper (who is obviously single and ready to mingle) and also Julia is ready to mingle… with the American, trying-to-have-a-tour-comeback-rockstar Jackson Quick who pretends to be Sam

Piper and Waiter-guy- Piper and the waiter lock eyes when he pours her water and it. is. the. truest. love. And of course he knows poetry and stuff.

Shelby and Aussie-bartender-guy- Shelby is having a divorce party— where you haven’t actually signed the papers for the divorce with stupid Brandon-who-loves-the-yoga-instructor-because IVF-isn’t-working, but you still fly to Paris with your two best friends so you can get drunk a lot and hopefully find a rebound for a night or two. Shelby wasn’t going to go crazy like her friends, but then the bartender was Australian and really cares about her well-being so I guess we will do it after all.

Kayla and Nadim- Kayla takes care of Celeste and she needs a romantic love story too, so yes Nadim can paint her. Kayla’s there to try to have a relationship with her dad, but he’s actually just a jerk so let’s just fall in love with the man who stalks me outside my house and knows about cheese and make this relocation worth it

Did I miss anyone?

Oh yeah. Here’s the real kicker.

Lou and George- They are Vietnam war vets, best friends since they served together, in Paris on a trip for Vietnam vets. Both of their wives have passed away, but one stroll by the Eiffel Tower and actually they’ve loved EACH OTHER this entire time, let’s kiss each other now. Just completely out of nowhere. This one made absolutely zero sense to me.

The Notebook callback with Henry and Celeste could have been intriguing if we spent more time on their history and we didn’t have to just throw Henry’s actual wife out the window like she didn’t even matter that entire time.

I also would have spent more time on Julia coming to terms with her terminal illness and wanting to share with Piper everything she won’t be able to once she’s gone. This one was the emotional one for me. That could have been a whole book.

They could have leaned harder into the ‘When it is dark enough, you can see the stars’ Ralph Waldo Emerson poem and how “it reminds us that when things are at their worst, there’s always light. You just have to remind yourself to look up and see it.”

But instead it’s just a little piece and it ends up being more about each of their love interests than a meaningful time together.

I will admit that I can see how readers who have personally gone through a hard divorce that involved an affair might resonate with the characters wanting to move on from that and find someone who actually cares about them. That their life isn’t over because their marriage is, that they are not less of a person.

There is definitely something to be said of that. The divorce rate makes me sad and I hate how so many of them involve abuse or affairs. But even then, I would prefer to read about them finding love without roaming the streets of a foreign country and sleeping with the first guy who ‘makes them feel special.’ That just doesn’t feel like the fresh start I would want for them. I would want something better, something real and lasting.

Harmel assures us, even though it’s only been a few days, it’s all real. But it’s not. We know it’s not. It’s more fantasy than romance at this point.

We also need to talk about the songs. They were not good. The best songs don’t usually do exact rhymes in an ABAB pattern, and if they do, it’s like once. For good songs you need close rhymes, you need variance. The songs felt like a poem I would have written in high school.

That’s probably a dumb thing to care about, especially because maybe if you could hear the song it wouldn’t seem so bad, but when you just read the lyrics it felt like it was jarring you out of a mediocre adult romance book into a mediocre juevenile romance book— which seems like it wouldn’t be a big jar… but it was at LEAST pickle-sized!

Recommendation

If you love new and exciting things (in Paris nonetheless) and love when you get to throw away something you’re tired of, and you loved the movie Love, Actually, then you might enjoy this book.

If you prefer love stories that are more realistic, have more redemptive qualities— and better songs— then I would recommend passing on this one.

It feels wrong to give a Kristin Harmel book such a low rating— I still love all of Harmel’s historical fiction that I’ve read and will 100% read her next historical fiction novel— but this one just wasn’t for me. I think there are way better love stories out there.

[Content Advisory: 0 f-words, 1 s-word; some closed door romance- except for the mistress chapters which are slightly more descriptive; a random LGBTQ relationship for like five minutes]

**Received a ARC via NetGalley**

This book just released July, 2026. You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

A Church That Cares: A Biblical Guide to Loving One Another Well
By: Helen Thorne-Allenson

Many people leave churches or the Christian faith altogether often because they don’t feel cared for in their church, especially in particularly difficult situations. Knowing that made me want to pick up this book because I want to be part of a church who cares for people well.

I don’t feel like nurturing comes naturally to me (outside of nurturing my own kids). But I know that’s not a reason to avoid thinking about good care as if I’m incapable of doing it. We are all called to love one another. Jesus said that they’ll know we are his disciples by our love. So the way we care for others, especially in the church is vital.

I would say that this book is probably going to be a more effective book for pastors or those in leadership positions (heads of ministries or small group leaders) because they set the tone and structure for good care and train others how to do it. But it would still be a good book for a layperson to read to understand what the leaders are trying to do and be able to get on board and help support their efforts.

There is plenty of information in here that can be directly applied for any person, not just those in charge.

Helen begins her book saying,

“Churches are a lot like gardens. A culture will always grow— an approach to caring for others will always emerge. But what the culture is and how it functions will depend on the kind of nurturing the church has been given: the sort of teaching they have received, the kind of role-modeling that has been displayed, and the quality of relationships that have been grown. A flourishing culture will not just appear by accident or simply come to pass because gospel truth is proclaimed with gentleness. If we want our churches to overflow with the love of Christ in ways that encourage people to come to Christ and grow in Christ, in all seasons of life, there needs to be an intentionality in tending that growth. Without it, love and care can get muddled or muted or pushed to one side.”

I think this is a great analogy for this topic. I think it’s easy for a church to not be intentional with this believing that if we’re all Christians we’re all going to be doing this so we don’t need to tend to it— the fruit will just be there. But we’re all selfish by nature. We need help and encouragement to step outside of our own lives and look to the needs of others. We need help pulling the weeds that threaten to overtake the fruit.

In the second chapter, she details six distinctives of healthy caring church culture, gathered from Ephesians 4, that enable a church to flourish, having shared attitudes, values, and actions:

• gentle humility

• real unity

• passion for equipping

• desire for maturity

• preparation for suffering

• commitment to wise speech

The rest of the book tackles areas to start practically building a healthy culture of care in your church like prayer, listening, vision setting, role-modeling, teaching, etc.

Even though I tend to be a black-and-white, give me the step by step instructions to accomplish what I want kind of person, I like that she doesn’t try to provide a one size fits all approach to creating a healthy culture. She gives questions to help you think about how to apply the principles to your particular church situation and see what the needs are.

In her last chapter she says that she hopes the reader fits into one of these two categories:

• You are really excited and keen to get going.

  or

• You are really excited but feeling a little overwhelmed.

She says by nature she is an activist- someone with tons of ideas and the energy and enthusiasm to go after them.

That is definitely not me. So I fell into the second group though I would change it to ‘kinda excited and a little overwhelmed.’

Her book definitely gave me things to think about, but I’m currently at a small church plant that’s figuring lots of things out and I struggled a little to determine which parts of the book should be a priority or would work with the structure that’s currently in place.

I’m also not in any sort of leadership position so I might have to wait for things to take shape at church and see if any of these ideas could come to life.

Nevertheless, from an individual perspective, I can still take these concepts and try to integrate them in my own interactions and relationships with others by being a better listener, by trying to model hospitality, pointing to Jesus, and answering questions honestly, by sharing what God is doing in my own life, and by spending more time in prayer about it— that God would work on my own heart to have a better sensitivity to care for people who are hard to care for or be willing to be inconvenienced to care for someone else.

A note on small groups. This is a topic that has befuddled me for some time now— what is the point of them? what should they look like? why do they fail? all the things.

I am planning to read Brad House’s book called Community which I think might be helpful (stay tuned for a review) but Helen recommended Steve Midgley’s paper on small groups called ‘Something Worth Meeting For.’ Turns out I had to pay to download it ($1.99) but I bought it and read it and thought it was a good paper for pastors who want to work on changing the culture of small groups and caring for people within those.

Recommendation

A Church that Cares is definitely a good book for pastors and people in leadership positions— I think it will help leaders know how to start changing their church’s culture on caring for others.

There are principles here for laypeople that are helpful, but if you only want to read one book on how you can individually love others better, I wonder if Edward T. Welch’s book Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love might be a better option. I haven’t personally read it yet (it’s on my shelf) but it seems like it might speak more to individual practicalities.

I would also recommend When Words Matter Most: Speaking Truth with Grace to Those You Love by Cheryl Marshall and Caroline Newheiser as another good book to help care for others going through hard times.

**Received a copy via The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5)
By: Sarah J. Maas

“Everything has a price.”

This is the prequel for the Throne of Glass series. I read it after book three, Heir of Fire, which I thought was the author’s recommendation but turns out I was supposed to read it BEFORE Heir of Fire. Whoops! Anywho— keep that in mind because there may be spoilers if you haven’t read those books yet.

I don’t mind having read Heir of Fire before this one. The Assassin’s Blade exposes even more how manipulative and terrible Arobynn was.

At the end of Heir of Fire Celaena is ready to confront him and now I’m ready for that interaction because I need some justice! It might have been less satisfying to read about the terribleness of Arobynn and then read all of Heir of Fire waiting for Celaena to get to the point of being able to go after him.

But, I can’t know what it would have been like to read it any other way so here we are.

The Assassin’s Blade was originally published as five novellas in 2012 before Throne of Glass was published. Then they were compiled and published as The Assassin’s Blade in 2014.

The stories are titled:

• The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

• The Assassin and the Healer

• The Assassin and the Desert

• The Assassin and the Underworld

• The Assassin and the Empire

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like going backwards in the series when I was ready to plow ahead after Heir of Fire. But I think it was okay to go back. Plus, the novella format made it somehow faster of a read.

It was good to see Celaena before her life crumbled apart (well… for the second time).

We see her passion and initiative for freeing slaves when she beats Captain Rolfe.

We see that even though she’s angry for being punished by Arobynn, it doesn’t prevent her from recognizing Yrene’s need for an ally and a way out. Celaena’s generosity and helping the voiceless shines through.

We see her capacity for friendship and mercy with Ansel. I didn’t know Celaena ever really laughed or joked.

We see her budding romance with Sam on full display. Celaena’s ability to be vulnerable for someone.

And then finally, we see when all of that was ultimately ripped away. Her trust extinguished. Her rage ignited. Her love broken. Her future uncertain.

Endovier awaited.

Heir of Fire is a catalyst for Celaena’s character development. Her self-loathing almost destroys her until she is finally empowered to find the light and her worth. After all the darkness she endured— which was fleshed out more in The Assassin’s Blade— Celaena determines that her story will not be one of darkness and despair but of being a beacon of light for the lost, wounded, and broken.

I’m glad to have known that before reading The Assassin’s Blade because Arobynn is just the utter worst and it seems like Celaena just could not escape his clutches. But the saving grace in reading this tragically ended collection is knowing that Arobynn is (hopefully) about to be destroyed and I can’t wait for that.

Some Foreshadowing

Part of why you would want to read this book is to understand more of Celaena’s backstory, her volatile relationship with the manipulative and powerful Arobynn, and what happened with her and Sam, but there are also some other moments that I am assuming are foreshadowing and would be helpful to know about in future books.

It also leads to some new questions I have that I hope will be answered in later books (unless I missed the connection in the first three books without realizing it…).

We don’t really know why Arobynn sent Celaena and Sam to the Skull Islands. It seemed like his ‘business’ could have been conducted without them. He must have sent them away to keep them out of town for something, perhaps related to Ben and Gregorio. We don’t know yet if Arobynn was behind their deaths.

Yrene had healing powers that were taken away when magic disappeared. I’m assuming Yrene and her healing play a vital role in later books and she will be an important ally to Celaena.

Ansel divulges to Celaena: “I’ll tell you a valuable secret: the only way to kill a witch is to cut off her head.” We also see Celaena acquire some spidersilk from a vendor who sold twenty years of his life to get it. He asks Celaena to kill the stygian spider so he can have his years back.

Heir of Fire introduces Manon and all the witches. It also introduces the spidersilk that Manon steals to bolster her dragon thing. I’m assuming this knowledge about heads rolling will be useful later. I also predict that spidersilk will play another major role and that one particular spider will be killed.

Speaking of Ansel and witches… when she ran into an Ironteeth witch on her escape, why would the witch NOT have killed her? We are told how brutal and ruthless they are. Is this witch a significant character for us? Did more happen between Ansel and the witch than she revealed?

Ansel could have a character change and become an ally to Celaena in the Flatlands.

If we don’t see the Mute Master and his Silent Assassins (including Ilias) come to Celaena’s aid when she comes back I will be SHOCKED.

Lysandra has to come back at some point. She’s an enemy to Celaena here but I’m hopeful that she will become an ally that uses her connections to get Celaena information. Like Celaena and Sam, Lysandra is a product of her upbringing, not given a lot of opportunity to escape her entrapment and Celaena might eventually have a soft spot for her, especially if Lysandra is subjected to Arobynn.

Why did Arobynn allow Celaena to be taken to Endovier where she could have easily died? If he knew who she was and was planning to keep her under his thumb to control her and her potential kingdom, why would he risk what could happen in Endovier? Seems like too big of a risk.

Celaena Critique

I admit, I was very frustrated by some of Celaena’s decisions in this book. I think I keep forgetting that she’s only 16-17 in these books. Her frontal lobe is not fully developed and she still is going to act immature even though so much of her character functions like a full-grown adult.

For example, her and Sam are forced to take on the fateful job because they owe Arobynn so much money and Celaena is attached to all her luxurious goods and needs. She isn’t willing to part with anything and requires a certain lifestyle yet going forward. If she could give any of that up, they could have cut ties easier. Her poor use of money is annoying considering the circumstances.

I know most teenagers don’t have great money sense. But most teenagers also don’t know a million ways to kill someone, so…

I was also annoyed that Celaena just believed Arobynn gave up on getting into the slavery industry so easily. She messed up his deal and thought that was that, but if she was smart, she would recognize that Arobynn is not just going to be like- That was going to make me a lot of money, but you’re right, I’ll just not do it because you don’t want me to, in fact I’ll actively work against it.

Though, again, teenagers tend to have an inflated view of self and their ability to change the world, so maybe it tracks.

Plus we have to take into consideration how manipulative and controlling Arobynn has been with Celaena for many formative years now, so to untangle the effects of that on her logic and decision-making would be tricky.

I just hope that Celaena continues to mature in shrewdness and wisdom so she can make better plans and not be taken advantage of anymore.

Recommendation

It’s hard to read a prequel in the middle of a series, but I think that is the correct course of action. Read it before Heir of Fire or after. Either should be fine.

This, again, isn’t going to be my favorite book of the series— probably because it’s tragic and infuriating— but still a great read that continues to invest you in Celaena, her world, and her plight.

Four books into the series and I’m still on the recommend-train!

Also, if you liked the ‘I will not be afraid’ line… then you need to watch the David movie <3

[Content Advisory: a handful of swear words; there is regular talk about a courtesan preparing for her virginity to be sold; there are several scenes where prostitution is occurring in the background but no encounters are detailed; and obviously there is violence and murder because that’s what assasssins do— no scenes of ongoing torture though; closed door romance between Celaena and Sam other than some kissing]

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some
By: Josh Gad

[Fulfills prompt: ‘A book with a title you would NOT want on your grave stone’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]

“I was hardly an accident, but barely a victory.”

“‘He’s a unique character, and you’re in a world that only Josh could create, where self-deprecation meets self-celebration in a way that’s both endearing and absolutely ridiculous.’” — Ron Howard

Josh Gad, the voice of our beloved Olaf, has written a tell-some memoir.

And a tell-some is an apt description. It seemed like all the parts that I wanted to hear more about were the shortest ones and the information that bored me were the drawn out sections.

It started out interesting, quickly got boring and hard to pick up, becoming an overdue library book that I wasn’t overly excited about finishing, then when I finally did attempt to finish, there were a few chapters at the end that grabbed my interest again.

I’m not sure why I keep reading celebrity memoirs. I’m not sure what I’m looking for each time I pick one up… perhaps its a glimpse into the life of fame, perhaps it’s to discover how they got to where they are now, or maybe it’s to find out how they are just normal people who ask the same questions about life that we do.

Whatever it is, I’ve decided that it’s NOT to find out all the details about plays and musicals they did in their high school, college, and career beginning years. And it’s NOT to get all the inconsequential name-dropping— most of which mean nothing to me.

Somehow every celebrity memoir does both of those things.

What I did find interesting about Gad’s life was hearing about the pain his father caused him and how he developed and used comedy to help break his mom’s depression and cope with his own pain.

“As the old adage goes, ‘Comedy equals tragedy plus time.’”

His mom put him in a children’s theater as an outlet to counter the effects of his dad’s chaos. What started as almost a therapy turned into a career, and as he declares, a legacy.

But the personal reflection soon diverges into the details of his forensic NFL career and being “the most decorated speech competitor in the country.” Then he pops in with a passing comment about how his stepdad came into his life and completely changed his life and then immediately goes back to all the nitty gritty details about whatever speech tournament he was talking about.

I was like- no, I would rather know about that stepdad thing! How did he change your life? What about your personal character development? Those are the things I think I appreciate about memoirs the most.

I was content to completely skip over Chapter 6 about the Book or Mormon. I’m not Mormon. I’ve never seen the Book of Mormon. I have no desire to ever see it, especially after the parts of this chapter I skimmed. There were so many f-words in the first two pages of the chapter that completely turned me off to anything else the chapter would contain. I don’t believe I missed out on anything beneficial.

Then there was the chapter on parental advice. And as I was reading it, I realized— I really don’t care what parenting advice Josh Gad could give me.

It was interesting to hear about how his grandpa and grandma both survived the Holocaust. Again, I would have loved more about that story, but I guess that’s not really Josh Gad’s story.

Then we got some more compelling chapters that talked about his role as LeFou in Beauty and the Beast and as Olaf in Frozen.

I vaguely remember the controversy about LeFou and I appreciated Gad sharing that the original intent behind the character was just platonic devotion to Gaston and that they just wanted the audience to interpret what they wanted to from the character rather than trying to portray any overt sort of LGBTQ representation. It only turned into something controversial when one of the writers (or producers?) had an interview with an LGBTQ magazine and said something about representation that the magazine then took that and blew it all up to capitalize on the small moment.

I relate to Gad’s lamenting that that few seconds of the movie overshadowed the rest of the film and became the only thing people wanted to talk about as if that was the most important part of the film— which it was not. It’s sad when sexuality has to become the defining feature of a person or a movie.

I loved his mention of the Samantha line in the When I’m Older song. That was not scripted! And it’s one of our family’s favorite lines in the movie, so well done Josh!

I also appreciated the parts where he talked about the Pandemic. We don’t have the same perspective about a lot of world events, but I respect his work during the quarantine to help bring levity and entertainment to a dark time for the whole globe. I remember showing my daughter a few of his videos reading a story. I didn’t realize he did the Reunited Apart web series, but that sounded cool too. He used his platform, connections, humor, and skills to do something constructive and beneficial for others and I think that’s really cool.

“Entertaining millions of people when they also needed it the most was one of the great honors of my life.”

Recommendation

It had potential and the last few chapters saved it a little, but overall, not a book I was excited to continue reading. Just too much content that I wasn’t interested in or didn’t appreciate, and not of the stuff I wanted to hear more about.

I love his work as Olaf and it was cool to see the different roles he took on throughout his career, not letting himself be pigeonholed in the industry, but I don’t think this book was really for me.

To be fair— there are few celebrity memoirs that I end up giving more than 3 stars. But I still keep picking them up. I guess mostly out of curiosity.

This is one of those books that I say— wasn’t for me, but I’m sure there is an audience for it. Especially die-hard fans of Josh Gad, those who know what forensic NFL is, and/or those who think the Book of Mormon is hilarious.

Also I didn’t think there was any satisfactory reason given for the title- In Gad We Trust. I was expecting some sort of funny anecdote or joke behind that, but I didn’t see it. So that was also disappointing.

I suppose I will give it some bonus points because with his history in writing we can at least be fairly confident that he wrote his own book instead of using a ghostwriter so props for that!

[Content Advisory: lots and lots of swearing; some sexual innuendo]

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Caller Unknown
By: Gillian McAllister

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“Your children are only ever on loan to you… Of course that isn’t correct, she thought. If you do it right, your children are yours forever. But it has plagued her in the way things sometimes do when they contain an uncomfortable truth.”

True to form, Gilliam McAllister delivers another story of motherhood and the complex emotions of loving your children under unique circumstances. Unfortunately, when I opened the box of this delivery, it wasn’t quite the product I was hoping for!

I enjoyed Famous Last Words and Wrong Place, Wrong Time, despite the amount of swearing both contained, and so I was willing to read Caller Unknown as well. But in this case the standard f-words of a McAllister’s book was accompanied by a lackluster story that just didn’t make sense in the real world which it attempted to depict.

The concept of this book was intriguing— how far will a mother go to rescue her kidnapped daughter? Are you really a mother if you haven’t imagined the most bizarre scenarios of danger to your family and how you would escape, defend, or rescue?

I wasn’t even dreaming when I concocted an entire escape plan from my invaded house through underground tunnels that didn’t even exist but somehow seemed like the most plausible plan. Mothers (and fathers) have a God-given instinct to protect their children— what a gift!

And so, I love a good story where parents go after their children and save them through their unconditional and profound love for them.

But this one was just… oddly incoherent and unbelievable in an annoying way.

The interactions between the mother, Simone, and her daughter, Lucy, and then Simone and her husband, Damien, do not feel normal for the situation.

I also didn’t realize that the kidnap part was just the first third of the book. Simone gets Lucy back (I won’t tell you how) but then are forced on the run through the Texan desert. Somehow are never found.

Of course the police were never called— which in some stories works, but the idea that the police were compromised did not feel compelling enough for that decision here.

“She’s too frightened to tell the truth. That’s simply how it is. There is too much on the line.”

I don’t believe the method of targeting the kidnap victims would be sustainable or untraceable.

And then, when things come to a head and she faces prison, Simone is unwilling to seek legal counsel, not even wanting to know what her own sentence would be, believing it’s the only way to keep her daughter from going to jail. I get there are risks if they can’t prove things and the system doesn’t always do what it’s supposed to do for innocent people, but still— it all felt very rash, and I don’t think deep mother’s love requires a vehicle of rashness and/or obsession.

I also disagree with the idea that mothers love their children more than fathers. I think it shows up differently and there is something different about carrying your child in your womb for 9 months and nursing them and all that, but fathers still have a fierce desire to protect and love their kids. Plenty of studies show that the absence of a father and his love is severely detrimental to kids so obviously their love is present and just as important as a mother’s love.

Simone has thoughts of “superiority and martyrdom” when thinking about how much more she loves Lucy than Damien.

“She loves Lucy more than Damien does. Always has. Lucy came first always, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. It is different for women.”

What concerns me in this sentiment is that Simone has placed her relationship with Lucy above her relationship with her husband which is never good for a marriage or a family in general. It’s better for your children when you love your spouse first. Your marital love creates safety and security for your children.

In this way, my ability to relate with Simone or have her motherly love resonate with me devolved. This made her feel ‘other’ to me rather than ‘like.’

At least she came around by the end to say- “The thing is, children need both our love. Mine and yours. Different— but together, they are potent.”

But it’s still not clear whether she continues to place her child on a pedestal of almost-worship.

Sure, this book will stir up the emotions of fearing the worst for your child or of desiring to sacrifice yourself for their good. And I didn’t figure out exactly who the kidnapper was until it was revealed.

Plus I thought it was interesting to read a book from the perspective of a Brit experiencing an event like this vacationing in America (Texas) when I’m used to Americans encountering danger in other countries, picturing the reverse— how they would navigate an unfamiliar American landscape— was new.

But I just didn’t really like it.

I’ve read better books about kidnappings (The Prisoner, A Deadly Influence, The Deep, Deep Snow) and I think Break Every Rule or Run Away do a better job of showing the lengths a parent would go to rescue a child but be warned: the subject matter is a little harder to read because they involve human trafficking and drug addiction/cults respectively.

Obligatory Section of New British Words I Learned:

blag: to get something through charm or bluffing

night hatch: late-night food window

bodged: make, fix, or do something in a clumsy, rushed way

leavers’ ball: like a prom, a black tie event sending off graduating students

So: After my leavers’ ball I blagged my way to a night hatch in a bodged attempt to get a nosh. Just a normal day in the UK.

Recommendation

Overall, the book was okay, but not great. There were plenty of people who liked it, but it didn’t really resonate with me. I liked the concept but not the execution. There are better books than this regarding the same types of situation and better books about a mother’s love.

[Content Advisory: 49 f-words, 15 s-words; no sexual content; no torture or violence other than a shooting]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Post Woke: How Christians Can Think Clearly About Critical Theory, Race, Gender, and Sexuality
By: Neil Shenvi & Pat Sawyer

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“It’s impossible for two worldviews to peacefully coexist in our lives. They will constantly be competing for our allegiance.” 

The title alone will stir up a lot of feelings in a lot of people. Some may never even pick up the book because of the use of the word ‘woke.’ I admit, it’s a brave choice for a title because of all the baggage that term holds.

The authors acknowledge that a lot of conservative people have abused the term and applied it to “malign [anything]… they dislike, no matter how benign it actually it is…” That is not what they are doing in this book.

They use the term ‘woke’ to refer to what it meant when the word first came on the scene: “wokeness has its roots in a body of scholarship known as the critical tradition.”

When it comes down to it, I think the majority of people understand the set of ideals that is attached to the term ‘woke’ whether you like the term or not.

Right upfront I will say, if you are not a follower of Christ, you are not the technical audience for this book. Critical Dilemma may be a better option for you, but I would still recommend Post Woke, because the authors do a fantastic job of explaining what critical theory is, how it shows up in the world today, and where it fails to promote human flourishing.

The authors sum up the content of the book before they lay out some practical guidance on applying the knowledge in our spheres of influence:

“we have explained the ideas at the heart of wokeness, have shown why they’re incompatible with Christianity, and have offered a biblical framework for thinking about race, gender, and sexuality… now how can we communicate these truths to our children, our neighbors, or our pastors?”

The catalyst for this book was discovering how critical theory ideology has found its way into the Christian church because many have not been equipped to identify it for what it is. Its entrance can be subtle but the effects are not.

What’s at stake?

“[Critical theory’s] basic assumptions will constantly run up against core biblical truths about God, man, revelation, truth, sin, redemption, authority, hierarchy, gender, and sexuality. These are serious problems that Christians cannot overlook.” 

“We want to show people not only how wokeness gets these topics wrong, but how the Bible gets them right.” 

For those of you who, like me, have already ready Shenvi and Sawyer’s book Critical Dilemma, you may be wondering— how is this book different than that? should I read both?

The authors answer this question specifically. They said Post Woke is not just a condensed version but meant to be a standalone resource.

“What distinguishes it? Critical Dilemma was accessible but intentionally academic… Post Woke is written for a broader audience… Post Woke is focused less on the esoteric theories that undergird wokeness and more on its everyday expression in the real world… we aim to show how woke ideas show up ‘on the ground’… Critical Dilemma was a resource for anyone— Christian or non-Christian— who wanted to understand what wokeness is, where it came from, and how to respond to it… Post Woke is more specifically written for a Christian audience… we assume a basic, shared Christian theological framework… Post Woke is meant to be practical… we want you to walk away with a plan of action…”

I enjoyed both books. But I understand that not everyone wants to take the time to read two books on the same topic that are over 250 pages each.

If you prefer a more academic book with lots of sources and want critical theory represented by quotes from critical theorists themselves then I would suggest Critical Dilemma be your first read. I would also recommend this one if you are not a Christ follower.

If you are not concerned with all the details and you just want the basic explanation and would rather spend more time talking about the practical outworking of asserting a biblical view, then Post Woke is your book.

I think I personally preferred Critical Dilemma, but I think it’s partially because there was a decent amount of overlap in Post Woke so I wasn’t hearing the information for the first time. I still appreciated the practical ‘here’s what you can do’ steps they provide in this book.

Overall, I don’t know if it makes sense to read both books unless you’re really interested in the topic.

One thing I really like about both of these books is that the authors understand the appeal of critical theory. I think there are a lot of people that aren’t that opposed to ‘woke’ ideology because from their perspective it seems like it is caring for the marginalized and seeks to fight injustice. What could be wrong with that?

“Everyone craves meaning, purpose, morality, and community. We want to feel that we are doing good in the world. Contemporary critical theory channels that energy and directs it down the path of activism… [but] the story told by critical theorists is necessarily simplistic because its primary purpose is not accuracy but activism.”

They go on to summarize the appeal of wokeness:

“It takes racism and sexism seriously. It highlights shameful, but unfortunately very real, episodes in our nation’s past. It calls attention to widespread racial disparities and present-day mistreatment of women. It expresses love and concern for the vulnerable. It repudiates oppression and injustice. It positions itself as compassionate. It fills the spiritual void left by the cultural displacement of Christianity. And it provides people with a secular metanarrative that offers them meaning, purpose, moral commitments, and community.”

But a critically thinking Christian must see that what critical theory offers is a worldview, which is a set of beliefs that answers questions like: who are we? what is wrong with the world? how do we fix what’s wrong? what is our purpose? what happens when we die?

The answers to these questions are what set it in opposition to Christianity.

[Sidenote: Most organizations or people spreading this ideology aren’t calling it critical theory. We have to be wise in evaluating the concepts that root any ideology; be aware that you may be holding onto a tenet of critical theory without even realizing it!]

The authors highlight the four pillars (core ideas) of Contemporary Critical Theory that unify all the branches from the critical race theorists, to the queer theorists and intersectional feminists, etc: Social Binary, Hegemony, Lived Experience, and Social Justice. (I detail these more in my review of Critical Dilemma if you are interested).

Then Shenvi and Sawyer outline the four major areas where critical theory and Christianity are incompatible:

• the nature of oppression (key point: not all norms are oppressive, some are God-ordained and therefore good—to follow their logic: “if oppression occurs whenever those in authority use their power to impose their norms and values… then who is the ultimate Oppressor? God himself.”— making this belief system incompatible with Christianity)

• the nature of our identity (key point: CCT believes identity is collective and socially constructed— Christians view identity as being children of God that takes precedence over anything else— viewing people as oppressed or oppressors based on gender, race, sexuality, etc would breed division, suspicion, and resentment in the church)

• the nature of justice (key point: CCT sees any disparity as evidence of discrimination; their version of justice requires equal outcomes not just equal opportunities meaning “the demands of equity are open-ended and never quite seem to be satisfied”; in seeking to enact their version of justice they codify partiality; also “the idea of retributive justice, which is prominent in the Bible is almost entirely absent (even problematized) in critical theory”)

• the nature of truth (key point: CCT elevates lived experience in determining truth and is skeptical of objective claims whereas Christians should test any claim against Scripture; truth doesn’t cease to be truth because of the social positioning of the one speaking it— Christianity is based on objective truth claims made by Jesus himself)

The good news for those who want to fight racism and sexism, care for the vulnerable, oppose oppression and injustice, and find purpose that is rooted in love— you aren’t giving any of that up to separate from ‘wokeness’ and be rooted in Christ! Those are all biblical things.

I liked the section where the authors showed how contemporary critical theory is particularly prone to certain fallacies. For example, bulverism is basically wish fulfillment. You believe such and such because it’s a psychological projection of your need to feel loved, your guilty conscience, desire to escape death, etc.

It ends up being paramount to CCT’s defense because anyone who disagrees with them or questions them is ‘blinded’ by their race, gender, or privilege. Thus, truth can change depending where your ‘identity’ stands on the table of intersectionality.

The authors describe six other common fallacies found in the logic of critical theory and then offer some good advice for engaging with people who are employing them.

There are also chapters dedicated to looking closer at race, gender, and sexuality and showing how God and his Word offer us a better story about how to view ourselves and each other.

Interspersed are helpful comments about how to handle personal pronouns, how to teach our kids to push back against victimhood narratives, how to be more confident in our parenting in a world that is trying to claim children as belonging to the state, how to have a biblical view of hierarchy, how to celebrate diverse ethnicities while recognizing the fluidity of people groups mixing and changing, and more.

As someone who has read extensively on these topics, I didn’t find anything new, but what I found was steady. I know that any Christian who reads this book will come away feeling more confident in pursuing God’s truth and biblical design for us as individuals and for our communities as a whole.

God’s way is for our good and promotes human flourishing. The Deceiver tries to destroy that, to create enmity and division between God’s image-bearers, to pervert anything that represents God’s relationship to his people (marriage), and to call God’s objective truth into question.

As Christians, that should matter to us. If we get the problem wrong (as the authors rightly argue critical theorists do) we get the solution wrong. Social justice can’t solve the problem of sin in the human heart. Only God can transform us.

Shenvi and Sawyer have written this awesome resource that reveals the heart of wokeness and how it infiltrates even our churches, but also reminds us what we should be pursuing instead. We are not left aimless and wondering.

“We must not merely tear down. We must also build up, offering and exemplifying a positive vision for loving across difference. Our lives should be an ongoing testimony to the world of the power of Christ, the love we have for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and the love we have for our fellow human beings.”

Negative Reviews

As with any book that addresses worldview claims, this book is going to ruffle some feathers and offend a lot of people who believe differently.

But I wanted to specifically address a one-star review that stated:

“The core of Christianity is that we are to love our neighbors without judgement. That's it. That is all. Anything else is blasphemy- as is this book. Nothing other than hate disguised behind ‘Christianity.’”

I address this because I gather the reviewer is a Christian by their use of ‘we’ and I think it’s fair to engage with someone who is supposedly approaching this book with the same worldview as myself.

Loving our neighbors is indeed a core tenet of Christianity. Jesus says this after being asked what the greatest commandments are. However, first he states to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. He says the second commandment is like the first. Loving our neighbor is like loving God. But, in order to love our neighbor well, we must know what it is to love God.

The Bible has a lot to say about that. But one of the primary ways we love God is by obeying him. By loving what he loves. By submitting to his authority in our lives.

We love our neighbors by desiring good for them. We know what is good for them by knowing what God wants for them.

It is popular to claim the Bible says not to judge (quoting Matthew 7:1) and then immediately take it out of context. Do we really think God is asking us to never make moral judgments? That is not what is taught in Scripture. We make moral judgments all the time to know what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong.

I love this quote from Rachel Gilson:

“Usually, when “judge not” is used to shut down moral conversation, it’s asserting that we don’t have the right to correct each other’s views on whatever topic is at hand. But contrary to that interpretation, we need to be deeply concerned with one another, that our view of sin and righteousness aligns with Jesus Christ’s.

Love includes the command “Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13). The nature of sin is pure deceit, and we’re all susceptible to falling for it. Jesus Christ came full of grace and truth to set us free from sin, death, and lies, and to make us agents for this freedom for others as well. Let’s not judge as if we’re the ones who declare each other ultimately guilty or innocent. Instead, let’s discern together in proper fear and reverence the will of the Lord.”

To boil all of Scripture down to: ‘love our neighbor without judgment. That is all.’ really seems to miss a lot.

To be fair, she does further clarify in an additional comment “one cannot claim to love God while hating people they don't understand and refuse to even try to learn about” proving she knows loving our neighbor stems from our love for God.

I would argue that it’s clear from both of the authors’ books that they DID learn about these other beliefs— way more than most people reading the books. And it’s also clear that they do not hate those who believe differently than them— there are no personal attacks or degradation in the book; they engage with public quotes about CT’s tenets.

But that’s really what so much of these conversations come down to.

To ‘disagree’ is not synonymous to ‘hate’, and I refuse to capitulate to a redefinition of this word.

I understand that it might feel hateful to some because they have chosen to adhere to a set of beliefs that tell them their race, gender, or sexuality is the most important and defining thing about them, but that is simply not true. Their value is based in something far deeper than that.

I’m sure there are people who identify as Christians who actually do treat people in a way that could be labeled ‘hate.’ But Christian beliefs themselves, are not hateful. God’s law is not oppressive to us; it’s freeing to us because his design is for our good and his glory.

Again, I engage with this negative review only because she claims to be a Christian and because she voices what I actually hear from lots of people— Christian and otherwise— and I think it’s an unfair and unreasonable claim to assume anyone (or more specifically these authors) who makes moral judgments against a belief (rather, a whole set of beliefs) is being hateful and is acting out of accordance with the teaching of Scripture.

Recommendation

Not only did I love Shenvi’s book Why Believe? and their other co-authored book, Critical Dilemma, I am thankful for their book Post Woke as well.

They rightly spur us on to take ownership of our beliefs and to recognize when false doctrines (in this case, in the form of critical theory) sneak into our lives and churches and hinder us from pursuing God’s good design and truth.

This book will help any reader equip themselves and other Christians “to recognize and reject contemporary critical theory… to resist the cultural pressure to compromise, soften, or reject what the Bible teaches.” 

I definitely recommend this book to Christians because it will better explain why the ideology often associated with ‘wokeness’ is opposed to the core tenets of our beliefs as Christ followers. It will help you better handle how you engage with others who believe differently, and how to teach your kids to recognize it as well.

If you are not a Christ follower, I would probably suggest you read Critical Dilemma instead of this one unless you plan to read both. While it still addresses Christianity specifically, I think Critical Dilemma will show more of why the ideology of critical theory should matter to even people who aren’t Christians.

Further Reading

Here are some other related books that I’ve reviewed that they referred to in this book:

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman (He wrote the foreword to Critical Dilemma)

Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay

Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell

Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes Du Mez

Tactics by Greg Koukl

Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City by Katy Faust (I don’t know if they quoted the book, but they quoted her)

Walking in Unity: Biblical Answers to Questions on Race and Racism by Krista Bontrager & Monique Duson

The Counterweight Handbook: Principled Strategies for Surviving and Defeating Critical Social Justice— At Work, in Schools, and Beyond by Helen Pluckrose (I have not read this book but I’m intrigued by it, especially because I don’t think Pluckrose is a Christian)

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting a Generation For Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff

**Received a copy via Harvest House in exchange for an honest review**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Evangelism
By: Sharonda Cooper

This book is part of a 6-part series Crossway put out called Disciplines of Devotion, meant to help women “cultivate a life of devotion to the Lord by building simple, biblical practices into their days.”

Other books in the series are Worship, Bible Study, Sabbath Rest, Prayer, and Fasting. As of the writing of this review, I’ve only read the Evangelism book.

They are all short, this one is only 60 pages and are easily read in one day or even one sitting, thus they are not exhaustive but brief and practical. They provide other resources as an appendix for further reading/study on the topic.

The chapters of this Evangelism booklet are:

• What is Evangelism?

• What Are the Blessings of Evangelism?

• Evangelize by Asking Good Questions

• Evangelize by Sharing Your Story

• Evangelize Through One-on-One Bible Reading

Cooper offers this definition of evangelism: “Evangelism is explaining the gospel to a person who is not yet following Jesus so that he or she might obediently respond by turning from sin, trusting in Christ, and beginning a lifelong journey of following the Lord.”

This opposes the popular phrase- ‘preach the Gospel and if necessary, use words.’ I actually had a poster of this phrase on my bedroom wall growing up. (For those wondering, it is not present in Scripture.)

The heart of that phrase is admonishing believers to live a life that reflects the Gospel. And that’s important. That’s evidence of a changed heart. But actual evangelism requires words. Explanations. Conversation.

Evangelism is scary. Especially when sharing about our own faith and inviting others into it is often received as ‘shoving it down someone’s throat.’ We fear what people will think of us. We fear rejection. We fear doing it wrong and causing someone to reject God because we didn’t explain something well enough.

But I appreciated what Cooper shared in this book. She reminds us that the more we do it, the less scared of it we will be; we’ll see that it’s not as bad as we imagined. That doesn’t mean we won’t face rejection, but we’ll know that we are being obedient to God’s commission for us and we’ll remember that only God can change hearts.

There is no ‘quota’ of ‘conversions’ a Christian must get in order to keep their spot in heaven. Evangelism is merely an outpouring of what matters most to us to people we care about or people that God places in our path.

Most of the time evangelism is just sharing our own story of what God has done in our own lives or asking good questions.

It’s definitely easier said than done. I chose to read this book because I know I’m not intentional to do this and I was hoping it would help relieve some of the anxiety that comes with thinking about evangelizing.

I think for some who have not even thought about how to evangelism or why it matters, this little booklet is a great place to start. For me, having already read Greg Koukl’s book Tactics (which is recommended in the back) that book felt a little more helpful for me to hear actual conversations play out and consider more specifics.

Nonetheless, I clearly didn’t come away from Tactics with a passion for evangelizing if I still don’t feel like I’m doing it. And I think that just reminds me that I need to stop looking at it like something I do on my own.

I have the Holy Spirit inside me to help me and I need to pray for more opportunities and for open eyes and boldness to see them and take them. My fear keeps me from even looking to do it.

I can read twenty books about evangelism but I need to pray that God would help me take action. To be willing to try and to be okay with whatever results from it. If I really believe what I believe, and believe those who don’t believe it end up in hell, why would I let fear hinder my sharing. I should fear God more than man.

I don’t need to protect God from rejection. He doesn’t need me to shelter him from people’s reactions. It’s me that needs him.

So at some point, we need to stop reading books about it and just go and do it. (This is me preaching this to myself!)

Recommendation

I think the concept of this series is really good. Especially because most people aren’t voracious readers and aren’t going to spend the time reading longer books. Brief and practical is a great.

I think most people are going to find these really helpful. They are great resources and would make a nice little gift.

Personally, I’m in a place where I prefer a little bit more. I’m willing to read longer books and get more details and examples. That doesn’t make this a bad book, it just means some readers may need more than this. Which is why they included extra resources.

So I recommend this as a good starting place but encourage you to check out other books too!

Another one they recommend that I’ve reviewed is J.I. Packer’s- Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.

**Received a copy via Crossway in exchange for an honest review**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Twenty Something Else
By: Stephanie Mack

“Some things extra guac cannot fix.”

This was a lovely and relatable story.

I mean who hasn’t gotten smashed in the face with a pink pickleball that sends them on a time traveling quest back to their twenties in alternate universes to see if they’d rather have a different life??

I am not yet forty, as our main character, Sutton, is just turning, but I have entered my late thirties and am raising four children in a world where aging is seen as a disease to be cured, motherhood depicted as the graveyard of untapped dreams.

I feel the cultural pressure to be young, to see motherhood as a hindrance to ‘following my dreams’ as if my children aren’t the dream. I’ve gone through hard seasons in my marriage as we’ve added each child and had to figure out how to still prioritize each other. I have felt the weariness and my husband and I have reminisced about our younger years.

As Sutton nears her 40th, she laments:

“‘Since when is it a knock against you to be a MOM?’… I might as well be wearing an expiration date like a scarlet letter…

I’m still something, aren’t I?…

…If my choices have been so wonderful, then why am I weary and worn?… I want to be sitting here fully confident in my kids’ love for me, gratified in my accomplishments, satisfied in my marriage. Instead I’m wondering where I might’ve gone wrong. Could there have been other choices or versions of me, ones that led to more contentment and peace? Happiness?”

I think everyone wonders this at some point.

The concept of this story is not original. The writer intentionally wrote her own version of It’s A Wonderful Life— her favorite movie— with the suburban mom twist and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! (It also felt reminiscent of the rom-com movies About Time and When We First Met).

In an interview (I found online), Stephanie Mack shares part of what was behind this story:

“Even when our dreams have come true, they can feel different than we pictured. That tension is ripe for what-if reflection, not out of regret, but curiosity and meaning-making. We’re a deeply nostalgic bunch. We’re also old enough to have lived several versions of ourselves, yet young enough to still feel the weight of choice. Looking back becomes a way of understanding what truly mattered, what shaped us, and how to carry that wisdom forward.”

While I didn’t fully relate to Sutton’s life— because I live in Iowa and not California and I don’t like coffee, use Instagram, do Botox, or wear make-up— we did have commonalities in having March birthdays, being a mom of twins, having a husband in finance and a friend who taught in a Central American country, marrying at 22 (21 for me) and having kids at 26, playing pickleball, and loving our college years.

It’s intriguing to think— what if I had made a different choice? What would the trajectory of my life had been?

Sutton gets a facial from a pickleball the night before her 40th and wakes up in some sort of limbo with some sort of angel— this isn’t supposed to be straight out of the Bible, folks— and a balloon marked with each year of Sutton’s twenties.

“‘Your unsettled spirit brought you here. You can only go back if you are certain that your old life is what you want.’”

By popping a balloon she enters into this alternate reality where she made different choices. She can see what could have been.

“‘Everyone has roads not taken. Lives not lived, other selves they could have been. You, for instance, chose to marry Reid at twenty-two, become a mother at twenty-six, and follow that wonderful path, leading you here, to your fortieth birthday… Of all the critical decision points and forks in the road of becoming Sutton, this is the one that most powerfully influenced your twenties and future decades.’”

Armed, now, with a pink pickleball that in some ways acts like Dorothy’s red shoes, if she holds it and counts down from 20 she goes back to the limbo place where she can try to assimilate into a different year.

“Benjamin Sutton. Doing time backward.”

Mack shares:

“Twenty Something Else poured out of a very real season of reflection—standing at a milestone as a suburban mother of three who married her college sweetheart nearly twenty years ago, and wondering how the past, the present, and the person I once was all connect.”

With humor and vulnerability this book was hard to put down!

Perhaps her life is more Classic California than mine is but even in the a Midwest without palm trees, women still feel similar pressures and are faced with the same decisions about joining a trend or not.

The messages in this book are good— I wasn’t sure how it was all going to shake out, but I was happy with what the characters learned and what ultimately was prioritized. The storytelling was compelling and entertaining. There was grace while not leaving out the wisdom. Though not a completely original concept, well done nonetheless.

Reading it while traveling added to the overall experience. I was looking at a Delta flying booklet on my own flight when Sutton traveled via Delta to the Matterhorn. There was a 2000s playlist going in the airport when our flight was delayed six hours that took me back to my highschool and college years. It had a great combination of modern and nostalgic references.

I loved the emphasis on female friendship because women need other women who understand the pressure and the struggle and can offer support and encouragement. What a gift to have friends who can pray over you! Too many books portray competitive friendship, fake friendship, or conditional friendship. It’s refreshing to see genuine care.

This book isn’t trying to be unpredictable so I don’t think I’m really spoiling anything by sharing this, but I was glad that Sutton remained true to her family.

I was also worried that she was going to choose her family but that she was going to convince her friend (who was having marital problems in the real timeline) to not marry who she married.

It would have been contradictory that they could both be struggling and one of them learns grace, contentment, and intentionality, and the other one gets the exit path.

I’m also glad that the answer wasn’t just ‘I guess I am happy after all’ but that she recognized how fulfilling her family is, how important her role, recognized areas she can love her husband better, recognized what she’d lose if she’d chosen different.

“The sanctified feeling of family… Crowded and messy and pressing up into my personal space. Hovering, needing, and taking. Loving, knowing, and holding. Stealing my time. Stealing my heart. But giving me everything, multiples more than they could ever subtract if they tried.”

Marriage does take work and intentionality; it’s not always easy. And just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s over or it’s not worth it.

I often look at pictures of my husband and myself when we were first married and I understand Sutton’s sentiment: “I want to reclaim the optimism, wonder, and passion of those years in our twenties— the belief that the world can be changed. That great love exists, even if it evolves.”

There is something beautiful about that wonder. At the same time, I wouldn’t go back there. That earlier version of me was untested. Carefree but untouched yet by the depth of life.

My husband and I have weathered some stuff. We’re different now. But we’ve gained wisdom; we’ve been tested; we’ve grown. And that’s a good thing. It strengthened our bond and prepares us for future hardship. It’s a life that pushed us deeper into the love of our Creator and Savior.

We’re meant to be weathered people. We’re meant to share in the sufferings of Christ.

If you don’t feel content in your life right now, you don’t have the option to visit alternate realities, but know that the Lord’s plan for you is the best plan. He has you where you are for a reason. Seek Him first and contentment will be close behind because he is all we need. He makes the hard times endurable. He offers hope for transformation and ultimately hope for life after death where all is made right.

The wonder can be reclaimed by housing it under the umbrella of God working in our lives for our good and his glory. There are still endless possibilities because we serve a sovereign God.

Negative Reviews?

I was surprised to see as many reviews as I did that were disappointed by the book. There were some that found the book too shallow. Some who took issue with Sutton’s interaction with the male figures in the past. Some who thought the whole concept as a whole of going back and changing the past was unbiblical.

I’d like to offer my own opinion on these things as someone who really enjoyed the story but can see where all of them are coming from.

To the critique of ‘superficiality’ I would argue that I believe women everywhere struggle with the things Sutton is struggling with, superficial as you could argue them to be. They are real questions we ask ourselves, especially if we are ‘aging’ moms. At least in America where the pressure to look a certain way are blasted everywhere and we’re supposed to ‘follow our dreams’ and being mother surely can’t be one of them.

No matter how ‘good’ or ‘not good’ we have it, one of the devil’s most effective tools is whispering ‘discontent’ into our ears. The what ifs. The ‘isn’t there something better somewhere else?’ The ‘isn’t God holding out on you?’

There are a lot of superficial things out there clamoring for our attention, especially as women, and depending where you live and what you’re surrounded by, it takes will power to not get sucked into it all, even though you know just how superficial it is!

In that way, the superficiality is the deep thing because maybe we think we’re immune to it but we’re really not.

True, there are a lot of comments about beauty and appearances. I don’t own make-up and I have zero skin care routine but I can’t say I’ve never wondered if I’m missing something. There can be pride in keeping up our appearances and there can be pride in feeling superior to all the women who DO do those things. That’s why I appreciated the message of grace in this story, that we’re all out here trying our best. We should be encouragers, not tearing one another down with harsh judgments as if we have never cared about our appearance before.

To the critique of whether the concept is biblical or not…. no, it’s not biblical. But it’s not trying to portray itself as a doctrine. It’s very clearly a magical realism type of book. We all know you can’t go back in time. We all know that’s not even a choice we can make or not make. It’s fiction.

Stephanie Mack took a popular time travel trope that explores a curiosity to inspire self-reflection on our own discontentment in our lives. To come away thinking— but God doesn’t offer this to us!— I think, is missing the point. But truly, if that feels like it’s kicking at your conscience, by all means, pass on this book. It is far from required reading!

And if you happen to be a reader that is wondering if time travel actually is a way God works, I can clear that up for you so you can enjoy the divergence from reality: no. God doesn’t deal in time travel. He is outside of time, but we are very much within time. We can’t go back and change the past, but just as the author describes in this story, we can be forgiven for the past and that changes the trajectory of our future.

Probably the biggest critique and the one that is probably the most well-founded is the way Sutton interacts with men in these alternate universes. Isn’t she still married? Isn’t it cheating?

I do think that Mack does a good job of showing that Sutton is very conflicted about how to handle these other ‘relationships’ she finds herself in by entering into this ‘other reality.’ She asks questions about what is okay or not okay. She is told by the angel that her ‘real life’ doesn’t exist here. Reid and her children don’t exist at that point. Does that mean she’s not married and it doesn’t matter or is she still married in her heart? I don’t know.

Alternate universes aren’t real. It’s one of those weird things to grasp when time traveling. It’s not a perfect system and things get tricky when figuring out the moral boundaries because it’s all a fictional scenario.

I believe Sutton understands and exercises wisdom in a lot of ways. She holds hands and kisses (which, yes, is still cheating) but compared to what a lot of secular books would do, it’s mild.

Again, if you have personal convictions that poke at you that you shouldn’t be reading that, then pass on the book. For others, I didn’t find anything categorically problematic with the way Mack handled this in the story. It just felt like the package deal when it comes to entering into your own alternate realities.

I didn’t feel like Mack was even trying to send the message that it was okay for Sutton to do it. I didn’t think it was glorified or made to seem like an awesome thing. The overarching message was that Sutton was realizing how much she loved what she already had and that these lives weren’t for her. I don’t think readers would come away thinking— ‘If only I could go to an alternate universe to mess around with other men because it doesn’t count!’ That was not the vibe I got while reading.

There was one scene where Sutton shares with Reid before they were married that she was not a virgin. She recalls a youth group thing about purity that made her feel like used and damaged goods because of her choices. I’m glad that Mack inserted the message that the intention behind that illustration was good but incomplete. There is forgiveness for sin and there is cleansing of sin. God is in the business of making new creations.

For a nonfiction look at the conversation of purity I would recommend Talking Back to Purity Culture by Rachel Joy Welcher or What Gd Has to Say about Our Bodies by Sam Allberry.

“You are a precious image bearer of God. Your purity has already been won for you in Christ, and your dedication to pursuing sexual purity is not defined by your virginity but by your surrender to Christ and dependence on the Holy Spirit today. Today is a new day to pursue sexual purity out of love for the God who rescued you and brought you safely to himself in Christ.” — Rachel Welcher

Recommendation

I would definitely recommend this book! I think it’s a fun, nostalgic, and relatable book, especially for women in their thirties and forties who are feeling the cultural pressures of anti-aging or the downplaying of motherhood.

Stephanie Mack chose a specific type of book to write with the ‘magic’ of time travel and a reflection of discontentment and I thought she excelled at it.

Even for women who don’t relate to every part of Sutton’s life, I hope readers can connect to the overarching theme of the book and not come away judging Sutton’s life. If she were a real person she would be a sister in Christ and the message of the book is grace, contentment, friendship, and perseverance (and not trusting a guy in a leather vest).

Women tend to tear down when they need to feel better about themselves. I hope this book can remind readers that we’re all out here trying to do our best and encouragement from a friend goes a long way!

I would also recommend reading Jen Wilkin’s book Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World alongside or after this one. Clearly this is a relevant topic for people today and I believe her nonfiction book will offer even further biblical guidance on stewarding our time and our bodies.

**Received an ARC via Tyndale Publishing**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Her Cold Justice (Keera Duggan #3)
By: Robert Dugoni

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“‘The Irish Brawler’s daughter against the Queen of Circumstantial Evidence.’”

For those who love a good legal thriller, this series has been quite enjoyable. Dugoni sought to create a novel that “blended legal thriller, police procedural, and family dynamics” and he did a great job of that in this series.

I wouldn’t like to read a bunch of legal thrillers back to back but I love sprinkling them in periodically. There is great suspense in seeing a defense or prosecution unfold their plan and reveal their evidence. And of course, we love the obligatory “gotcha!” moments when they pull out their secret weapon!

The majority of the book takes place in the courtroom so if you don’t like books like that, you probably wouldn’t enjoy this one, but if you feel a little thrill picturing a lawyer say emphatically ‘DIDN’T YOU!!’ then you’ll probably want to give this series a try.

You could read this as a standalone for the case part of it. But to better understand the family dynamics you’ll want to start from the beginning.

I wouldn’t call this a beach read or a casual read in that I didn’t find it mindless. Whenever I picked it up while there were distractions I had a harder time with it, following the arguments and anticipating what direction the lawyers were trying to go. This book required at least some focus.

As with great legal thrillers, the reader has a general idea of the direction of their arguments, but we don’t know exactly how they’re going to convince the jury to go their way.

Weaving in the chess aspects to this story (Keera was a chess prodigy) showcases the strategy involved in trying and defending court cases, even down to what clothes they wear, what infractions to say that will be stricken from the record but not from the jury’s minds, what emotions to convey or hide, body language, all of it!

The chess lesson in this one was: it ain’t over til it’s over.

I’m not sure there were really any ‘shockers’ or surprising reveals in this one, but for me, the suspense is more in the wondering if justice will be done. Are the things able to be proven in court and will the jury see it the way you want them to? Nothing is guaranteed in the court room. So just like chess, you know the possible moves that could be made, but you don’t know what order they will happen— which strategy will win?

Contrary to the last book where Keera is defending a narcissist, Her Cold Justice is a story that makes you like the person Keera is defending and I was glad for that. You still don’t know what part Michael, the defendant, played in everything, but you at least WANT to root for him. You actually feel like you’re rooting for justice in this one; it felt like a fight against a corrupt system for a potentially wrongly accused person so you get invested in the outcome pretty quickly.

While Michael doesn’t have a completely clean legal or behavioral record, his case is something we all fear— what if we are accused of something we didn’t do but the evidence points to us. How do you prove your innocence?

The case at hand is a double homicide of a suspected drug smuggler and his girlfriend. The male victim was a coworker and friend of Michael’s and he was the last person to see him alive after getting a ride home from work late one night.

“‘He’s been charged with being part of a drug ring smuggling in large quantities of fentanyl and other heavy narcotics’” besides being the primary murder suspect.

For those reading the whole series, Michael is the nephew to JP Harrison, Keera’s private investigator, so we also have investment in that we really like JP and we want justice for his family.

The primary problem: Michael and Keera’s legal team are up against the fearless, no-nonsense prosecutor Kim Tran (this may have been changed to Anh Tran in the final publication).

Tran, after witnessing her parents’ murders as a young child, grew up to be a prosecutor and was “either infamous or famous depending on whom you spoke to.” She was often compared to Batman because of her origin story and her devotion to fighting for justice and putting criminals away.

“If Tran was the prosecutor, they could expect the charges to be extreme— and the consequences for JP’s nephew grave.”

“this was Tran. Within the rules, but skirting the edges, and ruthless.”

We discover that Tran, Queen of Circumstantial Evidence, had a penchant for getting convictions even if the evidence required inferences instead of eyewitness testimony or forensic proof.

After reading Dugoni’s author’s note, I liked this book even more knowing his intentions.

He says that he read an article that surprisingly named prosecutors as the most powerful people in the judiciary— rather than the expected ‘judges'.’

We discover in Her Cold Justice:

“Overcharging was just one abuse of that [prosecuting] power. Another was penalizing a defendant who refused to plea and exercised his constitutional right to make the prosecutor prove the charges to a jury. Withholding or hiding potentially exculpatory evidence was yet another form of abuse and, in egregious cases, so, too, was manufacturing evidence.”

I was definitely reminded of the nonfiction book I read titled Reforming Criminal Justice by Matthew Martens that also described the power of prosecutors and their immunity from being sued for trial misconduct.

This wasn’t included in Dugoni’s book but Martens talked about how prosecutors, while negotiating plea bargains, often require defendants to waive their right to Brady material— meaning if they plead guilty, they can’t change their plea if they find out later the prosecutors had exculpatory evidence that would prove their innocence and some states don’t require lawyers to share exculpatory evidence before trial. Prosecutors can also compel witnesses to testify in court but the defense can’t.

Prosecutors truly do have a lot of power that may not always go unchecked.

I would highly, highly recommend the book Reforming Criminal Justice to see the nonfictional statistics and examples of the problems in our legal system. It was the first book I had read that actually gave detailed explanations and non-partisan examples of the injustices instead of just proclaiming loudly ‘the system is rigged!’ with no further description.

Her Cold Justice is a fictionalized account that explores the ‘what if a prosecutor abused their power?’ of these real problems in our system and I found that aspect very compelling as I read this book.

As far as the family dynamics part of this book, I would say it’s mostly just a continuation of the development of Keera and her dad, Patsy’s, relationship. I really love watching them interact with one another and seeing Patsy’s support of her.

Keera’s sisters play a pretty minor role so I don’t really feel like Dugoni is trying to build up any of the sibling relationships, at least yet. Maggie seems to have more personality than Ella— “Maggie served as the firm’s receptionist, paralegal, and alarmist. There wasn’t a flame she couldn’t turn into a blaze, given the chance”— so maybe she will serve a bigger role in the future; I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.

Keera’s budding romance with Rossi is tended to a little bit in this book but from book one to now has been a very slow process. Considering the complications it would bring to both of their jobs since detectives work with prosecutors not defense attorneys, I am anxious to see them take their relationship to the next level to see what challenges they face in the workplace and how they manage them. I’m fairly certain that’s coming soon.

But not soon enough…

Dugoni’s author’s note says he has a great idea “for the next edition, a prequel of sorts” so I’m guessing we’re not moving forward in the next book, but circling around to the beginning. I don’t know if that means we get more of Patsy’s earlier career and perhaps the case where the bird testifies on the stand, or if it will be the backstory to Keera’s prior relationship and cause to leave her job in prosecution. I’m not typically a fan of prequels, so we shall see how it goes.

Recommendation

Unless you hate legal thrillers, I would recommend this book and this series as a whole. Dugoni does a good job writing the court room drama and coming up with compelling moral dilemmas or case possibilities. I also like the added layer of family dynamics between Keera and her recovering alcoholic lawyer dad who is helping her succeed as a defense attorney.

If you want to start this series from the beginning check out Her Deadly Game.

If you aren’t interested in legal thrillers, I would still recommend Robert Dugoni as an author and would direct you to pretty much any of this other books/series to try!

If you love thrillers and chess (and serial killers) I would highly recommend Steven James’ Patrick Bowers series— the first book is called The Pawn. It’s so good.

[Content Advisory: 2 f-words, 32 s-words; references to sexual encounters related to the case and brought up in the court room]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

The Escape Game
By: Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“‘If you can help me with the missing information, I’ll plant the evidence in the finale room, which, if you’ve been paying attention, will REVEAL THE KILLER.’”

The Escape Game is a murder investigation done by youths within the context of an escape room TV show. And as a big fan of escape rooms (and murder investigations), I really enjoyed this book!

Plus it managed to mostly fool me on the reveal, which usually makes a book more interesting!

I had part of the ‘who’ figured out at 15% but I didn’t have the ‘why’ until much later so I thought it did a good job of casting doubt on different people at different times and making you second guess your predictions. There were lots of suspects with motives.

It seems like a good chunk of the more negative reviews came from people who prefer Marissa Meyer’s fantasy writing (the Lunar Chronicles are great!) or aren’t really fans of escape rooms and got tired of the descriptions and the mechanisms of solving the puzzles.

I am no escape room guru like the characters, but I love creating and solving puzzles and even created a few of my own escape rooms in my house for a group of high-schoolers to do. I would love to say I memorized the Fibonacci sequence or the pigpen cypher but unfortunately I’m just not at that level. Nonetheless, I enjoyed tagging along with team Helsing and living vicariously through them.

Reading about their experience had me itching to get myself back in an escape room soon. Freshly-finished-reading-me believes I’ve now gained vast amounts of puzzle-solving knowledge that will carry me through any escape room ever created, but future me will most likely be disappointed that sometimes fiction stays fiction.

Sure, the concept of the book seems a little far-fetched— how could a show continue after a murder was committed on set? and how could someone claim to have enough evidence to point to the real killer but is forced to sneakily reveal it to the new genius contestants because the police won’t listen to them? and why does the production company Hitflix sound like more of a boxing gym?— but once you just accept those points, I think it’s a fun and compelling situation.

The basic premise:

Season four of The Escape Game ended abruptly when Alicia Angelos was found murdered in the middle of the final escape room… discovered by none other than her sister Sierra (the chosen ‘villain’ of the season to counter Alicia’s ‘fan-favorite’ role). She was the primary suspect for the murder but there was never enough evidence to charge her.

Sierra is brought back for season five— for the drama obvs—, still the villain, and bent on ‘getting her money’… but also apparently trying to find her sister’s killer.

The book alternates between her POV and the other members of her team on the show. Each of their motives for competing and winning the show are gradually revealed, but some of them revolve around the prize: “The team who comes out on top this season will be the first members of the public to explore Victor Cunningham’s highly anticipated playground for puzzle lovers.”

The book covers the escape room competitions as well as Team Helsing’s investigative work into Alicia’s murder. Someone close to the show keeps giving them more clues and information for them to follow. Who can they trust? Who is pulling the strings? And why were they almost frozen to death in the industrial freezer in the middle of the night?

Here is our cast of characters:

Sierra- goth-like in looks, bossy in demeanor [another reviewer compared her to Rosa from Brooklyn 99 and that feels like a good choice]

“…being in a room with Sierra was like trying to decode one of the Game Master’s clues. He could tell she was hiding something. But was that something a soft, squishy interior that longed to be loved and understood? Or was that something the fact that she was a psychopath who could at any minute start stabbing people with tiny olive forks like the one she was holding now?”

Beck- transgender guy who can taste sounds and creates her own escape rooms at home

“My brain is ninety-five percent empathy and five percent confetti.”

Adi- son of a washed-up celebrity mom, Symphony (“emphasis on phony”) who only cares about herself

“He wanted the viewers to like him, but he needed the producers to… He only cared if one specific person watched.”

Kick It- Carter- lonely and insecure escape room online influencer who hides behind her very cool avatar

“It wasn’t about fame or money. It was about finding her people. Not faceless usernames, but real friends.”

Fitzy-“the show’s beloved Australian nincompoop”

I mostly liked the characters. I liked Sierra’s tenacity and Beck’s positivity and hope and ability to keep the group together. I feel like Adi was too cool for school and so I didn’t feel like I really know him very much.

Maybe I’m the only one, but I COULD NOT stop getting Beck and Carter mixed up the ENTIRE book. I don’t know if it’s because Beck was the trans character and Carter is a boy name or what, but I kept picturing the wrong person saying the lines. I wish Carter would have gotten a more feminine name so it was easier to keep straight. (some pun intended)

Carter seemed to have the most character development. But they leave this book with a hook for the next one— which I am totally game for— so hopefully we get more from Adi and Beck on their own development. Based on the ending I’m sure we will follow Adi more closely in the next one.

It seemed like Beck’s character didn’t really show any weaknesses in this book so there wasn’t really anything marked ‘for improvement.’ Everything was all positivity, empathy, and confetti. Perhaps a weakness will be revealed post haste to give Beck more depth as a character.

A couple other critiques: as I mentioned before, some things require suspension of belief concept-wise, and that’s fine, but one thing that I wish would have been different was at the end while they were in the finale game room. Apparently there was no fail-safe mechanism that allowed people to enter the room from the outside.

This makes no sense. There is no way that people go into that room and must complete the puzzles in order to get out of the game. Unless I missed something and the fail safe was tampered with or something, but I wish there would have been a better reason why they were ‘on their own’ in there.

I also think the motive for the murders seemed a little over the top but… I suppose psychopaths are rarely reasonable.

One additional observation: I was intrigued about the production part of the show and what things were changed or rigged for specific outcomes. You can’t help but think about all the ‘reality’ TV shows out there and wonder what parts are real and what are scripted.

In my heart I want them to be pure and unaltered but I also know that I’m sure without some production interference we would probably end up being bored by certain show’s outcomes. But still… I hope people aren’t being fed answers like in this book.

I would LOVE true behind the scenes information on the making of reality and competition shows. Something tells me this book isn’t quite what I’m looking for in that regard.

Recommendation

Overall, this was a fun read for me. Puzzles and solving murders is always a great combination when I choose books.

I also like that the story is going to continue into something else as we explore more of the mystery of Victor Cunningham and his puzzling estate.

If you hate escape rooms or suspension of belief concepts, then you might want to pass on this one, but I think I would recommend this to most readers.

And beware… this might inspire you to try a real escape room!

[Content Advisory: 9 f-words, 16 s-words, 3 b-words; a main character is trans but her transition is not a main plot point or really discussed at all- possible it could be in the next book; no sexual content that I remember (I’m writing this review a week late)]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.

Mad Mabel
By: Sally Hepworth

[Fulfills the prompt: ‘Book with a character with a unique nickname’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“It’s interesting to note that there are two groups of people who are rarely, if ever, suspected of murder. These groups are elderly women and little girls.”

This story has unexpected friendships, tragedy, self-sacrifice, Anne of Green Gables references, and Aldi’s deals.

There was lots to love about this book and only a couple disappointments that probably don’t take away from my recommendation but I can’t talk much about them without spoiling things.

[Later in this review is a spoiler section about them so scroll past if you haven’t read the book yet.]

I love the unlikely ‘friendship’ between seven-year-old Persephone and Mabel. Children have a way of getting past our defenses and seeing things adults don’t see.

I thought it had great humor. Sometimes the crotchety, grumpy elderly person trope can get old (pun intended) but in this case it became endearing.

I loved the emphasis on female friendship (though there is a caveat to this in my spoiler section).

I loved the theme of the power of kindness and the reminder to really get to know people before making judgments.

I also loved that I was surprised by the twists! This is more of a fiction story than a thriller, but there were still a couple twists that I didn’t see coming. Apparently some reviewers thought it was obviously going to end that way, but I disagree. [Unless you mostly just read one kind of book, but then I would guess you are probably rarely surprised when it comes to twists and that’s probably not the norm for most readers.]

Mad Mabel is 81 years old and very tall.

“At six feet tall with broad shoulders and a sturdy backbone, no one would ever accuse me of being birdlike— unless the bird in question was an ostrich.”

She has had her nickname from a very young age. In fact, she was “the youngest Australian ever to be convicted of murder in this country."

We don’t know right away what murders she committed. The book is told in dual POVs— ‘Present’ and ‘Then.’ Mabel’s childhood is slowly unraveled as the question of the hour is considered:

“She is known around the world as Mad Mabel. But is she mad? More importantly, is she guilty?”

Mad Mabel is set on a street in Melbourne that Mabel is quite attached to…

“The only way anyone is going to get me out of Kenny Lane is in a mahogany box. An extra-long one.”

… and it’s dotted with quite the cast of characters:

Joan- (60-odd) tight-lipped and always sending passive aggressive notes to Mabel about ‘the rules’… “more of a pen pal than a neighbor”… oh! and her nephew is a partner in a law firm!

Roxanne- “sex-crazed single mother, and her evil seven-year-old spawn”

Persephone- (7)- spawn of Roxanne… “She’s like a grenade— cute and harmless to look at, but a weapon of mass destruction nonetheless”… who has decided Mabel is her best friend… “This loud, bossy, sticky-fingered child declaring, without hesitation, that I’m the one she wants. As if I’m some grand prize and not just the only adult left upright on the street.”

Pete the Greek- (66) “loves being up in arms” and finding a great deal at Aldi’s (so great!)

Ishaan- (93) “my nemesis… has never met a vitamin he didn’t like” and owner of a “deranged Chihuahua named Nugget”

Nugget- described as “freeloading menace… presumptuous little ferret… demonic dog… awful… stupid… [and] godforsaken” (all in good fun though… Nugget gets his love eventually)

Daphne- Mabel’s ‘bosom friend’ from childhood and still best friend… “That oddball confidence. That whiff of chaos… I couldn’t decide if Daphne was utterly mad or entirely delightful.”

“Friends are like oxygen. And the only reason I’m still alive, is Daphne.”

The story basically begins with the discovery by Mabel (now called Elsie) of Ishaan’s dead body in his house. The investigation into his death reveals her true identity to the public/ her neighbors and stirs up new controversy and the same questions about her past.

The ‘Then’ timeline shows us what kind of childhood Mabel had and her relationships with her parents. It’s the ‘origin story’ of what might lead someone to kill and it highlights Mabel’s isolation and loneliness and her attempts to find love and friendship.

The ‘Present’ timeline shows us Persephone poking at Mabel’s defense mechanism of cantankerousness. We start to see Mabel’s protectiveness of Persephone shine through and a softness that betrays her no-nonsense exterior. We also see that somehow by the end of the book Mabel calls Nugget ‘my dog.’ What more character development do you need?

Somehow I have never read Anne of Green Gables and I only watched the movie for the first time a couple years ago, so unlike probably a lot of readers, the references didn’t produce quite the nostalgia it could have. But I still understand the gravity of a ‘bosom friend.’

No matter how grouchy a person’s demeanor is on the outside, one thing holds true for all of humanity— the desire to be loved, to be important to someone, to matter.

I thought this quote was great:

“It strikes me that, with all the cruelties in this world, there is still nothing quite as dangerous as kindness.”

This is the power of kindness, of truly seeking to know and understand someone. It has power to break down anger and barriers and hard exteriors and revenge.

It’s also powerful seeing Mabel learn what the pain of loving someone is:

“‘I’m not sure either of us can properly explain it… it’s the pain of loving and being loved… All I can say is that once you’ve felt it, you’ll realize that the only thing worse than the stabbing pain is the absence of it.’”

Part of her understanding that is the impact Ness had on Mabel after the loss of her mom.

“Looking back, I sometimes think this should be a service one could gift the grieving: the quiet, steadfast presence of someone who still believes there’s joy to be found— someone willing to hunt for it on your behalf.”

I think this is something we can all keep in our back pockets until we have the opportunity to show up for someone grieving. And then we can be the steadfast presence, believing that joy is not gone for good, we can hunt it down for them, we can show them the light.

One thing I didn’t like as much was that in the elevation of deep friendship we find an absence of good marriage. I wish these could have both been in the story.

The timeline in the past is partly set in the late ‘50s. After her mom dies, Mabel is raised by her Aunt Cess and Cess’s friend Ness. No doubt, Hepworth is tapping into the second wave feminism ideology to portray Cess and Ness.

Cess shares her thoughts on marriage and men with Mabel:

‘…marriage is for men. They get a free housekeeper, a whore, someone to provide them with children and to rant to about their troubles of an evening. And women get… what? Room and board?’

‘And someone who loves you?’ I countered. ‘Someone who loves you back?’ I’d read a lot of novels, and I had to admit this part quite appealed to me.”

And later:

“In fifty years this whole marriage malarkey will have gone the way of slavery, you mark my words. A stain on our history. The world is changing, there is no way women of your generation— intelligent, educated women— will continue to agree to the terms and conditions. Am I right, Mabel?”

This kind of pessimism and opposition to marriage can be traced to Simone Beauvoir during this time period when she wrote ‘The Second Sex’ detailing the secondary status of women throughout history. She basically wrote that all of man’s ideas are to to oppress women and women are conditioned not to question it. (If you are familiar with critical theory, you recognize this line of thinking). Her relationship with Sartre during her life offers an interesting perspective on this writing, but I won’t go into it here.

In the context of this story, you can look at Mabel’s father and easily see how Beauvoir’s thoughts would resonate with Cess. There is no doubt that men have oppressed women in the past and continue to take advantage of women in many ways today.

But it would be a mistake to pain a broad stroke of ‘marriage’ or ‘men’ as the problem.

Instead, I love what Caroline McCulley identifies in her book Radical Womanhood:

“[Genesis 3:1-6] teaches us that women do have a problem. But it’s not men. It’s sin. Sin warps everything, including the good that God has designed in being a man or a woman. Women sin against men and men sin against women, and everyone sins against God and falls short of His standard of holiness and perfection. Sin is the reason men have oppressed women and women have usurped men. Sin is the reason for the jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder, and every vile practice that characterizes false wisdom. Sin is the reason we need a Savior.”

We do see that Mabel recognizes one of the beautiful and good parts of marriage— it’s a mutual love. God designed marriage to be a binding of two equal people, one man, one woman, different but equal, who sacrificially love each other. They become one. Marriage that does not have love is not really marriage.

It’s not that someone being a man makes a marriage loveless. It’s sin that does that.

There have been many tragedies between men and women, even in marriage, and those are more often portrayed in books and movies, but after thousands of years, marriage is still around because it is a feature of God’s good design, not a bug. It is ultimately a representation of his love for us.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, but I just wish that ALONGSIDE the importance and elevation of same-gender friendships, I wish there could have been some support for marriage somewhere in the book.

Spoiler Comments

Okay, these are major spoiler comments, so don’t read this section if you haven’t read the book!

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I was really loving the emphasis on female friendship. At first I wondered if Hepworth might be moving toward showing that Mabel and Daphne were lovers, but pretty much right away Mabel says she is appalled when people think that:

“… not that I take issue with lesbians, each to their own, I say— but because people have so little regard for female friendship that they can’t fathom a closeness such as we have without the romantic element.”

And I was like- Yes! The general world assumes that a deep friendship and closeness must mean there is romance, but platonic friendships are good and real!

And then she portrayed that same kind of friendship with Cess and Ness. So I was totally onboard.

But then things started to collapse in that regard. Turns out Cess and Ness were actually romantic. So there goes that friendship.

And then we find out Daphne was a childhood friend who moved away, and while Mabel endured her traumatic and unhealthy childhood, she developed multiple personality disorder and one of her personalities was a representation of Daphne. So there goes THAT friendship. And now we have a lesbian relationship and a mental health diagnosis and I wonder if this book was actually about friendship at all.

Not that it didn’t still have important themes and messages, but I think I was disappointed that it felt like one of the primary messages it seemed to push was a ruse in multiple ways.

Another thing that I was feeling after finishing the book was wondering about all those years between Mabel getting out of the psychiatric facility and where she is now. Her childhood explains why everyone thought she was ‘mad’ and why she actually murdered her father, but then we find out that she delivered a baby in the facility and that it was Peter.

The book alludes to the fact that Mabel knew Peter’s mom personally and obviously lived on that street with him for a long time. But she was still a crotchety old woman. I thought maybe she would have found more joy in such a long span of time. I don’t think this book really portrays the proper manifestation of DID— obviously for the sake of its use as a plot device— but that just means Hepworth kinda had to just skip over several decades so she didn’t have to explain how it all progressed into what it was.

While reading, it feels like a natural jump from 15-year-old Mabel to 81-year-old Mabel that flows fine in the book, but afterwards you’re like— but wait… what happened all those missing years...

Lastly, what’s up with the last line? I’m still confirming whether or not it’s the correct last line because I’m reading an ARC and it is already published and very well could have been changed.

My last line shows Persephone talking to Daisy (an imaginary friend??) about how Daisy knew Mabel and Daisy says, “Except when I knew her, she used to call me Daphne.” And then that’s the end of the book.

What?? Persephone doesn’t know that Mabel had DID— unless Mabel did talk to herself out loud as Daphne and everyone else knew it, but knowing Persephone’s personality, she would have flat out asked Mabel ‘Who is Daphne and why are you talking to yourself?’— so I’m going with: she didn’t know.

So somehow Persephone suddenly develops DID (which is odd) and then somehow has the same personality as Mabel and knows that personality’s name?

Nope.

This is weird. That’s a weird ending. I know Hepworth likes to have weird one liners at the end of her books, but this one I just don’t think worked.

Which is why I need to check if that’s actually what got published…

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SPOILERS OVER

There was great character development and I do think there was justice and redemption done as the Goodreads blurb suggests. Ultimately we see sacrificial love win out and that’s always a beautiful thing.

It’s also a book that reminds us the power of words and assumptions. That we shouldn’t repeat information we haven’t verified.

Things that are totally untrue are believed all the time because they’ve been repeated so much. Just because something is ‘common knowledge’ does not mean it’s true. And when it comes to real people, we owe it to them to know them personally before making judgements— especially judgments that could ruin their lives.

So yeah, some good messages.

I think I’m mostly caught up on all the Australian lingo by now with all the Hepworth, Stevenson, Morton, and Harper books I’ve read. BUT I did learn new Australian slang from the ‘50s! And in true Australian fashion, they end in ‘ie’: widgie and bodgie.

These are terms used for women and men, respectively, who, at that time, were considered a little rebellious in their dress or hairstyles and free sexuality. In the UK they were called ‘rockers’ and in America they were ‘greasers.’ (We apparently prefer -er words…)

Recommendation

There was one main disappointment I described in my spoiler comments, but overall, I would still recommend this book. It was an enjoyable experience to read and see the life of Mabel unfold like it did. I always appreciate a book that can surprise me with the twists and this one did.

I really enjoyed Mabel’s character and wouldn’t mind another book. Maybe a book about Peter and Joan— perhaps a murder at an Aldi’s!— where Mabel gets to pop in frequently. I think that would be entertaining!

It is more of a domestic or psychological thriller than a suspense thriller, though, so if you’re looking for that specifically, this might not be the right fit. In that way it’s a little different from some of her other books that I’ve read.

I would also LOVE to recommend a different series to you that also has a dog named Nugget! The Wingfeather Saga! Totally different type of story than Mad Mabel, but if you loved one Nugget, I’m confident you’ll love the other.

For similar types of books to Mad Mabel, I would recommend what I’ve linked in the buttons below!

[Content Advisory: 7 f-words, 6 s-words; some child abuse; some innuendo; a lesbian relationship that is more than just passing characters]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.